Water fasting

[Pumpkin]

I ahve decided to water fast for three days starting Saturday.

I heard it is not only good for weight loss, but also good to cleanse my body and remove excess bad stuff (<-- not the scientific term of course) If I can also work up the will power to do nothing but drink water for three days straight, it should also help with the rejecting of junk food. I also decided to look for a vegen cheese alternative because cheese is aweful for dieting and I just love it so much Why must you be fattening cheese wwwwwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Anyways, has anyone here ever done a fast? I read I will apparently go through withdrawl like symptoms and be a crank for a while also.

[Slothy]

Let me preface this by saying that I've never looked into any research or science behind fasting for relatively short periods at a time, so there may well be benefits I don't know about. That out of the way, I wouldn't recommend it just knowing what I do know about nutrition. For starters, you may lose some weight, but it would likely be muscle that you're losing instead of fat. The body can really only go for several hours without protein before it starts looking to the muscle tissue for the protein it isn't getting from food. It's why a good breakfast should include eggs or meat to get the protein that you haven't had in several hours of being asleep.

I'm also going to call bulltrout on the idea of not eating or anything else clearing out toxins or whatever else people think you need to clear out of your body when they go on a diet. You want to get rid of the bad stuff you've eaten in the past? Stop eating it and it will pass eventually. I like to call it poop. Just eat the right kind of foods and you'll be fine. That means eating plenty of protein in the form of meat, eggs, etc. (more than the US government says you should have), and cutting back on grains or cutting them out entirely. Don't worry about fat content of the foods your eating. If you're buying lean meats and eggs you would actually need to eat more fat than what you get from servings of those, which is where things like avacado's, nuts, seeds, olive oil, or even some salad dressing now and then come in.

Too many carbs are what make people fat (and sick for that matter), not eating too much fat.

[AngelWings8]

I'm not a fan of fasting or detoxes. I did a fruit detox once. You could only drink water, eat fresh fruits and raw nuts, and drink fresh squeezed juice. It was a tough week. I was hungry all the time, cranky, and I don't think I was any "healthier" or "cleaner" because of it.

What will end up happening is that you will lose weight, but it's because you're starving your body of nutrients and calories that you need to survive. Your body will go into starvation mode and conserve as many calories as it can to keep you alive, and your metabolism will slow down. By the time you start eating again, your body's gonna store MORE calories because you've tricked it into thinking you were starving. Any weight that you lost will be gained back and THEN SOME. As for the "detox" aspect...your body is capable of expelling toxins by itself.

If you really want to be healthier and lose weight, then I think a lifestyle change would be a better route to go. Eat smaller meals more often instead of 3 big ones to keep your metabolism going. America has a problem with too-large portions so just eat less calories at each meal. Lean proteins, good fats, whole grains, fresh fruit, veggies...eat more of those and less processed foods. Get more exercise, even if it's just taking a nice walk. I love cheese too, and I eat it on a daily basis. The whole trick is portion control. It's okay to treat yourself, but don't over-indulge.

Please take a look at these two pages before you decide either way:
The Dangers Of Fasting
Fasting: Harmful Or Helpful? - CBS News

Fasting: Harmful Or Helpful?
By Marianne Goldstein

(CBS) Dieters looking for a quick fix that will enable them to clean out their systems and lose weight have long turned to lengthy juice or water fasts to do the trick. But Health magazine reports that long-term fasting can actually cause more harm than good.

For the May issue of Health, Samantha Heller, a registered dietician and contributor, researched the various kinds of fasts and diets that promise to remove toxins and claim they can leave dieters looking and feeling better. However, she was unimpressed with the science behind the fasts and the results they offered.

Detoxification, she pointed out in the magazine, is something that our bodies do naturally every day — regardless of whether we are eating normally or restricting ourselves to liquids.

According to Heller, there are a few advantages to going on a very short-term juice or water fast — dieters can break a cycle of binging; it can make a dieter more aware of what he or she is eating every day; and it may even encourage dieters to add more fruits and vegetables to their meals.

However, when done over several days, a fast can also be harmful. Heller outlines some reasons:

• An extreme cutback in calories for more than a day or two scares the body and sends it into survival mode. The body will work to conserve energy and slow down metabolism.
• In most cases, the lost weight is just water weight that will be regained after the detox program has ended.
• Some detox diets include herbal supplements that could contain laxatives. Dieters may feel lighter but they haven't lost fat. Overuse of laxatives can lead to dehydration and other medical problems.
• While some fasters claim to experience a feeling of euphoria, the feeling may be due to the fact that they've stopped eating a lot of unhealthy food or feel good that they have lost some weight and gotten control of their eating. They could even be experiencing the light-headedness associated with low blood sugar.
• Fasting while taking certain medications can be dangerous, and it's certainly not advisable to go off prescribed medications without first talking to your physician.

Heller had some helpful tips for anyone who is considering doing some extreme bodily spring cleaning:

• Dump junk food and fast food.
• Eat vegetables (any kind) at least two times a day.
• Have one or two fresh whole fruits every day.
• Choose only lean and low fat sources of protein, such as fish and chicken. Go organic if you can find it and can afford it.
• Try to buy organic produce from local farmers, if available.
• Drink plenty of fluids, including water, teas and seltzers.
• Include unsalted nuts several times a week.
• Add more fiber to your diet by adding beans (kidney, chick pea, white beans, split peas etc.) to salads, soups and pasta dishes.
• Choose whole wheat, oats and whole grains nine times out of 10. Examples: whole wheat bread, whole grain pasta, oatmeal and multigrain cereals.
• Add walnuts, avocado, tofu, edamame (green soybeans) and canola oil to your meals several times a week.
• Limit alcohol intake.

[Quindiana Jones]

Congratulations on being really, spectacularly stupid.

There is no quick fix to getting healthy. Stop being a lazy moron and stop looking for shortcuts. If you want to get healthy, it takes hard work: simple as. The willpower of drinking only water is nothing compared to the willpower required to stay on a healthy diet permanently. Stop being a ponce and do some work.

Eat 3 - 5 healthy meals a day. This will quickly speed up your metabolism. Cut down on carbs. You should be limiting yourself to about two slices of bread's worth of carbs per day. Carry on eating eggs, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, etc. Cut the cheese (hehe). Also, do exercise. Running is cheap and good for you; run on grass to limit future damage to your knees. If you can't find grass, have a longer break in between runs. Run one day, rest the next day, then run, rest, run, rest and so on. You don't need to run a marathon; just a quick 10 - 20 minutes will do wonders.

Furthermore, as has been mentioned, your body does not burn fat or bad stuff first. When you starve, it processes protein. When it runs out of food protein, it eats muscle. Only when the muscle becomes useless does it eat fat. If you fast, you will be weak and tired the whole time, you will lose an insignificant amount of weight which you shouldn't be losing because it's the good stuff, and you'll come out worse than you went in. Just actually smurfing research nutrition if you wanna get healthy, instead of reading bulltit mags.

Breakfast: Early - 8/9AM. Eggs and bacon (remove the rinds). Slice of bread. Orange juice. Water. Make bacon scrambled egg on toast or something.
Lunch: Lunchtime. 12-1PM. Protein salad. Chicken/turkey is good. No bread or croutons. Water.
Afternoon meal: 2-3PM. Soup is fine. Slice of bread. Juice. Water. If you have potatoes in the soup/stew, don't have bread.
Dinner: 5-7PM. Salad is good again. Mix it up. Have a nutty salad at lunchtime, have a leafy salad at dinnertime. Water. No bread.
Supper: 9-10PM. Something light. No carbs. Finish off any remaining salad/have a fruit cocktail with yoghurt etc. Juice. Water. Sleep.

That'll do you fine. No fasting needed. Lose more weight, gain more strength, feel more energised for longer. I'm no diet specialist, but I understood food and human biology well enough to ensure I remain healthy whilst still getting tasty food. You can buy allsorts of things if you know where to look: I get some tasty no carb/ no fat sausages from my local. Allows me to keep my diet fresh and different. You should also be drinking water throughout the day, outside of these meals. Drink before you're thirsty. A few mouthfuls every 20 minutes, that sort of thing. Takes a while to get in the habit.

The "withdrawal" symptoms are more commonly known (though only to intelligent people) as being dangerously unhealthy. When you are lacking something, your brain tells you what it is and what you should eat to get that something. This is why unusual things become delicious when you are actually starving rather than just being a giant moron.

A big, important tip here: drink regularly. Water weight occurs because your body starts storing it, not knowing when the next dose is. Every time you drink, it stores. The way to get rid of this is to drink more often. This will set the body into efficient safe mode and will allow the water to just pass through normally, taking all that bad tit with it. Also, drink fruit juice. Try to get actual fruit juice rather than from concentrate. smurf it, just buy a tonne of oranges from Costco. Job done. When you have a 250ml glass of orange juice, also drink a 250ml glass of water. Most vitamins are water soluble, so diluting them once they're inside is a good way to efficiently distribute them. Drink water with every meal you eat. Don't snack.

Bear in mind that eating unhealthy is fine. Grab a donut once a weak. Have some ice cream. Get some cheese in you. Just keep that treat to a treat, instead of making it your diet. You should set aside some time in your week to enjoy those treats: Cheese Hour. This will make everything else feel so much sweeter too.

Another way to lose weight is to just lop off your head, since you're obviously not using what's inside.

EDIT: Final note: Make a fist with both hands. Join your fists at the thumb. That is the size that every one of your five meals should be. Any snack you have in between meals should be kept to one or two pieces of fruit or protein, depending on how much energy your day is taking. Apples and bananas are the best fruit for waking up: apple short term, banana long term. A yoghurt is good too. But don't have more than that. Bear in mind that when you start out on a healthy lifestyle, it's harder work than sticking to it. It's like accelerating in a car onto the motorway: hard work at first, but then you go into cruise mode. Also, for the start you'll need to be strict and take baby steps, since you obviously know nothing about the human body. One you've learned, you can be more liberal with the whole thing.

[Rebellious Eagle]

God. This reminds me of when I was anorexic, which for obvious reasons did NOT turn out well, as I lost 20 pounds and my blood pressure was something like 50/30...
In any case, eating healthy and exercising is the proper way to lost weight and detox your body. Not by starving it of the nutrients it needs to keep on running. Because like others before me have said, your body will start consuming its own tissue and muscles to give it energy. Not good at all. Been there, done that, and it's one of the worst things you can do to your body.

[Slothy]

I agree with pretty much everything that AngelWings and Quin have said with the exception of whole grains. You don't need to eat whole grains, and if you have trouble losing body fat, I'd recommend trying not to eat them along with any other grains for a while. Insulin is the major hormone which drives fat storage. When your blood sugar increases, the body releases insulin which basically signals to store some of that as fat. The more insulin your body releases in response to higher blood sugar, the more fat it's going to store. You'll also probably find you start to run low on energy when your blood sugar inevitably crashes.

Now the problem with even whole grains is that they can make your blood sugar and insulin levels spike to amounts almost, or as high as what you'd get after drinking a can of Pepsi or similar pop. Now eating some may not stop your weight loss so long as your minimizing the amount of grains you eat each day, but if you can get by not eating them at all, with the exception of when it can't be avoided or during whatever cheat meals and snacks you plan for I'd rather see that. For me it's pretty easy to get rid of grains since I don't really like them that much. They were just something that was always pretty quick and easy, but I much prefer eating a lot of meat with some vegetables here and there. And nothing is faster or more satisfying than re-heating some lean ground beef and having some almonds if I want a bit of a snack.

Also, I find it a bit strange in your post Quin, that you state she should limit yourself to two slices of bread worth of carbs a day (which isn't bad if you're getting it from something other than two slices of bread), then give a sample meal plan which includes two slices of bread in addition to salads and juices. Maybe I'm simply misunderstanding you, but that would obviously be more than two slices worth of carbs.

And finally, I just want to say that calling Shion stupid isn't helping anything Quin. She's talked openly about her struggles to eat right and lose weight, and her problem with how she looks and while she may not have all the right information, she's still trying. And I can't really blame anyone for being unsure of how to lose weight and what's good for them when there is an apparently never ending stream of gimmicks and bulltrout out there around nutritional information and losing weight. Hell, you can even take a look at the USDA website if you want to see one of the bigger sources of bad information. But they're the government. They couldn't possibly be wrong right?

It's no small task to start to see through the crap out there and find what works, whether intentionally, out of desperation, or by accident. And anyone who is at least trying to get out there and educate themselves or experiment with new ideas may be misinformed, but I wouldn't necessarily call them stupid.

[Quindiana Jones]

I rage at ignorance. It's a reflex. And hey, the insults were of lesser quantity than the aid, so I'm getting better. Normally I'd have just stopped at insults.

I agree about the bread bit, my bad. But it's so delicious, it would feel wrong to utterly deprive a person of it.

[Chris]

The only reliable way to keep healthy and fit, is to change your habits completely. There are no healthy short-term solutions, and even if you manage to lose a great amount of weight, you are likely to put on twice the amount if you crash-diet. It's a change you have to be willing to commit to one hundred percent.

I managed to throw off 20 kg a couple of years ago, and I went from 79 kg to 59 kg, which is my current weight. I started to work out and now I work out for 45 minutes every single day. I haven't missed one single day in three years. I cut out sugar completely, and stayed clear of carbohydrates.

It really is a matter of changing your way of life completely. It should never feel like a chore, but something that is a natural part of your every day life.

[AngelWings8]

I personally don't like to eat bread or rice that much...but I love noodles and pasta :-D The reason I suggested whole grains is so that it could act as a replacement for refined grains. While grains may not be good for "losing weight", I believe that having a balanced diet with a focus on getting a wide variety of nutrients and fiber you need would be more helpful in the long run. I also think that people who deprive themselves of a certain food group find it harder to stick to a diet than when they don't cut out certain food groups and just eat them in moderation.

Whole grains are a good source of fiber as well as reduce risks of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. But also keep in mind that just because something is "brown", doesn't make it "whole grain". Gotta look at ingredient labels! And again, it's all about portion control...you can't just go eating a whole loaf of whole grain bread and expect to have great results.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Run, lift weights, eat healthy, that's how you lose weight. When it comes down to it, you should really only worry about calories in vs. calories out. Until you've been dieting and exercising well for a several months to a year, you should just stick to that.

[Shlup]

A water fast sounds horrible. When my belly is empty, water just makes me hungrier. My belly does not like to feel that clean.

If I'm going to do a strict diet, I like the cabbage soup diet. It's always worked for me, lets me have an amount of food I can enjoy, and makes my butt feel clean. I will usually lose 10-15 pounds, and then gain five back afterwards (because I am careful with what I eat after--don't go back to stuffing your face), and I think that's reasonable.

[Bastian]

Extremely bad idea.

But Vivi22 covered all my points eloquently already. >

Putting your body into starvation mode for a few days MIGHT cause you to lose weight, but it will be the wrong kind. You won't lose fat. You'll lose muscle tissue. And then when you start eating again your body will hoard those new calories and make you fatter in the long run.

[Pumpkin]

I would first and foremost like to thank people for insulting my intelligence and calling me "lazy" and "stupid".
You can bet this will be the last post I ever make here. I hope you all have spectacular lives


Fasting is an exceptionally ancient, and powerful, approach to healing many common disease conditions. It allows the body to rest, detoxify, and to heal. During fasting the body moves into the same kind of detoxification cycle that it normally enters during sleep. It uses its energy during a fast, not for digesting food, but for cleansing the body of accumulated toxins and healing any parts of it that are ill. As a fast progresses the body consumes everything that it can that is not essential to bodily functioning. This includes bacteria, viruses, fibroid tumors, waste products in the blood, any build up around the joints, and stored fat. The historical record indicates that human beings are evolutionarily designed to fast. It is an incredibly safe approach to healing and the body knows how to do it very well.
The Health Benefits of Water Fasting by Stephen Harrod Buhner

Historical records tell us that fasting has been used for health recovery for thousands of years. Hippocrates, Socrates, and Plato all recommended fasting for health recovery. The Bible tells us that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal. Mahatma Gandhi fasted for 21 days to promote respect and compassion between people with different religions.
For much of human history, fasting has been guided by intuition and spiritual purpose. Today, our understanding of human physiology confirms the powerful healing effects of fasting.
Fasting is a powerful therapeutic process that can help people recover from mild to severe health conditions. Some of the most common ones are high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, chronic headaches, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), irritable bowel syndrome, adult onset diabetes, heart disease, degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, acne, uterine fibroids, benign tumours, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Fasting provides a period of concentrated physiological rest during which time the body can devote its self-healing mechanisms to repairing and strengthening damaged organs. The process of fasting also allows the body to cleanse cells of accumulated toxins and waste products.
Fasting gives the digestive tract time to completely rest and strengthen its mucosal lining. A healthy intestinal mucosal lining is necessary for preventing the leakage of incompletely digested proteins into the bloodstream, thereby offering protection against autoimmune conditions. A healthy digestive tract also helps to protect the blood and inner organs against a variety of environmental and metabolic toxins.
Fasting - Water Fasting - Fasting for Health

The Health Benefits of Fasting | Serendip's Exchange
Water Fasting Tips for Body Detox and Improved Health.
The Health Benefits of Water Fasting | My Strange Mind
Benefits Of Water Fasting - ModernGhana.com

[Agent Proto]

I don't think anyone had insulted your intelligence, besides Quin, er... Sir Topham Hatt, so there's no need to leave EoFF because of him. Everybody else were advising you against fasting. However it is your decision and if you want to go ahead and fast, good luck to you.

[Shlup]

As far as I can see, everyone respectfully disagreed with you except for Quin. One person was rude so now you want to flounce? I think you should re-read the thread, because it sounds like you somehow got it in your head that everyone's yelling at you, when most of us simply don't agree that water fasting is a good thing. In fact, calling people lazy morons is against the rules, so, instead of getting mad, you may want to try reporting the post so Quin can just get a warning. I mean, I didn't read his post 'cause it was totally tl;dr, but if I had I would've warned him for being inflammatory in his wording.

Then again, the kind of people that flounce so easily aren't fun to have around anyway, so do as you will.

tl;dr: chillax

ETA: Oh yeah, Quin, don't call sensitive people lazy morons. You are a warned.