From June 27th 9:34 pm to June 30th 9:34 pm I decided to fast. To be clear by fasting I mean not eating. I still drank water. Here is a overview of my first 3 day fast and what I experienced.

I wanted to fast to see how my body would react to having no food and mostly to challenge myself and see how I handled mild suffering.

First of all I established clear rules. I would not to break the fast unless absolutely necessary for safety reasons. But since it’s only three days the likelihood of serious issues was very slim. The worst I could expect was intense headache and hunger as well as fatigue.

I took some notes to record my experience.

Hour 13:
Perfectly fine. It’s like waking after a good night’s sleep.

Hour 23:
I notice a dry taste in my mouth, a persisting after taste.

Day 1 :
Overall, good physical shape, took a walk without difficulty, mental faculties great, physical faculties a bit lessened. I’m not hungry.

Hour 40:
I notice my breath is different. I don’t mind.

Hour 46:
My brother notices a smell that is bad. He can’t seem to figure out what it is.

Hour 47:
My dad says I can eat. I refuse smiling.

Day 2:
Great. Nothing special. I took a walk. I feel energised and fully functioning. My urine is more concentrated. No poop today.

Hour 53:
It’s the middle of the night, I can’t sleep. I’m tired. I have a headache. I remark that it’s probably related to the fast. How perceptive, right? The fatigue is unlike any I’ve ever experienced before. I actually feel good even great, but my body is saying that it’s exhausted. I find this contradiction interesting. I can’t do much. I’m sitting on the floor cross legged, wearing a hoodie and sweatpants. My head is hanging from fatigue. I’m spacing out. Unfocused. I’m tired. I’d like a little more comfort, but right now I don’t care, I just want to sleep.

Apparently, I fell asleep.

Hour 63:
It was a sluggish morning. I didn’t have much force at all. I don’t feel particularly hungry but I’m physically tired. I notice that my stomach is rumbling and gargling occasionally.

My dad notices my fatigue and again offers food. I refuse. At this point it’s pretty easy to refuse. Besides, I would be betraying myself if I accepted. That would mean I would know I quit for only 9 hours left when I’ve already done 63.

Hour 64:
I get lightheaded and my vision blurs when I get up too quickly. I have to remind myself to wait a couple seconds when I get up. This will happen more times throughout the day. My mind is buzzing and I want to get to where I want to go quickly but I tend to forget that my body isn’t in it’s usual state.

Note: When you get up quickly, the blood from your head is going towards your body due to acceleration and gravity. You literally have less blood in your brain, hence the lightheadedness and blurry vision. You have to be careful because if you get up too quickly and start running around you could pass out.

Hour 67:
I look at the time. It’s only 4:30 p.m. It feels like it’s 7 or 8 p.m.. I’m starting to look forward to break fast. Time seems to be moving very slowly.

Hour 70:
Again my brother notices a bad smell, this time he figures out it’s coming from me. He avoids me. I want to know if it’s really my breath. I lean over to my mom who is on the couch and ask her to smell my breath. She refuses. I lean back. A couple seconds later she remarks with disgust, “it smells like toilets!” I laugh. I would like a better description but don’t get any.

I look up bad breath during fasting and apparently the smell is due to the lack of saliva in your mouth. It’s absence turns your mouth into a breading ground for bacteria, hence the smell.

T-15 minutes:
It’s almost time. I set up what I’m going to eat. I go take a tiny walk to distract myself a little longer.

Hour 72:
Breakfast time ! Finally, I get to eat. I start out slowly, I expect a sudden fatigue but it doesn’t come. This happened to me a couple times when I’d fasted and not drank for 24 hours. It seems that drinking might prevent this kind of fatigue.

T+1:
I feel great. It’s good to eat again.

T+3:
Now I’m getting really tired. I should probably go to sleep.

Day 3:
Yesss! I did it! Clearly this was the most interesting day of the fast. Mentally I was feeling great. But physically I was drained. I basically spent the day being a couch potato. Distracting myself or occupying myself.

T+12:
I haven’t slept this good in a long time.

Overall impression.
Great experience. It wasn’t that difficult. Clearly the third day was the most interesting. The intense fatigue in the middle of the night was surprising. The overall contradiction between mental energy and physical energy was amusing. It’s a great way to experience that the body really adapts to every situation and that we don’t need to eat all the time. I will do it again. I recommend it. It’s also a great way to observe yourself in discomfort and observe your self talk and discipline.