First of all, Intermittent fasting and Water Fasting has been discussed much lately in the health and fitness communities. I started following because of its traditional method. I have been telling my friends for some time now that I am going to try and follow what my parents, grandparents, great grandparents used to follow. Every current so-called study or research or a new trend is similar to what evolved in many centuries of humankind. The so-called new theory or research also got Nobel prize and surprisingly it was in existence for ages. Anyway coming back to the most discussed topic currently -Weight loss, Intermittent Fasting, and water fasting, which I have been promoting.
Fasting is nature’s oldest and the most effective yet least expensive method of treating disease. Numerous references related to fasting are present in the sacred books and writings of the ancient Greeks. All the world’s major religions feature some form of fasting. Christians have Lent, Muslims have Ramadan. Fasting is a very integral part of the Hindu religion, different kinds of fasts based on personal beliefs and local customs like Ekadasi, Karwa Chauth, Pradosha, Purnima, Maha Shivaratri, the nine days of Navratri, Shravan Maas, etc.
In the Bahá’í Faith, fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset during the Bahá’í month of ‘Ala’ and Fasting is practiced by lay Buddhists during times of intensive meditation, such as during a retreat.
“Sarverogha mala vashaha, langhanamparamoushadham”
The meaning of the Sanskrit shloka means “Cause of all disease is the accumulation of foreign matter in the body and fasting is the supreme medicine for that”
According to Naturopathy, when one fasts, the disease is not cured instead the body is given an opportunity to heal on its own. Therapeutic fasting is defined as the controlled and voluntary abstinence from all calorie-containing foods and drinks for a specified period of time. In the Tantra Yoga lineage, one of the niyamas is directly related to food consumption. Mitahara translates in various ways as a ‘healthy diet” or “moderate diet” and includes fasting in all its forms.
My personal experience with fasting has been life-changing. For somebody like me who is a foodie and food is on my mind all the time. Every time I go out, the first priority was where will I get some delicious, famous food or a must-eat place. I used to have food when I am hungry and also when there is breakfast, Lunch & Dinner time. Actually, the food was completely ruling my life, never realized this for long. But when I visited Auroville a few years back, met Anandi who runs a raw food cafe and we were chatting about food and she said now food doesn’t control me, I decide what to eat and when to eat. This hit me and I decided I want to control my eating habits [ still a long way to go ]. Then begins the research, discussion with friends, few of my friends used to follow Intermittent Diet and Multiday Fasting, I started reading about it and watched many videos [Enough content available on both topics] and started with restricted time eating /Intermittent fasting which I felt was very easy. Anyway most of us have dinner by 8 pm [Excluding Weekends]and breakfast by 8 or 9 am so 12 hours fasting used to happen by default. Post awareness of Intermittent Fasting increasing the fasting time to 16 hours a day was relatively easy. For those who think they can’t suddenly increase the fasting time, a simple method is to start having dinner half an hour early and breakfast half a late and slowly increase fasting hours from 12 to 13 hours and take to 16 hours for better results. One needs to also tweak this 16- 8hours fasting and also add weekly 24 hours, once in 2 months 48 hours fasting.
I also did Water Fasting for 132 hours in 2019 and that was some experience. The 36 hours to 72 hours was the toughest time, post that it was easier. The interesting part is you are not hungry but your mind keeps telling you that you are not eating anything and post 72 hours it kind of accept the fact that we have to survive on the water. I stopped at 132 hours, not because I was hungry. I ate because my family was worried and I couldn’t handle the pressure anymore.
As I read that you actually feel energetic post 48-72 hours, I attempted hill repeats -Ran 600 meters * 5 and was feeling absolutely fine.[I do not recommend this, one must listen to their body before attempting exercise during multi-days fasting]
I tried doing Ironman VR Challenge – Olympic distance after 48 hours fasting and also did few Tempo & Interval runs. I never felt weak, rather felt lighter and stronger. One advice avoid telling your running or cycling buddies, they may make you conscious by over worrying for you.
I have always done yoga during fasting and it is a must-do experience, details on that in the next post.
Recently(Aug 2020) did 213 hours of Water Fasting,8 days only warm water & 1 day Lemon water & Coconut Water, Details on that in next post.
The moral of the story is :
The longer you fast, the longer the time interval, you allow your body to:
- Access the fat stores and burn fat
- Up-regulate your metabolism
- Heal itself by getting rid of dead cells (autophagy)
- Keep insulin levels low thereby preventing insulin resistance
- Increase your Human Growth Hormone levels with its associated benefits
- Slow down the aging process
- Prevent type 2 diabetes and even reverse it
You can fast for shorter periods if you like. Less than 16 hours like 15, 14 or 13 hours. Nothing wrong with that.
…but the shorter the fasting duration, the smaller the benefits, and the benefits are proportionate to the duration of the fast.
I am not an expert or from the medical field, the above information is only my personal experience and study on the topic, sharing as many friends requested for it.
