The Huge Health Benefits of Prolonged Fasting

Our nation is at a crossroads. Opioid ​and alcohol abuse are leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Obesity is skyrocketing, now plaguing the young as well as the old, and has reached epidemic levels in children. Meanwhile, caffeine and sugar have taken us captive. Diabetes is plaguing millions, and cancer and heart disease are the number one killers in America. Is there an answer?

As it turns out, yes there is. Shane Idleman dives into the details in this 48-minute video.

Editor’s Note: The transcript that follows was automatically generated and lightly edited, so please be aware there could be typos or other small errors. The Stream is working toward a transcription service that does fast, accurate, and reliable work; thank you in advance for your patience!

00:00:00:01 – 00:00:20:11
So we are in fasting mode. But what does that mean? That’s our conversation this morning. Prolonged fasting is going to be my primary topic okay. Prolonged fasting. Why this is so important is because we’re seeing now most of you know, if you don’t know, this will be good for you kind of reeducating. But a lot of disease isn’t necessarily genetic.

00:00:20:11 – 00:00:43:16
I just had a friend texted me this morning who’s dealing with colon cancer and just I reminded myself, it’s not necessarily genetic, it’s metabolic. It’s happening at the cellular level. And that’s why they say, you know, genetics, loads the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger. So lots of information out there on fasting, lots of information out there on the different types of diets.

00:00:43:18 – 00:01:02:08
And why do I think this topic is so important? Again, if you have questions, definitely email us at our church website. Also, the featured book today is Feasting and Fasting What works, What doesn’t and Why? And you can actually download it for free right now, of course is on Amazon everywhere else, but you can download it for free right now at the church website.

00:01:02:08 – 00:01:21:10
Westside Christian fellowship.org. And it should answer a lot of your questions on that. I can’t get too on. Can I exercise one? Fasting. How long should I force? What type of fast? What can I drink when I’m fasting? Is this fasting? Is this breaking a fast? It just answers a lot more questions. There’s two topics when it comes to at least when I teach on fasting.

00:01:21:12 – 00:01:38:18
Got to remember which way to go. And you’re in fasting mode. There’s the physical benefits, which I think are huge. And there’s also the spiritual benefits that are huge and they’re the priority. Right? I think we can all agree on that, but I don’t think there’s any harm from time to time. So you know what, Lord? I’m going to go on a fast.

00:01:38:18 – 00:01:58:03
Of course I’m going to seek you. I’m going to pray. But also I’m really I’m looking for some some physical breakthroughs. I need this type two diabetes to go down. I need this information. This heart disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, memory, joint pain. Lord, I mean, pretty much anything you can think of can be aided in the process of fasting.

00:01:58:03 – 00:02:26:18
The reason is why the body falls apart often. Of course we’re aging, but it’s the food, it’s a consumption, it’s a toxicity, it’s a chemicals, it’s a lack of nutrients. And so if you want the spiritual to be the foundation, we are starving the flesh. And in order to be filled with the spirit, starving the flesh in order to be filled the spirit, we give up an appetite of, you know, an appetite for food, for a greater appetite for God.

00:02:26:18 – 00:02:53:20
We want more of God. We want, less of ourselves, more of God. So we humble ourselves, we fast and we pray. It’s about just seeking God. It. And it takes time. It takes effort, of course. And there’s breakthrough and there’s challenges and there’s valleys. So spiritually speaking, it’s important and it should be a priority. But many of us who don’t, it’s hard to get to the the spiritual because the physical is really sidetracking us.

00:02:53:20 – 00:03:11:17
It’s too difficult to challenging. It’s too hard. So that’s why I want to unpack some of that, especially prolonged fasting. The longer you can go starving the flesh, praying, seeking God. Of course, using wisdom. Talk to your doctor. You know, electrolyte eats that your body will need. And what about omad? You know, one meal a day.

00:03:11:18 – 00:03:31:18
What about intermittent fasting? I believe they have their benefits, for sure. And then you get into all the different diets out there. The diet craze, right from carnivore on one end to raw plant based, nothing cooked, and then everything in between. There. And if you’re wanting tips on that too, by the way, the best diet is God’s food.

00:03:31:18 – 00:03:52:09
God’s way, which means in moderation is healthy. You can get close to nature. I opt for, you know, plant based as being my primary fuel. I know people have tons of benefits on carnivore, and then I watch videos where people have tons of benefits on, you know, going coal plant based. I mean, it’s amazing how much better people feel even juicing.

00:03:52:11 – 00:04:09:12
People go on a seven day, 14 day juice, 20 day juice, and they feel amazing because they’re re-energizing the body. So I really leave that up to the individual. And, God, I don’t try to, you know, take a hardline stance on what diet is best. I have my opinions. But when it comes to prolong fasting, what happens for many people?

00:04:09:12 – 00:04:29:16
And again, you need to set your target date with God. How long to go, you know, that’s between you and him. But what we do know is it can really help as time progresses. So the first day and I don’t want to give a history here of how it works. Many of you know, you know, but the first day, you know, you’re pretty much burning through your stored, you know, you store glucose.

00:04:29:16 – 00:04:47:21
And then after that day you’re kind of a couple of days, maybe your glucose is spare, is used up, and now your body needs energy and now begins to pull from your fat tissue. Of course it will arrive at the beginning. I think it pulls from your. Yeah, a little bit of your muscle tissue. It’s called gluconeogenesis.

00:04:47:21 – 00:05:11:08
The body converts proteins, amino acids into fuel. Your body begins to to switch. It’s how we are created. So if you want to, if you want to not get caught up in the diet craze because it can get crazy from, you know, red light therapy and cold water plunge and heat in the sauna. And grounding. And what type of exercise and what type of diet.

00:05:11:08 – 00:05:31:10
And it can get paralyzing. I mean, if I get confused, I can imagine people that are just kind of learning about all this. But if you look at it through the lens of creation, look it up through the lens of creation. How did God create a. So probably the number one exercise bar none is walking. Well, we’re hearing a lot about that aren’t we?

00:05:31:10 – 00:05:50:12
Steps getting your 10,000 steps in or 12,000 steps or 15,000 steps. Good goal I think. I think that’s so important. Saying what diet is best. And I think it’s good to experiment too. Of course, like Jordan Peterson carnivore and his daughter huge benefits. I have some issues with that. As a lifestyle like I mean, you’re missing phytochemicals.

00:05:50:14 – 00:06:11:15
In the plant, you’re missing the fiber, the enzymes, the, the antioxidant ability and the fact that God in creation said, I’ve given you all the grains and herbs of the field for, for fuel. And but that works for him. I mean, I’m not going to say anything. I would I would like to see them try to introduce, you know, some asparagus or something.

00:06:11:16 – 00:06:28:09
See how that helps. And then you have people on the other end of the spectrum who are doing great. So is it God given food in moderation? I would definitely, you know, add some, some vegetables in with the meat and berries and things like that. But again, this is not a podcast for this. It’s really about fasting.

00:06:28:11 – 00:06:51:14
So that’s why I’m to take your questions here in a minute. But prolonged fasting a lot. These are the big reason I think that most people don’t do it, at least what I’ve heard. And it’s been a fear of mine, especially as we get older, is you’ll lose muscle. You’ll lose muscle. Okay. So, your body goes into something called protein sparing mode, where it actually spares the protein, spares the muscle.

00:06:51:14 – 00:07:20:09
Why? Creation creation? Creation creation. How God created us. So, yeah, there might be a little amino breakdown, gluconeogenesis. But the huge benefits off way, the little bit of muscle that might be spent as fuel. And also, you can gain that muscle studies have found you can gain that muscle right back. And so but once your body switches again you know, a couple days it says okay, we’re not eating for a while and goes into ketosis, then the muscle is spared.

00:07:20:11 – 00:07:39:01
It might be broken down a little bit now and then. That’s why I encourage people not to do high intensity training when fasting, because your body needs that quick energy and so that’s when it will break down, muscle for fuel if it needs something really quick. Because burning creating ketones is a slower process. So but you can you can research book and heimer book and Heimer.

00:07:39:01 – 00:07:59:17
Well, Hemi clinic in Germany, they’ve been doing this over 120 years, 110 years, I think. And they’ve got studies on a ten day, they used 250 calories of juice, just enough to where you can function, you know, and but then you have Alan Gold hammer and other saying water only. I like book and hammer because it’s doable when you don’t can’t go to a clinic.

00:07:59:18 – 00:08:14:00
And so they have a ten, a ten day study on men who did not. They maintain their muscle. And I reached out to them this week and I asked if they had anything longer in that. They said they show that it shows the same consistency at 21 days of this type of fast preserving muscle, but not longer than that.

00:08:14:06 – 00:08:35:09
So what happens on a prolonged fast? The reason I’m promoting prolonged fasting is because I think it’s the most beneficial. The irony is, once you get past, day to day three, that’s when the healing takes place. That’s when you start to feel better. That’s when you know even your prayer life. Because it’s hard at first. Sometimes you don’t feel like fasting.

00:08:35:09 – 00:08:55:21
You don’t feel like praying. You don’t feel like reading the words like, what is the point of this? So prolonged allows you to go longer so you can get past the hard stages and benefit. And I would go into it praying, Lord, I don’t want caffeine withdraws, I don’t want alcohol withdraws, I want nicotine withdraws processed food. God help me, pray for heaven, but expect hell.

00:08:55:23 – 00:09:15:20
What I mean by that is expect expect withdraws because that’s why I mean fasting couple thousand, I mean thousand years. Jesus’s time probably wasn’t that challenging. So you know what I’m not going to fix today. I’m not going to eat any fish. And they’re probably not detoxing from a lot. So it is more challenging. Today.

00:09:15:22 – 00:09:37:06
So prolonged fasting, the longer it is, the longer you can go, the better, for health reasons. And they actually say, I mean, I’m reading books by Herbert Shelton and people even 120 years ago, that they talk about where you’ll know when, when it’s time to stop, when your body’s done because natural heat, natural hunger returns.

00:09:37:06 – 00:09:58:06
It’s more of a sensation in your throat. It’s actually not. Not in your. Oh, my stomach’s growling. That’s not hunger. That’s addiction. So you kind of know and again, I’m not encouraging people to, you know, consult your physician, talk to your doctor, do some research. I mean, if you’re in if you’re in medication, or taking medication, you know, that that has to be considered what type of medication?

00:09:58:09 – 00:10:18:23
That’s why I like the book and I’m, 250 calories a day fast. And then I mentioned last time in one of my podcasts, fasting and a gluttonous world, fasting in a Gluttonous world by, my my personal doctor, I consider Doctor Paul Brill heart. He’s out of Oklahoma, though. He he does a he’s worked with morbidly, morbidly obese patients for years.

00:10:18:23 – 00:10:39:00
Even obese patients, you know, 506 hundred calories a day, mainly off of protein and fat to keep your body in ketosis. And I won’t go I won’t break down the difference. But, you know, Book and Heimer is more focused on decreasing mTOR because mTOR and IGF one insulin growth factor one, when they’re both up, cancer cells can grow.

00:10:39:02 – 00:11:02:13
So they, they, they focus on getting mTOR down. Hence what they do. And the doctor, Paul, is more focused on ketogenic approach. I think both of those, you know, are going to, to, to really help. So with prolonged fasting, once you break through that initial, you know, 2 or 3 days of, of just fighting it, I tell people, take time off, take vacation, get through it.

00:11:02:15 – 00:11:23:08
And then there’s just you just feel so much better, you know, clarity. You feel better, just energy wise, as a mentally, physically, emotionally. But then there’s ups and downs. You’re feeling great. I mean, I feel great for a couple hours and then, man, I crash a couple hours later, it’s like, okay, it’s a sign that your body’s healing and going to bed early.

00:11:23:12 – 00:11:44:06
You need a nap. Minimize caffeine intake if you can, get some sleep and just look at this, okay? My body’s healing. That’s why I don’t feel good. That’s why, you know, this is challenging. And again, back to the spiritual benefits. I believe the longer you can go, the longer you can press in, the more you’ll see God really do.

00:11:44:06 – 00:12:03:07
In your own heart, in your own life. Doesn’t mean he’s not. He’s going to answer your prayer of a 40 day fast. Much, much better than the prayer of a of a person who can only go 2420 four hours because we don’t rate, success by oh, look how long I went. That becomes legalistic. And I know a lot of people go long and they’re prideful about it.

00:12:03:09 – 00:12:26:09
It’s like, you know what? You you might have physical benefits, but you missed all the spiritual benefits. And the person on a one day fast, tons of spiritual benefits. So it really depends where you’re at, where your heart’s out. God knows your heart. I mean, I don’t think I’ve really fasted perfectly ever, because, you know, you grab some nuts or you just, you know, you know, and you just you kind of cave in, but you get back on track and you get back on track and you get back on track.

00:12:26:13 – 00:12:52:18
So the benefits of prolonged fasting are, are incredible. And it depends how long you want to go, you know, seven week, 14 week, 21 day change. What about water only? What about, you know, a little bit of juice? Or what about juicing and one thing you do have to be careful with juicing. I mean, there’s a lot of great reports online of people completely changing their, their, their lifestyle by juicing.

00:12:52:20 – 00:13:15:07
The concern I have is, again, I look at creation. I guess that’s where, you know, I draw the line. Sometimes I look at creation and, you know, we are designed to eat the whole apple, all the pectin, all the fiber, all the enzymes, the nutrients. And actually when you when you consume the whole apple, it slows down the, the release, the glucose, the rate, the, you know, the glycemic index.

00:13:15:12 – 00:13:34:08
It actually slows that down as God designed it. So when straight juice, it’s, you know, blood sugar levels. And we’ve talked about that, you’ve been hearing it and hearing about that a lot with insulin and your insulin’s up. And when insulin is up, it’s hard to, you know, to to lose weight, which it is. But if your insulin is up and your calories are down, you know there is a sweet spot there.

00:13:34:12 – 00:13:54:10
So with juicing, I would just recommend mainly grains. Like I just made one recently cucumber, kale, spinach, celery. And then I threw in an apple green apple and so didn’t taste real good, but oh, and a half of a jalapeno. That really did a trick on me. So, you know, that’s that’s one way of doing it as well.

00:13:54:15 – 00:14:11:18
But I take it to the Lord, and it’s not about perfection. It’s about direction. Lord, what do you want me to do? I would rather, you know, get through a 14 day juice fast on minimal calories and look at the the weight loss and the health benefits and the spiritual benefits. Then try to do something perfectly and keep messing up.

00:14:11:18 – 00:14:36:05
We were not created to have, you know, to consume that many calories, on a daily basis. Our bodies were designed to gain creation for seasons of feast and seasons of famine. So I believe if we can get back to fasting, it’s a biblical thing. That it would really, really help us. So, I’ll try to get to some of these live podcast here if you have any questions.

00:14:36:05 – 00:14:57:08
Comment. Now, let’s see if it’s a day fast. Am I able to drink water? I would recommend actually, and again, I’ve explained this before, so I hate to be repetitive, but, fasting in the Bible, it’s going to be a little offensive. But hear me out. Fasting on the Bible. In the Bible you can look up 77 mentions of it.

00:14:57:08 – 00:15:22:02
You can break down fasted fasting fast and the Hebrew word, it’s really shutting, closing the mouth. That’s it. You’re closing your mouth. So, it’s water. They just drink water. They didn’t have any nutrient value, into the system. And so that’s why water. It says Jesus hungered. He didn’t thirst. There’s no really lust for water. There’s no pull for water.

00:15:22:02 – 00:15:45:05
So I would actually recommend, if you’re going 24 hours, do do just water. For sure. That’s encouraging. And then, question here about dry fasting. Dry fasting is, yeah, that I would consult. Well, physicians don’t know a lot about it. I would take it to the Lord because we also have to use wisdom when we’re fasting.

00:15:45:05 – 00:16:06:17
So for you, for you, for you, for those of you who don’t know, dry fasting is, you don’t touch water at all. You don’t even take a shower because, you know, your skin can’t absorb, some of the water through the through the skin cells. Keep that in mind, too. And you put on sunscreen, you know, if it’s if it’s chemicals or hairspray or deodorant, that’s why they call these things out.

00:16:06:18 – 00:16:30:07
Endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors. When you’re putting on deodorant makeup, it can really mess up our system. Lower testosterone levels, different things. I’m I would be more worried about putting, sunscreen with chemicals on my skin than I would be of the sun. Personally. So what was my point on that? Oh, dry fasting. Water fasting. So it’s people don’t drink water, they don’t touch water.

00:16:30:07 – 00:16:51:20
Nothing for a day or 2 or 3. If you’re asking my advice again, I pray about it. The longer you go, the more detrimental it becomes. But there are some benefits as well. And I think it’s how we were created. I mean, not go whole day or 2 or 3, but, you know, hey, drink something at a brook, and I’m not going to see any water for another 12 hours.

00:16:51:20 – 00:17:10:01
15 hours. And even hydration. I think hydration is overrated. Hear me out. I think we need to be hydrated, but flooding our body with water. And when we don’t need it, it doesn’t necessarily just flush out the electrolytes right away. What does it flood your bloodstream with? Water and fluid. And that will disrupt the chemical signals in the electrolytes.

00:17:10:06 – 00:17:31:14
So it’s always good to drink, especially when fasting. Don’t try to drink a gallon. Just drink what the body needs. Go, go a little bit. Go while with without a little bit if you need to. But you know, again, consult your physician, take it to the Lord. But to answer the question, dry fasting. What happens is, when, when you fast.

00:17:31:16 – 00:17:58:22
You’ve probably heard this term autophagy takes place takes place autophagy itself consuming in the Latin your body’s consuming itself. So cells are either experiencing autophagy or apoptosis. Apoptosis is when it commits suicide. And that’s what we want, cancer cells to do. We want them to commit suicide. With, with autophagy though, the body is going deep into the cell and it’s actually cleaning the cells.

00:17:58:22 – 00:18:26:02
It’s removing, these, these things they don’t need maybe damaged DNA, maybe damaged proteins. It’s breaking down tissue. That’s not that’s not usable. May be cancerous tissue. May be lumps. Fat. Yeah. So again, the longer you can go, the better. Personally, I think, you know, again, with supervision and wisdom and doctor’s advice and things like that, you know, the because you don’t want to start a fast, you’re getting all these benefits and then you stop it too soon.

00:18:26:02 – 00:18:41:07
And especially with re feeding syndrome, one thing about fasting is you got to be very you got to be just as diligent when you eat as you are when you’re fasting. A little bit of watermelon, wait a couple of hours, a little bit of watermelon, wait a couple hours. You know, you just a little bit. You go to bed hungry.

00:18:41:10 – 00:18:55:13
You got to give your body time, especially depending on how long you go. I mean, if you go 21 days, you know, you got it. You got to give it a good 4 or 5 days of re feeding. So my point in saying that only took me five minutes to get here. If you have a comment or question, put it in the comments.

00:18:55:13 – 00:19:18:09
I’ll try to get to it before I close this out. So with dry fasting, the reason people like it is, autophagy happens even quicker. Like I’ve heard I’ve heard studies it like four times the rate, of normal autophagy through fasting with dry fasting. Because here’s why. Where is there also some water being held? You guessed it, in your cells.

00:19:18:15 – 00:19:40:23
So that it will, even fat is actually the, the, the fat, cells are consumed even quicker to break them down because the body needs the water. So I know that sounds cool and sounds great with dry fasting, but trust me, God’s way is always the best. If you know, if you if you happen to you, dry fast, I would just, you know, I would I wouldn’t go too long.

00:19:40:23 – 00:19:59:14
I mean, I’ve never went over 15 hours. You just want to be careful on that. So again, go back and listen. If you, if you, if you missed some of this, but I’m talking about prolonged fasting and then we’re taking some of your questions here on Facebook or Instagram. And we’re live here on Idle Minute Plugged.

00:19:59:14 – 00:20:28:14
So we will release it later. Let’s say. Oh, yeah. I’ll clarify. I just said earlier, you know, when you pray for no withdraws, you know, you go into fast and you’re like, Lord, please help. You know, I pray to heaven, please, please help God. I don’t want nicotine withdraws, alcohol withdraws, caffeine withdraws. And in many cases, it’s good to kind of wean off, you know, wean off the caffeine, get it down to minimal, get off the process if you can.

00:20:28:14 – 00:20:49:07
If you can get your body pretty clean before you go into fasting. It’s a lot easier because you’re not going to be like a heroin addict rolled up in a ball for two days, because withdrawing you’re withdrawing from addictive substances. So I say pray for heaven that you’ll be spared the withdrawals, but plan on hell. Meaning you’re going to go through hell if if there are withdraws.

00:20:49:07 – 00:21:10:02
But what I found when I plan ahead, like, okay, I know to expect this, like the first, you know, I was in the day two on a fast recent here and, it, I mean, I was wanting to quit, like, I do not feel good. I’m just laying in bed. I can’t, I got I got to leave the church, I got kids, I got, you know, I’m just.

00:21:10:07 – 00:21:36:00
And my wife reminded me, you know, just it’s it’s a long haul. And so just focusing on focusing on this is healing. That’s why I’ve got cottonmouth. That’s my, my joints hurt because what will happened during fasting also is something called retracing your body retraces old energy. Old injuries. And again, I explain all this and you can you can download the book.

00:21:36:00 – 00:21:55:22
It’s at Amazon, of course, but, you can download for free at West Side Christian fellowship.org and so I would encourage people to do prolonged fasting. It’s such it’s such an incredible experience. And it really, it’s like a breakthrough, like anything else, you know, you’ve got to have a breakthrough in fasting or breakthrough in physical health.

00:21:55:22 – 00:22:18:22
I mean, take it. Think about it. We we love our addiction. So much that we’re not willing, to, to lose that weight that we need to what? What’s what? You choose your hard. Choose your hard. Yeah, fasting is hard, but so is being overweight. Trust me. I’ll take I’ll take fasting and feeling better and eating better ten times more than how I used to feel sluggish and and just getting through the day was challenging.

00:22:18:22 – 00:22:46:04
My attitude was affected. And so, it’s such important. Not only that’s a biblical discipline. Remember Jesus said, not if you fast when you fast. And I, I personally think the reason, it’s good for us to go longer when we can is because of the fact that we are more diseased than ever before. I mean, there’s other diseases, you know, that that that modern man doesn’t have to deal with that they had to deal with back.

00:22:46:04 – 00:23:11:01
Now I’m talking about self-inflicted chronic disease, which they call metabolic syndrome, where pretty much most diseases are linked to the same thing. I don’t know how many people know that, but Alzheimer’s is called type three diabetes because it has to do with glucose in the blood and insulin and and how it really affects the brain. So you look at Alzheimer’s, dementia, they’re different forms of memory loss.

00:23:11:01 – 00:23:31:09
And in the body declining, you look at heart disease from arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries to, blood pressure. And mind just recently dropped, you know, it was high and it came down low. And so that fasting does that. And I also believe that, you know, type two diabetes, you know, most physicians will say, take this drug.

00:23:31:09 – 00:24:08:17
Why? Why take a drug when what is going on inside of me was self-created. So if I created this metabolic syndrome inside of me, I can make different choices. Now where I don’t need the drugs, I’ll feel better. And, a lot of these cancer, other things we can think of, rheumatoid arthritis, more chronic inflammation, a lot of them are tied to the same thing of overconsumption and even overconsumption of the good foods, but overconsumption of even, I’m sorry, overcomes overconsumption of even good foods, but also, obviously overconsumption of junk.

00:24:08:23 – 00:24:23:04
Because think about we’re just eating. We’re just eating. Your body has to process this. You know how many chemicals now are in our food? And, a burger at a famous fast food chains, 58 chemicals. And your body has to, you know, to take that in. And the liver and the kidney. And what do we do with this?

00:24:23:04 – 00:24:41:05
And I gotta store some of in fat and I’ve got to get and it’s trying to get rid of all this. And then we just dump some more in and we dump some more in and we dump some sugar in and lots of sugar. Now insulin is raised and now I’ve got, you know, this big pasta or bread, and now I’ve got this glucose levels that are, that are really elevated and I’ve got sugar in my bloodstream.

00:24:41:05 – 00:24:58:04
And now I’m feeling this way and I gotta feel better. Now let me grab some chocolate or Snickers bar. Peanut butter ice cream. Now we just it’s just constantly, constantly, constantly flooding your body with junk. And that’s even worse, of course. But you know, you can also flood your body with good stuff. I actually opened up about that.

00:24:58:04 – 00:25:15:08
You can go back and listen to a podcast last week how I finally just said, you know, Lord, I’m consuming too much. And it’s so important to to do prolonged fasting to get to really the heart of the issue. So again, Instagram I’ll look for this in just a minute. If you have any comments or actually questions about this topic of fasting.

00:25:15:08 – 00:25:34:02
In other words, I’d love to hear from you. Even Facebook just put in there. Just even if you hear this late, what is what’s your top question about fasting? Your top two questions. What are your top two concerns about fasting? I actually entered one of them. Entered one of them, answered one of them earlier on muscle loss.

00:25:34:02 – 00:25:51:18
So I want to explain that again. You can just go back and rewind and listen to the beginning about muscle loss and why that should not be a concern. Again, look at how God designed us. And if he calls us to do something, it’s beneficial. So let’s let’s just say, okay, I went on fast and I lost I lost a pound of muscle.

00:25:51:18 – 00:26:13:17
Okay. Big deal. The benefits far outweigh the risk. And, you know, and it’s easy with muscle memory. And they show when you start receding, you actually will will will build that that muscle that was lost. And not only will you replace it in your body now is reset for a healthier, more, like a healthier lifestyle that can actually add more muscle.

00:26:13:17 – 00:26:35:14
The next thing that people worry about fear. Why? So, comment your top fear with fasting and your top question with fasting. How’s that? So the the next fear is I’ll die. I can’t go into fasting mode or I will die. We have to have something in our stomach, you know, every day. And these lies that have been told over the years, it’s amazing.

00:26:35:16 – 00:27:02:05
Here’s here’s the irony. This this is just, again, if you’re on medication, you’ve got health issues. You know, if, for example, if your liver, if kidney really well, and liver and kidney if there’s issues there, let’s say dialysis or issues where, you know, it’s hard to purify the body like they need to, when you start fasting, when you start fasting, you know, you’re, you’re you’re you’re removing toxins.

00:27:02:07 – 00:27:27:05
So it’s going to actually be more taxing on the liver, on the kidneys initially. I think what you break through that point, it won’t be. But, so I would if I had issues like that, I would I would probably again consult the physician. But I would clean up my diet very clean. I would have minimal calories because even more calories will actually, flood your liver and kidney as well.

00:27:27:11 – 00:27:45:13
Not to mention the junk food. So I would minimal calories, probably what I mentioned earlier that that five 610 calorie type diet and depending on what the issue is, because more protein could actually hurt, it depending on what the disease is you’re dealing with, with your liver, kidney, especially kidney. And so you might want to try juicing.

00:27:45:13 – 00:28:03:06
I mean, there’s so many different variables. But you do want to be careful, on that of course. So people think I will die. I have to eat you. You actually don’t have to eat. Here’s the irony. Here’s a great lie. Here’s a great deception. Comment now on if you agree with this. You don’t agree. What’s your greatest fear?

00:28:03:11 – 00:28:27:16
What’s your question about fasting? But this is a this is speaking science, supporting my own experience and my own experience verifying, we are actually doing more damage to the body by following that, that false dichotomy that we have to be eating. We have to be eating throughout the day. You can’t miss a meal. Definitely don’t miss breakfast.

00:28:27:16 – 00:28:44:07
Wow. Definitely don’t miss breakfast. Well, it’s good to miss breakfast. Now, there is, other studies that suggest breakfast should be the most important meal of the day. And I agree with that. If I do that smaller lunch and then an early dinner. So I have a lot more time on an empty stomach before I go to bed.

00:28:44:09 – 00:29:06:11
But again, creation. What does creation say? How did God design us? Probably to eat breakfast when we need to probably eat dinner if we haven’t caught any food or found any blueberries for a while, you know it’s okay. It’s you can be flexible. That’s why I love when God said, Elisha? And when did he bring the food?

00:29:06:13 – 00:29:24:06
When did he bring the food? So you people say you don’t eat breakfast. Well, God brought food in the morning. Don’t eat dinner. Well, God brought food and even he only brought it twice. And I believe also, when they gather the manna, you know, you can you can kind of see what God does. You know how God operates in, in regard to creation.

00:29:24:07 – 00:29:42:01
So that’s the big that’s a big misnomer. That’s the big lie. By saying, no, fasting is bad for you, you’re actually doing things and doing things for your body that are bad for you. It’s just the world system and doctors physician say, oh, you got to eat. That’s you’ll lose too much. Well, here’s, here’s it cracks me up.

00:29:42:05 – 00:30:08:21
Okay, Robert, show some. You’re going to you’re going to the doctor. And again, I love physicians. I’ve got my personal physician, of course, you know, and I’ve mentioned and, local local physician to people who tends our church, attend our church are physicians, nurses, cardiologists. And so, you know, we need them and they need us. But for the majority of the physicians, they maybe have four hours of training on nutrition.

00:30:08:21 – 00:30:29:16
And the reason is they’re they’re trained to put a Band-Aid on the disease or put a Band-Aid on what’s going on, break a bone, fix it, you know, so it’s good. But they’re not trained on preventing preventing what’s causing it. So they’ll say, oh, I don’t know about a fast you know, I’ve people come to me, my physician doesn’t think I should fast.

00:30:29:18 – 00:30:50:16
They said after, you know, you know, if you go a whole day, it’s a good for you. It can really slow down your metabolism. And it can, you’ll it’ll cost you muscle. And it’s not healthy for the body. What they fail to realize is everything. I’ve just talked to you about. All the health benefits, all the health benefits.

00:30:50:21 – 00:31:09:19
So you weigh it, and again, you won’t lose a lot of muscle, maybe just a little bit at the beginning with gluconeogenesis. But overall it’s you are a protein sparing mode where your body actually and I this is recently he was doing a fast and, I don’t do as many as that people think. I try, but then I fell because I get busy, but.

00:31:09:19 – 00:31:30:10
And I grabbed, I grabbed about, those big sparkling five gallon things. The spark. What were those? Weigh 35, 40 pounds. And I went to put it up on the shelf, and I’m like, man, this is lighter. This is lighter than, I remember, right. And I’m fasting and push ups do more push ups when I’m fat.

00:31:30:10 – 00:31:49:06
It’s like, so you you definitely don’t lose. Don’t lose strength. And listen right to the end here. Listen to the end. I’m gonna share my experience and what I’m currently doing right now. Hopefully this will help some of you, but I want to answer this question because you don’t lose a lot of muscle and, your, your metabolic rate, what happens?

00:31:49:08 – 00:32:05:20
Many of you know, but if you don’t know, your metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. Well, overall. But when you talk about basal metabolic rate, the base, like if you don’t move, you don’t move, you just sit here. If I just say you’re for 24 hours, you lay down, how many calories am I burning?

00:32:05:22 – 00:32:26:21
And, you know, it’s 1800 calories, say, and then you add exercise, you activity, you add non exercise activity thermogenesis to the equation. You add your steps and you know and you can eat a lot more calories obviously. And so but what happens with most people with fasting is your body says oh again based on design based on creation.

00:32:26:21 – 00:32:52:15
Isn’t this interesting? I wish people would just look at through the lens of creation, half their problems and go away. So through creation the body says, and rightly so. Oh, I’m not getting very many calories, so I need to slow down the metabolism. I need to slow down the metabolism to match the lack of calories I’m getting. And why am I going to keep burning?

00:32:52:15 – 00:33:14:00
So your cells, actually the activity in the the adenosine ADP let’s is called ATP, adenosine adenosine triphosphate, the energy and how that works with the microbiome. If you look at charts and pictures and YouTube videos, it’s so cool how the cell produces energy. You probably remember the Krebs was it Krebs cycle? I think when we were younger.

00:33:14:02 – 00:33:33:17
But all that kind of slows down because your metabolism is slowed down. But, because your body’s, your calories is slowed down. But eventually, you know, it kind of gets a rhythm there and, and depending if you do a little juice or not, but when you start receding, as long as you do it right there, here’s what here’s what.

00:33:33:17 – 00:33:56:14
The repeating itself will obviously activate some of the metabolism, the increase in metabolism, but also exercise will increase the metabolism. Building muscle strength training will build the metabolism. And so to me, the slower metabolism, you know, you can you can work with it. I can get that right back up. Just like slowing down a car you can put on the gas again.

00:33:56:19 – 00:34:18:02
But if you just jump right in and you go to Carl’s Jr when you’re feeding and you go back to your bad, your, your lifestyle, that, that you just wanted to give up. If you go back to that, then. Yeah. And your metabolism and metabolism is still kind of slower or are affected, you’ve lost maybe a little bit of muscle, so you can’t quite burn as many calories as you once did, then.

00:34:18:02 – 00:34:42:22
Yeah, that would be a concern. But it’s no concern whatsoever if you do things right, because again, how God designed us. So I’ll try to get to that other one that just came in. If you have questions, put in the comments about prolonged fasting. The benefits I’m, I’m, I’m curious to put it put in here or Facebook your what’s your biggest fear with fasting and what is your top top two questions about fasting maybe.

00:34:42:22 – 00:34:59:09
What’s stopping you from fasting? Even if you listen to this on YouTube or Rumble later, if we have, we will have the comments. And sometimes we turn them off because it’s just you get a lot of negative people on there, but, comment. Let us know. I’m curious. So we discussed just now and I’m going to go off in a minute.

00:34:59:11 – 00:35:24:15
What the number one, one of the number one fears, of course, is, you know, you’ll lose my soul. Another one is I’ll die. Actually, over, fasting doesn’t kill us. Overconsumption does. So, but. And I say that understanding that, you know, you can’t just jump into, ten day water fast and not be prepared, not have a little bit of of of, of, you know, information on this, not letting your physician know.

00:35:24:15 – 00:35:38:07
Again, if you’re on medication, fasting lowers your blood pressure. So you don’t want to be you don’t want to be on blood pressure lowering medication. Are you on something like Coumadin, which is a blood thinner. Well, fasting can really help the blood work. And then the blood as the, the, as some of the plaque is being removed.

00:35:38:07 – 00:35:58:20
So you want to be careful on that. I mean, there’s just so much to look into, in this. But I can tell you as, as God is my witness, biblical, biblical authority, that fasting is not bad for you. It will not kill you. Now, are there situations in which people died when fasting? Yeah. Could it be a situation where somebody fast and they go too long?

00:35:58:22 – 00:36:23:16
Absolutely. But what you might want to do, too, is agree. I’m not agree, but, purchase some electrolytes. There’s some out there that don’t have any sugar, and I don’t mention any, any brands. Right. You know, I don’t I don’t really promote anything. People hit me up all the time to promote their stuff, but, so you get some good electrolytes with not aspartame or chemicals, and you have a little bit of sodium, you know, magnesium, potassium.

00:36:23:16 – 00:36:45:06
And that will really keep the keep you feeling a little bit better. Especially the sodium and potassium can help to regulate, regulate, the heart rate and palpitations and things like that. So again, we are in fasting mode today. We’re talking about prolonged fasting. And if you missed it, you can you can download my book right now.

00:36:45:06 – 00:37:03:02
Right? You can go to the church website right now and download it for free. I actually, I probably put here on Facebook, I might be I’ll do on Instagram. No, you have to go over to the website, website Christian fellowship.org, and I’ll put the church and the church website in the comments on Facebook, and probably just a PDF.

00:37:03:02 – 00:37:23:16
You can just click the PDF and start reading right now, click it and read. So a couple of last ones before I get going. Could fasting help with hormone balancing? Absolutely, absolutely. If you go back and listen to the beginning, I already talked about endocrine disruptors and our hair sprays, deodorants, especially what we put on our skin.

00:37:23:19 – 00:37:41:16
And I don’t want to give people the wrong advice, but I think if you can put some, some, sunscreen on that, maybe zinc and it’s all natural, maybe made from beef tallow or something. I don’t use sunscreen in a long time, but it doesn’t mean, you know, I’m correct in that, I just don’t stay out a long time, but,

00:37:41:18 – 00:38:09:16
So, yeah. So hormones. I mean, this is a whole nother topic. Yeah. I mean, there’s lots of hormones in glucagon. Insulin, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and growth hormone. I mean, there’s, like, don’t quote me on it. I don’t want to say, but I thought between, like, around 30 hormones, maybe up to 60, I don’t know, but you might be talking about testosterone and, hormones that really, keep things in balance.

00:38:09:18 – 00:38:26:12
So what fasting does. Oh, the good thing about fasting. Because again, we’re constantly eating, constantly eating. And even people who eat the right food, you shouldn’t be constantly eating. That’s why I just I open up about gluttony on my last podcast last week. Check it out. Just too much good stuff. Because it was I was a coping mechanism.

00:38:26:14 – 00:38:46:13
So what happens? Hormones. You know, insulin is a hormone. Insulin is raised, you know, because of of this or that. And then you’ve got growth hormone or if you got my estrogens down and usually hormone. And of course your thyroid plays a role. I’m not I’m not a, a doctor who studies, you know, what is it called?

00:38:46:14 – 00:39:18:13
Endocrinology. And look at some videos, of course, but it’s get more to get more information. But hormones adjust based on certain factors. You know, fasting. I start to fast. My growth hormone level is skyrocketing because it wants to preserve the muscle. As a result, my insulin level is being reduced and glucagon, in many cases is being released in another, hormone, which is a hunger hormone.

00:39:18:19 – 00:39:42:05
Ghrelin now is being decreased and I’m not hungry. And so when your body does that, the good thing about fasting is it’s not spending 50% of its energy cleaning out all these toxins, processing food, assimilating it through food, breaking down the macronutrients of the fat and the protein, the carbs and storing the glucose and the glycogen. And then and then putting this in this department, it can heal itself.

00:39:42:05 – 00:40:06:16
And now the testosterone men. I don’t give you the break the bad news here, but you do have estrogen too. And women you do have testosterone too. There’s just much more minimal your body during fasting now, the hormones can balance out and your thyroid can become much more effective and into. So basically fasting, sets, resets the body I guess is the best way to say it.

00:40:06:16 – 00:40:29:03
It’s a it’s a, it’s a reset of your entire system. And that’s why I said the longer you can go, I know it’s hard to hear, but the better the longer you can go, the better. Whether it’s, you know, I take it to the Lord at another stages, I would encourage most people start with a 24, 24 hour and then, you know, maybe, maybe work up to a three day, maybe during that three day, have some bone broth, have some electrolytes.

00:40:29:03 – 00:40:42:14
You’ll have a little bit juice if you need to. And then you’re feeling pretty confident. You’ve you’ve broken through withdraws. And now you want to you know, I want to take this to seven days. And, maybe God’s put on your heart. You know, I’ve, I’ve shared before that God has put on people’s heart to do a 40 day fast.

00:40:42:20 – 00:40:59:18
Some of them have just just did water only, I did a 40 day fast, primarily just water. It’s on. I think it’s on Amazon Prime. Still, if you put in my name with fasting should come up. But every now and then, like an Easter, you know, I had three services. Busy weekend. I took a little bit of nuts.

00:40:59:20 – 00:41:16:20
Another time I did preach. I took a little bit of juice to get through the Wednesday night service, so I made some adjustments, but dropped about 38 pounds, I think. Yeah, anywhere in the 30s. And again, weight loss is not the issue. I mean, it’s I think it’s okay though to fast for for health reasons for sure.

00:41:16:22 – 00:41:44:10
But it’s nice, it’s nice to have those benefits. But keep in mind here’s a big thing that’ll really help. There’s no way around it unless you really feed slowly and and mean are meticulous and keep up a lot of cardio and training and you know you’re going to gain a good amount of weight back, because as soon as you start eating carbohydrates primarily and your gut fills up a little bit with material, you know, there’s a pound or two and then now, you’re eating your carbohydrates.

00:41:44:10 – 00:42:03:18
Well, that’s glucose. And now glucose is going to be start, you know, stored in your in your muscle and in your liver, as well. And as a glucose binds with water. And so you got some water weight. Just remember just let’s say it holds a gallon of water. I get a gallon of water back. That’s 7 pounds.

00:42:03:23 – 00:42:27:13
So 7 pounds in addition to the 2 pounds of, of gut bacteria. But there’s always gut bacteria. But, you know what I’m saying? So let’s say let’s say you’re easily going to probably gain 8 or 9 pounds bag. 10 pounds bag men maybe, maybe a little more women, maybe less. But I’d say you’re definitely getting. But if you start to gain over that, like let’s say when I lost in this happened to me a confession.

00:42:27:13 – 00:42:51:10
Confession, okay, I lost I, I don’t remember now, probably almost to 32 or 30 pounds. Dropped to like 193 or so and and I could have hanging I could have hung out there right around 200 pounds, but you know, and it me it wasn’t bad. Like, you know, chick fil A in and out burger and it was me is just too much good food.

00:42:51:15 – 00:43:10:07
And I started to gain some of that weight back now. So, to tell you what I was going to tell you earlier, right now, talking to you, just to show you it is possible I’m on day 14, day 14 today, as I’m recording this, I just have water and I have a little bit of juice when I need it.

00:43:10:11 – 00:43:25:12
The book and I’m returning 50 calories. Or instead of, of a little bit of juice, maybe, if I have, like, a little bit of of of almond butter to drink some green tea in the morning. I don’t know why I get sick drinking green tea and matcha, have, but, you know, very minimal amount.

00:43:25:12 – 00:43:41:13
You probably average in, you know, a pound, half a pound a day and you don’t get caught up on the weight because you’re only going to lose about a half pound a day. Once your body settles in, you get up. Oh, I weigh the same. Well, you can weigh the same. And this happened to me. I weighed the same for two days in a row, at least.

00:43:41:15 – 00:44:04:17
And the reason is, if I took some creatine or some, electrolytes, a large amount of sodium. I had a little bit of beef jerky on one of those days, too. That sodium. Well, is water retention. Creatine is a cell volumizer. So creatine, which is real popular, you will you will hold on to water. And so once I got rid of those the next day, you know, began to lose again it again.

00:44:04:22 – 00:44:19:07
For me it’s not about the weight loss I’m considering. Maybe I don’t even have to lose. Or maybe I don’t even have to check my weight. But this one I’m actually doing for physical reasons. And once I get down, I want to maintain that going to go wild. I don’t know how long, just yet, but you can do it.

00:44:19:07 – 00:44:37:02
It was hard the first couple days and, yesterday was hard. Yesterday was pretty hard. I had to just go lay down early like 7:00 and go to bed by eight and but then I’m up at 230 in the morning. I’ve been getting up 233 in the morning every single day, which feels amazing. Amazing. You get up, you just you can work out.

00:44:37:02 – 00:44:57:14
You can. I mean, you know, if you need a little bit of caffeine in the morning, like I’ve talked about before, I think it’s okay. I just wouldn’t have it later on in the day. After 9 a.m., because it can still, it’s got a half life and it definitely affects your deep REM sleep. So if you have to have it, have a little bit in the morning and then throughout the day sleep and rest, let your body recuperate.

00:44:57:14 – 00:45:19:09
So if you’re a guy you can relate. You know, especially as you get older you got to maintain that muscle. But believe it or not, let me preface this by saying, listen, let me, let me let me hear out my full, full presentation here. I don’t really mind, about losing a little bit of muscle because by the way, you lose it as you get older.

00:45:19:11 – 00:45:34:23
I don’t know what the percentage are, but I look at a picture. I weigh the exact same just about right now that I weighed at age 29. And I look at a picture when I was age 29, and I was like, I’ve lost a lot of muscle, like I was I was leaner, less body fat. Back then.

00:45:35:01 – 00:45:52:07
I was kind of look like a mini Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, he was 240. I was like 210, but, or two eight, whatever it was. My point is, looking now, I was like, man, this muscle, this muscle goes pretty quick. Now we want to we want to maintain that. And there’s again dieting on if you’re just coming in, go back and listen to beginning.

00:45:52:07 – 00:46:23:21
I talk about creation. You know, there’s a there’s this big movement now on more protein, more protein, more protein and then less protein, less protein like from Valter Longo Alan Gold Hammer, of course you got the sands, you’ve got the tea. Carter Campbell’s, you’ve got the McGoohan Medu goals, you’ve got the whole plant base and you got the, you know, Peter Teah, Thomas de Lauer, Ben Pickman, Paul Saladino, Ben Greenfield, Gary Breck, you know, you’ve got that more protein, doctor Gabrielle Alliance and they’ve got some good points.

00:46:23:21 – 00:46:46:11
And that’s why, you know, you look at it from God’s perspective. You don’t get too, too caught up in the different things because either one of those will work good for you as long as you’re Clark intake. And this is controversial. Jim, I know Doctor Jason Funk says some things that he might not agree with, but I, I found in my own life and life of of when I help thousands of weight loss clients, your calories do matter because calories don’t matter.

00:46:46:11 – 00:47:06:03
It’s all about insulin. And that is true. I mean, if insulin is high. Good luck, good luck burning fat. And that’s where I’ve. Ben, Ben Beckman, Doctor Ben Beckman talks about, as well. But true. But also if you’re calorie if you’re consuming too much energy, it doesn’t matter if you’re insulin is low, and your your metabolic rate is normal.

00:47:06:03 – 00:47:27:02
You’re not going to you’re not going to burn a lot of weight of fuel. And that’s why I like people who get going. Carnivore. They lose five, six, seven, 8 pounds. And the reason is initially the reason is they’ve lost all that, that, glycogen that stored glycogen. But if their calories are more than what the body needs, it will be stored and their progress could be stifled.

00:47:27:02 – 00:47:48:05
Same with whole plant based food. The crowd, if you’re consuming too many nuts and and things, you’re not going to lose weight. So God given food in moderation. There should be a caloric deficit. There’s a lot of apps out there. I mean, most trainers, these well known trainers, podcasters, you know, they’ll they’ll create a calorie deficit for you.

00:47:48:07 – 00:48:02:23
It’s a no brainer. Yeah. Well, I’ll just wing it and let’s do this and and just hope it all works out. I mean, you know, if, if you need to decrease 500 calories a day in order to lose weight, you need to know what your what your body burns. And you need to have it, you need to track it.

00:48:02:23 – 00:48:17:21
And, now that can become a form of dieting. I don’t think it’s good long term, but eventually, you know, a banana has 120 calories, a piece of bread, 100 calories, depending on if it’s our dough, peanut butter or how much in a tablespoon you’ve got. You got this apple at, 80 calories or an avocado turned 30.

00:48:17:21 – 00:48:33:15
And you begin to know and you begin to see, you know, handful of nuts, 300 calories versus this huge salad. I mean, and you begin to choose wisely. And so anyway, hope that helped. This podcast of Edelman Unplugged on the topic of pro long fasting. Thank you.