Finding a Fasting Hotel: What Medically Guided Therapeutic Fasting Looks Like

The essentials

• Medically guided fasting lives on experience: at Tannerhof the doctors have accompanied fasting for over 70 years, as fasting experts and through the in-house private practice.
• The course is shaped individually – the medical intake consultation on the first fasting day adapts rhythm and accompanying treatments to the individual.
• The treatment spectrum is deliberately broad, from bioimpedance analysis and IHHT altitude training to wraps, baths, massages and breathing therapy.
• Setting and medical guidance work together: fasting in the mountain rhythm of Bayrischzell, between alpine meadow, mountain stream and Wendelstein view.
• Fasting experience is anchored across the house in every department; fasting guests have their own dining room – the Fasterstube – and Schlanke Tanne Low Carb as a quiet bridge into everyday life.

What medically guided therapeutic fasting means

Buchinger therapeutic fasting is the conscious, time-limited abstention from solid food and stimulants. Herbal tea, water, mild vegetable broth and freshly pressed juices carry the day. Fasting is more than a diet – a therapeutic method, a cleansing on several levels and a meeting with oneself.

Medical guidance is not strictly required for every fast, but it is useful. People looking for a medically guided fasting programme find the right frame at Body Detox.

Medical experience as the load-bearing ground

The German Medical Society for Therapeutic Fasting and Nutrition distinguishes preventive fasting from therapeutic fasting. For therapeutic fasting the Guidelines on Fasting Therapy point to medical responsibility: indication, accompaniment and medication management require expertise. Since 1996, physicians can qualify as fasting doctors.

At Tannerhof this experience has grown across generations. Therapeutic fasting was introduced here by Johannes von Mengershausen and is today accompanied across three generations of physicians – in total for over 70 years. Fasting in the DNA of the house.

A course shaped individually

Therapeutic fasting does not begin with the first soup. Before arrival the doctors at Tannerhof recommend one or more relief days at home, for example with fruit, potatoes, vegetables or raw food. On the arrival day there is a light vegetable plate in the evening.

The core is the medical intake consultation on the first fasting day. It is holistic: history-taking, physical examination including bioimpedance analysis, and a medication review. Plus the questions that address the person – why fast, what goals at Tannerhof beyond the fast, what previous fasting experience. Within the booked frame, duration, accompanying therapies and rebuilding rhythm can be adapted together with the medical team.

Five fasting days and upward give the metabolic shift room; for first-time fasters a week with rebuilding is a fine size. The fasting day itself: herbal tea in the morning, mild vegetable broth at midday, freshly pressed juice in the evening, around three litres of fluid across the day.

The full treatment spectrum

At Tannerhof the treatment spectrum is deliberately broad. Overview at treatment offering. Medically: intake, follow-up and closing consultation form a quiet arc. Diagnostic side: bioimpedance analysis, IHHT altitude training depending on the programme, ozone autohaemotherapy when medically suitable.

• Wraps and packs: hay flower wraps, aromatic wraps, mud and warm packs.
• Baths and affusions: Kneipp alternating affusion, magnesium-rich detoxifying baths, aroma baths.
• Massages: fasting massage, detoxifying massage with king's oil or acidosis massage, lymphatic drainage, foot reflexology.
• Breath and movement: breathing therapy, yoga, Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, Theraband training and sauna.

Movement is part of fasting: moderate aerobic and moderate strength training, plus endurance-and-strength fitness area, natural pool, sauna hut and the BadeHarpfe – the body nourishes itself from within. For the mental side: psychotherapeutic coaching, nature coaching, business and communication coaching, art therapy.

Setting and mountain rhythm

Tannerhof sits in Bayrischzell, around 75 kilometres southeast of Munich, in the upper Leitzach valley, with a view of the Wendelstein. Alpine meadow, mountain stream, clear mountain air, the view between Wendelstein and Sonnwendjoch. My hideaway in the mountains – in the fast the phrase takes on its own depth.

A fasting-experienced team across the house

Fasting experience is anchored at Tannerhof across all departments. This becomes visible in the Fasterstube, the dining room for fasting guests. People who fast need a different beat than someone enjoying the in-house 3/4-Pension.

What happens in the body

The body works on two levels at once. The first level is fat burning: glucose to fatty acids and ketone bodies. The second level is autophagy – the body's own recycling and cleansing processes at the cellular level. Cleaning happens everywhere – cellular, vascular, in connective tissue, in the gut, in the brain, in liver and kidneys.

The PLOS One study by Wilhelmi de Toledo and colleagues (2019) with 1,422 fasters over four to 21 days showed: Buchinger fasting in this frame was safe and well tolerated; well-being rose significantly. During pregnancy, breastfeeding and anorexia, fasting stays out of the picture; with chronic conditions, ongoing medication or uncertainty, a telephone medical pre-consultation is available before arrival.

The bridge into everyday life

Breaking the fast still counts as fasting time and begins at Tannerhof with the apple. After that comes rebuilding over roughly one third of the fasting time. In the closing consultation the accompanying physicians evaluate what has changed. If a sustainable change is wanted, Schlanke Tanne Low Carb can follow – the in-house low-carb form. More at Therapeutic Fasting and Schlanke Tanne.

Discovering therapeutic fasting at Tannerhof

More in the programme Body Detox and the overview of the health programmes.