Fasting and muscle loss?

[Zaphirah]

I have fasted in the past. Longest was 33 days. I really love fasting, but after my last long fast, about a month, I started to realize that maybe I wasn't losing fat, as much as I was losing muscle. So yes, I weighed less, but maybe not in the way I had hoped. Don't get me wrong-my first and foremost reason is for detox, not weightloss. Is there a way to fast, but retain your muscle mass? Supplements? Weightlifting while fasting? Certain veggies?

[Aleesha Sattva]

you don't actually loose muscle until loooong into fasting. thirty-three days would not have been enough for your body to start eating your muscle mass.

it's all about what you did during your fast. did you exercise? did you move? did you sit around and do nothing... because fasting or not, you will reduce your muscle mass when you don't use it. i believe it's three or six days of not exercising and your mass begins to decrease.

so don't worry about your fast, instead keep some gentle exercises happening... light lifting of weights for example, walks... whatever your form of exercise is - just keep it lighter since your reason for fasting is detox and our body needs energy to detox and heal... and so you don't want to use all it's energy for exercising! ;)

[Zaphirah]

I didn't realize it took that long. Yeah, I mostly sat around in the sun on that long fast. LOL.
My one other burning question is slowing my metabolism. It's super duper slow from years of anorexia and binge eating, yo-yo dieting, etc. What are you thoughts on metabolism and fasting? Exercise is kinda iffy for me. Seriously bad knees limit most kinds of activities, even yoga is a pain in the errr...knee for me. :cool: I can do light walks, swimming (but I live ruraly in a northern climate) and floor exercises as long as there are no knee bends, squats, etc. I can lift weights, but again, nothing that requires a bent knee.

[Aleesha Sattva]

fasting will reset your metabolism. read this article (http://www.drbenkim.com/fasting.html)... it's great. read it all... cause there's heaps of info in every part of it.

he answers all your questions.