Intermittent fasting has become a very popular approach to dieting, weight management, and improving health.
There are different styles of intermittent fasting, the most common of which is time-restricted eating, in which the window of time that you are permitted to eat in a day is limited while the overnight fast is extended as long as possible.
For example, 18/6 intermittent fasting involves fasting for 18 hours per day and then confining all of your eating and caloric intake to six hours per day.
The other approach is alternate day eating, in which you usually fast for a full 24 hours every other day and then consume your regular diet in between each fasting day, though some people also just reduce caloric intake every other day rather than fast completely.
If you follow the alternative day-eating approach to intermittent fasting, doing a 24 hour water fast might become a routine for you, or you might just want to try a 24 hour water fast every so often as a dietary reset.
If either of these cases applies to you, or you’re not sure how to do a 24 hour water fast, keep reading to learn how to do a 24 hour water fast, what to expect, the benefits of a 24 hour water fast, and tips for getting through a 1 day water fast.
We will cover:
- What Is a 24 Hour Water Fast?
- How to Do a 24 Hour Water Fast
- Benefits of 24 Hour Water Fasting
- 8 Tips for a 24 Hour Water Fast
Let’s get started!
What Is a 24 Hour Water Fast?
A 24-hour water fast also called a 24 hour fast or a 1 day water fast, involves consuming only water and abstaining from all food and caloric beverages for a full 24 hours.
During a 1 day water fast, most people typically drink only plain water, though some people also choose to have seltzer or club soda, herbal tea or caffeinated tea with no added sweeteners, or black coffee.
Choosing to vary your non-caloric drinks or just stick with plain water is mostly a matter of personal preference as well as how strict you want to be with your water fasting.
The goal is often to eliminate all caffeine to help improve caffeine sensitivity, so most people do choose to avoid caffeinated tea and coffee, even if unsweetened and made with only water.
However, if you do want to have caffeine and prefer coffee to tea, black coffee is still generally permitted when water fasting because it is so low in calories (about 3 calories per cup, or 240 mL) and nutrients that it is not thought to induce metabolic changes that take you out of a state of fasting.
How to Do a 24 Hour Water Fast
Actually, doing a 1 day water fast is very straightforward. All you do is abstain from all caloric intake and drink only water for 24 hours.
However, physically and mentally, preparing for the fast itself is important.
Although not mandatory, practicing with some time-restricted intermittent fasting can be helpful before taking on a full 24 hour water fast.
For example, you might consider starting with 14/10 intermittent fasting or 16/8 intermittent fasting, gradually extending your overnight fast as your body gets more accustomed to carrying out your usual routine with no current energy intake.
You can then progress to 20/4 intermittent fasting, where you are fasting for a full 20 hours per day and then confining your caloric intake to just four hours.
Doing these shorter fasting protocols will help you “rehearse” for your 24 hour water fast and will help get your body and mind adjusted to what it feels like to fast for an extended period of time.
Benefits of 24 Hour Water Fasting
There are quite a few potential physical and mental health benefits of doing a 24 hour fast periodically, including the following:
Supporting Weight Loss
Because you are not consuming any calories, a 24 hour water fast can potentially support weight loss.
Because you need to generate a caloric deficit to lose weight (at a rate of 3,500 calories per pound of fat), consuming zero calories for a full day can help create a sizeable caloric deficit, as long as you don’t compensate by rebounding with binge eating the following days, or “stock up” by overeating leading into the 24 hour water fast.
Depending on your daily caloric needs and BMR, a 24 hour fast should generate at least half, if not the majority, of the 3,500-calorie deficit you need for one pound of fat loss.
Indeed, evidence suggests that fasting can promote weight loss and induce favorable improvements in body composition.
For example, a review of 27 intermittent fasting dietary interventions found that all 27 studies resulted in weight loss of 0.8% to 13.0% of the starting weight with no serious adverse events.
Keep in mind that the effectiveness of a 24 hour water fast for weight loss will depend on how often you do it and your overall caloric balance on a larger time scale.
Improving Health
Intermittent fasting and water fasting have been shown to reduce the risk of certain diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease, and improve markers of health.
8 Tips for a 24 Hour Water Fast
A 24 hour water fast can be really overwhelming and intimidating if you’ve never tried extended fasting, but here are some tips to help support the process:
#1: Speak With Your Doctor
Water fasting is not necessarily safe, healthy, or optimal for many people, depending on your health status and needs. There are often other safer, less extreme alternatives to weight management and health than prolonged fasting.
Having a discussion with your healthcare team will help ensure that a one day water fast is safe for you.
#2: Drink Plenty of Water
Knowing how much water to drink during a water fast is one of the biggest challenges.
Most experts say that you should drink a minimum of 1 to 2 L, although more is typically recommended for anyone with a larger body size, who lives in a warm climate, or who sweats a lot.
#3: Use Electrolytes
Fortifying your water with electrolyte tablets will help ensure that you do not dilute the concentration of your electrolytes, which can induce hyponatremia, a dangerous condition in which sodium levels fall too low.
#4: Be Mindful Of the Foods You Eat After Your Fast
We often focus on doing our best not to eat anything during the entire 24 hour water fast without putting much thought into what we will eat to break the fast.
However, it’s important to choose foods that are gentle on the stomach and get your digestive system back into action rather than going gung-ho on a heavy, sugary, fatty, high-caloric meal.
Bone broth, soups, low-sugar fruits like melon, steamed vegetables, fish, and whole grains like oats and quinoa are some of the best foods to eat after fasting.
#5: Don’t Overeat the Night Before
Heading into a 24 hour water fast, many people assume that they should double down and eat a big meal to keep them satiated through most of the following day. However, make sure to eat easily digestible foods that are nourishing.
Processed foods, fatty meats, sugar, and alcohol will all be more difficult to digest and can compromise the benefits of water fasting.
#6: Be Mindful About Exercise
Depending on your overall health status and your experience with fasting, exercising during a 24 hour water fast is typically not ideal because you can’t fuel properly beforehand, and you cannot refuel after to help facilitate recovery unless you time the session at the very end of your fast.
However, at this point, you’ll be pretty depleted. If you do want to exercise during a 1 day water fast, you should engage in low-intensity exercise such as walking, hiking, yoga, Pilates, or gentle indoor cycling.
#7: Get a Buddy
A 24 hour water fast will test your physical and mental grit.
Having a buddy who is going through the experience with you can provide social support and motivation to help you through.
Recruit a family member, friend, coworker, or join an online group if you think that you would like the added accountability (and someone to commiserate with!).
#8: Journal
Keep a journal of your symptoms and experiences. If you end up wanting to make a 24 hour water fast a routine part of your lifestyle, you can use tips and memories from previous experiences to inform each subsequent iteration for continued success.
Although doing a 24 hour water fast isn’t necessarily safe or tenable for everyone, it can be a helpful way to boost health and support weight loss goals for others.
For more detailed information on what to do when you finish your fast, take a look at our article, Here Are The 10 Best Foods To Break A Fast.
