Phase 2: The Dry Fast (The Scorch)

Not sure what to actually buy? See The Starter Kit, the full shopping list in protocol order.

Step 1: Getting Ready

Preparing correctly avoids a “detox crash” and makes the fast easier.

• Choosing Your Path: Preparation comes in two roads.
  • Plant-based path (gold standard): A whole-food, salt/oil/sugar-free taper over your final weeks, finishing on raw and steamed vegetables. It heals deeper and gets you closest to fully healed, but it asks for precision.
  • Ketogenic path (safer fallback): 50g of carbs a day or less for 1 to 2 months before you start. Far more forgiving and the right call if you are sicker, on many medications, or have struggled with fasting before.
  The full breakdown of both paths is on the Preparation page.
• Get Your Mind Right: Write down why you are doing this and focus your mind. A strong mindset helps you through the tough emotional parts.

Step 2: Starting Slowly

Do NOT jump straight to 5 days. You must build up your body’s strength.

Between Fasts: Wait 5 to 10 days while eating normally to recover.

Step 3: The Dry Fast (The Scorch)

How it works: Your body starts getting water by burning old, damaged cells and fat. This speeds up deep cleaning (autophagy) and releases new building blocks (stem cells).

The Stages of a 5-Day Fast

• Burning Sugar (0–24h): Your body uses up its sugar stores. You will feel hungry, but thirst is usually okay.
• The Acidosis Stage (24–72h): Your body switches to burning fat. This creates a mild “acid” state that triggers a massive “deep clean” (The Scorch). You might feel heat inside your body.
• The Peak Stage (Day 4–5): This is the deepest repair phase. You might feel a “healing fever.” You will pee less, and your energy might dip before you feel clear-headed.
• Regeneration (Day 5+): New cells are released, and you might feel a surge of energy as your body adapts.

What to do During the Fast

• Environment: Stay in a cool room with fresh air. Rest as much as possible, only do very light walking.
• Daily Habits: Try gentle belly massage, dry skin brushing, and light stretching.
• Tracking: Watch your weight (you will lose 1–2 lbs per day), heart rate, and the coating on your tongue.

Step 3B: The Water Fast (Days 6–10)

After completing the 5-day dry fast, you do not break the fast with food. You transition directly into a 5-day water fast. This is not a cool-down period: it is its own distinct and powerful therapeutic phase.

Why the Water Fast After a Dry Fast Is Different

A water fast done after a 5-day dry fast is not the same as a standalone water fast. The dry fast has already completed the deep cellular cleanup: the old damaged cells are gone, toxins have been burned, and your body is primed at a cellular level it cannot reach through water fasting alone. The water fast that follows is supercharged by this state: you are washing through a body that has already been restructured from the inside.

What Is Allowed During the Water Fast Phase

• Water: drink freely. Your body is now able to absorb it properly.
• No T3 during the fast: T3 is no longer taken during the water fast. It now begins only after the first 7 days of refeeding (see below).
• No L-carnitine: we no longer use L-carnitine. In my experience it works against the thyroid gains the protocol is driving (it blunts thyroid hormone’s effect in the tissues), and my working theory is that this is part of why the thyroid slows on carnivore-style diets.
• Nothing else: no food, no juice, no broth, no electrolyte supplements.

No T3 During the Fast

Earlier versions of this protocol started T3 during the water fast. That is no longer how it is done. You finish the entire fast, dry first and then water, with no T3 at all. Adding a metabolism accelerator while the body is still deep in fasting scarcity works against the fast instead of with it. The fast has one job, which is to clear the system as deeply as possible. Let it finish that job clean.

What does carry through the transition is your antiviral coverage. The fast clears out the viral reservoirs, and the moment they are most likely to try to re-seed is when food comes back, not during the fast itself. So the viral reactivation protocol stays in place straight through the fast-to-refeed handoff and across the whole refeed: L-lysine back on water day 1, monolaurin and olive leaf with the first meal, valacyclovir as the standing antiviral backbone from refeed day 3 at the earliest (never during the fast, dry or water, because a water fast still leaves the body dehydrated and the drug is renally cleared), ivermectin alongside it as supportive coverage plus the primary antiparasitic, and a valacyclovir loading dose on top at the first sign of a prodrome, once that standing course is actually running. A prodrome that arrives while you are still fasting is the exception: there is no standing course to escalate and no rehydrated body to clear the drug with, so that case converts to water with electrolytes, takes L-lysine at once, breaks the fast once rehydrated, and brings valacyclovir in on the standing rule. The Viral Reactivation page has the full stack.

During the first 7 days of refeeding we also add targeted mitochondrial and metabolic support: methylene blue, and in some cases ethyl pyruvate. This is decided case by case with each person, against their own history and lab numbers, so no fixed amount is published here. It is worked out directly in a consult. Its job is to help the mitochondria come back online as calories return, before any T3 is layered on top.

T3 therapy does not start until after the first 7 days of refeeding. The body needs to be eating again, rehydrated, and metabolically back online before you add the T3 signal. Once that first week of refeeding is behind you, the T3 climb, hold, and taper run exactly as laid out on the T3 Therapy page.

Step 4: Breaking the Fast (Refeeding)

Very Important: Eating too much too fast can be dangerous. Your refeed should last roughly as long as the fasting block. For a 10-day fast (5 dry + 5 water), give your body at least 10 days before returning to normal eating. Your antiviral coverage keeps running straight through this refeed window. During the first 7 days of refeeding we also add case-by-case mitochondrial support (methylene blue, and in some cases ethyl pyruvate), worked out individually rather than by any published dose. T3 therapy is deliberately not part of this window: it begins only after day 7 of refeeding.

• The First Hour: Drink Coconut Water only. Do not start with plain water. Take tiny sips (half a cup over a whole hour). This tells your new cells to start growing correctly.
• Hours 2–4: Keep drinking coconut water very slowly (about one cup every hour).
• Day 1 After the Fast: Stick to coconut water. In the late afternoon, you can have a small bowl of soft, mushy rice if you feel stable. Continue your antiviral protocol (L-lysine + monolaurin), and this is where case-by-case mitochondrial support (methylene blue, and in some cases ethyl pyruvate) is layered in. No T3 yet: it does not begin until after day 7 of refeeding.
• Day 2 to 7: Follow the rice and fruit schedule. (See the Refeeding Page for the full plan). Through this first week, keep the antiviral coverage and the case-by-case methylene blue (and, for some, ethyl pyruvate) support going. T3 has still not started.
• After Day 7: Begin T3 therapy. See the T3 Therapy page for the climb, hold, and taper.

What to Expect at Each Stage

• 36 Hours: A quick energy reset and light detox.
• 72 Hours: Deep cleaning starts and inflammation goes down.
• 5 Days Dry: Maximum repair, new stem cells are released. The body is primed for the water phase.
• 5 Days Dry + 5 Days Water (10 Days Total): The full protocol fasting block. Deep cellular restructuring followed by a supercharged water fast that carries straight into a guided refeed. This is the definitive version.