Transcription
Training while fasted. If I'm fasting less than 5 days, I will just train like normal. A 3-day, 4-day fast, my body handles it extremely well. Even though I may be depleted in that fourth day of training and not giving my body any food, when the fifth day comes and I refeed, my body uses all that energy and it just creates a powerful positive cycle.
If I'm fasting for longer than 4 days, I do not train. There are a few, few experts that I follow on YouTube, and I trust their opinions when it comes to fasting. And some of them have overseen hundreds, if not thousands, of people doing prolonged fast. And all the experts say that weight training, resistance training, training hard to failure causes more muscle loss. It does not benefit you, and it actually reduces the amount of healing that you get from the fast.
So, you know, after 3 days of fasting, you start autophagy. Your body starts eating the parts of the cells in you that are damaged. And that healing process is one of the main reasons that a lot of people fast. If you're training in the gym, your body now does not have the energy to spend healing because it has to repair that muscle. Normally, when you repair a muscle, you go to the gym, you break down those muscle fibers, you get micro tears in the muscles, and then you go home, you eat protein, and you sleep. And your body takes the nutrients that you consume, the proteins, and it rebuilds those muscle fibers. Your muscles actually build and grow.
If you don't have any nutrients, now your body has to repair those muscle fibers by breaking down other tissue in your body. Your body is still going to repair the damage in those muscles, but you're not going to grow. It's like burning the candle at both ends. It does not benefit you to train to failure while in a prolonged fast.
I put this to the test when I did my 21-day fast. I went and worked out one day a week every week of my fast. I'm on my way to the gym. This is day six of the fast, and I'm going to hit chest, shoulders, and triceps as hard as I can. I'm going to see how strong I am today, 6 days no food, compared to how I was a week ago. The day before I started, I did 225 lbs on my bench press for like 17 reps. Then the first week of my fast, I did it for like 14 or 15. And the second week, I did it for like 12.
The weird part is, I felt fine after training. Like I didn't feel extra sore. I didn't. I mean, I felt exhausted while lifting. Like going through the lift was 10 times harder than a normal lift. Like my energy level was low, and I had to force myself through that training session. I trained for a whole hour. I did my entire chest and triceps workout. And the last day of my fast, or the day before the last day, I did the 225, and I think I got it for eight. And I was going all the way to failure. So I could literally see my strength crashing down to half. I was half as strong at the end of my 21 days of fasting as on the first day.
Did I feel like it helped me conserve any strength or muscle by doing those training sessions? No. Now, here's the cool thing about strength. Even after not training for 21 days, except for those one day, once a week sessions, I got all my strength back within six weeks of breaking my fast. So I broke my fast, gave it a couple days rest, and then I was back in the gym training like I did pre-fast. Within 6 weeks, all my strength was exactly where I was before I started my fast. You lose the muscle temporarily, but you're not losing actual nuclei in the muscle. Your muscle is dehydrating, it's shrinking, it's shriveling up, but it comes back quick once your body starts fueling it again and you start getting back in the gym. That muscle memory comes back.
I took daily walks on my fast every day. I walked for a 5k, which took me about 40 minutes. So every day I did a 40-minute walk. And when I was fasting, I looked forward to that walk. It felt amazing to get outside, get around nature, you know, and take a walk. That is the kind of exercise you want to do when you're fasting. You could walk three times a day. I know the mindset is a lot of people think, I want to lose as much weight during my fast as I possibly can. And if I could lose 30 lbs in 21 days instead of 20 pounds, I'd rather do that. And if I could work out every day, I might burn more. So you can lose more weight by burning more calories during your fasted state, but it does take more of a toll on your body. So if you want to push yourself, burn the calories by walking, by hiking, maybe doing some yoga, you know, just do easy stuff. Don't take it to failure. Don't break your muscles down. That's what I do for myself. I'm not an expert on fasting, so I don't. I just know from my personal experience and then the videos and books I've read on it.
So on the 17th day of my 21-day fast, I ran 5k without walking. Today is day 17 of the fast, and I'm going to try running a 5k today. If I get dizzy or anything, I'm just going to stop. Wish me luck. We're starting the 5k. This is the beginning. We're almost at 2k. Oh, I just hit 2k. We're 3 and 1/2k. My pace is slow, but I'm still going. I think I can do this. Just hit 5k. It is possible to run 5k 17 days into a water fast. That's a wrap. The only time I got dizzy was when I stopped to walk. I'm super parched. I drank a bunch of water, but need more.
When fasted, it was brutal. I got so dehydrated because my body would not retain water. And I made a big mistake on my fast. I did not supplement with electrolytes. And you should always supplement with electrolytes when fasting. And any future fast I do, I will be supplementing correctly by taking electrolytes daily. But on this fast, I did not. I just drank water, that was it. And on the 17th day, I could not keep water in my system. Like if I drink a big glass of water, it would be out of me within 20 minutes. So I was always, I always had a dry mouth, I was always parched. And when I did my 5k run, within 3 minutes, my mouth was bone dry, and I was parched. And I didn't have water with me on my run. So like, I really pushed my body into a deep state of dehydration. Afterwards, I came home, I drank a bunch of water, I felt fine. I think I took like a 20-minute nap, and it was as if I never did it. Like it's amazing when you're fasting how quickly your body just adjusts back to its normal state. You know, even if I push myself way beyond my comfort zone, within 20 minutes, I take a little nap, I drink some water, I was back to stasis, you know, just back to my normal level of being fasted.