I fast (no food) yearly, sometimes multiple times a year. I just finished a 6 day fast a couple weeks ago. It was amazing, one of the easiest fasts I’ve done, and I hiked every day, read a couple books and taught my book group about fasting and all of its benefits. I highly recommend EVERYONE fast for at least 5 days. It will change your life.
Sounds amazing. Currently doing a 5 day.
Without food, ~2 days, give or take.
without water. no idea. I was fasting tuesdays and thursdays at one point so like figure I ate last 8pm one night and started eating 8am the day after so something like 36 hours. I was drinking unsweetened tea, diet soda, water, and maybe other no calorie liquids, but no solids.
I have ADHD, I forget to eat and drink on a regular basis. However I have no clue what my longest record is. LOL
I wish I had that type of adhd
72 hours for food. It was a keto fast it was miserable.
About 15 years ago I got my first colonoscopy and back than the prep was just horrible.
You basically went without food the entire day before, while at the same time take these prep meds that made you shit every hour or so. Good lord it was horrible as hell. If memories serves I was allowed to drink the day before but nothing the day off.
You get dehydrated so fast and it wild how terrible that makes you feel. Add to that, the taking a shit contstantly and almost immediately you are not shitting, it is more like pissing out of your ass.
The prep you have to do now is not that intense and really isnt that big of a deal, comparatively,.
As far as I know the fast today is the same as it ever was. Different doctors have different protocols though. One reason I have not done another colonoscapy is because of the prep but I want to find a doc that will do the prep with pills. My wife after he last is in agreement with me.
The fast is the same but the process of making you clear your intestines is so much better, you don’t have to keep drinking that stuff that makes you shit every hour. That helps with the dehydration and the total misery of it all.
The prep really isn’t that bad… now.
yeah my wife just did it and it was keep drinking the stuff method. Again I do not different doctors use different things. also had the fasting. its still around and it still sucks.
15 years ago is 2011 but you made it sound like 1911.
Besides all that, how would a doctor let you be dehydrated? If oral fluid is off the table, what stopped you from an intravenous one?
How much the process has changed in the last 15 years it may as well have been 1911.
Have you ever been put under a general anesthesia as part of an outpatient procedure?
You are always dehydrated when that starts.
I think, 16 hours.
I do at least one 30-day juice fast and one 10-day water fast each year. As well as 3-5 day fasts every month I am not doing those. I think I may have gone a day or two without water before, but I don’t recall ever doing it intentionally.
That’s amazing.
on the day to day I regularly do 12h during the day without food (almost every work day)
I’ve done a few 2 and 3 day fasts for various reasons
I’ve done 3 or so day stints when sick with rotavirus and when I fucked up my shoulder and waiting for surgery
All in all going with out food for 3 days is not too hard
I’ve gone three weeks and change without a single calorie of food. Not by choice - medical thing. Lost about 30 lbs give or take. Was hard to start eating again once I did. Lost additional weight beyond the 30. Went from fat to skinny. Took years to eat properly again. Now I’m fat again :)
Was interesting for many reasons.
- it’s possible if you’re injured to not be hungry and starve to death without feeling any hunger whatsoever
- while I lost fat, I lost more muscle. Crazy how the body canibalizes itself.
- still need water, that you can’t go without. But you can go a long time without food. I could have easily gone weeks longer I think without food.
- Hug your family and always tell them you love them. I lived through my ordeal and gained perspective, but many young people die without saying and doing the things they should.
How long do you think you could go without water as well as food?
No idea. I didn’t drink for three weeks either but I had an IV feed of saline. I think you die of thirst in a few short days.
Yeah the general rule is about 3 weeks without food, roughly 3 days without water.
I’ve fasted for a couple days when depressed and it was fine.
What I can never compare anything to is suffering food insecurity. When I was a kid the union my father was a part of went on strike. My mom didn’t work. I was in kindergarten, and I was starving all the time. Some days it was just flintstone vitamins and juicy juice. Sometimes just a pack of snack crackers. I remember being so excited to get those. Once I was so hungry I climbed the cabinets and was gnawing on dried out brown sugar because it was the only thing I could find. That earned another flintstone. I received a few granola bars from my teachers.
For a long time I used to go into any new house and explore the kitchen and make sure there was food. Also, I end up feeding all my hungry kids now. Costco saves me there.
Sorry you dealt with that level of food insecurity
You’re a good person for making sure those hungry kids kids eat now that you’re grown
✌️
I fasted about 48 hours to experience a semi ascetic acid trip. Was a good time; had some incredible break throughs. Dived into a pool, and it felt like I was diving into a kaleidoscope of colors. Can’t recommend anyone experience it that way, nor would I say I’d do it that way again, but taking your mind and body through moderated extremes can be pretty profound; assuming you have people around you to make sure you’re not doing anything particularly stupid to hurt yourself or others.
84 hours without food (that’s 3 full days plus the extra night after). Didn’t feel too bad since after 24 hours my body gave up asking for food so I felt kind of lethargic but not hungry. I did it as a kind of personal challenge, probably ill-advised, but it wasn’t too bad for me. I still drank plenty of water throughout that time. I wasn’t even that hungry when I broke the fast, I just had a light salad, then I felt really hungry in the hours afterwards…
Went two days without food. It was pretty horrible and I slept more to cope.
How come you went without for two days?
I was on vacation in a foreign country and my wallet and phone were pickpocketed.
Oh no :/
Had ulcerative colitis. Went about a month on Gatorade and clear vegetable broth. Another month or two on TPN after surgery with very little to no veggie broth.
Went from 175 to 115. 0/10 would not recommend.
I have UC too and was put in the hospital for 5 days on a broth diet. It was weird seeing how skinny my legs became.
Ha, oh man. When I finally got unplugged from everything, about two weeks later, I sorta sprinted up a small flight of stairs and felt every muscle in my legs tearing. It was a very strange and uncomfortable feeling. It probably hurt a lot but they had me on some gnarly painkillers. I did feel it the next day though when I got home. That was about 13 years ago. I hope they have better treatments for it now than surgery. It seemed like a better option than Remicade at the time. Oh well, what’s done is done. Basically back to normal after all this time.
Wow that’s amazing. I think I might have UC. Did it help your symptoms?
What’s TPN?
I hope you don’t. In my case nothing helped so I had my lower intestine removed. The made a facsimile with a section of small intestine and re-plumbed me. It was during that recovery period that I went on TPN to effectively reduce the usage of my digestive system.
TPN is Total Parenteral Nutrition. Basically it’s a large bag of glucose, lipids, vitamins and minerals that is fed through a PICC line (in you upper arm) directly above your heart for thorough dilution and distribution through your bloodstream. An external peristaltic pump doses it into you throughout the day. It’s a trip, albeit cumbersome. Oh, and it does spikeTF out of your blood sugars so you have to take insulin during the process, which sucks.
Did it help?
The surgery did, but it was a long recovery period. I think it was three months with a temporary colostomy bag while my intestine healed and then at least a year for my body to get used to the new setup. After about 5 years I noticed that I was closer to normal, or as normal as you can be after getting a j-pouch. But it’s better than going through continued episodes. I don’t think I would have survived more than a couple additional bouts. Plus living with UC really increases your risk of colorectal cancer. Fun stuff
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Yeah, this was the fourth recurrence of it and by the time I went into the hospital I had lost nearly half of my blood or something. I think I needed four pints iirc. I don’t remember exactly, I was near dead. Kinda sucked. After surgery and a year of healing I was able to regain the weight it and get back in shape. Haven’t had another issue with it since. Plus I don’t have a lower intestine, so no colon cancer! Silver lining and all.
Sounds like the J-pouch is also working out well, thank goodness. I’m sorry you went through that. Makes my own recent ordeal look like easy street in comparison.
