The Value Of Fasting

Another thread in the food section of the forum is starting to touch on this, so I thought I'd start this thread as a way of maybe possibly avoiding the derailing of a perfectly good Margarine thread.

Rather than wasting my time and efforts on yet another diet, I think I'll stick with where I am now. My weight is higher than I'd like it to be but not as high as it has been at other points in my life, and it seems to be stabilized here.

However, a part of keeping it from moving upwards is, I suppose, a diet of sorts. I don't weigh myself often because obsessing over the numbers seems to be counterproductive sometimes, and because I am basically lazy when it comes to things like counting calories or pounds. What I do is when I feel as if I am gaining weight, I'll fast for a day or two, and then restrict my food to soups and broths for a week before returning to normal.

In the past, I have tried several diets, most of which have worked very well for a couple or a few months, before they quit working anymore, but the best way for me to begin a diet is by fasting for at least a couple of days.

As I have said, I like to follow fasting up with a week of soups. Not only does this seem to help me lose a noticeable amount of weight in a hurry but, after fasting, my body recognizes the nutritive value, and my mind appreciates the pleasure of even drinking a cup of broth or a watery bowl of soup.

For me, at least, fasting for a day or two is no trouble at all. In fact, it's sometimes fun. I don't know the biological facts behind it but fasting seems to reset things, making it easier for me to make a change in the way I eat. The fact that I don't maintain any particular diet is another problem, but it doesn't negate the value or role that fasting plays.

Fasting can play a part in other aspects of our lives as well. Christianity and, I think, several other religions include fasting as a valuable spiritual exercise. While I can't say that I have ever learned to fully appreciate the spiritual aspect of fasting, in that it's not like I see visions or anything while I am fasting, I suppose there is something to be said for removing one aspect of focus and control in our lives, if only for a day or two. Perhaps my problem is that I don't replace that with anything in particular.

 

By the way, it's okay to discuss the spiritual aspects of fasting here as well, since I don't suppose there's a point in starting yet another thread on fasting in the religious section, and I think most of us are aware that fasting can be about more than not adding calories.

 

Actually, I kind of did the same thing, @Ken Anderson .
You had started a thread about people losing muscle mass as we get older, and I had just been reading and learning about the many benefits of fasting, besides just for weight loss; but I thought that discussing fasting there would throw your thread off-topic.
So I hunted for the intermittent fasting thread that Terry had started and added my post into that thread, instead of starting a whole new one on fasting; but I am very happy that we now have this thread that deals specifically with all of the benefits of fasting.

I had hit a plateau in weight loss, and then actually gained some back again, and then started reading more about the powers of fasting, and especially of intermittant fasting, and that is what I have been doing for the last month, and I am now happily losing weight again, as well as shaping up the muscles when I swim.
And not feeling deprived.....at all !
I really like the intermittant fasting because you can set your fasting window anywhere from 16-24 hours, and your eating window from 1-8 hours, depending on what works best for you.
I have been doing about 19-21hour fast, and eating window from 11-2, basically.
I generally eat low carb foods because I know they are healthier for me; but the nice thing about IF, is that you can choose whatever you want , as long as it is during your eating window.
This means that if we do happen to go out for lunch, I can then eat whatever I want , and not feel like I am “off my diet”, since it is actually an eating schedule and not an eating diet.

For anyone interested in intermittant fasting, there are a lot books on kindle (many of them are free), and I also recommend Dr. Jason Fung for detailed and scientific information from a doctor’s perspective.
(His website is where I read the story about Crisco starting out as waste cottonseed oil.)
However, If you want things explained in easy to listen to, every day plain talk, I really like the videos that are put out by a man who lost well over 100 lbs with intermittant fasting and low carb.
He goes by the handle of “Butter Bob”, and has a down-to-earth channel on youtube.
Here is one of his videos that helps explain how insulin works differently in a fat person’s body than it does in a skinny person’s body.

 

Here is an interesting short video about fasting, and how people have reversed type 2 diabetes with intermittent fasting, and even with just a change to a low carb way of eating. Some people have actually done this in a matter of weeks, so it is not necessarily a long drawn out process either.

 

That is really sad about your friend, @Don Alaska .
I think that we are told so many times by our doctors (who probably mean well, and just don’t know anything except what they have always done) that our disease is only going to get worse, and it will be forever that we have to keep taking meds for it. Our families hear the same thing, and they only want what is best, too, even when they don’t understand, and don’t bother to check out the facts.

When my heart failure was so bad, the doctors didn’t give me any hope that diet might heal me and make the heart failure go away, and now they have told me that kidney failure also keeps getting progressively worse and can’t be stopped either.
Well, it took several years to fight my way back; but the heart failure is all gone, and even the kidney failure is improving each time they do the blood tests for everything.

Why would anyone want to give up foods (that might be their only comfort left in life) if they are told that diet doesn’t matter ? Most of us would not see any reason to do that unless we believed it might make a difference, and some people probably wouldn’t try it even then.
I have tried talking with my friend who has diabetes, and i would really love for her to at least try changing her diet; but I think that she also thinks her disease is forever, no matter what.

Here is the website that that more of Dr. Fung’s talks on it, and maybe you can share it with your diabetic friend, too.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/authors/dr-jason-fung-m-d

 

One of the things that I have been reading about is the benefits of exercising at the end of a fast. Now, I am not talking about doing this after a long fast, but when you are doing intermittent fasting daily, as part of a weight-loss or renewed health benefits program.
I had been having a light breakfast or at least a protein drink before we went to the fitness center in the mornings, but after reading that you burn at least 20% more fat when you exercise in a fasted state, I started waiting until we get home from the fitness center before I have my meal for the day.

I just watched this video , which actually is more geared to someone who is into fitness and bodybuilding, like @Bobby Cole , then someone like me, who just wants to be slim, healthy, and look younger than my age.
Anyway, it explains all of the things (think big words) that the body produces , and the hormones Like HGH, and testosterone for men, that increase tremendously when we are fasting and exercise.
I don’t pretend to understand all of that technical stuff, but it sure sounded important, and like it really benefits our body; so I am going to keep up the fasting and exercising.