36-Hour Fasts In a thirty-six-hour fast, you do not eat for one entire day. For example, if you finish dinner at 7 p.m. on day 1, your fast would begin immediately after— you skip all meals on day 2 and not eat again until breakfast at 7 a.m. on day 3. That totals thirty-six hours of fasting. In our IDM Program, we use thirty-six-hour fasts, on a three-times-a-week schedule, with patients who have type 2 diabetes. We continue this schedule until the desired results are achieved: the patient is able to go off of all diabetes medication and has reached the desired weight.
