Thread: water fasting - anyone try this?

"Some engage in water fasting as a detox diet. No energy is spent on digestion, other than to heat any cold water to reach homeostasis of a uniform body temperature. The fast is normally undergone with the intent of detoxification for greater health. The reasoning behind this is that less energy is expended on digestion of foods, resulting in more energy for the rest of the body to expel toxins as well as to recover and heal itself from the stresses digestion places upon it. Paul C. Bragg referred to this energy as the "Vital Force," and popularized water fasting with his many books, "Bragg Health Crusades," and success with Hollywood celebrities like Clint Eastwood[1] Other proponents claim that protein sparing minimizes muscle loss as the body adapts to the lack of incoming protein by drawing upon almost solely fat for energy. Even so, metabolism will slow during an extended fast and physical/mental activity should be minimized for safety reasons.[citation needed]
Herbert M. Shelton, a proponent of Natural Hygiene, supervised patients on water fasts for up to ninety days over a period of 45 years. Shelton claimed the hunger experienced during the first three days of a fast are "gastric irritation" and not "true hunger." [2]
Joel Fuhrman, MD, believes that many diseases can be reversed through pure water fasting. These include asthma, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, colitis, psoriasis and various auto-immune disorders."

Water fasting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia







A friend of mine is doing this, I just heard of it this morning. He said that the first two days are hard, and after that it is easy. He has dropped 11 lbs. in three and a half days. He is shooting for 7 days total. Supposedly you loose like 2 ounces of muscle on the second day and after that it is only .5-1 ounce per day, so about half a pound of muscle in 7 days. You can't eat anything at all though, if you do the protein sparing will not work and you will lose mostly muscle.

I am thinking about doing this for 5-6 days or so. After he told me about it I started thinking about how unhealthy most food is, and by the time dinner rolled around I had hunger pangs but I almost didn't want to eat.

The tree pounds that your friend lost during th efirst three days was very unlikely to be pure bodyfat so once he returns to a "normal" diet for himself even if he eats like he did prior to the fast he will put weight back on. Unless there is some sort of medical reason to fast I don't see the need, you can achieve weight loss results from a really good thought out diet.