Fasting....

I've done much research on fasting recently.  Every website claims that fasting , even for a day is GREAT for the body.   Has anyone else heard of this???  Anyway, i was curious if i could do it so yesterday i tried.  Morning wasn't too bad, by dinner i was sure to give in. My partner in crime who was trying the same gave me a pep talk and i held on.  Suppertime was tough as i made chicken linguine alfredo for my son....one of my fav's....but i held on!  By the end of the evening i was....ok.  I really feel like i accomplished something.  Both my friend and i came to the conclusion that it really is 'mind over body' sometimes.  I eat because i WANT something to eat...not because i NEED it.   I am considering making fasting a part of my routine, each Sunday.  I've done the research and feel it's not harming my body, but making it stronger.  Google 'one day fast' and tell me what you think :)

I'm not an MD or anything (Unsurprisingly, neither are the people who laud fasting), but when fasting, your liver and muscle glycogen levels drop drastically. This forces the body to consume its muscle and organ tissue and impairs brain function in the short term.

It also causes metabolism to be slowed to meet the drastic calorie reduction.

So, in my opinion, fasting is not good for you health-wise, and absolutely terrible for you from a weight loss standpoint.

And prolonged fasting causes all kinds of organ damage.

Well, we know prolonged fasting is bad for sure; I don't know why anyone would then make the conclusion that shorter fasting is good.

Not a lot of clear scientific research has been done though.

Original Post by michelleslife:

Every website claims that fasting , even for a day is GREAT for the body.  

This website doesn't.

Your weight might drop because you don't have any food in your stomach, but for actual fat loss, keeping a deficit of 500 calories each day is going to be a lot more successful than starving yourself for a period of time.

From WebMD: If you weed through all the controversy, you'll find that most medical experts agree on one thing: fasting is not a healthy weight loss tool.

This is stupid. There's no way you should be doing this for weight loss or making your body 'stronger'. What evidence or data collected shows this is good for you? All of the data I've seen on this shows all negative effects.

The only reason anyone should even consider fasting would be something along the lines of strong religious reasons.

I've done more fasting in my life than most people you will meet.  But that fasting was always done for spiritual reasons, not for weight loss.  I have fasted for multiple days many times, even for 40 days once. 

I think fasting for weight loss is a terrible idea.  Many good reasons have already been stated here.  But I think the two most obvious are: 1) your body is designed to consume food and utilize that for nutrition and energy; and 2) any weight loss realized by fasting is almost certainly going to be regained (our bodies have this thing about preserving themselves!), and maybe even plus some more.  

Fasting is a spiritual practice, hand-in-hand with prayer.  I'm not a doctor, but I think it's not a good practice for physical benefit, especially weight loss.  Others will disagree, and that's fine.  Just giving my 2 cents from lots of experience.

I do agree with it not being great for weight loss...i never believed anything but good diet and exercise is the best way.  But i am leaning towards fasting as a way to allow the body to 'cleanse'.  :)

Well, I can say for sure that "cleansing" is new-age marketing hype. It's completely unsubstantiated. There's absolutely no evidence anywhere that depriving your body of the things it needs allows it to eliminate toxins any better than it normally does.

At most, you'll "cleanse" yourself of the waste matter that was originally set to be cleansed tomorrow.

A lot of people buy into all this "detox" stuff, but it's really all talk. I've never seen a single study conducted on "detox" or "cleansing", nor a medical professional recommending it.

The BBC did a "detox" study (The Truth About Food)and guess what the the results yielded? You guessed it! Here is the video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/sn/h umanbody/truthaboutfood/flashapp/ram/detox?si ze=16x9&bgc=000000&nbram=1&bbram= 1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

Here are the rest of the videos:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutf ood/flashapp/nonflash.shtml

Not for weight loss, but I have done short fasts..mostly just not eating for a day and drinking a lot of water and green tea, etc..as a way to ease IBS symptoms when they've been bad. Sometimes, my stomach really seems to need a rest, and I have pain, bloating, constipation etc..a day here or there seems to allow my GI tract to process what it's already dealing with, and gives me a lot of relief. I feel I need a day off from just digesting food sometimes, and the pain and discomfort can be pretty bad, so when that's the case, I don't want to eat much anyway = (

I see a Gastro specialist, and he's fine with me doing this on a very short term basis here and there. He says many of his patients do, actually. When you have a sluggish digestive system, sometimes things build up and when you don't put anything new in there you're more able to flush out the 'old'.

But..for the average person, no..I don't think you 'need' to cleanse your system. If you're worried about toxins and build up of processed food and all that, maybe you could go organic for a while to see if you feel any different or better about things.

Antioxidants are great if you're looking to minimize damage from diet and environmental factors, but even there..not sure how much proof there is that consuming large amounts of these offers cleansing benefits.

It can't hurt though, and antioxidants are found in healthy foods, so why not?

NOT GOOD FOR YOUR  BODY!  When you think about it (realistically) why would you expect your body to function properly without fuel? 

eating isnt mind over matter, its necessary to LIVE.

over eating and eating unhealthy is definately 'mind over matter' ...to me it is anyway.

Original Post by michelleslife:

I do agree with it not being great for weight loss...i never believed anything but good diet and exercise is the best way.  But i am leaning towards fasting as a way to allow the body to 'cleanse'.  :)

Cleanse what? If your body couldn't remove toxins, you would be dead.

As far as "cleanse", garbage in, garbage out. Don't eat crappy foods in the first place!

I think Ifr3 hit on a good idea. If by 'cleanse' you are talking about in a spiritual/mental sense (mind over matter) then there are other activities that you can do besides fasting/not eating. Physically I don't think fasting is going to improve the body and your organs need calories to do their functions (like the liver that works to detox in the first place). I think eating healthier and exercising would be the way to go to cleanse the body. Maybe if it is a mind over matter or a spiritual thing you are looking for maybe try meditation or set a exercise goal or you could cleanse by eliminating unhealthy things like clutter or junk food. But i agree with others that the body really cleanses itself.

Hey!

While I do see where you`re coming from and have nothing but respect for your determination and will power, I think that energy would be better off invested in something constructive rather than destructive. You`ll be just as proud of proving your strength of character afterwards, and you won`t do any damage to your body in the process.