What Happens If You Don't Eat For 3 Days?

Hello Health Champions. Why is it that we  as humans have such a powerful drive to eat  

food and yet scientists are finding more and more  health benefits we get from skipping a few meals.  

We can go so far in fact to say that most of human  disease today come from the fact that we cannot  

find a natural balance between how much we eat and  how much we expend the balance between eating and  

fasting but why is it so difficult for us to find  that balance well let's look at the basics here  

you eat some food you use that food to generate  energy and if you're lucky enough to eat a little  

bit more food than you need in the next few  hours then you can store some of it as body fat  

and then when you don't eat for a while and you're  forced to fast or choose to fast now you can start  

using some of that stored fat to make energy an  analogy would be that you have a pantry and you  

put things in your pantry for the sole purpose  of sometimes emptying the pantry the purpose of a  

pantry is so you don't have to run to the store  every time you need something every few hours  

but it wouldn't make sense to put something in  the pantry if you're never going to take anything  

out and it's the same thing with the body why  would you ever store something if you didn't  

plan to fast if you only put things in and never  take anything out then why would you store it why  

do we even have that function right this provides  rotation if we put in and we take out that rotates  

it but if we don't rotate it now we have a  stagnant situation now the stuff in the pantry  

gets old you can also think of it as a pond if you  only have water flowing into a pond and nothing  

flowing out it's like a closed off area now that  water is going to get super nasty it's going to  

get infested it's going to get congested polluted  you're going to have all sorts of parasites and  

mosquito farms and things in there and the only  reason this happens in the body is that we eat  

too frequently when we eat too frequently and we  never fast we're only putting things in the pantry  

we're never taking anything out and that creates  an imbalance and not just any little imbalance  

but the fact that we can't find a balance between  eating and fasting accounts for the majority of  

all human disease probably 90 plus percent all of  the diseases of cardiovascular disease diabetes  

high blood pressure metabolic syndrome it is  all because we never take anything out we're  

congesting the body so the next question of course  is why do we eat so frequently some say the reason  

is the USDA guidelines because they tell us to eat  three square meals and then snacks in between so  

you never have a drop in blood sugar you top it  off every couple hours well I don't think that's  

the whole truth because i don't know many people  if anybody who will do something just because  

the government says so but it certainly doesn't  help when we don't know what we're supposed to do  

the real reason is unstable blood sugar unstable  glucose that we are training the body through our  

food choices and our lifestyles we have trained  the body into relying on it and depending on these  

frequent meals a very interesting fact to me is  that we have four hormones to raise blood sugar  

but we only have one to lower blood sugar  and that's insulin and that has to be  

because for most of human existence it's been more  important to have a mechanism to raise blood sugar  

than to lower it so we have these four  hormones glucagon cortisol adrenaline and  

human growth hormone and they're all involved  in raising blood sugar so it used to probably  

look something like this for most of human  existence that we would eat a meal we release  

a little insulin to bring the glucose down and  then we have these four hormones to bring it back  

up to where it needs to be and then to maintain  it to maintain a rock solid blood glucose level  

for all the energy demands of the body so they  don't fluctuate just because we don't eat for a  

little while in other words we're much much better  at raising blood sugar we are better equipped  

at raising blood sugar than we are at lowering  it because that's what it's been like that's what  

there's been the greatest demand for most of the  time until the last 50 to 100 years that's where  

everything has changed we have started eating  more grains more processed foods more sugar and  

more frequent meals and these all go hand in hand  because they train the body into expecting this  

so we eat a meal that raises blood sugar a lot  now we need insulin to bring it back down but  

then we eat so frequently and we eat garbage food  and sugar and processed foods that don't last us  

so then we get a low blood sugar and we eat again  to bring it up we don't rely on this mechanism to  

bring up the blood sugar and stabilize it so it  never gets stable if we eat to bring it up insulin  

brings it down and we eat again and it brings it  down and we eat again so it's this roller coaster  

so in other words for as long as humans have  been around we've had this beautiful system of  

stable energy supply based on these four hormones  we have this sophisticated machinery in place  

but then the last 50 to 100 years we've thrown  that out the window and we've replaced it  

with raising blood sugar sort of artificially  through just eating all the time and by doing that  

we have trained the body to expect the food and to  depend on these frequent meals it doesn't know how  

to do it without it anymore so we have to retrain  it by reducing the frequency of meals so let's  

take a look at what happens if we go a little bit  longer without so eight hours without food that's  

the longest a lot of people have gone because  that's how long they sleep during that time your  

body is going to regulate glucose with these four  hormones we talked about glucagon cortisol human  

growth hormone and adrenaline and when you're  sleeping you're supposed to have sort of a low  

energy level a low arousal level but then when  your body gets ready to wake up and you start your  

day then you need a little arousal so this is what  these hormones provide they raise your glucose and  

they arouse you so you're ready for the day and  eight hours in you're using a mix of glycogen  

and fat and glycogen is your carbohydrate storage  mostly in the liver but also in the muscles  

and that's how your body stores carbohydrate it  can only store a little bit about enough for a day  

and depending on how you eat you're going  to use a mix of these carbohydrates and  

fat if you eat more carbohydrate the mix is  going to be more carbs if you eat more fat  

you've already taught your body a little bit about  how to use fat instead of carbohydrate but there  

will always be a balance there and what about  hunger well at this point most people aren't even  

hungry most people are not hungry when they wake  up in the morning but they eat because they're  

taught to eat and they think well if I don't eat  I'll probably be hungry in a few hours and they  

say that breakfast is the most important meal  and everyone knows you can't send your kids  

off to school because they get all f's they  fail in school if you don't feed them so we  

have all these misconceptions all these myths  and misinformation about what's going to happen  

and we mostly eat out of habit and fear of what  will happen if we don't and if you don't have  

that breakfast not much is going to happen at  all your body is going to increase glucagon and  

cortisol a little bit it's going to regulate blood  glucose that way it's going to continue using  

glycogen and fat for energy but it's going to  start shifting it's going to start transitioning  

from carbohydrate to more fat it's a slow  gradual process and it's going to depend on  

what you normally eat if you have a high carb  diet then you've trained the body to depend on  

carbs so the transition to fat is going to  be slower whereas if you're on a low carb  

diet and you've been eating more fat then it  already sort of has some momentum it already knows  

how to go over to use more fat after 18 hours  your glucose is starting to run down a little  

bit carbohydrates become a little scarce in your  body so your body starts making glucose from  

other things that's called gluconeogenesis and  at the same time we continue the shift away from  

glycogen to fat your body is sensing that we're  starting to get down to the the bottom of that  

carbohydrate that glycogen barrel and if we don't  have a lot of it now we need to get better and  

better at using the fat you probably won't run  completely out of glycogen a lot of people say you  

will empty the tanks but your body wants to have  some glycogen as an emergency reserve just in case  

you get chased by something and you need to make  an emergency sprint for a couple of minutes that's  

where you need just a little bit of glycogen but  more and more of your energy is starting to come  

from fat and around this time you have something  called autophagy kick in autophagy means self  

eating and that sounds pretty drastic but really  what it's about it's up regulating recycling  

so if you don't put any more food resources in  your body then the resources that are already  

in the body become more precious so as you have  cells die off you have some debris you have some  

virus you have some bacteria you have some dead  blood cells all of those materials all that debris  

becomes resources they become more precious your  body can use them so it gets better and better  

at recycling that stuff and that mechanism is  one of the few things that can clean up inside  

the nervous system so if you had a concussion  or if you have brain inflammation or brain fog  

from poor lifestyle habits autophagy is one of  the few things that can start really cleaning up  

but if you never go 18 hours without food then you  will never really experience autophagy around this  

time you also start seeing some higher levels  of ketones if your high carbohydrate diet to  

start with it'll probably take a little bit longer  before you have any measurable amount of ketones  

but if you're low carb this is where your ketones  start increasing and ketones are very interesting  

you've heard of the ketogenic diet so ketones is a  byproduct of fat and it's something that the body  

makes as an alternative fuel source for the brain  some people will tell you that the brain uses only  

glucose that 100 of the energy for the brain is  glucose and that's why you should eat a bunch  

of sugar but that's not true the brain uses a mix  of glucose and ketones and if you're fasting long  

enough about 75 percent of the energy supply  will come from ketones you will also see some  

increases in two super important hormones if  you're interested in brain health human growth  

hormone and brain derived neurotrophic factor  they're two hormones that are like miracle growth  

for your brain they're necessary to make new  connections to maintain the vitality and health  

of brain cells but also to make new connections  and that is how we learn something as you process  

new information and you organize it you have to  make new connections to organize that and with  

learning if you fasting and increase this hormones  you will find that you will learn better and you  

have better focus and that makes a lot of sense  because if you're not eating your body is probably  

going to start looking for food and if you don't  have food you need to get better you need to get  

more innovative to pursue it and you need to stay  focused so that you can execute and follow through  

and there will also be some immune benefits at  this point your glucose will start dropping which  

is one way but also through this autophagy  you'll start recycling more of the virus  

and the bacteria because they consist of proteins  and cell components that your body can actually  

use for other things after 24 hours without  eating now things really start happening and  

your level the depth the degree of autophagy is  going to keep increasing if you have some blood  

strips some ketone strips and you measure your  level of ketones you will start finding that  

you're now in the zone most likely of nutritional  ketosis somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 millimoles  

the glycogen by now is mostly gone like i said  the body will probably reserve a little bit  

but it's not going to depend on carbohydrate  for energy you're going to be almost entirely  

burning fat and you're going to kick in more  of the gluconeogenesis that i mentioned before  

and the body makes glucose from other things and  what are those things they're primarily glycerol  

which is about five percent of any fat molecule a  triglyceride the backbone of that fat molecule is  

called glycerol so five percent of the energy in  fat actually can be converted to glucose so even  

if you're eating pure fat about five percent of  that energy is available for glucose it will also  

convert waste protein so these cell debris and  virus bacteria as well as the circulating pool you  

don't have all of your protein in in muscles you  have some circulating at all times that's sort of  

in transit so these are the things that your body  uses to make new glucose when you need it because  

your brain still needs about 25 percent of its  energy from glucose you also will increase your  

human growth hormone you'll really start kicking  in now and why is that important because if you  

need glucose and protein is one of the sources you  don't want that protein to come from the muscles  

and the human growth hormone spares the muscles  and make sure that muscles will be only as a  

very very last resort when you're near death  when you've gone weeks or months without food  

that's when you're going to start using some  of that muscle and what about hunger well if  

you've never gone long without food you're  probably going to be really hungry by now  

but also understand that hunger is  just a feeling it's not anything  

dangerous it's just a body sensation most of  that body sensation is a habit you've trained  

your body to expect food so your body is going to  create that hunger sensation at certain intervals  

but if you ignore it then not much is going to  happen it's going to come and go if you drink  

a glass of water and wait 10 minutes it's  going to go away for a few more hours so  

it's not a big deal and the better you get  at intermittent fasting you don't have to go  

super long all the time but if you teach your body  that food doesn't have to come every two hours  

then that hunger becomes less and less important  and it's not going to come calling as often 48  

hours into the fast now you're gone two days  without food and you still want to drink plenty  

of water and you want to supplement with some  minerals because you will lose additional minerals  

during a fast now your levels of human growth  hormone are going to be up about 500 percent  

from their base level five-fold increase your  levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor  

are going to be at similar levels your levels of  ketones will now be into a more therapeutic level  

like nutritional ketosis like we talked about  that's more of a maintenance level now you're  

stepping it up between one and a half and three  is where you start getting some really therapeutic  

your levels of autophagy will keep increasing  and now even though your insulin is dropping  

as long as you don't eat from the moment that your  body has processed through the food a few hours  

after a meal and you don't eat now your insulin  will keep dropping but once you go about 48 hours  

or longer now you can really make a dent in  that insulin if you have stubborn insulin very  

stubborn insulin resistance then that insulin  tends to kind of get on the plateau but now  

after 48 hours that's where you can really sort of  force through that plateau and make a difference  

and at this point you are probably deriving about  95 of your energy from fat most of the other five  

percent come from the glycerol in the fat backbone  the triglycerides a lot of people will ask well  

what about exercise can you exercise when you're  fasting is it dangerous what are you supposed to  

do what kind of exercise and yes you can exercise  as long as you don't do any exercise that requires  

carbohydrates you don't want to do anything  that looks like an emergency so if you do purely  

aerobic exercise if you go for a walk if you keep  your heart rate under 120 no huffing and puffing  

now you're staying in a pure fat metabolism  now you're enhancing the growth hormone  

the autophagy the ketones you're accentuating  all of that without really creating a stress or  

a hazard for the body because you stay in fat  metabolism but you don't want to do any kind  

of high intensity stuff because you don't have  the carbohydrate reserves for even short bursts  

if you did then you probably wouldn't feel so good  you get very exhausted and there's a chance that  

you'll be using up some muscle protein to make  glucose and as far as hunger it seems like you'd  

be almost dying at this point if you're not  used to this if you've never done this before  

but it turns out most people will tell you that  the second day the beginning of the second day is  

worse that if you could just make it through the  second day to like the second half of the second  

day then things get easier it's like i said the  hunger is just a habit it's a habitual signal  

if you ignore it long enough then it goes  away and it actually gets easier and what  

happens if you don't eat for three days well 72  hours into it all the same processes continue  

but at a deeper level so you're getting more  profound benefits from autophagy you're getting  

some deeper levels of disease reversals so  type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease  

and high blood pressure and even cancer you're  starting to actually reverse those in many cases  

there's a lot of cancers certain types of cancers  that they've shown you can shrink tumors and a lot  

of researchers are pointing out that you can  probably reduce your overall risk of cancer  

by doing a three-day fast a couple of times a  year also around this time we get hematopoiesis  

stem cell regeneration and rejuvenation so stem  cells are your baby cells they're the cells that  

are born to become new cells in your body and  they're not differentiated means they're baby  

cells that can become different things in your  body but these particular ones when they say  

hema something that means blood cells and when  you're making more of them and you're rejuvenating  

then you're making more white blood cells you're  strengthening your immune system and cancer is  

primarily an immune problem so that's part  of how you can fight off and reduce the risk  

of cancer but you're also improving your overall  immunity toward your everyday virus and bacteria  

and they have also found that this level of  fasting provides very very strong protection  

against chemotherapy so there's a reduction  in the nausea and vomiting and hair loss and  

all of the harsh side effects from chemotherapy  are reduced by fasting your body gets better  

at defending itself against the toxins which  chemotherapy is and let me just point out that  

I think most people should go into this gradually  but if you decide to do 72 hours straight off the  

bat the main thing that you want to figure out is  how do you feel you don't want to push through it  

if you're nauseous if you're light-headed if  you're not feeling well then don't continue  

but as long as you're feeling well you are doing  okay it is not hazardous to your body to do this  

especially if you make sure that you supplement  with some minerals if you're on a low carb diet  

you're going to be losing some minerals and it's  a good idea to supplement but if you're doing this  

level of fasting then it's an absolute necessity  you need to get some salt some sodium and some  

potassium into your body. If you enjoyed this  video you're going to love that one. And if you  

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