The Emergence of Fasting into Mainstream Diets & Detox Programs
In today’s world, healthy living and keeping your body fat down to a reasonable level is on the top of many people’s minds. Fast food chains have to supplement their regular meals with low fat foods, such as salads in order to keep their business. More and more research is being done on weight gain, and how to lose weight. Diseases such as diabetes are inextricably linked to body fat, as well as other disorders, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
While maintaining your weight is a very good idea, is fasting a good way to diet?
More and more diet programs are advocating fasting as a solution to weight gain. It stands to reason that if you don’t eat; your body will turn to its store of fats as an alternative fuel source, which leads to weight loss. It’s no secret that if you don’t eat, you’ll lose weight.
However, what many people don’t understand is that not only will your body use fat as a fuel source, but it will also use the calories found in your muscles too. This means that as your muscle literally gets eaten by your starving body, your metabolism will drop. Once your body has used up the energy in both your muscle and fat stores, it will turn to your organs. By this point though, you’ll likely be dead from starvation.
Fasting for short periods of time, for religious reasons for example, might be okay. But using fasting as a weight loss tool is probably not very healthy at all. Because your body is being denied nourishment, it goes into starvation mode. This means that your metabolism drops, and the next time you do put food in your belly, your body will try to store as much of it as it can in the form of fat. Basically, your body thinks there is a possibility that you’ll starve, so it protects itself by storing more fat than it normally would when it gets the chance.
If you’re fasting for weight loss purposes, this isn’t a good thing. As soon as you stop fasting, and begin to eat normally again, your body will begin to pack on more fat at an increased rate. Not only that, but your muscle will be depleted, which means burning calories is even harder now than it once was. Does that sound like a reasonable way to lose weight?
Now fasting to detox your body has been going on for thousands of years. Most religions have fasting as one of their tenets. For instance, Lent, Ramadan and Yom Kippur are all holidays that feature fasting in their rituals.
Many people, including some doctors, advocate that fasting helps cleanse the system. Basically, it’s like house cleaning. You stop eating, and allow your liver to get rid of all of the impurities in your system. Most people drink a lot of juice while fasting, while others only drink water. Many people who fast also take Vitamin C supplements or a multivitamin, which helps the body cope.
While some people only drink water or juice, others allow themselves light foods that are high in water content and sugar. This helps flush the system of impurities. For instance, along with vitamins they may have a piece of fruit for breakfast and some vegetable soup for supper.
What effect will it have?
It’s a fact that people who cut back on fat in their diet live longer. So if a low fat diet prolongs life, what would a no-fat diet do? Might it increase your life even longer?
While doctors agree that cutting back on fat is a good thing, there is no conclusive data to support the theory that cutting back on fat all together will significantly prolong your life. It has been shown that when a person fasts for a short amount of time, toxins such as DDT get removed from the body faster.
People who fast also report that they can think clearer. In essence, what they’re describing is a spiritual matter. They report a greater clarity of thought, and some even say they have more energy and feel lighter while fasting. However, there is no scientific data to support this theory either, and it’s hard to believe that a person would feel more energetic when their body is being starved of the nutrients it needs.
Popular diets, such as the “Atkins” diet, promote restriction of carbohydrate consumption. Since your body requires carbohydrates to function properly, your body will go into ketosis like we spoke about before which means that since your body has run out of fuel, it resorts to using other energy methods, such as fat and muscle. Your body also loses water, and while you will lose weight by cutting out carbohydrates, it’s not a healthy way of dieting. In fact, once you stop dieting, you’ll gain all the weight back.
Fasting for any large length of time has the same effect. You may lose weight, but you tend to gain it back shortly after you’ve stopped fasting.
Here at InsideYourDiet.com we are worried about the emergence of the trend for fasting to lose weight. While there is some evidence that fasting for a short period of time can be beneficial, doing so for a long period of time can be harmful.
In many ways our bodies are like machines. In order to run the machine, we need fuel. For instance, if your car ran out of fuel, you’d be walking. If you were to somehow fill your gas tank up too far, it would leak all over the place. The same is true of our bodies. Starve it long enough, and your body breaks down and eventually dies. Fill it up with too much food, and you see excess fat accumulation. Both are unhealthy for you.
At InsideYourDiet.com we believe that the best diet is moderation. A positive outlook on life, clean, healthy eating and plenty of exercise are the best methods of losing weight. While fasting will result in weight loss, it can be harmful to your body and you’ll likely gain the weight back. By exercising on a regular basis and eating properly, you can maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime.
Fasting for a short term of time may be the best way to kick-start your body into detox mode, but there is no easy, fast solution to weight loss. Determination and clean living are the best ways to lose weight and keep it off.
To your health and happiness,
The InsideYourDiet Team
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