Fitness Gear: Does Fasting for Weight Loss Work?- Fitness Training For Life

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

One of the most common myths about weight loss it that fasting for weight loss is an effective weight loss method. Fasting for a day or two can be a good way to cleanse your body and kind of restart your body but fasting for more than one day or at the most two days can be dangerous and definitely will not help you lose weight. Fasting for weight loss is ineffective because if you go too long without any calories coming in, your body will think that it is being starved, because really it is being starved, and it will go into starvation mode. Once your body goes into starvation mode it will stop burning the excess fat that you have for fuel and it will start to shut down all non-essential systems so that it uses less calories. Your metabolism will drop and your body will start storing fat so that it will have more fat to burn for energy. So really, fasting for weight loss does the exact opposite, it causes your body to hang onto fat. A better way to lose weight is to eat a minimum amount of calories. You can severely restrict calories as a way to jump start weight loss but fasting for weight loss will not work. If you want to really limit your calories you can eat a lot of vegetables which have a lot of bulk and will make you feel full but don’t have a lot of calories so that you will still be encouraging your body to burn fat. Eating a minimal amount of calories, say maybe cutting your normal daily calories in half, will give your body enough calories that it won’t think you are starving and storing fat to protect itself from starvation, but you will still be eating few enough calories to lose weight. If you do try fasting for a few days to jump start your weight loss, you can always use a fasting formula to keep your body from starving.

Another danger associated with fasting for weight loss is the danger that fasting will seriously damage your endocrine system. It’s been proven that the shock of diets can throw your endocrine system seriously out of whack making it very difficult for your body to function normally when you’re off the diet and fasting for weight loss has the same danger. The shock to your body might be so great that your body won’t recover properly when you stop fasting and you might end up doing some damage to your body just so that you can lose a few pounds of water weight. Fasting for weight loss is not a good idea unless you are under the care of a qualified doctor who has suggested that you fast.

Make sure that you understand all the risks and the dangers of fasting before you start a fast. If you do fast for weight loss be prepared because you might experience a lot of light headedness and weakness when your body doesn’t get the caloric intake it needs to function properly. The shock of the fast might initially flood your body with adrenalin but when the adrenalin wears off you will probably not feel well. If you are going to fast, make sure that you lighten up your work load so you can take it easy during the fast period.

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by: UltimateFitnessGear