The fasting journal · matched to fast day 45
Day 45. Halfway There
Day 45 is a Monday and it is the middle of the whole thing. Forty five days behind him, forty five ahead, a fast folded exactly in half. John opens with the number that made him shake his head.
178.3 pounds. Down 1.5 from yesterday and 50.3 pounds below the 228.6 he weighed on August 1. BMI is 27, body fat 28.4 percent, muscle 38.3 percent and the day burned 1906 calories.
How do I feel? I feel good. I feel great.
Fifty pounds and the fold line
45 days. We are halfway to the 90 day water fast. I cannot believe I have lost 50 pounds. Cannot believe that we are halfway there.
Both halves of that sentence earn the disbelief. The milestones have stacked up fast. Under 200 on day 20. Out of the obese BMI range on day 23. Under 180 yesterday. Now the calendar itself hands him one. Halfway, with a nice round 50 in the total column.
The comparison he reached for tells you where his head is. This is way better expectations than what I had from the last time that I did it. The last time was an 83 day fast years ago. He is not guessing about what a long fast feels like. He has the receipts and this one is beating them.
The strip is part of that story. Ketones still read 16, the top of the chart, same as every morning this week. The engine has not blinked.
The growl and the gas behind it
Then John clears his throat and delivers the day’s real subject.
I do have to tell you that the growling situation in my stomach has caused some gases.
The growling itself is an old character on this fast. His stomach started talking back on day 12 and was still at it on day 44. MedlinePlus calls the sounds normal gut activity, muscle waves sweeping air and fluid through an empty tract. The new part is what the waves are delivering. All that swept air has to exit somewhere and this week it has been.
What makes it interesting is his control group. That did not happen the last time. On the 83 day fast he drank vegetable broth partway through and the gas never showed. This time the broth stays on the shelf. We do not want to do the broth just yet because that slows everything else down. He would rather have a noisy stomach than a slower fast.
Water on a schedule
His workaround is timing. What I am doing now is basically hydrating myself faster in the morning.
Three or four cups of water when the day starts. More before lunchtime. More in the early afternoon. The idea is simple. A stomach with water in it growls less and a stomach that growls less pushes less air through the system. It keeps that growl down to a minimum, which produces less gases.
That is the whole fix. No product, no supplement, just moving the same water earlier in the day. He even apologized for the topic. Sorry I have to say all that. But in case you are wondering, oh, what is going on here? Now you know. Forty five days of this journal and he still assumes you would rather hear the honest version.
Half done
The calendar knot is now dead center. Every day from August 1 through September 14 is crossed off and the row of empty squares to the right is exactly as long as the trail behind. Forty five days to go. You guys have a nice Monday. Cheers.
Quick answers
What happens at the halfway point of a 90 day water fast?
For John it looked like a round number and a little disbelief. Day 45 of 90, weight 178.3 and exactly 50.3 pounds gone from his 228.6 start. He said twice on camera that he cannot believe it, once about the 50 pounds and once about being halfway. The comparison doing the real work is his own history. He did an 83 day fast years ago and says this one is running way better than what he had back then. There is no target weight for day 90 and this site will not project one. The fast ends when 90 days end or when his doctor reads a monthly panel and calls it, whichever comes first.
Why does fasting gas happen when the stomach growls?
The two travel together. Growling is the sound of the migrating motor complex, waves of muscle contraction that sweep air and fluid through an empty gut on a schedule. MedlinePlus files these abdominal sounds under normal gut activity. Most of what those waves are moving is swallowed air, which comes in with drinking and talking and just living whether food does or not. Push air through a tract with nothing else in it and the air has to come out one end or the other. John noticed the sequence himself. More growling this week meant more gas behind it. Same plumbing, more traffic.
Does drinking water earlier in the day reduce fasting gas?
It is the experiment John is running right now, so treat it as one man's field note rather than a rule. His theory is that a stomach with water in it growls less and a stomach that growls less moves less air. So he front loads the day. Three or four cups of water in the morning, more before lunchtime and more again in the early afternoon. He reports it keeps the growl down to a minimum, which produces less gas. Steady fluid intake is baseline sense on a water fast anyway since water is the only thing coming in. His whole intake runs under a doctor who sees bloodwork monthly.
Why is John not drinking broth this time when it helped on his last fast?
He answered this directly on day 45. On his earlier 83 day fast he took vegetable broth in the middle of the run and he believes that is why gas was never a problem then. This time he is saying not yet, in his words we do not want to do the broth just yet because that slows everything else down. A strict water fast means water only and every calorie of broth is a small step away from that. So he is absorbing a noisy stomach as the cost of keeping the fast clean and treating water timing as the workaround. If the calculus changes it changes with his doctor in the loop.