Day 5 Water Fast: The Truth About Extended Fasting, Breaking Addiction, and What 20 Pounds Really Means

December 5th, 2025 - Current Weight: 304 lbs (Starting Weight: 324 lbs)

Woke up this morning with a light headache. Nothing severe, just a persistent reminder that my body is deep into the metabolic shift that happens when you stop eating for multiple days. This is day five of my current water fast, and while the physical symptoms are exactly what I expected, the mental clarity and insights continue to surprise me.

Twenty pounds down in five days. Sounds dramatic, right? Maybe even unbelievable to some. But before anyone gets excited or concerned, let me be brutally honest about what those numbers actually mean.

The Reality Behind the Numbers: What 20 Pounds Actually Represents

Here's the truth that most fasting enthusiasts won't tell you, either because they don't understand the science or because dramatic numbers get more attention: of the 20 pounds I've lost in five days, maybe four to five pounds is actual fat.

The rest? Water weight, glycogen stores, digestive contents, and inflammation reduction.

When you first start an extended fast, your body burns through its stored glycogen—the sugar stored in your liver and muscles. Each gram of glycogen is bound to approximately three to four grams of water. As your body depletes these stores over the first day and a half, you lose significant water weight. This is why the scale drops so dramatically in the first few days of any fast or low-carb diet.

But here's why I'm not discouraged by this reality: those four to five pounds of actual fat loss in five days is substantial and sustainable. That's roughly one pound of fat per day, which translates to a 3,500 calorie deficit daily. Your body is doing exactly what it's designed to do—accessing stored energy when external food isn't available.

The trajectory from 324 to 307 (yesterday) to 304 (today) tells me my body has fully transitioned into ketosis and is efficiently burning fat for fuel. This is where extended fasting becomes genuinely powerful, not as a quick fix, but as a metabolic reset.

Understanding What Fat Actually Is (And Why This Matters)

Let's strip away all the emotional baggage, all the shame, all the complicated narratives we've built around body fat and get to the simple biological truth: fat is stored food.

That's it. That's all it is.

When you eat more energy than your body needs in a given period, it stores that excess as adipose tissue—body fat. It's not a moral failing. It's not a character flaw. It's your body doing exactly what evolution designed it to do: storing excess calories for times when food isn't readily available.

The problem is, for most of us in the modern developed world, those times never come. We live in a state of constant caloric abundance. We eat breakfast as soon as we wake up. We snack mid-morning. We eat lunch. We have an afternoon snack. We eat dinner. We have dessert or evening snacks while watching TV. And some people even wake up in the middle of the night to eat.

If you're someone who doesn't put the fork down until you sleep—or if you find yourself eating during the night—and you don't like where you are physically, it's time to work on that relationship with food.

Your visible body fat—the double chin, the belly, the love handles (yes, I have all of these, and this shirt helps cover them)—is simply stored energy. It's food you've already eaten, packaged away for later use.

The question becomes: how do you access it?

Why Calorie Restriction Often Fails (And Why Fasting Is Different)

The conventional wisdom for decades has been simple: eat less, move more. Create a caloric deficit through portion control and increased activity. In theory, this should work. In practice, it fails for the vast majority of people who try it.

Why?

Because your metabolism is not a static furnace that burns a fixed number of calories regardless of input. It's a dynamic, adaptive system that responds to perceived scarcity by becoming more efficient—which is another way of saying it slows down.

When you consistently restrict calories—eating 1,200 or 1,500 calories per day when your body typically burns 2,500—several things happen:

1. Your metabolism adapts downward. Your body reduces non-essential energy expenditure. You feel cold more easily. You feel tired. Your fidgeting decreases. Your body becomes exceptionally efficient at running on fewer calories.

2. You're constantly hungry. You're eating, just not enough, which keeps your digestive system active and your hunger hormones elevated. You never get a break from thinking about food.

3. The psychological burden is enormous. Every meal requires willpower. Every social event is a minefield. Every advertisement for food is a temptation. It's exhausting and ultimately unsustainable.

4. Your body fights to maintain its set point. Your fat cells release hormones that increase hunger and decrease satiety. You're literally fighting your own biology.

Now contrast this with extended fasting, where you don't eat at all for a defined period:

1. Your metabolism stays elevated or even increases slightly. Studies have shown that fasting can increase metabolic rate by 3.6-14% in the first few days. Your body ramps up to access stored energy, increasing norepinephrine and other hormones that promote fat burning.

2. Hunger actually decreases after day two or three. Once you're fully in ketosis, the hunger signals diminish significantly. Ghrelin (the hunger hormone) levels drop. You're not constantly thinking about your next meal.

3. There's mental clarity rather than fog. Your brain runs efficiently on ketones. Many people, myself included, experience enhanced focus and cognitive function during extended fasts.

4. It's psychologically simpler. "Not eating" is clearer than "eating less." There's no negotiation, no "just one bite," no portion control calculations. The decision is made.

I'm not suggesting calorie restriction never works. For some people, in some contexts, it does. But after watching it fail for the majority of people who try it—and after trying it myself with limited long-term success—I've come to believe that for many of us, extended fasting is a more effective tool for metabolic reset and fat loss.

The Addiction Equation: What Fasting Really Breaks

Here's something I've learned through multiple extended fasts over the years: fasting breaks all addiction to food.

Think about your relationship with sugar, pizza, donuts, cake, cookies, chips, and processed foods. Who doesn't love those things? They're engineered to be hyper-palatable, to hit every pleasure center in your brain, to keep you coming back for more. The food industry has spent billions of dollars figuring out exactly how to make foods that override your natural satiety signals.

These aren't foods your body needs. They're foods your brain craves because they've been designed to create that craving.

The processed food industry has essentially hacked your biology. They've created foods with ingredient lists longer than your arm, foods that combine fats, sugars, and salt in ratios that never occur in nature, foods that are simultaneously calorie-dense and nutrient-poor.

And yes, they're delicious. They make you happy—temporarily. They solve some kind of emotional component, especially if you have that addictive personality and you combine it with emotional eating. You know you maybe shouldn't eat them, but oh my God, they just make you feel so good in the moment. So you keep going.

The beautiful thing about extended fasting is that it completely breaks this cycle. When you haven't eaten for multiple days, your relationship with food fundamentally changes:

• You realize hunger isn't an emergency. It's just a signal. You can acknowledge it and move on. You don't have to immediately respond to every hunger pang.

• You break the behavioral patterns. If you always eat when you watch TV, or always have dessert after dinner, or always hit the drive-through on the way home from work—fasting interrupts these automatic behaviors.

• You reset your taste buds. After several days without food, your sensitivity to flavors changes. Whole, unprocessed foods taste better. You don't need the extreme stimulation of hyper-processed foods.

• You prove to yourself that you have control. This might be the most important one. You demonstrate to yourself that you are stronger than your cravings, that you can say no to food, that you are in charge.

If you've been overeating for years—decades even—this isn't just about food. You're attempting to solve something. Maybe it's a childhood issue. Maybe there was trauma early in life, trauma you might not even consciously remember.

If you've been overweight your entire life, there's often something deeper going on. And here's the thing: you don't necessarily need to excavate every traumatic memory and relive it and be sad about it. Sometimes the healthiest path forward is simply acknowledging that something happened and choosing to move on.

Accepting that your past doesn't define who you are today. Understanding that while those experiences shaped you, they don't have to control your present or your future. And recognizing that it's time to fix it—not to get on the cover of Vogue (though maybe you will, I certainly am), but because dying at the end of your life with obesity-related health issues is probably the worst way to go out.

The Physical Experience: What Day Five Actually Feels Like

Let me be transparent about the physical experience of day five. I woke up with a light headache, as I mentioned. This is completely expected and is usually related to a few factors:

1. Electrolyte shifts - As your body releases water, you also release sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Even though I'm supplementing with salt and staying hydrated, there's still an adjustment period.

2. Caffeine withdrawal - If you're a regular coffee or tea drinker and you cut it out during your fast, headaches are common. I've reduced my caffeine intake, which contributes to the headache.

3. Detoxification processes - As your body breaks down fat cells, it can release stored toxins. Your liver and kidneys are working overtime to process everything.

4. The metabolic transition - Your brain is adapting to running primarily on ketones rather than glucose. This transition period can cause temporary discomfort.

I'm not taking any pills for the headache. When you're in a fasted state, any medication you take hits much harder than usual. Your stomach is empty, your digestive system is quiet, and substances enter your bloodstream more quickly and intensely. If you take an aspirin or ibuprofen during a fast, the effect is amplified.

The same principle applies to alcohol, which I no longer drink. That was another addiction I was able to beat. But if someone who was fasting for five days decided to drink alcohol, it would do serious damage. Your tolerance is essentially zero. What would normally be a mild buzz could be devastating to your system.

Similarly, if I were to break this fast right now with a pizza, a box of donuts, a cake, or a big gulp of soda, it would cause major issues. Your digestive system has been dormant. Your insulin sensitivity is heightened. Slamming your body with a massive influx of sugar and processed food after days of fasting can cause:

• Severe blood sugar spikes and crashes

• Digestive distress and cramping

• Refeeding syndrome (in extreme cases with longer fasts)

• Nausea and vomiting

• In severe cases, it can even be fatal

You need to treat your body kindly when coming off a fast. You can't think, "I'm going to make up for these five days in this next meal." That's a recipe for disaster. Breaking a fast should be done gradually, with gentle, whole foods, starting with small portions.

Aside from the headache, I feel remarkably good. My energy is steady—not the peaks and crashes that come with eating throughout the day. My mind is clear and focused. I'm not thinking constantly about my next meal. There's a sense of calm and control that's difficult to describe if you haven't experienced it.

The Historical Context: How We Got Here

It's worth stepping back and considering how abnormal our current eating patterns are from a historical perspective.

For the vast majority of human history, people didn't eat three meals a day plus snacks. They didn't have 24/7 access to calorie-dense foods. They experienced regular periods of food scarcity—not by choice, but by necessity. Their bodies adapted to function well during these periods, using stored fat for energy and maintaining cognitive function for hunting and gathering.

The three-meals-a-day pattern is relatively recent, largely a product of industrialization and marketing. The idea that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" came from clever marketers, not from nutritional science. Breakfast literally means "breaking the fast"—the meal that ends your overnight fast. It was never meant to happen the moment you roll out of bed.

We weren't created with the intention of eating all day long. Our digestive systems need rest. Our metabolic machinery needs periodic breaks. Our insulin levels need time to drop so that our bodies can access stored fat.

But in modern society, many people are grazing all day long. From the moment they wake up until the moment they sleep, and sometimes even during the night, they're putting food into their bodies. Their insulin stays elevated, which means they never fully access their fat stores. Their digestive systems never rest. Their bodies exist in a constant state of fed metabolism.

Additionally, our ancestors didn't have access to the highly processed foods we consume today. They ate what was available: whole foods, minimally processed, with nutrient profiles that naturally regulated appetite and satiety.

Compare that to the modern diet, filled with foods that have ingredient lists you can't pronounce, that combine fats and sugars in unnatural ratios, that override your body's natural fullness signals. We're completely overfed and undernourished at the same time.

Fasting brings us back to what our bodies were designed to do. It's not some trendy biohack—it's actually a return to our biological norm.

The Medical Considerations: When Fasting Requires Caution

I need to be absolutely clear about something: I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. This is my personal experience and understanding.

If you're considering extended fasting, especially if you're taking any medications, you absolutely must consult with a healthcare professional first. Here's why:

Blood Pressure Medications: Extended fasting naturally reduces blood pressure. This is generally a good thing, but if you're taking medication to control high blood pressure, fasting can cause your blood pressure to drop too low. You might need to adjust your medication dosage under medical supervision.

Insulin and Diabetes Medications: If you're taking insulin or other medications to control blood sugar, fasting can be dangerous. Your blood sugar will naturally drop when you're not eating. Adding medication on top of that can cause dangerously low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), which can lead to confusion, loss of consciousness, or worse.

Medications Requiring Food: Many medications need to be taken with food to be properly absorbed or to prevent stomach irritation. If you're fasting, you need medical guidance on how to handle these medications.

Other Conditions: If you have a history of eating disorders, are pregnant or nursing, are underweight, have certain metabolic conditions, or have other health issues, fasting may not be appropriate or safe for you.

Your body is remarkably good at maintaining homeostasis—that nice steady state where everything functions properly. For many people, fasting helps restore that balance. But for others, especially those with pre-existing conditions or on medications, fasting needs to be approached cautiously and with medical oversight.

This is a life changer. Extended fasting can have profound effects on your health, your relationship with food, your mental clarity, and your body composition. But it's powerful medicine, which means it needs to be respected and approached intelligently.

The Long-Term Perspective: Beyond This Fast

I don't know how long this particular fast will continue. I'm listening to my body and taking it day by day. The headache is manageable. My energy is good. My mental clarity is excellent. I have no immediate plans to break the fast, but I'm also not rigidly committed to hitting a specific number of days.

The goal isn't just the weight loss, though seeing 304 on the scale after starting at 324 is certainly encouraging. The goal is the broader transformation:

• Reconditioning my relationship with food - Learning that I control food; food doesn't control me. Understanding that hunger is okay, that it's not an emergency, that I can sit with it and move on.

• Breaking addictive patterns - Resetting my taste buds, my cravings, my automatic behaviors around food. Proving to myself that I don't need to eat constantly.

• Achieving sustainable fat loss - Not through crash dieting or extreme calorie restriction, but through leveraging my body's natural fat-burning mechanisms. Building habits that can be maintained long-term.

• Improving metabolic health - Enhancing insulin sensitivity, giving my digestive system a rest, allowing my body to engage in autophagy (cellular cleanup and repair), reducing inflammation.

• Demonstrating discipline and commitment - This translates to other areas of life. If I can commit to this, I can commit to anything. The mental fortitude developed during extended fasting carries over to business, relationships, and personal goals.

My target weight is a lean 260 pounds. I've been as low as 240 previously, having lost from 365 down to that point. I know the journey. I know what it takes. I know the mental game as well as the physical process.

This current fast is part of that journey, but it's not the entire journey. After this fast ends, I'll transition to a sustainable eating pattern—likely one meal a day or a condensed eating window—that maintains the metabolic benefits while providing proper nutrition.

The Mental Game: Days Two Through Five and Beyond

The physical aspects of fasting are one thing. The mental game is something else entirely.

Most people struggle most on days one and two. Your stomach growls. You're thinking about food constantly. You see food advertisements everywhere. Your usual eating schedule is disrupted, and you feel out of sorts.

But something magical happens around day three. Your hunger decreases significantly. Your mind gets razor sharp. You start to really focus. Brain fog lifts. You feel genuinely committed to the process. You want to move forward not because you're forcing yourself, but because you genuinely feel good.

This is the ketone effect. Your brain is running on a cleaner fuel source. Many people report enhanced creativity, better problem-solving abilities, increased focus, and improved mood during this phase of fasting.

You've worked through the initial discomfort. You've proven to yourself that you can do this. And now you're reaping the cognitive benefits that come with deep ketosis.

This is why I often say that if you can make it through days two and three, you might be able to go much longer if you choose to. The hardest part is behind you. Your body has adapted. Your mind is clear. The physical and psychological barriers have been overcome.

But here's what's crucial to understand: it's not really about the weight loss. Yes, twenty pounds is significant. Yes, I've "lost triplets" (as in, multiple babies' worth of weight, depending on their maturity level at birth—a morbid but accurate analogy). But that's not the goal.

The goal is getting reconditioned about food addiction. Understanding that it's okay to be hungry. Learning that it's okay not to eat when you're hungry. Practicing telling yourself, "No, I'm not going to eat right now."

Think about those days you've had where you were working from beginning to end, completely absorbed in what you were doing. You didn't think once about food because you were in flow, fully engaged in the task at hand. Then suddenly you realize you went the whole day without eating.

What do most people do next? They go home and eat everything—three days' worth of food in one sitting—because they "need to make up for it."

But what if, when you realize you went all day without eating, you said to yourself: "Well, hell, I went all day. Why don't I just make it to bedtime, then get to tomorrow, and maybe have something to break the fast then?"

That meal, by the way, is known as breakfast. Breakfast. Breaking the fast. It's right there in the name. It was originally understood as the meal that ends your overnight fast, not necessarily something that happens immediately upon waking.

Weight Loss Drugs: A Brief Commentary

I'd be remiss not to mention the elephant in the room: the explosion of GLP-1 agonist drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and others for weight loss.

These medications work, fundamentally, by doing one thing: they solve the appetite equation. They make it so you're not hungry. They slow gastric emptying and send signals to your brain that you're full, even when you've eaten very little.

The drugs essentially replicate one of the key benefits of fasting—reduced appetite and decreased food intake—through pharmaceutical intervention.

Do they work? Yes, clearly. People lose significant weight on these medications. The question becomes: what are the long-term ramifications? What are the side effects? What happens when you stop taking them? Does your appetite roar back? Do you regain all the weight?

And here's the bigger question: If you can do it on your own through fasting, isn't that a pretty brave place to be?

I'm not anti-medication. I understand that for some people, these drugs are genuinely helpful or even necessary. I'm not here to judge anyone's choices about their own body and health.

But I do think it's worth asking: Is your current state worse than the potential long-term ramifications of taking these medications indefinitely? What does it mean to need external pharmacological intervention to control your appetite versus developing the internal discipline and metabolic adaptation to control it naturally?

Maybe for some people, the medicine is the right answer. Maybe for others, fasting and dietary changes are more appropriate. It's a personal decision that should be made with full information and medical guidance.

What I know is this: fasting works. It's free. It has no ongoing costs. It teaches you about your own body and strengthens your discipline. And it addresses not just the symptom (excess weight) but many of the underlying metabolic and psychological issues that led to the weight gain in the first place.

Critical Thinking in the Age of AI and Social Media

Before I wrap this up, I want to touch on something that might seem tangential but is actually deeply connected to everything I've discussed: the importance of critical thinking.

We live in an age where we're being fooled every day, all day long, on social media. AI-generated content, deepfakes, manipulated images, misleading headlines, cherry-picked data, and outright lies flood our feeds constantly.

This applies to health and fitness information just as much as anything else. You'll see before-and-after photos that are manipulated or taken hours apart with different lighting. You'll see claims about miracle supplements that "burn fat while you sleep." You'll see influencers promoting products they don't use. You'll see AI-generated content that looks authentic but is completely fabricated.

Critical thinking is absolutely essential. When someone makes claims about their weight loss, their fasting experience, or their health transformation, ask questions:

• Are they being transparent about their methods?

• Are they selling something?

• Do their claims align with known science?

• Are they cherry-picking results?

• What are they not telling you?

I document my fasting journey at FastingBot.com. There's nothing to buy there. Nothing to pay for. No supplements, no courses, no coaching packages. Just honest documentation of my experience, the science as I understand it, and the mental and physical process of extended fasting.

I'm not trying to monetize this. I'm not trying to build a business around it. I'm just trying to help. If documenting my experience helps even one person reconsider their relationship with food, understand that extended fasting is possible and potentially beneficial, or make more informed decisions about their health, then it's worth doing.

But I encourage you to think critically about everything you see online, including what I share. Do your own research. Talk to your doctor. Make informed decisions based on your unique situation, health status, and goals.

The Path Forward: Your Fasting Journey

If you're reading this and feeling inspired to try fasting, here's my advice:

Start small. You don't need to jump into a five-day water fast. Try skipping breakfast. Try eating one meal a day. Try a 24-hour fast. Build up your fasting muscle gradually.

Do your research. Understand the science. Learn about ketosis, autophagy, insulin sensitivity, and metabolic adaptation. Knowledge makes the process easier and safer.

Talk to your doctor, especially if you're on any medications or have health conditions. Get their blessing and guidance.

Listen to your body. If something feels genuinely wrong—not just uncomfortable, but wrong—don't push through. Break your fast. There will be other opportunities.

Plan your refeeding. Breaking a fast properly is just as important as the fast itself. Start with small portions of easily digestible whole foods. Don't binge.

Focus on the mental benefits. Yes, you'll lose weight. But the real transformation is psychological—your relationship with hunger, with food, with discipline, with yourself.

Be patient with yourself. This is a practice. Your first fast might be difficult. Your second might be easier. Over time, you'll develop the skill and experience to fast effectively and comfortably.

Don't make it your identity. Fasting is a tool, not a religion. It's something you do, not who you are. Stay balanced and reasonable in your approach.

Conclusion: Day Five and Beyond

So here I am on day five. 324 to 304. Light headache. Clear mind. Steady energy. Committed to the process.

I don't know if I'll fast for seven days, ten days, or longer. I'm taking it one day at a time, listening to my body, and maintaining the discipline that got me this far.

What I do know is that this works. Fasting resets your metabolism, breaks food addiction, provides mental clarity, promotes fat loss, and teaches invaluable lessons about discipline, control, and the relationship between your mind and body.

It's not for everyone. It requires proper guidance, especially if you have health conditions or take medications. It demands respect and intelligent application.

But for those who can do it safely, extended fasting is one of the most powerful tools available for physical and psychological transformation.

If you're struggling with your weight, your relationship with food, or your sense of control over your eating habits, I encourage you to explore fasting as an option. Do your research. Talk to your doctor. Start conservatively.

And if you want to follow my journey, see the daily updates, read about both the struggles and the victories, check out FastingBot.com. I'm documenting everything openly and honestly—not to sell you anything, but simply to share what I'm learning and experiencing.

It's okay to be hungry. It's okay not to eat. You have more control than you think. Your body is designed for this.

The question is: are you ready to discover what that actually means?

Connor from FastingBot.com
Day 5: 304 lbs - Mind clear, commitment strong, journey continues

Connect and Follow:

• Full fasting journey: FastingBot.com

• Nothing to buy, nothing to sell—just honest experience and information

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. This content is based on my personal experience and research. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any fasting protocol, especially if you have health conditions or take medications. Extended fasting is not appropriate for everyone and can be dangerous if not done properly.