“What do you mean you’re not eating!?! You’re gonna die!”

As I start writing this I am staring at the clock knowing I still have 20 hours to go before I will eat again. It’s been 148 hours since I last ate, which is just over 6 days. My only source of calories has been fruit and vegetable juice.

According to the app MyFitnessPal my daily caloric intake has been 600 calories a day. 132 Carbs, 0 Fat and 15 protein. That’s a total of 4,700 calories over seven days, a typical two day’s worth required minimum intake over the coarse of an entire week.

“You’re crazy. That’s dangerous.”

Before I go any further let me state I’m not a doctor, I only play one in my own home enough to know the body is an amazing thing. We can only survive two days without water but the average person of typical body fat can survive up to two months without food. In an interview with Dr. Peter Attia on the Joe Rogan Experience, he explains that if we couldn’t function due to starving, we wouldn’t even be here. And it doesn’t take any big brain to realize that’s true. Before we had refrigerators, ice blocks or even salt barrels to store food, we had to forage constantly for food. Eating on a regular schedule, or even regular days for that matter, just wasn’t a thing. No doubt going days without eating before one found more than a handful of berries, caught a fish or successfully killed game, was the norm and if we couldn’t do these tasks without food in our stomachs, we’d be screwed.

Now for my specific fast I am taking in juices, these provide me with all the micro-nutrients my body needs. I also take a multi vitamin just to make sure I’m getting all the boxes checked. All I’m depriving myself is the macros, the carbs, fats and proteins. The first thing the body will look to source these in my body fat… which I have plenty of. I’ve actually done this for 46 days and I’m still here. So seven is just a walk in the park for me.

“But why?” you ask?

To be honest I have a few reasons.

• To give my metabolism a karate kick. By starving myself of calories and fat I leave my body no choice but to adapt. This adaptation should be able to continue as I start my new diet once my fast is over.
• To lose a fast five pounds.
• To exercise mental fortitude and will power. By subjecting oneself to uncomfortable conditions, you prepare your mind to be able to deal with them when you don’t have the choice. Should I find myself in a situation where food is not an option I will be mentally able to focus on getting out of the situation instead of allowing hunger to occupy my thoughts.

“How are you able to do it?”

I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy. But the most effective way I’ve found is to set a time frame. And this goes for both extended and intermittent fasting. You plan it out “OK, from this time to this time I am going to fast.” For me it’s from midnight last Friday night to Midnight this Friday, tonight. For intermittent fasting an example of a realistic time frame would be 9PM to 10AM. You go to bed hungry, because you don’t feel hungry while you are sleeping, have a morning cup of coffee and push that doughnut to just before lunch… which to your body is just pre-lunch.

For extended fasting you WILL have a craving. Everything you smell is going to make your mouth water but as time passes you will focus on a meal, you’ll envision this meal so much you can taste it… even smell it. This *breakfast meal is your light at the end of the tunnel, your reward for sticking through this trial so allow it to be anything. For me that meal I’ve been craving is Triscuits with Colby jack cheese, cucumber slices and liverwurst. For four days now I’ve been waiting for it, planning for it. I got myself a copy of WWE’s Hell In A Cell 2010, a can of my favorite drink and the goods in the fridge waiting to be arranged (which I will inject a picture of here before I eat it.)

“What’s extended fasting like?”

The first three days are the hardest. It’s no different than an addiction, you have withdrawal symptoms.

The first of which is anxiety. You’re brain has spent its entire life to follow its DNA wiring of craving food to ensure survival, and in today’s world of abundance and food on demand that wiring has become. “Me hungry, eat food.” The best way to get by this is to find a distraction, I’ve found focusing on a hobby or your work is pretty effective. The main focus is to realize your hunger is nothing more than your brain’s inability to cope with discomfort. This is why overeating is the go-to for people dealing with stress, something I know first hand about.

The second withdrawal symptom is headaches, sound familiar? Like any addiction, headaches are the brain’s way of throwing a temper tantrum when it doesn’t get its way…. but they are also caused by dehydration. So the first step is to drink plenty of water. Typically the headaches will start on the second to third day but should end by the fifth.

The third withdrawal symptom is sleepiness. It’s a no brainer. You’ve been use to having an overabundance of energy you need to function and it’s just been taken away cold turkey. Your body has fat stores for just this occasion but here’s the ancient secret…. using your fat stores is the last thing your body wants to do. Your body is like a #WallStreetBets broker holding on to GME stocks… he ain’t selling no matter how bleak things look. And to extend the investment of fat stores your body releases hormones to make you sleepy and inactive. So go ahead and have a cup of coffee as needed, but I would stay away from energy drinks during this time. You know caffeine increases heart rates as well as other functions. Energy drinks are jam packed with the stuff and without the calories to back it up, the adverse effects we all know about can be multiplied.

The interesting thing is by day six you almost stop feeling hungry. By now your brain has given up fighting it and grown accustom to your current condition. You can’t get any more hungry than this and at this point it becomes business as usual. There are times where you are busy doing some chore or task and you’ll actually ask yourself “Could I do this forever?” Mind you these moments will be short lived but really, you will feel at ease with the starvation and wonder if you are some super being that never needed food to begin with all this time. “Look at how much money and time I saved.”

“You’re just going to gain the weight back”

Yes, without changing my diet I will. This is why people who do crash diets gain the weight right back, they just simply don’t change how they eat when they start eating again. As mentioned earlier I did a 46 day juice fast. It wasn’t easy, in fact it was pure torture. I went from 280lbs to 225lbs. I went from a size 44 waist to a size 36 and I was looking damn good. After I ended the fast I was more conscientious about my eating than ever. I was having my wife add fruits to dinner, trying to alter her recipes to include more vegetables. My stomach had shrunk so much is was like getting a staple job, I felt full with just half a plate of food. It took me two years to gain the weight back… but that was before I became an athlete.

“But you need three meals a day.”

We are fed many misconceptions about it our whole lives and one of the biggest areas we are just given bad information is food. The whole “You need to eat three meals a day” thing is actually a new idea barely 200 years old and no, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. There’s countless articles on the internet about this, from dietitians to historians. In as early as the 1800’s we only ate two meals a day and a light snack in the morning. The idea of going to bed hungry has been long seen as an old-school punishment for disobedient children but was actually the norm for adults. People would have their last meal of the day, Supper, which was a light meal just after sundown. And they would not eat again until their woke at sunrise. (Have you ever wondered why they call is Breakfast? Break-fast?) This meal was typically simple, quick but high in carbs and protein, like eggs and pancakes, for energy to get the day’s work started. When the sun was at high noon and the heat of the day was at its peak, people took a break from work and have their second and largest meal of the day, Dinner.

Intermittent fasting, the act of fasting for a portion of every day, has now become a normal habit for people to have. Many are finding not only the fat control benefits, but health condition benefits as well. Many say they don’t feel the mid-day slump, others say they feel more motivated and focused on tasks. My wife, a mother of three in her early 40’s, is actually very inactive. She never works out or gets exercise yet she maintains her weight incredibly. Her typical day consist of coffee and a muffin for breakfast. Then she has one plate of food for supper followed by a snack cake. The rest of the time she doesn’t eat because she doesn’t need to. (I would include a pic of her here but she’d kill me.)

“So what next for you?”

After I end my fast tonight I will eat whatever I want for twenty four hours. Starting Sunday I am going to continue using the MyFitnessPal app to keep control of my macros, ensuring my carbs, fats and proteins are in check every day. And I may very well likely do this fast again a month from now, we’ll see. But as Dr. Peter Attia said during his interview, “some people who are fat are doing everything right. They are eating normal just like anyone else, their bodies just won’t break down the fat they have.” Having been as fat as I am for my entire life, I am putting my foot down. I have a new rebuilt body as of 2020 so my goal is to make 2021 my year where I finally get rid of my weight once and for all.