PJ’s Sardine/Oleuropein Fast: 83 Hours to Autophagy and Fat Loss

Here are the results of my 83-hour sardine/oleuropein fast.

The main reason was to turbo-charge the autophagy process and clear out senescent cells and other junk that doesn’t belong in my body. That is impossible to measure, however, so it’s hard to comment on that, other than I feel better than I have in years (read on below).

---

The Experiment’s Goals

A second experiment I wanted to try was to see if I could specifically target visceral fat because that is the type of fat that tends to hold more toxins than other types of fat.

The third aspect of this experiment was to see if I could get a liver cleanse out of it because that is where most senescent cells tend to hang out.

The fourth aspect of this design was to see if I could retain muscle on a massive calorie deficit of about 700 calories per day, which puts my deficit at about 2,000 calories daily. If the “Calorie in, calorie out” theory (CICO) were true, I would lose about 1.7 lbs. over this period of time (3 days of eating).

I started this after my last meal on Saturday, 11/1/25, and ended the project on Wednesday, 11/5/25.

---

Daily Protocol (3 Days)

Each day I ate the following things:

AM:

• 16 oz. Mud WTR drink, with a scoop of collagen, a dash of coconut milk, and a squirt of stevia glycerite.
• 10 oz. Green tea
• 10 oz. Decaf coffee
• 1 tsp of PJ Kabos high oleuropein olive oil (oleuropein is the compound known to 3x autophagy, when used properly).

Mid day:

• 1 can of wild sardines in olive oil
• 5 capsules of Perfect Aminos
• 1 tsp of PJ Kabos high oleuropein olive oil.
• 1 tsp of C8 MCT oil

Evening:

• 1 can of wild sardines in olive oil
• 5 capsules of Perfect Aminos
• 1 tsp of PJ Kabos high oleuropein olive oil.
• 1 tsp of C8 MCT oil

All Day:

• Lots of filtered water and electrolytes

---

Activity and Subjective Results

I exercised as normal, including X Gym-style HIIT cardio and HIT strength training all three days.

I felt amazing, especially after an exorcist-style liver dump into the toilet on Wednesday morning. That was the indication that my liver was cleansing as I hoped.

I also felt stronger than normal on days 2-3, and finally nailed my human flag, which I have been training for months, which is a very objective measure of power, since I was previously unable to do it.

---

Objective Numbers

• Body Weight Lost: 7 lbs. (So much for the CICO theory)
• Water Shed: 1.8 lbs. (From retention via apparent previous inflammation)
• Body Fat Lost: 5.7 lbs.
• Visceral Fat Lost: 50% (Confirming the visceral fat effectiveness of this fast)
• Muscle Gained: 0.5 lbs. (This is within the error range of my InBody 570 BEI machine. While it doesn’t prove I actually gained muscle, it does prove I at least maintained muscle while losing tons of visceral body fat at the same time.)

---

Discussion

From the way, I feel, the energy I have, the strength I gained, and the improved mental clarity, I am convinced this was an effective autophagy protocol, equivalent to a 7 to 10 day water fast.

I was already a very low-carb eater (for years now), so I was an efficient fat burner going into this as my glycogen stores were already extremely low. This allowed me to access fat burning the entire time because I was already in that mode going into it.

We all have two fuel tanks in our bodies. One is our carbohydrate fuel tank, and the other is our fat fuel tank. The standard American diet is very high carb, so the body has plenty of fuel in that tank and prefers to carbs first anyway. Since their carb fuel tank never gets emptied out because the standard American is also in a calorie surplus since they don’t exercise enough, they never significantly dip into their fat fuel tank. This is why it’s so hard for the average person to burn fat unless they change their diet and activity significantly and have a copious amount of patience because the fat burning process can take up to a month to begin.

My carbohydrate fuel tank is always empty, so I have the opposite experience of what most people would have with this plan. Everyone, however, would have the same wonderful autophagy experience, which was the main point of this, but they wouldn’t be able to expect the other parts as I did.

Also, I certainly disproved the CICO theory (again) in a big way (which is what my Amazon book “Cracking Your Calorie Code” is about, among other things. A traditionally trained dietitian would expect me to lose 1.7 pounds over the course of this 83 hours, but what actually happened was 7 pounds. Just my fat loss alone was more than triple what they would predict my total body weight loss to be.

Lastly, another thing I wanted to explore was the possible effect of my “pump and dump” idea about fat loss. My theory is that if I were to gain a couple percent body fat, relatively rapidly, and then go on a plan like this to lose it rapidly, it could serve as a “fat flush” of sorts, which could bring out more toxins. I have no idea if this helped or not, but I could certainly try this exact same plan again after I was stable in body fat for a few months prior to see if the same thing happens, which I will do in the future.

See the video Xplanation below: