Fasting yay or nay ?

[Claudia Love]

So i've been dieting and so far I've lost 25 pounds ....but what happened is I reached a plateau where 2 weeks went by and only lost one pound eating mainly the same things I did when I lost the 24 pounds. So a friend told me she fasts one day a week and that helps her lose a few pounds a week by fasting . So I fasted and finally i started losing weight again. I honestly don't know though if this safe to do but i was feeling desperate to lose more weight since 2 weeks everything stood still in my metabolism.

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[onomatopoeia]

Fasting is an excellent way to lose muscle mass. Try exercising more and not eating between 6 PM and a light breakfast. Lifting some weights along with walking is a good exercise routine. Walking will burn fat and lifting weights will help burn the calories you eat.

 

[Sonic Temple]

I do it once a week and have been doing for over 30 years. Just once a week, where I just eat one meal a day and only drink water. Maybe not the truest meaning of fasting - but semi-fasting I guess.

 

[xyconyx]

The Fasting Cure - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Have fasted for 15 days at a time
Felt great, but requires close self monitoring.

Very easy to be too harsh on yourself

Pros:
-Body can do lots I had forgotten it could
-Am more aware of what and why I eat, (sidenote: haven't completely gotten over letting boredom get the better of me. But I am faster at seeing/recognizing it)
-surprising mental clarity and endurance for light to medium tasks (long 20+ k walks)

Cons:
-Have to be careful not to over exert myself past day 9. Head gets slightly fuzzy if I bend over and stand up on 9+ days of fasting
-Refeeding syndrome is way too easy to fall into when breaking a fast
-have been living the big guy life for so long, I hate buying clothes. So still schlep around in my big 3x large clothes sinched up with draw strings and belts

 

[poker]

Yay.

 

[barnacler]

I think that there is a lot of evidence that your body has a body weight 'set point', which is controlled by hormones, and that you can temporarily overshoot it, but that your body will fight back to get back there, and it will win. Or at least almost always win.

One book I read suggested that you can possibly reduce your set point by 10 - 15 pounds over 6 - 12 months, but that's about it, so a policy of losing 10 or 15 pounds per maybe 9 months might be optimal. So if you quickly lose 15 pounds, STOP, and wait 6 months, to get used to that weight.

The statistics do seem to suggest that massive fast weight loss can ultimately make things worse.

 

[Darts]

There have been studies of the diet and other habits of monks. Apparently, they only eat enough to live. They don't smoke or drink alcohol or engage in sex.

 

[xix]

I do it once a week and have been doing for over 30 years. Just once a week, where I just eat one meal a day and only drink water. Maybe not the truest meaning of fasting - but semi-fasting I guess.

Have you gained any weight /mass in those 30 years. I mean you must have gained only 10 lbs in 30 years. IF your weight is the same as you started there is something else at work here.

 

[xix]

There have been studies of the diet and other habits of monks. Apparently, they only eat enough to live. They don't smoke or drink alcohol or engage in sex.

They walk, exercise, meditate and sleep 8hours?

 

[Insidious Von]

Fasting is an excellent way to lose muscle mass. Try exercising more and not eating between 6 PM and a light breakfast. Lifting some weights along with walking is a good exercise routine. Walking will burn fat and lifting weights will help burn the calories you eat.

So true, my doctor told me to fast only twice a month.

With the improvements the past few weeks I can finally start to get my weight right. They put me on the nicotine patch while I was in the hospital, I continued with it. Everything was fine until I completed the program, then the cravings came back heavy. I had to soothe the pleasure neurons in my brain - so I ate a full bag of popcorn every day. It worked, I've stayed off cigarettes, but my blood sugar was in double digits in the morning. I had forgotten what my doctor told me, no food or drink after 6:00 pm. So I scheduled my insulin shot for 6:00 pm and make sure I have enough work in its wake. So far its working my morning blood readings are between 7.5 to 6.2 and I'm beginning to lose weight.

Except for white carbs and processed sugar, I can eat almost anything I want - before 6:00 pm. I even tried this, the morning after I took my blood reading 7.2.

 

[amlooking]

Bad idea. You will go crazy mentally. It's called pyschosis. I've tried many times as an idiot and don't recommend. Was hospitalized twice.

The weight you lose is water weight mostly.

In order to lose actual fat, you have to get hungry (be in a caloric deficit). I don't recommend this hell either unless you're a pro and know what you're doing.

If you're bloated, and want to lose water weight, I think you can try to lower salt and carbs a bit.

Body is precious. Don't mess with it.

 

[onomatopoeia]

This is a tip given to me by a guy whose brother was a competitive kick boxer:

Before you go to bed at night, pour a very large glass, (like a 7-11 slurpee cup size), of water, and let it stand overnight, (in the morning, the water should be room temperature). First thing in the morning, drink the entire glass of water. Within a couple of minutes, you should feel the urge to take a dump. This might or might not work for the first few days, but doing it every day will condition your body to eliminate waste at the start of your day, rather than at random times, with minimal advanced notice. Empty bowels to start the day are a training advantage for a competitive athlete, and for the average person, a little 'get up and go', so to speak.

I did this every day for about six months some years ago, and found the procedure to be effective more than 95% of the time. I doesn't necessarily work with a freshly poured glass of cold water.

 

[Combat Shock]

At the end of the day it always comes down to calories in and calories out; your body needs to burn more calories than you consume. By not eating a day a week you obviously decreased your total caloric intake for that week and lost weight as you put yourself in a deficit.
Is it necessary? No.
Is it dangerous? No.
Is it ideal? I would personally say NO.
There are definitely better options to burn more calories and consume less working on your diet.
What will you do next time the scale stops dropping weight as you'd like, fast two days a week?
End goal is lifestyle change, otherwise the weight will come back as soon as you stop the "diet".
Do what you can manage and maintain in the long run, adherence and consistency are key.

 

[Darts]

Guys, it is normal to put on weight as you get older. Don't fight it. You will never be 21 again.

 

[HEYHEY]

The amount of ridiculous advice in this thread is bananas lol

 

[gar]

Congrats, you've lost 25 pounds, however as you continue to lose weight, you have to restrict your diet alittle more to offset your weight lose. Your total daily energy expended (calories need for maintaining your body) has decrease because you have lost muscle and fat.
Your total daily energy expended is determined by your sex, age, weight, percentage of muscle and your activity level. Your body requires less calories now then before your weight loss. Fasting one day a week, lowers your overall caloric intake for the week, so you wind up losing weight.
Other options are to reduce your diet slightly everyday, or to increase your daily activity level.

good luck