Fasting

vurt

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I've began fasting 24h every other day. Supposedly it's very healthy since it will flush out old and bad cells and generates new ones.

The first 3 or 4 times i tried it (first time a few months ago) i really didn't think it was for me, maybe something i could do with a lot of effort a few times a year.
The hunger became very intense in the evening, like i couldn't concentrate on anything, not too fun.

Anyways, i stuck with it, and that craving eventually passes it seems. I no longer have any intense hunger even as the evening approaches. I guess i've rewired my brain and that it just took few times to get accustomed to it.

What i've noticed after a little more than one week is that it has improved my mood, i seem to have more energy (did an hour of workout today, usually i don't feel energized enough for that). I've (obviously) also lost weight (i have around 10kg of overweight).

The days i'm fasting i also have tons of energy, even to the degree that it's been a bit difficult to sleep (hopefully that is something that will pass, too.)

Anyone else doing this? Or have experiences with fasting?
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
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The land of rape and honey
I've began fasting 24h every other day. Supposedly it's very healthy since it will flush out old and bad cells and generates new ones.

The first 3 or 4 times i tried it (first time a few months ago) i really didn't think it was for me, maybe something i could do with a lot of effort a few times a year.
The hunger became very intense in the evening, like i couldn't concentrate on anything, not too fun.

Anyways, i stuck with it, and that craving eventually passes it seems. I no longer have any intense hunger even as the evening approaches. I guess i've rewired my brain and that it just took few times to get accustomed to it.

What i've noticed after a little more than one week is that it has improved my mood, i seem to have more energy (did an hour of workout today, usually i don't feel energized enough for that). I've (obviously) also lost weight (i have around 10kg of overweight).

The days i'm fasting i also have tons of energy, even to the degree that it's been a bit difficult to sleep (hopefully that is something that will pass, too.)

Anyone else doing this? Or have experiences with fasting?

For some months now I've been trying to stick to a one-meal-a-day regiment. I've been successful 50% of the times, but even with that I've managed to lose weight. This way, as long as I keep my diet fairly clean (with sweets and other shit from time to time), I'm still able to stay below my daily caloric needs. This has been an easier way for me to stay in a caloric deficit, compared with anything else I've tried. No counting calories, just OMAD.
 
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Ah, yeah i've tried that. I think it's harder because you kind of tease yourself with food and after a few hours i want more, for me this has been easier but the initial 3-4 times was difficult. I also like the benefit of the cell generation with this.

I only drink water + i take Himalayan salt during the fasting.

I think i'm gonna do like this;

day 1 fasting
day 2 eat healthy, absolutely not overdo calorie intake
day 3 fasting
day 4 eat whatever, don't pay too much attention and just enjoy.
goto 1

if it's too strict there's a big risk it will get very boring after a while.
 
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For those who are wondering about vurt statement that fasting detox. This is not medically proven. While there are numerous articles on the web - this one is taken from webmd.

For now I would consider it a wives tale that fasting detox the body.


--
Does Fasting Detoxify the Body?
Here's where the debate gets intense.

"There is no scientific evidence it will detox the body. The issue of fasting to cleanse the body has no biological basis because the body is real good at that by itself," says Fernstrom. "The liver is a natural detox center; the lungs, the colon, the kidneys, [the lymph glands] and the skin get rid of toxins."

But Fuhrman, who has supervised hundreds of patients' fasts for medicinal purposes, disagrees.

"We know that the body is unable to rid itself of toxins when we eat a diet low in nutrients," and that applies to most Americans, even those who think they are healthy, he says.

"Americans eat 51% of their diet from processed foods and foods low in phytochemicals and antioxidants," he says. "So you see a buildup of waste products in the cells -- AGE, advanced glycation end products -- that build up in cellular tissues and lead to atherosclerosis, aging, diabetes, nerve damage, and the deterioration of organs. This is basic science and physiology every doctor learns in medical school."

Along with improving your overall diet, fasting is one solution to that buildup of AGE, according to advocates like Fuhrman.

"Fasting allows the body to most effectively remove these waste products," he says. "The body is designed to fast; we do it every night."

How does fasting remove toxins from the body? When you go without eating for more than a day or two, the body enters into ketosis. Ketosis occurs when the body runs out of carbohydrates to burn for energy, so it burns fat.

"And the fat is where the body stores many of the toxins it absorbs from the environment," Fuhrman says.

Spiritual and Religious Fasting
Whether fasting can help rid the body of waste buildup is a matter of controversy. But fasting has been used for religious and spiritual purification for centuries.

Nearly every religious text you can name, from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible to the Quran and the Upanishads, calls upon followers to fast periodically as a rite of spiritual purification, penitence, or preparation for union with God.
 
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@you;

The Japanese Doctor who researched and discovered this actually won the nobel price for it.

https://lifespa.com/fasting-research-wins-nobel-prize-medicine-right/

..this is not removing toxins from cells, as i understand it, this is killing off old and bad cells and new ones are regenerated (even new brain cells), so it's not detoxification which you are referring to.

This is also a fairly new discovery so be sure you are getting updated info.

I wonder if this is why one is not hungry when sick… that would make a lot of sense, basically the body tells you "don't eat, i'm working my ass off to fix this issue, don't mess with blood sugars and around 100 other things, cause it'll take me forever to get you in good shape!"
I have to read up about that, but it makes perfect sense, the body is very smart and it usually makes sense to just listen to it.
 
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I radically changed my eating habits in the late nineties, when I ceased having a morning meal and more recently when I stopped having coffee as well. I intake nothing save water, until after daily meditation, then I'll have lunch and later, an evening meal. So I go without food for eighteen hours a day, and internally I know it's been a positive change for me.
 
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I knew nothing of this fasting stuff but a couple years ago i started only eating from 8am to 4pm with most of my calorie intake coming at lunch. Lost 50lbs in 6 months. Obviously i ate mostly healthy during those hours but I’d have some junk every now and then.

Stopped doing that this past year and have put 15lbs back on so ill probably start up and get to my goal weight again and then modify it slightly and just stick with it permanently.

The first week or so i was starving from 7 till bed time but i adjusted and never really felt hungry after that.
 
Honestly I have absolutely no idea what are you taking about, the last Oprah show I watched more than 20 years ago.
 
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Well, if this short term fasting works for you to get to a healthy weight, why not. At least it does not rely on sketchy "dietary supplements" or other kinds of snake oil.

Just don't do long term fasting without professional support. Ask your doc first, at least.
 
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For those who are wondering about vurt statement that fasting detox. This is not medically proven. While there are numerous articles on the web - this one is taken from webmd.

For now I would consider it a wives tale that fasting detox the body.

It's not a detox in the normal sense, but recycling of old proteins. Autophagy is not just limited to regular apoptosis, but can also have an effect on viral and cancerous cells. This is why fasting during chemo, while research is still in its infancy is having a promising future.

The problem with fasting is the stigma. Even though it's been practiced for thousands of years, the last couple centuries have been filled with the idea that we must have 3 meals a day or we will probably suffer some awful death, and is just for religious zealots. And some of that might have some truth to it, because recently we see a lot of crazy mom-blogs doing the "juice" fasts that tell you "OMG IT MADE ME GROW BACK MY SEVERED LEGS! Now buy my juicing product!", without bothering to ever explain any science behind what fasting really is. On top of this, there's not a lot of incentive to fund peer reviewed studies. How do you make money from not eating?

Who is seeing a lot of results is Dr. Fung and Megan Ramos in Ontario, doing intermittent fasting with medical guidance to reverse Type 2 Diabetes and other similar endocrine disorders. Turns out that that you don't just need to give your body a break from what types of food your eat, but also a break from eating in general, hence why one of the many reasons getting a good night's sleep is so important. Everyone fasts at night, and they just don't realize it. Intermittent fasting is just making the process that your body NEEDS during the night, last a little longer.

I'm not an advocate for long multi-day fasts unless it's medically supervised, as there can be issues with refeeding syndrome and other electrolyte based complications, but skipping a breakfast every now and then isn't going to hurt you unless you have some existing medical issues.
 
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Here is something I found bizarre. My 3 year old got sick few weeks ago. Three days of very high fever and cold. She only had cows milk 3 times day and in total about 800ml for the day. She refused to eat anything for 6 days straight. We got really worried and took her to the doctor and he said not force feed her. She is fine now and got her appetite back and eating normally but I still find it bizarre that she could go on for 6 days just with milk!
 
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Milk contains a lot of good stuff, though it does not contain much sodium which is needed when fasting. It's the first thing i would add if i had a baby which didn't eat (after researching how much is needed to maintain the bodily functions that needs it). Good it worked out fine though :)
 
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Younger kids are also better at digesting milk. But certainly the right call to ask the doctor about it, that's not something I'd leave to gut feeling or bits and pieces of knowledge.
 
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My wife reminded me that she was adding multivitamins drop to her milk so it wasn't just milk :)

What I am trying to get at was that, sometimes it feels like you are going to die if you didn't eat yet she went without much food for 6 days :)
 
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My wife reminded me that she was adding multivitamins drop to her milk so it wasn't just milk :)

Beware of too much vitamine A, B6 and D. Those are the only vitamins that can get a person, tall or small, into trouble when taking too much. See the internet if you want to learn more.

As for the topic. I have experienced intermittent fasting: only eating between 11.00 and 21.00 hrs. But that was to give my pancreas a long break (which is troubling me every now and then when it comes to its role in the digestion of fats). I have learned that (intermittent) fasting for women is different than fasting for men, it is not as long.

Back then I read about the positive effects it has/could have, not only on the pancreas, but for those that are overweight (which is not the case for me) since one seems to avoid the yoyo effect.
 
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Beware of too much vitamine A, B6 and D. Those are the only vitamins that can get a person, tall or small, into trouble when taking too much. See the internet if you want to learn more.

As for the topic. I have experienced intermittent fasting: only eating between 11.00 and 21.00 hrs. But that was to give my pancreas a long break (which is troubling me every now and then when it comes to its role in the digestion of fats). I have learned that (intermittent) fasting for women is different than fasting for men, it is not as long.

Back then I read about the positive effects it has/could have, not only on the pancreas, but for those that are overweight (which is not the case for me) since one seems to avoid the yoyo effect.

Yes you are right about the vitamine. We were only giving her the dosage recommended by the doctor and he also warned about the same thing about taking too much vitamines.

I am trying to loose weight right now and its very hard struggle. For example I weighted myself yesterday morning and this morning and I have put on nearly 1kg but I only had 2 small meals and 2 cups of tea yesterday. I can't explain it! I am counting calories so recording everything that I eat and I should be around 1.5k calories yesterday yet the weight has gone up and its really puzzling!

I am also going to try fasting a bit as well to see if that helps.
 
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I fast between 9 PM and 8 AM, then from 8:30 AM to 1 PM and then from 1 PM to 8:30 PM. It's kept me alive all these years.
 
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I am trying to loose weight right now and its very hard struggle. For example I weighted myself yesterday morning and this morning and I have put on nearly 1kg but I only had 2 small meals and 2 cups of tea yesterday. I can't explain it!

I'd be very careful with going by "isolated" weight measurements only. There's a bunch of reasons why those are inaccurate. Maybe go by weekly averages instead.

Just some possible explanations:
- One of the fastest ways to gain/loose weight (not fat) is simply via intake/loss of water. So it matters how much you drink, but also, how much water your body stores. If your stomach is full, you retain more water, too. But also, the rest of your body may store water differently, depending on how you live/eat/work out.
- The time of the measurement matters. It can be a kg difference, simply because you measure before/after a meal (or after/before visiting the rest room).
- Depending on what you eat, your body may take longer to digest it. Simply keeping the weight of partially unprocessed food in your body can increase your weight, without implying a gain of fat.
- Muscles are (on average) denser than fat. That means, you can gain weight, yet loose volume. :)
- That's all assuming that the scale itself is accurate enough.
 
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yeah those 1kg differences is easily seen within a day, it's normal. Instead measure weekly if you get too caught up on those 1kg differences..

I've struggled with this 10kg overweight for a couple of years now, sometimes i lose 5 kg of it, but that's it, then i gain 5 kg again. Too much exercise is just bad i've noticed, it does little to weight loss + it makes me way more hungry. I've started weight lifting though + eating lots of protein, so far that hasn't made me as hungry as e.g walking (fast pace) for 1 hour 2 times every day. I'm still taking walks though but i stick to 40 min - 1 hour only daily.
 
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Essentially, it's the same old thing. They come up with new approaches to health and food every few months or years.

If you want to lose weight, it's still the same old inevitable truth: Consume fewer calories than you burn.

However you go about it - and whatever method works for you - is probably less important, unless it's downright unhealthy. I'm not a scientist - but it sounds like fasting is quite doable as a human being, so I don't think it will be a health issue.

That said, I do not think it's necessary at all for losing weight. I would venture to guess that it's all but certain that any weight-loss advantage is based in the psychological aspect of changing your habits more than anything else. Changing eating habits have always been the hard part, when you think about it.

If it's about simplicity - and not what's "easy" - then simply not eating is the much, much simpler approach. Of course, you'll eventually die - but you WILL lose weight much, much faster than this method.
 
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