Hi,

I am pretty new to the idea of water fasting. I saw a homeopath last week who has strongly recommended that I do a Water Fast for 3-5 weeks.

I've been reading a lot about it online, and have ordered a book though it hasn't arrived yet.

I can't decide if this is a good idea for me or not. The homeopath seemed very sure it would fix a lot of the difficulties I have, particularly in relation to hormonal imbalances. In reading about it other issues I have that Water Fasting seems to help are fibromyalgia and insomnia. He said I have edema too, I haven't checked if that is helped by fasting but am assuming it would be.

I've read mixed things about hypoglycemia, which I also have. Some things say you can't Water Fast if hypoglycemic, and others seem to say it's okay. I asked the homeopath about it, if it wasn't a contraindication, and he said if I do the Water Fast I won't be hypoglycemic anymore afterwards. Hmm.

So all of this sounds very good in some ways. However, I also am in recovery from an eating disorder. I'm doing extremely well and have been for several months and feel strong in my recovery and while I would love to lose weight doing a water fast (am about 40 lbs overweight, have gained weight significantly as a result of working on the eating disorder) it's not the strongest motivating force and I'm actually pretty skeptical that weight loss from a water fast would be lasting anyways, unless someone had very unhealthy eating beforehand and then strongly changed their eating patterns into the long term afterwards.

I also really DON'T want to fall into very restrictive eating afterwards. I've worked really hard to come to the place of not seeing certain foods as being "bad" foods that I have to restrict. I am a fairly healthy eater in some respects though I came from a family that was very extreme in terms of what we were allowed to eat (my dad was a naturopath) and I don't ever want to go back to that, though I do want to eat healthy.

The past few days I've been having more and more raw food, green smoothies, etc... thinking it would help with the transition. I started to notice I wasn't eating enough and starting to think that it's wrong to eat to the point of satisfaction (I rarely eat to the point of being full, don't like to feel full) so I've started to increase again what I am eating.

I had originally cut out wheat and dairy and Sugar the past few days but I've decided to have wheat and dairy again and try to keep Sugar out. And caffeine but I don't have caffeine regularly anyways.

So I worry about Water Fasting triggering the eating disorder, especially since some of the things I have read about talk about "phasing into" fasting by doing things like skipping meals and just drinking water for part of the day. Is that really a fast? It sounds a lot like food restriction. I get confused by this.

I also worry about the hypoglycemia making it too difficult. I also am concerned about sleep as I have a lot of trouble sleeping, and I always have to eat something before I go to bed or I wake up 3-5am and can't get back to sleep. I can never sleep when I am hungry and one time tried to do an Isagenix cleanse and on about day 3 I was wired for sound and there was no way I could sleep at all because I was so hungry.

Any thoughts? I don't feel I could ask my doctor about it because she'd never understand Water Fasting and really it sounds a little crazy if you haven't read up on it at all. When the homeopath suggested it to me, I was pretty stunned and said "don't people....well, you know....die?" LOL After reading about it, I think I understand when it's important to stop. The homeopath really strongly recommended I go to a residential facility for it but it would just be too expensive and I can't be away from my kids for that long. He said he would monitor me if I want to do it from home though he'd be monitoring by phone, he lives a distance away from me.