Before starting the Scorch Protocol, you must get your body ready. Think of this as “turning on the lights” before the deep work begins. Preparation means testing your baseline health, fixing major deficiencies, and then choosing one of two roads into the fast: a plant-based path that heals deeper, or a ketogenic path that is safer and far more forgiving. This page walks you through both.
Are You Ready to Start?
Blood Tests Done:Have you tested your Thyroid (TSH, Free T3, Free T4), Complete Blood Count (CBC), Metabolic Panel, Vitamin D, B12, Iron, Ferritin, and Cortisol? This tells you what you are working with. (It is not required for all these tests, in fact with most people we go off of symptoms only — not everyone has access to tests).
Body Temperature:Is your waking body temperature (taken before getting out of bed) below 36.5°C (98°F)? If yes, you almost certainly need T3 therapy as part of your preparation. (Please see body temp chart under T3 therapy section)
Liver Health:Are your liver enzymes (AST, ALT) within a normal range? A stressed liver makes fasting more dangerous. If they are high, prioritize liver support first. (Sometimes powerful extended fasting is enough to fix a fatty, dysfunctional liver, but if you have liver issues it is good to do some liver therapies and binding)
Medications:Are you on any medications, especially ones that are hard on the kidneys or liver? Some medications make fasting dangerous or impossible. Use A.I. to scan your medication list and ask which ones are the worst for liver health, which ones have a long half-life, and which ones have the worst withdrawal.
Step 1: Baseline Testing
You cannot fix what you cannot measure. Get these tests done before starting:
Test
Why It Matters
Thyroid Panel
TSH, Free T3, Free T4. A low T3 or high TSH means your metabolism is suppressed, a key target of the protocol.
Complete Blood Count (CBC)
Checks for anemia, infection, and immune system status. Low white blood cells or hemoglobin can make fasting risky.
Metabolic Panel
Checks kidney and liver function. Your kidneys will be working hard during a dry fast, so they must be healthy.
Vitamin D & B12
Severe deficiencies in these can cause fatigue, nerve damage, and immune failure. Fix these before fasting.
Ferritin / Iron
Low iron (anemia) causes fatigue and makes fasting much harder. Your body needs iron to transport oxygen during healing.
Morning Cortisol
Low cortisol (adrenal fatigue) is very common in chronic illness. It affects how well your body handles stress, including fasting.
Step 2: Fix Critical Deficiencies
Based on your test results, address these common deficiencies. Do not start the fast with known, severe deficiencies, as your body will not respond well.
Priority Supplements Before Fasting
Vitamin D3 + K2:If your Vitamin D is below 40 ng/mL, supplement aggressively (often 5,000 to 10,000 IU/day with K2) for at least 4 to 8 weeks before your fast.
B12 (Methylcobalamin):Critical for nerve function and energy. Low B12 is extremely common in chronic illness. Sublingual B12 is absorbed better than pills.
Magnesium (Glycinate or Malate):Most people are deficient. Magnesium is involved in hundreds of enzymatic reactions and is critical for proper insulin function and sleep.
Potassium:Ensure adequate intake from food (avocado, coconut water, fruit) before fasting. Low potassium during a dry fast can affect the heart.
Step 3: Choose Your Preparation Path
There are two ways to prepare for the fast, and they are not equal. One gets you closer to fully healed. The other is safer and far more forgiving. The right choice depends on how sick you are, how many medications you are on, and how precisely you can follow a plan. Pick honestly.
Both paths begin the same way. Starting at least 3 weeks out, remove alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and ultra-processed food completely. This clears the caffeine-withdrawal headache and the dopamine crash out of the way now, so they do not land on top of you during the fast itself. From there the two paths diverge.
Path 1: Plant-Based Preparation (The Gold Standard)
This is the stronger path. Done correctly, it gets you closest to fully healed, because it builds exactly the baseline a dry fast heals best from: a higher metabolic rate, higher T3, and a body primed so that the Day 3 acidotic shift hits with full force. That shift is the therapeutic event, and the larger your metabolic gap entering ketosis, the deeper it goes. It demands precision, so choose it only if you can follow the steps closely.
After cutting those inputs, the taper counts down to the fast. Day 0 is the day the dry fast begins:
2 weeks to 5 days out: Strict whole-food plant-based, with no added salt, oil, or sugar. Stripping these out sheds excess stored sodium so the fluid and blood-pressure swings of the first fasting days are gentler. This is about removing the excess, not depleting you. You bring electrolytes back up to a safe baseline on the rehydrate day below.
5 to 3 days out: Raw fruit, raw vegetables, and steamed vegetables only. No grains, beans, nuts, or heavy starches. This low-residue step is the real cleanse, clearing fiber out gently through food instead of through harsh laxatives.
2 days out: The single magnesium citrate clear-out (see Step 5), followed by a 1 to 2 day window of water, juice, broth, and electrolytes only, with no fiber, fat, or protein. This is where you reload electrolytes to baseline before going in.
Day 0: Begin the dry fast.
This path is also where medications come down, where appropriate. Two kinds of drugs matter most: ones that stress the kidneys or raise dehydration risk, which generally need to be off before a dry fast, and fat-soluble drugs that sit in your fat stores and re-enter the bloodstream as you burn fat, which are tapered over the weeks beforehand. This is selective, not a clean sweep. Anything load-bearing that is holding you together, like a Lyme protocol or an antifungal or antiviral you depend on, stays. Which specific drugs and what schedule is individual, and this is exactly what the membership is for: bring Yannick your list and he works it out with you. Do not change prescriptions on your own.
Path 2: Ketogenic Preparation (The Safer Fallback)
This is the forgiving path. Eat 50 grams of carbohydrate a day or less for at least 1 to 2 months before the fast, with the same cleanse prep below. Keto-adapting first means your body is already burning fat when the fast begins, which makes the fast dramatically easier and safer and leaves a large margin for error. Because the fast itself is softened, the medication picture is usually less drastic too.
The trade-off is ceiling. A body that eased into ketosis meets a smaller Day 3 shock, so the healing is gentler than the plant-based path. This is a tolerance accommodation, not a depth multiplier. Choose it if you are seriously ill, on many medications, have failed fasts before, cannot follow the plant-based steps precisely, or simply want the largest safety margin for your first attempts.
Which Path Is Right for You?
Choose Plant-Based if:You can follow a plan precisely, you are stable enough to taper medications on a worked-out schedule, and you want the highest healing ceiling.
Choose Keto if:You are sicker, on many medications, have struggled with fasts before, or want the safest and most forgiving on-ramp.
Neither, yet:If you are over-adapted (many months of low-carb with weight loss stalled at the same calories that used to work) or your waking temperature is under 96°F, fasting is not your entry point. You need T3 therapy to rebuild your metabolism first. See the T3 therapy section before preparing to fast.
Step 4: Mental Preparation
Setting Your Intention
Write Down Your Why:Before you start, write down exactly why you are doing this. On day 2 or 3, when it feels hardest, you will need to revisit this.
Inform Your Support System:Tell someone you trust that you are doing this fast. For fasts over 72 hours, arrange daily check-ins with this person.
Clear Your Schedule:The fast works best when you can fully rest. Try to schedule it during a period where you have minimal responsibilities. This is not the time for work deadlines or social obligations.
Prepare Your Environment:Stock up on coconut water and soft foods for the refeed. Prepare a cool, comfortable space to rest. Remove temptations.
Pray or Meditate Deep Into the Fast:This one matters more than most people realize, so do not sleep on it. A dry fast pushes you into a depth of ketosis you have likely never been in before. Carnivore eating does not reach this depth. Even long water fasting does not reach it. Something happens to the brain in that state that no amount of normal meditation practice reproduces: the mental noise drops away, the body settles, and you can hold a focused inner state that meditation teachers spend decades training toward. People who have never meditated a day in their life will sit down on day 3 or 4 of a dry fast and feel what a thirty-year practitioner feels. The fast hands you a state that is otherwise reached only through years of training. You do not have to earn it. It is a gift of the protocol.
A contemplative or prayer practice helps many people settle into and hold this state once they reach it on day 3 or 4. If that appeals to you, the Mindfulness & Neurology page covers specific approaches that work well in the deep-fast window.
Step 5: The Cleanse and the Final Days
One Clean-Out, Not a Cascade of Cleanses
Going into the fast with an empty colon means your body is not dealing with rotting material in a sealed, waterless environment, which is extra toxin load at exactly the time you want nothing pulling your immune system the wrong way. But more is not better here. Repeated laxatives, enemas, colonics, saltwater flushes, and herbal colon cleanses irritate the bowel lining and strip out potassium right before a fast that already stresses your electrolytes. We do not do them. The plant-based taper (or the keto prep) already does most of the work of emptying you out gently through food. One single, gentle clear-out finishes the job.
The one exception we keep is magnesium citrate, the least stressful of all the options. A dry fast is not a multi-day water flush of the colon, so a single clear-out beforehand plays a specific role it would not in a water fast. Once you are in the fast, autophagy and fat burning handle the real cellular clearance from the inside. There is nothing left to “flush.”
Standard magnesium citrate laxative, available at CVS and most pharmacies
What to Use:A standard magnesium citrate laxative, the kind sold at CVS for colonoscopy prep. One bottle of the liquid is the typical dose. Magnesium citrate pills also work but you will need a significant number of them (follow the label for equivalent dosing). Either way, take every dose with a large amount of water.
How to Do It:Follow the same protocol used for colonoscopy preparation. Take your magnesium citrate dose with a full glass of water, then keep drinking water throughout. The goal is to fully flush the colon, which typically takes several hours. Do not fight the process; let your body clear everything out.
Timing: 2 Days Before the FastStart the cleanse 2 days before you begin the fast. This gives you the following day to rehydrate and replenish electrolytes before entering the dry fast. Magnesium citrate is aggressively dehydrating, so do not go straight from the cleanse into a dry fast without this recovery window.
The 2-Day Window: Rehydrate and ReplenishAfter taking the laxative, spend the next 1 to 2 days drinking water, fresh juices, and electrolytes. No fiber, fat, or protein during this period. Stick to water, juice (no pulp), broths, and electrolyte drinks only. You want your colon to remain empty and your body to be well-hydrated going into the fast. Think of it as a juice fast bridging you into the dry fast. If you came through the plant-based path salt, oil, and sugar free, this is the window where you bring electrolytes back up to a safe baseline. You shed the excess earlier so the fast starts gently; you do not want to walk in actually depleted.
Why It Matters:A clean, empty colon going into the fast means less endotoxin recirculation, less digestive distraction for your immune system, and a higher-quality autophagic state throughout. You are already committing to something powerful. This preparation step costs almost nothing and meaningfully improves what your fast can accomplish.
Liver Support: TUDCA Over Liver FlushingI prefer several weeks of TUDCA supplementation over liver flushing protocols. TUDCA supports bile flow and liver cell integrity, and the extended window allows long-persisting medications and their active metabolites to begin clearing before the fast begins. This matters because drugs processed via the liver’s CYP450 enzyme system are often fat-soluble and accumulate in fatty tissues, and as you burn fat during the fast, those residues re-enter the bloodstream. Long-acting benzodiazepines (Diazepam, Librium), SSRIs like Prozac (whose norfluoxetine metabolite takes up to 5 weeks to wash out), antipsychotics like Vraylar (active metabolites persist 1–3 weeks), and cardiovascular drugs like Amiodarone (half-life up to 78 days) all fall into this category. Starting TUDCA weeks in advance, not days, gives your liver a meaningful head start before the added metabolic demands of fasting arrive.
Stop Exercising, Rest Into It:In the final days before the fast, stop hard exercise and avoid sauna or any trick meant to “burn off” glycogen faster. Your body has a transition speed that took millions of years to evolve, and forcing it faster only adds risk while protecting nothing. Conserve your energy and your muscle for the fast itself. Strict physical rest going in is part of the protocol, not laziness.
Get your own customized refeed plan
Members build a personalized, day-by-day refeed plan: food choices and a calorie ramp sized to their own fast, plus when to layer in T3 and the rest of the protocol. It starts at $1.
Ask Yannick directly. Members send their labs, symptoms, and questions and get a personal, reviewed answer, plus help sourcing medication and the full synthesized protocol behind every reply. It starts at $1/mo.
The information on this site describes a personal health protocol and is provided for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Consult a qualified physician before modifying your diet, fasting practice, or any medication regimen.
