[MightySunTzu]

Hi Angies,

Thank you for the compliment and you presented some good questions here.

Originally Posted by angies

I just wonder if you see much difference in how you look after 20 days of no food. A friend of mine was really sick and had to be admitted to hospital and was put on drip for 5 days with no food. When he got back to work. He looks so pale and skinny and unwell.

I look "artificially" thin, 15 pounds lighter than i will be about 2-3 weeks after breaking the fast... once the temporary water loss comes back on. Not pale and unwell, but definately thinner than i would want to stay. The 15 pounds of water will fill me in nicely and i will be exceedingly pleased with my body composition at that point.

Originally Posted by angies

I am also worry about the metabolism slowing down when the body is in starvation mode. How long does it take for the body to enter this mode? Does this mean that after a fast, your body will be so super efficient that it will store away everything you eat, an[d] all the fat will come back with a vengeance with any amount of food that you eat.

I discussed this earlier in the thread, but to recap... a fasting body on average will have a reduced metabolism of about 10% after 7 days and about 20% after 21 days. The "myth" you speak of may have arisen because of the replenishment of the temporarily lost water weight. No matter how light you eat post fast, you will likely gain a pound per day until your normal water levels have been restored. People who understandably don't know what is happening may assume it is fat... when it is actually water.

Aside from this, a faster needs to be very careful to break the fast gradually and then to eat within the dictates of the reduced metabolic rate for a few weeks. A careful, disciplined, nutritious breaking of the fast makes it pretty easy to keep within these metabolic limitations. (More on this below). The metabolism is said to build its way back to normal little by little within about 6 weeks. Many fasters have been known to fail in the area of keeping fat off post-fast... perhaps because they "believe" they are too thin and don't realize they will be regaining 10-20 pounds of water, so they mistakenly want to "hurry up" and put weight back on.

In such an instance, if caloric intake exceeds caloric expenditure, the faster will indeed add body fat. But it need not be this way if the faster emerges from the fast with as much discipline as he demonstrated while in its midst. In my previous fast of 10 days (about 3-4 months ago), i burned 7 pounds of fat and kept off every ounce of it and more, while simultaneously building some muscle. It has been said that the post-fast discipline is more essential than the fast itself (which obviously is quite essential and amazing itself in the immense benefits it provides) and can often be more difficult.

The discipline in breaking the fast is critical primarily to gently nurse your long slumbering digestive system back to normal (and what will become super-normal) functioning. You don't break a 25 days fast with a juicy steak. I am very careful in this crucial area and as a rule of thumb i will have only live juice and fresh vegetable broth 1 day for every 4 days of water fasting. Therefore if i should go 28 days, i would have only juice for a full 7 days. Then for the following 7-8 days i would have only fruit and vegetables, primarily raw, in addition to juice. Only after these 14-15 days would i have anything more digestively challenging. Keeping the fat off, while very important, is actually secondary in importance to the careful nurturing of your digestive system during the easing out period.

The super efficiency of the body is generally in reference to the rested, cleansed and rejuvenated organs (and blood) all performing at their best. As two examples, both digestion and the assimilation of nutrients will be greatly enhanced. As another, the body is far better equipped to eliminate unwanted waste with supreme efficacy.

Originally Posted by angies

After the re-feeding period, would you be able to go back to some normality, by this I don't mean stuffing your face with bad food but be able to go out and have a normal dinner say once a week.

Absolutely, positively .