The fasting journal · matched to fast day 41
Day 41. Not Hungry, Just Tempted
Day 41. Same gazebo, same flag gnome under one arm. John gets the numbers out in twenty seconds, spends a minute on his lab results and then tells a story about lunch that is better than either.
182.5 pounds. Down 1.8 from yesterday and 46.1 pounds below the 228.6 he weighed on August 1. BMI is 27.7, body fat 29.6 percent, muscle 37.9 percent and the day burned 1935 calories.
How do I feel? I feel good. I feel great actually. Everything is okay.
The blood is already published
I have received my blood test results from the lab. Actually some time ago but I posted them on my website.
He is right and they have been sitting on the bloodwork page since they landed. Two panels are up in full. The July 31 baseline from Labcorp, drawn the morning before day 1 and the day 31 panel drawn on August 31. The second one ran 25 markers across heart health, metabolism and hormones. Its own scorecard came back 36 percent optimal, 60 percent average and 4 percent out of range.
My results look pretty good. Probably some of the best results I have ever had in the last 15 years or so.
That last line is his, about his own history and nobody here can check it against records from 2011. What can be checked is what the panels say, which is why they are published with his name on them instead of summarized. The next draw is due at the end of September, around day 61.
One honest note. The baseline was a metabolic panel and it carried no cholesterol at all, so the lipid numbers from day 31 have nothing behind them to compare against yet. The direction, not the decimals, arrives with the next draw.
Ketones still read at the top of the strip. Forty one days in, the fuel switch he crossed back on day 37 has not moved.
The lunch
Then the part of the video worth the whole thing.
One of the things that I do is I meet with clients at different places, either at the home or I meet with them at a place to eat.
So he took a client out for lunch. They went over the products he had put together for her. He drank water, which needed no explaining because she already knew he was fasting. Then her order arrived. A salad with beef protein on it and a nice steak on top.
I try not to put myself in those situations but sometimes I have no choice. It was very tempting. Extremely tempting.
She offered. If you want a piece or two just let me know. He said no, nope, that is fine, I am okay and the meeting carried on.
Not hungry, just tempted
Here is the sentence that separates day 41 from every other update about cravings.
I just cannot wait to eat. Not hungry or anything. It is just that I know what it would taste like. I know how good it is.
He is 41 days without food and he is telling you plainly that hunger is not the problem. Cleveland Clinic describes ghrelin as the hormone that tells your brain you are hungry and on a fast this long that signal has gone quiet. What is left is memory. He is not being pulled across the table by an empty stomach. He is being pulled by knowing exactly how that steak tastes.
That is a harder thing to outlast, because it does not burn off. It waits.
I did not give in, you know. So when you are on the fast you have to be strong and just try not to put yourself in that situation.
Two pieces of advice in one breath and the second one is the real one. Willpower got him through the lunch. Avoiding the lunch is the strategy. He said his work does not always let him choose, which is the honest version rather than the clean one.
He called it a moment of weakness. He never touched the plate. Both of those are true at once and he is the only person on this project who would have volunteered the first one.
Day 41 of 90
August is crossed off end to end and September is marked through the tenth. Yesterday he spent the whole update asking where he should stop. Today he sat in front of a steak and did not.
49 days left.
Quick answers
Did John's cholesterol improve on the water fast?
There is no honest before and after to point at, because the baseline panel never measured it. The July 31 draw at Labcorp was a comprehensive metabolic panel, which MedlinePlus describes as a check on blood sugar, kidney function, liver function, electrolytes and blood proteins. Cholesterol is not part of that panel. The first lipid numbers on this fast come from the day 31 at home kit on August 31, which reported total cholesterol 111, HDL 44.1, LDL 48.4, triglycerides 92.5 and ApoB 61.3. Those are single readings with nothing to compare them against. The next Labcorp draw at the end of September is the first chance to read a direction rather than a number.
How often should bloodwork be drawn during a long water fast?
John's cadence is a baseline before day 1 and then roughly every 30 days, which is what his physician ordered and what this site publishes in full. He had the pre fast draw on July 31, a second panel on day 31 and the next one is due at the end of September, near day 61. The interval is his doctor's call and not a rule anyone should copy. A fast long enough to need bloodwork is long enough to need a doctor ordering it, reading it and holding the authority to stop the fast. Nothing on this page replaces that.
What do you say when someone offers you food while you are fasting?
John said no, nope, that is fine, I am okay and then went back to the meeting. It worked because the person already knew. His client knew he was fasting before the plates arrived, so drinking water while she ate a steak salad needed no speech and no explanation. He did not lecture her about fasting and he did not ask her to order differently. The refusal was three words long and the lunch carried on. He was also honest that it cost him something. He called the whole thing a moment of weakness even though he never touched the plate.
Does temptation get harder or easier 40 days into a water fast?
It changes shape rather than fading. Physical hunger is largely gone by this point and John said so directly, that he was not hungry or anything. What replaced it is memory. He knows what the steak would taste like and he knows how good it is, so the pull comes from recall instead of from an empty stomach. Cleveland Clinic describes ghrelin as the hormone that signals hunger to the brain and that signal is not what was driving him across the table from that plate. Wanting food and needing food are separate problems and only one of them goes quiet on a long fast.