Fasting. It is one thing I simple cannot bring myself to do, although I really want to do it once every two weeks or so.

Firstly, I have had mild anorexia in the past. Since then, I am absolutely AVERSE to restriction. Even when I am ill, my first concern is how am I going to deal with not eating enough calories, and how I am going to make it up afterwards. Basically, I strongly feel the need to fuel my body with food.

Secondly, I am already at the lower end of the BMI scale, 166cm and range from 49 - 52 kilo’s. I am womanly and curvy and healthy at this weight though, and not the tall, stick thin body type. Just slim.

Is fasting a good idea for a person who is already slim?

One of the reasons I want to fast is to get over my emotional dependence on food. I have been a binge eater in the past, although fortunately I have managed to stop! However, I do still eat and some times over eat for non hunger related reasons. Usually boredom and routine, regardless of actual hunger.

I read about people who fast and feel so greedy and indifferent to them. People seam to fast so easily, and some people do it for days! I would feel very week and ill I think, if I did not eat for days. ONE day would be enough!

What are your thoughts on fasting? Given my history and slim weight, how should I approach it? Should I try a one day fast and see if I can do that?

One last point I will mention, is that although I do not eat a low fat diet, I DO still have one or two days where I eat only fruit and raw vegetables - to give my body a break from all the fats.

Holy cow - I have just read about a person who said they water fasted for 23 days! Honestly, I am being serious, I WOULD DIE if I did not eat ANY food for 23 days………I am not an expert but GOSH - I am not skin and bone, but I DO NOT feel like I have enough weight to spare for 23 days. I am sure I would die.

HOW ON EARTH do people go over 20 days…….. Or even 10 days, with NO food?! Logically, I do not think more than a few days is healthful? Even for a toxic person - it makes more sense to me for them to just fast for 2 - 3 days tops, and then eat a pure, raw diet with no fats, then add some raw fats in……. eating 100% raw with no fats sounds more healthful to me, then fasting for over 5 days to “ detox”?

personally (ive had a long history of eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia) i would say fasting for you is *not* a good idea. You are equating fasting with getting over the emotional attatchment of food

food is food , its fuel for your body.

if you insist on doing a fast then you should seek out a center and do it supervised, the reason i say this is because at some point you may or may not know when to stop

im sure its not what you want to hear but without anymore information i doubt anyone here will advise you to stop eating which seems to me seems to be what you are looking for .. permission to not eat. Sorry if Im wrong but Im just being honest from experience.

not to say you can or wont fast in the future but fasting right now for the *practice* just in case you get sick doesnt sound right to me

are you raw or vegan or ?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2010 11:23PM by Jgunn.

I agree with Jodi. An emotional preoccupation with food can as easily become a preoccupation with what you aren't eating as with what you are. A commitment to not eat for days can start to consume your focus and willpower until it becomes a large part of how you define yourself. That can lead to either continuing the fast to where it becomes unhealthy, or to massive self-recrimination when you do finally eat something.

Especially if you already know that you are vulnerable to obsession about food, it's very important to make adjustments to your diet in ways that create as little sense of emotional commitment as possible.

Rather than a swearing off a particular bad dietary habit, tell yourself that today you are doing it differently and tomorrow will be tomorrow. If you do something healthy, and do it often, it will naturally evolve into a healthy habit, but healthy habits can be damned difficult to get into by making dictates on your own behavior.

woops time limit over to edit .. anyhoo i wantted to add

i do a mini fast(2-4) days every month and have been for quite a while ..i rarely dont do it now

what i do is i eat my normal raw vegan foods for 3-4 days , then i switch to smoothies for 3-4 days , then just juice with no fiber for 3-4 days then fast for 2-4 days then back on juice for 3-4 days then back to smoothies for 3-4 days then back to normal raw vegan fods for 3-4 days

then repeat the cycle

the cycle runs about 21-28 days depending how long you stay in each cycle

anyhoo thats how i do it gives me a good variety of all sorts of things and isnt restrictive at all at least not to me

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Thanks for your feedback!

Jodi - to me seems to be what you are looking for .. permission to not eat. Sorry if Im wrong but Im just being honest from experience.


Thanks for telling me about your history with disordered eating. However, this could not be further from the truth. I am actually completely AVERSE to restriction…. I had mild anorexia a few years ago, and since that time I have developed immense respect for my body. Because of my strong desire to be as healthy as possible (which is why I eat a natural, raw diet), my problem is that I am so “pro” recovery, that I am too good at getting enough food, to be able to live without it!

I would never look for an excuse to not eat, as this is the polar opposite of the way I am haha. My problem, and the reason I want to eventually fast, is because I do not WANT to depend on having to get enough food every single day; I want to feel that the world will not end if I have to miss a meal, or even be stuck for most of the day with no food.

So, my desire to fast has no connection to my previous restrictive and disordered eating habits. Interestingly, these past unhealthy habits have caused me to be so good at getting enough calories, that I now cannot fathom even going without one meal!


The only real trace of my former disorder, might be that I do feel that good feeling when I lose weight - such as when I am sick and loose a lot of fluid and go from my normal 51 - 52 kilo’s, to 49 kilo’s. Although it takes 3500 calories to loose a meere HALF a kilo, so one day without food, (I eat about 2000 calories per day) would cause virtually no weight loss, and if it did I would gain the weight back - as I am also averse to losing below 50 kilo’s, because it puts me in the underweight category.

I have done a bit of fasting over the years - various types. With the info. you have given, I would say to start out slow. A "mini-fast" as Jodi mentioned is a good start.

Maybe even a 1/2 day to 1 day fast to start with. A juice or smoothie fast might be a good choice for you. Fasting is an excellent way to rid the body of toxins, and can even lead to a spiritual awakening, although I usually only experience that on longer fasts.

It sounds like this is something you are excited about, but I feel that maybe a goal of doing a fast "once every two weeks or so" may be a bit much for someone who is just starting out.

All that being said, it may be best to seek out the advice of a nutritionist/doctor/center as Jodi mentioned in her post. It is always better to be safe than sorry, especially when experimenting with your body.

At the very least, check out some books on fasting/fasting forums & websites to get an idea how others in your situation have approached it.

I was never too concerned on the calorie intake that you mentioned, as long as I knew I was getting proper/adequate nutrition from my smoothies or juicers.

Thanks for that juicerkatz, although I am not at all excited by fasting, because I enjoy eating and am not looking forward to depriving myself of food when I am hungry. Feeling hungry is not something I view as an enjoyable experience that I am looking forward to.

However, I am looking forward to one day, being able to DO it, to GO without food like humans always had do throughout our evolution.

I am so dependant on eating well, and it is good that I have such a strong natural tendency to eat enough at all times, however, I really want to be free of that strong NEED, to HAVE to have food at all times.

I will just use common sense. A good first step for me, is to do a fast until about 12 pm. This is because I NEVER EVER skip breakfast, and start eating for the day VERY EARLY every single day. I wake up about 5 - 6, have a little fruit and watch the morning shows for half hour, than go back to sleep.

I have NEVER not eaten until lunch - so that will be a HUGE challenge for me, and it is essential that I be able to achieve this smaller goal BEFORE I do a full on, proper one ay fast.

Physically I am a healthy enough weight to do a 2 day fast or even 3 if I was forced, but I just couldn’t do a 5 day water fast.

Does any one know of many people who are very thin and are still able to fast for several days? I am curious, because although I am curvy and womanly at 52 kilo’s (about 113 - 114 lbs) at 166 cm (or about 5 ‘ 5 ), I would still be worried to fast for more than 2 days, and I am not even skinny (just athletic).
So I would be interested to know if it is more safe than I think for slim people.

Hi leigh87,

Sorry, I guess I misread your intentions; it SEEMED to me that you were excited/motivated about doing a fast.

If you do decide to do a morning fast & you need to go away or go to work, etc., you may want to take a piece of fruit/other along with you, just in case your blood sugar level dips & you start having typical symptoms. Best to be prepared.

Haha. I cannot see a single reason to get excited about a fast? What is there to look forward to about not eating? However, because I am trying to vie food more for its fuel rather than cravings and for taste, I view a fast as nothing bad, but nothing good. I have access too food when I want it which I am very grateful for. So fasting for a day, may cause physical discomfort, but at he end of the day it is just food, so mentally I have no reason to be upset about not eating, because I know I can look forward to plenty of raw and fresh food after the fast.



Thanks again, and also thanks to every one for not pushing me and being dogmatic about the benefits of fasting! It can be triggering for a person like myself who has had disordered eating, to have people encouraging me to fast. A lot of people feel very strongly about all the cleansing benefits and etc of fasting, and push it on people who are sensitive to hearing such things.

Sounds like you have a good grip on things

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

for free scientific information about fasting available on the web go here:

[www.soilandhealth.org]

then click here:

"I agree to respect the library and the copyrights within it: Take me to the library. "

then here:
"Alternative Medical Therapies"


then scroll down & click here: ( and you can download a pdf file of a great out of print book )

then here: ( and you can download a pdf file of a great out of print book )

DeVries, Arnold. Therapeutic Fasting. Los Angeles: Chandler, 1963.
A complete, sensitive and intelligent survey of fasting and of fasting literature. Arnold DeVries was an American researcher, writer and hygienist, who already in the 1950's changed from a fruitarian (Fountain of Youth, 1946) to a paleolithic understanding of what constitutes optimum human nutrition (Primitive Man and His Food, 1952, Elixir of Life, 1952). Therapeutic Fasting, 1963) has been one of his most popular and widely used titles. Downloads as a single PDF of about 275 kb. Thanks are owed to Dr. Bass of the International Natural Hygiene Society for providing this excellent book. OUT OF PRINT.

then scroll down and you will find a "gold mine"
the books of
Shelton, Herbert among many others

Leigh,

Whatever you decide on fasting, it's good that you are exploring to decide if it is right for you. Let me share my experience about what has been helpful for me personally when I fast (note: while this has been right for me personally I acknowledge this may not be the right path for many and so don't recommend this for everyone). I have fasted (water fast) for as long as 10 days but usually 3 or 4 is sufficient for me. To prepare, I reviewed several books on fasting to help me understand what fasting is and how to do it. In particular, I found two books very helpful:

* Principles of Fasting by Leon Chaitow N.D. an excellent brief introduction and primer into fasting and,

* Fasting and Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., an excellent reference about therapeutic fasting and its value in treating a variety of conditions.

In particular, Chapter 9 and 10 in Fuhrman's book provide an excellent overview of what the risks and opportunities are involved in fasting as well as what to expect on your first fast. Both Chaitow and Fuhrman do not recommend fasting for longer than 2-3 days without medical supervision. The problem I have with this is that there are very few professionals trained in fasting as a treatment modality near where I live in the DC area. There is an organization called the International Association of Hygenic Physicians [www.iahp.net] (Fuhrman is a member) which has a certification program for health professionals to be trained in using therapeutic fasting. Yet many of the benefits of water fasting cannot be realized for me in the short 2-3 day period that Fuhrman and Chaitow recommend for the unsupervised limit. Options:
1. Fly to Santa Rosa, California for long term care at TrueNorth Health under Dr. Goldhamer. [www.healthpromoting.com] hmmm expensive, can't take time off work.
2. Limit fasts to 2-3 days, get what benefit I can. A definite option.
3. Add one day per fast up to five days and get my blood levels checked, particularly electrolytes (potassium is the most critical). That is what I decided and it work out well for me. I ultimately got up to 10 days and had my blood levels checked at 5 and 10 days just to be sure my body was adapting well to the fast. Most of the time I do 3 or 4 days at most. But I'm considering going longer.

The benefits of fasting I have experienced include increased mental clarity and energy (beginning on day 3 after I have depleted all of my body's glycogen stores), feeling of lightness, rapid detoxification, and neuroadapation of my taste buds. I beat several food addictions I had for many years as the food no longer appealed to me. This is my story. Good luck to you in yours.

Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2010 11:16PM by pborst.

Let your body be the guide when it come to fast or not. When you are having symptoms, and your appetite is gone, this is a natural time to fast. When fasting, it is best to get as much rest and sleep as possible - so call in sick and stay in bed and sleep.

So if you are feeling fine and you don't have symptoms and you have plenty of appetite, then this is not the time to fast.

"So if you are feeling fine and you don't have symptoms and you have plenty of appetite, then this is not the time to fast."

This seems a little simplistic.
Probably many folks that feel they have no symptoms, would be better off with a better diet. Same might be true for a short fast. How one feels is by definition subjective. Whatever one is used to feels normal. That's why folks smoke, obviously.

Hence I provided a link to free scientific information on a complex topic that is worthy of in depth understanding.

There is a difference between the body asking you to fast, and the mind thinking it needs to fast. When the body asks to be fasted, then honoring what the body is asking for would serve. But when it is simply the mind thinking it needs to fast, then I have to doubt that this will be so fruitful. In fact, this can backfire.

When the desire to fast comes from the mind, often out of the need to control, this can lead to terrible results. So many times I have seen the pattern of fast/binge show up in raw foodists, and this is because their minds told them they needed to fast for their higher good, but what resulted is an unhealthful pattern of fasting, then binging to compensate, followed by further fasting to compensate for the binging.

When the body wants to fast, it gives you symptoms and decreased appetite.