Fasting For Health & Fitness

Fasting is an effective and safe weight loss method. It is thought to be beneficial as a preventative measure to increase overall health, vitality, and resistance to disease.

Fasting can be used for nearly every chronic condition, including allergies, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, depression, diabetes, headaches, heart disease, high cholesterol, low blood sugar, digestive disorders, mental illness, and obesity.

Many of the great doctors of ancient times and many of the oldest healing systems have recommended fasting as an integral method of healing and prevention. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, believed fasting enabled the body to heal itself. Ayurvedic medicine, the world’s oldest healing system, has long advocated fasting as a major treatment.

Fasting is a central therapy in detoxification, a healing method founded on the principle that the buildup of toxic substances in the body is responsible for many illnesses and conditions.

It is also taken from religious point of view. It has also been used in nearly every religion in the world, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. Many of history’s great spiritual leaders fasted for mental and spiritual clarity, including Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed.

The principle of fasting is simple. When the intake of food is temporarily stopped, many systems of the body are given a break from the hard work of digestion. The extra energy gives the body the chance to heal and restore itself, and burning stored calories gets rid of toxic substances stored in the body.

Duration of Fasting

• Fasts can be performed for varying lengths of time, depending on the person and his or her health requirements.

• For chronic conditions, therapists recommend from two to four weeks to get the most benefits.

• A popular fasting program for prevention and general health is a three day fast taken four times per year, at the change of each season.

Preparations

• To enter a fast, the diet should be gradually lightened over a few days.

• First, heavy foods such as meats and dairy products should be eliminated for a day or two.

• Grains, nuts, and beans should then be reduced for several days.

• The day before a fast, only easily digested foods like fruits, light salads, and soups should be eaten.

• During the fast, only pure water and occasional herbal teas should be drunk.

Fasts should be ended as gradually as they are entered, going from lighter to heavier foods progressively.

Some queries:

How and When Do We Remove Fat from Our Fat Cells?

The fat stored in fat cells is available to us when food energy is not being absorbed (fasting) and when we exercise. Just as the hormone insulin promoted the storage of fat when energy was coming into our body, the process of mobilizing fat from fat cells is promoted by the hormones released into our blood when we are fasting and/or exercising. These hormones are glucagon, epinephrine, and cortisol, and all promote the release of fat from fat stores.

How Much Body Protein Would We Lose During Fasting?

Even though your body would be fueled mostly by fat during prolonged fasting, protein would still make a remarkable contribution to your weight loss. The reason lies in the energy density differences between fat and protein. Consider this example: if a man has been fasting for 5 days, on the fifth day he might be deriving about 75 percent of his energy from body fat and the remainder from protein. If he expended 2,000 calories that day, then 1,500 calories would have come from fat and 500 calories from body protein. If we calculate the mass (weight) of the fat and protein used it would be roughly 165 grams of fat and 125 grams of protein. That’s roughly one-third of a pound of fat and a quarter pound of protein. Some weight loss from water would be expected due to its association to lost protein.