OK Maverick, I have spotted this now.

By the way I'll stick with the same subject line as you on this one :)

I lost a lot of weight starting November 2007 while water fasting / eating healthily, and I am one of the few people who managed to keep it off. Fasting2goal is another, and Severin.

Now I have looked into this a lot, namely I initially researched fasting and did it very carefully, with thermometer, blood pressure meter, stethoscope (ebay), urine test strips. When I broke my 1st fast after 27 days I refed on fresh fruits and salad, then I did another, refed and so on. I lost about 90 pounds by last summer, got a medical I needed for sport, and gave it a rest for a while. I was body mass index 42 when I started, and ended up as BMI 29. I am now approaching BMI 27.

In late 2008 I did another long fast, but somehow something didn't feel quite right. Number one there was a tendency for me to put weight back on, easily, and I mean EASILY. A little issue or two over Christmas caused me to just not watch my weight, and it shot up by around 20 pounds. That's sorted now, and in a way it was good, because it made me aware of the shortcomings of fasting.

That's when I thought "what's my aim?". Well my aim was to be slim, fit, healthy without having to fast all the time to keep it like that, so I figured this should be through exercise and eating, since your body certainly won't get any fitness from fasting, apart from making you a bit lighter. It does slow your metabolism down, and if you push it too much you may get some nasty side effects.

I read back through some old curezone posts, and found the fasting for weight loss forum was formed when some people were dissatisfied with the water fasting forum because they wanted to do it THEIR way, which contradicted what people like Bragg and Shelton were saying. They weren't breaking their fasts properly, were doing them too often, exercising or working when fasting, and so on. So being a bit of a safety freak myself, I decided to stop posting here, generally.

I also read some old posts that said "Fasting is not the best way to lose weight" and they were al by experienced people. This is what Hopinso said to me about a year back too, and I wondered what that was all about since fasting worked great fro me. Far better than any diet I had ever tried.

Anyway, I saw a few posts, I think by waterbug and some others about the works of Alan Goldhamer and Joel Fuhrman. I looked at these then Colin Campbell, John McDougall, Caldwell Esselstyn and so on. A very very clear picture was building up - we get health and fitness from eating PROPERLY. Now what is PROPERLY?

Well, I am afraid to say that you have to become a "nutritarian". What's a nutritarian? OK, have a look at Lisa's kitchen, she explains it well:

"(...) The quality of a diet can be judged base on three simple criteria.

1. Levels of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals) per calorie.
2. Amounts of macronutrients (fat, carbohydrate, protein) to meet individual needs, without excessive calories that may lead to weight gain or health compromise.
3. Avoidance of potentially toxic substances (such as trans fats) and limited amounts of other potentially harmful substances (such as sodium).

A person who eats for health is called a nutritarian, and understands that food has powerful disease–protecting and therapeutic effects and seeks to consume a broad array of micronutrients via their food choices. (...)"

You'll find more in my curezone blog, Now I also looked back at my own fasting journey. This is what I found:

Fuhrman = Nutritarian Diet, and just before that was the Christmas blip I mentioned.

Now here is the problem with fasting for weight loss in a nutshell: you are not eating properly to start with, so your body is full of toxins and lacking in many micronutrients. When you start eating again, you have a slower metabolic rate so you put on weight more quickly, and now you are craving those micronutrients more than ever. But you are eating the wrong food, so you keep eating more and more to get them. Instead you should eat foods high in micronutrients.

Now lastly I'll show you a blogger on Doctor Fuhrman's site, his name is Gerald "Gerry" Pugaliese. Go take a look at his before and after pics. The after ones are how I want to be.

And I know many people in this forum are young, and when I was that age I didn't care about my health. But listen, Caldwell Esselstyne said that kids aged 12 are now showing signs of heart disease, and autopsies of military people aged 20 killed also showing clear signs. You can see what he says 10 minutes into this video.

So what's the point of fasting if you don't eat properly? That is my view these days.

So yes, fasting is OK but I don't think it's as effective as a nutritarian diet, though it may be a good jump start if you are really obese, as I was.

If people want to debate, I suggest we go here (I just started that thread cos we are not supposed to debate on a support forum)

And if anyone is fasting, it does work, so good luck, just eat well afterwards that's all!

Steve