Is fasting hard?

That’s the first thing people ask when I tell them I don’t eat for 36 hours at a time. My answer is always: “It depends.”

If you’ve followed my “reboot” since December, you know it’s not always a walk in the park. I view fasting like a muscle. If you don’t exercise it, it withers. If you train it, you can do more – in this case, go longer periods without food – and with surprising ease.

Defining the Terms: What is “True” Fasting?

Many people start with the 5:2 diet. I did! It’s a great “toe in the water.” But eating 25% of your calories isn’t technically fasting; it’s a Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD). It teaches you that you won’t collapse without three square meals, but it doesn’t unlock the full metabolic “cleaning” benefits of a true water fast.

To me, fasting is simple: Not eating.

Building the Fasting Muscle: From 12 to 16 Hours We all fast overnight (hence “Break-fast”). If you eat dinner at 7 PM and breakfast at 7 AM, you’ve done 12 hours. Easy.

• 14:10: Just push breakfast to 9 AM. You’ve probably done this by accident on a busy Monday. Now you’ve done a 14 hour fast.
• 16:8: This is “proper” Intermittent Fasting. Skip breakfast, eat lunch at 1 PM. You’ve just cut your “eating window” to 8 hours and have fasted 16 hours.

Meeting the Hunger Gremlin: Ghrelin

“Don’t you get hungry?” Yes and no. Hunger isn’t a constant scream; it’s a wave. That wave is caused by Ghrelin, the “hunger hormone.” Ghrelin is a creature of habit—if you always eat at 1 PM, it will bark at 1 PM.

But here’s the secret: If you ignore it, it goes away. As long as you have body fat, you have “onboard fuel.” Your body just needs to switch the dial from “burning food” to “burning fat.” Every time you ignore a hunger pang, you’re training that fasting muscle.

The “Sweet Spot”: 36-Hour Fasts I’ve settled into a 3×36 protocol. I finish dinner Monday, fast all Tuesday, and eat breakfast Wednesday.

• Why 36? Because once you’ve fasted for 24 hours, you’ve already done the hard work. You might as well sleep on it! Going to bed at the 24-hour mark turns a difficult day into a 32 or 36-hour win effortlessly.
• The Fat Math: One pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories. By skipping a full day of eating, you’re incinerating about 1/2lb to 3/4lb of fat just by existing.

To Infinity and Beyond?

I’ve done 5-day fasts before, but they aren’t my “forever” plan. For me, 3×36 is the sweet spot for sustainability. It’s enough to keep my blood sugars in check and my weight dropping, but it allows me to enjoy normal meals with my family four days a week.

The Takeaway Is fasting hard? No. It’s just a skill. You wouldn’t walk into a gym and try to bench-press 100kg on day one. Don’t try to fast for 3 days on your first go. Start with 16:8, build that muscle, and see where it takes you.