Breaks between extended fasts - how long?

[Fat2FitJulz]

Hey guys!

I’ve been looking into the idea of doing back to back extended fasts (21+ days), and trying to work out how long the break should be in between? The reason I want to find out is because I have a scheduled social event (food) in about 3-4 weeks, so am forced to break my fast then - otherwise I’d likely prefer to just continue to 40+.

I was thinking I could do this current fast until end of the month, then a few days of food (mindful of re-feed protocol) and then just jump back into the fast rather than hit full calories.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

[Compdude]

@Anna @Cream35 @Yasemin and myself.

For me, since I had completed a 40 day I just listened to my body and it turned out to be 21 days. I found out later from a member of the FB group that Dr Jason Fung recommends half the length of the fast for a ReFeed. However, some have had shorter ReFeeds and I’ve sent this entry to them to help answer your question from their experience.

[Anna]

I did a short refeed of 5 days after a 30 day fast, and my body has reacted well to it. I didn’t have any symptoms going back into fasting again afterwards (a shorter fast of 6 days). In terms of how good I’m feeling now on the last day of this fast, I probably could fast for another 6 days easily, but I don’t want to loose more weight at this point!

However it’s highly individual and since most doctors recommends a refeed half the length of the fast, that’s what I recommend to people to make sure they’re being safe!
Listen to your body if you’re feeling good and energetic during the refeed! If your body is very drained in energy I would continue with the refeed until the energy levels returns to normal!
Good luck!

[Cream35]

I did 15 days of water fasting and did around 10 days of refeeding before doing a 48 hours fast, then 2 days of refeeding and then currently back on a prolonged water fast.

I’m with @Anna on this one, all my research pointed towards doing a refeed at least half of the length of the fast. Having experienced a longer refeeding length because of the holidays, I can attest that my body needed it. I also was sick with influenza for a week and felt that my body needed to rest from the stress of fasting. I think it paid off since I’m on the 4th day now and I feel very good!

I’m all about listening to your body, as you can see it really does differ from person to person. From my experience I’d advocate to do at least half of the fast in refeeding before going back to another extended fast.

Looking forward to following your journey