My 3 Day Water Fast for Healing: My Full Experience and Results

For years, I have been focused on living healthy. Not just looking fit or having abs, but truly being healthy at the cellular level. Clean food, non-toxic living, consistent workouts. I have been all in. But even with all of that, some problems have lingered. Years ago, I battled Lyme disease. On top of that, I suffered 2 major back injuries that changed the way my body functioned. Since then, I have dealt with nerve issues and pain all throughout my body.

If you have ever fought through chronic health problems, you know how frustrating it is when they refuse to go away no matter how perfect you are with your diet or supplements. That is what led me to make a decision I had never made before. I committed to a 3 day water fast for healing.

This was not about weight loss. It was not about trends or chasing a quick fix. It was about healing. It was about finally giving my body the time and space it needed to do what it was designed to do, repair itself.

Why I Did a 3 Day Water Fast for Healing

Every time you eat, even when you eat clean, your body has to work hard. Digestion takes a lot of energy. Blood sugar rises. Insulin is released. Your gut has to break everything down and absorb nutrients. Most people do not realize that digestion pulls attention away from the body’s natural repair systems.

When you stop eating and enter a fasted state, everything changes. Insulin levels drop. Blood sugar stabilizes. Instead of spending energy on digestion, your body shifts into survival and repair mode.

Around 24 to 36 hours into a fast, you reach a state called autophagy. Autophagy is the body’s way of cleaning house. It breaks down and recycles old, damaged cells and proteins that are no longer functioning properly. Think of it as a deep internal cleaning crew. The body removes what is not working to make space for regeneration.

This process is not just surface level. It happens deep inside your cells. Old mitochondria, misfolded proteins, damaged cell membranes, all of it is targeted and cleared out. This is critical for people dealing with chronic inflammation, autoimmune issues, and especially nerve damage because the body needs to get rid of damaged components before it can rebuild healthy tissue.

Fasting also stimulates stem cell production. Stem cells are the foundation for regeneration. They are undifferentiated cells that can become muscle, nerve, or other specialized tissue as needed. When you fast for extended periods, your body increases the number of stem cells available to repair damage.

Studies have shown that fasting can reboot the immune system, enhance the regeneration of the gut lining, and even stimulate the repair of the nervous system. This is why fasting has been explored not just for general health, but for fighting serious chronic conditions.

For someone like me, who has carried the scars of Lyme disease and back injuries for years, this made perfect sense. I was not just looking for symptom relief. I was aiming for deep, cellular-level healing. I wanted to give my body every possible chance to repair the damage that traditional treatments could not fix.

Another major reason I committed to the 3 day water fast for healing was to attack chronic inflammation. Inflammation is not just an acute reaction to injury or infection. Low-grade, chronic inflammation is the hidden force behind a lot of modern diseases. It drives fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, and nerve dysfunction. Extended fasting has been shown to lower systemic inflammation by reducing the levels of inflammatory markers in the blood.

The fast was my way of pressing pause on everything, the food, the digestion, the constant load, and allowing my body to do what it knows how to do when given the chance.

How I Approached the Fast

I kept it simple. I did not overcomplicate things or try to follow some overhyped protocol. I started the fast the morning after a normal dinner. And this was completely on a whim. I didn’t plan it. I just woke up that morning and decided that it was a good time to do it. 

During the fast, I made hydration a top priority. I drank a lot of water throughout the day, making sure my body stayed hydrated. Water is not optional on a fast. It is essential for flushing out the waste products that are released during autophagy and fat burning.

Along with water, I made sure to keep my electrolytes balanced. I added a pinch of high-quality Himalayan salt or sea salt to my water a few times a day to keep my sodium levels steady. Low sodium is one of the fastest ways to feel awful on a fast. I also had magnesium supplements on standby to avoid cramping or fatigue, even though I didn’t use them. On day 3, though, I did have Melinda grab me some pure electrolyte drops at Sprouts because I could tell that my electrolytes got extremely low, even with the added pinch of sea salt to my water. 

Black coffee was a part of my fast too. I kept it simple and had no sugar or cream. Just straight black coffee. Coffee can help blunt hunger and has even been shown to enhance autophagy. Plus, it gave me a little mental edge on the tougher days without breaking the fast.

What the 3 Days Looked Like

Day one was manageable. Hunger came and went like waves. My stomach would growl, but it was never unbearable. Mentally, I felt pretty normal. Staying hydrated and getting electrolytes in made a big difference in how I felt. Towards the end of the first day I did become very hungry. I didn’t sleep well that night either because my stomach hurt from being hungry. 

Day two was where the real work started. The hunger amped up. I think that was the first time I had ever gone 24 hours without eating. Along with the hunger came a deep sense of tiredness and brain fog. My body was burning through the last reserves of glycogen and shifting into fat-burning mode, a state known as ketosis. Ketones are not just a fuel source for the brain. They have been shown to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation, and they promote healing. I really had trouble thinking and speaking on day 2. It was like my brain just didn’t want to work properly. 

As my body shifted deeper into the fast, I started to feel nerve sensations throughout my body. Buzzing. Tingling. Odd sensations that reminded me of what I experienced during the worst periods of Lyme disease and after my back injury. Most people would think this is a bad sign, but I saw it differently. Nerve regeneration is not a clean or painless process. As nerves wake up and start healing, you often get tingling, buzzing, and other strange feelings. These sensations told me that my body was working on old damage. 

I slept terribly on Day 2. I think I only got a few good hours of sleep. From my research, that’s pretty normal during a fast. Regardless, it wasn’t fun and just added to my exhaustion. 

The beginning of day 3 was just as bad, if not worse, than Day 2. I kept myself busy throughout the day so that I didn’t think about how I was feeling, but I was absolutely exhausted. Later that evening, though, something shifted. My mind cleared up and energy stabilized. I was even able to get through an entire practice with my baseball team without becoming fatigued. I could tell my body had fully transitioned into deep repair and had finally adjusted to the fast. 

At around 9 PM, I broke the fast with bone broth and then a clean meal. Grilled chicken cooked in olive oil, half an avocado, and a baked sweet potato. No sugar, no junk. Just nutrient-dense food to reintroduce my body to digestion gently. What was crazy, though, was that I didn’t have an appetite. You would think I would be starving, but it was the opposite. With how good I felt, I think I could have gone a few more days. However, I decided against it because I had to be very active the following weekend. 

The 3 Days After Breaking the Fast

I was not hungry at all the next day, but I forced myself to eat to get my body back on a normal schedule. And when I did eat, my stomach didn’t really like it. I had some stomach pains and other issues after each meal. And I ate extremely clean, too. 

My first workout after the fast was lighter than usual. This was expected. Glycogen stores were depleted, and my muscles needed a couple of days to reload. I focused on eating clean carbs like sweet potatoes, fruit, and rice. Within a few days, my strength and endurance and mental clarity bounced back.

By day three after the fast, I crushed a 45-minute cardio workout with zero crashes or fatigue. I felt sharper, lighter, and stronger than I had in a long time. Now I feel absolutely fantastic and am sleeping normally again. 

The nerve sensations that stirred up during the fast continued for a few days after breaking the fast. Again, I did not see this as a problem. Healing nerves takes time. Regeneration is slow and often comes with strange sensations as the nerves reconnect and repair. For someone who has dealt with nerve dysfunction throughout the body for years, seeing signs that healing was being triggered was exactly what I wanted.

Final Thoughts

This 3 day water fast for healing was not about losing weight, even though I did lose weight and lean out significantly. It was not about a quick fix. It was about giving my body the time and conditions it needed to heal deeply. Autophagy was triggered. Stem cell production was ramped up. Chronic inflammation was reduced. The body was finally allowed to clear out the junk and start repairing what had been damaged for years.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Maybe not every month, but definitely a few times per year as a reset.

If you are dealing with lingering injuries, nerve issues, or the long-term effects of chronic inflammation, I believe fasting is one of the most powerful tools you have. Sometimes the best thing you can do is get out of the way and let your body do what it was designed to do, which is heal. But as always, it’s important to speak to your doctor first before attempting a 3 day fast. It’s super hard on the body and there are some risk factors.