Just finished a 21 day water fast - my thoughts

[idibezwada]

3 hours ago, Tyrannosauraus_Rex said:

21 days is too extreme - it is just that there are people who have done it - and I perhaps took a risky call - I do need to watch for my health carefully and avoid "re-feeding syndrome".

 

7 days sounds good to me. You may even want to start with 3 days and slowly and gradually increase it if you want to.

yup...but my problem is i am addicted to coffee in the morning...i only have it once a day...without it fasting chestunte headache vastundi..and if i am having it 3-4 hrslo food cravings start avtunai...not sure how to handle it

[idibezwada]

2 hours ago, citizenofIND said:

All these are temporary. Once you start consuming solids you will gain quickly. 

its a myth and there is no logic to it...to gain one lb you need to consume 3500 calories in excess...say even if we are consuming 2000/day in avg...if no cals are consumed for 21 days his body should be pulling 21*2000 i.e 42,000 calories from either fat or muscle to function...anytime fat is easier to burn so he should at least be 12 lbs down in fat..anything on top of it can be consider as water weight

[idibezwada]

49 minutes ago, citizenofIND said:

Hmm atb. If you can walk or run daily and maintain food, heavy breakfast, afternoon soup, even two chapati also works. Only on water not sure how body parts function in long run, don’t know the theory here. 

you are referring to healthy life style...but are we giving any break to our digestive system?

[Paamu]

1 hour ago, csrcsr said:

Body adapt avutayi bro 3 days tarvatha your stored fat will run the show body lo critical organs like liver pancreas etc rest dorukutayi 

I wanted to try intermittent fasting but morning tea or coffee padaali- adi padithe then 1-2 pm varaki no issue. Adi skip cheste 18 hour fast possible Naaku. Have to try hard 

[Paamu]

15 minutes ago, idibezwada said:

yup...but my problem is i am addicted to coffee in the morning...i only have it once a day...without it fasting chestunte headache vastundi..and if i am having it 3-4 hrslo food cravings start avtunai...not sure how to handle it

Same issue with me on tea or coffee in the morning. I think we have to try progressively- meaning 8 am coffee , next day 9 am , next day 10 am and so on. 

[jefferson1]

Long time tinaka pothe ulcers vasthai antaru, how did you deal with it?

what did you drink all those days 

[Tyrannosauraus_Rex]

All of you have good ideas - forget about weeks long fasting. 

Really start off with small goals.

 

Perhaps I should have mentioned that in my OP. I obviously did not start off with 21 days - it is not possible to do it.

To take some movie example - I think it is an old Chiru movie - valla father or someone like that starts feeding extremely small dosage of poison in his food and he eventually becomes immune to snake bites.

Of course adi movie - but I am just trying to animate the idea.

 

Start by ever so slowly cutting down on your food size if you think you are eating too much. Vaaraniki kaavali antey oka roju cheat day pettukondi - where you could eat whatever you want to eat.

 

But the overall message is as you grow older - every part of your body loses its efficiency from what you probably had in your 20's.

 

Your liver, kidneys, digestive system occasionally need a break from time to time. Intermittent fasting is a great idea or even fasting 1 day in let's say 15 days at least is a good idea.

[Tyrannosauraus_Rex]

5 minutes ago, jefferson1 said:

Long time tinaka pothe ulcers vasthai antaru, how did you deal with it?

what did you drink all those days 

At the first sign of any health issue - you simply need to stop fasting. 

Fortunately I really did not have any major or even minor issues. I just felt a little dizzy.

Also definitely speak to your doctor before you even think about fasting.

[11_MohanReddy]

If I fast for a day, I lose about 2 pounds. 

[csrcsr]

35 minutes ago, Paamu said:

I wanted to try intermittent fasting but morning tea or coffee padaali- adi padithe then 1-2 pm varaki no issue. Adi skip cheste 18 hour fast possible Naaku. Have to try hard 

Black cofee will not break your fast bro you can try with it , it will not create insulin spike 

[aratipandu]

7 hours ago, Tyrannosauraus_Rex said:

I tried to do this a few months ago and I failed on the 4th day. That time I aimed to do a 12 day water fast.

This time I was able to aim for a 21 day water fast and was able to do it by God's grace.

 

My immediate motivation to do it:

Shame - and a extreme loss of self confidence due to over-eating/binge eating/stress eating etc., I was absolutely genuinely unhappy with my life - the weight gain physically put immense strain on my body  - especially when I was walking from the ground to the 3rd floor - I could clearly feel the stress of my weight on my knees and basically I was out of breath.

 

It affected my self- confidence in dealing with people - being in a managerial position - I need to assert myself sometimes and I felt lacking in that.

 

Overall - both physically and psychologically I was at the absolute nadir of my life and the only thing I realized was I had to change this.

 

Kritham nela - Maha Siva Rathri roju - naa ista daivam Sivudi ni vedukunnanu - please give me some mental strength and will power to do this ani.

 

MOST IMPORTANT WARNING/CAUTION: Absolutely do not even attempt to do this without telling it your personal doctor/physician - if you intend to fast beyond 3 days. My physician was not particularly happy with my decision but gave me important guidance like adding electrolytes to my water every single day so that my heart is not affected.

 

THE START:

 

March 02nd Sunday I started my fast  - modati 3 roojulu narakam anubhavinchanu. Aakali kacchithamga vesindi - kaani - this is where I started to separate my body and mind. Aakali feeling vesina - body did not feel weak. Human body is extremely adaptable. Our forefathers - without realizing it - did fast. When they found an animal they hunted and ate - and then basically fasted till they found another animal. Your body has actually not evolved to eat 3 or 4 times every single day. This is not to suggest to stop eating - but merely to prove the point - that you can fully control how much you want to eat and in what portions.

 

4th day was the toughest day for a weird reason: Intlo "THE MENU" anna movie chusanu. Peru ku taggatu - bhojanam gurinchi - there were a lot of conversations and the temptation was unbelievable. Fridge daggariki vellalantey bhayam vesindi.

5th to 9th day: At this point I think by body understood and started using alternate sources for energy like breaking down by fat reserves. This probably started happening on Day 3 - but this process would have accelerated by now.

Day 10 to 13: My body was basically on auto pilot. Did not feel any hunger at all. But I was also careful not to do any physically strenuous jobs. 

One thing that happened which made so very happy on Day 12 - I've ordered a chair and I sat down to arrange it on my 3rd floor - once I fixed it I got up and I realized - this would have been so difficult literally 10 days ago. Because I had lost weight - edo spring laga lechanu. Felt a little bit emotional on realizing how much I abused my body and how much my body was willing to hep me if only I treated it with respect.

Day 14 to Day 21: Surprisingly the 3rd week was the easiest - simple ga cheppali antey I think my body thought " veedu inka emi tinatledu - manamey veedi body unna fat reserves ni inka efficient ga use cheyyali" - it helped that I was obese so there was so much fat available for my body to burn up.

A week before I broke my fast - I had my blood labs drawn - almost on every count - I had better results - from blood sugar levels etc., my BP was absolutely perfectly normal which was not the case before.

2 days before I broke my fast I visited my physician - and she was pretty impressed that I was able to do it.  She advised me to be real careful about re-introducing food in very small portions - she actually advised me to start off with vegetable broths or any other such liquid foods and then slowly graduate to regular food.

 

HOW DO I FEEL MENTALLY TODAY: Absolutely on top of the world. Just my whole body language has changed. Indaka Trader Joe's shopping ki vella - just the way I interacted with people - it's like I got my mojo back. The lady at the counter went out of her way to help me out with little things. I do not ever want to lose this feeling. Manasikamga - nenu taluchukuntey edaina cheyyagalanu anna nammakam puurthi ga vacchindi. 

 

WEIGHT BEFORE I STARTED THE FAST: 248

WEIGHT ON BREAKING THE FAST: 219

WEIGHT LOST IN 21 DAYS: 29 pounds or 13 kgs.

 

There is absolutely no need for anyone to fast for this long. I did it purely for spiritual, self-confidence, psychological reasons. Unquestionably - it did have immense health benefits too - I do not want to depreciat this fact.

 

Now the real challenge begins - do keep these gains. I think I should be able to do it - and there's absolutely only one reason - I never ever ever want to look like I how I looked 3 weeks ago. 

If you believe in a God - you know that you are born with whatever face or genetics you are born with - but everything else is in your control. 

 

I've decided to treat my body as a temple - so as far as food is concerned - only that food that is going to benefit is going to enter my body.

 

 

[Pahelwan4]

5 hours ago, Tyrannosauraus_Rex said:

Fully agreed with you. It is a bit extreme way to do this as I mentioned in my original post.

Workout exercises and balanced diet is what you are supposed to do. Not recommended 

[allbakara]

[Galactus]

There was a news recently about a Kerala girl who did an extreme water fast and died, I think she did this for several months if I'm not wrong, not sure about the details so please do exercise caution when you are doing these diets and as OP mentioned follow your doctors advice and consult them before doing any diet, even the one mentioned below

saw a ton of videos recently on the diet, cholesterol, hb1ac, weight loss etc, from what I understood,

one sure shot way to lose weight is to reduce/eliminate carbs from your diet, its super tough for people like us as we are accustomed to eating rice and wheat all through our life

Not a lot but I lost 8 kgs over the past 2 months following this , posting this as this could help someone who may not want to do water fast diets, my target is to lose some more and be in the normal weight category with a healthy bmi as well as good body fat, less visceral fat etc

Here is the diet:

• Eliminate all seed oils, switch to olive/avocado if possible
• Eat lean protein - chicken/fish
• Eggs are good if you do not have a certain condition (do research on that one)
• reduced carbs as much as you can when possible - rice/wheat/starchy/any sugary items (cakes, sweets, ice creams, pastries, cool drinks) and chips
• If you have insulin resistance then also reduce fruits such as watermelon, mango and others which have high glycemic index
• Eat lot of veggies - especially greens/leafy veggies, veggies like broccoli, brussell sprouts
• Cucumbers are good when feeling hungry
• Avoid starchy veggies - potato

Reducing weight will also lower your ldl cholesterol levels as well as hb1ac (most likely) but if you have high cholesterol and high hb1ac then you need to add at least 1 hr of exercise per day in addition to diet

Get a treadmill/elliptical/bike/some weights and do cardio and also build muscle using weights, building muscle helps with BMR and also will help in future to maintain the weight loss (which will be key after losing weight)

again, posting what worked for me and I'm still going through this process, hope it works out for others as well and consult your doctor before you follow anything mentioned as not all folks can follow the same diet as it depends on your medical conditions specific to each person

Good luck bros

 

[rational]

10 hours ago, Tyrannosauraus_Rex said:

I tried to do this a few months ago and I failed on the 4th day. That time I aimed to do a 12 day water fast.

This time I was able to aim for a 21 day water fast and was able to do it by God's grace.

 

My immediate motivation to do it:

Shame - and a extreme loss of self confidence due to over-eating/binge eating/stress eating etc., I was absolutely genuinely unhappy with my life - the weight gain physically put immense strain on my body  - especially when I was walking from the ground to the 3rd floor - I could clearly feel the stress of my weight on my knees and basically I was out of breath.

 

It affected my self- confidence in dealing with people - being in a managerial position - I need to assert myself sometimes and I felt lacking in that.

 

Overall - both physically and psychologically I was at the absolute nadir of my life and the only thing I realized was I had to change this.

 

Kritham nela - Maha Siva Rathri roju - naa ista daivam Sivudi ni vedukunnanu - please give me some mental strength and will power to do this ani.

 

MOST IMPORTANT WARNING/CAUTION: Absolutely do not even attempt to do this without telling it your personal doctor/physician - if you intend to fast beyond 3 days. My physician was not particularly happy with my decision but gave me important guidance like adding electrolytes to my water every single day so that my heart is not affected.

 

THE START:

 

March 02nd Sunday I started my fast  - modati 3 roojulu narakam anubhavinchanu. Aakali kacchithamga vesindi - kaani - this is where I started to separate my body and mind. Aakali feeling vesina - body did not feel weak. Human body is extremely adaptable. Our forefathers - without realizing it - did fast. When they found an animal they hunted and ate - and then basically fasted till they found another animal. Your body has actually not evolved to eat 3 or 4 times every single day. This is not to suggest to stop eating - but merely to prove the point - that you can fully control how much you want to eat and in what portions.

 

4th day was the toughest day for a weird reason: Intlo "THE MENU" anna movie chusanu. Peru ku taggatu - bhojanam gurinchi - there were a lot of conversations and the temptation was unbelievable. Fridge daggariki vellalantey bhayam vesindi.

5th to 9th day: At this point I think by body understood and started using alternate sources for energy like breaking down by fat reserves. This probably started happening on Day 3 - but this process would have accelerated by now.

Day 10 to 13: My body was basically on auto pilot. Did not feel any hunger at all. But I was also careful not to do any physically strenuous jobs. 

One thing that happened which made so very happy on Day 12 - I've ordered a chair and I sat down to arrange it on my 3rd floor - once I fixed it I got up and I realized - this would have been so difficult literally 10 days ago. Because I had lost weight - edo spring laga lechanu. Felt a little bit emotional on realizing how much I abused my body and how much my body was willing to hep me if only I treated it with respect.

Day 14 to Day 21: Surprisingly the 3rd week was the easiest - simple ga cheppali antey I think my body thought " veedu inka emi tinatledu - manamey veedi body unna fat reserves ni inka efficient ga use cheyyali" - it helped that I was obese so there was so much fat available for my body to burn up.

A week before I broke my fast - I had my blood labs drawn - almost on every count - I had better results - from blood sugar levels etc., my BP was absolutely perfectly normal which was not the case before.

2 days before I broke my fast I visited my physician - and she was pretty impressed that I was able to do it.  She advised me to be real careful about re-introducing food in very small portions - she actually advised me to start off with vegetable broths or any other such liquid foods and then slowly graduate to regular food.

 

HOW DO I FEEL MENTALLY TODAY: Absolutely on top of the world. Just my whole body language has changed. Indaka Trader Joe's shopping ki vella - just the way I interacted with people - it's like I got my mojo back. The lady at the counter went out of her way to help me out with little things. I do not ever want to lose this feeling. Manasikamga - nenu taluchukuntey edaina cheyyagalanu anna nammakam puurthi ga vacchindi. 

 

WEIGHT BEFORE I STARTED THE FAST: 248

WEIGHT ON BREAKING THE FAST: 219

WEIGHT LOST IN 21 DAYS: 29 pounds or 13 kgs.

 

There is absolutely no need for anyone to fast for this long. I did it purely for spiritual, self-confidence, psychological reasons. Unquestionably - it did have immense health benefits too - I do not want to depreciat this fact.

 

Now the real challenge begins - do keep these gains. I think I should be able to do it - and there's absolutely only one reason - I never ever ever want to look like I how I looked 3 weeks ago. 

If you believe in a God - you know that you are born with whatever face or genetics you are born with - but everything else is in your control. 

 

I've decided to treat my body as a temple - so as far as food is concerned - only that food that is going to benefit is going to enter my body.

 

 

What are the health benefits you had??