Fasting??? Good/Bad, your thoughts?

nomorefat

Ok, so i'm doing the math with myfitnesspal and basically the less you eat the more you lose. I read up about fasting, the good and the bad, it seems like western medicine says it will slow down your body etc... but i'm not so sure, another study with rats said fasting works.. and the rats even lived longer...

Any thoughts on this, i'm not looking for the whole "it slows your metabolism down.. but more or less, do you think it's bad, or do you see the value in "cleansing"?

Let me konw. :huh:

nomorefat

Ok, so i'm doing the math with myfitnesspal and basically the less you eat the more you lose. I read up about fasting, the good and the bad, it seems like western medicine says it will slow down your body etc... but i'm not so sure, another study with rats said fasting works.. and the rats even lived longer...

Any thoughts on this, i'm not looking for the whole "it slows your metabolism down.. but more or less, do you think it's bad, or do you see the value in "cleansing"?

Let me konw. :huh:

FitJoani

eat to live not live to eat..its hard to avoid the answer u didnt want because that is the truth...but by over eating you wont live long same with extreme fasting, and as for any animals study, honey you are a person, so the affects on a rat won't be the same as you. I am game for detoxing if I overinduldge, but within reason, eating natural low cal nutrient packed food is the way to go, but the more you work out the more you feed it(to give it energy enough but not to store...

travelbug

I think it's bad!! Unless your doctor recommends it for a medical reason I see no purpose for it. Your liver, kidney's etc do all the cleansing your body needs. Eat properly and they won't have to work as hard and all will be great. Do not starve your body of nutrients. And it isn't only, 'the less you eat the more you lose'. You have to eat the proper foods. Just because you eat only 1200 calories of junk doesn't mean you'll be healthy. Whole grains, fruit, veggies, protein, exercise this is what you need!!! :happy:

kerrilucko

I really don't see the point to fasting... Your body simply isn't designed to go without food. End of story.

banks1850

Fasting is a religious thing. The human body does NOT like being starved. If you want to deny yourself food for religious reasons, fine, but not for becoming healthy! Fasting can (and does) lead to liver, gall bladder, intestine, and kidney issues. Add to that that your body goes into starvation mode and stores every single bit of fat around and starts, instead, to burn muscle, which is EXTREMELY counter productive to being healthy, what you have is a very malnourished body. When you do start to eat again, the body chemistry is so screwed up, that you usually gain back, not only the weight you started at, but usually 10 to 20% more.

Much better to slowly lose weight, build muscle, and eat healthy and maintain a slight deficit.

KrisKabob

I think it's bad - and I definitely think that we are not rats! So that study is invalid to me (not trying to be ugly). Haha!

Yeah, fasting - not good. Eating healthy and exercising - good, very good! STAY HEALTHY, NOT SKINNY!!! :bigsmile:

msarro

Fasting is a religious thing. The human body does NOT like being starved. If you want to deny yourself food for religious reasons, fine, but not for becoming healthy! Fasting can (and does) lead to liver, gall bladder, intestine, and kidney issues. Add to that that your body goes into starvation mode and stores every single bit of fat around and starts, instead, to burn muscle, which is EXTREMELY counter productive to being healthy, what you have is a very malnourished body. When you do start to eat again, the body chemistry is so screwed up, that you usually gain back, not only the weight you started at, but usually 10 to 20% more.

Much better to slowly lose weight, build muscle, and eat healthy and maintain a slight deficit.

Not only muscle, it will take everything else it needs from your internal organs. Whatever can give it what it needs with the least effort. If your body needs potassium or calcium it will take it out of bone. If it needs iron it will start to deteriorate the liver. Basically, if you don't eat food, your body keeps eating. Only instead of eating the food you put in it, it eats itself.

Your body is a machine built to keep itself alive, and it does an AMAZING job at doing so. You're much better off slowly tweaking your diet and making sure your body has a regular supply of food. Let your body do its job by working with it, instead of against it.

magicksnmakeup

I work in an Internal Medicine Doctor's office. I'm not pretending to be an expert though. I've noticed that a good body flush is actually pretty beneficial. Just to clean out all the junk thats decaying in your lower intestines. You lose some weight and you feel better. Don't go starve yourself though!! Try lots of fiber and a liquid diet for a few days.

kimber607

Hi

It's not my thing.....just don't see the point
BUT I have a friend that fasts often and loves it....she feels/looks fantastic after (but she feels like crud and is often up at night in the bathroom for the first couple days)

Kim

mommy2js

I work in an Internal Medicine Doctor's office. I'm not pretending to be an expert though. I've noticed that a good body flush is actually pretty beneficial. Just to clean out all the junk thats decaying in your lower intestines. You lose some weight and you feel better. Don't go starve yourself though!! Try lots of fiber and a liquid diet for a few days.

I'm not an expert, but this sounds right to me. I don't think your body's metabolism is going to be very much affected by 1 day of fasting. Banks - you said in a recent post of yours that change in eating habits takes time to really affect metabolism, it can't happen overnight. I can certainly see the logic in this. I also agree however that fasting as a way to lose weight is a bad idea, we aren't made for that.

diannholland1965

As American said. Kinda.
It depends on the fasting.
Hey there is something called a fast where you eat nothing but fresh fruit all day.
That is alright in some form. Not for long periods of time Over 2 days.
Fasting has a negitive mental effect with about 98% of people.
If you do not eat or you only eat Very VERY small amounts then when you are done fasting or just before fasting you Eat like there is no tomorrow.
IF your DOCTOR says it is fine or if you are doing this before a medical treatment then fine... But otherwise I do not think it is wise.
--Diann...

sr2000

I work in an Internal Medicine Doctor's office. I'm not pretending to be an expert though. I've noticed that a good body flush is actually pretty beneficial. Just to clean out all the junk thats decaying in your lower intestines. You lose some weight and you feel better. Don't go starve yourself though!! Try lots of fiber and a liquid diet for a few days.

I agree with this as well, and have done this many times in the past. It's beneficial to flush out toxins, but I wouldn't reccommend starving your body.
Sometimes I slip up and notice a few too many processed, refined, sugary, "yucky" foods sneak back into my diet. (Kinda like accidentally drinking a margarita:laugh: ) Anyway, about 2-3 times a year for a 2-3 days I get really, really strict with my diet and eat only fruits, veggies, and LOTS of extra water and tea, and I do also add a special fiber drink. (No breads, meats, or dairy) This helps flush the junk out of my body and it gets me back on track to eating healthier. During this time I keep my exercise lower key, just walking, nothing too strenuous.

banks1850

Flushes are a controvertial topic. I steer clear of the because after a lot of research on the topic, I have decided that A) they are generally unnecessary if you are eating healthy the body does it's own flushing with fiber, water and other healthy things. And flushing out the intestines can have negative and positive outcomes, much of the bacteria in your intestines is beneficial and helps to break down food. Removing that bacteria can reduce how effective your digestion is for a period of weeks until it has a chance to recover. So IMHO, if you aren't having GI problems, I would steer clear. Combining some kind of flush with eating no solids is a risk I don't feel is necessary for healthy adults. Some disagree with this and stand by fasting, that's fine, but I don't.

As to the 1 day fast. I'm not even sure I would call 1 day a fast, I don't believe she mentioned that she was only going to fast for 1 day. You can eat almost ANYTHING or nothing for 1 day (barring poisons) and not have any long term effects. I'm talking about fasting for multiple days or even weeks. Fasting for 1 day probably isn't great for you, but then again, you wouldn't really lose much weight in a 1 day fast anyway, I'm not sure I see the point of a 1 day fast.

To me this just sounds like another way to "cheat the system". There is no quick fix to health. You eat right, you exercise, and (if you want to lose weight) you encorporate a SENSIBLE caloric deficit. What is so wrong with this method?

emtink

IMHO any temporary change in your diet/exercise routine will lead to temporary results. fasting may or may not lead to weight loss. cleansing will lead to weight loss, but you will slowly put that weight back on as your intestines fill up again. i agree with banks that these methods are cheats (unless for spiritual reasons, in which case your goal isn't weight loss anyway). slow and steady wins the race!

sr2000

I don't do cleanses as a way to lose weight, I woudn't reccommend using fasting, detoxing or cleansing as a form of dieting to lose weight.
I do normally eat pretty healthy, no fast food, no red meat, limit cheese, limted processed foods, etc.. However, when my body starts feeling slugish and tired I know that I need to help my body get rid of the crud that has accumulated. I eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, water, fiber, and probiotics to help my system clear out and prevent build up of toxins and junk that does accumulate over time.
It has been found time and time again that many adults do have a thick bulid up of "sludge" in the large intestine and colon. ( I personally just heard a story of a very healthy, vegan, 40 yr old woman that had colonic therapy and passed a toy that she had swallowed 35+ years ago!) I don't believe that fasting will help with this but the occasional detoxification is neccesary for some people, (myself included) to keep the digestion moving. I have greatly reduced my stomach and digestive track problems, among many other health problems that have been linked back to my poor intestinal health.

yellow_pepper

Cleansing is just a euphemism for clearing the crap out of your GI. Of course you'll weigh less when there's no food inside you. But put it back in your body and you see it back on the scale.

"Cleansing" will not make you shrink fat cells in the short term. A long enough fast will lead the body to start to consume itself: fat, muscle, internal organs and even bone to get the nutrients it needs.

When you SHOULD fast: before a colonoscopy or another surgery. Otherwise, as Banks suggested, it is more mental (I'll expand it to include more than just "religious") than physical.

An intense workout is a much better method for burning off any junk that you overate in the last couple days. Drink lots of water and sweat it out. That's something worth doing every day!

yellow_pepper

As for "flushing out toxins," your body has developed sophisticated mechanisms for dealing with most of the "toxins" that it encounters. Take alcohol. You have an enzyme in your body exclusively dedicated to metabolizing alcohol. It's called alchohol dehydrogenase.

As anyone who's ever been drunk knows, starving yourself does not help you to get sober, or to get over a hangover. Why do people think it's different for any other "toxic" substances that we consume?

Is it because we think we're eating toxins? We wouldn't live 77 yrs on average if our food were so toxic.

Talk of "toxins" is designed to sell products at the health food store. Unless your doctor - and I mean an MD - prescribes a fast for you (and doesn't try to sell you a lot of fasting aids), it's unnecessary.

neome90

Fasting is a religious thing. The human body does NOT like being starved. If you want to deny yourself food for religious reasons, fine, but not for becoming healthy! Fasting can (and does) lead to liver, gall bladder, intestine, and kidney issues. Add to that that your body goes into starvation mode and stores every single bit of fat around and starts, instead, to burn muscle, which is EXTREMELY counter productive to being healthy, what you have is a very malnourished body. When you do start to eat again, the body chemistry is so screwed up, that you usually gain back, not only the weight you started at, but usually 10 to 20% more.

Much better to slowly lose weight, build muscle, and eat healthy and maintain a slight deficit.

. Ditto on what Banks says. I believe that fasting has always been done to "make a point" ect...and as far as cleansing.... I believe there are ways to still eat and cleanse the body... unless it is a religious cleansing of some sort.