6 days! You might think I’m crazy!
If you’re wondering, “Why the hell did he do it?”, the short answer is that it was a health experiment. I have a mostly chiseled physique but a little annoying anterior belly fat that exercising and intermittent fasting couldn’t get rid of.
The Hindu festival of Navratri is a popular fasting period among many of my friends and acquaintances. Some of them mentioned the great health benefits they had experienced.
I had also read a few health studies about the advantages of fasting and felt motivated to give it a shot.
The First 50 Hours Were Pure Hell
I drank only green tea and water. I had no calorie intake. Zilch!
The hunger was killing. It permeated through my body. I kept thinking about food and whether this experiment was worth it.
I tried keeping up with my exercise regimen (I would rock climb twice a week, weight train thrice, and hike once). My hope was that the endorphin rush would help me stay in control. But with the lack of instant carb-driven energy, I had to dial down on working out.
About 30 hours in, I remember smelling the most aromatic Thai curry ever that my housemate was preparing. It felt like I was hallucinating. I imagined I was floating in the air like a famished vulture, and being carried by the warm aromatic currents towards the saucepan.
By the end of the second day, I stopped feeling hungry. I went from daydreaming about food to forgetting about it.
This decline in hunger was likely caused by ketosis. This happens when our bodies switch to burning fat for energy.
I Started Noticing Results After 70 Hours
My stomach began flattening towards the end of the third day.
I put on one of my slim-fit t-shirts. I felt confident about the way I looked. My slightly protruding gut had previously made wearing fitting clothes a challenge.
My housemate even thought that my jawline looked sharper.
Not eating saved me the effort of cooking and grocery shopping. It was an unusual way of saving time.
The strangest part was that day 4 onwards, my focus improved and I was going about my doing my work with little difficulty. This was likely because the stored fats in my body were providing steadier and sustained energy.
I lost about 10 pounds in this process. But much of this loss was likely from water weight. It makes sense since my salt intake had dropped. So even though I was drinking about 3 and a half liters a day, my body wasn’t retaining much.
I have a skinny athletic built and weighed 167 pounds at the start of the fasting. At about 157 pounds after 6 days, I was looking and feeling much better.
The Downsides
My appetite took a while to build up to its pre-fasting levels. I started with watermelon juice and lentil soup for my first meals and gradually reintroduced regular food items. My digestive had fully shut down and it had to be gradually and gently restarted.
I am an avid climber. So when I did resume climbing the following week, I noticed my stamina and strength had slightly dropped.
It wasn’t too bad like I was emaciated. But I did take a hit.
Takeaways
The foodstuffs of today mess with our bodies. Maybe that’s why our energy levels are usually all over the place.
I remember the intense sweetness while sipping my first post-fast meal — watermelon juice. It felt like having sugar straight up. But this could be because processed food today is way too rich, desensitizing our sense of taste to a big extent.
Fasting was hard but I do like how rejuvenated I felt for several days after I ended it. I think I will make this a yearly practice.
I’m beginning to realize that I can get by with eating lesser than I actually do. Personally, this has been an important takeaway.
By just reducing our portion sizes, we can make big improvements to our health.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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