After a fast longer than 24 hours, your gut needs time to wake up. Start with bone broth, eggs, or Greek yogurt, then wait one to three hours before eating normally. The speaker learned this the hard way after a 48-hour fast when three slices of pecan pie caused severe discomfort.
So let's start with how to break a fast. If you fast for more than 24 hours, your gastrointestinal system slows down. That makes sense, right? You're not eating so your body stops spending energy on maintaining your gastrointestinal system. Thus, you basically need to warm it up. You need to warm up your gut. And here's a cautionary tale to make the point. My first prolonged fast was about 48 hours, after which I broke it with with, get this, 3 slices of pecan pie, and I quickly regretted that nutty decision. Admittedly, this was after a colonoscopy, so not exactly a voluntary fast, and back then I wasn't really into metabolic health. But honestly, I preferred the procedure, the colonoscopy, to the aftermath of what happened with that pie. Super uncomfortable. So, rule number 1: do not eat a lot when you're breaking a fast. Start with a light pre-meal like bone broth or 2 to 3 hard-boiled eggs or a small full-fat Greek yogurt. Those will all do just fine. Try to avoid nuts, seeds, and fibrous vegetables, especially raw vegetables, which are harder to digest. Then wait an hour or two or three before having a full meal.
