Fasting may not be for you, but a few 1,000-calorie days can launch you into better health.
Originally featured in:
Men's Fitness April, 2002
To Andy, it seemed like the simplest idea in the world. To help conquer his junk-food cravings, he would go without eating anything for 48 hours. With guidance from some information he found on the Internet, he would consume nothing but water for two days, at which point he would be refreshed and ready to start a new, healthier eating program.
Unfortunately, it didn’t exactly go the way he had planned. Rather than think about higher pursuits, he found that as the first day went on and his hunger grew, he could think about nothing but food. By the end of that first day, he was already feeling light-headed and weak, and couldn’t handle even a short, easy workout. The next morning he felt better, but as the day progressed he began growing even more ravenous. By the evening, he decided to cut the fast short and ate the equivalent of two full meals in one sitting. He felt like a failure, and never did get around to starting that new food plan. Had Andy realized that sometimes you have to slow down to move forward, he might have made some real progress.
The Trouble With Nothing
The idea of fasting—simply not eating (and, in some very brief cases, not drinking) for a certain period of time—has a long history. In fact, every major religion includes some kind of short-term fasting as part of its rituals. By ignoring the animal needs of the body, the idea goes, you can better focus on your “higher,” spiritual side. Alternative-medicine practitioners sometimes use fasts in a similar way, to “cleanse” the body or achieve a kind of mental clarity.
But mainstream physicians debunk claims of health-related benefits for fasting longer than a day or so, saying that it’s at best a useless practice and at worst a dangerous one. In fact, they say, the euphoria fasters experience is largely the result of chemical imbalances and low blood sugar.
More to the point, fasting can short-circuit your plans to build muscle. That’s because when you stop taking in food, your body immediately goes into “starvation mode.” Your own muscle is converted into glucose, a form of sugar, and used to feed your most important organ, the brain. Eventually, your body begins burning fat for fuel as well, but it will keep leaching valuable protein from your muscles. While you could survive this way for months, it isn’t exactly the healthiest means of staying alive.
The Benefits of a Three-Day “Half-Fast”
While going without any food is highly problematic, a few days of less food offers some of fasting’s benefits with few of its drawbacks. While this brief period isn’t likely to produce any muscle growth, it isn’t likely to cannibalize the gains you’ve made either. And Tufts University nutrition professor Susan Roberts, Ph.D., who opposes total fasts, agrees that you could see some physical benefits from short-term calorie reduction.
“It would probably decrease blood pressure and cholesterol,” she says, “although these decreases would be transient if someone went back to eating normally immediately afterward. You might also see some weight loss—just enough to make your pants fit a bit easier.”
Columbia University professor and alternative-medicine expert James Dillard, M.D., agrees that a few days of less food can benefit your health. “Calorie restriction is the only known way to extend life,” he says. By cutting back once a month, perhaps as a way of jump-starting a healthier eating plan, you could rid yourself of a lifetime of excess calories. You’ll also teach yourself that hunger pangs are fleeting, and you don’t have to stuff your face all day in an attempt to head them off.
If you’re looking for an emotional or spiritual lift, you may be able to find that as well. When people fast as part of a religious ritual, they sometimes find that the rumbling in their stomachs interferes with their attempts to transcend the physical. By eating three light meals you’ll stave off the worst of the hunger pangs, but you may still feel “lighter,” and better able to concentrate on the aspects of life that go beyond your bodily needs.
How to Do It
On the next page you’ll find a specific food plan designed to provide about 1,000 calories a day for three days. Here are the details:
You can modify any of the items beforehand, but once you commit to the program, there should be no substitutions. The point is to have these meals and nothing else, no matter what you “feel like” eating. If you get hungry, accept it. You aren’t going to starve, and another meal will be coming along soon enough.
You can add spices or a little salt to any of the food, but don’t add extra butter, margarine or other fats. Try to enjoy the simplicity of the meals.
As for beverages, get plenty of water and caffeine-free tea. If you’re used to drinking coffee, you can include a single cup in the morning to keep from getting a caffeine-withdrawal headache. But if you’re looking to get off the joe, this is a perfect time to do it: Have half your normal amount of coffee, tea or cola the first day, half again the second day, and none at all the third.
If you’re looking to eat healthier in the future, make plans to start immediately on the morning of the fourth day. But keep in mind that you’re likely to be hungry; don’t stuff yourself in an attempt to make up for lost time. If you start to feel congestion or any other unpleasant symptoms during the first few days of eating normally, consider whether you may be allergic to certain foods (see “Are You Food-Sensitive?” on the next page).
During the three days of this program and immediately afterward, keep your workouts light and relatively brief, and stop immediately if you feel light-headed, dizzy or short of breath.
Note: If you have any serious medical problems, such as hypoglycemia, kidney disease, heart disease or diabetes, don’t undertake this plan without discussing it with your doctor.
The Meal Plan
The days are interchangeable, as each one supplies approximately 1,000 calories.
DAY 1
Breakfast
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup blueberries or other berries (by themselves or in the oatmeal)
2 oz. low-fat turkey sausage or soy sausage
1 piece of whole-grain toast
Lunch
1 cup salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots) with vinegar and 1 teaspoon olive oil
3 oz. sliced chicken or turkey breast on one piece of whole-grain bread with a slice of tomato and mustard
1 orange
Dinner
5 oz. broiled fish or chicken breast
1/2 medium sweet potato
1 cup steamed broccoli or other nonstarchy vegetable
DAY 2
Breakfast
3/4 cup low-sugar, whole-grain cereal with 1/2 cup nonfat milk
6 oz. orange juice
10 almonds
Lunch
1/2 cup tuna or chicken salad with 1 tablespoon low-fat mayo
1 tomato
1 piece whole-grain bread
1/2 cup grapes
Dinner
6 oz. broiled chicken breast or low-fat beef
1 small or 1/2 large baked potato
1/2 cup steamed carrots
DAY 3
Breakfast
1 cup oatmeal or 3/4 cup low-sugar, whole-grain cold cereal with 1/2 cup nonfat milk
1 apple
8 walnuts
Lunch
1 cup salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumbers) with vinegar and 1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup chili with beans
1 oz. cornbread
Dinner
1/2 cup split-pea soup
5 oz. broiled fish
1/2 cup brown rice
Are You Food-Sensitive?
You can use this eating plan as a way to test for food sensitivities that may be sabotaging your weight-loss efforts, says Elson Haas, M.D., director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in northern California. According to Haas, who wrote a book on the topic called The False Fat Diet, certain foods can cause mild allergic reactions, resulting in bloating and such health problems as headaches, insomnia and nasal congestion. And the seven foods most likely to do this, he says, are dairy products, wheat, corn, sugar, soy, eggs and peanuts.
It’s easy to modify the plan to stay off these foods: Simply make sure the whole-grain bread or cereal is wheat-free; see that packaged items such as mayo or soup don’t have these products in the ingredients list; and use rice milk (not as nasty as it sounds and readily available in health-food stores) in your cereal.
“If you start to feel better on the third day, consider that something you’ve given up was causing the problem,” Haas says. “Then, if you start feeling more bloated and congested when you go back to eating normally, that’s a sign that you shouldn’t be eating some of these items.” He recommends staying off all seven foods for another week or two, then “rechallenging” yourself with them, one by one, to see which ones cause you to feel worse.