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Many people believe fasting to lose weight will help them drop the pounds quickly. Fasting typically involves greatly limiting your intake of food and not eating. Some may not eat anything except water or juice. Others may limit themselves to only one meal per day. Some fasting diets may only restrict certain foods – for example not eating meat or dairy or limiting oneself only to eating raw foods.
There’s hundreds of different diets out there and of course they all claim to be the miracle you’ve been looking for to get thin, look great, and be healthy. But some of these while not only possibly ineffective can also be quite dangerous as well. Depending on what type of fasting diet you’ve decided to follow, it may even cause the reverse effect. As one article on Fasting Weight Loss confirms, the cons may outweigh the pros.
Our bodies are engineered so that if we do not eat, the nutrients, at, and calories that are stored will be used up. However, because the body is kicked into “survival mode”, it can potentially cause your metabolism to slow down, since the body believes it will need to ration as much as it has for as long as possible. This can be awful for when you go back to eating regularly as usual again because your metabolism will have slowed down and so you will not burn off the calories and fat as quickly as you would if you eat on a regular consistent basis. You may find yourself gaining weight after spending any prolonged amount of time fasting, even if you did lose weight quickly in just a few days from not eating. This is what sets up the cycle of yo-yo dieting for so many people.
There are other claims of the benefits of fasting, which include everything from ridding the body of toxins to finding mental clarity. Many people who do juice fasting claim that they are extremely energized and vibrant. However, there is no true medically supported evidence that fasting has any benefits, either physical or psychological.
In general, if you go a day or two without eating it is unlikely you will suffer from any major health consequences. Fasting is common for a day or two for either religious reasons, such as Good Friday during Lent or for medical reasons, such as not eating anything for 12 hours before a blood glucose test for diabetes.
If you do not eat for a day or two you might feel light headed, dizzy, tired, nausea or other feelings associated with not getting anything to eat and a drop in blood glucose levels. However, prolonged fasting can cause many more serious problems, which includes malnutrition, being more likely at risk for catching infections or viruses, dehydration, constipation, and plenty of other possible things. It is possible to starve to death if you do not eat after any extended period of time.
Another potential pitfall of fasting is that while you are going two or three days without eating normal regular food when you decide to go back to eating regularly you may be much hungrier than usual. You may eat an outrageously large meal that would include just as many calories as you would have consumed the last day had you eaten. Not only does this in a way defeat the purpose, but it can also make you feel sick afterward.
In general, if you really want to be successful, fasting to lose weight is likely not the best solution for permanent results. If you want to improve your health and change your lifestyle with healthy habits, the only way to do this is to start eating healthier and exercising.
