Re: regaining weight
Hi Curtis,
"I'm thinking of eating a 2000-2500 calorie diet per day in the six weeks I have. Is this enough to gain enough weight to look healthy?... I also have a second question: if I gain weight too fast, will it change my body composition, i.e. will I end up looking pudgier because I gain the weight too fast?"
First, know that you will likely lose about 12-20 pounds of water and other temporary loss (primarily intestinal contents) which should be back on your body within 2-3 weeks of breaking the fast. Your "actual weight loss" will vary depending upon how much you exercise. With little or no exercise, this might only turn out to be about 15-20 pounds... so in the case of little or no exercise, based upon your weight, i would estimate your total weight loss to be about 27-40 pounds including the temporary loss.
In a 40 day fast, your metabolism will likely be slowed by about 25-30%. If you were to injest more calories than your body is burning and not work your muscles, you would indeed gain weight in fat so yes, in this case your body composition would change for the worse. 2000-2500 calories may be too high, especially in the beginning. Your metabolism would be expected to work its way back to normal little by little within about 6 weeks.
If you want to gain muscle (instead of fat), you would need to work your muscles and ideally nutritiously consume about 300-500 calories per day above what your body will be burning. In this way, you will help optimize muscle gain through the moderate number of excess calories... but be aware that you would still gain a marginal, but likely acceptable amount of fat as well... in no way rivaling what you will have lost in the fast.
The most essential factor to consider is that we need to emerge from a 40 day fast by treating our digestive systems with the utmost care. If this guideline is ignored, much harm could be done. If it was me, i would break it with 10 days of live juice (and some fresh veg. broth) and then about 12 days of mostly raw fruits and vegetables along with juice before stepping into anything more digestively challenging.
Best of wishes to you Curtis in your humble spiritual quest.