Dry fast vs. water fast

(Daniel_S) #1

Do you see any benefits with dry fasting over water fasting expert that i might take you to Autophagy state in a shorter time?

#2

I wouldn’t dry fast because metabolic waste products need to be cleared but I also wouldn’t drink water low in calcium/magnesium because low mineral water flushes out the important minerals. It’s also important not to over hydrate.

I mostly drink San Benedetto or Jordanka water when I can find it.

(Allie) #3

Personally I would never dry fast as the body needs water.

(Bob M) #4

Listened to a podcast where they said dry fasting caused much faster benefits than water fasting. Consequently, they recommended much shorter dry fasts. I’ve never done dry fasting, however.

Doesn’t Ramadan require dry fasting during the day?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

Yes. No food, drink, or smoking (the Arabic word in question means both drinking and smoking) from sunrise to sunset.

But it’s important to note that this is not a round-the-clock fast, merely time-restricted eating/drinking.

I would be very leery of dry fasting more than 24 hours, 48 tops.

(Bob M) #6

I’m with you there. At most I’d do 24 hours, from one night to the next night.

But I have drugs to take, which I like to take with water. So, no dry fasting for me.

(Doug) #7

All such things I’ve seen are rife with wishful-thinking and silly speculation, if not outright falsehoods.

There’s the fairly common claim that “1 day of dry fasting equals 3 days of water fasting.” Heh - sounds good, huh? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Another is that the body “makes metabolic water from breaking down fat.”

:roll_eyes:

The truth is that water is actually consumed when we access our stored fat - triglycerides - and break them down into fatty acids and glycerol. That’s right, consumed - 3 water molecules each time a triglyceride molecule is broken down.

And yet the same untrue, 180 degrees wrong statement is apparently passed around among dry-fasting advocates, certainly the many ones on YouTube, where they all claim it.

#8

In general, I can agree - except special circumtances. It’s possible to die of dehydration in less time than that, after all… It’s hard for me to imagine what good forced not drinking can do… But I know nothing about that, only read a few topics and articles and I still don’t get it at all.

I know from experience that I last about 6 hours, 10 when sleeping, without water. It gets pure torture afterwards. Maybe just uncomfortable sometimes but I have some very vivid memories about not drinking for 6 hours - in ideal circumstances. I reach torture level in 1 hour easily, it takes some exercise especially in warm weather (like, 20 Celsius).

They truly don’t drink water during the day at Ramadan? Not eating for a week sounds LOADS easier. Even a month, I have reserves. Though I am aware not everyone is THIS needy if it’s about water. But masses during the day… In heat… Okay, the bus drivers can get away with not doing it if I know correctly but the kids? Even not eating is quite hard on many but a human should handle that. But no water…

By the way, whenever I read “dry fast”, I MUST go and drink a lot of water. Or it was the case until very recently. My body and mind protect themselves so I got desensitized, finally.

I have no idea what dry fasting does differently, sorry for that.

#9

Don’t dry fast, nothing healthy about it. Autophagy isn’t dependent on your hydration level, it’s the lack of intake and your system getting a break.

(Alex ) #10

I absolutely wouldn’t and couldn’t dry fast but I’m sure I read somewhere something about lymph node and kidney function improving for some reason or another!?

Sounds risky to me though not having water since most body cells are made up of it principally.

You’d think the more water you have taken in, the more efficient removal of toxins, general body waste etc would be ?

(Doug) #11

That sounds correct to me. Perhaps some of the claims for such things come from the perceived effort of it? As in “It’s harder to dry fast rather than water fast, so it must be better/faster”?

No pain, no gain? :wink:

I’d be interested to hear mechanistic reasons why autophagy would start or increase faster when not drinking…

(Bob M) #12

A 5 day (!!) dry fasting study:

Did not compare another group of water-only fasting, though.

So, not a lot of comparison studies. None that I can find, anyway.

(Daniel_S) #13

The theory that i herd is that once there is a shortage of water body not to decide witch cells to keep. The healthy once or the broken once. The clean out of broken cells should according to this theory be much faster.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #14

The first two links contain a lot of assertions, but precious few data to back them up.

The third link is to a study with N = 10 and no control group. There is no telling whether the observed numbers are any different from what would have been seen if the group had drunk water, and no way of telling whether the observed numbers are any different from what would have been seen if the group had been eating. I don’t understand why that article was even accepted for publication, unless the periodical is one of those that will publish anything, for a fee.