[Article] Prolonged fasting: 6 very real benefits of fasting over 24 hours!

Hey,

Let’s talk a bit about prolonged fasting.

Prolonged fasting is a step up from normal intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is usually done for 16, 18 or 20 hours per day, but there are some special benefits you get by fasting for longer periods of time (between 24-72 hours).

WARNING: Prolonged fasting is indeed healthy, but it does come with risks if done incorrectly:

• You shouldn’t do it for too long (over 7 days) and to be honest, it’s not really worth attempting at all until you master regular fasting on a daily basis for at least several months.
• If you have an eating disorder you need to be mindful that fasting, despite being healthy in many ways can transform itself into another way to feed your disorder as a form of abuse.
• Prolonged fasting can be done safely, but should always be done under the close supervision of a medical professional.

1. Weight loss

The first and most obvious benefit due to the inevitable effects of not eating for prolonged fasting of time. **Prolonged fasting will cause rapid weight loss.**When you fast for several days you’re going to lose weight for three main reasons:

• Glycogen loss: Because you have no food (and especially carbs) coming into your body, you will lose stored sugar from your muscles which translates to pounds on the scale.
• Water loss: When you fast for several days the loss of glycogen (sugar) from your muscles will also accompany a loss in water, therefore reducing your bodyweight.
• Fat loss: As you burn through your liver glycogen you will begin to enter a deep state of ketosis. When you’re in ketosis your body is burning fat for energy.

Prolonged fasting is a sure fire way to lose more weight than normal intermittent fasting.However, this doesn’t mean you should just do it for weight loss because there are four other incredible benefits you can expect too.

2. Fasting increases autophagy

When you fast for a prolonged period of time something called “autophagy” in the body increases.

Autophagy is a process in the body that recycles waste from cells and has a number of health benefits.

Autophagy recycles cells in the body which clears junk and repairs any oxidative stress which has occurred in the body.

Autophagy was actually recently discovered and a Nobel prize was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries in the mechanisms behind autophagy.

According to author Naomi Whittel, autophagy has a number of health benefits including:

• Improving the quality and length of your life
• Helps improve your metabolism
• Decreased inflammation
• Improved muscle performance
• Improved immunity
• Improved skin health
• Improved digestive health
• Supports a healthy weight
• Minimizes apoptosis (cell death)

3. Prolonged fasting is good for your brain

Let’s pretend we’re in the wild, there’s no fast-food, no supermarkets, nothing.If food is scarce, clearly you need more of it as soon as possible in order to survive.

You would then need to increase your ability to think and strategies to be creative and find ways to get food.

So it makes sense that fasting could help to increase your brain power (especially as you fast for longer periods of time).

Prolonged fasting increases something called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF in the brain (study, study).

The increase in BDNF from fasting is like fertilizer for new neurons.

Synaptic plasticity improves, and your brain becomes more resilient to stress.

4. Fasting for several days gives you time to think

Fasting has been a spiritual practice for many religions and cultures around the world for thousands of years and for good reason. We spend so much time thinking about food, eating food and did I mention thinking about food?

Prolonged fasting gives you a chance to think and spend time with yourself.

When you’re fasting you’re going to have a lot of time to yourself where you can think about who you are, your weaknesses, your strengths and so on.Prolonged fasting is a time for self-reflection and introspection.

5. Prolonged fasting increases your will-power

It’s hard to go for several days without food.

Yes, practicing intermittent fasting and following a ketogenic diet before embarking on a prolonged fasts makes things easier, but no matter what it will be a challenge if it’s your first time.

It’s good to do difficult things in life.

That’s what makes you stronger.

Prolonged fasting will be a true test of your willpower.

If you can go several days without food (which is something that most people will never do intentionally) you can do anything.

The willpower and discipline you gain from prolonged fasting will translate to other areas of your life.

By completing the prolonged fast you may find that intermittent fasting is now a piece of cake.

6. Fasting helps reset your immune system

According to the University of Southern California, each time you fast for a prolonged period of time, the reduction in white blood cells increases the rate of stem cell regeneration of new immune cells.

A six-month study30512-6) looking at mice and humans going through chemotherapy treatment found that fasting for 72 hours resulted in significant health improvements due to blood cells and other toxins being cleared from the body.

Now I have two questions for you:

1. Have you ever done a prolonged fast?
2. Do you find training at the gym easier while fasted?

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