Article Summary
1. Dry Fasting Triples the Effects of Autophagy
2. Promotes the Growth of New Brain Cells
3. Lowers Inflammatory Molecules in the Body
4.. Prevents Coronary Heart Disease
5. Balances Cholesterol Levels
6. Aids in Rapid and Sustained Weight Loss
7. Fasting Prevents/May Cure Diabetes
8. Fasting for Bone Health
My Experience With the Powerful Benefits of Dry Fasting
***IMPORTANT MEDICAL DISCLAIMER PLEASE READ HERE***
So what exactly is an extended dry fast, what are the benefits, and how do you do it? Dry fasting is exactly what it sounds like. No food or water for the duration of the fast. Now before you even think about doing a dry fast, you have to have experience with at least a year of doing the following 3 or more types of fasts. I’ve tried them all. Daily intermittent fasting, 5/2 fast, Omad(one meal a day) extended fast of 1,3,7 days and time restrictive eating. I even tried a 30 day water fast to test my limits. If you would like to read more about my experiences in water fasting, click here for my other blog.
Dry fasting is extremely dangerous. If you have no prior experience, please do not attempt! I have years of fasting experience and have built up my discipline and knowledge in this field. My current fasting regiment consists of daily intermittent fasting for a minimum of 16 hours/day. Sometimes I incorporate OMAD when I’m crunched for time and I have to do a lot of brainwork. Food slows down your cognitive functions so I’d rather fast and reap the benefits of autophagy, the main benefit of fasting. I also do a tri-annual extended fast of 3 days of water fasting every 4 months except for the last fast of the year. This is when I go on a week-long fast usually after the new year. I started switching my water fasts to dry fasts last year in the summer. So far, I’ve successfully completed 2 x three days of dry fasting within 4 months of each other. I’m currently writing this blog in beautiful Bali, Indonesia where I successfully completed a 4 day dry fast. It’s my annual fast so I switched over to water fasting for the rest of the week. I ended my dry fast because the heat here is a major factor. It really compounded the feeling of dehydration and fatigue. I always try to push my limits but I also try to listen to the subtle cues from the body as well. On the 4rth day, energy levels were low and all I thought about, was drinking water. It was time to switch over to a water fast which relieved all the negative symptoms I was feeling. So throughout all my experiences with dry fasting, these are the top 8 most profound benefits I found.
Benefits of fasting source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3487759/
1. Dry Fasting Triples the Effects of Autophagy
This is a state your body goes into when there is no food present for a long period of time. We produce millions of cells every day. Not all these cells form properly. Some of them are degenerate and just circulate in our body. When enough of these cells are present, they promote disease and cause tumors. Autophagy is greek for self -eating. When there is no food present, your body seeks out all these mutant cells systematically. Then recycles their proteins to form new cells for energy. When you dry fast, your body speeds up this process immensely.
2. Promotes the Growth of New Brain Cells
Dry fasting promotes the release of a chemical in your brain called BDNF. This is like Miracle-Gro for your brain. In addition, dry fasting boosts cognitive functions by:
- Improving memory and learning
- Increasing brain neuroplasticity
- Increasing the creation of new neurons
- Protecting against the degeneration of brain cells
Another benefit of dry fasting is that you tend to get higher ketone production. Ketones are incredibly healing to brain tissue and will reduce the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. This can have a dramatic calming effect on conditions such as anxiety where the brain is overstimulated.
3. Lowers Inflammatory Molecules in the Body
- TNF-α: This molecule is able to induce fever, inflammation, and cell death. It can increase the chance of Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel diseases when it’s not properly regulated.
- CRP: High levels of CRP are associated with an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease
- IL-1b: Important mediator of inflammation and is linked to heart failure.
- IL-6: This pro-inflammatory molecule can worsen autoimmune diseases and infections. It’s associated with a higher risk of diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and further malignant growths in people with breast cancer.
- CXC Chemokines: Molecules that cause inflammation when unregulated.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5712070/
4. Prevents Coronary Heart Disease
Coronary heart disease (CHD), or coronary artery disease, develops when the coronary arteries become too narrow. The coronary arteries are the blood vessels that supply oxygen and blood to the heart. CHD tends to develop when cholesterol builds up on the artery walls, creating plaques. These plaques cause the arteries to narrow, reducing blood flow to the heart. A clot can sometimes obstruct the blood flow, causing serious health problems. A study with volunteers with a previous history of either coronary artery disease, metabolic syndrome, or cerebrovascular disease was conducted. They showed a significant improvement in 10 years in coronary heart disease risk score and other cardiovascular risk factors such as lipids profile, systolic blood pressure, weight, BMI, and waist circumference.
5. Balances Cholesterol Levels
The effects are more compounded if you combine short periods of intermittent dry fasts with the ketogenic diet. People who go on a ketogenic diet fear an increase in cholesterol. Actually, the opposite happens.
Several studies show that after dry fasting:
- HDL (good) cholesterol levels increase in women.
- Total cholesterol and triglycerides decrease in men.
- LDL (bad) cholesterol decreased in both sexes.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4516560/
For decades, people have been told that dietary cholesterol in foods raises blood cholesterol levels and causes heart disease. This idea may have been a rational conclusion based on the available science 50 years ago. However, more recent evidence gives us more of the bigger picture. High blood cholesterol levels are a risk factor for heart disease. Although, dietary cholesterol has little to no effect on blood cholesterol levels in most people. More importantly, there is no significant link between the cholesterol you eat and your risk of heart disease. A better way to prevent heart disease is to have a complete lifestyle change. These should include:
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Eating a healthy diet
- Getting regular exercise
- Limiting alcohol
- Don’t smoke
- Manage stress
- Manage diabetes
- Get enough quality sleep
6. Aids in Rapid Weight Loss Without Loss in Muscle Mass
Dry fasting is incredibly effective at burning fat. Your body can burn three times more fat, than regular water fasting. That’s because when our bodies are out of the water, they start looking for ways to make it ourselves. Interestingly, our fat is full of water. For every 100 grams of fat, the body can produce 110 grams of metabolic water, while 100 grams of carbohydrates yields only 55 grams of water. This means that the body intensifies the fat burn in order to make more water. Here’s a video from Thomas Delauer that explains this in detail.
Dry fasting won’t make you lose your muscle mass either. There’s a reputable peer-reviewed study explaining this. The study examined 43 Ramadan fasting subjects for 4-5 weeks. Ramadan is a month where Muslims do a dry fast from dusk till dawn. This is usually around 11-16 hours per day. The catabolism (catabolic state, which is related to protein loss) was not triggered, but body fat measures have decreased significantly. Although, it is important to note that weight loss was only a temporary effect, as the weight was quickly regained within one month after fasting. So it’s best to maintain some kind of fasting protocol for lasting results.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895001/
7. Fasting Prevents/May Cure Diabetes
About 90 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are obese or overweight, according to the Obesity Society. Weight loss is a known treatment for type 2, which affects the majority of the 30.3 million people with diabetes. The hallmark of type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance. This is a condition in which the cells, muscles, and liver can’t effectively absorb glucose (blood sugar). This causes hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), and in serious cases requires medication, such as Glucophage (metformin) and insulin, to lower it. Ordinary calorie restriction through any diet can lead to weight loss and make it easier to manage blood sugar. Intermittent fasting is thought to go a step further by lowering serum insulin, which triggers the body to burn stored sugar, called glycogen, along with fat, in the absence of glucose(sugar) from food. These processes (called glycogenolysis and lipolysis, respectively) can temporarily lower blood sugar and cause weight loss. Dry fasting as previously discussed, speeds up weight loss exponentially. Please do not attempt this without consulting your physician. In addition, only short periods of dry fasting of 8-16 hours is recommended if you have this disease. Finally, don’t even attempt this if you have not done at least a year of some sort of water fasting regiment.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6521152/
8. Fasting for Bone Health
Another benefit of dry fasting is the impact it can have on your bone health. Your body will secrete a hormone called Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) during an intermittent dry fast. PTH helps with bone reabsorption, bone formation, and increases calcium levels in your blood.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330036/
So in summary, you should start some type of water fasting protocol first. It’s also best to consult your physician before attempting anything new. If there are no complications with a water fast, then you can gradually lead up to a dry fast. Always listen to your body. If you’re feeling dizzy, nauseated, or really sick, that’s a sign to stop the fast. Don’t be a hero. We all have our limits and you have to know when you’ve reached yours. In general, the healthier you are, the easier it is to fast. Also switching over to a ketogenic diet is optimal in making any fast easier. Since you will be switching from glucose to your body fat for fuel, you are doing this anyways on a ketogenic diet. Please do your research if you consider going on a ketogenic diet as there is such a thing as the keto flu if you do it too fast. Since most of us were raised on a mostly carbohydrate-rich diet. Switching over to a mostly healthy fat diet will be too big a shock to your system if you do it too quickly. I also recommend going on a cyclical keto diet. That means you are keto most of the time but you have a high carb day, once a week. Having some complex carbs for your body is also beneficial mainly because of the fiber. This also makes you have metabolic flexibility. That means your body can switch from burning fat or glucose for food more easily. So you get the best of both worlds. If you train a lot, you will need more carbs as you deplete the glycogen stores in your muscles more rapidly. So a good method is to eat keto for the day and eat some carbs with your last meal. You will use all the carbs to recover when you sleep and you will be in a ketogenic state when you get up. I will cover in great detail the benefits of a cyclical keto diet in a future blog. Stay tuned. If you have any questions or comments for me, please write them in the comments below. Have fun and happy fasting!
