What is Fruit Fasting and How to Complete a Fruit Fast

Wanting to do a fruit fast? This article will teach you everything you need to know about the fruit fasting diet, including its benefits, purpose, and a sample meal plan for your next fruit fast.

What is a Fruit Fast?

A fruit only fast is quite a new diet, but it’s exploded in popularity in recent years. To do a fruit fast, you need to eat only fruits for a certain period of time, whether you choose to only do a few days or extend your fast to several weeks. This fruit-focused diet is thought to have lots of health benefits, which we have covered below.

Fruit Fast Benefits

Embarking on a fruit fast can offer a number of health benefits, including:

Helping the body’s natural detoxification processes.
Giving your body an abundance of vital vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (such flavonoids and polyphenols).
Providing dietary fiber that can promote healthier digestion and keep your gut bugs happy.
Promoting bowel regularity by reducing the risk of constipation.
Increasing satiety, or making you feel fuller after a meal, can help you lose weight. This is largely because fruits have a high fiber content.

Supporting blood glucose regulation (again, this is thanks to the abundance of dietary fiber in fruits).
Promoting better skin health, which is thanks to the micronutrients and antioxidants that are found in all types of fruits.
Keeping you more hydrated due to fruits containing lots of water.

More About the Fruit Fasting Diet

Generally, on a fruit fast, you can consume any and all types of fruits, as long as you do so in their original form without any extra bits and bobs. The idea is to get the benefits of the nutrients in fruits (such as the vitamins and minerals they contain) while cutting out other types of foods like sugary snacks and processed meals.

A fruit fasting diet can help to reset your eating habits and enable you to develop a better relationship with food to improve your physical and mental well-being. It can also improve your digestive health, boost your energy levels, and promote better hydration in the short term.

So, what can you eat on a fruit fasting diet? There is a wide variety of whole fruits you can consume when you’re following a fruit fast, including:

Apples
Apricots
Bananas
Berries, including raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and cranberries
Cantaloupe
Citrus fruits, like oranges, lemons, limes, and tangerines
Cherries
Coconuts
Dates
Dragon fruit
Figs
Grapes
Kiwis
Melon
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Pineapples
Plumbs
Pomegranates
Watermelon

You can eat these foods in any sort of combination or at any time of the day. There are no rules about when and what to eat, provided you’re only eating whole fruits! Some fruits don’t technically break you fast, too. For example, you might ask, ‘does monk fruit break a fast?’ The answer is, no, monk fruit in its pure form doesn’t break a fast because it doesn’t raise blood sugar levels but still provides a deliciously sweet taste.

Also, read – Intermittent Fasting for Women: A Full Guide

The 3 Day Fruit Fast

A three-day fruit fast is exactly as it sounds. It involves undergoing a fruit fast for three full days. Three days is a common timeframe for a fruit fast. It’s short enough to not feel daunting but long enough to provide the above benefits of the fruit fasting diet.

Below is a sample three-day fruit fast plan you can try out for yourself.

A Simple Fruit Fast Meal Plan

Day 1

Breakfast – one banana, two tbsp each of chopped strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
Lunch – one mango, ½ pineapple, and ¼ watermelon
Dinner – ½ cantaloupe, one apple, and a handful of grapes
Snacks – two kiwis

Day 2

Breakfast – two tangerines, two tbsp strawberries, and two peaches
Lunch – one banana, one apple, and one pear
Dinner – ½ watermelon, one orange, and two tbsp blueberries
Snacks – a handful of dates and two tbsp of cherries

Day 3

Breakfast – two pears and two plums
Lunch – one mango, one banana, and one peach
Dinner – two tangerines, two tbsp each of raspberries and strawberries
Snacks – two figs

Drink lots of bottled or tap water to stay hydrated. If you want to change things up, you can squeeze some lime or lemon into your water or use coconut water instead. Feel free to swap around some of the fruits if you want to. There are no set rules about which fruits you need to eat at which meals!

7 Day Fruit Fast

Choosing to only eat fruits and nothing else for a full week can help with lots of different pathways inside your body, one of which is your detoxification pathways. It’s mostly your liver (but also other organs like your kidneys) that is involved in detoxifying the body. That is, getting rid of unwanted substances, and this process can aid weight management or weight loss.

Detoxification can also help to balance your gut microbiome (which is the name for all of the microorganisms that live happily inside your lower digestive tract) in the long run, especially if you’re somebody who suffers from poor gut health.

However, before you begin a week-long fruit fast, it’s important to consider your capabilities. For most people, jumping straight into a seven-day fruit fast could be tough (not impossible, but tough!), and it’s often better to start with a shorter timeframe, such as three days, when you’re trying a fruit fast for the very first time. You can work your way up to a seven-day or more fruit fast over time.

What is a Fruit and Vegetable Fast?

You can get all of the amazing benefits of fruit fasting by adding some veggies to the mix. Vegetables contain a wide range of micronutrients, some of which aren’t as common or abundant in fruits. So, by adding lots of veggies to your diet when you’re following a fast, you can fuel your body with more essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) and get even more health benefits.

Have You Plans On A 30 Day Fruit Fast?

Consuming fruit for 30 full days is tough. We can’t deny that! However, it’s something that will make you feel great once you’ve completed it. It’s a challenge that you won’t regret. A helpful tip is to keep things varied by including a wide range of fruits in your diet. This will help to avoid boredom and keep you motivated to successfully complete your fruit-filled fast!

If you want an extra hard challenge, consider following a mono fruit fast for 30 days, where you choose a single fruit and consume only that fruit for the entire fast.

Can You Eat Fruit While Fasting?

To undertake a fruit and water fast, you should only be eating fruit (with no toppings or dips) and drinking plain water. If you’re doing a fruit fast, then, of course, you can eat fruit. In fact, that’s what the entire fast is about! Similarly, if you’re doing the very popular way of dieting known as intermittent fasting, you’re also ‘allowed’ to eat fruit on this particular diet, but you’ll need to make sure you’re only eating fruit within your chosen ‘eating window’.

A popular eating window that you might want to try if you’re consider intermittent fasting (which many people simply call ‘I.F.’ is 12 pm until 8 pm, where you only eat between these hours and fast for the rest of the day.

Doing a water fast doesn’t allow you to eat fruit. The whole point of this type of fast is to drink water (yes, only water and absolutely no food) to avoid consuming any calories at all. This is an extreme type of fasting that most people wouldn’t enjoy or even consider doing! In a juice fast, you can have fruits, but usually, you’re only ‘allowed’ them when they’re blended.

Fruit Fast Before and After – What To Expect

Most people find that they lose weight when they do a fruit fast and many also appear healthier and happier in themselves because their skin is more hydrated and their bodies have been able to get rid of lots of nasty toxins!

Simple Tips On How to Do a Fruit Fast

To complete a fruit fast, whether you’re doing the fruit fast weight loss or for general health, you will need to prepare for what’s to come.

Ideally, you should gradually decrease your intake of processed foods and sugars to make the transition into a fruit-only diet easier and less stressful for your body (and for your mind, too).

Choose your favorite fruits and stock your fridge up before you begin so you have everything ready at home during your fast.

We recommend that you make sure your diet has lots of variety when you’re undergoing a fruit fast, even if you’re fasting for just a day or two.

Make sure you consume a range of different fruits each day, eating them in their whole form and avoiding the addition of any sugar or sweeteners.

Usually, after the first day, you will get into a nice rhythm and even start to enjoy your fruit fast!

Is a Fruit Fast Healthy?

A 72 hour fruit detox can be healthy if done correctly. For most people, fruit fast will lead to better digestion, improved skin, more mental clarity, and better hydration.

However, a longer fruit fast may lead to low energy, blood sugar spikes, and serious cravings for some people due to the lack of variety, lack of protein and fats, and low number of calories in the fruit fasting diet.

It’s important to consider your personal capabilities and health goals when deciding whether or not to complete eating fruit for 72 hours. If you’re unsure of anything, consult a registered dietitian and work alongside them to figure out the right path for you.

Also, read – Find Your Top Free Intermittent Fasting App between 6 Suggestions

FAQs

1. What is a 21 Day Fruit Fast?

A 21-day fruit fast is a diet where you only consume whole fruits and water for 21 days. It promotes detoxification, weight loss, better digestive health, and adequate hydration, and is suitable for most people.

2. What Are the Expected Fruit Fasting Results?

The results of a fruit fast depend on your current health and physiology. However, expected results include weight loss, better digestive health and bowel regularity, improved mental clarity and focus, and better skin health due to the high nutrient and water content of fruits.

3. What Are the Best Fruits for Fruit Fasting?

You can consume whatever fruits you like on a fruit fast. However, some of the best fruits include berries, citrus fruits, apples, bananas, pears, and melons.

4. Is a 5 Day Fruit Fast Healthy?

Numerous health advantages, including better digestion, skin health, and mental clarity, may come from it. But for certain people, it might result in severe blood sugar rises and crashes, cravings, low mood, and reduced energy.

5. What Are Some Great Fruit Fast Recipes?

Tropical fruit bowl – mangos, pineapples, papaya, and kiwi
Citrus fruit mix – oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, and a squeeze of lemon
Berry delight – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cranberries

William Read - Nutrition Consultant

William is from Canada, he is passionate nutrition & wellness writer. William understands that the topic of wellness is still not well understood, so his goal is to enlighten and teach people how to live healthier and happier in their bodies.