They told you skipping meals will slow your metabolism. Total lie. At 36 hours, your body doesn't shut down, it activates. Fat burns, cells clean house, and inflammation vanishes. Here is what really happens. This is the first 36 hours without food. And by the end of the lesson, you'll see why this is one of the most powerful things you can do for your health. I'll break it down for you hour by hour and show you an exact timeline of what happens inside of your body when you go without food for 36 hours. Let's start with the first 14 hours. For those watching on YouTube, we'll show you a timeline of exactly what's happening inside of your body. At the 14-hour mark without food, there are three incredible benefits. Okay, the first benefit, you lower insulin. Second benefit, you complete digestion. And the third benefit, which is my favorite, you activate energy diversion. After your last bite of food, digestion continues for several hours. Yes, your stomach empties within 4 to 6 hours after eating, but your small intestine breaks down the nutrients, absorbs them inside of the body, and that will last about 14 hours. So, at that 14 hour mark, you've completed digestion. This means your energy levels start to increase. You have more mental clarity. Here, here's why. It takes a lot of energy to digest food. You're using blood flow, enzymes, resources within your body to break down food. This is why when you ate a big meal, you feel sluggish. You feel tired. It's called being a couch potato. At the 14 hour mark, that's complete. So instead of using energy to process food and digest food, you activate energy diversion. It's one of my favorite benefits here where you divert energy away from breaking down food and digestion and you divert that energy where the innate intelligence the inner physician when within your body directs it. So that could be okay let's send blood flow to the brain. Let's send blood flow to your heart to your liver to your kidneys. You start healing areas because you divert energy away from digestion to heal. And at this point, insulin, which is, as you recall, a hormone in your body that signals fat storage. Since that glucose spike from your last meal is gone and you've completed digestion, insulin starts to drop. So, you start mobilizing stored fat for energy. And insulin will continue to drop throughout the 36 hours. So, you get more fat loss. We'll talk more about this, but at the 14-hour mark, you're starting to lower insulin. Your body has these backup reserves called your glycogen stores. It's in your muscle and liver cells. And at the 14-hour mark, those stores are beginning to get depleted. So, it will signal to your metabolism, oh, we don't have this backup reserves. We're losing uh these calories. We're burning through these calories in your liver and muscle cells. What are we going to do? Oh, let's switch over to body fat for energy. This is the gateway to using stored fat for energy. So, if you struggle with weight loss, insulin resistance, diabetes, any kind of metabolic disorder, this is where the benefits start to ramp up. Only 14 hours in, super cool. But we continue on here. At the 16-hour mark of this fast, meaning 16 hours without food, you activate this cellular cleanup process called autophagy and mphagy. You see, your body's very smart. And I always want you to remember this. The number one priority for your human body is survival. So when you haven't eaten any food in 16 hours, no calories have come in, no energy has come into your body, your innate intelligence thinks we need to survive. What are we going to do? We're not getting energy from food. Where can we get energy? Oh, I know. We have cells inside of the body that are not functioning well. They're not producing energy well. They're not breaking down fat. Well, let's use that for fuel. That's how stinking smart your body is. So it activates autophagy. Autophagy stands for self eating, selfcleaning. Your body is literally eating damaged cells. The analogy is your refrigerator. When you open up your refrigerator, you have all these groceries that have an expiration date. If you let all the groceries inside of your refrigerator expire and instead of throwing those expired groceries into the trash can, you let them just sit there, buy fresh new groceries, and then close that refrigerator door, come back the next day, open up that refrigerator door. That's going to be a very toxic environment. Disease will manifest in that environment. This is what's happening when you don't practice fasting. When you eat every 2 to three hours, you're developing disease and what's called zombie scinesscent cells within your body. Autophagy is the process of getting rid of those expired groceries. And your body does this with your cells because your human body is just like that refrigerator. You have cells, mitochondria, proteins that have expiration dates on them. At around that 16 hour mark during a fast, your body will start to clean out the house, fix the grocery cells, or I should say fix the expired cells. So, it's kind of like Pac-Man going within the cells, cleaning out the junk, fixing up damaged mitochondria. That's the autophagy. And then the mphagy is when your body is now fixing your mitochondria. Why is this important? You've heard about the mitochondria before. It's called the energy powerhouse of the cell. True. Your mitochondria are responsible for producing the majority of the energy your body produces. So we want healthy mitochondria. They also burn fat and you have mitochondria that are not burning fat well or producing energy well. So mphagy is that process of cleaning out the mitochondria. So your cells start to break down and recycle damaged cell components, dysfunctional mitochondria and even precancerous cells. Think of it as cellular spring cleaning. Autophagy protects you from disease, slows aging, and improves metabolic efficiency. By cleaning out the junk, your body could replace those damaged cells with more efficient fat burning cells. So, this is a great window at the 16- hour mark to go for a light walk, drink non-flavored electrolytes because your body is shifting into repair mode. As you continue with the fast, you'll get more autophagy and more mphagy. But let's talk about what happens now 24 hours in without food. There are two amazing things that happen here. Number one, an intestinal stem cell reboot. A lot of people struggle with digestive issues, whether it's gird, acid reflux, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or maybe even conditions like SIBO, small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. Well, by the 24-hour mark of this fast, something remarkable happens inside of your gut. Intestinal stem cells become more active. Research from MIT has shown a 24-hour fast can dramatically boost stem cell regeneration in the gut lining. So, your digestive tract is essentially repairing itself. And this is a gamecher for anybody dealing with those digestive issues I mentioned earlier. Plus, the following: leaky gut, IBS, and other serious gut conditions. A stronger gut lining means better nutrient absorption, improved immune function, and reduced inflammation. The second thing happening at the 24-hour mark is a surge in human growth hormone. Human growth hormone is an important hormone that helps you burn fat. It's anti-aging and it's muscle preserving and muscle building. It's such an important hormone that celebrities and even musicians will pay thousands of dollars every month for their doctor to inject human growth hormone into them. that costs thousands of dollars and it's probably not a great idea because when you take a hormone like a human growth hormone injection, your body stops producing as much as as of that hormone. Well, here's the great news. 24 hours in, you naturally get this surge in human growth hormone. It's free and there are no side effects. Studies show there's a 2,000% increase in human growth hormone after 24 hours without food in men and a 1300% surge in human growth hormone in women after 24 hours without food. So if you're worried about muscle loss, nothing to worry about here. Your body's very smart. It raises human growth hormone to protect your muscle mass during this long fast. This brings us to the 30-our mark of the fast. At the 30-our mark, there is a surge in brain derived neurotropic factor. It stands for BDNF. BDNF is what's considered miracle grow for the brain. We used to think that once you lose brain cells, like through smoking, drinking, bad habits, lifestyle habits, you never get those brain cells back. Well, we learned through research that's not true. Your body could create new brain cells called neurogenesis. And it's not even only about the creation of new brain cells. It's about how effective and efficient those brain cells are. That's what BDNF does. It helps you become more creative, more focused, and it prevents these really serious neurological neuro uh degenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and dementia in the future. So, what we notice is a huge increase in BDNF at that 30 hour mark. you're going to feel better in terms of your focus, memory, and just feel mentally sharp. Many students at this point of the fast have pointed out to me that, "Oh my gosh, my my fasting results have just been elevated. I just feel incredible." You know, another thing happening here is your body is producing ketones. And at the 36-hour mark of the fast, which is the next part of your timeline here, you achieve serious fat loss because of that ketone production. So, by now at the 36-hour mark, you've depleted those sugar reserves, your glycogen stores, which is the sugar in your liver and muscle cells. Your body then switches over to tapping into belly fat, stored fat for energy. It sends those fatty acids from your fat cells to your liver. Your liver uses it as an energy source and then produces ketones. Ketones are anti-inflammatory. They also help your mitochondria produce 400% more energy in the form of ATP. And they help you burn fat because you're just crushing fat cells. So, at the 36-hour mark of the fast, you're going to achieve serious fat loss. Yeah. The first 24 hours, you're going to lose water weight. At the 36-hour mark, you're actually burning fat. It's called fat oxidation. Ketones also will drop your inflammatory markers, which is going to be CRP, homocyine, IL6. This is going to help with joint pain, skin health, recovery, and just overall feeling like a rock star. This is the fat burning sweet spot that many people chase with a keto diet, but you could achieve this 36 hours into a fast. Look, ketones aren't just fuel. They're signaling molecules to your mitochondria to ramp up energy production, which means you burn more fat and lower inflammation at the same time. It's a win winin win. So, that's the timeline. Now, I'm going to address the common questions you have posted on on how to do this the right way, a 36-hour fast. Before I get to those commonly asked questions and address them right now, I want to give you a free resource because fasting done right is where you'll get all of these benefits. Fasting done the wrong way, you don't really get all these benefits. So, how do you do it the right way? Well, I have a 30-day guide to help you tap into visceral fat, which incorporates fasting done the right way. And I want to give you that guide for free. If you scan the QR code on the screen, for those watching on YouTube, you can download it for free. Or if you go to targetbellyfat.com, or click the link down below, you can download that free 30-day guide right away and take action. I'm also doing a speaking tour right now for my latest book, Metabolic Freedom. I'm doing keynote lectures all across the US and the Middle East, and we're adding dates. And I'd love to see you in person. We're doing meetups, book giveaways, and I'd love to hang out with you. If you go to benazadi.com/events, you can see my upcoming dates and where I'm speaking next. Now, let's get to your questions. Can I drink coffee? Tea or electrolyte drinks during a 36-hour fast? Tea when it's unflavored, unsweetened, and an herbal variety is fine. Coffee should be fine as well. However, there are some people that will get a glucose response, a blood sugar response from coffee. And the only way to know if coffee is safe or not is to test your blood glucose during a fast. If you see coffee raised the glucose, it is going to you're going to lose some of the benefits. If you feel like there's no way you could get through this fast without your coffee, then go ahead, have your coffee. Electrolytes, if it's unflavored, are fine. I would stay away from flavored electrolytes that include stevia, monk fruit, or any kind of sweetened electrolyte just because I want I don't want an insulin or a glucose response and I want you to get all the benefits and not push your innate intelligence any direction. So, water with sea salt, water with unflavored electrolytes is best. Will I lose muscle during this fast, especially by hour 36? You will not. You see, the body raises human growth hormone to protect your muscle mass. It's very smart. As long as you have some metabolic flexibility, you're going to be fine. That if you are a pure sugar burner and very overweight, obese, maybe you have metabolic syndrome and just go into a 36-hour fast without doing prep work, you will lose some muscle. So, it depends on how healthy your metabolism is. That's why I'm giving you that free 30-day guide to know how to do this the right way so you're not losing muscle mass and actually you could build lean muscle mass with a 36-hour fast. Is a 36-hour fast safe for women or should it be shorter? Uh, depends on if we're talking about women who have a menstrual cycle and women who are post-menopausal. If you're a woman with a menstrual cycle, you do not want to do a 36-hour fast the week before your menstrual cycle. That is the time to build hormones like progesterone and estrogen. And you do that by feasting, not by fasting. But if you do a 36-hour water fast the week of your period, the bleed week, that's the best time to do it. For post-menopausal women, you just want to make sure you have your stress mastered, you're getting quality sleep, and a 36-hour fast would benefit you for sure. Men, we could be a little bit more aggressive. Can I exercise during a 36-hour fast? And if so, what is the best type of exercise? I wouldn't do any strenuous activity. Walking is fine, but burst training, strength training, any kind of high intensity, I would avoid because I want you to use I want the body to use its resources for healing, not for a workout. Will a 36-hour fast help with specific conditions like type two diabetes or fatty liver? Yes, but you want to make sure you work with your practitioner. You're looking at glucose and ketones during a fast. And if you're on medication, definitely talk to your health practitioner before you do a 36-hour fast. For fatty liver, it's amazing because you start to pull fat from the liver to be used for energy during a fast. It works really well for fatty liver. Does taking supplements break the fast or interfere with autophagy? The only supplements I would recommend during a fast are potassium and magnesium. I wouldn't take any other supplements. Again, I don't want to push your body and your inate intelligence any direction. I want it to do its thing, which is heal. How often can I safely do this 36-hour water fast without harming my health? Uh, again, it depends on your health history, how overweight you are. I have a lot of students in my fat loss academy who are obese or overweight, and I have them do a 36-hour fast once a month. But a general answer for you would be once every quarter is a good general protocol. There you have it. That's the 36-hour timeline. Go implement it, get those amazing results, and come and comment on YouTube and let me know how it goes for you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. And hey, if you love this lesson, I recently published a lesson on drinking one tablespoon of this specific liquid every day helps you burn belly fat. I'll show you a clip from that lesson. Then click the video on the screen and I'll see you in that next lesson. These ingredients have four things in common. Number one, they enhance mitochondrial biogenesis, which is the creation of new mitochondria. Number two, they turn that white fat, which is the fat around your organs, that visceral fat, to beige and brown fat. Number three, they're all insulin friendly, allowing you to be in a fat burning mode.