Caution - Fasting To Lose Weight May Be Dangerous To Your Health

Many personal trainers and nutritionists say that they are often asked about the relationship between fasting and weight loss. First of all, you must understand that fasting is the procedure in which a person deprives himself of food or liquids for a certain period of time. If fasting is to be classified into categories, then it can be done in the following ways:

* Skipping meals: This can be planned or unplanned. If it is unplanned, be careful. You might miss a meal and eat like a glutton during the next meal. I call it, "The eating like a bear coming out of hibernation" syndrome. Believe me, I've been there, done that, and bought a new, larger-sized tee-shirt many times.

* Shortening your eating window: When you are fasting to lose weight , you may decide to eat only 2 meals a day. In this fast, breakfast is taken later in the day and dinner is taken earlier than usual. This creates a longer time to fast in the night.

* Eating fewer meals per day than you are accustomed to: Only breakfast and dinner may be eaten, creating a long gap between the two meals.

* If you want to fast for one day out of every 2, you should know it's a very extreme fast and shouldn't happen very often - maybe only one week a couple of times a year. Your doctor needs to be in the loop if you are interested in an every-other-day fast.

* Fasting every other day: This is an aggressive kind of fast and should be done only for a week or once or twice in a year. You definitely should also be under medical supervision if you want to try this.

* Doing a Master Cleanse or Lemonade Diet: This is the "Big Daddy" of fasting. Quite a few folks I know swear by it. During the lemonade diet, you only eat, or rather drink, the following items: lemon juice, maple syrup, powdered cayenne pepper, water, and salt water. I have adhered to this diet for a couple of days, but I know people who have followed it with terrific results for 9 days. This is a drastic approach, and one you shouldn't embark upon without previously consulting your physician, especially if you have current health concerns or pre-existing medical conditions which could be harmful to you.

Basically, fasting means to directly abstain yourself from food or severely limit your food intake. If you are in doubt whether fasting will help you in losing weight or not, then the answer is an absolute 'YES'. When you fast, several things take place in your body.

During the initial stages of a fast, the quantity of food that you eat is greatly reduced. While your body requires fuel just like it did before, the food that is stored in the body is burned as fuel, including that energy which is stored in your muscles. Should you continue to refuse to eat, your muscle and fat will begin to burn off, consequently, adding quite a bit to the amount of weight that is lost.

Generally, fasting is considered to be dangerous for the human body because depriving yourself of the essential nutrients is by no means a good idea. But if you choose to fast for a shorter span, then the desired results can be achieved without affecting your health adversely. Some of the benefits of short term fasting include detoxification, weight loss and healing.

When you start fasting to lose weight, you also detoxify your body. As you lose weight, you can become healthier. When you fast and eat only small amounts of food, you are simply consuming a low-calorie diet. Therefore, fasting and weight loss generally go hand-in-hand. This can be a very effective short-term weight loss strategy if used carefully and under medical supervision.

When you fast, you also become psychologically stronger and more disciplined. This will help you in following a strict exercise regimen, which will further help you in losing weight. Before fasting, ask yourself how long you are going to fast. Can you keep your weight loss in check, and what will you do after your fast ends? After your fast is over, you should refrain yourself from eating too much to compensate for the food you could not consume during your fast.

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