(From the Archives) I Fasted For 3 Days, Here's What Happened

72 hours without a bite of food. All I can have is water and caffeine (green tea or black coffee).

Let’s get to it.

Why I Decided to Fast For Three Days

Simply to test my discipline. I’d been telling people “hey man, I’m disciplined” because I was really consistent with my habits—the gym, Muay Thai, eating healthy, sleeping well.

But all of that stuff had become easy. There no longer was any resistance to head to the gym. I believe that true discipline is doing things we don’t want to do but we know are good for us, deferring gratification, and suffering a bit so that we can enjoy later.

Fasting for three days sounded like it would suck—so that’s what I would do.

I’d also heard all of these crazy stories (they are endless online) of superhuman benefits like mental clarity, extreme productivity, cleansing of ‘bad’ cells in the body, detoxing, euphoria, and emotional purges.

I wanted to fuck around and find out.

Day 1: Wildly Productive

This may have been the most productive day of my life. Feeling good and still fueled by the prior day’s food, I simply got a lot of time back without cooking, eating, cleaning dishes, storing food, etc.

We spend a lot of time eating and doing eating-related things. Simply cutting that out and channeling the new time into working on stuff was a huge benefit.

On top of that, there was never a post-lunch crash or a digestion time of less mental energy. The body directs blood to the stomach to aid in digestion when we eat, taking away from the brain’s capacity to run at full speed, hence the lethargy we often feel after eating.

Without this, my brain was in high-performance mode all day.

Caffeine also hit harder and lasted longer without any food to absorb it. This helped me to utilize the energy more deeply and for longer.

Day One Summary

Benefits: More time; productivity; no crashes; caffeine’s effects amplified

Energy and Mood: Great

Takeaways: I could be onto something here. One day per week like this would be insane for productivity (and possibly health).

Day 2: Mental Clarity and Hunger

Day two and I’m still going strong. Except now, I’m definitely noticing the waves of hunger. Hard.

In contrast to day one’s smooth sailing, I was feeling it this day. My body wasn’t accustomed to going to long without fuel, and it was letting me know.

I read something about ‘riding the hunger wave’—just leaning into it and knowing it will subside. That seemed to help.

Outside of being hungry as fuck, I was starting to notice those benefits people had raved about online.

My mental game had elevated. I was thinking more clearly, and felt more present.

In the evening I went to a massive park full of nature and joggers, and just sat on a bench and wrote in my notebook. The sun was setting and that rich, golden hour light was hitting me through the trees.

I felt like I was in a dream-state. Not to be all dramatic, but that shit was hitting. I felt damn good, like I’d achieved a new level of presence.

Hippy shit, I know.

Day Two Summary

Benefits: Mental clarity; greater presence; nature and sunlight felt amazing

Energy and Mood: I was hungry as fuck, but overall felt pretty good.

Takeaways: I’m starting to see what the hype is about. If I’m feeling these things on my second day, maybe those people that did thirty day fasts really did experience some out-of-body shit.

Day 3: Crashing and Burning

Welp, I’m fucked, folks. My energy levels are crashing hard. It’s my body’s first time going this long without carbohydrates, sugars, protein—all of it. It ain’t taking it very well. I guess it thinks I’m starving or something.

The benefits from the prior days seemed to dissipate, and how I felt: like shit.

Having done long abstinences and ‘fasts’ from other things, I knew what was happening. I knew with certainty that the shitty feelings were temporary, and that if I pushed through, I’d find benefits far greater than what I’d experienced on the other side.

But, I was approaching my goal of 72 hours. I just had to make it to then.

Here’s the thing—I didn’t make it to 72.

I’d like to argue that I didn’t just puss out and give in and start binge eating. What had happened was…

I was mixing up powdered beverage mixes for a health beverage company I’d started. I was running it out of my kitchen, mixing up powder like a damn chemist.

Without thinking about it, I mixed up a new recipe and ‘wanted to sample’ it. There was some Stevia in it along with oat milk and coffee. Upon hitting my lips, my brain registered the glucose in 0.1 seconds and began chugging it.

Seconds later, I realized: fuck. I failed. It’s only been 66 hours.

Perhaps it was unconscious (“oh shit, there are some nutrients, get them quickly”). I don’t know. But I’m sad to report that I failed to hit 72 hours—I only made it to 66.

Day Three Summary

Benefits: Almost none

Energy and Mood: Energy—shit. Mood—as good as it can be with shit energy, but not bad.

Takeaways: The mind is powerful, man. But I know had I pushed through and gone another day, I would’ve turned a corner and unlocked even more benefits.

My (Almost) Three Day Fasting Experience

My 66 hour fast was interesting nonetheless. I felt the productivity, mental clarity, presence, and near-euphoric state many report.