Heh, I've done BJJ 84 hours in. Salt and water.
I don't do more than 36 hours anymore. I've written before about why and can go find it if you are interested.
Short version is, thyroid levels start to shift suddenly after a while. Unlike the other changes these look like starvation and increase the risk of bounce back weight gain and other long term metabolism issues.
Want more benefits? Refeed and do another 36.
My main reason would be for cleansing the body. Not about loosing weight, so the 36 hours rule is new to me. Where have you written about it before?
Here on nostr.
Basically, once you get cold your metabolism has ground to a halt. You aren't really burning much energy at all so catabolic cleanup processes have also slowed.
There is also risks to that slowed state, you need to turn your metabolism back on and get it back up to speed. Tons of time in that slowed metabolism zone causes people to get stuck there. That is the root of snapback weight gain with bonus weight after a diet.
Ah okay that makes a lot of sense. Yes, the last time I did 72 hours I didn’t exercise at all and once I broke the fast I ate actually more 🫣
Eating more after is normal and doesn't cause any harm as long as you are still burning at a normal rate. Basically for a stable weight you need to eat and burn the same calories over the week. That means bigger meals when eating if there was a fast.
I did 84 many times and weight loss always basically stopped after 48 hours. I felt good but competitive sports made it very clear I was very sluggish. My goal was weight loss and I did lose weight but it came right back as soon as I stopped regularly fasting.
36 gives me a buffer to stay safely away from that slowdown. It also happens to be dinner to breakfast which feels convenient.
I'm now targeting the autophagy and metabolism benefits of fasting, my weight can be whatever it naturally ends up at. More frequent 36s are far less disruptive.
