Re: Water fast to overcome food addiction

Fasting will not eliminate this. You have to change your diet. A few (2-3) days of fasting helps you to appreciate simple foods (like veggies) but you will like the junk as well. If you are psychologically attached to junk then after fasting you are very likely to stuff yourself with junk unless you consciously do something against it. If you like eating a lot (like me) then you will probably eat a lot in the future too.

A solution I've used is that I've replaced a huge portion of my diet with veggie dishes from which I can eat any amount. Salads, roasted veggies, veggie burritos, normal burritos with some meat. Initially I stuffed myself to death with these but nothing bad happened. This diet is already much better than sugary stuff even if you consume it in high amount. After some time the amount got normalised for me without forcing myself. To make this diet more interesting you can use spices, oils, some meat and dairy followed with some fruits, nuts, veggie juice or fruit smoothie but don't overdo the sugary and fatty stuff even if it comes from natural sources. Eat the sugary things after the meals when you have already stuffed yourself full. If you combine this with a few lite weekly excercises you win. In my opinion the key is not limiting food intake, it is eating the right things that have high volume and nutrient content with the lowest possible calories. If a huge part of your diet consists of veggies then you can easily reach this.

If you look for vegan dishes you will be surprised how many different recipes you can find. The taste can be varied in infinite number of ways. Some veggie dishes taste as if it contained meat. If you look for recipes you will find really good ones (one of my favourites is tarka dhal). Most people think that vegan people eat only the classic boring salads everyone knows, but that is completely untrue.

I'm not vegan and I'm not pushing vegan diet on you. I've just recommended replacing a huge part (70-80%) of your diet with vegan dishes and doing some light exercises few times per week. This is my method that worked for me without limiting food intake.

If all you want is changing diet, then short fasts are enough in my opinion. Long fasts are difficult and make sense only if you want to heal something in your body. Even if you want to lose weight, it is much easier to do so with alternate day fasting or skipping the breakfast and the lunch and eating only a single normal sized meal before bedtime.