I recently completed an 8-day water fast. No food, tea, coffee, or supplements. Just water.

In this post, I’ll share with you the why and the results.

Warning: This content is not advice. I do not recommend unsupervised fasting and take no responsibility for your decision-making.

Okay, now that that’s over, let’s begin. 🙂

Why did I fast?

A few reasons. I felt inspired by friends who had positive fasting experiences and decided to take the leap myself.

DAY 0 of Fasting

Before I began, I set intentions:

Mental — Receive clarity in life’s vision. I wanted to better understand what’s next for me.

Physical — Heal my body. I tore my ACL two years ago and the injury still lingered. I also developed a nose twitch that I felt had a chance of going away. If any unknown illnesses or dormant diseases existed, I intended to clear my body of them.

Some of my physical goals seemed like a stretch. I planned on fasting for only eight days, but I aimed high. From what I had read, prolonged fasting could heal the body. It’s a tool, a mechanism built into most animals. When they are hurt, they curl up and hide until the body repairs itself. This was my goal.

Spiritual — I wanted to grow closer to God/Nature. Many of the world’s largest religions practice fasting (including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) to better understand source. I wanted to experience this for myself.

Self-Experimentation and Self-Discovery — What would happen to my mind and body? What could I learn about myself from this process?

So, the eight days passed, and…

The Results

Day 8 of Fasting

Fasting was an internal adventure. I spent eight straight days sapped of energy and laying around in bed. I meditated, read, journaled, and dreamt of food. When day five or six rolled around, I spent a good chunk of time staring at Instagram food accounts. I often felt a low level of hunger during the fast. My mind often spun into food daydreams. It was enough for me to cut my target fast length from ten down to eight days.

During this time, a friend housed me. This offered a supportive environment for fasting. I had few responsibilities, allowing me to focus entirely on healing and resting.

I felt inspired to continue my fast by consuming fasting content. Although I didn’t agree with everything the author said, I enjoyed reading Fasting & Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman MD, finding it insightful and at times, miraculous. Loren Lockman at the Tanglewood Center for Fasting has lots of helpful YouTube videos as well. Finally, I picked up Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People and Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, both of which I highly recommend for different reasons.

Alongside the challenges, I found benefits too. Mentally, I received clarity on my life vision and what’s next for me in life. I know my next project and feel a renewed sense of confidence in my path. I’m proud of myself for going eight days without food, twice as long as my previous attempt.

Physically, I came out of the fast with strong intentions to eat a healthier diet. Having felt like I reset my body, the importance of what I put into my body weighed on my mind. During the refeeding process, a process that’s just as important as the fast itself, I developed a strong relationship with fruit, eating mostly watermelon for four straight days. My first bites of watermelon were Godly. I’ve continued to eat foods with high water content in the mornings and then cooked foods for dinner. We’ll see how long this behavior lasts, but it currently feels hydrating and nourishing to my body to do so.

I once had a small fat deposit that protruded from my right ribcage, which my body ate up during the fast. Although I felt feeble after, a few days of exercise, I began noticing extreme and pain-free flexibility. I lost ten pounds, going from 125 to 115. Whatever fat I carried on my body, and some muscle, too, was gone. I feel as if I have a healthy body with a strong foundation on which to build.

All in all, the fast went smoothly. I experienced no withdrawal symptoms or sickness that many claim to experience while fasting. I’m hoping this means my body was mostly healthy in the first place and primed for the process.

Would I Do Extended Fasting Again?

I’ll likely do extended fasting again, but not for at least another year. My body doesn’t have much more weight it can afford to lose. I’d consider extended fasting during sickness or injury.

Finally, I documented the entire journey on YouTube. If you’re interested, check out my channel and subscribe to be notified of future content:

I hope you enjoyed the read. If you did, please share it with a close friend and consider following the journey:

Wishing you well.

Love,

David

PS — you can purchase my hiking memoir, The Trail Provides, on Amazon and Audible today.