More Adventures in Fasting – My 48 Hour Fast in Detail

I’m currently just over 19 hours into a 48 hour fast, and I’m putting together the first details of the experience.

I did this a few years ago with my 3 day fast, and it proved to be a really popular post. Whilst this fast isn’t going to be as long, I’ll explain the reasoning behind why I’m only doing a 48 hour fast this time, and what I’m looking to achieve from it.

As with the last post I did on fasting, I’m going to chart the experience with a daily update on status and weight loss.

48 Hour Fast – Why I’m Doing It

For more detail on the health benefits of fasting, read through the post I linked to in the section above. I go into the detail on autophagy, digestive and inflammatory improvements linked to fasting there.

In this case, I want to give my body and digestive system a bit of a break. I’ve had a few weekends of indulgence, and whilst I’ve still trained, I think it’s time to help my digestive system take a rest. There has been more heavy food, beer and treats than I would normally have recently so it’s a break from that. We’re in December now, and Christmas isn’t exactly known for its restrictive food intake.

There’s also a weight loss issue too. Whilst it’s not my primary concern, I’d like to kickstart some pre-Christmas weight loss.

Last time I did a 72 hour fast I dropped over 8lbs, so it’s an effective way to shift some timber.

My Main Reason…

There’s also another, more pressing reason for me doing a 48 hour fast – an injury.

Around 2 months ago I was doing some heavy kettlebell snatches. The weight was nothing crazy, but it was a significant step up from what I’d been doing in the recent past. It left me with a sore elbow tendon that I just can’t seem to fully shift, regardless of the things I’m doing.

I’m hopeful that my body will respond to this fast the way it did last time, which involved a strange (but very welcome) reduction in injury symptoms I was suffering at the time.

I think (because it’s purely anecdotal) that the reduction in injury symptoms comes from a general reduction in inflammation due to lack of food. When we’re not easting anything, we’re not having a reaction to any foodstuffs that might not fully agree with us.

Additionally, the extra resources your body can devote to repair and replenishment of damaged tissues probably helps to fix problems faster. When your body doesn’t have to deal with digestion every few hours, it’s probably able to get more done!

Why 48 Hour Fast and Not 72?

The main reason is because when I looked back at my blog post on the 72 hour fast, most of the tangible benefits I felt came within the first 48/60 hours. It was at this point that my injuries had stopped hurting, and I’d lost almost 7 of the 8lbs I went on to lose.

If you can enjoy 100% of the injury benefits and lose almost 90% of the weight in 66% of the time, then that’s just sensible.

When the law of diminishing returns is so apparent, it’s foolish to continue down a path of potential muscle loss, increased hunger and potentially impacted sleep for the sake of smaller and smaller benefits. The benefits don’t justify the cost past a certain point.

How This Fast Will Differ

The last time I fasted I didn’t really do any exercise, but in this case I will be. I’m going to be doing a 10km bike ride on the bike erg, and I’ll do some basic strength training. I don’t expect the numbers I achieve to be anything special, but it’ll be helpful to just move my body.

This little cardio alley at MyGym will be my best friend…

The reason I’ve made the decision to still train on one of the days is because I’ll be eating on the second day, so I’m not long away from refuelling.

My 48 Hour Fast – Day One

Starting weight: 98.95kg (218.15 lbs)

Early on day one there’s very little to report. I took a starting weight and got on with my day. It’s a really busy time of year for me as a personal trainer, gym owner and copywriter. This is helpful for me when I’m doing a 48 hour fast, because being busy keeps the mind occupied.

An occupied mind thinks less about food, making the fast easier to deal with.

A couple of hours in I noticed the same thing as on my 72 hour fast – the frequency of toilet trips. The explanation for this is as your body uses glycogen, the water ‘buffer’ it is held in is released by the body. This means you’ll be heading to the toilet more frequently than usual.

By the way, this sudden and dramatic water loss explains much of the weight loss in the first day of a fast.

I’m noticing I’m feeling the cold more than usual, which is something that happened on my 72 hour fast. I’m not sure why this happens, but it’s a definite ‘symptom’ that I experience.

The hunger pangs flare up after a few hours, but they disappear. Hunger is transient, so don’t assume you’ll spend the day starving, you really won’t. There’ll be times when you’re hungry, but they go away quickly. As I mentioned, being occupied helps.

A mug of hot lemon water (literally as it sounds – boiling water with half a lemon squeezed in) is helpful. It both adds to stomach volume, and gives you something to taste. This is important to occupy the taste buds – a lack of tasting anything is one of the things that makes fasting difficult.

By the end of the day I was 97.2kg (214.36 lbs), meaning I’d lost 1.75kg (3.86 lbs).

48 Hour Fast – Day Two

Overnight I’d lost a further kilo, so I started the day at 96.2kg (212 lbs). With the learnings of the day before, I kicked off the day with another lemon water. I’m beginning to think that’s a hack – it’s not the lack of food that bothers me the most, it’s a lack of taste and flavour. The lemon water is sufficiently occupying to the taste buds to help offset it.

I had another busy day ahead of me, so I just got on with things. The busy brain doesn’t think about food, so another tip is to fast when you’re occupied – it really helps!

During a break in my day I trained. It wasn’t anything fancy – I sat on the bike erg and did a 40 minute steady state ride. I got a sweat on, burned a few calories and helped to shift a little extra water. I was surprisingly OK given I’d not eaten for around 36 hours at this point.

By the time of the final weigh in I was 95.7kg, so around another 1 lb lost. That meant my final weight loss for the 48 hour fast was 3.25kg, or 7.15 lbs.

Here’s the breakdown of my weight loss on the 48 hour fast…

Learnings From the Fast

The weight loss was welcome, but my main motivation for the fast was to give my body a bit of a break. It certainly did that – I felt lighter, leaner, less ‘watery’ and generally better.

At the risk of sounding dramatic, when I woke up after the first day of the fast I felt slightly cleansed. The lack of food helped my body to deal with the excesses of the weekend, and I felt like I had a physiological clean slate.

My elbow issue was improved, but I noticed when I started eating again it flared up. That suggests to me there’s definitely a nutritional element to the injury so I need to be careful with what I’m eating.

Strategies Going Forward

I’ve spent a little time thinking about the benefits of the fast, and how I can incorporate it into my life in a more frequent way.

I don’t think I’d do a 48 hour fast every week, but there’s certainly a place for a 24 hour fast. Monday seems the best day to do this for me, because it would help to offset any weekend indulgence. It’s also a day where I’m usually very busy, so it would be psychologically easier for me to do.

My BMR is around 2000 calories, and on a day where I’m busy but not exercising, that could go over 3000. If you then factor no food for the day, it’s reasonable to assume you’d be on a gradually declining weight loss journey, plus you’d enjoy the ‘cleansing’ feeling of the no food.

The majority of the benefits I felt came in the first day, so a weekly 24 hour fast could be the best approach to incorporating it into my life. It’s an experiment I’ll run for a few weeks and see how I get on.

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