water fasting

If you are fasting long enough to lose your muscle, or staying active during the fast, you are doing it wrong. Most people wont lose a lot of muscle on a fast, which is EXACTLY what people who have actually done it say! The only yahoos claiming that you will lose massive amounts of muscle are ignorant on the subject of water only fasting.

Can you please, PLEASE stop advocating a Zero Calorie Diet? It's against the community guidelines, and for damned good reason.

Whether the OP or supporters do it or not, for the general public, this isn't a sensible way to lose body fat. Just eat less than you burn and add some physical activity for health and fitness. That's it in a nutshell. No need to go through an extreme method.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

What is a water fast exactly?? How long should you go on a water fast for?

Day one is annoying, day two is painful,

Ah, annoyance and pain - the essential components of any diet plan.

Well thankfully I wasn't doing it to lose weight or diet. As you can see by my ticker, I know how to lose weight, and I have done it in a safe, slow and appropriate manner.

As to the comment about "no science has been done here", well, yes actually it has.

And regards to the gym performance- I think the primary reason, ndj1979 you would see a greater difference in lifting ability than I did, is that I'm sure you lift a hell of a lot more than I do. And at that time, I wasn't doing heavy lifting, I was still under the delusion at the time that women need light weights and tons of reps. I know better now- now I lift heavy, and I'm sure if I were to repeat the fast, I would notice a more significant loss, I will grant that.

I am absolutely NOT promoting a water fast for weight loss, not even in the slightest.

Ah, at first I thought the OP was doing a fast for the sake of fasting. Took a few pages to see OP is just trying the quickest route to drop weight. But here is my input from personal experience either way-

I did a 21 day straight water fast, it was for spiritual reasons, not weight loss. Day one is annoying, day two is painful, day three is exhausting.... and then your body goes in to starvation mode. Like ACTUAL starvation mode, not this BS if you eat less than 1200 calories a day "starvation mode" everyone on here is always throwing around. Real starvation mode, your body primes itself for survival. Your senses sharpen, you think clearer... your body does not instantly start eating your muscles and your organs people. It's priming itself for survival- muscles are pretty far down the list of emergency energy sources. Muscle in an animal is essential in obtaining food. Any species that sacrificed all its muscle and so was unable to carry the extra amount of fat it had would come to a dead end very fast. We're not made like that. The body will sacrifice muscle to obtain essential protein, but its utilization as an energy source is pretty close to a last resort. Fat is the single most concentrated energy source in the human body. In humans it exists almost exclusively as an energy reserve, to maintain energy levels in times of crisis. It gets broken down exclusively to maintain energy levels. If our bodies really broke down/shut down/ate themselves the way everyone on here seems to think, then humanity wouldn't have survived the famines that occurred throughout time- we'd have all been muscle-less, organ-less, brainless bags of flesh that couldn't try to hunt or gather after three or four days...

I started my fast on an extended weekend, so I could get through the hard part at home. Once my body went in to survival mode, the hunger pains stopped, and I went on about my life. I worked every day, took care of my 2 year old every day, maintained my house work, etc. I lived life, not a big deal. I didn't feel drained or tired, I felt quite good actually.

So here is the rest of the experience I had coming out of 21 straight days of nothing but water- I lost weight, yes. About 15 pounds. I came out of the fast by slowly increasing my caloric intake- I focused on proteins and fats. I took a week and gradually increased up to 1600 cals a day. I rested during that week. I had no measurable loss in how much weight I could lift in the gym a week later when I resumed my normal workout schedule, so my muscles handled the fast and recovered just fine. I did put some of the weight back on, about 5 pounds of it, but since I wasn't fasting to lose weight I didn't particularly care. It wouldn't have bothered me to put all 15 back on.

Yeah, sure.

Makes about as much sense as gaining 3 pounds per day magically.
Oh, wait.

That's exactly what you write in your profile.

" I inexplicably gained over 100 pounds in three months. Yes, 3 or more pounds a day. I was a vegetarian at the time, and it made zero sense."

You still make zero sense.

Day one is annoying, day two is painful,

Ah, annoyance and pain - the essential components of any diet plan.

Well thankfully I wasn't doing it to lose weight or diet. As you can see by my ticker, I know how to lose weight, and I have done it in a safe, slow and appropriate manner.

As to the comment about "no science has been done here", well, yes actually it has.

And regards to the gym performance- I think the primary reason, ndj1979 you would see a greater difference in lifting ability than I did, is that I'm sure you lift a hell of a lot more than I do. And at that time, I wasn't doing heavy lifting, I was still under the delusion at the time that women need light weights and tons of reps. I know better now- now I lift heavy, and I'm sure if I were to repeat the fast, I would notice a more significant loss, I will grant that.

I am absolutely NOT promoting a water fast for weight loss, not even in the slightest.

Then your original post is a lie by omission when you wrote it to suggest no impact in performance.
No science.

Ah, at first I thought the OP was doing a fast for the sake of fasting. Took a few pages to see OP is just trying the quickest route to drop weight. But here is my input from personal experience either way-

I did a 21 day straight water fast, it was for spiritual reasons, not weight loss. Day one is annoying, day two is painful, day three is exhausting.... and then your body goes in to starvation mode. Like ACTUAL starvation mode, not this BS if you eat less than 1200 calories a day "starvation mode" everyone on here is always throwing around. Real starvation mode, your body primes itself for survival. Your senses sharpen, you think clearer... your body does not instantly start eating your muscles and your organs people. It's priming itself for survival- muscles are pretty far down the list of emergency energy sources. Muscle in an animal is essential in obtaining food. Any species that sacrificed all its muscle and so was unable to carry the extra amount of fat it had would come to a dead end very fast. We're not made like that. The body will sacrifice muscle to obtain essential protein, but its utilization as an energy source is pretty close to a last resort. Fat is the single most concentrated energy source in the human body. In humans it exists almost exclusively as an energy reserve, to maintain energy levels in times of crisis. It gets broken down exclusively to maintain energy levels. If our bodies really broke down/shut down/ate themselves the way everyone on here seems to think, then humanity wouldn't have survived the famines that occurred throughout time- we'd have all been muscle-less, organ-less, brainless bags of flesh that couldn't try to hunt or gather after three or four days...

I started my fast on an extended weekend, so I could get through the hard part at home. Once my body went in to survival mode, the hunger pains stopped, and I went on about my life. I worked every day, took care of my 2 year old every day, maintained my house work, etc. I lived life, not a big deal. I didn't feel drained or tired, I felt quite good actually.

So here is the rest of the experience I had coming out of 21 straight days of nothing but water- I lost weight, yes. About 15 pounds. I came out of the fast by slowly increasing my caloric intake- I focused on proteins and fats. I took a week and gradually increased up to 1600 cals a day. I rested during that week. I had no measurable loss in how much weight I could lift in the gym a week later when I resumed my normal workout schedule, so my muscles handled the fast and recovered just fine. I did put some of the weight back on, about 5 pounds of it, but since I wasn't fasting to lose weight I didn't particularly care. It wouldn't have bothered me to put all 15 back on.

Yeah, sure.

Makes about as much sense as gaining 3 pounds per day magically.
Oh, wait.

That's exactly what you write in your profile.

" I inexplicably gained over 100 pounds in three months. Yes, 3 or more pounds a day. I was a vegetarian at the time, and it made zero sense."

You still make zero sense.

I actually did gain almost three pounds a day, that is absolutely true, and my skin is evidence of it- as are my medical records. My family watched me basically inflate, and it was an emotionally and physically painful experience for all of us. Feel free to attack me on the issue of fasting, that's fine. I was relating my experience and not advocating it in anyway- but the hell I lived through putting on all that weight, you have no right or business to accuse or attack.

Ah, at first I thought the OP was doing a fast for the sake of fasting. Took a few pages to see OP is just trying the quickest route to drop weight. But here is my input from personal experience either way-

I did a 21 day straight water fast, it was for spiritual reasons, not weight loss. Day one is annoying, day two is painful, day three is exhausting.... and then your body goes in to starvation mode. Like ACTUAL starvation mode, not this BS if you eat less than 1200 calories a day "starvation mode" everyone on here is always throwing around. Real starvation mode, your body primes itself for survival. Your senses sharpen, you think clearer... your body does not instantly start eating your muscles and your organs people. It's priming itself for survival- muscles are pretty far down the list of emergency energy sources. Muscle in an animal is essential in obtaining food. Any species that sacrificed all its muscle and so was unable to carry the extra amount of fat it had would come to a dead end very fast. We're not made like that. The body will sacrifice muscle to obtain essential protein, but its utilization as an energy source is pretty close to a last resort. Fat is the single most concentrated energy source in the human body. In humans it exists almost exclusively as an energy reserve, to maintain energy levels in times of crisis. It gets broken down exclusively to maintain energy levels. If our bodies really broke down/shut down/ate themselves the way everyone on here seems to think, then humanity wouldn't have survived the famines that occurred throughout time- we'd have all been muscle-less, organ-less, brainless bags of flesh that couldn't try to hunt or gather after three or four days...

I started my fast on an extended weekend, so I could get through the hard part at home. Once my body went in to survival mode, the hunger pains stopped, and I went on about my life. I worked every day, took care of my 2 year old every day, maintained my house work, etc. I lived life, not a big deal. I didn't feel drained or tired, I felt quite good actually.

So here is the rest of the experience I had coming out of 21 straight days of nothing but water- I lost weight, yes. About 15 pounds. I came out of the fast by slowly increasing my caloric intake- I focused on proteins and fats. I took a week and gradually increased up to 1600 cals a day. I rested during that week. I had no measurable loss in how much weight I could lift in the gym a week later when I resumed my normal workout schedule, so my muscles handled the fast and recovered just fine. I did put some of the weight back on, about 5 pounds of it, but since I wasn't fasting to lose weight I didn't particularly care. It wouldn't have bothered me to put all 15 back on.

Yeah, sure.

Makes about as much sense as gaining 3 pounds per day magically.
Oh, wait.

That's exactly what you write in your profile.

" I inexplicably gained over 100 pounds in three months. Yes, 3 or more pounds a day. I was a vegetarian at the time, and it made zero sense."

You still make zero sense.

I actually did gain almost three pounds a day, that is absolutely true, and my skin is evidence of it- as are my medical records. My family watched me basically inflate, and it was an emotionally and physically painful experience for all of us. Feel free to attack me on the issue of fasting, that's fine. I was relating my experience and not advocating it in anyway- but the hell I lived through putting on all that weight, you have no right or business to accuse or attack.

My apologies. I do not take your suffering lightly.

However, your style of writing and your total absence of taking into consideration the framework of the thread lends itself to question the content and context of you posting the "success" and "positive" aspects of what is clearly a poor idea for a young woman with a young child to be carrying out. It is both against the site rules to promote zero calorie diets and particularly irresponsible.

As to your weight gain and the issues you went through, again apologies. Massive sudden iatrogenic weight gain over a three month period should have some clinical diagnosis - your statement suggest that you gained all that without explanation or evaluation or perhaps even an increase in intake. Coupled together they fueled my disbelief. We have a false quarrel, trust that I would take my words back.

And here we go again.........fasts don't work, cleanses don't work. Stop being foolish.....ugh.

Huh? Fasts dont work? Tell that to people who fast & do lose weight.

Does the weight stay off once the fast finishes and they begin to eat normal food? No...so they don't work !!

What is a water fast exactly?? How long should you go on a water fast for?

A water fast is not eating food. It's starvation. You should go on a water fast between meals, no longer.

How long between meals? 5 mins? 1 day? .... your point has flaws.