Ferg said:

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A couple of potential alternatives?

Abstain from Meat every Friday as Catholics used to.

Fast from Midnight until after Sunday Mass as Catholics used to.

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Wait no Jack In The Box tacos at 2am?

Harsh

But did you know that Catholic monks once brewed beer specifically for a liquid-only Lenten fast?

Back in the 1600s, Paulaner monks moved from Southern Italy to the Cloister Neudeck ob der Au in Bavaria. "Being a strict order, they were not allowed to consume solid food during Lent," the braumeister and beer sommelier of Paulaner Brewery Martin Zuber explained in a video on the company's website.

They needed something other than water to sustain them, so the monks turned to a common staple of the time of their region beer. They concocted an "unusually strong" brew, full of carbohydrates and nutrients, because "liquid bread wouldn't break the fast," Zuber noted.

This was an early doppelbock beer, which the monks eventually sold in the community and which was an original product of Paulaner brewery, founded in 1634. They gave it the name "Salvator," named after "Sankt Vater," which "roughly translates as 'Holy Father beer,'" Zuber said.

https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/lent-fast-beer/63676

Chalk up a win for legalism!

Definitely get a health professional to help you with this if you go through with it.

I did a 21 day juice fast, where fruit juices were my only source of nutrition. I drank about 40oz of juice a day, which is about 600 - 650 calories a day. It was not easy.

The not eating was not the most difficult part. Staying focused on my job while running low on energy and through headaches was the hardest part.

I lost a lot of weight, and felt pretty good after day 5 until about day 18. But, I was also measuring my blood sugar regularly, had plenty of juice with me at all times if I got dizzy, and checked in with a health professional twice during the fast.

I have done a water only fast for 3 days. The 3rd day was harder than any single day of the juice fast.

I have also done a 24 hour Esther fast, with no food or water from sunrise to sunrise. It is really hard to sleep when you are really, really thirsty, and even harder to concentrate. For the Esther fast, I spent the entire Saturday indoors focused on spiritual stuff. Not sweating helped a lot.

There are medical practitioners that specialize in helping people fast safely.

But, I would recommend against a long-term fast if unless you are morbidly obese. On average, over half of the weight lost during long-term fasts is muscle, not fat.

Also, about numbers and the OT. We tend to think of numbers as finite and exact in 2025. 2,000 years ago, this wasn't the case. 40 meant "a long time" but not necessarily the integer after 39 and before 41.

Best of luck to you. Do get some help with someone with experience. Do realize that you will be recovering from such a long fast for months to years.

In college, I also had a friend that took a Nazirite vow for a semester. He didn't shave, cut his hair, drink alcohol, or go to any funerals from the first day of class until after finals. At the end of the semester, we shaved off all his facial and head hair (we tried to get his eyebrows too, but he balked), and burned it in a camp fire over a few beers. Great times.

Day 3 is the hardest day of a water fast, no doubt. After that, it gets much easier.