I'm starting a tea fast soon, anyone want to join me?

While im totally not in for this fast (im not even going to pretend that i could do it), it isn't unsafe. Too many people think that if they dare to eat under 1500 calories a day, "starvation mode" (which eating disorders completely disbunk btw) will set in. Do some research beyond nutrition books.
I've done fasting, and once i was over the hump, it felt great. I just cant do it now because I'm on my feet a lot, and i like food too much.

I wonder what you think "starvation mode" refers to? and how you think eating disorders 'debunk' it ?

Current scientific literature seems to support short term fasting. All studies either point to fasting being beneficial, or to having no effect whatsoever.

The oh-my-gawd-starvation-mode-you're-gonna-die bullsh*t is complete bro-science and wives tales.

Correct! Fasting is now scientifically proven to heal the body & extend life! Unless you are underweight , near goal weight or have a medical condition such as diabetes or heart failure a 3 day fast will do more good than harm. Modern culture and big bucks in the food industry would have us believe we need 3 square meals a day every day to thrive. We don't, we all, me included eat far far too much!
I would join you myself but I already have a 5:3 ratio restricted calorie (0-500max) day lifestyle..which my GP approves off and am happily losing weight on...and with improving health!!!

How about producing the references for your scientific studies proving an overall survival benefit for fasting - I for one would really like to evaluate the study design and results of these trials, as well as the publication source. I'm sure others would like to have this information also.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110403090259.htm

http://www.healthpromoting.com/water-fasting/fasting-research

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fasting-might-boost-chemo

http://europepmc.org/search/?page=1&query=KW:"Fasting"

http://www.alanaragon.com/an-objective-look-at-intermittent-fasting.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/18/fasting-protect-brain-diseases-scientists

....
.
I'd find more but

i got bored.

Thanks, some of the articles do actually refer to legitimate peer reviewed articles in humans and may be interesting for further reading, but I don't consider someone's unreferenced blog (link 3) to be a legit source of scientific information, nor do I consider a random list of PubMed articles including the word fasting to be supportive (all that shows is that research is being done, it doesn't support or disprove any given point, the articles are probably going to be a mixed bag of positive and negative studies). And the scientific american link refers to an article about a mouse study and chemotherapy - we have been curing mice of cancer for decades, and we have not been able to translate that level of success to humans yet, suggesting they are in fact different beasts - the mouse study is hypothesis-generating only, it does not prove anything for a human population, just suggests an avenue for further research - many, many results in mice do not pan out when tested in humans. Thank you for demonstrating that you know how to use Google, but I have yet to see anything yet that substantiates the poster's claim that fasting increases overall survival in humans, which was my original question.

It is funny how people chime in with the starvation mode concern and the unhealthiness of fasting. I think being obese or overweight on a daily basis exceeds the risk of periodic daily fasting. In addition, I can imagine a lot of people are against this periodic fasting due to the actual inability and lack of self control to do a challenge like this. In addition, I am not a doctor but I don't think 96 hours of fasting is going to be tragic to ones metabolism or their long term health. At least they are staying hydrated.

THANK YOU! So many ignorant people on here. But then it is a public forum. I think you would have better luck joining a group on here that supports occasional fasting rather than posting it as a topic. I just would love to see the food diary's of the people on here blindly bashing fasting. But on here people are more supportive of someone eating 3000 calories a day of take out then 1100 of healthy food. Either way i think this is the last time im going to feed the trolls.

but but but

if we don't feed them

how will we keep them fat?!

they'll go into starvation mode!!!!! and die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:flowerforyou: :laugh:

If our bodies went into "starvation mode" after 3 or 4 days, our species would have been extinct a long time ago.

I'm in. As long as "tea fast" means - drinking a tea fast before I eat all my meals. That's it, right?

Lol, that ^^!!!

This^^

I'll have mine with two sugars, milk and a packet of nice biscuits...thanks

4. Myth: Fasting tricks the body into "starvation mode".

<snip>

Seemingly paradoxical, metabolic rate is actually increased in short-term fasting. For some concrete numbers, studies have shown an increase of 3.6% - 10% after 36-48 hours (Mansell PI, et al, and Zauner C, et al). This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline/noradrenaline) sharpens the mind and makes us want to move around. Desirable traits that encouraged us to seek for food, or for the hunter to kill his prey, increasing survival. At some point, after several days of no eating, this benefit would confer no benefit to survival and probably would have done more harm than good; instead, an adaptation that favored conservation of energy turned out to be advantageous. Thus metabolic rate is increased in short-term fasting (up to 60 hours).

OK found the two studies referenced, one from 13 years ago one from 23 years ago

"Enhanced thermogenic response to epinephrine after 48-h starvation in humans.
Mansell PI, Fellows IW, Macdonald IA. (1990)

The effects of 48-h starvation on the physiological responses to a 30-min infusion of epinephrine at 25 ng.min-1.kg body wt-1 were studied in 11 normal-weight healthy young subjects. Starvation led to considerable alterations in basal metabolism including a significant (mean 3.6%) increase in resting metabolic rate. During the infusions, plasma epinephrine concentration rose less in the starved state (+1.47 nmol/l) than in the normally fed state (+1.73 nmol/l) (SE 0.06 nmol/l; P less than 0.05). The maximum increments (mean +/- SE) in heart rate induced by epinephrine were 11.9 +/- 1.3 beats/min in the normally fed state and 20.1 +/- 2.0 beats/min in the starved state (P less than 0.001); the corresponding mean increments in blood glycerol concentration were 0.07 and 0.14 mmol/l (SE 0.01 mmol/l; P less than 0.01). The increase in the metabolic rate above base line during the final 10 min of the epinephrine infusion was 0.58 +/- 0.18 kJ/min in the normally fed state and 0.78 +/- 0.14 kJ/min in the starved state (P less than 0.01). The chronotropic, lipolytic, and thermogenic effects of infused epinephrine were therefore enhanced by prior starvation, despite the lower plasma epinephrine levels."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2405717


"Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvation is increased as a result of an increase in serum norepinephrine.
Zauner C, Schneeweiss B, Kranz A, Madl C, Ratheiser K, Kramer L, Roth E, Schneider B, Lenz K. (2000)

The effects of food restriction on energy metabolism have been under investigation for more than a century. Data obtained are conflicting and research has failed to provide conclusive results.
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that in lean subjects under normal living conditions, short-term starvation leads to an increase in serum concentrations of catecholamines and thus to an increase in resting energy expenditure.
DESIGN:
Resting energy expenditure, measured by indirect calorimetry, and hormone and substrate concentrations were measured in 11 healthy, lean subjects on days 1, 2, 3, and 4 of an 84-h starvation period.
RESULTS:
Resting energy expenditure increased significantly from 3.97 +/- 0.9 kJ/min on day 1 to 4.53 +/- 0.9 kJ/min on day 3 (P < 0.05). The increase in resting energy expenditure was associated with an increase in the norepinephrine concentration from 1716. +/- 574 pmol/L on day 1 to 3728 +/- 1636 pmol/L on day 4 (P < 0.05). Serum glucose decreased from 4.9 +/- 0.5 to 3.5 +/- 0.5 mmol/L (P < 0.05), whereas insulin did not change significantly.
CONCLUSIONS:
Resting energy expenditure increases in early starvation, accompanied by an increase in plasma norepinephrine. This increase in norepinephrine seems to be due to a decline in serum glucose and may be the initial signal for metabolic changes in early starvation."
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/6/1511.long


Note the tiny number of participants, the description of the same (lean, healthy, young etc), and the references to stress hormones. Haven't stated it explicitly on this thread but have in many others on fasting/ famines/ very low calorie diets/ detoxes - these put the body into a state of stress which few would claim is healthier than the body not being in a state of stress. I could spend more time being sarky about drawing firm conclusions from such limited research but I don't actually think that is necessary.

@Phaendra2013 I do this because I love fasting, and it is a great thing for your body, as long as you don't do it for long periods of time. It is a great cleanse for your body as the green tea contains many antioxidants, and it helps boost your metabolism

It does not cleanse anything - there is nothing to cleanse

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/821828-detoxes-and-cleanses

Fasting gives people bad breath.

I am willing to try have never done one before we will see if I can stick too it

:yawn:

It is funny how people chime in with the starvation mode concern and the unhealthyness of fasting. I think being obese or overweight on a daily basis exceeds the risk of periodic daily fasting. In addition, I can imagine a lot of people are against this periodic fasting due to the actual inability and lack of self control to do a challenge like this. In addition, I am not a doctor but I don't think 96 hours of fasting is going to be tradgic to ones metabolism or their long term health. At least they are staying hydrated.

Current scientific literature seems to support short term fasting. All studies either point to fasting being beneficial, or to having no effect whatsoever.

The oh-my-gawd-starvation-mode-you're-gonna-die bullsh*t is complete bro-science and wives tales.

Correct! Fasting is now scientifically proven to heal the body & extend life! Unless you are underweight , near goal weight or have a medical condition such as diabetes or heart failure a 3 day fast will do more good than harm. Modern culture and big bucks in the food industry would have us believe we need 3 square meals a day every day to thrive. We don't, we all, me included eat far far too much!
I would join you myself but I already have a 5:3 ratio restricted calorie (0-500max) day lifestyle..which my GP approves off and am happily losing weight on...and with improving health!!!

Fasting has not been scientifically proven to extend life in humans. It is being studied, but there is no definitive proof it works in humans. Unless you have a journal article from a reputable source.

Is it safe to fast for 4 days? That seems like a long time!!

If I could be the kind of person that could fast for 3-4 days, I wouldn't have got to the point where I need to diet at all. I just wonder why people want to do it. If you have that amount of willpower then just stick to a certain amount of calories each day and you'll lose weight.