10 Day Water Fast: A Recap

Now that my first ever extended water fast is over, I wanted to share what I learned, what my results were, and what questions remain. Many of you have reached out to ask. It has taken a while to make sense of the experience. 

A few weeks before I was to start my fast, our family started watching the TV series Alone. I rarely watch TV, but this organic, wholesome series captured our attention. Each season, 10 people are left in a remote area with only 10 tools of their choosing. Whomever lasts the longest leaves with $500k. Many of them are basically starving, the struggle to get enough fat, calories and in some cases, water—while expending lots of energy hunting, hiking, building fire and shelter— are very real in the woods. 

Badass fellow Northern  Californian lady Woniya Thibeault who made her own shelter, traps, clothes and baskets, and survived in the Canadian arctic alone and with limited food for 73 days. 

In contrast, during my fast I would be lying in a comfortable bed with a roof, warmth, and clean water all provided. 

Compared to juggling a household, work, self-care, and parenting, the fast was a welcome respite in many ways. I wasn’t expecting the huge amount of physical rest and mental clarity the opportunity would provide. 

Why?

Fasting has shown to be particularly beneficial to certain metabolic imbalances. I have spent many years trying to address these in gentler ways before deciding to try a water fast. While I managed to fast in 24-hour stretches on my own at home, I found any longer than that too difficult while working, tending to a household and cooking for my family daily. 

True North Health Center

Besides a few places in Germany, this is the only legit center I found geared towards exclusive water fasting, and not juice. The center is located in a residential area in Santa Rosa, CA. There are 70-90 other guests there each day on average, coming from all over the country and overseas. They have been around for 40 years. 

They have a kitchen on site, a lab, and an EKG machine, with a staff of almost 100 people to support the whole operation. They also offer additional services like chiro, massage, and cooking classes. The accommodations, dining area and courtyard are simple, geared towards making it as affordable as possible to help as many people as possible. They require you stay half the time of your fast in the “refeeding” process, which is where it’s easy to diminish the benefits of the fast by introducing too many new foods too fast. Stories circulated the center of participants wandering off site to eat a hamburger when their fast was over. I can’t imagine how much discomfort that decision put them in. 

There is daily housekeeping, and three medical visits each day, two by doctors. Each time they come by your room they ask you the same series of questions about your energy and digestion. They take your blood pressure, measure your oxygen levels, and take your temp. Lab and urine samples are drawn at least once a week, to watch electrolyte levels and any signs that your body isn’t responding well to the fast, like hypoglycemic reactions, extremely low energy (you should be able to get out of bed easily), or adverse heart reactions. 

The fasting experience

As I’d never done an extended fast before, I was grateful to have the support of all the staff. The mental hurdle of doing something so new and seemingly extreme is big, particularly if you are someone who panics a bit at the idea of no food or skipping a meal. Being in an environment where everyone is up to more or less the same thing, and to be guided by medical staff whose entire careers are dedicated to supporting people through fasts, allowed me to put down the worry I would have had embarking on this alone. Also, anything over 3-5 days of water fast can be dangerous if adverse reactions are ignored or misinterpreted. 

The fast was easier than anticipated in many ways. I was diligent about cutting out animal protein, caffeine, dairy and sugar the week before (though I didn’t follow all their guidelines—more on that later).  

All was smooth until the evening of day 5, when I started having heart palpitations and shortness of breath at bedtime and wasn’t able to fall asleep. There is a speed dial next to each bed to reach the medical staff. Many of the staff live in a building next door and once I called,  two staff members came within a minute (including a doctor). After hearing my symptoms they decided to run an EKG. As my labored breathing was increasing, they offered me some juice, a mixture of watermelon and vegetable juices. 

When people are having an adverse reaction to a fast, they will often pull you out of the fast for a couple of days with juice. First they offer an unseasoned vegetable broth to see if it will help. This doesn’t diminish the potency of the fast by much. I had already had some broth earlier in the day for low energy, so they offered the juice. Within 20 minutes my symptoms were mostly back to normal. The EKG didn’t show heart irregularities. 

After two days of juice and broth, I went back into the water fast. I found the fruit juice was spiking my blood sugar, so I requested green vegetable juice and the jittery feeling it was giving me seemed to subside some. 

It’s common that your body has some hiccups with longer water fasts, and needs to gently come out of the fast at some point before coming back in. Most everyone I’ve spoken with did have some moment of needing to take a step back before re-entering their fast. There were other moments throughout the second half of my fast where I did have some sips of juice to counter low energy. (Even while fasting, you should be able to easily get out of bed and go get yourself some water). 

I wasn’t sure what to expect on an extended fast. I imagined I might be mostly in bed, spaced out and not capable of much. While that was certainly true in the physical sense, I had an abundant amount of mental energy and capacity, especially the first week. 

They say that fasting is an opportunity for deeper contemplation, and while I could see how that is true, the environment in the fasting center isn’t geared towards that. It’s more oriented towards medical support and keeping people safe and healthy, my reason for coming. There are big screen tvs in each room, staff are often coming in and out of your room, and it’s a pretty simple setup with one main courtyard where people can relax or chat. There’s no meditation nooks or anywhere to really get into more contemplative explorations in a meaningful way. I had my own practices which I did most mornings, though they were interrupted almost every day. 

So I went with the flow and used the time to read books and dig deeper into professional learning. I also watched a bunch of cooking classes, reorganized my entire cookbook, revised and improved my system for cooking for a family each week, and bookmarked dozens of new recipes to try. When I emerged from my room on week two and began talking to others, I learned that obsessing about food is a common side effect of not eating. 

Between the lack of interruptions from familial duties, a mostly empty calendar, and my mind being extra sharp, my stamina for mental focus was off the charts. This was an unexpected boon.

Day 3, Feeling Good

Throughout the fast I experienced an increased sense of smell, heightened fight or flight, and I tired very easily. I was averaging 5 hours of sleep per night. Trouble sleeping is a common side effect of fasting, but strangely I didn’t feel tired throughout the day. This may be attributed to the chemical orexin, which is present in both fasting humans and animals. When the body senses starvation, it dumps more orexin out which forces animals to stay awake longer, giving them more time to go out and forage for food and avoid starvation. 

No doubt that fasting is stressful on the body, though the idea is it’s a hormetic, or good stresser, like exercise, when done at the right moment & for the right reasons. 

Praise
I think True Health does an excellent job of supporting and taking care of people throughout their water fasts. I spoke with many that had completed an extended fast (2-4 weeks) and made significant, life-changing improvements in their health. My next door neighbor fasted for 30 days, lost 30 pounds, reversed his low blood pressure and no longer needed his CPAP machine to breathe at night. His daughter had a complete cessation of debilitating SIBO and Hashimoto’s symptoms. Another woman, 65, came after a health crisis resulting in termporary paralysis, and reported she felt 50 and also better than she had ever felt her entire life. She wished she hadn’t waited until retirement to come. A Thai woman had come to reverse her diabetes, and had cut down the medication she was taking by half, hopeful she could stop the medication completely. One man from Texas confided that he wasn’t sure he was going to make it off the plane and to the fasting center, he had been feeling so terrible of late. It was his second time fasting. The first time he’d gone back to his old habits, but this round he vowed to make some changes back home afterwards.

Critique

Like a lot of medicine, women’s unique physiology is an afterthought at the fasting center. There are specific times women should fast in their cycle, and times, namely the week before menstruation, when fasting is too taxing. When progesterone is lowest, this is the time to feast. 

Beyond women’s health, the owner is using the benefits of fasting to promote his sometimes misguided thoughts on nutrition. The diet they serve & preach is called no SOS: vegan, no salt, no oil and no sugar. 

One Monday afternoon, I attended a talk with the founder. He presented some compelling stories and evidence they have gathered. He is downright evangelical about the no SOS diet. The talk had the feeling of a church where everyone has the same beliefs. You’ve got people in a vulnerable position after they experience some of the biggest healing they’ve ever done, and they are looking for a new way forward, making changes and doing things differently. It’s easy to conflate the positive fast results with eating the diet they are promoting. 

When I asked about studies comparing vegan and vegetarian diets to omnivore diets of wild, grass fed meats. the answers were reductive. (As far as I know, there aren’t any such studies) There is so much positive change happening here, it doesn’t seem many participants are questioning any of the nutritional beliefs. Most of the doctors are also vegan, and I had at least four people over the two weeks (doctors and fasters) proselytizing veganism in an attempt to convert me. Another question I had about visceral fat loss in women after fasting was dismissed without detail, saying the data isn’t as good. 

Day 7: Much more horizontal and low energy, but also feeling good. 

I came in open-minded and skeptical. How much animal protein we need is a big question I haven’t settled on the answer to, though I do believe our bodies do better with some.

I get the impulse to oversimplify how to eat: a lot of meat and dairy out there is grain-fed, laden with pesticides. Manufactured salt is harmful for us, as are seed oils. But they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, telling people it is better not to touch it at all and supplement with B12. Many participants I spoke with were apprehensive about going back into the world, not sure exactly how to proceed or how they would maneuver well-being in an unhealthy world or manage to follow such an extreme diet. 

Results 

My main goals/hopes for the fast were to lower my A1C, my fasting Insulin, lose visceral fat and lose weight. Let’s look at how I did from that lens: 

Yay:

Weight loss: 2.3% fat loss 

Lost several inches

I feel physically 5 years younger

Less bloating 

Skin improvements, eyes clearer, skin tags reduced

Improved insulin resistance via Continuous Glucose Monitor results

Meh: 

A1C: no change

Fasting insulin: got worse

Lipid panel: no changes 

Visceral Fat lost: .1 lb lost

Fat metabolism: no improvements 

Dry heels: no improvement 

Slide from a presentation given by the Founder of True North. This is a study of male participants after a two week water fast, and FAR from my outcomes.  VAT = Visceral Adipose Tissue (Visceral Fat)/

In terms of my goals going in, I didn’t fare very well, though the weight loss was welcome. I have had extra weight since my last pregnancy that I’ve been unable to shed despite making huge improvements in other aspects of health. I’m particularly bummed about the lack of improvements in visceral fat or A1C, especially given how high my visceral fat is.

Perhaps the biggest downside has been that the heart and breathing symptom I had on night 5 has stuck around, showing up with other hermetic stressors at home like HIIT workouts, 24 hour fasts, and cold plunges. I thought my adrenals were in good shape after years of support, but with continual waning hormones and too much hermetic stress, I was wrong. Perhaps fasting with my cycle would have prevented this symptom. I have had to take some stressors off my weekly regime lately and nurture my nervous system. That means 24 hour fasts, super charged HIIT workouts, and cold plunges below 60 degrees have been replaced with eating protein with every meal, listening to alpha beats before bed, and enrolling in a neural retraining program. Some of this nervous system response is a reflection of lifelong maladaptions to stress, and I welcome the opportunity to tend to my nervous system and cortisol, though I am bummed to have to let go of some things that were serving me in other ways. 

Learnings

Peak perimenopause is a hard time to make improvements. Kind of like trying to gain altitude while skydiving, you are lucky to maintain your previous levels of health, while addressing hosts of new symptoms that can appear suddenly. I’ve heard men have much better results with fasting and visceral fat loss, and probably women that aren’t in perimenopause too. I have noticed my labs have been all over the place lately. A doctor told me recently that she doesn’t bother running labs on teens because their levels fluctuate so much. I can see that happening in my body too.  So maybe it goes without saying, but take my experience and results with a grain of (sea) salt.

What I’d do differently next time: 

• Fasting with my cycle (ie, mainly not during the week before menstruation). I had tried to schedule accordingly but this is hard w/irregular cycles in Perimenopause

• Bone broth if my energy gets too low, not juice. While juice is a quick and easily digestible source of nutrients, it disregulates blood sugar. Even pure vegetable juice for me. 

• Taking minerals and electrolytes to support the detox process and adrenal health 

• I wish I’d been able to start with shorter fasts and work my way up: From Intermittent to, 24 hour to 36 hour to 48 hour fasts, and then maybe 3-5 day fast if I was seeing benefits from the other fasts. Slowly adding the stress of fasting gives you a chance to see how your body responds. I made a big jump because fasting at home with a family seemed untenable, at least for my first time, but I wish there had been a way to ease myself in.  If you want to read more about fasting strategy, start here. A good read for men & women. But given the adrenal issues that came up for me, it’s hard to tell if future water fasts are in the cards. 

While my reasons for doing these fast were related to specific health goals, the many unexpected learnings I received may be the most valuable part of the experience. Even though I don’t agree with all of True North’s diet dogma, I agree with some, and I learned a lot from following it for 5 days. 

Slowly reintroducing food after not eating for days gives you an idea of how your body reacts to different foods. I learned that salt is the main culprit for the swelling I experience in my fingers. By being a bit more mindful and conservative of my salt intake the problem seems to have mostly resolved itself.

The experience has helped me learn to chew more slowly and more thoroughly, a change that has stuck. I now understand intimately how protein and fat are more difficult to digest.

Three days post-fast, I was still low energy. It wasn’t until I started taking digestive enzymes again that I began to feel I was using the energy from the food I was eating, evidence of  insufficient digestive enzymes and acknowledgement that these supplements are still beneficial. 

Something I found fascinating was watching the doctors on staff (who mostly seem to have been eating this diet for a long time) zooming all over the place like hummingbirds. There is no doubt that they all have a lot of energy and almost no extra body fat from the no SOS diet. I observed this energy to also be someone “ungrounded”, when compared with the energy of people who follow say, Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions diet of more nutrient dense foods like wild meats, raw dairy and fermented foods and vegetables. In my days of extra time to ruminate on diet and metabolism, I started to see how human diets almost create different species of humans just like animals species that stick to certain foods. What species of human do you want to be? 

Ultimately each of us requires a unique diet that meets our unique physiology. But when I think of what energy I want to have in the world, I think it’s some combination of these two diets.

If you have made it this far, thank you for following along! I try to be honest about how complex and nuanced diet and lifestyle change truly is, I think we need more of the truth out there. Feel free to reach out with any questions that still remain about fasting. xo