The 5-day fast that changed who I am

From obesity and self-hate to clarity and peace in just five days. This is how I went through 5 days of fasting and obtained life changing results.

Noticing

For many years, I have been obese and have suffered under the weight of my own bad decisions. I am 30-40% overweight, and my body is struggling to function properly. I cannot walk stairs without pain, and I feel the weight of my body when I walk.

For the last 5 years, I have tried to lose weight by going through all kinds of diets, with the main focus on KETO and carnivore. Both diets works very well; I lose weight, and my body feels good, but I fall back all the time. Every time, I am more obese, and my body feels even heavier, and the constant pain from inflammation is just getting worse.

I have not succeeded in changing my lifestyle. Each time, I am tempted to return to the old patterns, and each time, I fall back into that deep pit again.

This is very depressing and makes me feel like a failure. I hate how my body feels, so I hate myself for doing this, leaving me in a state of despair and self-hate.

Realizing

I understand that returning to this self-destructive pattern is my own choice, and that it must be due to a belief in me that is holding me back from becoming who I want to be.

And then I read the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. He talks about the three layers of changing a habit in your life: outcome, process, and identity. He points out that most of us have focused on outcome and process. “I will lose 40 kg (outcome) by following KETO (process).” But we forget identity, who we see ourselves to be. Our world reflects who we are, no matter what we do.

When we are trying to lose weight, our identity is “an obese person trying to lose weight.” This is how we perceive ourselves. We shift the way we eat (the process), but we do not shift the way we see ourselves (identity) until the goal is reached. What he is saying is that we have to become (identity) what we want before it is a reality.

This made so much sense to me. But shifting my identity to something I am clearly not seemed to be impossible for my mind to accept. How can I see myself as fit and healthy when I feel obese and unhealthy?

I can tell myself I eat healthily, but saying I am fit when I am obviously obese makes no sense. But I knew that this was the right approach, so I needed to crack the code to a process that would allow me to shift the identity immediately.

Cracking the code

How could I bring my body into a state of feeling fit and healthy while I was still obese? It seemed impossible, but I found a way.

During those years with KETO and carnivore, I learned that fasting helped me lose weight. But they also taught me that being in ketosis changes how I feel; inflammation dissolves, and I feel lighter, and within a short time, I see how my body feels so much better. I actually experience a body transformation after only a couple of weeks on KETO combined with intermittent fasting.

So how could I turbocharge this? How could I very quickly put myself in ketosis, dampen inflammation, and feel lighter fast?

The answer was a five-day fast. In just a week, it would transform everything, helping me break free from the old image of who I was and empowering me to fully embrace the new version of myself in only a few days.

It would fast-forward me into a new healthy identity.

And it did.

Fasting

After just two days of fasting, the shift I felt was so radical, that letting go of the old image of myself became effortless, and I began living as the fit, healthy version I had envisioned. The feeling was incredible. I could see and sense how it transformed both my mind and body.

Day one

I had eaten my last meal at 6 pm the day before, and by lunchtime I felt the urge to eat. This was probably a combination of habit and the fact that I was now empty. After 14 hours, the digestion of last night’s dinner was completed, and my system was ready for the next meal.

But also, this is the time when I would eat my lunch. Even when I was on intermittent fasting, this would be when I would eat the first meal of the day. So there was this habitual craving to eat.

In the afternoon, my craving for something sweet was huge. And I was very tempted just to let go, but I didn’t.

In the evening, I felt how I became cold. Cold hands, cold feet. And an immense craving for food. So I went early to bed trying to get some warmth.

This is the period when my body realizes that there is a lack of food. The digestion is done, and nothing new has come in.

After 17 hours, autophagy kicks in. This is the process where the body switches its energy consumption from digesting to cleaning and healing. It simply uses “the break” to do a lot of maintenance that has been due for a long time when all the energy was used to digest all the food I kept consuming.

And after 20 hours, this whole system switches to burning fat. Your body starts using the stored fat as its source of food. It is changing to be in ketosis where the primary source of food becomes ketones from your stored fat. You are simply eating yourself.

Until this switch happens, your body expects to burn primarily glucose, which comes from the carbohydrates you consume. Both KETO and carnivore are diets that bring down, or zero out, the amount of carbohydrates you eat. So this state of ketosis is simply a state with less, or no, carbohydrates where your body switches to ketones for its source of energy.

Day two

I feel good.

I am now in ketosis, and the body has adapted to the new situation. There is no hunger, and the body has become calm.

The body had adapted, but now my mind went crazy. Food had been my go-to whenever I felt a need to escape from myself or needed a break from work. Now my mind didn’t know how to handle these situations, and it made me want to eat something, anything.

Since there was no hunger, it became obvious to me how I had used eating as a way to cope with boredom, escape, and a way to handle stress.

So this day was kind of a realization of how much of my eating was actually due to my need to distract myself. And since I had decided to drop doom-scrolling, it now seemed that the mind couldn’t find any way to escape.

I survived the day with no food and went to bed early.

After 30 hours, the brain is supposed to shift into a more introverted and present state. It starts releasing more BDNF, which is a protein that protects your cells and your muscles. But it also makes you feel calm and present. I did not feel that; my mind was not calm.

Also, on day two, when you reach 48 hours, the dopamine reset starts. This totally removes your food cravings, and it removes the need to be stimulated all the time. I didn’t feel this until day three.

Day three

I feel calm and peaceful, and there is no hunger.

The need for food for distraction is gone.

It is like my mind and my body have relaxed and surrendered to the process. I can surely feel the result of both more BDNF and the dopamine reset now.

There is definitely less pain and heaviness in the body. I almost feel light.

When I start working, I notice that I can concentrate better and can maintain the concentration for a longer period. I don’t feel distracted but can focus on the work at hand.

After day three, autophagy goes deeper, and there is a deeper healing of the immune system. It has now had 55 hours to do the general maintenance, and now it’s going deeper. The body is now shifting into deep healing.

Day four

Same general feeling as yesterday. I feel good!

But today my body feels much better. The heaviness has gone. I can see how my stomach is flatter, and I can feel that the internal pressure on my organs due to the big stomach is reduced a lot. I feel so good in my body.

Still no hunger. And no cravings. There is no need for food in my life right now.

Day five

Same experience as yesterday. I feel so good.

This is also the day I end the fast. And in the evening I eat three eggs and an avocado just to start the system up again. I feel no need for food, but I enjoy the taste and I notice how I can taste it so much more than before. It’s no longer a craving to eat the food; it’s mindful, and it fills me with gratitude.

Ending the fast

On day 6 I ate one meal in the evening. Same thing as yesterday: boiled eggs and avocado, but also some walnuts. And on day 7 I was back to normal and ate salad, chicken, and some cheese.

Drinking during the fast

I allowed myself to drink water and coffee during all five days.

I usually drink coffee all day long, but it changed during this period. Coffee was no longer a craving, but a joyful pleasure. I could taste the coffee so much better since there was no need for using it as escape; I only drank two cups a day from a normal cup instead of my normal big thermos.

I would also drink a glass of water with electrolyte-mixture. And I believe this was the reason I didn’t experience any headaches during this period.

I also drank a lot of water during the day. I drank herbal tea in the morning and evening.

Continuing the fast

So much had changed during these five days, and all my old food habits were gone. It was time for changing my lifestyle right there. So I decided I would only eat one meal a day starting now.

OMAD is short for One Meal A Day. And it simply means that you only eat one single meal all day. I chose to eat dinner, so I would only eat in a two-hour window from 5-7 pm, and I would preferably eat a KETO meal.

So no breakfast, no lunch, no in-betweens, no snacks. Only that one meal in the evening.

I had no cravings and felt no hunger. So it was an easy decision.

But it also meant that I fast each day because in that 22-hour period the body has 14 hours to break down that meal without anything new coming in, and autophagy kicks in after 17 hours, giving the body 5 hours every day to maintain and heal itself.

That one meal would be 1600-1800 calories. So there would still be a calorie deficit, so the body will continue burning the body fat.

The change

I am totally transformed, and now I can truly see myself as fit and healthy. This is how I feel; this is who I am now. And this is what my body will adapt to over time. I am certain of this. My current experience reflects my intention.

My relationship to food has changed totally. I enjoy that evening meal as if it were a gift from God. It fills me with pleasure and gratefulness. It is no longer just a way to escape; it is a feast, a joy.

I have no cravings during the day, and I feel calm and relaxed.

I can concentrate on any task at hand without being distracted.

I feel strong, fit, and healthy.

I feel how my body adapts to my new state of mind.

I feel grateful, and I am full of faith for the future.