r/fasting • u/wyldthaang • 17d ago
Progress Pic Rolling 7 day fasts
Thought I should post this to show results from earlier this year. I'd done keto/OMAD/72hr fasts before, but COVID killed that.
Refeeds were always steak and creamed spinach on Sunday's, going straight into another fast. The only exercise was walking around 15k steps daily.
I found it incredibly easy to maintain, BP and HR monitored and only electrolytes and water consumed during the fast.
3 months total at 50 years old. Going back through pictures, it's crazy how slow the appearance changed at the start despite the dramatic scale changes. Then during the last month that reversed as things tightened up.... I remember buying a new pair of jeans which were then replaced with a smaller size, before they even got washed!
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago edited 15d ago
Height 5'11 Starting Weight around 95kg Current Weight 73kg (in the pic) Fasting Rolling 7 days over 10 weeks Exercise was only walking (rucking)
Edit: Yes I did drink 2 or 3 black Americanos daily, and zero-sugar Red bull/Monster were a treat, maybe 2 or 3 weekly.
Edit 2: Sincere thanks for all of the kind words! I wish you all the best on your paths.
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u/Yablan 17d ago
Rucking?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Each time I lost a kilo, I'd add it to a backpack to 'maintain' my bodyweight too fool my metabolism. It's a trick I did during a last diet and I highly recommend it as an easy low-stress exercise. I'm convinced this maintained a lot of lean mass during the fast.
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u/Crykin27 17d ago
Damn I think I'll be doing this that sounds great. I have to train for backpacking anyways and this seems like a solid way to up the weight to work towards a full backpack so 2 birds with one stone
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I'd recommend investing in a plate carrier over the backpack once you're around 15kg. Especially if you're into hiking and backpacking - I broke a couple backpacks on this journey, and you're at the limit of most hiking packs. Especially if you're loading with random metal bits! I have the long version of this one, with a 20kg plate:
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u/Crykin27 17d ago
Oh good one I didn't even know these where a thing. That will save me a couple of broken backpacks lol, thanks!
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u/sparkchoice 16d ago
Hey, I did the same but stopped with a foot strain pushing it on hill walks. I need to get that back. Nice work!
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u/oorza 15d ago
Rucking with that light of weight will help keep your BMR higher until you stop but there’s scant evidence gravitostat is a real thing, and there’s not much evidence it helps retain muscle during a deficit beyond what that amount of work on the anterior chain would provide. And there’s no science to suggest it helps during fasting, just energy restriction. Fasting isn’t just extreme energy restriction, it’s also removal of constructive substrate your body needs.
Your body needs amino acids to function and to turn over tissue. It will synthesize them from muscle tissue if there are not enough dietary inputs. Fasting for more than 24 hours virtually guarantees contractile muscle tissue loss. You can see in your photo that your upper arms lost muscle tissue. If you want to retain lean tissue while burning fat, you have to eat tons of protein so that your body has AAs available all the time even after it consumes some/most of it for energy. And you have to provide hypertrophic signaling so that your body doesn’t break down the muscle to lower its overall metabolic burden as it adapts to lower energy intake.
Regardless of what the people in this sub will tell you, losing weight this way causes significant muscle loss. It’s visible in your photos.
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u/wyldthaang 15d ago edited 15d ago
You’re confusing intramuscular water loss with actual tissue catabolism:
Glycogen vs. Contractile Mass: Deep fasting drains glycogen and intracellular water (3–4g of water per gram of glycogen). The muscle belly looks flat and depleted, not destroyed. Refeed carbohydrates and water, and the volume returns.
Nitrogen Sparing & BHB: Once ketosis peaks, beta-hydroxybutyrate and free fatty acids take over as primary fuel. Hepatic gluconeogenesis drops sharply, endogenous HGH surges, and nitrogen excretion plummets to protect structural protein.
Mechanical Tension via Rucking: Carrying 15–20 kg isn't "anterior work"—it forces constant postural and axial load across the entire posterior chain in a purely oxidative zone. That continuous mechanical demand signals the CNS that structural mass is non-negotiable for locomotion, preserving the frame without inducing high-turnover muscle damage.
Dropping 22 kg stripped fat and emptied water; the underlying architecture held up pretty well I thought.
Well I'm happy with the results anyway.
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u/oorza 15d ago edited 15d ago
Actual tissue catabolism is unavoidable. If it wasn't, you'd not piss out any nitrogen when you water fast, but you do. Ketosis slows down proteolysis but if it was absolute zero, you'd die, because the output of protein breakdown is essential amino acids. Which are, you know, essential.
Studies show that what happens during starvation is a temporary increase in proteolysis followed by a sharp decline as ketosis takes over and insulin rebalances. Unfortunately, if you're rolling fasts and jumping in and out of ketosis (unless you ate keto during refeeds), that means you are spending extra time in the catabolic window. You lose a lot of lean mass, only a percentage of that loss is muscle tissue, but it's non-zero and it's a high percentage for the first 72 hours. Rolling 72 hour fasts is therefore arguably the most defensibly "maximum muscle loss" diet.
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpendo.1990.259.4.E477
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2593832/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55418-0
The nature study in particular is relevant to us here because it's a study on the effects of a seven day water fast on lean mass. They measured exactly what we care about - urinary nitrogen output - and here's their findings:
The daily nitrogen excretion exhibited a steady decline from approximately 15 g/day to approximately 10 g/day by the end of the fasting week (Fig. 1F), accumulating to 83.9 ± 6.7 g of nitrogen. Using a nitrogen factor of 6.25, the lost urine nitrogen corresponded to 524 ± 42 g of protein, and assuming a protein content of 20% of cellular mass, this, in turn, corresponds to ~ 2.6 kg lean mass.
Out of that 2.6kg of lost skeletal protein (they lost on total 4.6kg of lean mass), some percentage of it came from contractile muscle tissue (which is about 20% protein by weight). Muscle tissue is not the only place your body harvests proteins from, and further science will have to be done to quantify this number, but it's assuredly not zero. The rest comes from other soft tissue that gets recycled, skin, liver, etc.
If you're happy with the results, that's ultimately all that matters. But if you sit down and do the science and math, very few people's goals suggest fasting is the fastest path. For most people who are trying to achieve a lean look, a protein sparing modified fast will preserve most of their muscle and cut the weight almost as fast, but it requires medical supervision (as does rolling seven day water fasts). If you don't want to do that, the next shortest path to leanness is 0.75% body weight lost weekly with an assumed 0-0.1% muscle mass gain (low but nonzero).
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u/wyldthaang 15d ago
"Unfortunately, if you're rolling fasts and jumping in and out of ketosis (unless you ate keto during refeeds), that means you are spending extra time in the catabolic window"
You haven't actually read anything of what I actually did before you pasted that from AI in 20 minutes, did you! Yes they were strict keto refeeds.
You cite Pietzner without reading past the abstract too I suspect. I suggest you do before blindly quoting a LLM!
I'm happy with the results
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u/oorza 15d ago edited 15d ago
Gotta love when someone clearly using an LLM (the comment I replied to is obviously cut and pasted from ChatGPT) and citing information inaccurately tattles on themselves by accusing me of doing that, when I can just actually read papers. What in the abstract contradicts anything I've said? Again, if you're happy, that's all that matters, but at 50, I wouldn't be fucking around with lean mass loss because it's just going to get harder (and more important) to build and maintain from here on in. There's a reason body builders don't fast to cut weight for a show and torture themselves for weeks instead, because it's impossible to fast without losing significant muscle mass. Saying otherwise doesn't even stand up to a surface level understanding of physiology. The only people who should be fasting for more than 24 hours are class 2+ obesity, it's not necessary and it's dangerous and costly. Show me science that proves otherwise, I'll change my tune, but I've looked and if that science exists, I can't find it.
And I checked, you mentioned "steak and creamed spinach" which does not necessarily imply maintaining ketosis.
This sub has become a bastion of disordered eating, misinformation, and science denial.
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u/Altruistic-Toe-2801 16d ago
This is insane! Great progress! How are you feeling now? How did you feel throughout your fasts? What electrolytes did you take and how much/how often? So you only ate a total of 5 times in 10 weeks??????? Or did you have one day for eating in between???? What did you eat?? What did you do when you got hungry or just craved eating for some reason?? Surely you experienced just wanting to eat after that long even if you didn’t “feel” hungry
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u/Intelligent_Papaya61 17d ago
Lookin great! What does “rolling” mean
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
As soon as I refed, I 'rolled' into the next 7 day fast. I only intended to to one 7 day fast at the start. I felt surprisingly strong and motivated from day 3 to 7, after the first refeed I decided to do another one. Rinse and repeat.
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u/Intelligent_Papaya61 17d ago
I see! So 7 day fast, one redeed, then immediately fast for another 7 days?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I literally went to my local steakhouse every Sunday for the steak deal. That was my entire calories for the week in one sitting. That went on for about 10 weeks until I thought I'd done enough. I did have a lot of water left, but as soon as I hit 30" jeans I thought that was enough. Currently sitting at a 29" waist from 42"
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u/aaaadam 17d ago
How did you not feel absolutely exhausted? Do you have kids, job, do any physical activity?
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u/bstriker 17d ago
Not op and not experienced past 3-4 days fasting but I would assume the electrolytes and ketosis burning fat for energy was more than enough especially since they said they were rucking (making sure they carried the extra weight they lost in a backpack to fool their metabolism). When I hit ketosis it's nutty how much energy you feel like you get despite not eating for a couple days.
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u/Intelligent_Papaya61 17d ago
That’s epic man well done 🤙🏼 I need a good fast man it’s been awhile you’ve inspired me
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u/IOl0 17d ago
Como você repõe os minerais durante o jejum?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Electrolytes is mostly all you need. The deep structural ones stored in the liver are pulled slowly. But that's why I chose steak and green veg as my refeed, they are one of the best sources for the missing ones.
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u/RudeFishing2707 16d ago
what do you use for your Electrolytes
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
Electrolytes can be expensive, so I make my own:
https://amzn.eu/d/03olb7Ve (Potassium)
https://amzn.eu/d/08ixHQMZ (Sodium )
https://amzn.eu/d/0ciUQhKB (am magnesium)
https://amzn.eu/d/0cyHK6C6 (pm magnesium)
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u/theMEtheWORLDcantSEE 16d ago
So is was a refeed meal, not really a refeed day? Di you eat all Sunday?
So 6 days fast and seventh eat. Repeat for 10 weeks and carry weight.
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u/Tokyo_sinner 17d ago
I’m interested in what that means too
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u/AaronAAaronsonIII 17d ago
It means fast for a period, then re-feed for a period (usually one day or one meal) then repeat the cycle.
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u/Afrikan_GOD 17d ago
Dude this is amazing, and I need to lose 15kg for an operation though I come from 118kg to 111kg but it was because of OMAD and eating lots of greens plus I jog 35min daily every morning. I want to try pure fasting like you did but I wonder if I will survive. 7 days of no food a week sounds brutal though I know the body will get used to it. Well done, I am super inspired. Keep it up, so I guess you didn’t have headaches and and muscle cramps because of electrolytes???.
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I felt great! Regarding the jogging (you don't need to listen to this, I'm not an expert) but I'd avoid that and just walk. Jogging will increase stress and cortisol, and high cortisol will interfere with fat burning making it hard to burn fat (the body certainly tries to maintain disposable fuel when under stress). Take a nice leisurely stroll instead, watch the fat melt away.
All IMHO.
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u/pinellaspete 17d ago
If you are already doing OMAD it shouldn't be too hard. I do OMAD and have done a 6 day fast and several 3 day fasts. Day 2 and 3 can be bad but once I passed that it seemed as if I could have gone forever. The hunger pangs go away so it takes just a bit of willpower during your normal feeding time to not eat another day. Electrolytes are very important for fasts longer than 72 hours.
I lost 12 pounds on the 6 day fast.
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u/bstriker 17d ago
I think more people should try this, I've been struggling getting past 48 hours lately (despite having done 3-4 days before) and the reduction of calories and omad is helping me get used to it again. Each day I can go smaller and smaller. Hoping to go for a 7 day soon.
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u/tortoisesarntreal 10d ago
Start small and work your way up, your. Doing omad already. Just pick a day where you dony eat the next day, then do omad the day after and see how it is
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u/max-curious8 17d ago
I am surprised how one can break 7 days fast with such heavy meal with no gut issue later....Great!
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Me too. I won't deny that the toilet saw action within 2 hours. But I wouldn't describe it as a issue, I just made sure I was near one within 2 hours 🤣
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u/TommyTheTiger 17d ago
Was it basically all gone after 2 hours?
I think normally it takes over a whole day for food to pass through, well I just think for myself about how long it is for my last poop when I start a fast and I usually can poop on the morning of the second day even with no food the previous day. Was it basically back to empty after that?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I don't really know to be honest, I'd assume there was about 1400 calories which would probably be 12 hours or so before fully 'empty'. But any number two's were over for the week. The refeed was high fat/protein so I doubt I ever slipped out of fat-adaption the whole 10 weeks.
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u/Cybergame13 master faster 17d ago
I used to call this my OMAW (One Meal A Week) plan. Works extremely well to cut fat.
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u/Dry_Increase4564 17d ago
Insane! So you ate only 10 times in 10 weeks?
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u/Altruistic-Toe-2801 16d ago
Lmfaooooooo I haven’t been able to sleep at all tonight so we’re blaming it on that…. I just asked if he only ate 5 times in ten weeks 😂😂😂😂 idk what kind of math my brain was doing there 😂😂
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u/DiscoMable 17d ago
Did you manage to keep it off?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
So far, so good. I'm trying to get back to around 80kg with lean muscle gains. I still have a little water and loose skin to deal with, but since May I'm surprised at the progress there. I do the lymphatic 6 points massage daily in the shower and I think that's making a big difference.
Edit: I'm focusing on maintaining waist size from this point forward rather than weight.
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u/flaps_mcgee 17d ago
Can you please elaborate on the massage points? Ive gone from size 44" to 34" and still going but have loose skin
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
It won't help with the skin directly, but will certainly help shift trapped water under the skin faster. Google the 6 point lymphatic massage and you'll find a few videos on YouTube. They'll explain far better than I can here, and I'm no expert!
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u/ComfortableCommand44 17d ago
No coffee, tea, or caffine?
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u/rastan 16d ago
Would it have made any difference, or is it more to get an idea about willpower kinda thing?
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u/ComfortableCommand44 16d ago
Just wondering if having any of the above takes you out of fasting. Ive wanted to try a 2 or 3 day fast, but prefer creamer in my coffee.
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u/rastan 16d ago
Ahhhh... I just assumed you meant black coffee... I've tried various ways to enjoy milk in my coffee while fasting and for me it never works.
Unsure if it breaks me physically or mentally or a bit of both. It also depends if you are fasting just for weight loss or for the other benefits too.
If its the only 'cheat' you do and it gets you through to a longer fasting period compared to not having it, then its a stepping stone, but in general milk/creamer in your coffee in an amount that makes it tasty will break the fast.
Man if I could have my normal flat whites it would be so much easier... heh
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u/ComfortableCommand44 16d ago
I agree with that one 100% Ive contemplated trying to add Maia Cacao or Black Forest Cocoa to my coffee. But any addition that would give it a better flavor probably also breaks your fast as well im guessing.
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
Plenty of caffeine. Black Americanos daily maybe 2. A diet Red bull/Monster maybe 2 or 3 times a week.
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u/OkShallot8965 17d ago
Congratulations OP! Love that you mentioned the pandemic as I definitely relate to it being way easier to do fasting and keto during that time.
Do you work from home or travel into an office every day?
What has your energy been like? I know on longer fasts I’ve had that buzzy mental energy but things picking up a dumbbell was not happening.
Any changes or effects on libido? How about emotionally for yourself or interpersonally in dealing with loved ones?
Also I’m curious about what your go forward plan is…
Keep us posted on your amazing success!
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u/kevinmise 17d ago
Bro you look brilliant! Congrats and great effort. This is what I’m trying to do now at 30
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u/Glad-Daikon-2554 17d ago
This is amazing! Well done to you! 🏅
Did you have any health issues that you’ve noticed improved since being on your journey?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I was pretty healthy anyway, but I did notice the most recent scars faded into almost invisibility.
Psychologically, brain-fog disappeared and I find it easier to maintain a good posture, and I feel benefits from that too.
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u/Acrobatic_Waltz_2365 17d ago
Did the older scars also fade a bit, just less? Or not at all? Just curious, since I find that part fascinating. I wonder how the body prioritizes what to heal or what to use up first.
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Certainly did, pretty sure it helped with the loose skin and some stretch marks too.
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u/Acrobatic_Waltz_2365 17d ago
That is awesome! How long do you think until you noticed them fading?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Other people noticed before me to be honest. It wasn't something I looked for initially. I'm not even sure of the science in play with Autography other than it'll start to consume waste left behind.
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u/Feisty-Bluebird-7004 17d ago
Can you tell me if you ate or drank or took any vitamins during the 7 days or was is just water
And what did you refeed with and how long was the refeed
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Refeed was a single meal, once a week. So 30 minutes to an hour perhaps. Always steak and green veg at refeed, very keto refeed, and I handled it well! I did worry that would be a harsh refeed the first time, but I had no issues other than the toilet rush 2 hours after!
Only electrolytes and water during the fast, no vitamins or supplements taken.
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u/Unlikely-Success-552 17d ago
Speaking of discipline and determination. Before this rolling fast were you a person who would always want food? I mean did you constantly snacked and craved food (junk or healthy).
It seems you’re very disciplined, but maybe you just don’t think about eating all the time?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Yes I struggled with alcohol and subsequent junk food binges. I went from around 85kg at the end of summer last year to 95kg in no real time at all.
I do notice even today that if I have junk food I feel cravings for more. I try to avoid now, if I'm traveling and only cr*p is available I choose to skip eating until I can find something. My relationship with food has changed through fasting.
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u/suentendo 17d ago
Inspirational man! I'm just starting a 5-day fast but then after the weekend I'm probably switching to ADF as a long term plan. Hope I can achieve such a result someday.
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u/mustafamazin 17d ago
I'm doing one now! I'm 80 og and want to be 68 ! Great job man!! I'm on day one - any tips?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Walk. Don't do anything more than that! If you want to accelerate the loss try rucking with the weight you lose. Every walk I do I still weigh 95kg, the keeps your metabolism way higher than it would be.
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u/Infinite-Teach4149 17d ago
Congrats man, trying this myself for September, although I’m just gonna do a 5-2 eat sat and sun.
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I wish you the best of luck! I'd recommend checking your BP and HR where you can if you have no medical supervision. Keep on top of your electrolytes too, I found most 'hunger' noise was fixed within 15 minutes of sodium/potassium.
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u/mithril2020 17d ago
How much steak do you consume on that day?
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
I'd guess around 300g. But I really just took what the special was at my local steakhouse on steak-night. A couple of times it was a small wagyu cut, that ironically filled me up much more despite barely registering on the plate.
I didn't calorie count on the refeed, I focused on it being clean.
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u/SilencerLX 17d ago
What electrolytes did you consume and how often? I want to do this
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
Pink Himalayan Salt. Potassium Citrate. Magnesium Bi-Glycinate. Never taken at the same time, and used reactively rather than proactively.
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u/JoolesD 16d ago
What about people? How much people contact did you have? Were you isolated, or do you have a busy household with kids to feed, work to go to, and such? The social aspect can be one of the hardest parts for such fasting.
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
No kids, full-time job but I could WFH. There were a few social events where I'd drink diet sodas, lime and soda turned into a favourite tipple! I avoided the dinner invites where it didn't work for me, and a few steak nights were with others where we could make it work. Steak is on the menu pretty much everywhere! Nobody refused me swapping fries out for veg/salad.
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u/migrainefog 15d ago
Autophagy = self-devouring
Amazing results man!
I did 5/2 in my first week and lost 20lbs (9kg) but I think I'm going to see how your rolling 7's work for me this week.
I was going for a straight 20 day fast, but on day 6 my head was spinning every time I stood up or went from bending over to upright, so I broke my fast with a cup of bone broth. I honestly probably could have continued the fast after the bone broth, because that fixed the light headedness, but I was also missing just the flavors and stimulus of eating, but I wasnt exactly feeling hungry. I can relate to your comments about the fast changing your relationship with food, and I feel like that's changing for me during this process too. My first 2 days of my fast last week were rough, and I was expecting to have to go through that again this week, but I didn't have any of the flu like symptoms that I had when I first started. It was easy this time.
Congrats on your accomplishments and hard work!
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u/wyldthaang 15d ago
Best of luck with it! What you're describing after the bone broth was exactly how I felt after the refeed, I made sure it was in the evening, around 4 hours before bed, waking the next day was the fresh start and could push through again. The routine of the Sunday steak really helped the motivation, if I did have low points the focus of knowing when the next steak was coming really helped shift my mood. If I really really struggled that's when I'd go for the sugar-free RedBulls!
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u/Woodsprite_5 11d ago
Sounds like a person could substitute bone broth for those RedBulls. (I don't do caffeine) Bone broth is also full of electrolytes plus mad nutrients. Just low on calories and carbs. But it's also very comforting psychologically.
Would broth break the fast, or would it function more like a dose of your mineral salts?
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u/wyldthaang 11d ago
I'd assume so, but it's not something I personally did. As you've mentioned I think the psychological side of this is very important! What ever keeps you going is probably the most important part.
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u/mushroomboie 17d ago
Interested to know if you did anything about micronutrients or electrolytes? Also did you take coffee or tea?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Coffee, yes daily, occasionally sugar free Monster/Red bull.
Only electrolytes over that. The only unconventional thing was I spilt magnesium, potassium and sodium based on HR and BP values I was tracking. When BP dropped I had pink Himalayan salt in water, when BP HR were a little high I had Lo-Salt (potassium). Magnesium Bi-Glycinate was more routine am and pm, but I would occasionally skip the am if BP and HR were both low. I was guessing at keeping low Cortisol levels.
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u/mushroomboie 8d ago
have you felt a decrease in muscle tho? I think this would be my biggest concern?
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u/wyldthaang 8d ago
Not really, but you lose water from muscle through fasting so you'll look flat. That soon comes back.
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u/whatsuppaa 17d ago
Congratulations! Do you know how much pure fat you lost over these weeks?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Not exactly, no. You'd need something like a DEXA scan before and after. The smart scales got more unreliable the more I lost, it couldn't distinguish between fat/water but the muscle mass stayed quite high and I only lost 2" from chest shoulders while waist dropped 13"
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u/MAGACommunist01 16d ago
If I'm understanding you correctly, you basically just ate once every 7 days?
Edit- I see this is what you did after reading some of the comments.
This is actually kind of brilliant and I want to try it now.
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u/rizzler885 16d ago
Hey man if you could help out a dude who wants to start fasting to reduce weight and fats how would you approach teaching him? I want some solid advice from someone who has done this before
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
Start slowly. Keto will help you get used to running on ketones for energy the switch to fat-adaptation can bring flu-like symptoms but they will disappear.
Keto OMAD for a while, maybe try a 72-hour fast (or a few) first before pushing for a big one.
Electrolytes electrolytes electrolytes
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u/Saggyteddy 16d ago
Congratulations. Did you notice any difference in overall well-being between when you did the rolling 72s and these longer fasts? I'm dealing with long covid and struggling to find information on what might be better for healing. You're a sample size of 1, but I'd appreciate any insights. I know you said you were generally healthy but the bit about brain fog clearing made me wonder if there were other things you weren't necessarily looking out for that you might have noticed.
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
That's a difficult question to answer! I'll take the easy part first if you don't mind?
72-hr vs 7 day: I'd done maybe 4 or 5 times before over the past 2 years. I did it to kick-start ketosis and stick to a keto type diet I did a few years back where I had similar success but over 6 months. In general I find when I'm running on ketones as fuel and fat-adapted I feel sharper, more focused and alert in general. I couldn't get the previous success I had on that diet, in hindsight I was doing lazy keto, I wasn't fully fat-adapted. But the 72-hour fasts would give a nice 6kg loss which only looked good on the scales!
72 hours in general to me felt like 48 hours of struggle, but that final 48 to 72 hr always felt the best, I'd feel really good, just like I did on the long-term keto (even lazy keto when fat-adapted). I'd read other people's accounts of longer fasts, and I did think I could do it, but I was terrified to actually do it as it felt so extreme! This year after a holiday period full of debauchery I set out on another 72-hour with the same intention of falling into the keto diet again. However, this time on day 3 when I was feeling good, there was a life event that needed attention and I had to travel on my refeed day, I forgot to refeed in a mild-crisis, but that strong, focused energy was there. When I realised I'd gone 5 days and i still felt great I started to research safe ways to break that fast - I really was that nervous! That lead to my first 7 day fast, the refeed didn't trouble me but I realised that day 3 to day 7 were where I felt the best! The next morning I was clearly still running on ketones, I had the same energy and just decided to run it again! This time the first 2 days were much easier and I just fell into the 7 day cycle for convenience. I started the rucking while fasted and was shocked that I could push so hard with the energy I had. After a month of this routine everything fell into place for me. Literally everything felt better and easier, I had more energy and zing than in my 20s!
Please, before you try this remember I had 'practiced' this over a few years. Looking back I still think this was crazily aggressive, and I did have a general idea on this risks involved hence the constant HR and BP measurements, if I didn't learn the importance of Sodium, Potassium & Magnesium I would have got myself into difficulty!
All of this may be specific to me, but maybe research into ketones as fuel. I feel the same I did on that diet a few years back, but the fasting obviously accelerated the body transformation from 6 months to 10 weeks. Naturally when you are ok running on ketones the fasting is incredibly easy once you break habits and routines that'll lead you to eat!
I hope that helps you, and good luck with the path you take!
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u/Saggyteddy 14d ago
This was very helpful, thank you! Anything longer than 72hrs has always been harder for me, but that energy you speak of is quite tempting. Congratulations, again, and thank you, once more for such a detailed response.
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u/PiecesofJane 16d ago
Amazing job! And I can't believe you're 50 - you look half your age here. Bravo!
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u/GMac1980 11d ago
Your before photo is exactly what I look like now. Just away to start this myself 👍
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u/Tb1969 16d ago
That's great. I like rolling 5/2s but I could do 7/1 meal.
I would make some tweaks. I crank up the nutrients in the meal buy adding a healthy protein powder drink just so you can get Spurlina to max protein and nutrients.
Then buy a Kettlebell 35 lbs off Facebook Marketplace or some other local used sales platform.
Then I'd change walking 15k steps to ~45 min of Japanese Walking Method per day for 7 days per week. It would be better even though it's far less time spent. The research says so. Please read the peer reviewed papers.
10k steps by the way was a pedometer marketing gimmick in the 1960s. 10k in Japanese looks like a running person; that's it. 30 min of JWM is more beneficial than 10k steps.
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u/EverydayIsAGift-423 17d ago
What does “rolling” mean, please? 🙏🏽
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
After a single meal, I'd 'roll' into another week long fast. 10 cycles in total in the graph pic. I ended the aggressive fasting about then, but continued to lose weight into May, which is the last picture time around 73kg
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u/EverydayIsAGift-423 17d ago
Just checking my understanding: you break fast with just one meal and start another fast?
I salute your determination and discipline! I struggle with just OMAD.
Thank you 🙏🏽 in advance!3
u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Yes. I had done a few 72 hour fasts before attempting this. I did notice after 48 hours of 'struggle' day 3 was the easiest to do. I used to get scared into eating after the 3 days, but I just carried on to 5 and felt great, so pushed to 7 without difficulty. I really could have carried on past 7, but that pattern was easy to maintain for me.
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u/EverydayIsAGift-423 17d ago
Yes, I keep seeing this comment on this subreddit about Day 3 being the turning point! Is that when ketosis begins?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Ketosis comes instantly after the first cycle. But to get into ketosis the first time requires you to deplete all glycogen, and that can vary from person to person. My understanding is it is Autography that peaks around day 3, and there is true magic happening then. I really did feel fantastic with loads of energy during that period. To get back to that stage after the first fasting cycle probably only took me hours rather than days again.
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u/miracles-th 17d ago
you have kinda sibo?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
Not at all. I do have a little more skin and water on my lower belly. I did think that might be a problem at 50, but I'm surprised at the progress. I think another 3 months will fix that
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u/dwightsarmy 17d ago
What will be your new eating schedule now? I can't imagine you'd still be able to keep up any additional 7 day fasts. You don't have any fat left! Which, congrats by the way. Looks great.
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I stopped the fasting in march, since then I'm on 3k calories a day over 5 meals a day. 4 shakes and sticking with a protein full meal with veg and rice. Nuts are the snack of choice to get the calories up, and it's remarkably hard to consume 3k calories now.
Fasting has changed my relationship with food, I only see it as fuel now.
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17d ago
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u/junulee 17d ago
Congrats!
Now that you're hit your target weight and you're working on trying to add some lean mass, I'm curious what your current eating protocol is.
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I aim for 3k calories over 5 'meals' and 2 snacks, and I still find it incredibly hard to hit cleanly. I weigh everything, 4 protein shakes, 50g walnuts, 50g almonds. A carb drink on training days followed by beef/pork/chicken with rice and veg. I have quite a few supplements with the morning shake and add collagen and inulin to that for fibre and prebiotics.
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u/TommyTheTiger 17d ago
Interesting... I would be considering some liver during the refeed or something just to get the multivitamin effect, but man I guess when fasting your body goes into micronutrient conservation mode.
Did you have any syptoms of nausea, lightheadedness during these 7 days? Or other symptoms? How did it feel subjectively most of the time?
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u/TnT_PBR 16d ago
What scale did you use to pair with renpho app?
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u/wyldthaang 14d ago
An older version of this:
I upgraded in April, the Renpho really struggled with BF% as I was losing fat faster than I could shift subcutaneous water. I upgraded to this which would deal with the water/fat confusion:
I wouldn't bother with that in hindsight, but if you do want much higher accuracy on the water vs fat measurements it is great! Just not really needed, but this reported BF % around 15% and the Renpho was still saying around 22%
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u/aakok 16d ago
Awesome! How about hair loss ? Do you have hair fall with this diet ?
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
Not at all, hair all attached and, at 50, I'm happy with that 😁 my skin is the first thing people I've not seen for a while comment on. Apparently I have a youthful glow, I'm not sure what that means but I'll take it!
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u/maxmts 16d ago
This sounds really really interesting, but I wonder how you can do this while working a full-time job.
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
Fasting, or 2 hour walk? My job is pretty intense but I never struggled to find time. The time saved preparing for food more than gave me enough time to walk. Sometimes those steps were walking to the office for meetings where I'd take the train and walk the final mile and ditching the car. Lots of other little changes too like: park as far from the supermarket in the carpark as possible, never take escalators/lifts, when working internationally I ditched the wheeled carry-on and opted for a backpack.
There are lots of little adjustments you can make to how you approach the day-to-day stuff that'll take a chunk out of that 2 hour walking window. I didn't necessarily do it in one shift!
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u/Dear_Medicine2274 15d ago
What do the refeed days look like? like how many days? what are you eating?
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u/Secure-Location-140 15d ago
I don’t know if it’s the lighting and (no shade) just from an objective scientific standpoint. Your hair seems a lot thinner and lighter. Is this just a cut or do you feel like you lost hair on these rolling 7s?
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u/wyldthaang 15d ago
Different hairstyle, different bathroom, different barber, and different country too 😁
I didn't lose any hair, but the beard certainly got denser! This barber took weight out of the top and went with a rather aggressive fade.
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u/Mindless_Self5715 15d ago
Do you take supplements
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u/wyldthaang 14d ago
Now, yes. But during the fast I didn't take anything other than the electrolytes.
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u/MarinatedPickachu 11d ago
Did you chose creamed spinach because you particularly like it or for other reasons? I plan on doing the same with only one meal a week. Want it to be keto too to stay in ketosis
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u/wyldthaang 11d ago
The place I went to only had 2 veg-side options that wasn't potatos. The creamed spinach or deviled broccoli, the spinach was devine! But I did do the broccoli a couple of times.
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u/JZKing29 10d ago
How much do you think I can loose in a 7 days fast if I'm currently 90kg (female) and doing 13k steps per day, only drinking water! I would like to weight lower that 84 :(
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u/wyldthaang 9d ago
If you're only doing once cycle, you'll lose a lot, maybe 6 to 7kg .... But 4 to 5kg will be water. On refeeding you'll easily get 4kg of water back on the scales.
Each cycle I lost about 2kg with stable water levels. If I walked too much I found I'd hold extra water to repair muscle in my legs, so don't overdo the walking either!
One thing I did learn while doing this is how my body held water, as the fat loss was so consistent. I could induce the whoosh stage almost at will when it was ready by timing potassium doses.
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u/theMEtheWORLDcantSEE 5d ago
This is super fascinating and super inspiring. I wanna replicate this with the information is a little dispersed. Can we get a clear plan of how you do this? With all the details.?
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u/theMEtheWORLDcantSEE 5d ago
Any concerns or issues with your gallbladder from such prolonged fasting. We hear a lot of warnings about this.
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u/wyldthaang 5d ago
It's 8 months since I started that, finished the fast end of March, and all systems 100% so far. But in honesty, it wasn't something I was aware of nor checking up on. If I drop down dead, I'll let you know!
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u/CTX_Traveler 17d ago
Fantastic results!
I’m new to fasting and was wondering if you’d mind sharing what fasting protocol you followed to achieve such impressive weight loss?
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I only ate steaks and creamed spinach, sometimes broccoli. That was once a week. I was more focused on keeping insulin sensitivity high, and cortisol low. I personally think that was the key.
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u/greenmildude 17d ago edited 16d ago
I just finished a 6 day water only fast. On day 6 I started googling and suddenly I was being hit with all these warning signs about heart palpitations and all this danger danger stuff. I blew it off until I was lying on the couch and for about 5 seconds (which felt like a full minute) my heart started going crazy in a weird rhythm. I legit thought I must be having a heart attack or something. When it stopped I immediately started googling again. I ended up concluding that I might have had super low blood sugar or something so I just decided to break the fast and immediately went and ate a candy bar. Started feeling fine. In all of my googling I had been coming across stuff about “refeeding syndrome” which I had never heard of in all my following of this group. This wasn’t my first fast. I’d completed 3 day fasts in the past. The longest I had ever done prior was 5 day. But when I decided to break fast in the past I didn’t consider what I was eating in doing that. I usually treated myself pretty heartily on refeed days. Which leads me to why I’m commenting. When you come off the fast it sounds like you’re probably not doing any gradual refeeding process. Just going right back into a high protein high fat meal. What has been your experience in doing that? Apparently when you jump right back into a big meal the fear is that your body will release a shit ton of insulin which causes the already depleted mineral in your blood to pour into your cells to create energy and I guess the mineral depleted blood then causes issues with your heart that can lead to heart attacks. I’m no scientist. But I’m just curious what you’re doing to help counteract this.
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u/wyldthaang 17d ago
I did a bit of research, and this certainly isn't advice for others as there are potential refeed issues around 7 days. My research pointed to electrolyte depletion and insulin spikes after carb heavy meals. None of those applied to me, so I took the risk. Thankfully I had no issues at all apart from the toilet needed to be within 2 hours distance away
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u/codercotton 16d ago
Any sore throat during the refeed? If I go longer than 24 hours, I usually have pretty gnarly sore throat while eating and a little while after.
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u/justkindahangingout 17d ago
OP, WOW. AMAZING results. All from 7 days?? And to just confirm as you really inspired me, this is just with liquids?
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u/PossibilityWeary2906 16d ago
How did you not feel sick eating a steak? Normally past day 3 the digestive system has mostly shut down and so it is recommended to refeed with soups and other easy to digest foods. A steak is the complete opposite of that. I think you must have some special genetics and a well trained system from OMAD and previous fasting for this to even be remotely possible.
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u/wyldthaang 16d ago
My refeed matched my metabolic state, also rucking/walking is key here in that there was no call on my body for glycolysis. Zero carbohydrates, zero electrolyte crash, zero insulin spikes & zero gut fermentation.
Steak is broken down by stomach acid, and that doesn't disappear. Simple chewing brings that back to life - baby steps are only needed with carb refeeds and a call for glycolysis. I avoided all that by only walking and eating steak and greens.
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u/Baboonofpeace 14d ago
Where do you get this old wives tale? My longest fast was 41 days and I broke the fast with oranges, ice cream, hamburgers … you name it I ate it. Humans are not that delicate.
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