How Often Can You Do Various Water Fasts?

[mirroronthewall]

Could you do a 7 day fast every other week, with one week to refeed followed by a week of water fasting?

In another post, someone suggested as a rule of thumb that the time required for refeeding is about half whatever length of your water fast was (so, for a week, 3-4 days) - is this a good rule of thumb?

So you could do a 14 day fast every month followed by 14 days of refeeding, or alternating water fasts every week? Or, half the week water fasting and half the week refeeding?

Please feel free to delete this post if the question has already been answered, it’s my first one and I tried to search for the topic and didn’t feel I found an answer!

Addition: Adjusting the math, you could also do 9 days water fasting and a 5 day refeed for two week cycles by that math, or 18WF/10RF (WF=water fast, RF=refeed).

[Compdude]

Speaking from my experience of 4, 5, 7, 21 & 40 day fasts.

Fasting by its nature is stressful to the body, its in response to that stress the rejuvenation and recovery systems that evolved in our bodies are engaged. HOWEVER, your body is NOT a machine and will break down without giving it sufficient breaks between fasting.

For example, I started my customized protocol to be medication free on August 9th of last year. A large part of that protocol was first building up my body for prolonged fasts with an 11 day transition period of I.F. (16:8, 18:6, 20:4 and then OMAD) then followed with increasingly longer prolonged fasts. After completing a 4, 5 & & I had 4 consecutive days of failing to start a new 7-day. At first, I was under the mistaken impression it was due to “lack of willpower”. By the 4th straight fail, I realized it was my body screaming for a break. I then did a 9-day refeed, the length determined by how I felt each day. I then successfully completed the 40-day.

My point is listen to your body, especially if you don’t have much experience. Let it tell you how long you should do a fast and how long to do a refeed. Another example, I didn’t know about the refeed length rule when I began my refeed after the 40-day. I just took it day by day and as a result it ended up being half the 40 day at 21 days.

Hope this helps. I kept Daily Journals of my 40-day and recently completed 21-day if you’re looking for more info.

[mirroronthewall]

Been doing more research here, I guess it probably depends on how much fat your body currently has. It looks like Cole Robinson (the “Snake Diet” guy) suggests you can do two meals a week (3-4 day fasts) back to back for a long time (probably to the point of losing whatever weight you need to). Maybe this is less possible with lower body fat amounts, but I guess you’ll feel it.

[donna]

@mirroronthewall Yes, it does depend on how much fat you have to lose. Fat loss tends to slow as you get closer to your ideal weight. Additionally, your body needs to reset to a new, lower point-- a new place of maintaining that number.

It is possible to overdo the fasting and just burnout. Those currently promoting fasting via books and YouTube mainly seem to advise one extended fast per month and intermittent fasting throughout the month. This is the practice I am implementing. I am using this last week of February for an extended fast. The other weeks I am fasting every other day and either OMAD or 2MAD on eating days. Once I have reached my chosen weight, I intend to continue to maintain a fasting schedule as both a discipline for health and a spiritual practice.

Hope this helps!

[Compdude]

It depends on how healthy your body is when you start. Personally I always allocate a sufficient refeed and a 30-day workout program to strengthen my body before undertaking a new prolonged fast.