48 Hour Fast - What was it like?
By Dr. Geno Mayes, PT, DPT
In case you missed my first blog on Wim Hof breathing and cold therapy, click here to see how our little book club of three came together earlier this year.
After kicking things off by reading What Doesn’t Kills Us, our crew was ready to read about some other wellness trends and put them to the test.
The 48 Hour Fast!!
Dave Asprey’s book: Fast This Way was the inspiration for our trio’s experiment with fasting. I’ve dabbled with intermittent fasting as I’ve read about the numerous health benefits of shortening the “eating window.”
Here’s the 48-hour fasting crew celebraing the finish line!
After learning more about various types of fasting in Asprey’s book, we decided to try a 48 hour fast….only water, black coffee and tea for 2 days...yikes!
To prep for the challenge, we started with some traditional intermittent fasting that calls for a 16 hour fasting window (8PM-12PM) followed by an 8 hour eating window (12pm-8pm). I found this was relatively easy to do with a little discipline, but the worst part was drinking my coffee without cream and truvia!
We then amped it up with a 24 hr fasting period to check our endurance. It was during this longer fast that I began to experience some of the immediate benefits of fasting - greater work efficiency throughout the day (no need to prepare and eat meals); a calm gastrointestinal tract….and the most interesting was a sharper sense of mental clarity and focus. I found that this window of heightened clarity was somewhere around the 18-20 hour mark of the fast. I’m assuming that’s when my body had finally stopped dedicating energy towards digestion, so it could be redirected elsewhere.
👍 Geno - 48 hour fast - A good challenge
We started the fast after dinner on Sunday, officially beginning at 8pm. I had no issues until about 12-3pm the next day when I had to more actively quiet my mind, drink water and stay focused on other things. At around 4pm, I hit a sweet spot where I became energized and my mental clarity sharpened. I had experienced this previously in my 24 hr fast, but I was more aware and present of this sensation than before. This burst of energy combined with the fact that I was busier than normal allowed for a pretty solid first day. I had a great night’s sleep and began to get excited as the finish line was finally in sight!
14 hours left… We decided we’d meet at Verona Inn to have dinner together and break the fast. We began texting each other words of encouragement and laughing about how loved ones were taunting us with food in our homes. I actually found that my cravings were lower overall throughout the day until about 3 hours before the goal time. I think I only became noticeably hungrier because I knew we would be eating shortly...circulating a text of a delicious burger didn’t help either.
8pm - We made it! We went overboard with burgers, fries, wings and bacon-wrapped jalapenos…. What an explosion of flavors to our taste buds that had been off duty for 48 hours. It felt like a true accomplishment to control my mind and do something I never thought possible!
👍 Carlos - Surprised me
(Monday morning) — I’m really excited for this challenge. I actually feel a little nervous for it, like I did the night before the ice river plunge. Unlike the float and the mouth tape experience, this is something that has the potential to test my grit and limits. That’s the kind of thing that excites me.
9 am—I got to the office, and I’m surprisingly hungry already. I hope it passes quickly.
11:30 am—I’m feeling somewhat weak and a little sluggish. Physiologically this doesn’t make sense. I’ve gone much longer without food without feeling any ill effects. It must be a mental thing — there is so much time left that my mind is amping up the pressure to find an escape route.
1:00 pm—It’s hitting me how much harder the 48 hr fast will be than 24. This deep into a 24 hr fast I might be feeling hungry, cranky and/or weak, but I’d also be feeling the gravitational pull of the finish line, which would help me pass the remaining 6.5 hrs. I could even start thinking about how good that first bite of food will taste. Today though, the finish line is nowhere in sight yet. I honestly didn’t expect to feel this crappy so early. I am hoping that part of this is just mental and the rest is my body hitting a wall as it switches over from burning carbs to burning fat.
5-8 pm — I started to feel better when I got home from work. I am hoping this means I will be able to get some good sleep and then tomorrow will be more manageable.
5:30 am — I feel great! I slept really well. I have no hunger whatsoever this morning. My energy level is high, and I feel really happy! I wonder if this is the ketosis high that Asprey describes in his books?
11:30 am — Today is going so well. I had so much energy this morning that I went to the gym to do my regular workout. I had planned to skip today because of the fast, but it worked out well. I went a bit lighter in the weights than normal, but not too much lighter. I’ve definitely had some gnawing hunger for the last couple of hours but my mood is much better than yesterday, probably because now I know the end is in sight. It was also encouraging to see that I could expend some real energy at the gym and not feel fatigued or light headed.
4pm — The hunger is intense right now and has been for the last few hours. Things are under control when I’m busy but when I lay down to rest, the hunger gets intense and my head starts to swim a bit. If we had another night to get through, I’m not sure I’d be able to get much sleep even though I feel tired. Good thing food is only a few hours away. I’m so hungry!
👍 Brian - 48 hr fast harder than 24 hr
Asprey's book was interesting. I don't think I believe or even want to believe everything he espouses, but I've been informally living on a 16:8 intermittent fast these past few weeks which means green smoothies for breakfast are gone (this sure saves a fair amount of money on the grocery bill).
I feel more focused in the mornings without food and my heart rate generally drops into the 40s. I've done three, 24 hour fasts and never really felt too challenged by it, but I definitely find myself endlessly eating when I break the fast.
A 48 hour fast on the other hand was a challenge. The first day I had more cravings than I did on any of my previous 24 hour fasts. This combined with lightheadedness on the second day made this a very big challenge. I never doubted that I would make it to the end, but I had to actively quiet my mind a large portion of the second day (especially in the final hours).
While my wife said she was surprised at how upbeat and positive I was throughout the 48 hours, but I found myself increasingly irritable as the hours added up.
Breaking the fast was a glorious glut-fest that resulted in a deep, but not energizing sleep. I'll probably go another 48 at some point and try to break the fast with more healthy and easily digestible foods.
In addition to experimenting with a 48 hour fast, we tried 3 other popular wellness trends. See what happened when we tested cold therapy, mouth taping and floatation therapy below…
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