Let me start by saying that I personally have never done a fast. I barely go 3 hours without eating. SO today I thought i would try it. My friends definition of a fast is not chewing, so anything liquid goes. I came home from my 90 minute trail run and had a recovery protein shake and I added some paleo greens to it with water and ice. No problem so far!! A few moments later I figured out that you don't really have to chew yogurt, so down it went. Then I thought if I put a banana in my mouth for long enough it would not really have to be chewed, but would disintegrate and slide down my throat. About an hour later I was back at the refrigerator looking to see what else could be sucked on without really chewing it . . . organic almond butter, chocolate soy pudding, pomegranate juice . . . then there were things I could throw in the blender that were wouldn't have to be chewed . . . Hmmm. When I started contemplating if a meatball could melt in my mouth, I knew I was not long for this fasting thing. For me, the minute I tell my brain I can't have something, the more I want it. Optimally I eat things that are good for me and my body craves them. That does not mean that I don't crave chocolate or ice cream, but when you eat healthy, you crave healthy. When you eat junk, you crave junk. Your body always wants to right itself meaning it wants to maintain homeostasis or balance. If you fast, then it feels deprived and the next chance you give it to eat, you will over eat (hence the binge and purging associate with eating disorders).
Okay now more seriously, the main benefit offered by a fast, to those who wish to lose weight, is the speed of the weight loss. It's possible for a person drop 30-to-40 pounds in a 30-day juice fast. During that time they are losing water, fat and muscle -yes the muscle you worked so hard to earn. For some the fast becomes a catalyst for a total life overhaul by weight loss.
When someone fasts for even 2 days they can drop, 8 lbs. from the colon, 5 lbs. in water and 2 lbs. in body fat. For some the detoxification is powerful and they feel healthier, less ill and have more mental clarity.
AFter a few days of a fast (or very low calorie diet) the colon is empty there is also a reduction in bulk that flattens the stomach. This weight loss from having an empty colon is not permanent.
Fasting Weight Loss Rates Vary According to Metabolism. The slower your metabolism is, the slower the weight loss. Fasting can slow the metabolism as the body begins to shut down with so little energy and when it eats away at your metabolically active muscle.
Initially, weight loss can be as high as three-to-four pounds per day, but as the fast continues, the average loss is less and you are putting your body in a state of ketosis, which is dangerous. If you are going to do a true fast you should consider taking a liquid multi vitamin like Intramax which is providing you with essential nutrients, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. I would at least recommend some nutritious drink that included some greens and protein or berries.
By now you know II encourage everyone to develop life long healthy disciplines including exercise, a diet high in raw fruits and veggies and lean protein, stress management 7+ hours of sleepa night, pampering and so on. If you choose to fast I would recommend a Friday after boot camp where you can sleep in on Saturday and do it with some combination of nutrition.
It does take a tremendous amount of discipline not to eat when it's a natural thing that your body needs and is used to.
When a fast ends, you will naturally regress to your regular patterns of living and if they are unhealthy you lose all the benefits gained by fasting.
Try to stay focused on the healthy things you are doing to improve your life rather than being consumed with the number of pounds lost.
The best motivation to fast is for physical and spiritual health. Toxins will leave your body, but your body has a natural ability to eliminate toxins - assuming you are not overloading it. Do not have unrealistic expectations about fasting. Give your body the time it needs to do the work of cleansing naturally.
Again I am not a fasting expert or necessarily an advocate. There are books and research on very low calorie diets and the benefits to health and especially longevity. If you are considering a fast for health or weight loss reasons, consider a low calorie diet temporally instead. Or a liquid diet for a few days. Boot camp is not really the time for fasting. You can burn up to 700 calories in a boot camp workout. Even if you spend the rest of your day sitting and praying you would still start to eat away at your muscle after the second day.
Here is a study on mice to consider . . .
Study on mice shows fasting improves health as much as cutting calories. Periodic fasting and cutting calories is proven to increase health and lifespan.
Research -Fasting Increases Lifespan and Insulin Sensitivity
Several recent studies have reported a variety of benefits from a sharply restricted diet, including longer life span, increased insulin sensitivity and stress resistance.
In the new report, mice that were fed only every other day - but could gorge on the days they did eat - saw similar health benefits to ones that had their diet reduced by 40%, a team of researchers reports in Tuesday’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research - Fasting and Calorie Reduction Detoxifies the Body
But the new study by Mark P. Mattson and colleagues at the National Institute on Aging found equal benefits for mice that ate only every other day, but didn’t cut total calories because they ate twice as much on days they weren’t fasting.
Mattson said a study is in the planning stages to compare the health of a group of people fed the normal three meals a day with a similar group, eating the same diet and amount of food, but consuming it within four hours and then fasting for 20 hours before eating again.
Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a regulated fashion to achieve a particular objective. In many cases the goal is weight loss, but some athletes aspire to gain weight (usually in the form of muscle) and diets can also be used to maintain a stable body weight.
Types of dieting
There are several kinds of diets:
* Weight-loss diets restrict the intake of specific foods, or food in general, to reduce body weight. What works to reduce body weight for one person will not necessarily work for another, due to metabolic differences and lifestyle factors. Also, for a variety of reasons, most people find it very difficult to maintain significant weight loss over time. There is some thought that losing weight quickly may actually make it more difficult to maintain the loss over time. It is also possible that cutting calorie intake too low slows or prevents weight loss. The National Institutes of Health notes that the commonly recommended program of reduced caloric intake along with increased physical activity has a long-term failure rate of 98%.
* Many professional athletes impose weight-gain diets on themselves. American football players may try to "bulk up" through weight-gain diets in order to gain an advantage on the field with a higher mass.
* Individuals who are underweight, such as those recovering from anorexia nervosa or from starvation, may undergo weight-gain diets which, unlike those of athletes, has the goal of restoring normal levels of body fat, muscle, and stores of essential nutrients.
Many people in the acting industry may choose to lose or gain weight depending on the role they're given.
In children and young adults
Receiving adequate nutrition through a well-balanced diet is critical during childhood and adolescence. Unless a doctor says otherwise, low-carb, low-fat, or other specialty diets for children who are not heavily obese are unhealthy because they deprive the body of the building blocks of cells (namely energy and lipids in the above examples).
It is especially notable that, as more cultures scrutinize their diets, many improperly educated mothers consider putting their children on restricted diets that actually do more harm than good. This is extremely deleterious to a young child's health because a full and balanced diet (fats, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc.) is needed for growth.[1] Vegetarian diets can work for children as long as all needed nutrients are received. A doctor should be consulted before putting any child on a specialized diet.
Research also shows that putting children on diet foods can be harmful. The brain is unable to learn how to correlate taste with nutritional value, which is why such children may consistently overeat later in life despite adequate nutritional intake. [2]
History of targeted dieting
In the broadest sense, at least some targeted dieting has clearly existed since prehistoric times for various social, religious, and biological reasons.
See Luigi Cornaro for a 16th century treatise on dieting. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, physicians and patients regulated their food carefully, in order to prevent disease. In the 19th century, as the scientific classification of foods took shape, doctors and scientists began experimenting with targeted diets.
William Banting is one of the first people known to have successfully lost weight by developing a targeted diet, circa 1863, by targeting carbohydrates. The low carbohydrate diet, sometimes marketed today as the Atkins Diet, remains popular today.
Thermoregulation
According to the principles of thermoregulation, humans are endotherms. We expend energy to maintain our blood temperature at body temperature, which is about 37 °C (98.6 °F). This is accomplished by metabolism and blood circulation, by shivering to stay warm, and by sweating to stay cool.[3]
In addition to thermoregulation, humans expend energy keeping the vital organs (especially the lungs, heart and brain) functioning. Except when sleeping, our skeletal muscles are working, typically to maintain upright posture. The average work done just to stay alive is the basal metabolic rate, which (for humans) is about 1 watt per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of body mass. Thus, an average man of 75 kilograms (165 lbs) who just rests (or only walks a few steps) burns about 75 watts (continuously), or about 6,500 kilojoules (1,440 Calories) per day or 1 Calorie each minute.
Physical exercise
Physical exercise is an important complement to dieting in securing weight loss. Aerobic exercise is also an important part of maintaining normal good health, especially the muscular strength of the heart. To be useful, aerobic exercise requires maintaining a target heart rate of above 50 percent of one's resting heart rate for 30 minutes, at least 3 times a week. Brisk walking can accomplish this.
The ability of a few hours a week of exercise to contribute to weight loss can be somewhat overestimated. To illustrate, consider a 100-kilogram (220 lbs) man who wants to lose 10 kilograms (22 lbs) and assume that he eats just enough to maintain his weight (at rest), so that weight loss can only come from exercise. Those 10 (22 lbs) kilograms converted to work are equivalent to about 350 megajoules. (We use an approximation of the standard 37 kilojoules or 9 Calories per gram of fat.) Now assume that his chosen exercise is stairclimbing and that he is 20 percent efficient at converting chemical energy into mechanical work (this is within measured ranges). To lose the weight, he must ascend 70 kilometers. A man of normal fitness (like him) will be tired after 500 meters of climbing (about 150 flights of stairs), so he needs to exercise every day for 140 days (to reach his target). However, exercise (both aerobic and anaerobic) would increase the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) for some time after the workout. This ensures more calorific loss than otherwise estimated.
The minimum safe dietary energy intake (without medical supervision) is 75 percent of that needed to maintain basal metabolism. For our hypothetical 100-kilogram man, that minimum is about 5,700 kilojoules (1,300 calories) per day. By combining daily aerobic exercise with a weight-loss diet, he would be able to lose 10 kilograms in half the time (70 days). Of course, the described regime is more rigorous than would be desirable or advisable for many persons. Therefore, under an effective but more manageable weight-loss program, losing 10 kilograms (about 20 pounds) may take as long as 6 months.
There are also some easy ways for people to exercise, such as walking rather than driving, climbing stairs instead of taking elevators, doing more housework with fewer power tools, or parking their cars farther and walking to school or the office.
source: http://dietplanning.blogspot.com/2008/07/dieting-is-practice-of-ingesting-food.html
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