What will happen after a week of fasting?

If you start cutting carbs, you could start losing a lot of fluid. Initially, a person could easily lose 13 pounds (5.89kg) in one week. This depends on how much water weight you have. 

One pound of fat is 3500 calories. An average person might burn roughly 2000 calories in a day. So, in theory, if everything goes perfectly, a person could lose 0.5-0.7 pounds per day while fasting. This would come out to just under 5 pounds (2.2kg) per week with fasting. 

But, there are a lot of variables that can affect this, including: 

• Exercise 

• Stress 

• Sleep 

• Age 

• Metabolism 

• History of consuming a lot of carbs 

• Health issues 

When you start fasting, you can stimulate growth hormone. Growth hormone protects against the loss of protein. Typically, the body doesn’t use protein as fuel. It uses the fat fuel until that’s gone, then it uses muscle. 

Let’s say someone is a bodybuilder, or they have a good amount of muscle on their body, and they’re exercising. But after they start the week fast, they don’t exercise. Potentially, their muscles could shrink because it’s the exercise that keeps the muscles stimulated and growing.  A good indicator to know if you’re fasting correctly is being able to exercise without feeling too weak and tired.

If you’re fasting, but you don’t have any energy, and you can’t do intense exercise, you may need more electrolytes.  It’s also important to make sure you’re taking enough sea salt regardless of whether or not you’re eating. Green powder drinks, B vitamins (nutritional yeast), and trace minerals may also be beneficial while fasting.  Some people think they need to load up on carbs to spike insulin to help their muscles grow. But, insulin comes with a package. And, insulin is also triggered by protein.

So, a better solution may be to have more protein instead of carbs. If you’re trying to lose weight, this isn’t a good idea. But if you’re trying to build muscle, it may be a better option.