Fasting To Lose Weight - What You Must Know

It really sounds so simple - you can have the body of a movie star in two weeks just by fasting to lose weight.

The excess pounds will melt away as you consume nothing but water or juice for 10 days or more, leaving you looking like Jennifer Aniston or George Clooney.

But as the old song foes, "It ain't necessarily so". In fact, extended fasting to lose weight is just about the worst thing you can do.

Right, I'm sure you're confused if you've seen stories about celebs - and ordinary folks - using water fasting to lose weight or juice fasting to lose weight and achieving some amazing results - 10, 20, 30 or more pounds lost. But let me urge you to be very cautious.

Liquid-only fasting should always be of short duration - a day or two - because your body needs nutrition! Don't embark on a long fast with the sole intention of losing weight because fasting was never designed to be a weight loss program.

If you do use fasting to lose weight - on its own without other lifestyle changes - you will be disappointed. Yes, you might well drop several pounds very quickly, but once the fast is over you will likely pile on the excess weight again. This is the original "quick fix" in a world that wants instant solutions and gratification. You've got to do more than drink nothing but liquids for days on end if you want to get healthy and in shape.

Extended liquid-only fasts send a distress signal to your body that it is being starved! Your brain will slow down your metabolism and you'll have less energy. The aim of every decent weight loss program should be to speed up your metabolism, not slow it down!

And bear in mind - a liquid fast lasting days or weeks can give you headaches, nausea, dizziness and even cause damage to your kidneys and other organs.

Right, now you know why fasting and weight loss is a tricky issue, let me make clear that I believe there IS a place for fasting as part of a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, cultures all over the world use fasting for religious reasons to help focus the mind on higher things. And Often, a short fast is used to help the body recover from gastro-intestinal disorders. Stomach flu, for example, can be eased by drinking cooled boiled water for 12 to 24 hours.

Taking a short fast is also a good way of giving your digestive system a brief vacation from the chore of processing food - including junk - allowing it to catch up on cleaning and maintenance!

Finally, to use the benefits of fasting as part of your weight loss plan I encourage you to check out a great how-to guide called Master Cleanse Secrets by Raylen Stirling. This is a fast with a big difference - you can continue eating. The all-natural drink ingredients include organic lemons.

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