Re: Why am I not getting results like everyone else?

Dana, you have lost 19 pounds in just under four weeks! You are averaging about 5 pounds a week, or just under a pound a day. This is normal for most fasters. It is faster than most weight loss experts recommend for optimal health.
You have done a lot of fasting and chances are your metabolic rate is only about 75-80% of what it was before you stopped eating. You may have already had a fairly slow metabolism.
It takes about 3500 calories to burn a pound of fat. Most early weight loss in fasting is not from fat burning, but from water loss (diuresis) through increased urination and loss of excess salt, and the reduction of digesting meals and fecal material in the intestines. Many people can experience a significant loss of muscle mass. Since muscle weighs more than fat, muscle wasting can show up on a scale as a loss of poundage, but is not desirable. As the fast continues, the rate of weight loss will probably slow down even more. When you are through fasting, you must incorporate a radical change in your eating lifestyle or your weight gain will be rapid and possibly overshadow what you have lost. You need to accept the fact that you have altered your body chemistry and metabolic rate. You will face some great challenges in the future to continue to lose and maintain your weight loss.
Still, all is not bleak. While you may not have lost as much weigh as quickly as you hoped to, you have been cleansing and detoxing your body. The combination of weight loss and cleansing will surely provide you with some health benefits that will last as long as you continue to eat healthy and get proper exercise and rest.
Since you are so determined to fast, I will not try and change your mind about that. You have chosen a very difficult road, and seem to have the discipline to carry on. When you have done all the fasting you want to, or are able to, then consider following Fuhrman's "Eat To Live" plan for a while. His premise is that when we eat complex carbohydrates with little added fat and no animal products, that more calories are required to digest the food than the food contains. This negative calorie principle is controversial, but seems to have some merit. At any rate you will be eating low calorie, nutrient dense foods that will fill you up, but should not cause any weight gain.
Remember that you are an unique individual, you must not continually compare your experiences with others. I suspect that you may prove to be better able to keep your weight loss because it comes more from true fat loss than that of water and muscle. You have come too far to go back to your old ways. Whatever you decide to do, please stay wise and healthy. Tweet