Sidebar: My goal with this biohack was never weight loss but it turns out I also went from 14% to 11% bodyfat. I heard about a hack that initiates rapid healing and radical life extension and that was my goal along with spiritual growth. At the time, it all sounded intriguing but I wasn’t quite ready for it.
The hack I’m talking about is dry fasting and it’s not for the faint of heart. Most people are familiar with fasting where you abstain from food but can still drink water and non-caloric liquids. With dry fasting, there’s no water or anything else that goes in your body.
I first learned of dry fasting a few years back and thought it sounded really extreme and had no interest in doing it but then came across a few people that did dry fasts and they felt they got a lot of value from them.
About 2 years ago a friend encouraged me to start with 24 hours and I took the plunge and ended up going for 36 hours. It was actually much easier than I thought. I didn’t really feel much benefit from it and got dry fasting out of my system…or so I thought.
Prior to that my longest water fast was 2 days and 18 hours. I was going for 3 days and ended up giving in to cravings. Three days was harder than I thought it would be.
Then recently I heard a podcast on dry fasting with August Dunning and then read his book on the topic and was really intrigued by all the benefits.
Upon completing the book I set an intention to do a dry fast someday in the future. I still had some resistance and hesitation but really wanted to do it at some point when the time was right.
That time was last Thursday morning when I woke up and felt inspired to do a dry fast. The last bit of water I had was the night before just before 9.
Tuesday’s and Thursday’s are days I do intermittent fasts so I just decided to skip drinking water. I also do an ice bath first thing followed by intense exercise such as sprints or kettlebell swings as a hack to ramp up AMPK, for its antiaging and longevity benefits. I decided to skip the intense exercise since you’re supposed to take it easy on a dry fast.
My goal was to go for 48 hours no food, no water and then if I was feeling ok, push it out to 72 hours, for a full 3 days.
My starting weight was 180.4 pounds and 14% body fat.
Thursday, the first full day there was very little thirst or hunger. It was much easier than I thought and I had a good night’s sleep and decided to mouth tape to preserve as much moisture in my mouth and body as possible.
Upon waking my mouth wasn’t very dry. Friday was going pretty well though I did start to have a few water and food cravings but was able to push through without a lot of effort. Friday night at 9 I made it to 48 hours and decided to continue through sleep since that would be an easy 8 hours and then assess Saturday morning how much longer I would go. Friday night I was tired by the evening and had a really great sleep waking up feeling good first thing in the morning.
Saturday had a few rough spots and things started to get challenging. There were times I started to really crave food and water and felt a little dizzy and light headed. I became sensitive to the cold and my resilience was waning. I really wanted to make 72 hours so I pushed myself through. Cravings for food and water eventually passed. Later on Saturday I told myself I would push through to Sunday morning at 9AM since that would be 84 hours (3.5 days), drink some water and then have lunch and dinner later that day.
Throughout the fast I reread several parts of The Phoenix Protocol, the book that convinced me the dry fasting benefits were well worth it and something I wanted to do. Things like the body performing deep cleansing and pathogenic healing, extended autophagy for cell regeneration and repair and elimination of weak and damaged cells, restored mitochondrial function, regenerated neurological tissue, reduction of deuterium levels, production of stem cells, and activation of sirtuins for DNA repair and other anti-aging benefits to name a few.
The full protocol is 7 days and up to 11 days if you have a major health issue however you get some really good benefits on day 3 and major benefits on day 5.
Back to my experience.
Sleep Saturday night was a challenge. I was feeling really restless and bored and all I could think about was going to a buffet and stuffing my face. It was hard to fall asleep and I woke up at 4AM wide awake. I read a novel and food and drink jumped out at me constantly where it normally wouldn’t register. The thought of making it to 9AM felt like an eternity.
It continued to be a real mental challenge to not think about eating or drinking and I did my best to connect with those emotions and process them, which helped.
It wasn’t that I was feeling extreme hunger or thirst but psychologically I really missed food and water and eating dinner with my SO and son.
This experience really made me aware of my deep connection to food and eating 3 meals a day. I spent a lot of time thinking about water too. My sense of smell remained heightened and I really got a lot of pleasure just from the smell of food.
I watched the sunrise Sunday morning, did my morning routine and decided I was going to push on.
I took my son for a walk in the morning. It was sunny and 25F. I was feeling much colder than I normally would in those conditions and luckily about a half mile into it my son said he was getting a little cold so we headed back home.
Mom had a lot of work to do so my son and I watched The Sound of Music. There was a scene where they were drinking pink lemonade and my mind fantasized about how amazing that would be. We hung out for a bit longer and then my son went back with mom and I did some work. I felt really clear headed and focused. Making it 4 days wasn’t going to be a problem and I decided to break my fast on Monday at noon making it a total of 4 days and 15 hours.
Sleep was once again a challenge Sunday night. When reading before bed my lower back had some pain and it was hard to get comfortable. I finally fell asleep and woke up around 3AM Monday morning wide awake and having to urinate pretty bad. I read for a while in bed and slept for another 45 minutes or so.
I awoke feeling light headed and extremely thirsty. I watched the sunrise and did my morning routine and mentally felt pretty good. My mouth was extremely pasty and at 9AM I allowed myself to swish some water then spit it out. This was the first water that touched my mouth in 96 hours. Not sure if I mentioned but you can’t even brush your teeth and that was a challenge too.
Monday morning was sunny and 16F and it felt great being outside. My cold tolerance returned.
From 9-12 that morning I fantasized about water. I went grocery shopping and got several kinds of water and a bunch of food. I got home, urinated again and weighed myself. My weight was 166.8 pounds. My starting weight on Thursday morning was 180.4 so I lost a total of 13.6 pounds. I measured my body fat and it was 11% down from 14%.
At noon I drank water and it was glorious! I drank water throughout the day and took ½ tsp of celtic sea salt, some fulvic ionic minerals, ¼ tsp of potassium bicarbonate, and 1,000 mg of resveratrol. I wanted to make it a full 5 days without food so didn’t eat until Monday night.
For dinner, my SO Lindsay made me a ribeye and purple mashed potatoes. They were amazing and my appetite was the same as usual. I thought my stomach would have shrunk and my appetite reduced but not the case at all. Sleep was great Monday night and my weight on Tuesday morning was 172.6 pounds, so I regained 5.8 pounds in a very short period of time.
Tuesday is a fasting day and I did my normal routine of an ice bath followed by kettlebell swings to ramp up AMPK. The water was 44F and I did 17 minutes and shivered much more than usual. The kettlebell swings went well and I felt my usual strength. I did a weight workout around 12:30 then lunch at 1:30 and I feel great.
All in all it was a great experience and I learned a lot about myself and am glad the inspiration came when it did.
A lot of the benefits come in the following months so we’ll see what happens. I plan on doing a dry fast again and going for the full 7 days. I’ll wait at least 6 months and just keep the intention planted until then.