Going 7 days without food

This is my experience doing a 7 day water fast. No food for 7 days, just plain water. 

Why experiment with an extended water fast? I have to give most of the credit to an amazing lecture by Dr. Pradip Jamnadas (link at end). The lecture helped me understand how fasting worked and its benefits on my body. Some portion of the credit also goes to a kitchen remodel project we undertook, which meant either I eat out or do not eat. Incidentally, my spouse and kid were out of town visiting family that week. This would ensure that any capricious mood swings during the fast won't affect them. Finally, I had another sign from the universe. The time of "Paryushan", one of the biggest Jain festival of spiritual awakening and celebration, was right around the corner. I am not a follower of Jainism myself, but I definitely took it as a big signal of the stars aligning ⭐

I should thank all my dear friends who were very generous and kind to check on me and invite me over lunch and dinner all the time! 

What I was expecting would happen in my body over the next week:

• 12 hours
• My glycogen reserves would get used up
• Post 12 hours there would be Gluconeogenesis (generation of new glucose) 
• Insulin level would drop which would open up my fat stores.
  
  
• 18 hours
• There would be gradual increase in Ketosis in my body (burning of fat and generation of ketone bodies)
  
• Adrenaline and cortisol levels would start increasing. 
• Autophagy would begin (process of recycling of cellular waste - Autophagy literally translates to self-eating)
  
  
• 24 hours
• Around 10%-15% of my energy source would be Ketones
• Ketones would gradually continue to increase over the next few days
  
  
• 2 days
• Growth hormone would go up starting 24-48 hours.
  
  
• 3 days
• Autophagy would be at its maximum
• Probably wouldn't feel too good around day 2-3. These would be the toughest days.
  
  
• 5 days
• Ketones would be very high
• 70% of the energy utilized by my brain would come from ketones.
• Might start feeling better from the 5th day onwards and would experience higher energy level and heightened mental alertness.
  
  
• Other benefits of fasting
• Increase in growth hormone - better healing, better skin and better muscle growth
• Reduced risk of cancer
• Higher insulin sensitivity
• Generation of new brain cells
• Boost stem cell function
• Beneficial for auto immune diseases and inflamation
• SIRT 1 goes up leading to better genetic expression (didn't fully comprehend this)

I had to watch the lecture multiple times (and few others by Dr. Jason Fung) for me to understand the science of what happens when I fast. I was convinced that I have to try this at-least once. Having previously done a 16-8 fasting routine and a few day long fasts in the past, I wasn't too anxious about the first 24 hours. The idea of autophagy and its benefits mesmerized me but what scared me were the last 6 days - 144 more hours!

How did I prepare my body to start fasting?

I tried to reduce my diet and carbohydrates intake in particular for a few days. Also I gave up snacking in the afternoon all together to ensure my insulin level didn't spike every now and then. Two days before the fast, I did one meal a day (OMAD) diet. I am not sure if this is the right way to do it, so I'd advice anyone trying to fast to do their own research. Keep in mind pre-conditioning is important or you'll shock your body. For my caffeine intake, I had started diluting my coffee since the last two months and the last two weeks were with no caffeine at all. 

How did I feel during these days?

Day 1 👌
This was easy. I have to attribute it to my previous 16-8 diet and last two days of OMAD. I could feel my Ghrelin (the hunger hormone) rise, but for not more than 30 minutes. I didn't feel dizzy, but I felt a sort of funny feeling of lots of blood flow near my ears. I thought they felt slightly warm. But I felt quite focussed. I also picked up my journal to write about my day, which on many days I am too tired or pre-occupied to do. Between 16-18 hours, a home ketone test kit indicated a low level of ketones (around 0.5 mm/l). At night I didn't sleep too well though, I had to get up way too many times to use the bathroom as I had been drinking lots of water.

Day 2 👍
This was somewhat of a mental barrier. I felt okay, not great. I wasn't dizzy though. Around noon I had an urge find food and cook something, however I wasn't too hungry. It was more of a Pavlovian reflex. When it's time to cook, if I don't cook I don't really know what else to do until I do it. I kept getting urges to get up and go to the refrigerator to find something to eat or plan for my food. This was mental struggle. Being a Friday and a relatively lighter day at work made it tough as I didn't have lot on my mind to distract myself. I got myself to focus on work and kept busy. My evening walk of a mile and half was good, but towards the end, I started feeling tired. After the walk I just relaxed on our front porch and hung out with our neighborhood cat Gatsby. Gatsby was happy nibbling the small piece of cheese I fed him. I felt a bit drained and canceled a game night plan with few friends. Instead, I decided to just lie down and read a book. I felt sleepy early this day.

Day 3 😐
I woke up very fresh. However there were a lot of strange dreams at night. Maybe an indication of a better REM stage in my sleep, I am not too sure. I didn't have my sleep tracker on my wrist, but overall sleep felt good. At around 60 hours, I still felt energetic. I had to run a few errands for the ongoing kitchen remodel work. After a few drives and visiting few stores, I could feel myself getting tired. I wanted to come back home and lie down. I slept for an hour in the afternoon, which didn't really refresh me enough. I felt my arms and legs felt warm, but on checking my body temperature it was normal. After getting settled in my bed and relaxing, I was back to being okay. Based on my lecture notes, Day 3 is when autophagy is at maximum. Good enough reason to endure this. Ketones were now at around 4.0 mm/l.

Day 4 🆗😝

Again, I woke up pretty fresh. I slept for almost more than 9 hours. I walked into my backyard to let my body warm under the morning sun and hopefully replenish some vitamin D reserves. I felt alright for a few hours, but towards midday after running a few morning errands, started feeling energy drained. My mouth tasted very weird and my tongue looked different - whiter and somewhat wrinkled on the sides. The strange taste made me want to throw up. Towards afternoon, with a bit of creative activity such as playing my guitar, I distracted myself for a while and I felt lot more refreshed afterwards. The evening walk was alright and I was able to have a good conversations with my wonderful neighbor Annette. Gatsby came by daily to ask for a treat. Or maybe he just wanted to check on me!

Day 5 👎😖
I was hoping this was going to be a good day, at least per the theory. However, I have to say this was the worst day during my fasting. This was a test of my will power. I felt very tired all day long. I did not feel like going for a walk in the evening, but somehow I powered through in hopes of getting some fresh air. The taste in my mouth was terrible and incessant. I was feeling down and just wanted to lie down on the bed and grunt. The sleep this night was terrible too. I woke up around 2:30 am and couldn't fall asleep. I tried playing some calming music, listening to Calm and finally started listening to an audio book with a soothing narration. Somewhere around 4:30 am I fell asleep, but again woke up at 7:00. I did not want to wake up. I wanted this to get over. Being closer to the finish, I didn't want to give up. Positive self affirmations and a bit of deep thought as to why I wanted to do this got me back on track. Ketones were now between 4mm/l and 8 mm/l. The dip sticks aren't very easy to read, but seeing the color get darker is rewarding and helps keep motivated.

Day 6 🌅
The feeling of fatigue continued. I was feeling alert mentally, but I had a continuous feeling of physical exhaustion. I could focus well, but every few hours, I just went over to my bed and crashed for a few minutes. I had gotten used to the strange taste in my mouth by now. The fatigued feeling continued till the evening, but suddenly after my walk something strange happened. I went for my usual walk of mile and half and came back to relax in our front yard. As Gatsby came to chill by my side, and reassured me by rubbing against my foot, my exhaustion went away and I started feeling energized. I suddenly got an urge to wrap up my pending tasks and get going. I woke up wrapped few pending chores, took a nice warm shower and sat on my bed to engage myself in something creative. This was also the day I spent lots of time writing about this experience. No grunting, no whining and no fatigue. It felt like a switch was turned on internally 💡.

Day 7 🌞😇

Wow! I couldn't believe I had made it so far. Just the excitement of entering day 7 felt great. On the 6th night, I kept smiling with the anticipation of crossing the finish line. Well, you don't count your chickens before they hatch, one more day of patience was due. Overall, this was the best day out of the seven. My ketone levels were still around the same as day 5 (between 4-8 mm/l). I also slept well. I could tolerate the taste in my mouth much better, like it was my new normal. My morning meetings were very productive and I could feel myself being the high energy person in the room. My thinking and comprehension felt much better than rest of these days. The mental focus was great, but by evening I could feel the physical exhaustion, especially before my evening walk. After the walk, I started feeling better again. I was eagerly waiting for the clock to strike 9:30pm. It would be the end of 168 hours of fasting!

Ending the fast

Re-introduction of food had to be done carefully and gradually. This would be a part of reactivating my gut and starting to build up the suppressed digestive enzymes which were inactive over the last week. As I understand, the body reduces these enzymes to conserve energy as they aren't used as heavily. Secondly, the food needs to be very light to ensure the electrolyte levels don't go haywire. The dangers of refeeding syndrome are well documented. I had to take it extremely slow and gradually increase my diet over a course of few days. 

Prachi and Shashank, close friends of mine, had invited me over for dinner. Prachi had consulted her mother about what an ideal diet after a "Prayushana" should be. The dinner would be primarily liquid and semi-solid foods which are super easy to digest after an elongated fast. The moment of me breaking the fast was very special. It deserves a blog post of its own. Big thanks to Prachi for making it so special. My dinner went from a "Netflix and broth" alone at home to a "Satvik" Indian soul meal with friends! It brought a feeling of festivity, auspiciousness and a celebratory end to the fast. I'll put a picture of my dinner plate alongside. I say this without an iota of exaggeration, the first morsel felt like drop of rain on sun parched soil. All my senses woke up and I felt goosebumps and a big jolt of energy. Cannot thank these two enough! 

Reflections

Fasting for 7 days felt very daunting when I began. I knew it could be a rough journey, but thankfully it wasn't all that bad. Going through this has given me a new sense of respect for my body. 7 days no food and it still functions, and that too better! 

I did observe a few changes in my body. Firstly, the size of a small lipoma on my arm seemed to have reduced. My leg pain reduced by a bit, but didn't get completely eliminated. I also felt lot more energetic and alert after the fast and could feel my lethargy go down. And of course, I could fit back into some old jeans. I lost about 9.5 lbs over the last week. Most of this weight was primarily fat. Per my electronic weight scale around 1 lb of that was muscle mass. In theory the muscle mass shouldn't have dropped at all. 

Physical measurements aside, I felt a deep sense of gratitude towards my body and towards food. Moreover I also feel more responsible towards taking better care of it. This might seem a bit 'far' fetched, but from an anthropological perspective, I thought a lot about being in the shoes of a Paleolithic being and thinking about what they might have done for their food and survival. How they would've gathered or hunted for food, and how eventually our bodies adapted to the fittest lifestyle. It is 2.5 million years of genetic programming and iteration which still helps us enjoy our magnificent body the way it is today. We are now responsible to take care of what our ancestors have carved us to become, and make it even better.

Overall, the journey was good, and the end even better.
Would I do this again in future? Abso-freakin-lutely!

Disclaimer - I am not a medical practitioner or a doctor by any means. I am merely a health enthusiast intrigued by the beautiful science that makes our bodies work. Its always a good idea to consult your doctor before trying anything drastic.