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Fasting Megathread

MynameisnotDeja said:
I only have my own experience to share, and the knowledge of the personal experience of thousands of others. I don't claim to have scientific evidence and I don't need it for myself. I know what is good for me based on my own results.

You don't have to listen to me if you don't want to, but if you spread what I feel to be lies then I have every right to counter that with my opinion. Sorry if you don't like it. And you do have the right to post your opinion as well, sorry for asking you not to. <3



Yep. Guess I'm a freak of nature then because it's great for me. :)

Milli, to answer you, yes I usually take some days off to kick back, meditate, sleep a lot, and generally take it easy while fasting. Usually I'll begin the fast the first day (and work that day) then continue and finish up the fast over a three day weekend. :)
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The reason science is so neat is that opinion does not come into play. Our personal "opinion" of whether something like this is harmful or not is neither here nor there, because it is scientifically shown to be so.

If, for whatever reason, you enjoy a harmful activity, that's great and that level of harm might be acceptable for whatever pleasure you get out of it. THIS is where opinion comes into play; I can say its stupid to do, you can disagree. But, where you're simply wrong is that its harmless and beneficial and as long as people are making such FACTUALLY false claims (and recommending them to others based on false benefits) I will argue against it. Anyone with a basic understanding of the scientific method can understand why relying on personal feeling and anecdotal information is totally unreliable and potentially dangerous when its translated into medical advice.
 
dokomo said:
Most all of the legitimate medical research says that a 24 hour fast for a healthy individual is not harmful. However, 2-3 days or more begins to become harmful to the body, for the same reasons the above people died. Those same harmful processes begin taking place. Saying that it is in any way healthy or beneficial is medically and scientifically incorrect, it is actually quite the opposite.
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Not trying to prove you incorrect or anything, but do you have any articles backing up what you say about 2 - 3 days being harmful? I believe you on the 20 something days ones, but I can't see 2 - 3 days without food being detrimental to your health...
I'm not having a go or anything, I would just like to see.
 
i'd be curious to see solid, double-blind, peer-reviewed science on either side of this issue. articles anyone?
 
I really have to agree with double ewe here. There is no scientific evidence - that I know of - that fasting is beneficial for your health. There is a lot of scientific evidence that good foods are good for you, so why would you fast? I am convinced the positive effect of fasting is caused by either placebo (which could be VERY powerful since lots of peeps really believe in it) or abstaining from foods that are downright unhealthy for you - either because it's just crappy food or because you have some kind of allergy.


Fasting is done in almost every culture and considered to be some kind of holy religious act. This could subconsciously make you think it is good for you. It's true that the examples dokomo gave are a little extreme, but keep in mind those people actually died so 3-4 days might very well be harmful. I'll keep an open mind but some evidence proving fasting is actually healthy is the only thing that'll convince me. Other than that, everybody has the right to do whatever he likes.
 
i'm not too educated about this, but it seems that ketosis and muscle breakdown is inevitable.

hell, all i have to do is some high impact activity for about an hour and i start burning ketones...all i can smell is ammonia.
 
I haven't straight up fasted where I legit eat nothing, but I have seriously reduced my calorie intake to lose weight. Probably about 1000 calories a day if not less. Weight melted off
 
Wizzle said:
I really have to agree with double ewe here. There is no scientific evidence - that I know of - that fasting is beneficial for your health. There is a lot of scientific evidence that good foods are good for you, so why would you fast? I am convinced the positive effect of fasting is caused by either placebo (which could be VERY powerful since lots of peeps really believe in it) or abstaining from foods that are downright unhealthy for you - either because it's just crappy food or because you have some kind of allergy.


Fasting is done in almost every culture and considered to be some kind of holy religious act. This could subconsciously make you think it is good for you. It's true that the examples dokomo gave are a little extreme, but keep in mind those people actually died so 3-4 days might very well be harmful. I'll keep an open mind but some evidence proving fasting is actually healthy is the only thing that'll convince me. Other than that, everybody has the right to do whatever he likes.
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I could argue that spiritual health is a bigger portion of overall health than physical : )
 
I've never lost any significant amount of weight, or muscle mass, from doing a 3-4 day fast. But by the end of it, my skin and eyes were glowing and healthy looking, my mind was completely clear and I had incredible amounts of energy. Felt great for weeks after. Clearly, a dangerous and scary thing I did!
 
dokomo said:
I didn't mean to say that 3-4 days will kill you, my point is that it is harmful for the body.

Most all of the legitimate medical research says that a 24 hour fast for a healthy individual is not harmful. However, 2-3 days or more begins to become harmful to the body, for the same reasons the above people died. Those same harmful processes begin taking place. Saying that it is in any way healthy or beneficial is medically and scientifically incorrect, it is actually quite the opposite.
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Sorry Dokomo but you're wrong a 3 to 4 day fast is not harmful to the body. We have fat deposits that are meant to be tapped into when these types of instances occur. The worst thing that happens is a depletion of fat and a small amount of muscle tissue.

Now going longer say 15 to 30 days of minute amounts or no food at all may have adverse effects on the body ie severe loss of muscle tone and potential harm to organs.

I've done pseudo fasts before, around 4 to 5 days in duration. Generally I drink a few glasses of fruit or vegetable juice a day and water.

But I add in a few scoops of protein powder because I do a lot of weight training and hate to lose muscle. all together i'd say i consume 500 calories a day.
I guess it's not exactly a "true" fast but I do feel great during and after it and after reading this thread feel like doing one soon.
 
I don't know that there's a whole lot of publishable data on the subject. A simple PubMed search showed a glut of unrelated but usually independently interesting stuff (as simple searches are wont to do), but there may be a diamond buried in there somewhere.

I'm curious about fasting as well, but share double ewe's desire for more hard scientific data. All I can say so far is that I haven't found any yet.
 
I see this thread is pretty old, and I'd like to apologize for bringing it back to life... But I didn't really want to start a new one.

I have been having a lot of problems with fasting - I make it a day, but the next morning I wake up shaking, sweating, and vomiting. I also have a lot of trouble with mucus (like a post-nasal drip) making me nauseous when I fast.

I've followed tips and recommendations, researched a lot - cut down on my daily energy intake very slowly before attempting a fast - but I can't seem to get around the incredible exhaustion and nausea.

I want to fast for health reasons - I often feel sluggish and tired, as if my body is being retarded by all the toxins in it.

And I do think you should stop smoking for a detoxifying fast, to answer a question I saw earlier. Even the water you drink needs to be purified or something, fgs. Haha.

Any help?
 
There have been other threads about fasting that I've posted my views in... usually when I fast it's on apple or orange juice. I don't know if I've ever felt better than after a 3 day apple juice fast + liver flush. The craziest things improved. My balance and rhythm improved drastically for some reason (I noticed this while dancing to some trance on the day after the fast ended) and my mind was so extremely clear. I'm going to do one before too long...
 
Hrrrmmm... I have a bad feeling about doing that myself - fruit juice is pure sugar! Do you blend yours yourself? Wish I could, but I live in a stupid residence at stupid university for another month (until I get my own flat, woop) so no kitchen for me.

:/

I'll go look for your other posts. Are they regarding nausea and fasting?
 
i fasted yesterday using the lemon juice, maple syrup and cayanne (master cleanse) method. i intended to do it for 3 days but i had the same reaction, even throughout the day i was weak and my vision was getting messed up (lots of 'stars' and darkening of vision). i have hypoglycemia and i think that was a huge part of it. do you have these symptoms if you dont eat for a while anyway? if so you probably have hypoglycemia. personally, i dont think straight up fasting is good for my body, a juice fast or something might be better. ymmv
 
Usually when I fast I water down the juice quite a bit. It's not very sugary. Too much sugar just makes me feel crashed out a few minutes after the juice absorbs. But I find if I water it down I get into that yummy clean feeling "fasting mode" after a day or so and feel very balanced from then on out, as long as I want to carry on the past.

I used to have nausea and fainting when attempting to fast, but that changed with the last times I've done it. There could be a variety of reasons for that, I know when I went gluten free a few years ago my blood sugar stabilized a lot.

If you want to fast on citrus juices, you don't need a kitchen. There are these simple little juicer things you can get at wal mart for like 3$, they work really well. The hardest part is buying enough oranges to get you through a fast, as one orange only makes a tiny little bit of juice.
 
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