[bodhibyte]

I've completed a few water fasts before I came across Dr. Longo work. The main reason he created the FMD is because they couldn't get people to volunteer for a water-only fast and then compliance was an issue. I'm now used to water-only fasting and hunger goes away completely by second or third day. I've heard anecdotally that hunger doesn't subside as well for everyone on the FMD as you're still eating, but haven't tried it myself.

This is the first time I'm working intensively during the fast (I worked through the weekend) and I've been incredibly productive. I also prepared really well: I was eating more than a pound of dark leafy green a day for the last month (in two high micronutrient smoothies for breakfast and lunch) and I used a sauna everyday for the week before the fast. I feel better today than I have in a long time, my energy is excellent.

That's not to say there aren't any side effects, I had some pretty bad lower back pain which made getting to sleep last night difficult, but I've come to expect it and it comes and goes throughout the day usually starting on the third day. I occasionally have some heart burn as well, but it hasn't been as bad this time. My first fast was the most difficult, but it was medically supervised at the True North Health Center in Santa Rosa, California. They supervise in-patient water-only fasts up to 40 days.

[dimastopel]

Thanks! Dark leafy greens make total sense, but why sauna is good before the fast? Also how long and how frequent your fasts usually are? 5 days 4 times a year as Dr Longo suggests or something else? BTW I did FMD twice and the feel of hunger doesn't go away. I also suspect this happens because of the constant food intake.

[bodhibyte]

I had a recent flare up of my condition and sauna helps to alleviate the symptoms and shorten the duration. Water fasting also helps and this is the first time I have tried sauna before fasting. Perhaps coincidentally, this is the water-fast I've felt the best on. I don't fully understand the underlying mechanisms but there's some amazing research on how hyperthermic conditioning initiates a whole cascade of physiological adaptations which are partially mediated by heat-shock proteins, increase of growth hormone, and improving insulin sensitivity. For more information on benefits of hyperthermic conditioning, see:

1. https://tim.blog/2014/04/10/saunas-hyperthermic-conditioning...

From the article above:

Just a few of the physiological adaptations that occur are:

Improved cardiovascular mechanisms and lower heart rate.

Lower core body temperature during workload (surprise!)

Higher sweat rate and sweat sensitivity as a function of increased thermoregulatory control.

Increased blood flow to skeletal muscle (known as muscle perfusion) and other tissues.

Reduced rate of glycogen depletion due to improved muscle perfusion.

Increased red blood cell count (likely via erythropoietin).

Increased efficiency of oxygen transport to muscles.

Here are some related videos:

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWKBsh7YTXQ

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHOlM-wlNjM

As for duration, 3 to 5 days, though from now on I'm likely to do minimum 5 days fasts as after reviewing Dr Longo's research the immune benefits and increased autophagy appear to really kick in on the 4th and 5th days. Frequency, I would say I average 3 to 4 times a year. This frequency just happens to coincide with Dr Longo's recommendation as I only more recently came across his research.

Thanks for sharing that you also noticed that the hunger doesn't go away on Prolon.

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[dimastopel]

Thank you for the elaborated answer!