Lose Weight In 3 Days By Not Eating

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor. I write articles about and make videos of things I do. Although this documents what happened to me during 3 day water-only fast, you shouldn't take it as medical advice. You're smart enough to take your health in your own hands.

I'm not going to rattle off all of the benefits of fasting (weight loss, gut healing, feeling in-tune with nature, tapping out of the normal way of doing things etc).

Let's get into the longer version. I'll do rapid fire question style to begin then a day by day journal to finish.

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Water and salt is okay because (for scientific reasons unknown) you do start to get muscle cramps the further you go on. So the salt helps prevent the cramps.

My guess is because you're not eating food, you're not getting electrolytes and because most water from taps is filtered, you're missing the natural minerals you'd find in water.

Contrary to what you might think, hunger wasn't the hardest part. After 12, 16, 18 or so hours, your body begins to realise the state you're in and it starts to help you.

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In my past fasts, I've found once I'm into nutritional ketosis or fasting ketosis, where the body starts to use fats (ketones) for fuel rather than carbohydrates (glucose) and are blood ketone levels are 0.5 to 3.0 millimoles per litre (mmol/L) things become smooth sailing.

My favourite activity in life is to eat food with people I love. I look forward to eating dinner with my family every day. So missing out on that for any given period of time is always a challenge.

Being in tune with nature. I can't describe it. But by 36 hours or so in, I began to relax , I feel like my body may have started releasing hormones to make me feel high, a way of dealing with the situation. Maybe your body eating itself (autophagy) is a form of psychedelic.

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Since I had plenty of spare time due to not eating, I went for long walks each day. During the afternoon walk of the second day, my senses were turned up, waves sounded crisper, bird songs filled my ears, greens got greener, the salt air tickled my nose.

Often in life I've found the anticipation of event to almost if not as good as the actual event itself. So from the time I stopped eating to the time I broke the fast I was looking forward to eating once again with family and friends.

Steak, onions and a glass of milk. I'd read online you generally want to have a low carbohydrate meal, or even spend a few days prior eating a low carbohydrate diet before kicking off a fast.

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My last meal before the 3 day fast. Steak, onions and a glass of milk. Lower on carbohydrates to help with entering ketosis over the next couple of days.

Generally the body uses glucose (carbohydrates) as fuel. But when it's deprived of glucose, say during a fast or during a period of eating low carbohydrates, the body will start to switch to using ketones (fat) as fuel.

The body tolerates being in either state, glucose burning or ketone burning. However, it's often the transition between either state that becomes difficult.

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For example, the reason why you might get a headache after not eating for several hours is because your body is deprived of the fuel source its used to (glucose or carbohydrates) and is now trying to switch over to another fuel source.

For me, it's usually a few hours or so at the end of Day 1 where the fuel source switch makes itself known through lethargy and a shorter than usual temper.

In an ideal world I would've broken the fast with a meal similar to what I started it with (or the last meal I ate before I started the 3 day fast). Simple. Steak and salt or steak and salt and onions.

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However, since we were fasting as a group, it was easier to book a restaurant at a central location than get everyone to go to someone's place.

We went to a rib joint. Rolling in I could smell the place from a block away. Smoke billowing out of the roof. Even before getting there I'd pored over the menu deciding what to get. It's all about the anticipation.

I ordered ribs. Standard sauce, not spicy. And a side of coleslaw. Not too big not too small. There were fries and other options but I tend to avoid anything fried. Though, I did end up digging into someone's leftover sweet potato chips after I'd finished the ribs and realised my gut was okay.

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The meal I broke my 3 day fast with. Slow-cooked pork ribs and BBQ sauce with a side of coleslaw. Some say to take things easy on the first meal and eat something simple (simple meaning whatever you make of it). However, I've never really noticed an issue with breaking a fast so I went for the best ribs in Brisbane.

Some people say go easy on the fast breaker meal. And what simple means can be up to you. A singular food maybe. Rice cakes on their own. Blueberries, other fruits. The thought here is because your stomach and gut haven't been working over the past couple of days, they might be more susceptible to irritation. However, I've never really had any gut issues or troubles breaking a fast so I went for the not-so-simple combo of ribs and coleslaw.

Beside the zen like feelings I get when my body enters a state of fasted ketosis, I used a blood ketone meter to be little more precise.

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Examples of differnt blood ketone measurements taken throughout the fast. Higher blood ketone measurements are an indication the body is in ketosis (using fat for fuel rather than carbohydrate).

During a previous fast, I suffered from poor sleep. However, I'm starting to think that was because I consumed caffeine (black coffee) throughout.

For the 3 day fast, I had no caffeine at all, no coffee, no tea. And before bed each night I took a magnesium tablet, magnesium has been shown to help with sleep, plus, it feels like it works.

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So this time round I noticed no real issues to my sleep except for waking up quite dehydrated which made getting out of bed harder than usual. Though, this fixed itself an hour or so after waking after consuming a few glasses of salt in water.

Number 1: darker in the mornings due to dehydration overnight but returns to normal throughout the day with normal water (and salt) intake.

After waking up on day 2 and day 3, I was a bit groggy. But after going to the toilet, I realised it was probably because of dehydration. My urine colour was somewhere beween 6 and 7 on the chart above. The feeling of grogginess and tiredness subsided after an hour or so and 2-3 glasses of salt in water.

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During an extended fast, my relationship with food gets reset. I miss eating with family and friends. And I realise how much the activity means to me. I've made it a point never to eat with technology, when I eat I eat, nothing else and to spend as little time eating alone as possible.

At the end of a fast, I notice, although subtle my body is less puffy. My jawline is more pronounced, my abdominals are more defined. I don't know what this is. It could be less water, it could be less inflammation, it could be that carbohydrates make my cells swell and entering ketosis takes care of that swelling.

The final reason for me. Doing something you would've thought insane a few years ago. After multiple extended fasts, I'm used to it now. But if you'd told me a couple of years ago I'd spend 3 days without food and only consuming water and salt, I'd have told you to get f***ed. If I can go without something as fundamental as food for multiple days and still function, what else can I do?

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Actually doing a 3 day water-only fast is quite simple. You don't eat food for 3 days and only consume water, salts and electrolytes.

Some will claim teas and caffeine and black coffee is okay. But for me, if I'm going to do something, I go all the way.

By now you know I didn't do the fast for weight loss. Again, 3 days isn't enough time to make lasting changes. For weight loss, habits work better than extreme events.

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And since completing the fast, I've gained it all back. I'm near (or even heavier since I've been lifting weights due to the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym being closed for COVID) to where I was I started.

Because weight is one of the easiest things to measure. I can't measure and tell you how I feel inside but I can step on a scale and show you what it says.

As you can see, one month after finishing the 3 day fast, I've since gained the weight I lost back, plus a little bit more. However, this is consistent

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