This past Friday I ended a 38-hour long fast, with 20 being dry. Dry fasting is a fast that excludes food and water. There is little to no hard science backing up dry fasting, which is enough for r/fasting to ban people who mention it. Most people reference an eBook by a Russian named Sergei Ivanovich Filonov. Seems pretty sketchy, right? I’ve admittedly done very little research on dry fasting, but I figured as long as I didn’t sweat or exercise (basically not do anything stupid), I should be able to feel it out without harming myself.
What validated about dry fasting from Thomas DeLauer making a YouTube video about it. See how powerful influence is?
I will attempt to research dry fasting further, but I wasn’t very concerned about experimenting on my own. When I go to sleep and I am not consuming water for maybe 9 hours. The body can go without water for much longer than that, so doubling up on that time just doesn’t feel very extreme if I’m not exercising and sitting in the air conditioning all day. That’s what I did too. I finished my water at work and thought I’d try a dry fast until the next evening.
I was not in ketosis during this dry fast. I went on a cruise recently and ate a fair amount of carbs and then I didn’t go back to keto when I got back. I would imagine this being more effective in ketosis.
The most interesting observation is I had some pretty light color pee later after 16 hours, but when I first woke up it was on the darker side. I was only expecting it to get darker as the body dehydrates. Maybe this came from water stored in muscles or the body? Also typical dehydration symptoms and the desire for water went away. My mouth wasn’t dry, but of course your breath gets funky while fasting. I just lightly brushed my teeth, flossed, scraped my tongue and things were fine after that, especially since I felt hydrated.
About two hours before my workout was scheduled, I drank a liter of plain water, then another water with salt and took 10g of BCAAs. I did intend to take it easy, but while going through my warmup sets, I felt pretty good. I had a great workout with strength improvements from my last workout doing the same lifts (11 days ago). However, I felt a little tingly in my hands while squatting, so I just kinda stopped there. It isn’t THAT unusual, sometimes one of my toes will go numb, regardless of my fasted state. I think I have had some circulation issues for a long time, which I’ve recently been trying to address.
I can’t attribute the strength gain to fasting though, as I had carbs in my system which may have helped, but the improvements made me want to try targeted keto even more now.
Honestly, it felt easier than a water fast, where I will usually feel somewhat hungry. I would’ve done it longer, but I wanted to work out and go to this French Fry Festival before returning to keto and I wanted to workout before that.
Unfortunately, my skin issues have resurfaced a little after breaking my diet for so long. Avoiding carbs, alcohol, maybe caffeine and living a clean life seem to make them go away. I also still haven’t tried eliminating dairy and gluten, so there’s still a lot more things to test. Once back in ketosis, I want to try a 48 hour dry fast and see if the healing claims are real. It should be very different because carbs make you retain water, which might have made it easier. It may prevent me from even getting the same benefits of a dry fast. I’m not sure if I’ll have the same experience, but I will consume water the moment if I feel in danger.