Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi, new here!

A bit about me. I've bulked up the past year, and I'm more than happy with my strength and overall health. My goal now is to trim about 5-10 lbs of remaining body fat.

I'm weening myself off of a year of a failed paleo diet, and I'm kind of in a rut (life/work stress etc) where I have really healthy days and followed by unhealthy days.

I occasionally do intermittent fasts usually no longer than 24h, and I always feel great during them.

I really want to try a longer fast upwards of 7 days, maybe longer. I just want to push through this rut and come out on the other side feeling fresh, lighter, and ready for a more consistent clean diet.

I'm wondering who has or had a similar experience. Any advice, tips, on longer fasts. Water fasts vs raw juice fasts. What should I expect in terms of weight loss (muscle vs fat), what exercises can I do (if any) etc.

Thanks

Hiya, cahaan!

I cleanse simply by eating a raw food diet for a spell. My body doesn't do well with less than that: I've had pretty nasty hypoglycemic episodes, even on the raw food.

If you feel better when you fast, it pays to find out why. Is it because you feel better eating less, thus giving your digestive system a break? Maybe it wants simpler, less processed foods. Is it because the fast is automatically eliminating something from your diet that your body doesn't like, anyway? Take a guess at what it might be and go without that for a few weeks, then introduce it back, see what happens. Do you get a buzz off the fast, a high? I know how great that can feel but it's not always a good thing. It's also a symptom of the brain being starved for nutrients.

Instead of fasting, which is actually pretty stressful on the body and can teach it to adapt over time in ways you frankly do not want, think about tweaking your life of food until it is absolutely perfect and you feel that good all the time. People do it, it works.

Baby Herc

Ill speak from my experience while on my raw juice fast.
My first fast lasted 21 days, I then took a 1.5 - 2 week break + gained a little food / water weight and then went back on for 14 days.
In that time I lost 33 pounds. If I didn't take a break and gain a bit of weight back, I would have lost plenty more. For me it was mentally
rough, for others it is easier. I did have some wonderful days though.

Weight loss...
You can expect to lose a nice amount of weight the first 2 days. I lost about 3-5 pounds my first day, meanwhile my brother lost 6-7 pounds overnight on his first day.
The second day you should lose a decent amount of weight also. After that; expect to lose 1lb a day on average. Some days it could be 1/2 a pound others it could be 1 1/2 pounds a day. I would suspect you only need to fast 4-7 days to lose 5-10 pounds.

Tips...
1. Drink plenty of water ( very important, it gets everything moving inside and flushed out. )
2. Only weigh yourself in the morning after you have used the bathroom ( your weight will vary many times throughout the day due to all the water. )
3. Have 1 fruit / veggie smoothie a day ( this stops your digestive system from shutting down and allows you to come off the fast fairly easy. This will not slow down your weight loss)
4. With a short fast of 4-7 days, I would advise you take at least 1 day, ideally 2-3 days transitioning from juices to whole food. Continue juicing, but add in a small salad the first day and a banana or something. Second day add in another salad and some more fruit, some cooked soup also. Just don't eat anything that is hard to digest. You will be suffering from crazy bloating if you skip this step haha.
5. When getting up from sleeping or sitting down or w.e get up SLOWLY, you may get light headed and there is danger of feinting.

Juice fast vs Water fast....
For me, some days I wouldn't drink any juice, just because I felt content with water. During the end of my 21 day fast, I had mostly all water. Be careful if you decide to water fast. I ended up passing out, bouncing off the framing of my bed and smacking against the floor. That is when I decided to come off the fast lol. Listen to your body.

Goodluck with it, let us know how it goes.

I've done juice cleanses/fasts, and if you do them right you'll get the nutrients you need without "bonking". I've only done them for as much as five days, nothing longer. YMMV.