APRIL 22, 2025
How a 72-Hour Fast Transformed My Body
It’s interesting… I am beginning to really appreciate what being hungry feels like.
I can see my body changing after the 72-hour water fast. I notice the changes in my arms and my belly, probably the spots with the most improvement needed! Having battled obesity and carbohydrate addiction my whole life, this is a huge deal!
Unfortunately, this week is dramatically different. We are in Philadelphia for a volleyball tournament, so I’m enjoying all the local cuisine, including the carbs. Two of my favorite restaurants were McGillin’s, the second oldest Tavern in the US with continuous beer on tap, even through prohibition and the pandemic, and Ralph’s, the oldest Italian restaurant in the country! The history and architecture here are spectacular!
I walked into McGillin’s with high ketones and no pain. I left McGillin’s with no ketones after a watermelon basil margarita, along with right knee pain and stiffness that I can’t even describe! Just for clarity, it isn’t the ketones that prevent the pain. It’s just an observation… When I am in ketosis, my body feels great! Walking around the city the following day was pretty uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that I skipped lunch and wished I had skipped breakfast instead. After that, I worked some type of fasting regimen into the rest of the trip for the sole purpose of pain management, but I knew I would reap metabolic benefits as well!
In Philadelphia, intermittent fasting decreased pain and kept my insulin levels as low as possible. This meant skipping breakfast and not eating snacks. This was a great compromise, as I could eat anything I wanted for two meals every day! I don’t feel an overwhelming need to snack when I eat two meals that fill me up. And then for the next meal, I am genuinely hungr
Remember, the purpose of fasting is to lower insulin levels. The only way to do this is to stop challenging your endocrine system with carbohydrates, either through fasting or through low-carbohydrate eating.
Ideally, you would use a combination of both. Since I won’t limit carbs on this trip, I will do intermittent fasting instead. Intermittent fasting is a dietary pattern that cycles between periods of eating and fasting, focusing more on when to eat rather than what to eat. Unlike traditional nutrition plans restricting specific foods or calories, intermittent fasting involves scheduled time windows for meals, such as the 16/8 method, where individuals fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour window.
The 16/8 method is generally the easiest because you can take advantage of the eight-hour fast while we sleep. If your daily routine is flexible, you can increase your fasting window and decrease your eating window. You can fast for 18 hours and eat for six hours and still squeeze in two meals. But the option for an OMAD (one meal a day) also exists, by fasting 22ish hours and just eating one fantastic, nutrient-dense meal daily.
