7 Day Juice Fast Conclusion — Where To Go From Here? | Living Healthy

So, it’s been a little over a week since I completed a 7-Day Juice fast and it’s been an easy transition into eating life again and getting back into a Keto diet. Fasting is probably the quickest way to get into ketosis and goes hand in hand with Keto or other low-carb diets because you get through the “ Keto flu “ a lot quicker, which is always a good thing.

I can safely say that by day 3, my body was in ketosis where the body had switched from using glycogen as an energy source to using ketones from your fat stores. One of the biggest giveaways of this is the “fruity” taste of acetone in your mouth that comes with heightened ketone level.

My energy levels on day 3 were also up and my head was feeling clearer. It’s worth saying that my experience is not necessarily going to be the same as yours. I have been periodically undertaking extended fasts quite a lot over the years and I feel that it gets easier each time, but I will confirm that the first 2 days of the fast, for me, have ALWAYS been the worst, so try and keep that in mind if you are a couple of days into a fast and are struggling.

How Much Weight Did Lose?

It was very hard to get an accurate weight on day 1 because I had 2 sets of scales that were giving me different readings. Ana (analogue scales) was giving me a reading of 117.5kgs (259lbs) and Didgy (digital scales) was giving me a reading of between 119.5 and 121.5kg (263.5–267.9lbs) I did not know which one of my friends was giving me the most accurate reading, so I thought I would wait until the end to check the difference between them.

I stood on Ana first and weighed in at 111kgs (244.7lbs) giving me a loss of 6.5kgs (14.3lbs), and Didgy gave me a weight of 114.5kgs (252.4lbs) giving me a weight loss of between 5–7kgs (11–15.4lbs) depending on which weight I accept for my initial weigh-in. Digital scales can sometimes be quite a pain because if you are not standing straight or are on level ground, it can really affect the outcome.

For the sake of this exercise, I am going to accept that I lost somewhere in the vicinity of 6kgs (13.2lbs) for the week and I am going to go with the reading from Didgy as my true weight of 114.5kgs. At this point, it seems that I have broken the weight loss plateau that I have been struggling to break for sometime.

Now To Keep It Going…

I’ve got quite a bit more weight that I need to lose from here and I can’t allow myself to lose focus. I would at least like to drop another 15–20kgs (33–44lbs), as this seems to of been a pretty healthy weight for me in the past, so I have still have some work ahead of me.

This 7-day juice fast has really succeeded in getting my mind and body into a place where I am feeling clear and cleansed and ready to continue on to reach my goals. This is one of the main reasons that I enjoy extended fasting so much. It’s like hitting a reset button, but from here, the right choices need to be made in order to not reverse the benefits and go back to where you were.

I have lost 20kgs (44lbs) since June last year (2019) and the last time I weighed 114kgs was Aug 2013, so 6.5 years ago. I am in new territory now. I have broken the cycle that has held me for the last 10 years and the fact that I have made so much progress in the last 6–7 months, is enough motivation to let me know that it can be done.

The Joys Of Mental Clarity

If you happened to have followed some of the posts from this 7 day fast thread, you may of read of a couple of days where I had vivid and weird dreams, which is something that is pretty rare for me. I am still coming to terms with the fact that Adolf Hitler came to visit me on day 3 of the fast, which seems to coincide with when I reached ketosis.

I don’t really know if this is something that is somewhat a “symptom” of the fast, because I can’t really say that I can recall happening in previous fasts, but my theory is that it has something to do with enjoying a clear mind due to the effects of the fast. I would really like to hear from others in the comments, if they have experienced this as well.

Extra Weight Loss From Juice?

One thing that I was interested in was whether or not I would lose more weight from a 7-day juice fast or a 7-day water fast. I have only undertaken a 7-day water fast once and that was last year and that I can say that it was certainly a harder road to travel than juice fasting and bit of an eye-opener for me.

In the end I lost just over 8kgs (17.6lbs) in the week, so that is a couple more kgs than the juice fast. You would think that this should be the case, because there is sugar in juice, so a small amount of carbs that you are consuming can slow the weight loss down a little bit, however, whilst consuming juice, I was still able to stay in ketosis, because the amount of carbs consumed was still very low.

I haven’t actually sat down and analyzed the juices that I drank and their nutritional value, but the types of juices that you consume can also affect weight loss a little bit during a fast. That being said, I have always maintained that I do not undertake an extended fast primarily for weight loss, but to help get me to a better place mentally and physically for change.

I’d like to consider this new period as “Phase 2” of my weight loss journey and I need to stay focused and keep sight of where I need to get to. Stay tuned…

Originally published at https://thelivinghealthyblog.com on January 22, 2020.