More Questions About Fasting

[lorenmark]

Hey Y'all!

I'm interested in doing an intermediate term fast (12 days) primarily to lose midsection body fat. I weight train, run, and watch my caloric intake but am still unable to lose the fat around my midsection (10 lbs). I'm concerned because I've heard that fasting can actually cause you to gain weight. The reasoning is that your metabolism shuts down and once you've broken the fast, new calories are stored as fat. I've done two separate two-day fasts and noticed health benefits such as clearer skin and increased eye sight. While I did lose a little weight during the fast, it came back on a few days later.

Thanks for listening, Lorenmark.

[TiffyLove]

I would love to hear more about this.

My opinion, I am sure it depends on how long you fast for and how much weight you lose. I am guessing that some of the weight will come back but it all depends on the person and what your habits were before.

If you eat pretty healthy now and exercise regularly, I wouldn't expect any miracles from fasting. I am sure some weight would come off and some would return but your metabolism should return to normal as soon as you begin eating again. But if fasting will help you make better food choices afterwards, well that would likely lead to a different outcome.

But like I said I really am new to fasting and have started researching it lately but from what I know about the body and what I have read, every person is going to have a different experience.

[mysticmadness]

DOnt go for fast. In order to burn fat you need the metabolism running in your body. for metabolism it is important that you eat small meals atleast 5 to 6 times a day. Exercise to burn fat and make sure you eat food which does not makes you consume more fat. Since output would be greater than input and your metabolism would be running.......you tend to lose weight.

[Some Random Loser]

Lately I've been reading these 2 sources regarding fasting:

Shelton: The Hygienic System Vol III; Fasting and Sun Bathing

Introduction To Fasting

[ginkgo]

This site, Lemonade Diet/Fasting, says "On the cover of the above book it has a quote from The New England Journal of Medicine-- "Fasting is a valid experience. It can benefit any otherwise healthy person whose calories now have the upper hand in his/her life." Dr Cott says "When anyone abstains totally from food, profound changes take place. These changes revise attitudes about food and put appetite into alignment with the body's real need for energy."

As far as metabolism shutting down-- it is a myth. If your metabloism shut down now, you would be dead in minutes. Site above explains what really happens. Beyonce lost 20 pounds in 10 days on the lemonade diet. Whether you gain weight after the fast or not depends on what you eat. Most of this lost weight is not fat but water weight. Eat normal amounts of salt and you gain the water weight back. See page below on losing weight.

[MightySunTzu]

Originally Posted by lorenmark

Hey Y'all!

I'm interested in doing an intermediate term fast (12 days) primarily to lose midsection body fat. I weight train, run, and watch my caloric intake but am still unable to lose the fat around my midsection (10 lbs). I'm concerned because I've heard that fasting can actually cause you to gain weight. The reasoning is that your metabolism shuts down and once you've broken the fast, new calories are stored as fat. I've done two separate two-day fasts and noticed health benefits such as clearer skin and increased eye sight. While I did lose a little weight during the fast, it came back on a few days later.

Thanks for listening, Lorenmark.

Hi lorenmark,

Our metabolism in a fast does slow down some, i believe it is by about 20%, (which is what i assume you meant when you said it "shuts down"), and this has to be taken into account when you begin to re-feed after a fast. There are ways to minimize the slowing of the metabolism (i did 2 brisk walks per day of 1 hour each during the fast) as well as ways to help speed it back up after the fast (ie: exercise, eating certain foods and avoiding certain others).

If done properly, fasting can help you with your weight loss goals... as an example, i lost 7 real pounds in a 10 day water fast (20 total pounds if you want to count the temporary water, intestinal contents and glycogen loss). Then i have continued (with this temporarily slowed metabolism) to lose 2 real pounds per week over the past 6 weeks.

One Essential is to ease out of a fast gently and while on certain "fast emerging occasions" our body (or perhaps more so our minds) might have the uncontrollable desire to gorge, it is best that this take place in the "juice only" or "fruits and vegetables only" phase of easing out, not once we are back to eating much heavier foods. We really need to tame our appatites on the way out of a fast with safe foods.

Another element of letting the fast work for you (and not against you) has to do with allowing it to help you to establish and maintain healthy habits. In my case i had to eliminate sweets and actually coffee, not for the caffein, but for what i put in it to make it enjoyable. And i stepped into a nutritional program whereby i eat 50% of more from raw fruits and vegetables. As well i do hiit 3-4 days a week and steady state cardio the days in between as well as some muscle strengthening exercises.

By contrast, if done improperly, a person could easily end up regaining more fat that he started with.

The key, therefore, is what you do when you break the fast.