Re: Fasting,anorexia and realistic weight

"You are just feeding anorexia telling some of these underweight people to fast for long periods."

You confuse lean people like blaise fasting for their health with anorexics.  Anorexia is about distorted self image and eating to starvation as a result, not about people who know the benefits of fasting and want fast to get well and are well aware that they need to gain some weight back after they are done. Did you notice that blaise gained back 16 pounds in 13 days after he broke his fast? 

This is what Dr. Shelton (who fasted tens of thousands more patients than you) has to say about: "Fasting By The Emaciated"

"Shall emaciated persons fast? By all means. Emaciation is rarely due to a lack of food, but almost always is a result of sickness. Dewey, Carrington, Macfadden, Rabagliatti, Sinclair and many others have pointed out that in numerous instances, the first gains in weight some of these emaciated individuals make, despite much effort and many different kinds of weight-gaining diets, comes after a fast. I have seen many such cases in my own experience. It is easily possible to exaggerate the importance of weight in any consideration of fasting. Some extremely emaciated patients surprise us by the length of fasting they can safely and profitably undergo.

Great emaciation is not a bar to fasting. I have fasted numerous very thin people. One man, an asthmatic, who was veritably "skin and bones" when reaching my institution, fasted seventeen days and became practically free of asthma of nine years' standing. A subsequent fast completed his restoration. This man actually grew stronger during the fast.

...

Sinclair records the case of an Episcopal clergyman who, "was so emaciated that he could hardly creep around" and was contemplating suicide. "He fasted eleven days and then gained thirty pounds."

Dr. Eales says: "If you are thin and below normal weight, a fast will help you. Do not think that fasting is beneficial only for fleshy people. [Alb let me repeat this just for you:  "Do not think that fasting is beneficial only for fleshy people".] Thin people, as well as fleshy people are in an abnormal condition, and will derive great benefit from a fast. Numerous instances are on record of thin people fasting and gaining rapidly in health and weight after a fast."

I had one case to gain thirty pounds in four weeks, after a fast of nine days. This gain was made on a diet that few people would consider sufficient to meet their needs. This patient had suffered with gastric hyperacidity, gastro-enteritis, colitis, gas, constipation, poor circulation, emaciation and mental depression for seven years before consulting me.

The fast, particularly a complete fast, remedies both emaciation and obesity. After a complete fast the body tends to attain and then maintain its ideal weight. Formerly fat patients do not regain their excess weight; whereas, those who were thin often gain a pound or more a day for a month or longer.

...

Great emaciation is due to impairment of health and the degree of emaciation is commonly proportionate to the degree of impairment. Such cases frequently make no gains in weight until after a fast...

Emaciation may be so extreme that only a short fast is possible; but we are often surprised at how well the emaciated person holds up under a fast that goes much beyond the time we think is possible..."

from: http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Fasting-and-Sun-Bathing/Fasting-By-The-Emaciated.html

"Dry fasting is dangerous,fasting for long periods of time is dangerous if they are already underweight or have very low bodyfat..."

Dry fasting is safe for people who listen to their body and drink when thirsty.  Trimnut2 and Fonty are both able to dry fast for 7 days and still have a moist mouth at the end of it and no signs of thirst or dehydration whatsoever.  Me on the other hand, 2 days seems to be my safe limit then i become exceedingly thirsty.  

"And many women have terrible self image poor things keep saying they are fat when the look just fine."

Again, anorexic thinking is not to be confused with thin people who are fasting for their health.  If a thin woman with a terrible and distorted self image says she wants to fast for weight loss i will discourage her from doing so.  By contrast, if a thin person wants to fast for health reasons i will encourage that person. 

"I don't like underweight women. Maybe you do.Thats your choice. Fact starting to think you are pretty darn underweight.Whats your weight and height? Muscle mass and bodyfat.

Thanks for your concern.  I am 5'11", 170 pounds. Good muscle definition, decent muscle mass and about 10% body fat. I train my muscles every other day, do moderate to intense cardio 5-7 days a week and eat for health including muscle support, lots of veg and fruit, some organic beef, organic eggs, salmon and beans among other foods.   

"You seem to be doing constant fasts."

Constant may be a bit of an exaggeration, but i did do 2 majors (30+36.5 days) in an attempt to allow my severely damaged heart to be repaired. About 8 months after the 36.5 i did another 17 days.  Currently i am doing 16 hours per day which i don't consider fasting at all since each day within the 8 hour window i am introducing full, not partial nutriment.  

"If fasting cures all health conditions why do keep doing so many fasts? To detox, for some spiritual reason?"

Actually i don't believe the body is able to heal every possible ailment in a fast and never made that claim, but i do believe it's the nearest thing to a cure all we have.  My severely damaged heart has been amazingly improved over these 2.5 long fasts, but even still it is not 100% healed.  However, I have gone from getting a strained heart walking up my driveway to being able to run sprints without strain, so with great thanks to fasting i have come a long way and I am confident that eventually the combination of healthful eating combined with muscle training and intense or moderately intense cardio with periods of fasting in between will continue to bring healing and eventually my heart will be 100% better.

"Don't seem to be for weight loss you look very thin in your avatar picture."

No i am not fasting for weight loss.  It is for the healing of my heart along with all of the other benefits that are taking place.  As well i don't mind burning fat as fuel each time i fast while preserving muscle mass fantastically.  The avatar picture is me in the midst of a fast so i'm probably 10 pounds or more temporarily light from the water loss.   

"Some of you want to fast off all your muscle whatever. Each to his own. I think the goal should be to be healthy weight and have reasonable amounts of bodyfat and muscle."

Some of who?  Certainly not me.  I fast knowing that muscle is extraordinarily well preserved and the minimal muscle that i do lose in a fast i am eager to regain it once i begin re-feeding (and i always do).  The goal for me is indeed healthy weight and muscle mass with fairly low body fat.  10% is fine, 7% would be even better.  But no, i don't want 2%.   As well i seek optimal functioning of my body, mind and soul, 3 benefits i strongly believe that fasting helps to provide.   

You confuse low fat with "no" fat.  Low fat burns as fuel in a fast just the way high fat does and once the body decides fat levels are too low to keep burning it as the primary fuel source, it sends the outrageously powerful signal that genuine hunger has arrived.  It doesn't just switch over from "fat as fuel" to "muscle as fuel" without alerting and alarming us.  You feel too hungry to resist diet coke and sweetened tea in the absense of genuine hunger, right?  Just imagine how hard it is to resist eating once something 100 times stronger arrives.      

"I could fast down to 100 pounds but that would't be a very good weight for my height and build. Some of you though would likely disagree."

Some of who?  Certainly not me.  But if you were thin and sick,  fasting down to a very low weight (how low depends on your frame and muscle mass) as a very temporary low point (blaise went down to 94) could according to Dr. Shelton be the best thing for you under the circumstances to get well then rebuilding and getting back to a more ideal weight. 

"But no sense pushing things for thin people too far.
Do you want to do a 90 or 120 day water fast Mighty and see if the 60 day thing that was talking about is accurate."

No when i went 36.5 days i felt that was my safe limit at the time.  I came through a bout of nausia and when i finally emerged feeling good i jumped on the opportunity to break. 

"Consider it an experiment.Fact you can dry fast 60 day if you think dry fasting is so safe."

haha, purely mo*onic :).  Dry fasting is only safe until thirst kicks in.  For some people (like you perhaps) that's hours, for others (like me) it's a day or 2 and for others yet (like Trimnut and Fonty) it's 7-10-14 days. 

"Just trying to get people to be a bit careful and save more people especially healthy weight nice looking women from becoming anorexic little boneracks like my xwife."

Thin women wanting to fast for their health are not to be confused with your anorexic ex wife.