Water Fasting

[Amadeus]

Easily. Your body is extremely efficient and your body has weeks of stored energy, like a battery. Our bodies are meant to use this energy in the absense of food. It is healthy.

[icesar]

This is a fascinating thread. I've toyed with the idea of a juice fast over the last months, but figured I would start with something less extreme, so I did a 30 day trial where I stopped eating beef and pork. A quick note on results - nothing spectacular, a little more energy, and almost no "food comas" during the month.

For a juice fast, what length of time makes is the most beneficial? I'm not interested in weight loss, just detox and mental clarity.

[Amadeus]

Start with only a 2 or 3 day juice fast to begin. Later do a 2 week juice fast. Then several weeks later try a week water fast. Several weeks after that try a 2 week water fast.

[DQueens]

amadeus,
your "proof" in the form of those two links at the beginning of this thread is in no way an affirmation of any benefits from fasting. The first link is a link to a company that seems to make faucets and the second link does not pose any scientifically-backed evidence at all (except for the "biochemistry of fasting" which sites sources that are from 1986, much too outdated to be any kind of proof).
When you fast you are not only losing "unhealthy tissue" as you have described, but also vast amounts of muscle mass, which is essentially slowing your metabolism down. It is in the bodies best interest, in long periods of food deprivation to conserve all the fat that it can. It does this by causing the person in question to become less active, in order to conserve energy expenditure, and it begins to break down the fibres within skeletal and cardiac (your heart) muscle - if you arent moving as much, you dont need as many muscles anymore. The body slows fat oxidation in order to save the energy in fat so that it can keep the body alive as long as possible (your body has no way of knowing how long this period of fasting is going on for, and the more you fast, the more efficient this fat-saving, muscle-wasting response will kick in). When you begin to eat again, not only are you most likely going to binge a little bit more than you should (because your body has no way of knowing when this food availability period is going to last, and therefore drives you to eat as much as possible to stock the fat stores that were previously depleted and to create new fat stores/cells). In addition to eating more, you are not going to be burning these calories as efficiently as you did before, due to your decreased amount of muscle and, therefore, decreases metabolic rate, and this will further encourage the storage of more fat.
While i understand fasting as a way of raising social awareness, or money for causes that you feel strongly about, this is in now way a solution to weightloss, or health problems. Fasting to lose weight can also be recognized by the names "anorexia, bulimia or yoyo-dieting". Please do not fast with the expectations that you will emerge from this fast, with a healthy, permanently leaner body. In order to produce lasting weight loss you must make the appropriate lifestyle changes and understand that it took you a long time to put on this excess weight and, therefore, will not take you 3 weeks (or however long) to lose it all. understand that there is no quick solution to weight loss and healthy eating, and that gradual changes to your diet and activity levels are much much better for your body than simply starving it for various periods of time.

[intentionengine]

Originally Posted by Ati

Has anyone tried to continue a regular job while fasting? I have a great job, it's very meaningful and although one day I will probably move to something else, this is not the sort of job I would want to be "free of".

At the same time, it takes a lot of attention, focus, energy for at least about 8 to 9 hours per day.

Anyone try juice fasting for an extended period of time while working an active job or continuing to do usually active types of activity?

I might try a weekend juice fast before launching into a longer experience, but just would like to hear some feedback on this.

Thanks!

Ati

Hi, I did a 7 day Master Cleanse, Lemonade diet and started on Friday.

first two days was tough but the 3rd day was better and went to work on Monday feeling fantastic. I realised I didn't need musch food at all to survive.

Do a google for Master Cleanse, There are also a few very supportive forums like

See here:

Twice a year is plenty to detox.

[rossio]

Crikey

This thread is equally interesting and alarming.

Before I go into any of my opinions (and that is really all that they are), I am a fan of cleansing - BUT - a clear distinction has to be drawn between cleansing and fasting.

Cleansing involves cutting out all of the crap and basically consuming only fresh vegetable juices and raw soups, with plenty of ingredients such as wheatgrass, green vegetables, avocado, lemon and lime juice, essential fatty acids (from flax and hemp) and lots of water etc.

On a cleanse you actually ingest MORE food than you would normally, but as it is in juice or pureed soup format your body does not require hardly any energy or effort to digest it and all of the nutrients are easily assimilated around the body. The most important thing is that you must never feel hungry. If you are hungry, consume more. If this means 10 bowls of soup and 10 juices a day then so be it. Remember all that will be in these soups and juices are vegetables, spinach, wheatgrass, avocado, wheatgrass etc.

It is absolutely essential to give your body the nutrients it needs (including the fats suggested above) to aid in the detoxification and cleansing process.

Fasting = restricting. I simply cannot understand the logic behind fasting. Especailly a water fast! Just water?! This is insane! Apart from religious and self-realisation type gains from this I simply cannot see any positive health outcomes from this. The lemonade diet seems similar and the only outcome I can see is a lot of muscle loss and water loss from the body.

I have read this thread through twice and I still am astounded that people would happily starve their bodies of any form of nutrients for this length of time. It just baffles me.

This is just my 2p worth, but I felt compelled to join in because I am so shocked by the notion of a water fast (or any other kind of fast).

Have a great day
Ross

[Athena]

The Master Cleanse-- is that considered a true cleanse and not a fast? There's like about 1000 calories per day on that, but it's mostly sugar from the maple syrup.

It seems like, if you're going to consume 1000 calories during cleansing, at least it could be quality calories, instead of from sugar?

[rossio]

Originally Posted by Athena

The Master Cleanse-- is that considered a true cleanse and not a fast? There's like about 1000 calories per day on that, but it's mostly sugar from the maple syrup.

It seems like, if you're going to consume 1000 calories during cleansing, at least it could be quality calories, instead of from sugar?

I agree - to get all of your calories from sugar sounds very damaging to me. You should aim to consume as little sugar as possible in my opinion.

Ross

[Amadeus]

DQueens, I'm not an advocate of fasting in order to lose weight. This is not what it is for. There is a big difference between fasting and anorexia. Anorexics starve themselves over months if not years. A person who fasts should be at least at a healthy weight (over 8 percent body fat) and it is only for a small pocket of time. It is for detoxification. Have you ever fasted yourself? If you have not than you can not really go into the scientific part from what you read because there are two sides.
There are dozens of articles on the internet about fasting if you would do your own research which is what I asked the reader to do.
Your body is not going to use "good tissue" or muscle to burn when it has fat to use. That is what it is there for and that is why the body is programed to store it.
I'm not going to go into a deep history lesson here, but for thousands of years that man has been on this planet he had to be without food for weeks and sometimes months on end. The body is at peace with this when we fast and it is second nature to our systems. People will tell you to they're red in the face that a vegan diet is not healthy, but a lot of us on this forum know that it is extremely healthy if done right. Fasting is healthy if done right.
I'll tell you what is unhealthy. People cramming their faces like pigs day end and day out every day of the year is unhealthy. Our bodies need rest and fasting will do just that.

[Fortune]

My weight has gone up and down and up and down in the past six years. I'd start off my diet with a two-day fast of water and vegetable broth, and after that eat half of what I normally ate. After several weeks/months, I'd reach my target weight and then would slowly resume my "normal" eating patterns. Unfortunately, I'd start eating candy etc, again, and within the year I was back at my old weight.

The last time I did this, about 3 years ago, I started off with a one-week vegetable juice fast/cleanse. The goal was to drink 12 glasses of freshly squeezed vegetable juice a day, but I only managed about 8. I was never hungry during that time, and didn't feel too bad either. I lost a lot of weight during that one week. The problem is, a year or so later I had gained all the weight back again.

This yoyo-ing really screws up your digestive system. If you do it too much, you become one of those fat people who claim even drinking water makes them fat. And it does! (Well, maybe not water, but most everything else won't get properly digested anymore.)

Now I've finally realized that it's not about dieting, but about changing your lifestyle. This time around, I hope to make more permanent changes in what I eat. I won't start with a fast, because that puts me into the "quick fix diet" mindset again. I like the idea of regular 24-hour water fasts, though, so that may be something for the future.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: don't think a fast will solve all your problems.

[rossio]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

Our bodies need rest and fasting will do just that.

But where is the logic in not giving your body the nutrients it needs to cleanse and detoxify itself.

I would actually say that fasting puts more stress on the body because it forces it to try and function with no nutrients or energy.

I am open to learning but to me this still seems completely crazy.

Ross

[DQueens]

amadeus,
your body does not intuitively think "oh, this person is fasting so that i can get rid of my excess fat and, therefore, rid myself of my fat-trapped toxins, the sensible thing to do would be to oxidize as much fat as i can during this time". Your body thinks "i am starving... i must store what i can". True, fat will be utilized but in the event of starvation, which is what fasting is, 50% of the weight lost from fasting is muscle tissue. This means that when you lost your 40lbs on your 3 week fast (which is an unbelievably fast and dangerous weight loss rate, the recommended weight loss rate is 1lb/week) 20 lbs of that was your lean tissue (muscle). Every pound of muscle burns 50 calories a week while at rest. This means that your daily resting metabolic rate, after your fast was down 1000 calories a week! This is enough to gain 2 pounds a week if you returned to your old eating habits, which many of the people who attempt to do a fast like this do.
You will not find one proven, scientific source that will tell you that fasting is good for you. And, if you are one who is skeptical about science and who likes to dwell on the short-comings of science please keep in mind that advances in science are what have increased life span and advanced medicine.

[DQueens]

"You will still pass some waste even after a couple of weeks. Basically (not to get too personal) my stool was a plastic looking substance. I am assuming this is dead tissue and toxins that had been building up over years in my body."

Sorry, i just had to make a comment. Your stool was that colour and consistency most likely as a result of your digestive tract being able to pass only bile, and dead cells along the digestive tract that the excess acid in your stomach (which has no food to break down) was destroying.
Your body does not work in the way that you are describing. Any ingested toxin, that is absorbed by the digestive tract will be moved to the bloodstream and either eliminated by the liver or incorporated into your cells (you are right in saying that many toxins are trapped in fat cells). The digestive tract eliminates the waste that your body does not absorb. Hence you are not "cleaning" yourself out when you pass stool, only moving along indigestible fibres and water.
On that note the way to properly detoxify your liver is to eliminate caffeine, alcohol prescription and non prescription drugs and high fat foods, and to increase your consumption of dark-coloured vegetables and fruits. Ingesting mroe fibre will prevent some of the ingested toxins from your environemnt from being absorbed into your bloodstream because fibre adds bulk to the stool, and increases intestinal motility.
To answer your question, no i have not done a fast, i have suffered from an eating disorder, however, i have been overweight, and i have lost weight. While your definition of anorexia is fasting for periods of years, mien and the generally accepted definition is "the tendency of an individual to refuse to eat despite being at or below a healthy body mass index". The term actual means "no eating". So, essentially, by that definition fasting IS anorexia. While there may be no loss of control or distorted body image, repeatly denying your body the calories it needs as an attempt to get healthier IS a diagnosable quality of disordered eating.

[rossio]

Originally Posted by DQueens

On that note the way to properly detoxify your liver is to eliminate caffeine, alcohol prescription and non prescription drugs and high fat foods, and to increase your consumption of dark-coloured vegetables and fruits. Ingesting mroe fibre will prevent some of the ingested toxins from your environemnt from being absorbed into your bloodstream because fibre adds bulk to the stool, and increases intestinal motility.

I 99.9% agree with every word of that. The missing 0.1% is that I would eliminate sugar, yeast, dairy and gluten too.

I think that this is absolutely sterling advice.

Ross

[Amadeus]

DQueen, the two major reasons people live longer today is certainly not because of medicine for the most part. The main reason we live longer today is because "accidental death" has been cut down dramatically in the past 200 years and nutrition. People's bone structure use to be a lot weaker because of lack of calcium causing them to way down on their organs.
I am a firm believer in the Bible. It has never let me down and is full of truth. Jesus, Moses, David, etc. fasted for weeks. It tells us in Matthew to pray, give, and to fast. The average fast in the Bible was 3 weeks. Actually, that is were the term "fast" comes from. We suppose to pray as we fast. The major thing I have done wrong in my fasting is to tell people about it. The Bible states that we should keep it to ourselves as much as possible.

[Matthew Shea]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

DQueen, the two major reasons people live longer today is certainly not because of medicine for the most part.

I absolutely disagree with this. Modern medicine has saved more lives than you know. I, for one, wouldn't be alive today. When I was 14 I had a severe bout of appendicitis that would have killed me without the surgery to remove it and clean up the mess in conjuction with the antibiotics to clear up the infection.

Also think about how many people you know that have had measles, mumps, rubella, typhoid fever, polio or a whole host of other diseases that are almost unheard of today and used to kill or maim many people.

That all being said, I think people can take treatments too far and will sometimes go to a doctor and take medicine for things that really don't need treatment, but that doesn't discount the fact that we are indeed living longer due to medical advances in conjuction with other things like better nutrition (although that's arguable today given our current obesity problems), better food safety, better hygiene and better safety overall.

[Rosi]

Amadeus,
I think the reason for not telling people about a fast is that we shouldn't tell it in a spirit of pride, drawing attention to how well intentioned we are or how pious or how strong, for example. To my mind, telling people about it as you have done here doesn't fall into that trap. You are helping other people who are interested in understanding the how or why of a fast, mostly with the intention of improving their experiences of trying to fast. I don't see anything negative in that.
All the best, Rosi

[Mitja]

Originally Posted by TechnoGuyRob

I haven't tried it, but my dad did a no-consumption (or whatever you call it) fast for two and a half weeks (no food or water, basically any consumption by mouth). (EDIT: Apparently it's called breatharian) He said he felt great (he did seem a lot more energetic), but then we went to California for vacation, and my aunt always cooks the best meals so he started eating again. :P I might try it sometime though; apparently you can go for years. I know a couple who hasn't eaten or drunk for three years. Because their digestive system is pretty much freed up, neither of them needs to sleep for more than a few dozen minutes a day, and they don't sweat at all (we took a rollerblading trip in the hot sun all day once, and not a drop; it was quite amazing). I don't think I would advise it if you don't know what you're doing, though. Apparently some woman in Hungary dropped dead trying to not eat or drink at all.

Are those couple sungazers?

[GregCuz]

I personally don't think doing this for a long period of time is healthy. It is also a fact that your body WILL lose lean tissue doing this. Almost anyone who loses a significant amount of weight will lose a lot of muscle and even bodybuilders who diet down with the intention of losing as little muscle as possible usually lose some. If you go on a "fat fast" ( eat 1000 calories of fat or so a day and nothing else) you might not lose muscle but not eating anything you certainly will.

I am also not religious, so fasting in The Bible or the Quran or Dianetics or Atlas Shrugged or whatever book is the bible of choice means nothing to me.

However I DID decide to try this for a short period. I decided to see if I could for 24 hours and I am now 45 hours in. I will break it at 48 hours by eating some soup. I don't know if it had any benefit, but I think continuing would cause me some harm. I think I mostly was just testing my discipline and follow through. When 24 hours was so easy, I just decided to try 48, but that will be it.

[amanda]

Hi, i am new to this forum and discovered this post only a couple of days ago. I don't know if anybody is still reading this topic, anyway...I am also a major advocate of fasting, both water and juice for spiritual/physical purposes.

I have seen that some people, like andrew, or dqueen, etc. strongly disagree the fasting matter, and try to discourage people from doing that.
I have to say that most people talk about fasting in a dreaduful way, comparing it to anorexia, starvation, slow death, etc. but most of the time, these people NEVER EVER tried a true, spiritual fasting, neither have they been called to fast. Hence the skepticism, fear and discouragement. But the point is, they NEVER tried it! And they have NOT experienced the benefits that come from it. They only scarcely know the common, general believes that circulate among people.
Of course, if you starve, you die. But fasting is NOT starvation!! That's the point!! And if done with sincere and deep feelings, it has AMAZING results and benefits. After all, even Jesus Christ fasted. It is as old as the world..

I don't push people to fast or whateva..but i also do believe that fasting is not for everyone. You must be called to that, and have a spiritual purpose. Those who do not have faith (in ANY religion or belief, not just Catholicism) will hardly enter and benefit from a fast.
I myself was against this at first, but it was because I was ignorant about all the matter. After I read a lot about fasting and experienced it according to my health conditions, needs, spiritual aims and so on, I have to say fasting is an amazing experience!

Just wanted to share my opinion w/ you.

[Logicseeker]

Yo-yo dieting is associated with weight gain, heart failure and diseases in general. There are many reported incidents leading to death. I cannot believe you're willing to buy expensive juice just in order to raise the risk of getting ill.

[northstar]

I'm going to jut in at this stage to dispel a few myths.
Our human bodies are categorized into 3 metabolic types: protein, mixed and carbo types. Other names used are meat-eaters, hunter gatherers, agriculturists etc.

Imagine a line with protein and fats at one end of the spectrum and carbs on the other end. Your optimum need for proteins/carbs lies somewhere on this line. So far so good... Where's the catch?

Because each of us are different, our optimum food combination lies somewhere along that line. Fasting works very very well for agriculturists(or carbo types... me for example ). Agriculturists are found in countries adjacent to the equator. These geographical locations have plenty of sunlight and trees and people in these regions derive their food from plants, vegetables, fruits and grains. On the other end of the spectrum are people (or their ancestors) living in cold frigid conditions with very little sunlight and negligible vegetation (think of Eskimos). These people have survived eating animal protein and fat for centuries.

So, if you are a protein type(hint: you do well on the Atkins' diet), avoid fasting at all costs. Protein types need to eat every 3-4 hours. Otherwise they feel hungry and dizzy/weak if they haven't eaten for a while.

Agriculturists like me .... the less we eat, the better we feel. Yeah, it's a conundrum but true. You'd see fasting in religions whose diet is predominantly agrarian(people from India). Fasting is unheard of in cultures whose diet is animal protein and fat.

An Eskimo has meat and fat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The amount of fat they eat everyday is astounding. However, if they start fasting and start going vegetarian/vegan, they WILL die of coronary heart disease. Same goes for a healthy agriculturist who switches to Atkins diet.

Why does this happen? The answer is Evolution. Gradual adaptation to the environment over thousands of years. Supposing you are from Ireland/Iceland, your grandfathers and his grandfathers thrived on meat. They had very little access to vegetation. The exceptions were root vegetables they cultivated.

Not all people are cut for water or juice fasting. A majority would do well but a minority would suffer greatly. I'd guess that about 20% of the world's population has a protein metabolism and should never fast.

[moviestar]

It is a natural human function to fast dating back thousands of years.

Why is it natural? It wasn't called fast thousand years ago but hunger and starvation.

[cmzmichelle]

Hi everyone, I was really interested to see how other people went on thier fast so now that im doing it I thought I might contribute on how I go. at the moment Im on juice before I go on just water so this is day 4 on juice and 3 litres of water a day. next monday ill start on the water im staying on te juice a while dbeacuse i have my period so its I need that extra bit of energy as a get really drained and just to get a good clean out as some women may not get thiers during a fast and also no medication either I have gone off the pill and no pain medication for the migraines I get however since I have been drinking so much water I seem to have lost my migranes which is nice. so far Ive been ok.
I usually have trouble sleeping, however at the moment Im having a daily nap with my 3 year old which makes my hubby very jelous although im sure he'd still rather his food than my lifestyle at the moment poor man cant go without food for 3 hours little own 50 days! I do get quite tired and I get very hungry when im around food other than that I dont get hungry. on the juice in the last 4 days ive been to the toilet a few times (bowel movements) I stopped eating meat a few months before my fast so I wouldnt get blocked and stayed on a diet high in vegies Im overweight right now was 198 pounds (gulp) when I started with a light/med exercise routine mainly running around after my 3 yr old and housework
thats exercise right? lol well it takes up most of my day anyway. so far ive lost 6.6 pounds which is quite alot more than I expected however as I said I im overweight. so far so good... I had so many questions for fasters before so if anyone wants to know anything please ask anything you like and feel free to motivate me it does get hard especially when you have to make party food for birthdays, watch every second add on tv about food and i swear I can smell our local mcdonalds thats 4 miles away. I have researched fasting for months just to make sure I wasnt going to kill myself, as this is not a common thing in our society I went to my dr to get all checked over before I started and he just about commited me to the phsyc ward for an eating disorder... do you want me to prescribe you duromine ?? hmm legal speed that was almost as tempting as a cheeseburger no just monitor me while im fasting pls fasting is not about losing weight as my dr thought it was, its about getting healthy after years of smoking and bad food choices the best and quickest way that ive found, although I would be lying if the i said the weightloss wasnt a great payoff. I have told my friends im on meal replacents for weightlose as we spend alot of time out with friends eating and they ask so many questions and the weightloss is already noticeable on me. my husband has been really good. my mother in law lives next door (think my big fat greek wedding, thats us)except his maltese same same. so she's been providing him with food which she does even if I have fed him apparently daughter in laws never provide husbands with enough food!
anyway sorry for all the writting feel free to ask any questions this is really good to help keep me motivated
michelle malbourne australia

[cmzmichelle]

hope you can understand all of the above note to self: proof read all documents!

[Amadeus]

cmz, how did the water fast go for you?

[gijsbert2002]

Please take care with these kinds of diets, the last thing i would want happening is someone suing Steve, because a family member died due to following advice in this thread.

I however do something similar, my schedule is so busy i sometimes eat freezed pizza, or fast food for a couple of days, because it doesn't take any time to create. After a few days on this diet i feel that I want to get this stuff out of my body.
I usually take one day off normal food and just eat some bread during the day (Note, my sugar levels are always extremely low, so if i try to not eat anything at all, I'll probably die today). After this day, I feel fine again. but i would personally not recommend more, that would make me extremely tired.

[boolo]

Hi all,i'f just completed a 7 day juice fast,and feel verry good about the result,now being enthusiastic i want to start fasting one day a week/or once every 2 weeks,my quistion is : are there anny people here ho have experience with this and can they tell me weather one has to build up and break the one day fast as carufully as for example a 7 day fast.
I mean what should i eat the day before the fast and the day after.

[vtgorilla]

I'm glad I found this thread. I read about fasting last summer but then forgot about it. It seems like a controversial subject at every turn. However, so are a lot of things that have not been thoroughly researched.

In the summer I read that it is important to focus on fruits and vegetables heavily before and after the fast, that it makes the transition periods much easier. However, I've never tried it so I can't tell you that as a fact.

You've spiked my interests again. I'm adding this to a list of things to try on my monthly challenge blog.

[Amadeus]

Personally, I don't think fasting one day a week is a great idea. I think the main reason to fast is to detoxify your body. One day is not long enough. Research shows that short term you will lose mostly muscle (like one day). However the longer you fast (3 days and more), you stop losing muscle and are primarily using fat, dead tissue, etc.