Why I Do Five-Day Fasts. Maybe You Should Too.

For a number of years now I have routinely done a five-day water only fast, refraining from solid foods for 5 days. I first learned about this idea from a friend who introduced me to Dr. Daniel Pampa of Park City, Utah who is an expert on fasting and how it effects the body whether it’s just a 24 hour fast, intermittent fasting which has become somewhat popular, a five-day fast or even up to 30 days of fasting.

Here’s what I learned and why I chose to make this a bi-annual ritual.

Fasting and its benefits have been known to mankind since the earliest historical writings on this planet. It has been used for spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical improvement for millennia. It has often been a practice used to master self-control over the natural appetites we all have and I don’t mean just those related to food.

I will link to Dr. Pampa’s website where all of my knowledge on this practice has been gained and most of what I am sharing here comes directly from his website. So I want to give full attribution and encourage you to get familiar with Dr. Pampa’s practice because he does much more than just teach about fasting. He is a healer.

Positive changes occur in your body during each of the five days, however, days one and two are going to be fairly difficult as your body is forced to shed its dependency on certain foods particularly carbs and those empty carbs we all ingest.

I will go over some of the symptoms you may experience so you know what to expect and don’t get alarmed or worried about how you are feeling. Knowing this may help you push through those tough days as you realize what you are doing is working and your body is beginning to fix itself. It’s also important to realize everyone may experience similar symptoms but also have some unique symptoms because we aren’t all physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually in the same place to start. So be aware of that as well.

Dr. Pampa says, “if a full-on water fast seems too intimidating for you, we have another option to help you ease into fasting. It’s called The Fasting Mimicking Diet. With this option, you are provided with the right amount of food to mimic fasting, and you still get many of the health benefits associated with fasting.”

Start slow. If you’ve never fasted before (going at least 24 hours without food or water) you will want to start there. Do it once a month. See how you feel during and after you fast. Now do it once a week. You don’t have to go hard core cold turkey 5 days, but at some point during that warm-up you should be ready to try it. I jumped into it cold turkey, but that’s kind of my personality. Do then learn… Which doesn’t always work out and comes with hard lessons, just sayin.

Also, if you have health conditions or are on any medications, always check in with your doctor before stopping any medication. Some medications may still be needed, such as diabetic, and thyroid medications. These are okay to continue to take while fasting. With may find you need to take less of some medications. Always consult with your Doctor before changing doses or stopping a medication.

Here is what to expect during your five-day fast.

Positive changes are occurring in the body on day one, even if you feel really hungry and irritable. Hang on through this, the body is slowly adjusting to these changes. The body is already switching its energy from digesting to healing. You are resting your digestion, and this is a good thing!

On day one of a five-day water fast, you may experience:

• Significant white or yellowness in the tongue (I’ve even seen black with some people). This is a normal reaction to detoxing. The tongue changes can occur on any day during these (5) days, and the colors can change as well.
• Your body will start to make more ketones. If you converted yourself to ketosis prior to the fast, you should be pretty fat adapted. Therefore, ketones may even rise faster for you on that first day!
• Rashes are normal as well. Expect these anomalies and don’t be intimidated by them.

5 amazing things that start to happen on day 2 of your fast:

1. Cellular Autophagy: The body is getting rid of the ‘bad stuff’, specifically white blood cells that have been around for too long.
2. Rise in stem cells: your body creates new white blood cells and gets rid of bad proteins in the muscle, stem cells replace those tissues. Muscle fibers heal and adapt much faster.
3. Reset DNA: We all have certain bad genes that are turned on. Fasting turns these off the most (obesity genes, allergy etc.).
4. Reset microbiome: There is a change in cravings, and a change of the ratio of good/bad bacteria, to help with losing weight and keeping it off.
5. Rests the Gastrointestinal Tract. Struggling with digestive issues? Resting digestion will give it the time it needs to begin healing.

On day two of a five-day water fast, you may experience:

• More hunger and irritability-there are physiological reasons for irritability: your glucose will be lower, and you are not yet fat adapted.
• You may experience a lack of brain functioning and increased brain fog. Your brain loves ketones, but ketones are not high enough yet. They will continue to rise throughout the fast, and you will feel better, give it time.
• You may start lacking energy, especially if you are not used to fasting, or are not in a ketogenic state.

Stick with it! You’re almost to day three when most people begin to feel better, as they are now making more ketones and able to start utilizing them as well.

You’ve hit day three! Congratulations!

• Your ketones will continue to rise on day 3. Your brain loves ketones! Ketones fix the brain. This is why we use them for seizures, neurodegenerative conditions, dementia, and Parkinson’s. Ketones help to down-regulate cellular inflammation, heal the gut, and also reset the DNA.
• Hormone optimization: You start to get a growth hormone spike on day 3. On day 5 you will get the highest spike of growth hormone, but the hormones will begin to spike today. On day 3 you get more sensitive to all your hormones, and you may begin to feel better!
• You should start overcoming headaches, weakness, and shakiness! Woohoo! It’s about time!
• The body raises up the stem cells and knocks down the overreaction of autoimmunity.
• You may have unexplained pains, meaning healing is occurring. For example, if you have an old knee injury, you may experience pain sensations in that knee. The body is ‘retracing’ or going back through old injuries and trauma and healing.
• You may have increased energy and creativity: Remember, your body is no longer focusing on digesting food. It can shift the focus to other areas, and direct its energy on healing. This can give you a whole new level of clarity that you have not yet experienced.
• Hormonal changes may occur, as the microbiome re-sets. Big changes are happening!

You may feel colder than usual. Why are you cold? It’s normal to be cold! Hormone levels may go down, but the cells become more sensitive to your hormones. Fasting lowers T3 thyroid hormone, (innate intelligence playing out here) to spare your muscle. So we feel cold! The body knows exactly what it is doing. Although T3 lowers, the body is more sensitive to smaller amounts of hormone. Its able to utilize the hormones available.

• Autophagy is in high gear! Bad cells are being destroyed.
• Hormone optimization: You start to get a growth hormone rise on day 3 of the fast.
• On day 3 you get more sensitive to all your hormones, and you begin to feel better.

Now Dr. Pampa discourages the use of urine ketone strips for accurate ketone measurements. But that’s what I’ve always used because I’ve never purchased a breath analyzer. The strips turn from a light cream color to varying shades of pink/purple.  But Dr. Pampa says breath ketones are better because it shows the oxidized ketones or ketones you are actually using. You may notice ketones in your urine in the beginning, but remember your brain starts using them, so you don’t want to keep seeing them in your urine as you progress through the fast. You can find breath ketone analyzers on Amazon or at medical supply stores.

Your glucose to ketone ratio should be at a 1:1 ratio (millimoles per liter-can convert online) today. Tumors started shrinking massively with a 1:1 glucose to ketone ratio. This ratio also helps to achieve higher levels of autophagy. Sometimes ketones will register high, and glucose will be lower. Stress can raise glucose, but you should see a trending down of glucose and rise of ketones.

As for glucose, according to keto researcher Prof. Thomas Seyfried, the “target zone” is when glucose numbers are in the 60s with ketones 3.0 mmol/L or more. Hitting the target zone is telling towards the destruction of bad cells. If these numbers are showing up, the body is cleansing those bad cells in just fashion.

You’re over the hump! Now to the real awesome things that are happening in day four and five.

Day Four:

• Continued autophagy and new stem cell growth.
• The continued drop in glucose and rise in ketones.
• Continued hormone optimization.
• Increased levels of energy and better brain functioning.
• An overall sense of well-being.
• Decreased cravings, hunger, and irritability.
• Cortisol increases glucose. Some ways to combat this? Don’t overtrain, increase your intentional prayer/meditation, or focus towards healing.

Now you can look for signs that you may need to break your fast sooner. Here’s what to look for:

• Tongue turns back to pink? Time to stop.
• Hunger returns? Time to stop.
• If you stop losing weight for 1-2 days? Time to stop.
• When breath stops stinking and detox reactions are gone? Time to stop.
• Fatigue that lasts beyond a single day? Time to stop.

Sleep disturbances are common for the first few days. Hunger pangs can keep you up, and all the changes taking place can be disruptive to your circadian rhythm and sleep cycle. However, this should subside. Are you still having difficulty with sleep on day four? Sleep is one of the things they look at for a diagnosis of neurotoxic illness. If your sleep is still disrupted on day four, Dr. Pamap recommends working with a practitioner to dig deeper. Disrupted sleep is also a sign your body is releasing toxins. So hang in there!

Remember, with every subsequent fast you get better, and feel better faster. Your sleep may not be good on this one, but the next it will be better. Just like pains will come and go as the body is getting better, so will sleep.

You made it to Day five ! You deserve a pat on the back. That isn’t easy, but the benefits make is so worth it!

• Stem cell production in high gear today (on day 6 when you feed the stem cells, the body will heal and create new white blood cells!)
• Ketones may begin to drop, glucose may slightly raise
• Massive growth hormone rise (goes up every day, but the highest surge is on day five), and puts you in a fat burning mode for the next 36 hours to replace the glucose.

Now break your fast wisely! Before you jump at the chance to throw a weeks’ worth of nutrition down your throat, remember that you’ve just been in extensive, quiet healing. The digestive tract is still in rest mode. A gentle transition is a key to getting best results from the fast and avoiding undermining efforts. Here is a link to Dr. Pampa’s instructions for coming out of a five-day fast. Follow it and it won’t be a painful experience sitting on the pot…if ya know what I mean.

I hope this is helpful and perhaps gives you the incentive to study about fasting and how it might help you change things in your body that will make you feel better and be healthier going forward. Dr. Pampa is the expert on this, not me, so take the time to go to his website and see all of the excellent articles about fasting and how to implement it in your life to make it a lifestyle choice.

To your health!