Ran across this experience in the dry fasting club facebook group
I really think my 11 day dry fast made me look like an old woman, and it never went back…I am all about dry fasting and fasting, but I’m just curious if anyone else has noticed this…Usually I wouldnt post these no makeup pictures, because I do think they are kind of scary, but, since no one I know is in this group…whatever! Lol. The point is, I look about a decade older in the recent pic. These pics are 1 year and two weeks apart. The first pic is the third day of the 11 day fast. The picture with the glass is me breaking that fast with my first glass of water. I look gaunt in that picture, sunken face, I looked like a starving person. My weight at that time was 148, I’ve been 145 for years prior, and I never looked starving, I believe that look came from having no water. My picture today, exactly one year later, my eyes are all wrinkly, my turkey neck is quite pronounced, and, honestly nothing has happened in this years time other than the fast that might cause excessive aging. In the first and last pic my weight is about the same too, 158. After the fast I felt great, but I think it took a toll on what I look like. Honest responses are fine, you can’t hurt my feelings, I am totally aware, but I thought this might be worth posting to see if anyone else has had this experience.
The reason some people look older after a dry fast is correlated to the gaunt look on their faces. This is a result of dehydration, but for some who go very long (9 days and up) this can become a permanent loss of elasticity and water in the face. This will make you look older. You can see this in some of the dry fasters who don’t understand proper refeed and rehydration. You can even see Dunning and Filonov looking extremely old (or at least not younger like you’d hope). This is because they have not dialed in osmolytes with the proper refeed (look into the dfc osmolyte protocol). This is also another reason why going above 5 day dry fasts is risky. You need to balance that risk with knowledge, or else stay with tried and true 5-day protocols. Just do them more often, yes. I know it sucks. But that’s what you get when you are trying to heal an illness that usually comes because of years of bad behavior, or trauma (childhood, and anxiety/stress). You’re fighting a 30 year accumulation of stress debt, so don’t expect an overnight cure.
Anyone else experience older looking skin? It’s actually quite common to get younger looking skin with shorter dry fasts and good refeeds, and the beauty is that you also shrink loose skin for all my heavies out there.