Fasting for Beginners: A Realistic First Fasting Week

The essentials at a glance

• For first-time fasters, Tannerhof recommends around seven fasting days plus two to three rebuilding days, roughly ten days in total; the length stays a recommendation, not a rule.
• A first fasting week follows a clear arc: preparation, the admission consultation and fasting start, the transition days, calm fasting days, breaking the fast and rebuilding.
• The switch to the fasting metabolism can make itself felt on the second and third day; after that it becomes easier for many.
• Therapeutic fasting after Buchinger is not a zero-calorie diet but the deliberate, time-limited abstention from solid food and stimulants, carried by tea, soup, juice and plenty of fluids.
• At Naturhotel Tannerhof, therapeutic fasting has been medically supervised for over 70 years, with the support of first-time fasters at its centre.

Fasting for beginners: what it means

Therapeutic fasting after Buchinger is the deliberate, time-limited abstention from solid food and stimulants. For people fasting for the first time, that sounds like a lot at first – yet in practice it is calmer than the idea suggests. Unlike a pure zero-calorie diet, the body is not left entirely without intake: herbal tea, mild vegetable broth, freshly pressed juice and plenty of fluids carry you through the day.

Therapeutic fasting is more than a diet. It is a therapeutic method, a cleansing on many levels and an encounter with yourself. Weight loss can be a side effect, but the focus is on relief, a clear caesura and slowly rediscovering a good eating rhythm. To see the medically supervised setting at the house, look at the Body Detox programme; the method itself is described on the page on therapeutic fasting after Buchinger and in the Fasting and Schlanke Tanne hub.

What matters most for beginners is a sentence from Johannes von Mengershausen, who brought therapeutic fasting to the Tannerhof: In fasting you discover a new freedom: independence from solid food. Fasting means stillness, listening inward to what is happening within, and reflecting on the essential. It is precisely this freedom that most first-time fasters find the real surprise.

How long does the first fasting week last?

The length is a recommendation, not a rule. Guests decide for themselves, and the longer you fast, the deeper the effects reach. At the Tannerhof, five fasting days or more are generally recommended, because otherwise the transition has little room.

For first-time fasters, a full week is a fine measure: about seven fasting days plus two to three rebuilding days, roughly ten days in total. This length gives the body time to find its way into the fasting metabolism, to leave the transition days behind and to truly experience the calm part of the week. In the end it adds up to a good week to set aside – fasting days plus preparation and rebuilding.

Important for planning: the length of stay is booked before arrival, online or through reservations. That fixes the time frame before you even reach the Leitzach valley. The medical admission consultation takes place only on the first fasting day, after arrival; from then on, length and process can be adjusted together with the medical team, for instance extended.

How the first fasting week unfolds

A fasting week does not begin with the first bowl of soup but with preparation – and it does not end with the last fasting day but with rebuilding. This arc is also professionally anchored: the guidelines on fasting therapy, available from the German Medical Society for Fasting and Nutrition (ÄGHE), describe the classic fasting week as a sequence of a preparation day, fasting days and rebuilding days.

For beginners it helps to see this arc once at a glance. The following table shows the phases of a first fasting week at the Tannerhof.

On the first fasting day, the admission consultation takes centre stage, and it is designed holistically. The medical side includes case history, a physical examination with bioimpedance analysis to measure body composition, and a medication review. Beyond that, it covers the questions of why someone wants to fast, what goals they have at the Tannerhof alongside fasting, what is currently happening in their life and what fasting experience they already bring. The order matters: first the conversation, then the Glauber's salt – not the other way round.

Glauber's salt is the classic tool for the fasting start, a bitter saline solution that empties the bowel at the beginning. It is optional, not mandatory: depending on tolerance there are other methods, and the specific handling is discussed in the admission consultation.

What first-time fasters can expect on the transition days

The body needs one to three days to switch from its usual sugar metabolism to the fasting metabolism. During this phase, usually on the second and third day, low-blood-sugar symptoms can appear: a feeling of weakness, some shakiness, nausea or headaches. This is part of the transition and no cause for concern. Green tea with honey helps balance it, and the medical team attentively accompanies exactly these days.

How well longer fasting is tolerated is shown by a large observational study by Wilhelmi de Toledo and colleagues from 2019, published in PLOS One. It followed 1,422 people over fasting periods of four to twenty-one days using the Buchinger method. No severe or lasting adverse effects occurred; physical and emotional wellbeing rose markedly across all groups. Where symptoms did appear, they were mainly in the first fasting days – precisely where the Tannerhof's medical supervision has its focus. Notable for beginners: 93.2 percent of participants experienced no hunger during the fast.

After the transition days, it becomes easier for many. Sleep need often decreases while sleep becomes lighter, and some people experience a fasting euphoria through the altered serotonin metabolism, varying from person to person. Fasting creates a caesura and an abundance of time with and for oneself.

What fasters consume

What is special about the Buchinger method is what comes to the table during the fast. Instead of strict nothing, a calm rhythm of mild liquids carries you through the day. At the Tannerhof it looks like this:

• In the morning a herbal tea.
• At midday a mild vegetable broth.
• In the evening a freshly pressed fruit or vegetable juice, with buttermilk or Sojade as an optional part of the protein supply.
• Throughout the day around three litres of fluid: fasting tea, mineral water, lemon water, hot ginger water.

If needed, further protein sources and an alkaline supplement are added against acidic metabolic products and uric-acid crystals. And there is the small concession that does not cancel the fasting character: a spoon of honey or an espresso to bridge a low. Fasting guests take their meals in the Fasterstube, the dedicated dining room for fasting guests – a different rhythm from the one in which the indulging guests dine in three-quarter time.

What carries the start: medical supervision and surroundings

Medical supervision is not strictly mandatory for fasting, but it is sensible. At the Tannerhof, therapeutic fasting is always medically supervised, because here the house's medical experience belongs together with the fasting process. The doctors at the Tannerhof are experts in fasting; they monitor blood values and circulation as well as the individual course. For beginners in particular, this is a calm setting: whatever happens on the transition days is always in good hands.

The medical appointments form an arc across the week. At the start is the admission consultation on the first fasting day, a medical follow-up consultation follows if needed, and at the end there is a closing consultation. In this closing consultation, what has changed is evaluated, which recommendations suit everyday life, and what the transition into eating afterwards can look like.

The accompanying range of therapies is deliberately broad, because fasting is more than a dietary change for a few days. The medical applications include bioimpedance analysis, IHHT altitude training depending on the programme and, where medically appropriate, ozone autohaemotherapy. Added to these are wraps and compresses such as the liver-supporting hayflower wrap, aroma wraps as well as mud and warm packs, baths and pours such as the Kneipp alternating pour and magnesium-rich detox baths, plus massages such as the fasting massage, the detox massage with Königsöl or the acidosis massage, lymphatic drainage and foot reflexology, complemented by breathing therapy. For the mental side, psychotherapeutic coaching, nature coaching, business and communication coaching as well as art therapy provide support.

Surroundings and medical supervision work as equals here: fasting in a moving landscape becomes more intense. Bayrischzell, the alpine meadow, the mountain stream, the clear and pure mountain air and the view of the Wendelstein form the setting in which the first fasting week takes place. Movement remains part of fasting, in measured doses: moderate base endurance training and moderate strength training are available, as are yoga, Feldenkrais, Tai Chi and a hike at a pace that suits fasting – the body nourishes itself from within. The Tannerhof Spa with its indoor pool, historic little sauna house and the BadeHarpfe with its 25-metre outdoor natural pool, which opens the view between Wendelstein and Sonnwendjoch, stands for the quiet hours in between.

Breaking the fast and rebuilding: the most important part for beginners

For first-time fasters in particular, it is worth noting that rebuilding is not the postscript to fasting but its continuation by other means. Breaking the fast still counts as a fasting day: at midday a small cup of fasting soup, then the apple, raw or steamed, each bite chewed thirty to forty times. In the evening a vegetable soup follows with unpuréed pieces of vegetable. Anyone taking seven fasting days usually needs two to three rebuilding days, roughly a third of the fasting period in total.

At the centre is not a complicated meal plan but the guiding question of what is good for the microbiome: easily digestible vegetables, fermented foods, plenty of fibre and mindful chewing, with respect for the feeling of fullness. In the closing consultation with the accompanying doctors, eating afterwards is also discussed. If a lasting change is wanted, Schlanke Tanne Low Carb, the house's own low-carb cuisine, can follow. It is not a Buchinger substitute but a way to carry fasting experience into everyday life. Intermittent fasting too, for example in a 16/8 rhythm, can build this bridge – not as a replacement for compact fasting but as its everyday form.

This way a first fasting week becomes more than just a few days of abstention: it gains a beginning, a middle and a transition. Perhaps that is exactly the old Tannerhof phrase in today's form: Become essential.

Who can fast and who should seek medical clarification

What is decisive for fasting is your own will and willingness to engage with it. In pregnancy, breastfeeding and anorexia, therapeutic fasting does not belong in the plan. With chronic illnesses, ongoing medication or uncertainty, a telephone medical pre-consultation can be requested before arrival; the admission consultation on the first fasting day then remains decisive. Billing for medical services runs through the private practice at the Tannerhof.

Discover therapeutic fasting at the Tannerhof

Naturhotel Tannerhof has offered medically supervised therapeutic fasting after Buchinger for over 70 years, experienced in fasting across all departments and set in Bayrischzell between alpine meadow, mountain stream and the view of the Wendelstein. To see the concrete setting for a first fasting week and book online, look at the Body Detox programme and the page on therapeutic fasting after Buchinger.