Water fasting after a half marathon race?

Wtf.

Why on earth would you want to do that?

Probably the most important thing your body needs after a long race is water and rehydration.

Would it even kick start ketosis?

Why would you want to be in ketosis instead of doing things properly?

When you start drinking water properly again presumably you'd gain back a tonne of weight anyway after a week of dehydration.

I think I've heard it all on here now.

track chick wrote:

Why on earth would you want to do that?

Probably the most important thing your body needs after a long race is water and rehydration.

You misunderstood what OP meant. Water fasting does not mean not drinking water. It means not eating, but drinking a lot of water.

jet jet flying wrote:

I thought to myself why not?

Kick start my ketosis because my glycogen would be depleted post race.

Water fast for the next 7 days to drop a few pounds with little or no running.

Thoughts?

Please tell me it’s stupid

It's stupid. Keto loonies don't understand that even they need to produce glucose.

jet jet flying wrote:

I thought to myself why not?

Kick start my ketosis because my glycogen would be depleted post race.

Water fast for the next 7 days to drop a few pounds with little or no running.

Thoughts?

Please tell me it’s stupid

Your immune is going to complain a bit.... good luck with that

Why not? Or, just go keto.

jet jet flying wrote:

I thought to myself why not?

Kick start my ketosis because my glycogen would be depleted post race.

Water fast for the next 7 days to drop a few pounds with little or no running.

Thoughts?

Please tell me it’s stupid

You're either a moron, or you're trolling.

Valter Longo says most people should do 4 or 5 days of fasting once or twice a year. He's prof. of gerontology at U of South California and is a currently a big deal in fasting research and aging. He knows more than all letsrun self appointed diet experts.

Consult your doctor before trying it though.

Water fasting is stupid without electrolytes. Drink a salt water mixture with sodium, potassium and bicarbonate, or you will feel like a$$.

Part of learning to race the longer distances is learning to go deeper into your fuel reserves. It seems to me that withholding food from yourself post-race is going to make your sub-conscious brain less willing to go there next time.

jet jet flying wrote:

Please tell me it’s stupid

It's ignorant.

It would be stupid if you did it anyway after reading the posts here.

The reason is that running 13.1 miles has done significant damage to your muscles. That's normal, but your body needs nutrients and vitamins to repair and rebuild that muscle. It's not going to get all the nutrients it needs by burning your own fat. So the result will be that you lose weight, but you won't rebuild your muscles. You will be weak. You will have to rebuild the muscle again, which is a slow process... slower than gradually losing weight and maintaining your muscle mass with calorie reduction and exercise.

It appears that your goal is to lose weight. A better approach is to add some high-intensity workouts to your routine. High-intensity workouts will speed up your metabolism for a while after the workout. Plus, it will help you get faster in your half marathon.

Metabolically, this description isn't quite accurate. It's a simplified description, but the end result will be similar to that described above.

A friend of mine did this awesome diet where they didn’t eat or drink anything for days. They lost a wicked amount of weight. Damn did they look good in their casket.

WTH is wrong with you??? Water fasting??? There is no such a thing!!! Grow up...

Another smh post... Way too many recently... Must be a weekend and all the not-too-bright high schoolers and just-woke-up-after-too-much drinking college kids have nothing else to do... smh, again

I feel like this is a troll post, but the replies are even worse. Fasting is a real thing. Would I do it right after a half marathon? Probably not because your body will still probably need a couple more days to reach ketosis, if that's what you are looking to achieve. As a previous poster said, there are other more qualified and studied people who say fasting is a good idea. ,so lets get that out of the way. Now water fasting the week after doesn't make much sense to me. Just eat less than around 20 grams of carbs a day and keep running, you will lose weight easy. There are long distance runners who are keto, this isn't revolutionary.

Troll post or not, this cannot go unanswered. Consequences can be too serious.

Do not waster fast after a half marathon, (or after any other run/physical strain). Water fasting after a half marathon is bad for numerous reasons. I will list two reasons.

1: It can result in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) that can last years or even decades. This means you will not be able to do any physical activity any more.

2: Your tendons and ligaments and muscles need nutrients to grow new tissue after running. Tissues are broken down, and drinking only water is like demolishing a whole city and leaving the city demolished. There will be possible to build a new city later on, but it will take alot of effort and that new constructions will be fragile for a long time.

Your body needs water AND salts, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and proteins, carbs, and fat. Just bomb your body with all of this the days after races.

KawauchiFTW wrote:

WTH is wrong with you??? Water fasting??? There is no such a thing!!! Grow up...

Another smh post... Way too many recently... Must be a weekend and all the not-too-bright high schoolers and just-woke-up-after-too-much drinking college kids have nothing else to do... smh, again

0/10

Tried it years ago. On the rebound, you’ll probably eat more. Best to eat at least 600-1000 calories a day.

Water fasting is a thing, and, if you want to kick yourself into ketosis quickly, is the best way to do it.

But doing it after a race, like everyone else said, is just stupid. You may get into ketosis quicker, but at the risk of making your recovery from the race AWFUL. You need to refuel to repair.

I'm not anti-fasting - there's plenty of good research on it, I just think it's stupid for athletes. Only reason I'd consider it is if you have a lot of weight to lose and want to go keto for a bit. But even then, water fast during an off-season. Lots of low level movement, throw in some exogenous ketones, but nothing strenuous that's going to damage muscle fibers since you won't have anything to repair them.