My 40 Day Mostly Water* Fast

[labm]

This is my journal of my 40 day fast for people who may be interested in what it's like from day 0 to day 40. I once did a 21 day water only fast and it was relatively hard compared to this. It isn't easy fasting but it does help as long as it is used with all the other things like eating healthy, exercise, portion control, etc (you all know what they are).

Hope this information helps.

Enjoy, Steve...

Info

Male, age 50, slow metabolism, generally athletic
This fast is to loose the last 25 lbs to get to my goal of 12% body fat
Started fast at 194 lbs 20% BMI

Background

Original lbs somewhere 275+ (didn't weigh as I didn't really want to know)
Didn't focus on losing weight, just on eating healthy and exercising
Started age 49, dropped to 200 lbs in 6 months
Lost 50 lbs with changed eating habits before any fasting done
Major detoxing done few months ago in first 21 day fast (1 week juice + 2 week water)
Did another 21 day water, several 1-2 week juice fasts prior to this 40 day
Have extremely super low low low metabolism
Changed eating habits prior to any fasting to 1 light meal after work only
No breakfast No lunch Small dinner + some exercise just to maintain weight
Have kept weight off for 2 years with new eating habits
Used to be meat/potatos guy with no vegi's
Not a vegitarian per se but don't like red meat anymore
Diet consists of 95% salmon, soups, juicing and vegi's
Still like the occasional hot link and BLT
Last steak was a year ago and didn't like it any
Pies, cake, sweets, breads reserved for holidays or special occasions
Eat a few crackers with soup still
Chips, cookies, candy very very rarely
Soda never again, only water, tea, non-fat milk and occasional tequila, wine
Only sweetener now is honey, stevia
Coffee 1-2 cups 2-3 days a week or less
Did several 15 and 25 mile backpacking trips in last year (me + backpack = 240 lbs)
So bad originally I couldn't even vault over a 4 foot fence
Original 275+ pants size went from hanging over 42 to loose 32
Very slow metabolism seems to allow more exercise on fast
Never eat out at fast food places anymore
Occasionally eat at regular resturant where I can get soup, salad, salmon

Notes for this Fast

Drank between 1+ gallons of water a day in this 40 days
Easier to fast when working (programmer) as it distracts me from eating
Stay busy (mentally) as fasting frees up your time so can be boring
Even fasting I felt better with some exercise, usually walking 2-3 miles for lunch
Run 4 flights of stairs when I get cold, sometimes 4-5 times a day
Didn't get too cold the last 10 days really
Had very mild detox aches, headaches, rashes occasionally
Last bit of weight definitely the slowest to loose at .38 lbs a day over 40 days
Consistently lost fewer lbs. each week (4,3,3,2,2,1) getting closer to optimum weight
1-10 days felt tired and achy
11-20 days felt better but still tired
21-30 days felt pretty good
31-40 days actually felt great
Don't watch Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern or other food shows on fast

Post Fast Summary / Guidelines

Change eating habits first or you're wasting your time
Don't diet, just eat healthy
Exercise some or you're wasting your time
Expect to need and eat a lot less food after fasting
You feel better when you eat less but nutritious food
Learn to prepare your own food
It's not easy giving up the old bad eating habits

Journal     Exercise** Day       Lbs.   Wk/Loss Tot/Loss Avg#'s/Day
ok              w        1       194                     
ok some achy    wb       2                            
achy            wb       3                            
achy            w        4                            
tired                    5                            
tired           g        6                            
draging         wb       7                            
really tired    wb       8       190       4       4       .57
lots of energy  wbg      9                            
ok energy       wbg     10                            
little tired    wbg     11                            
ok                      12                            
ok              g       13                            
ok              w       14                            
ok              wbg     15       187       3       7       .50
tired           wg      16                            
more tired      w       17                            
ok but freezing g       18                            
ok              g       19                            
ok but cold     w       20                            
ok but freezing w       21                            
ok little cold  w       22       184       3       10       .48
ok little cold  w       23                            
good, cold      w       24                            
good, cold      wg      25                            
good, cold      w       26                            
good, cold      w       27                            
good            w       28                            
good, cold              29       182       2       12       .43
good            2w      30                            
good, cold      2w      31                            
tired, cold     w       32                            
good            w       33                            
good                    34                            
good            2w      35                            
good            w       36       180       2       14       .40
good            w       37                            
good            w       38                            
good            w       39                            
good            w       40                            
            40 days              179       1       15       .38

*
2-3 cups coffee, black a week
2-3 glasses non-fat milk a week
a little green tea at work
1 bottle of merlot

**
Walks usually 3-5 miles (not counting 1.5 miles t/f work)
Biking usually a brisk 20-30 minutes
Gym usually 15 minutes with weights or 15 slow laps in pool

[mikemann1991]

Well executed.

[ndpistonfan]

If you don't mind me asking, how tall are you? Keep up the great work!

[labm]

I'm 5'10 1/2". This 40 dayer was about 6 months ago. I'm pretty much into my routine now of just eating less and healthier. It definately takes awhile to change all the bad habits so that it becomes normal to eat right. But I still have alot of days I just do carrot juice and that's it as I'm just not hungry and don't eat just to eat anymore.
Steve...

[ginkgo]

Drinking over a gallon of water a day sounds very excessive unless it was over 95 degrees (F). On a fast, you can drink a lot less water than normally. Then your kidneys get a rest. But a gallon a day of water, makes your kidneys work excessively hard.

Also according to the governor of CA, drinking black, unsweetened coffee makes you fatter. How can that be? That does not make sense. It has only a few calories. Also the caffeine in it is supposed to make you burn more calories. But the governor of CA says that it causes you to retain water and that makes you weigh a lot more and retained water looks worse than fat. So that is why he avoided coffee when he was entering contests.

He was so competitive, he probably never told anyone about it back then.