Newbie question: Body Water & Protein Increase

[cleorelox]

Hi everyone! I have been doing different kinds of fasts for a few years now - juice fasts, broth fasts, IF, OMAD, and some water fasting (the longest I lasted for water fast, at least before my current one, was 7 days long) I used to be around 68kg and was able to maintain a 55-57kg weight for years doing different fasts from time to time when I feel like my relationship with food is getting out of hand and needs resetting.

Anyway, since we are all in a quarantine I decided it would be the best time to do an extended fast as I will be at home all the time, doing barely anything. I’ve decided to embark on a 21 day water fast. Everything is going well except when I sometimes stand up way too quickly, making me quite dizzy. And a bit of muscle spasms here and there (I take potassium drinks and salt when this happens).

I’ve actually decided to extend my fast to 25 days and I am now on Day 22. I religiously weight myself with a Renpho smartscale to keep track of my progress and measurements i.e weight, fat %, BMI, muscle mass, bone mass, skeletal muscle, protein, body water and whatnot. I know these smartscales aren’t super accurate but I think there’s a lot of truth to the measurements still. I heard Renpho is also quite close to medical grade scales but I’m not very sure how true that is.

I noticed something quite interesting with some of the measurements as I’m losing weight. While weight, body fat, viseral fat, muscle mass, are going down quite as expected; my body water and protein continues to increase consistently. Does anyone know the reason for this? I dont drink too much water, sometimes I even wake up feeling dehydrated in the morning? The protein part intrigues me the most. Does anyone know the reason for this? Is it nonsense? Thanks in advance!

[Compdude]

The reason for the protein increase is from the dead cells cannibalized from a prolonged fast and possibly residual proteins from the autophagy process earlier (this last point is speculate on my part.)

As for water, I don’t have a scientific explanation for that unless its from the adipose tissue getting squeezed from the processing of fat for energy. It’s an interesting question. I’ll run it by the endocrinologist at the USC medical school that I consult with weekly to see if he has an answer. Thanks for that question.

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[cleorelox]

Wow that makes so much sense! I was almost getting worried with how my stats were looking, but I didn’t realized it’s linked to autophagy, and completely overlooked that side. I still need to do more reading on it to be honest.

I would love to hear what your endocrinologist will say about the body water part, as well. Thank you so much for answering. I really appreciate it!

[Compdude]

The endocrinologist confirmed everything I stated in his response to my weekly status report to him.

Look forward to reading of your progress.

[cleorelox]

Sorry for responding so late. That is amazing, and a very interesting side to fasting! Thank you so much. I am done with my fast and have already been refeeding and loving it. I will be posting a progress update soon!