Weight: 76.5
Body fat: 26.5%
BMI: 24.3
RHR: 57bpm
Sleep: 7hrs 16min
BP: 118/62 @61bpm

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Ten days in and I’m going hard core.
No coffee. No broth.
Nothing but water and tea for the remainder of the fast.
Another five days.

I didn’t have my usual double espresso yesterday, nor this morning. I’ve been expecting headaches and twitches and frothing at the mouth, but that hasn’t happened. I have had the occasional episode where my eyes rolled into the back of my head but on those occasions I wasn’t with anyone else so there was no social awkwardness.

Stats: weight has come down a bit – about half a kg in the last 24hrs. Body fat, strangely, has risen a bit. Don’t get that. Blood pressure is down, and I might have to take myself off my medication for high BP if that continues, which is a good thing. RHR has come back down to 57bpm.

In the last 24hrs I’ve only had water and tea, and that’s all I’m going to continue to have until the fast ends next Tuesday morning.

How do I feel? Once again, pretty good. I don’t feel hungry at all, and yesterday there was a lot of cooking going on in the kitchen and it didn’t bother me. I made Jennifer a coffee this morning and had no desire to have one myself – on the contrary, I’m starting to think that at the end of this fast I might continue my coffee ban. That also would be a good thing.

My cognitive processes seem fine – I have no problems with my writing, and I interact with others okay, although this morning I did forget Jennifer’s name, which was embarrassing. I had to go get our Marriage Certificate to remind me. (joke)

Other than that, there’s not much more that I can tell you on day#10 of the fast. Other than I’m looking forward to it ending, because I miss the communal ritual of eating with my family. That for me is the worst thing about fasting – that absence of sharing, over a meal.

Now, for some Dr. Fung…. The various types of fasts ~

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Most definitions of fasting allow noncaloric drinks only. This means that water, tea, and black coffee are all allowed during fasting, but sugar, honey, fructose, agave nectar, and other sugars are prohibited. There is some disagreement about artificial sweeteners like stevia, aspartame, and sucralose. Since there are no calories in these, technically, they could be allowed. 

However, the use of chemicals in these artificial sweeteners defeats the spirit of fasting, which is to cleanse or purify the body, not only from unwanted sugars and fats but also from chemicals and other artificial agents. The same argument applies to artificial flavors, such as those in Crystal Light or Kool-Aid, and to bouillon cubes. 

The water-only fast is a traditional and classic variant—all other beverages and additives are not permitted during the fasting period. It’s important to note that this fast generally includes zero salt. Without salt, the body cannot hold onto water, and therefore there is some risk of dehydration. 

Some variants of the water-only fast allow you to drink salt water, although it can be difficult to get down. However, the body has a remarkable ability to retain salt when it is not readily available in the diet. This means that as long as the water-only fast is limited in duration, your salt requirements will be fairly low, and salt deficiency shouldn’t be a problem. 

Juice fasting permits the consumption of juice as well as water. Since juices naturally contain sugars and calories, this is not technically a true fast, but the word is often used in this context. Results of this fast will vary depending upon the type and amount of juice consumed. Fruit juices tend to be very high in sugar and therefore will often not produce as good a result as other, stricter fasts. 

“Green” juice fasting has recently surged in popularity. As you might guess from the name, this involves juicing green leafy vegetables, like spinach and kale. The resulting juice contains far less sugar than the juice of sweet fruits like oranges and apples. In addition, leafy vegetables contain little actual juice, so the leaves are often ground up and blended with the juice, which provides fiber and nutrients. Celery is often juiced in this mixture, too. 

The “fat fast” is a newer variation of fasting. Relatively pure fats, such as coconut oil, cream, and butter, are allowed during this fast, so it, too, is not a true fast. Fat is normally not eaten in isolation—we rarely drink a cup of olive oil or eat a pat of butter by itself—but some people feel that eating fat this way helps reduce hunger and makes fasting much easier. 

The popularity of “bulletproof coffee” has helped this trend. To make coffee “bulletproof,” you add fat in the form of coconut oil, medium-chain triglycerides (MCT oil), or butter from grass-fed cows. The high fat content of the coffee gives this drink a substantial number of calories (400 to 500 per cup, depending upon the recipe), so this would be more accurately termed a meal replacement. However, virtually all of the calories are derived from fat.