Fasting to lose weight

[Lea_t_singer]

Hi everyone! I have been raw for several months now, but recently I stopped because I wanted to try the 'intuitive eating' diet. I don't know if anyone has heard about it, but basically you eat whatever you want, but only when you are hungry, and you must stop when you are full. So naturally I went for the pasta, ice cream, meat, cooked food, naively thinking, that finally, I was free. Well, it worked for a while, but eventually my skin got worse, I started feeling random pains all over my body, and my weight loss, well, stopped! And then the worst of it, all my cravings for bad food came back, and that's just the pits. Wanting to eat all the time, feeling like food is in control of me, well I swung into a depression, and that's when I started reading about fasting. It sounded so wonderful! I did a 24 hour fast, and I handled it well. So on sunday, the 9th, I am starting a two week water fast.

I really want to maintain the weight loss I'll get after I stop fasting, does anyone know how I can do that? Because that is what I'm nervous about, keeping the weight off. And lastly, does anyone have any tips on how to explain why I'm not eating, when I literally have dinner plans with friends?! Any help would be greatly appriciated, thank you all! :)

[IamLoved]

Hi!

I personally do not recomend fasting for the sole purpose of losing weight. I did a 30 day fast, 4 days of juice and 26 days of the master cleanse to lose weight after I binged on SAD food. I lost 24 pounds in 30 days and then gained it all back again while eating a healthy raw diet. It was very discouraging. I am now losing again by eating raw.
I had done a 7 day juice fast prior to this and did not regain the weight after I began eating again. Maybe it all depends on what you are fasting on. My guess is that a juice fast (on freshly extracted juices) would be the most ideal.
This is just my .02 from my own personal experience. Nothing is more discouraging than losing all that weight and doing so well only to see it all come back on again. I think I shocked my system and now it is finally getting back on track again.
Best wishes to you!

[Sheryl]

Personally I think the 'intuitive eating' diets are wrong on one count... when you're dealing with real unprocessed food then our bodies can pick and choose what's best with ease. But to trust our bodies cravings, when dealing with highly processed food that's been manufacteured to touch on as many human cravings as possible (salt, sugar, fat, MSG), and often to set up addictions, is really not something that can be used for health.

I think it's important to look at real cravings, vs false cravings for processed foods. Lunar*Fey's sudden need for watermelon I would class as real. Someone wanting potato chips I would say is not!! Does that make sense?

I tried to 'eat what you naturally crave' diet 10 years ago, forgot to stop and gained about 60 pounds. I don't recommend it to anyone! :)

Cheers,
Sheryl

[sport]

I think that the first priority of diet should be health and you could not possibly expect to be health on that diet that you described.
I have just spent the last 2 days with a friend who has a hang up about fat in her diet. When she looks at a food all she sees if how mich fat is in it. I have seen some of my sisters to have the same problem and they have been battling with their weight all of their lives.
I never worried about how much fat was in a food but just about how healthy it was and as a result I have never been overweight.
Even if you are not committed to all raw you should keep your food as natural as possible. The foods that you described above are frightening to me.

[konmai]

My own personal experience is that I fasted on water only for 14 days & lost a lot of weight & size. Pretty much have been able to keep it off w/ light exercises(sometimes intense but mostly light) & eatting 100% raw. Actually, I'm still losing weight. :o

[tinystrawberry]

Good luck with your fast!! :D

[Lunar*Fey]

I wish you a healing fast. And also, I wouldn't worry about keeping the weight off after, I mean I think you'll probably be more in tune with your body and its needs and it will level off at a healthy weight for you. Someone please correct me if I am wrong in suggesting this.