There are plenty of different options when it comes to selecting the length of your fast. From a simple 12 hour intermittent fast to avoiding food for several days. Not every length of fast is suited for everyone, but many people might be able to find common ground with the 36 hour fast.
The 36 hour fast is an extended fast which isn’t too intense for most people. Fasting for multiple days can seem like a very intimidating idea. However, the 36 hour fast is only one day and you can still reap many of the health benefits as you would during an even longer extended fast.
Now what would a 36 hour fast for health benefits look like? Well typically you would eat no food for one full day and only drink water. Some other beverages such as black coffee or green tea would be allowed as well.
Here is a typical example of a 36 hour fast:
Monday- eat your last meal at 7pm
Tuesday- fast the entire day
Wednesday- break your fast at 7am
It really is as simple as the example above. And depending on how you schedule your 36 hour fast, you will spend many of those hours fast asleep.
But what further benefits are we gaining from a 36 hour fast as compared to a shorter 12 hour or 16 hour intermittent fast? Let’s take a look at that.
Fat Burning
Once you hit the 16 hour mark of your fast, some interesting changes start happening in your body.
After 16 hours of no food, you more than likely have used up all your glycogen stores. This means that all of your stored energy from the carbohydrates you’ve eaten in the last few days are gone and now your body is in the process of turning to your body fat for energy.
This switch doesn’t happen all at once and your body will be using both glucose (energy from your glycogen stores) and ketones (energy from your body fat) for several hours.
Your body may even make its own glucose for energy until the fat burning completely takes over. This would be done through a process called gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is your body’s ability to take proteins, fats, and other organic substrates and turn them into glucose.
Even though this switch from burning glucose to burning ketones may take hours, we can be certain that after 16 hours of fasting your body is well into this switch and it will start burning off your own body fat until the end of your fast.
Autophagy
As you start approaching 24 hours in your fast, another change in your body begins to take place. Your body will start a process called autophagy. Autophagy is basically the action your cells take to clean themselves up. Now that they have a break from processing food, they can focus inward and start removing all the junk and toxins that have built up during the years.
The word “autophagy” is from Ancient Greek and literally means “self-eating”. This couldn’t be more true as your cells will break down and digest damaged proteins, damaged organelles, and other unnecessary components residing within them.
Autophagy can lead to some amazing benefits such as preventing Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, depression and more. It may even help delay the aging process.
Because this fast is 36 hours total, you will be giving your body many hours to be in this state of autophagy. Thus more time to receive its benefits.
The Monk Fast
Now while you can always give the 36 hour fast a try and just do it once, there are some common ways to be more consistent with it.
You may have heard of the “monk” fast. This is a common name for a 36 hour fast done once a week. Many people that do this usually schedule their fast on Mondays. This is a good way to start your week off being extra productive. Because believe it or not, it is actually very common to be extra productive when fasting.
This may seem a bit counterintuitive because usually when you’re hungry, all you want to do is eat and you tend to lose your motivation for everything else. Well when eating isn’t an option and once you get past any hunger pains, you will be surprised to find that everything changes. This boost in energy and focus is a very common “side effect” (if you will) of fasting that may be very beneficial.
Alternate Day Fasting
Another 36 hour fast option would be “alternate day” fasting. This is where you would eat as you normally would for 12 hours one day, then fast 36 hours through the next day, and then repeat continuously.
An example of this would look like:
Monday- Eat from 7am to 7pm
Tuesday- Fast all day
Wednesday- Eat from 7am to 7pm
Thursday- Fast all day
And so on….
This may sound a bit intense to most people. And it really is. But it pays off because it delivers some great results, especially when it comes to fat loss.
There was even a well known study done that showed people lose 4.5% of their body weight from alternate day fasting after just 4 weeks. And on their eating days, they could eat whatever they wanted.
My Experience
I’ve done the 36 hour fast a few times and I found that it wasn’t as hard as I had expected it to be.
I typically do intermittent fasting everyday so I’m used to not eating until 2pm. But during a 36 hour fast, the hunger pains would come in at around 4pm for me. However after the hunger would go away, it’s like another wave of energy and focus would hit me. That extra wave would help me stay productive until late into the evening.
The only downside to this is that sometimes I would have trouble falling asleep those evenings after fasting all day. This is generally because I would still feel very energized and I would just want to stay productive rather than sleep. Despite this, I’m sure if I did the 36 hour fast on a regular basis my body would eventually adjust and it wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
Overall I enjoy how I feel during and after a 36 hour fast and I think I would enjoy it even more if I would stay consistent with it. Either way I would recommend trying it at least once. From there you can decide if you would want to stick with it as a “monk” fast or even try out the “alternate day” fasting approach. I’m sure you will end up liking it more than you’d expect, just like I did.