Re: Day 7 of my water fast and have some questions...

Hi jluv,

I very much like WY and Edberg's answers and will add my own thoughts.

"I have had pain in my shoulder for 2.5 years and twisted my ankle about 1 year ago and it still hasn't healed enough for me to jog. MRI's show know tears, so perhaps there is some scar tissue or stuck energy that can be resolved this way.

1. I don't know how long to take this fast. Is there any estimate on how long it takes for the body healing to take place?"

Predicting how long various ailments will take to heal in a fast is a tricky endeavor.  I remember long ago having substantial and persistent soreness in the part of my wrists that attach to the back of my hand... might have been arthritic... and this disappeared completely in a 3 day fast.  I started another fast with a very sore foot that hurt to walk on and it was healed about 5 days into the fast even though i was brisk walking on it (continuing to irritate it) 2 hours per day while fasting. 

I have had so many little ailments that my body was able to heal quickly in a fast over the years that i don't even want to take the time to remember them all.   (It should be noted that until the past 3 years or so i did not live very healthy between fasts which is why many little ailments would continue to arise). 

Now by contrast, i had a sore ankle that was still not completely healed after fasting 30 days, though it did get to be about 80% better...  and after fasting 30 and then 36.5 days to heal a severely damaged heart, it became amazingly improved but still not 100%. 

"2. What is the impact on our metabolism by doing this? And what is the best way to increase it after the refeeding? I'd have to assume the body's metabolism slows significantly, and that concerns me with regards to post fast. Any guidance on increasing metabolism is appreciated."

I have read that metabolism will be slowed by about 10% 7 days into a fast, but will be back to normal about a week or two after breaking the fast.  As Edberg said, it will return to normal on it's own and will do so in a reasonably short amount of time, the primary key being a return to eating and another essential aspect is a return to exercise.  

If you were to fast a much longer 30-40 days your metabolism would be reduced by 25-40% and after breaking the fast this would gradually work its way back to normal over about 6 weeks.  

People often gain a lot of weight back after a fast and often look to a reduced metabolism as the cause, but there is a lot of temporary water and intestinal content loss to consider first, losses that will always return once a fast is broken, even if it is concurrent with continued fat loss.

"3. My plan for refeed is OJ (half glass every two hours or so) for the first day or two , depending on how long I take it. Then oranges, grapefruit, bananas, kiwis for another day, followed by nuts and salad. How soon can I introduce carbs and proteins? Any comments on this plan is also appreciated."

I completely agree that this is a good plan except (as pointed out by Edberg) that nuts should be viewed as a substantially more digestively challenging food than vegetables and should be placed on a tier a couple rungs higher up.  If you were to fast 8 days, breaking with 2 days of juices would generally be great, followed by 2 days of fruits and veg and then you would more than likely be ready to introduce any other healthful food.

Nice job in your fast and every best wish as you continue.