Fasting for me has been something I’ve done for years. In my early twenties I often did it without reason. Later I got into multi-day and intermittent fasting for both spiritual and fitness reasons. I’m a big proponent of n=1 or self experimentation.
Over the past few months I haven’t done any serious fasting, beyond 18 to 24 hour intermittent fasts.
As part of my 100 Days Personal Challenge I’ve decided to launch myself into a full on 10 day water fast.
My goal here is to enter a state of full ketosis for a few days. To help me get some clarity of thought on a few issues and to strengthen my willpower.
Quick Explainer:
If you don’t know what Ketosis is, I’ll explain here. Human bodies are sugar-driven machines: ingested carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, which is used as energy or stored as glycogen in liver and muscle tissue. When deprived of dietary carbohydrates, the liver becomes the sole provider of glucose to feed your hungry organs – especially the brain. As the body enters a fasted state and depletes glucose levels, your liver begins producing ketone bodies from fatty body tissue to use as energy. Thus, you are in a state of ketosis.
Fasting and Ketosis have some unique effects on the brain 1, that’s been well documented and studied in science (2, 3, 4). It’s not pseudo-scientific nonsense like fad cleanses.
For me, from experience I often find myself in a greater state of clarity and thought when in the fasted state. And this might be one of the reason so many religions teach fasting as a way to achieve spiritual enlightenment or to draw closer to God.
The Plan
For the next 10 days of this posting, I’ll be in a full water fast. Yes, water only. I will be supplementing that with BCAA’s 10mg in the mornings, walking about 3 miles each day, and using 2tbsp’s of Apple Cider vinegar 3 times a day in 8oz of water. I’ve found from personal experimentation that the Apple Cider reduces hunger cravings.
Other Thoughts
Tying back into 100 Days Personal Challenge I’m going to be reading two books on the subject of Willpower and determination.
They are:
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength - By: Roy Baumeister
Of course, I’ll be posting my experiences during this experiment to the site.