Nope. But if you want an easier fast, you can go on a keto diet for 3 - 5 days beforehand.
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Lol I actually had a massive cheat day the day before my 7-day fast. I ate lots of chocolate, ice cream, pizza and drank two pepsis. The 7-day fast didn’t bring the results I was looking for so I did a 14-day one a month later.
Lost all my weight and looked like a skeleton but it was well worth it. I was suffering from horrid symptoms of mycotoxin poisoning at the time which I thought was covid at first.
” Symptoms of T-2 toxin mycotoxicosis usually occur within minutes to up to two hours after exposure, and how they present varies depending on the route of exposure. Symptoms of T-2 toxin mycotoxicosis include:
Weakness
Prostration (extreme weakness resulting in near or complete collapse)
Dizziness
Ataxia (loss of control over bodily movements)
Loss of coordination
Symptoms by route of exposure:
Transdermal exposure: Burning sensation, blistering, skin necrosis
Gastrointestinal exposure: Anorexia, nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhea
Inhalation: Itching, sneezing, wheezing, coughing, blood tinged saliva
Ocular: Blurred vision, eye pain, tearing, and redness”
This is exactly what I had and on top of all this the trichothecenes gave me horrid depression (worse than fin depression imo), a drunk feeling, stomach pain, throat pain, couldn’t even lift up my phone or go up stairs as I was too weak. T2 is apparently the most dangerous mycotoxin out there and is highly neurotoxic, fuck. And I was exposed for a month and a half cuz I stupidly wanted to save money and unknowingly bought a bed that had been in a mold infested house. The first night I slept on it I had itchy skin and throat pain but I thought it was allergies.
It’s been a year now and I’m fine but still worried that I may develop cancers or neurodegenerative diseases in the future. Not sure if a month and a half of exposure would be able to do that, but the toxin does cause oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage.
Worst of all, this stuff spreads like wildfire so I had to get rid of most of my belongings as the toxins got on them as well. You can’t clean them. I rent a storage place type thing and have my old belongings there and whenever I go there for more than two minutes my head feels heavy, I feel weak and feel like I’m about to collapse. Then a few hours later I get mild convulsions. This shit is no joke
Sorry for hijacking your thread. The fasting did remove all these horrid symptoms and I’m fine now.
Wow, that’s horrible! I wouldn’t buy a used mattress because of bedbug fears, but this mold sounds horrific. You might have to get rid of / abandon all the infected stuff in storage.
I’m glad your longer fast sorted things out for you.
Lol yeah, I didn’t even need the bed really, but I had just met my new girlfriend and we wanted a bigger bed just for the hell of it and my friend suggested just buying an used one to save money as long as it looked clean and there was nothing wrong with it. There was nothing visibly wrong with the mattress at all but like I said I had symptoms the first night I slept on it but thought it was allergies. I’m only 21 too so still young and had no idea mycotoxins could be so bad.
Definitely a life lesson but I do worry about the long term health effects. And I was really pissed as I had just considered myself recovered from PFS and then had to deal with this shit. Not to mention losing even more money after already spending thousands on herbs. Thankfully I have a job that pays well and a pretty wealthy family
Hey bud, trying to stay off forums but I saw your message and felt like I had to reply.
PFS causes oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage too, and people are just fine after recovering. I don't see how mold exposure would be different. Also, the studies show that mitochondrial damage must persist for 10 years to become permanent and cause problems. So I think you're allgood.
Thanks for popping by even if you're recovered, you're a big inspiration for me
That’s interesting. I always assumed PFS at its severe end was ”just” low T, low/no DHT, high E and progesterone, low to no neurosteroids and messed up GABA receptors, plus the severe gut issues some people get. But perhaps there’s more to it.
And I appreciate the kind words! But honestly, I’m just a normal guy. Anyone can recover.
And yeah, I’d imagine eating a healthy paleo diet with lots of antioxidant sources would be beneficial in my case. I pretty much eat whatever I want now because I’m recovered and want to enjoy my life after having PFS for two years. But I should probably get back to eating a healthier diet.
It’s just that I’ve done a lot of research on mycotoxins in the past year and am aware of their toxic effects. Apparently ”toxic exposures” are a major cause of degenerative diseases e.g. ALS is known to cluster around heavily polluted environments, and many Vietnam veterans who had exposure to neurotoxic chemicals eventually got it.
Trichothecenes in general are highly neurotoxic, can kill you, and T2 is the worst and most toxic of them all. It has even been used as a biological warfare agent by the Soviet Union back in the day. After my exposure I had a brain MRI and a spinal tap done cuz i thought i had MS. It showed nothing but from my research mycotoxins causing nerve damage or even mycotoxins causing ALS seem like possibilities. Thankfully I’m fine with absolutely no problems and in great health but I do worry about the future. But I guess living as healthily as possible and avoiding future exposures is the key here.
Ignorance truly is bliss. It sucks that I researched so much about this stuff cuz now I can’t help but worry everytime I feel a bit clumsy lol
I wouldnt worry too much about it man, although I can understand. I did a mold test 3 months ago and it showed borderline levels for ochratoxins. Probably because my liver is overloaded and can't process it.
As long as you keep your body's detox pathways clear, that should prevent you from accumulating that crap. Eating vitamin B rich food to support your methylation and supporting your liver through liversupport/clean diet/low alcohol should go a long way. I haven't done them, but coffee enemas are amazing for the liver.
If you want to support your body's detox, I would use a low dose of binder every day or every couple days. It's often used to treat mold toxicity. Bentonite clay, zeolite, takesumi or charcoal are all good options. It binds to toxins and takes some load off your liver.
This is super specific to mold though, so I don't want new guys thinking it has anything to do with the protocol. If you have questions you can PM me, I read a shitload about that stuff in the last year, because my health seriously deteriorated and I had to cover all angles to get to a point where the protocol would work for me
I’m on day 15 of the water fast now. On the first few days I stupidly wore some fragrance which I hope won’t be too problematic / ruin everything.
Even if it took a few days off of my fast (I’m not sure if that’s how it works) I am fasting for a decent length so I’m hoping to get some benefits a few weeks after the fast. I will carefully refeed following basically what they do at True North.
It’s not letting me edit my last post for some reason. I meant to say: even if the fragrance nullified the benefits of the first few days of fasting, hopefully the length of the fast in general will still provide great benefits a few weeks post fast, while following the proper refeeding protocol.
My scale shows 148, down from 167, so 19 lbs.
By day 21 I will probably be down to 142. The type of refeeding that I’ll be doing will result in a bit more weight loss over 10 days, but I’ll also gain back water weight as my glycogen replenishes. So by the end of it all, I might be around 137 lbs.
Weight loss is not my goal here, although I did have enough fat to easily do this. Even at 137 lbs, I could go down to 107, I’d just look like a POW afterwards.
Yeah I massively went down the mold rabbit hole as well last year after I considered myself recovered from PFS. after my fasts I took a broad sprectum binder for six months (called GI detox i think). I doubt there’s any mycotoxins left in my body.
Thanks for the tips man!
Day 17 of the water fast. I’m feeling about the same; almost zero hunger, almost normal energy levels, zero libido, zero morning wood.
When it’s time to begin the 10 day slow refeeding process, I’m still kind of debating between the Goldhamer method and the Shelton method. Shelton said to do raw fruit, and that fresh juice was bad because it would “spoil” in the glass. Goldhamer says to do fruit & veggie juice for 1 day per week of fasting, then raw fruit for 1 day per week of fasting, then raw fruit + steamed veggies for 1 day per week of fasting. Maybe in the end it doesn’t matter that much. I just want to do whatever is best.
It’s Day 18, still going strong. I’m down to 145 lbs, on target for probably 142 lbs by Day 21. By the end of the refeeding process I may be under 140, which would be great since I started at 167. Cutting out that much body fat could only help me, on top of the much larget benefits that I will hopefully get from the fast itself.
I can kind of see the finish line, but once I reach it I’ve still got to go through 10 days of refeeding. So the end of the fast is really the end of Phase 1. I will probably start with fresh grape juice; it’ll be the best juice ever.
I’m going to be moving in a couple of weeks, but I’ll have at least 2 people helping me. Hopefully I will have regained enough strength to be able to do it without problems. If I didn’t have to move and attend a friend’s wedding next month, I would definitely be doing 28 or even 40 days. Hopefully this 21-day water fast will be enough, I’ve read stuff about guys doing 21 day water fasts and getting their morning wood back, and other benefits. But those benefits don’t come until about 2 weeks after the fast, and that assumes that you’re properly refeeding, which I aim to do.
I’m on Day 19 now. I can’t believe the water fast is almost over. Just two more full days after today.
I’ve been reading about some people’s experiences with water fasts on PH, which maybe I shouldn’t be doing. It seems like most people who did this length of a fast experienced significant improvements a week or two later, so I’m hoping for the same. Obviously I don’t expect to be cured outright.
If I have to, I will do a 40 day water fast. But I hope that what I’m doing now will be enough. It seems like this board isn’t nearly as active as it used to be, which is unfortunate but I’m doing my bit to try to keep it more active by posting more regularly.
Thanks for keeping us posted. I’m not sure if I missed it but have you currently benefited from mental clarity during your extended fast? I’ve only managed to hit the 6 1/2 day mark on my longest wf and the mental clearness was unlike anything i experienced before.
I don't post every day, but I read you every day. It's motivating to see other people getting really involved. Continue like this. :)
I feel like I have more mental clarity now, although it’s been a gradual change. I can also fall asleep faster and stay asleep as much as I want, so I’m not sure if this is due to the water fast itself, or getting great sleep every night.
The bigger and more noticeable change is in my anxiety levels; they’ve dropped a lot. There’s stuff that I have to do that I’d normally feel anxious about, but now I don’t really notice any anxiety associated with it. My anxiety isn’t zero, but it feels massively dialed-down, more powerful than the medications I used in the past. If it stays like this, that will be huge for me.
Thank you, I’m glad that you’re reading and I’m really glad that it’s helping you feel motivated.
I’m excited but also a little nervous about the end of my water fast. My biggest hope is that I’ll get good morning wood again. If that happens, I feel like I won’t be super far away from getting cured.
I am now on Day 21 of my 21-day water fast. Technically I could drink some fresh juice to break the fast right after midnight, but I’m not going to do that. I’ll break the fast tomorrow morning. I’ve said this ad nauseum, but I wish my schedule would’ve allowed me to do a solid 30 days, maybe even 40 days.
I’m going to make some fresh broth as well as fresh juices. Luckily I live right across the street from two grocery stores.
Although I have no libido (hormones crash during a fast) I did make myself fap a few times, which is certainly not ideal. I’m amazed that I actually feel sexual pleasure from fapping now, although the orgasm feels very very weak. It’s unfamiliar for me to feel sexual pleasure from it, after so long. My anxiety is also far less, which I hope will be permanent. I feel more mental clarity as well.
The fast definitely seems to have done something, maybe it has healed some receptors. I hope that my testosterone will start rising up past the baseline as I refeed, and I think it will… I also think that my body will be more responsive to the herbs and workouts. We’ll find out soon!
Super impressive man, good luck with the refeed
I’m refeeding now, day one was fresh juice and fresh veggie broth, but it came out a bit watery because I didn’t do it properly.
Today I started with veggie broth that was better. I also started eating whole fruit and my stomach is handling it completely fine.
However my mouth has a weird metallic taste in it. I’m not sure what’s going on with that. I’ve heard of this happening during fasts, but not during the refeed. I’m not sure what this means, if anything.
Libido and morning wood are still zero.
I’m feeling kind of stressed out about my total libido and morning wood shutdown. People say it comes back within a week or two of starting the refeeding, and then generally goes above the baseline afterwards.
I think I’m doing the right things with my refeed, but it’s stressful to be shut down like this.
What if I just return to baseline and that’s it? That’s a worrying thought that I rarely have, but it’s been popping up more lately. Also struggling to find a new apartment and I don’t want to have to move in with my parents for a month.
In my refeed, after the first day I started eating whole fruit. I just don’t like so much juice all the time, it’s too sweet. Raw fruit is a lot easier for me and possibly better for the refeed.
I also started incorporating some steamed broccoli, which I also think is okay. So fruit, broccoli, and some veggie broth. I may also eat some raw jalapeños or chili peppers.
Bowel movements are back as well. My weight is holding steady at 142 lbs, which is good. I don’t want to rapidly regain all the fat I lost.
These are still the early days of my refeed, which I will do for ten days. In a few more days I will add in plain boiled potatoes, so that’ll be a nice change of pace.
This morning I had low-tier morning wood, which is a good and promising sign considering I’m less than a week into the re-feed / post fast. Hopefully it’ll build up from here and I’ll go beyond my baseline by the time I hit the two week mark.
I haven’t had any morning wood since that last update. I’m still in this protracted slump, and I’m worried about whether I will actually experience direct positive symptom relief, or if I will just be more responsive to the herbs and stuff now.
I am still on fruits and steamed vegetables through Saturday.
Since yesterday I have also been having these odd bouts of burning sensations in my hands and feet, which is very worrying. Stuff online suggests peripheral neuropathy, but I don’t have diabetes and my vitamin levels are apparently okay. So I am not sure what the deal is with this, and I’m worried about this on top of everything else.
Well, bud, not like I personally know anything about a prolonged water fast, but what I hope I can reinforce without sounding ridiculous is the importance of keeping a lid on your stress/stress inducing doubts/concerns about all of this. I know it wasnt until 2 weeks after my juice feast that I finally started feeling truly good to some extent..so it might take a little while to get back to/above your baseline after a long water fast like that(?)
I woke up this morning with really good morning wood. It was pretty full and lasted ~5 minutes. (I did not fap.) I’m really happy about it :)
It's great, keep going. Before the fast, did you have any?
After quitting fin but before I started the protocol, I never got morning wood in 7 years. Maybe 10 days total in that time frame. Sometimes it would be like, 15% wood.
When I started the protocol I would often get 40 - 50% strength morning wood that would fade quickly. Other times it could be maybe 60%x This could last for some weeks, and then I’d start feeling like my hormones were low (tired easily, low energy, low ambition, etc) and I would not have morning wood. I felt like this during my entire 3 week fast and almost 2 weeks after.
Today’s morning wood felt like it was at least 80-85%, maybe 90-100%. I remember pre-PFS when I would pee in the morning, I had to lean forward and tilt my guy downwards, even 5-10 minutes after waking up. If the morning wood sticks around, then I will start to figure out where I’m at. But this is far better morning wood than I tend to have with PFS.
No morning wood today. Blah. But I also got very poor sleep.
How you going, man? Give us an update.
How goes it?
Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates.
Around 2 weeks after the fast, I decided to use the Standard Process tribulus. I did a medium cycle for about 2 weeks, tapering up to 6 pills and tapering down to 0. I felt significant improvements with morning wood most days, better libido, and sensitivity as well. I unfortunately wound up fapping a few times — the projection was at pre-fin levels (shooting out far, rather than the normal PFS dribble.) I didn’t really feel much in terms of an orgasm, though. I felt maybe a mild buildup, but it wasn’t like pre-fin.
I went to my friend’s wedding in California on August 6th, and unfortunately had 2 drinks, and also about 3 drinks the next day at airport lounges. I didn’t take any tribulus the next week, since you need to take 1 - 2 weeks off after each cycle. This week I started taking it again at a higher dose to hopefully get better benefits, but I was impatient didn’t taper up, and it didn’t seem to have much effect. I think that tapering up is critical for some reason. I will take two weeks off from tribulus and restart the normal herbs in the meantime.
When I use the tribulus again, I will make sure to taper up. Planning on doing the long cycle, but I will need to buy more tribulus first. It will apparently become available again in early September (right now it’s sold out everywhere, so I contacted the manufacturer.)
I’m probably going to experiment with some combination of tribulus cycles and the prohormones cycles.
I am still down 20 lbs from before my fast, and I don’t want to regain fat. If anything, it could help my testosterone if I went from 147 lbs all the way down to 117 lbs.
In my previous apartment, I went to some nearby restaurants about 1 - 2 times per week, and that may have cross-contaminated me with gluten on a regular basis, I don’t know for sure. I’m restarting the HIIT today and tomorrow. Back to weightlifting on Monday. It does depress me a bit when I feel like I’m doing everything and don’t notice any progress, and that dread has caused me to delay going back to the gym until now. I just have to do it and not think about PFS.
I’m not sure if I need to throw out my herbs and replace them, if some of them might have lost their potency… I don’t know.
Maybe I also need to be totally strict about the carb backloading, and never have carbs during the day.
Right now my morning erections have completely gone away, so that sucks. During the tribulus cycle of last month / early this month, I was feeling pretty good and had morning wood most nights. I’m sure right now my testosterone is back in the gutter.
Bro, you should make smaller fasts a regular part of your routine. Do 1 x 48hr water fast per week to clear things out. Chuck in some sauna too.
It's gonna be a long fight that's not fixed by a magic bullet. Fasting once was never gonna cure you completely, niether will a single prohormone cycle. What cures you is consistent effort and long term adherence to the protocol.
Keep refining your protocol and adding helpful things, and stick to it!
Courage, I have already experienced this, alcohol destroys our endocrine health. Each glass of alcohol = one step back.
Focus on the protocol, you've seen benefits so far.
Thanks, yeah alcohol does cause setbacks. I remember CD saying his recovery was slowed down because he would drink on the weekends and he had to stop that to get cured.
I started using the Snowballs underwear again (30-minute frozen gel packs that you put in special “tighty grey” underwear) and I’m hoping that will help along with the other things. It has been shown to boost sperm counts and related things over 2-3 months of daily use, ideally 4 hours per day. I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make, but I feel like it’s worth adding to the regimen.
I also started using the Joov red light again, which I’m also not sure if it actually does anything or not. I bumped it up to 10 minutes since probably 3 minutes isn’t enough.
I feel like the higher dose tribulus, without tapering up to it, caused a backlash in my system — not long ago I was feeling signs of improvement and now I’m back to feeling asexual.
I wonder if I’ve just never put together all elements of the protocol well enough for long enough, or if there’s something else wrong with me… It’s hard being here for so long and not recovering like I should have, but it’s not like I’ve been 100% on protocol even half or a third of this time.
I did HIIT on both weekend days and now I’ve got to get back to the gym daily. My old gym is a 15-20 minute walk away, I might just sign up for the other gym that’s a 2 minute walk just so I don’t have any excuses and my day will be easier. Ideally, I should hit the gym in the morning and just get it out of the way each day.
It’s just rough because there were long periods where I was on the herbal rotation, avoiding gluten, and working out, and still wasn’t getting the benefits I feel like I should’ve been getting. I don’t know if it was because I screwed up too much at NoFap. I don’t know what I was doing wrong… I don’t want to spiral into a depression but I feel a bit desperate.
Thanks; I’m not totally sure about the sauna idea. Heating the testicles is apparently bad for testosterone according to some studies I read. Also fertility doctors always advise men to avoid saunas if they’re trying to get their wives pregnant. I figure that whatever is bad for sperm count is also bad for testosterone.
I’m not sure what CD says about 48 hour water fasts or if other guys who recovered said that this helped them a lot? If so, I would do it…
I do need to get 100% dialed in again on the protocol. I just hope it starts bringing me benefits that start building on each other… If I can get to that point I won’t even worry about PFS, I will just keep at it and get healed.
I’m not sure if my herbs are too old and maybe I need to get fresh ones. For a good chunk of last year I was doing weightlifting, HIIT, herbal rotation… I wasn’t good at NoFap though. Am I fucking things up or am I somehow different and can’t heal… :(
I feel lost.