Any guess how much of a weight loss 10 day fast could involve ?
I practice Trf ( time restrictive eating) with occasional 1-2 days fasts and dont really have any spare weight at bmi just barely more then 18. Dont wanna look anorexic ))
I lose about a half kg per day, mostly water weight. My BMI hovers around 18.5 before a fast, so when I fast for longer time periods I get even thinner. This is a side effect to consider. Weight loss, lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure, higher blood ketones, reduced cholesterol are all either side effects or benefits depending on who's fasting. The water weight loss tends to come right back; fasting for obesity prevention usually fails long term.
What's counter-intuitive is lean muscle tends to increase, not decrease during a prolonged fast. The caveat is you rest, don't overuse resting muscles, do nothing too strenuous, and this would be an appeal of group retreat fasting: everyone else is lazy, too, all of us are fasting together and giving bodies deserved vacations from the crazyworld.
Bacteria basically eat, digest and excrete the food you eat, so yes; we all live on bacteria shit!
So its good idea to approve of the bacteria who's excrement you are living on and try to feed the good guys while starving and/or killing off the bad.
Improved gut health appears to be one of the benefits of a whole food plant based diet.
"The vegan gut profile appears to be unique in several characteristics, including a reduced abundance of pathobionts and a greater abundance of protective species. Reduced levels of inflammation may be the key feature linking the vegan gut microbiota with protective health effects. However, it is still unclear whether a therapeutic vegan diet can be prescribed to alter the gut microflora for long-term health benefits."
https://www.ncbi.nlm...les/PMC4245565/
For a happier microbiome you might want vegetable, fruit, legume, and seed variety. Prebiotics feed them critters, too: dandelion greens, Jerusalem artichokes, garlic, leeks, onions, chicory root, asparagus, jicama, wheat bran...
For expensive probiotics, the VSL#3 thing might be a go -- anyone here splurged?