I did a 5-Day Water Fast: here’s why.

You may be saying to yourself, “that sounds horrific.”

Why is it a good thing?

How Autophagy Works

Imagine your body is like a city 🌆

And your cells are the houses 🏘️ in that city.

Over time, houses get old or damaged.

If these damaged parts stay in the cells, they can cause trouble and may lead to cancer🦠

When you don’t eat for a while (prolonged fasting), your body sends out little cleaning trucks 🛻 to go around and pick up all the junk and broken parts in the cells.

Thus, repairing the city to maximum health.

Other benefits of autophagy include…

Energy Efficiency

During fasting, cells recycle old parts to make energy, helping you get through times when you don’t have food.

Your body goes into “fight or flight” mode, doing everything in its power to survive.

I did a 3-day (72 hour) fast last year and I felt like a superhuman - another reason I'm running it back now.

Enhanced Immune Function

Imagine you could send your immune system to boot camp.

This “fight or flight” mode that fasting puts you in essential does that.

The cells of your immune system get themselves ready to fight off anything that comes their way.

They say,

“It’s time. Prepare for war."

"Because if we don’t protect this starving human, he's gonna die.”

Reduced Inflammation

Autophagy helps reduce swelling and soreness in the body.

I’ve been rehabbing a herniated disk and have had some soreness back there.

So this prolonged fast will help reduce the inflammation I have around the injury.

Prevention of Other Diseases

Keeping your cells clean and healthy leads to longevity.

Autophagy through fasting can reduce the risk of cancer but also other illnesses that affect the brain and metabolism, like Alzheimer's and diabetes.

Other benefits aside from autophagy

Aside from autophagy, prolonged fasting has been shown to help with the following:

• Stimulating growth hormones (a fat-burning hormone) secretion by 1300%

• Stem cells generation

• Stabilizes blood sugar

• Depression and anxiety

• Weight loss and improved metabolic function

• Helping autoimmune conditions

• Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity

• Lowering blood pressure

• Thyroid conditions

• Chronic pain

This list is from Dr. Mindy Pelz’s article, "A Beginners Guide to Fasting: Everything You Need to Know About Fasting"

Disclaimer: I'm not a healthcare professional. I'm merely very interested in this topic for my own health's sake.

Please consult with your doctor before attempting a prolonged fast.

For overall results, I lost 10lbs total (mostly water weight), really got used to not eating all the time, and realized that we eat so often just for an activity to do when we are not actually hungry.

I think everyone should at least try it once, even if just for a day.

Will I do it again?

Yes - definitely. Probably once a year I’ll do a 5-day fast, and then every quarter i’ll at least do a 24-72 hour fast.

Watch the Full-Recap for some more insights.

That’s all for now, happy fasting. Drink some water :)

-Ryan Ward