I disagree...I know that if you are starving yourself (fasting) your body goes into Starvation Mode and slows your metabolism way down due to the decrease in calories BUT even if your metabolism is running slowly its still running and your fat will not just stay on your body forever...If you are depriving yourself of food your body will use excess fat to survive which means that your slow metabolism must be burning something....think about it...You cant just stop eating for a month and expect your body to mantain its same weight. The downfall of starving though is the fact that you are not only losing fat and water but you are also losing muscle and you dont want to do that. But if you are thinking about fasting make sure that you do not drink high calorie juices or any food period because your body will hold onto every ounce you give it when its being deprived.

beth

"any food period because your body will hold onto every ounce you give it when its being deprived."

Some foods are ok to eat while you have been fasting. Lettuce leaves, celery, carrots etc are quite safe to eat.
If you fast for a few days, then binge on high-fat foods your body will hold onto the fat.

You will lose weight if you fast. It may take a few days for your body to adjust, but you will lose weight eventually. Only problem is, you can only fast for a certain length of time, after that you either end up stacking on weight again or dying from starvation.

I think ill stick with just watching what i eat and working out.

I agree. Eating well and moderately and exercising seems to work the best. It certainly has worked well for me so far.

for me i cant see no other option at the moment other than to stop eating. i binge and as soon as i have my first bit of food a day thats it, ill eat right throughout the day.

how long would it take for you to start losing weight when fasting?

You need to be careful Summergurl. A lot of the time if you fast to lose weight, your metabolism drops and when you start to eat again (which eventually you have to) the weight comes back really quickly. Do you have a good breakfast? I find if I wait until I am hungry before I eat my first thing of the day, I start and can't stop. It may be an idea to try several small meals a day and try not to let yourself get hungry.

yeah mrs bear, i usually have breakfast as soon as a i get up but latley iv been waiting untill im hungry and then binging after cuz im not "full enough". i think i will try fasting as of tomo and then change my eating habits completly when i start back at eating again. i know that sounds easier said than done but i think if i see a good weight loss through fasting i can see myself understanding that binging is wrong, its not doing me any good and i can kick the habit.

I cannot say 'don't fast' but I would hate for you to see a big drop, then put some of it back on when you start eating again. That would be really demoralising. Also, the last thing you want to do at the beginning of a diet is give your metabolism a kicking. Exercise boosts your metabolism, and eating does aswell. Everytime you eat, your metabolism gets a little boost, which means that you actually burn more calories doing your every day activities the rest of the day.

I really hope you reconsider fasting, if anything is going to send you binging, it is restricting yourself that severely.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do

Try a cleansing diet rather than fasting - much healthier and better for you in so many ways... this site has some useful info, recipes etc ...

EDIT: WEBSITE DELETED

When I started my current weight loss I simply cut out snacking between meals and the weight began to come off right away. I worked my way from three meals and many snacks, to three meals and no snacks, to two meals a day over the course of a few weeks. When I added regular exercise to my routine, the weight came off even faster. I wouldn't recommend stopping eating altogether but reducing caloric intake and increasing exercise has worked wonders for me. Don't stop eating. Just eat differently.

I get the feeling that reducing your calories insn't so much a problem as the binging. Binging will really hurt you. I have binged on occasion but I came to realize that every time I do I have to spend a week or more to get back to where I was before the binge. It is so demoralizing to have to go back and lose the weight all over again. Now when I think about a binge, I think about how unhappy I will be when I have to relose the weight.

I think fasting is good in some situations.

Is there any really good detox diet anyone knows about? Something that will help clean your system out?

Fasting... not the best idea.. at all. I know it's been said enough times but people aren't getting the message clearly, and it is horrible for someone to fast for a long time to drop weight and then gain more back. We've lived in the age of plenty for not more than a few hundred years, at best a millenium, but we are a product of millions upon millions of years of evolution, and take it from someone who has studied this, in alot of situations, your body is smarter than you are :P.

it is used to living in a time where food can be scarce, and if it recognizes that situation, it starts to conserve energy and the first things to go are your muscles. hell, your experiencing famine, what do you need your muscles for? but fat, fat you need because you store more energy as fat than muscle. so now you start eating again, is your body gonna give you back that muscle? never, its gonna deposit it directly into fat and then wait for more food to deposit into fat.. so this may get people saying "but you see, your body has to use some of that energy to live off of, so its not all going to fat" unfortunately when you starve yourself, your body goes into a mode where you use as little energy as possible, only that essential to survive. What does this mean? you wake up tired, you spend the day tired, your in a depressive state of mind, everything seems harder to do, you have decreased fatigue, you'll notice a major loss in stamina, and these were all once things that used up energy but are now no longer there so the energy that was required for them is no longer needed.. which means you get enough to live off of, and the rest goes directly into fat.

trust me, fasting to lose weight.. BAD idea. I tried it when I was like.. 16, I didn't know any better. I lost 10 lbs, crazy eh! In a month I was 15 pounds heavier lol, trust me it doesn't work. I know more about the body now, i've lost nearly 60 lbs and its a breeze to keep it off, and I don't starve myself either. On the contrary... man do I eat good food

take care, seriously now.. take care.

thanks for the advice nemesis, will take it into consideration. x

"After approximately three days of fasting, feelings of hunger usually become infrequent or disappear altogether."

Wouldn't that be nice if you could make it 3 days? I can't hardly make 3 hours!!

i managed 43 hours but after that i was a starvin marvin!! lol