The fasting journal · matched to fast day 42
Day 42. Quitting Electrolytes
Day 42 lands on a Friday and John opens with a happy Friday and a number that rounds to a marker. 47 pounds in 42 days. Then he spends the whole rest of the video firing a supplement.
181.6 pounds. Down 0.9 from yesterday and 47 pounds below the 228.6 he weighed on August 1. BMI is 27.5, body fat 29.4 percent, muscle 38 percent and the day burned 1929 calories.
How do I feel? I feel good. I feel fine. No issues.
Which makes what comes next better, because the day he chose to quit electrolytes is a day he felt fine. This was not a panic move. It was a conclusion.
A funny thing happened
I felt kind of sluggish or what have you. I said, oh, let me take some electrolytes. And I did.
That is how it started. Sluggish afternoon, reach for the drink. It is the reasonable move and it is what most fasting advice would tell him to do. He took some the day before yesterday and some more yesterday.
Then my stomach started feeling a little queasy. Took some more yesterday and then it just got worse, you know.
Read that sequence again because it is the whole case. Dose, queasy. Bigger dose, worse. Nothing else in his routine changed. No food in six weeks, same water, same days. The only new input was the drink. The symptom rose and fell with it. MedlinePlus lists medicines and supplements among the common causes of nausea and John ran that diagnosis on himself without naming it.
I think what is causing my uneasiness with my stomach are the electrolytes.
The verdict
So going forward, I am not gonna be using electrolytes. I am just gonna stay away from them.
This has been building for a month. The drink first turned on him around day 25 and back then the answer was a lighter schedule. This time there is no adjustment, no smaller dose, no different brand. He is done. It is the first supplement he has dropped for good on this fast.
Worth remembering what the drink was for. He went his first 11 days on plain water and added Celtic salt and electrolytes around day 12 when broken sleep pushed him to it. The need it answered then is real, which is why his fallback is not pretending minerals do not matter. Try to do something else, I guess. We will figure it out. And figuring it out is not solo work. This fast runs under a physician with monthly bloodwork, his day 31 panel showed electrolytes in range and the next draw at the end of September will say whether dropping the drink moved anything.
Ketones still read 16 at the top of the strip. Six weeks in, the fat burning that switched on back on day 37 has not blinked, with or without the supplement.
Listen to your body
But you know, you gotta listen to your body.
That is his message for the day and he has earned the right to say it, because listening is measurable here. His body said queasy twice and he changed course. On a fast this long the feedback loop is the safety system. The scale every morning, the strip, the monthly blood draws and the plain daily signal of how the stomach feels. When one of those says something twice, you act on it.
Day 42 of 90
August is crossed off end to end and September is marked through the eleventh. Six weeks down. Yesterday he sat across from a steak and said no. Today he said no to something he had been swallowing on purpose.
48 days left. Enjoy your weekend. Cheers.
Quick answers
Why did John quit electrolytes for good on day 42 of his water fast?
Because the timeline only pointed one way. He felt sluggish, took some electrolytes and his stomach went a little queasy. He took more the next day and it got worse instead of better. When the fix makes the problem grow, the fix is the problem. He had already softened his dose once around day 25 when the same drink upset his stomach, so this was the second offense, not the first. On day 42 he stopped guessing and said plainly that going forward he is not using them. He will try to do something else and figure it out.
How do you tell if electrolytes are upsetting your stomach on a fast?
Watch what happens when the dose repeats. A single queasy afternoon on a 42 day fast could be anything, because an empty stomach complains in waves on its own. John's clue was the pattern. Dose one, mild queasiness. Dose two the next day, worse. Nothing else about his routine had changed, no food, same water, same schedule, so the one new input was the drink. MedlinePlus lists medicines and supplements among common causes of nausea. Concentrated mineral drinks on a six week empty stomach are a strong version of that. The test is stopping. If the queasiness fades when the drink stops, you have your answer.
Is it safe to water fast without electrolyte supplements?
That is a question for the doctor running the fast, not for a blog. The minerals the body normally gets from food, sodium, potassium, magnesium, still have to be watched when nothing but water comes in, which is exactly why John's fast runs under a physician with monthly bloodwork. He also is not flying blind. He went his first 11 days on plain water before ever adding a supplement. His day 31 panel came back with electrolytes in range. Dropping the drink changes what his next draw needs to check and that is his doctor's call to make. Nobody should copy the move without that safety net.
How much weight had John lost after six weeks of water fasting?
Exactly 47 pounds in exactly 42 days. He started at 228.6 pounds on August 1 and the scale on the morning of day 42 read 181.6. That is an average of 1.1 pounds a day across the six weeks, though the daily drops have ranged from a stall at zero to 4.4 pounds in the first 24 hours. His BMI has come down from 34.6 to 27.5 and body fat from 42.3 to 29.4 percent. One man's supervised numbers, not a projection for anyone else. The full day by day table with photos is on the site.