According to scientists, a person can survive without food for an average of 3 weeks and water maximum of one week. But fasting is very ambiguous.
Traditional medicine, as a rule, does not accept it, indicating a bunch of negative points, while alternative medicine practices idolatry, considering fasting to be a pandemic. Now we will discover whether giving up food helps to lose weight.
Starvation is a condition that is caused by an insufficient intake of substances necessary to maintain the self-regulation of the body. At the same time, there is the so-called "therapeutic starvation", which is practiced by adherents of alternative medicine. In the case of "therapeutic starvation" people voluntarily refuse food and water for a while and claim that the body is thus cleansed and becomes healthier. Conventional medicine does not support this practice. Nevertheless, during fasting, a person loses weight.
What happens to the body during fasting
Now we will try to find out what dangers this process is fraught with and whether it is possible to get an ideal body shape thanks to fasting. Let's consider a situation where a person does not starve for too long a period and this cannot be fatal. What is going on? During the first 2 days, the body uses all the available glycogen stored from the muscles and liver. These are reserves of carbohydrates that give the body quick energy. On the 3rd-4th day, the process of ketosis starts. This is the very moment when the body begins to burn stored fat for energy. For some time, the feeling of hunger is dulled, the level of sugar in the blood decreases. But then you will want to eat again, and sugar can drop to critical levels. In this case, the metabolism slows down, and the hormonal background can fluctuate greatly.
If you refuse not only food but also water, then all these processes proceed faster. But it can result in dehydration, which will lead to too low blood pressure. You need to get out of this state gradually, starting by taking food that contains much liquid.
Benefit and harm
The most obvious benefit of fasting is rapid weight loss. But here you can not avoid from future problems which we will discuss in the next paragraph. All the other advantages that you might have heard about are not confirmed scientifically. It is truly said, that fasting can help relieve symptoms. For example, experts managed to relieve 7 out of 10 symptoms of irritable bowel with the help of fasting. But these are special cases that it would be wrong to extend to everyone.
The disadvantages of such a quick “diet” are much more:
- The risk of heart problems in children whose mothers were hungry or malnourished during pregnancy
- Menstrual disorders in women
- Constipation
- Bone fragility
- Slow metabolism
- Vitamin deficiency during prolonged starvation, which leads to peeling of the skin, hair loss, delamination of nails, etc.
- Exacerbation of chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Does starving help to lose weight
Most experts agree that fasting is an unhealthy tool for weight loss. Because in this way fluid is quickly lost, not fat.
Fasting helps to easily get rid of a couple of hated kilograms, but as soon as a person returns to his normal diet, the kilograms also return. In this case, problems with being overweight can only get worse. The thing is that fasting slows down the metabolism (so the body tries to conserve energy), which then may not return to normal.
Fasting for 1-2 days won't do much harm if you're healthy. But people who already have kidney or liver problems can only aggravate them. Therefore, experts do not recommend fasting without consulting a doctor.
And the best way to lose weight is still a calorie deficit. Nutritionists recommend eating fewer calories than you burn. Yes, it is not so fast, but it is effective and does not harm health.
Cases, when fasting is really needed
Despite the adverse effects of fasting, in some cases, it is even indicated. Most often, people have to give up food for a while before operations and various tests. In these cases, fasting is a necessary measure. But most of the time it doesn't last long.
If you still want to temporarily refuse food, be sure to consult a doctor, make sure that this practice does not result in big health problems for you.
Have you ever practiced fasting? Have you achieved the desired result?