Intermittent fasting — 3 Days no food no drinks

Only water is allowed

4 Years ago I ran an interesting “scientific experiment” on myself for the sake of curiosity.
I decided to go on a full fasting mode for 3 days, nothing but water.
If that wasn’t clear, I’m going to say it again: No eating food! No juice! No coke! No fruits! No vegetables! Nada! only allowed thing is drinking water!

Why

I’m going to be honest with you, my mind phases out sometimes, I get those weird ideas, and what’s even weirder is that I did it. examples of those moments is me today thinking about this and deciding to share my notes and thoughts about that experiment on my blog. So, you ask why? I say:

Why not! 😉

Environment And Context

It’s very important for the readers to know what was I doing those 3 days and to know if I was pushing myself or just sleeping it through.

Well, back then I was in University which was a 1 hr bus drive from my house. So, I had to wake up around 630 AM every day, get ready, catch my bus, and be there around 8:30 AM.
At Uni I had to attend around 4–5 lectures of 1.5 hr long, 1 hr lunch break in between and I had one Basketball game in the 2nd day.
I Finished around 530 PM on those 3 days, meaning I reached home around 630–7 PM depending on the traffic in each day. After that, I went to hang out with my friends for ping pong and pool game the 2nd day, and on the 3rd day, we went for a coffee (took water myself 😅).

As you see above I had my hand full all those three days and oh! forgot to mention, I had to study and revise at night what I took at uni.

That’s pretty much it.

Context:

• Started very healthy (no pains no nothing)
• My weight was 82 KG
• Average eater.
• Big snacks lover (meaning, I always have to munch or drink something mostly healthy stuff).

Now For The Stats

Of Course, don’t expect real medical terms and proper stats. but, just what a human eye and brain can see and observe written on papers.

Day 0 (13/10/2012)

Total failure. I did it till midday for 9hrs. but then realized that it was my friends birthday, so I had to stop it. but, it was a good trial and preparation for the next day.

Day 1 (14/10/2012)

Big day! So, I woke up around 5:30, and I need to mention this, I’m a sweet-tooth.

9 AM: I was already craving for some chocolate 😝. but, this is still like a normal day. And I did some exercises (push-ups, setups, pull-ups).

3 PM: Started feeling a bit tired so I took a 15 mins nap.

6 PM: Started to feel fatigued. but, in general, I was trying to notice the following (based on small research I’ve done):

• Sweat smells very normal. but started feeling a cold sweat coming out which was a bit weird.
• Urine: Color is still normal just a bit darker than the usual.

In general, I was finding it weird that not a lot changed. but, I guess my body was still using from whatever energy still there from the day before.

9 PM: Tried to find anything that I can do to stop my mind from thinking of food. so, did some homework and some hardware programming. I was feeling some stuff though by then:

• A bit of sore throat (not sure why?)
• Small handshake: I guess that was normal because of the exercise I did early in the morning that day.

11 PM: Went to sleep

• Started feeling a bit of a blur in my eyes (probably because I was awake since 530 AM).

Day 2 (15/10/2012)

Night Time: It was crazy, I woke up like 4 times and all I had in mind was:

I’m not going to eat today.

7 AM: Woke very tired dragging myself out of bed, had to run to catch the bus (which exhausted me).

3 PM:

Physically:

• A little bit pale and hands look a bit yellowish.
• A little shake in hand
• A whole-body fatigue
• Started losing balance a bit (because it was effecting my blood-pressure which in-turn effects my ear and balance system).
• Urine is way darker than the day before.
• Feeling hungry 4/10 still.

Psychologically:

• Less talkative (maybe because of energy, but maybe also mentally tired)
• No depression or anything like that.
• I feel more motivated to do this experiment more.

Of course by this time: whomever I’ve told about the experiment, they said `You’re crazy dude!`

6:30 PM:

• Slept for 2 hours, my Biceps hurt like hell (definitely because I’ve played Basketball during the day earlier)
• I felt a bit like fainting for a bit.

10 PM:

• My legs really hurt, started feeling pain whenever I’m walking (same pain you get when you walk for 5 hours straight)
• Biceps hurts more now plus some shoulders muscles now.

12 PM:

• Heart beating really fast by now
• Feeling scared of fainting because of the pressure drop.
• Headed to sleep.

Findings of the day:

• Always thinking about food, whenever I’m free or minds wandering.
• Weight is now 77 KG (lost around 4–5KG already)
• Since food can be a reward sometimes in the brain. This affected a bit of how I do stuff and finish things.

Day 3 (16/10/2012)

It was the Toughest! had to walk like a drunk all day esp. the evening time.

8 AM:

• Woke up with full-body fatigue.
• constant feeling of a bit of dizziness.
• All joints hurt a bit. especially the foot joints!

7 PM:

• First time I poop in the last 3 days
• Felt dizzier.
• Obvious loss of balance (probably caused by the lack of sugar)
• Weirdly I still have some energy left (I had a small wrestling game with my brother) I won if you’re interested :P.

8 PM:

Psychologically:

• Too much thinking of food.
• Thinking a lot about me being hungry.

Physically:

• Joints pain increased a lot, especially the knee joints.
• Stomach-ache.

10 PM:

End of the experiment!

Findings of the day:

• Weight is now ~75 KG (lost around 6–7KG already)
• Pee color is brownish (not good 😅)

How I Feel

I ate a lot of things that I’ve been craving the last 3 days mostly sugary things 😆. Things I remember I ate:

• Something like Baklawa. (quite some of it)
• Some chocolate
• Dinner consisting of chicken and rice mostly
• Drank some juice

After I finished eating that and slept that night. I felt like I was being stabbed with knives in my stomach. lots of pain and a constant feel of vomiting.

I guess it was quite normal since my body almost forgot whats food.

The pain gradually went away in the next 2 days.

My weight after the 3 days was around 75.5 KG, meaning I lost around 6–7 KG in this experiment.

Extract Of The Article

Your body does react very differently to the same food you usually eat if it wasn’t dealing with it for a while. Plus you’d be surprised how much habits are playing a big role in your day-to-day life including how much you feel hungry And last but not least this gave me a very big idea on how bad it can get if your body suddenly decided to fail you; it can be a very tough ride.

DON’T DO THIS! If you don’t have to.
I mean it was fun and all and I swear it was one of the best experiments I’ve done in my life so far. There was too much data variating in my body that it was too interesting to comprehend and see, I mean losing balance, weight loss, pee color and all. It makes you think about what you’ve taken granted for.

Be grateful for being healthy and alive and able to eat and drink everyday, and pray for those who can’t 🙏 🙂