WATER FASTING: The Complete Guide (Fastest Fat Loss Method)
After the first 10 days or so of water fasting, the amount of weight loss per day decreases. As your body’s ketosis becomes increasingly efficient, you simply don’t need to burn as much fat in order to derive the same quantity of energy. Sooner or later, you can expect a weight loss closer to about 0.5 lbs (0.25 kgs) per day. In other words, it becomes a law of diminishing returns. You have to put in more time fasting in order to experience the same amount of weight loss. So instead of needing approximately 20 days to lose 20 pounds (10 kgs), most people need 25-30 days. To lose 30 pounds (15 kgs), usually 40+ days is necessary.
If you’re truly determined to use a water fast to lose hundreds of pounds, it’s going to take a very long time.In order to enjoy lasting weight loss, you’ll have to change your eating habits. It’s not rocket science. If it was your old eating habits which got you into trouble in the first place, then returning to them after your fast can only result in a slow but steady return to your old weight.
Before you begin your water fast, you need to ask yourself the question: ‘Am I truly ready to change my diet?’ If the answer isn’t an emphatic yes, your fast is likely doomed to failure.Almost as important as your diet is the addition of some kind of exercise program after your fast. (Note: this is not to be confused with exercise during the fast, which is generally something to be avoided. See my video/article: ‘Can I work out during a water fast?‘)If keeping the pounds off after a fast boils down to finding a balance between calorie intake and output, then clearly exercise is the single most important means to increase calorie output. Aerobic, cardiovascular forms of exercise tend to burn the most calories, so activities like swimming, running or cycling (in this order) are the most efficient in controlling weight. If your fitness level precludes running, then even walking provides a good solution, so long as you keep your breathing and heart rate elevated for a sustained period. Work within your limits – but do work! And, as is also true for diet, choose a form of exercise that you enjoy.Sustainable weight loss is achieved through three fundamental elements:
(1) the water fast itself,
(2) a healthy diet after the fast and
(3) regular exercise after the fast.
Impacting on the first two of these is the issue of food addictions.
There are both physical and psychological food addictions. On a physical level, certain foods like refined sugars and flavour enhancers initiate biochemical changes in the brain which ‘reward’ us for eating the given food, so that we want more. On an emotional level, food addictions come into play the moment we’re no longer eating purely to sustain our physical nutrition. We all suffer from them: eating for comfort, eating to relieve boredom, eating to soothe anxieties.
Water fasting for weight loss: does it work?