Fasting

My rule of thumb is anything that has been done safely by hundreds of millions of people for thousands of years is probably going to be ok.

i just dont think it would be good for the body to go 24+ hours with out eating and only water... how would someone have energy. i mean when i go 8- 10 hours with out eating i start to feel it with headaches and such

The human body is fine 24 hours without food and only water. Heck, some religions even forbid the consumption of water over those 24 hours and those people are fine.

You'd be surprised what the body can do. And what your body can tell you if you listen to it and not just force it to adhere to a schedule.

Fasting is a part of Religious Life and is also done FOR Health reasons. Some cultures Fast on a weekly basis for Religious reasons, some for better health. We, in this country have such a limited view on so many things, and the "weird" thing about it is that we are the UNHEALTHIEST compared to our abundance of foods, technology and quality of health care. In the USA we definitely do not know very much about nutrition, exercise and what the Body and Spirit need. We are shooting in the dark. If we didn't have the health care system we have, we would be even worse off health wise...just think, FEAR to go a day or two without food and/or water...WOW! Digestion IS the Aging Process. People come to this Country and GET UNHEALTHY/Sick/Fat Physically, but make more money. Is that a Better Quality of Life?

Check out the 1 thread on ‘Eat Stop Eat’ - it's intermittent fasting when you go w/o food for almost 24 hours 1-2x a week usually dinner-dinner is the easiest schedule to follow.

The book about ESE has info on how it works, whether it does for you or not depends. If you do ESE you aren't supposed to count cals the rest of the week so it often has more benefits if you went a little over in cals or just to kick-start your weight loss. It’s not intended to be a ‘starve yourself today cause you pigged out yesterday’ thing but people do use it for that.

My hubby has done this every Saturday for years and only now did we notice it actually has a name, intermittent fasting. He's thin and just does it b/c Saturday nights are usually food-filled social events. Still we eat healthy but a dessert can be involved or chips with a movie or something without guilt.

It is usually a spiritual thing. It helps to clear the mind, body and soul. Gives you insight into yourself. It is usually a day spent in prayer. The fasting we do at our church is not that drastic. We will fast from differant things. Such as sugar, or T.V., just like if it were lint. We try to pick the one thing in our life that is getting in the way of our Lord in any way.
I have always heard that another way to fast is to drink water and only eat unleavend bread.

I also have had to have several surgeries where I am supposed to fast for about 30 hours before I go into surgery. I am only allowed clear liquids and that includes jello. Toward the end of the day this gets very hard and I do lots of sleeping through the day so I don't notice the hunger pains near as bad.

There are many different types of Fasts, suffice it to say we need to do more Fasting in this country...we indulge in too much excess and have problems with self control! After all that's why "WE" are here, lack of Self Control...you can call it what you want but the core of the problem is that EXCESS has NOT been Controlled.

Remember, a Spiritual "Thing" can also help the Body...in fact what is good for the Spirit is usually GREAT for the Body. Jesus said nourish the Body from time to time. This 3 Squares per day and 2 Snacks is a FICTION that has been put on us in order to push COMMERCE! Farmers, Manufacturers, Stores, Restaurants, Markets, Advertising...FOOD is THE BIGGEST INDUSTRY in this Country, so it is very important that WE EAT, and whether it is GOOD for Us or NOT is totally irrelevant to COMMERCE! This is why "we are in the condition we are in...Do what works for YOU and Forget the guidelines, 25 years from now most of this Country people will have so much disease even though the "USDA Food Guidelines" have changed...why, because of what COMMERCE pushes and all the LIES about what is "Good" for us. For Get About It!

I've done Short Term Fasts before, and I've extensively researched them as well. they're generally safe and healthy if done correctly. Not sure where people get the idea that they "flush toxins" though, they don't as far as I know. Again, done a lot of research, nowhere in that research was there any mention of the body doing any kind of toxin removal during the fast.

but remember, the primary fuel of the body is glycogen, and we store enough glycogen in the liver, and to a much smaller degree at muscles and the kidneys, to last about 24 to 60 hours depending on your resting energy expenditure, muscle size, liver function, and genetics. So yeah, fasting for 24 hours won't be an issue. And in theory, it can help with fat removal, because under normal circumstances, while the body remains in a glucose metabolism, a certain amount of energy is always being extracted from fat via lipolysis, and if there's no calories coming in, that energy freed up is not replaced (as it normally would be), thus (again, in theory), you can burn fat this way.

the reason why i ask is because i was thinking of trying it. do have to go 24 hours or can i just go from morning to dinner? would i get the same effect.

what about breakfast which they say is the most important meal of the day?
i wouldnt want to eat all my cals at night. I am afraid i would be too hungry and over eat?

Im sorry i have many questions.

My 24 hour fasts mean I skip two meals (i.e. after dinner on Saturday I don't eat until dinner Sunday). It's not always EXACTLY 24 hours. I'm not watching a clock. But I'm also not eating an early dinner.

the reason why i ask is because i was thinking of trying it. do have to go 24 hours or can i just go from morning to dinner? would i get the same effect.

what about breakfast which they say is the most important meal of the day?
i wouldnt want to eat all my cals at night. I am afraid i would be too hungry and over eat?

Im sorry i have many questions.

My 24 hour fasts mean I skip two meals (i.e. after dinner on Saturday I don't eat until dinner Sunday). It's not always EXACTLY 24 hours. I'm not watching a clock. But I'm also not eating an early dinner.

I do dinner to dinner too, but I think breakfast to breakfast would work though. Have your morning breakfast and then stop eating. Drink lots of water and unsweetened tea/etc and go on about your day. Go to bed when you're sleepy and wake up in the morning and eat your next day's breakfast (should be around 24 hours if you wake up at the same time every morning). I'd suggest a very large breakfast (600-800 calories) though to get you through.

Here is another useful thing on fasting http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

Many good quotes in this article, but my favorite, because it does the same thing to me is,

The belief that meal skipping or short-term fasting causes "starvation mode" is so completely ridiculous and absurd that it makes me want to jump out the window.