#43 The Complete Guide to Extended Fasting for 5 Days and Beyond

Siim Land (0:01)

When someone was to ask you, when are you gonna have your next 5 day fast, then you probably don't have an immediate answer to give.

Um, yeah, let's do it right now, right away. Come on, don't bullshit me. Even though fasting for extended periods of time is part of the history of humans, we don't experience these periods of food abstinence anymore. You can eat whatever, wherever and whenever. Is it any good? Definitely, it's good to a certain extent. The problem is that most people tend to fall victim to their primal urges and eat all the time.

Which may not lead to obesity or diabetes per se, but it can still cause some emotional addictions to food.

Fasting has been used as medicine and as a therapeutic method against many diseases in the past. In ancient Greece, it was thought to cure abominations of the flesh, including obesity. In religious practices, it's used for spiritual as well as bodily purposes. In modern society, there are some who do it just for fat loss, but to also clean and heal the body. And so have I. One day, I was about to face 4 days of traveling to Finland, and I thought, why not practice some hardcore fasting during that trip? I was thinking, all right, I haven't had a longer fast in a few months, so let's take advantage of this opportunity. Sold!

Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm your host Siim Land, and this episode is going to be about my 5-day fast, which lasted for 120 hours. I'm going to walk you through my experience and give you some of the core principles of fasting for such a long time.

Body Mind Empowerment Okay, my current eating regimen already incorporates a lot of intermittent fasting every day. I eat most of my calories in the evening within a 2-4 hour time frame. It's the one meal a day diet with a small twist. Then, I have several 24 hour fasts a month and 2-3 day fasts at least once every quarter of the year. Research has shown that fasting for up to 3 days boosts stem cell growth, raises ketone bodies in the blood, bolsters the immune system, increases fat oxidation, cleanses the body through a process called autophagy, reduces blood sugar, insulin and inflammation levels drastically. I think like fasting truly is this miracle drug that can work against many ailments and illnesses, starting with your ordinary I'm carrying a few extra pounds all the way up to full blown brain cancer. The reason I decided to have a 5 day fast was that it kind of fit into my schedule quite nicely. I had to do some traveling and I wouldn't have had access to quality food sources. For me, that's a perfect situation as I'll get in my extended fast and I'll avoid all the potentially harmful calories that I don't need. Fasting also fights jet lag so it's a huge hack. In fact, I prefer fasting and staying hungry rather than eating some random unhealthy meal on the go without much nutrition. Your body from a physiological and metabolic perspective would also be better off with avoiding all calories altogether as to drive yourself into deeper ketosis and autophagy rather than nibbling on some dried out lettuce wraps or croissant from a fast food restaurant.

At first, I was just planning on doing a 4 day alternate day fast with 48 hours fasted followed by a small sob 600 calorie ketogenic meal continued by another 40 hours of fasting. However, at the 36 hour mark, I was thinking to myself, if I've already fasted this long and I'm only starting to reap the life extension and increasing benefits, then why not go all in and fast for the entire 5 days?

And that's what I did. You see, your body has developed several innate mechanisms for dealing with periods of starvation, caloric restriction and fasting. These things are slightly different with some nuances that have to be kept in mind. Starvation occurs only if your body can't access the essential nutrients it needs, which won't happen with smartly planned fasting. Caloric restriction can occur with a regular eating schedule and it has some health benefits, but the effects of fasting are almost non-existent. Strict fasting with no calories whatsoever triggers your body's hormetic adaptations, which actually increase your resistance to stressful situations in the future. The reason you'd want to have these extended fasts of at least 3-5 days every year is that it takes at least 48 hours for your body to re-adapt to the abstinence of food and trigger the longevity boosting benefits. Feel how soft my skin is. Ok, let's talk about why you need to get into ketosis while fasting. Like I said, I've been following a one meal a day eating routine for nearly 2 years and I've been seeing great results from it. I also eat a low carb ketogenic diet, therefore the initial 24 hours of fasting are gonna be a walk in the park for me so to say. The more keto adapted you are, the easier it is for your body to burn its own stored fat for fuel and easier it is for you to fast. With contemporary eating habits like 4-6 small meals a day, very carbohydrate rich menus, highly palatable foods and snacks, the average person's body is almost incapable of burning fat and ketones for fuel. Your default fuel source is glucose, which can be stored in liver and muscle cells for up to 2000 calories. Your adipose tissue can deposit tens and hundreds of thousands of calories, as even people with under 10% body fat carry around about 30,000 to 50,000 calories. Body fat is food, it's energy your body can use during days when you're not eating. If you teach your body to handle only days where you eat several meals all the time, then you're preventing yourself from burning fat for fuel or at least you slow down this process a lot. Caloric restriction on a non-ketogenic diet with plenty of carbohydrates also prevents you from establishing ketosis and reaping the benefits of a fat-burning metabolism. You're gonna burn a little bit of fat, but because your body is so used to glucose, it will also compensate for that deficit by converting some of your muscle tissue and vital organs into glucose through gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis can occur only if your body isn't in ketosis and it can't cover its energy demands with fat and ketones.