Benefits Of Water Fasting Beyond Just Weight Loss

Ask nine out of ten people why they tried water fasting and the answer will nearly always be the same - weight loss.

With so many new fad diets, infomercial devices, DVDs, and drinks on the market - its easy to end up spending money on trends that either don't work or are so inconvenient that they never stick. Luckily, water fasting is free, proven, and is an ancient way to better health that many cultures have been using for centuries.

You can try water fasting for weight loss anywhere and it requires nothing more than the decision to give it a try, some patience, and a lot of discipline. Once you give water fasting a try, you will see that weight loss is just one small side benefit of the whole body cleansing.

Here are a few good reasons for giving it a shot, whether loosing weight is one of your goals or not:

Psychological Benefits

People that complete a 3 or 5 day water fast report a high clarity of mind and better focus overall throughout the day. You also receive a boost of confidence and self esteem - knowing that you have some amount of control over your body and are not at the mercy of cravings, illness, and other negatives.

New studies have shown that our bodies actually release some of the same chemicals during a fast that are present during sleep. Fasting has even been shown to stop epileptic seizures in children. No doubt, there are many other positive effects on the brain that we are just now beginning to understand.

Heart and Cardio Health

Water fasting has been proven to lower total cholesterol and triglycerides while at the same time increasing HDL cholesterol (the good kind) that helps scrub your arteries.

Joint and Bone Health

Studies show that drinking more water reduces osteoarthritis and relieves the pain from grinding joints caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Cleansing your body with mass quantities of water carries away deposits before they can effect the joints.

Cancer Fighter

It has been suggested that when your body stops receiving constant input (which unfortunately is often processed or chemically modified foods because of our lifestyles) it begins to look around inside itself to eradicate microscopic tumors, free radicals, and toxins that are stored in fat cells - helping to prevent fully developed cancer later.

Metabolic Benefits

Water fasting for weight loss has shown to be effective assuming that you do not undo your hard efforts by splurging once you start eating again. When you stop eating, the body actually goes into a "starvation survival mode" and tried to hold on to stored fat. The weight loss benefits come later from a reduced stomach capacity, more efficient metabolism, and cleansed system.

Avoid the "I deserve it" mentality after finishing a fast and instead focus on the fact that you now have a "clean slate". Will you really want to eat that junk food right away after working so hard to flush it out of your system?

To avoid eating too much, you should gently come off of a water fast by planning the same number of days spent without food for slowly increasing your diet from broth, soup, and yogurt back to solid foods. Avoid eating processed foods right away and instead concentrate on the basics that have kept people alive long before the frozen food aisle was an option.

You will notice a boost in your daily energy reserves and also that you now need to eat less food to feel "full" - this, along with an increase in your metabolism, will promote the weight loss that people want.

In Conclusion

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of water fasting is that it provides us with a "clean slate" and the feeling that we have removed many impurities from our body. With that in mind, it actually becomes much easier to say "no" to junk food and other temptations out of fear of messing up a good thing earned through discipline and focus.

The first 24 hours of the fast are certainly the most challenging, but once over this threshold it gets easier with each passing day as hunger decreases. Don't plan on doing too much exercise on the first day or two until your body adjusts to the new situation.

Even relatively short periods of fasting (starting with 24 hours) have been shown to provide positive benefits - there is no need to go for prolonged periods without food.

Probably the number one reason that people fail in their fasting attempts is not hunger as you would suspect, it is actually kidney and back pain caused by overwhelming the kidneys with too much water. You must drink a lot of water to stay hydrated (particularly if you are also doing a colon cleansing "Salt Water Flush") - but drinking too much to fill your stomach to counter hunger will actually cause a pain in your back and side.

As with any exercise or diet, start gently and finish gently, giving your body a chance to adjust and be peaceful.

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