ok so i am 7 days into my 33 day water fast. and i was just wondering if anyone else on this site takes part in them to clear the mind or drop a few pounds or detox?

What is the water diet?

There are times I consume only water for a couple days...I always feel much "cleaner" afterwards...

No personal offence intended, but That's so stupid. Assuming what you just posted means "I will only drink water for 33 days"

I have had Demi-eating disorders in the past where I'd do something similar.

1: Water is absorbed through your intestinal lining and isn't flushed through your entire digestive tract, You will become extremely constipated, eventually you bloat up with gas and your in agony.
2: You'll be so lethargic that your fainting all over the place and completely incapable of concentrating.
3: No such thing as "Detox" absolutely no evidence for it improving health.
4: Starvation is oddly Euphoric in a diseased corrupted manner... kinda like sleep deprivation... Or slicing your arms up with a razor.
5: Extreme dieting like that can and will cause permanent problems. I still get stomach aches and diarrhoea every 2 weeks, and I wasn't even "that bad." compared to some.

6: As soon as you stop starving yourself and eat normally, Your weight will rebound and probably climb to a higher level than before.

7: Recognising point 4 & 6 you might choose to continue with abnormal eating habits, and come to enjoy the weight loss and euphoria. Your weight will begin to nose dive and that makes you feel good the lower numbers on the scales show your commitment to make permanent changes food and eating/not eating becomes the centre of your world.
Now your transformation into an Anorexic girl is only a matter of time.


I know because I did something similar. I was lucky I managed to "pull out of the spin" before things got too bad. And Recovering from things like that isn't all bad, when your 5'7 and weigh 8stn (112ibs) Your friends will try and feed you all the time.

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A water fast for any more than a week is probably very unhealthy. People do all kinds of things for religious reasons; it doesn't give it any logic. A simple (and not anywhere as bad) example is how Muslims only eat whilst the sun is set during Rambutan. The prolonged fastings followed by generous eatings aren't healthy, and eating just before bed either. And it likely leads to sleep deprivation, seeing how short night is in the summer, if they have to wait for sunset to eat, and get up before it for breakfast.

Humans can survive on water alone for surprisingly long periods of time, but surviving and being healthy are two different things. If you don't eat, you run out of many essential nutrients that you can't produce after just a short while, and more deficiencies add to that as time passes. Lacking those for as long as a month will not only make your everyday performance poorer, but it might cause damage and issues over time. I'm not an expert so I won't say any more on the topic, but you cannot starve for so long and get through it unharmed. Humans just aren't made that way. And you don't need to feel problems for your health to be damaged.

However, fasting for a short while (maybe 1-2 days, 3-4 days max), assuming you gradually reduce your portions before and start eating again gradually afterwards, can do a lot of good. Even more so if you take a multivitamin to alleviate the effects. Once, since I had to have my intestines checked, I had to limit my food for one day, then eat nothing for 48 hours, drinking a sort of special awful-tasting "flushing" liquid that emptied my whole system. After that, I felt much better. My stomach had shrunk along with my appetite, and I just felt so much cleaner and lighter.

I think I'll actually do it starting tomorrow. Since my "depression" and eating rage a month ago, I've been eating an awful lot, and I,ve gained 5-7 pounds. The "reset" will do me good.

Quote from: Tristan on March 16, 2013, 12:20:24 PM
actually thats not true. my metabolism is only off for 6-8 weeks after the fast and i have never had black out problems when doing this before. also the re feeding phase after you will gain alot of weight if you do not re introduce food properly. (which i always do). im not sure how you did your water fast but i have never had those kinds of problems before.
Beth its not a diet, its just a water fast alot of people do it for religious reasons or to drop weight for like a week or two. some up to 40 days. but if you are doing it to drop weight make sure you brak your fast in the right way or the weight will come right back.

I have to agree with others that water fasting isn't too healthy when done for longer than a week.

In Christianity, Orthodox adherents will do 40 days of a vegan-type fasting during Lent season. Catholics and other Christians (Anglicans, Lutherans) could choose to do non-food-based fasting as well. Mormons will fast on one Sunday a month and donate food or money to charity on that given Sunday.

In Islam, the Muslims will fast from sunrise to sunset without food or water. But they may eat before sunrise, and after sunset, and break their fast with iftar, or the first meal that breaks the fast.

In the Baha'i Faith, Baha'is fast for 19 days (constituting one Baha'i month, and specifically 19 days before Spring), from dawn to dusk, and during the daytime they do not take food or water. For Baha'is this is a very sacred month and considered the crown of months to dedicate themselves to their Prophet, Baha'u'llah.

In Hinduism, there are ascetics who do extreme practices and self-mortifications, but they are of the minority. In standard Hinduism, fasting can be from just eating fruits and dairy, to just water, and generally from 4:00am (brahma-muhurta, or the auspicious hour) to moonrise. Sometimes fasts are merely half a day!

In standard religious practices, fasting with only water never exceeds a week or so. Thirty days seem a little harsh to me, both to your body and to your spirit!

.

Quote from: A on March 16, 2013, 02:35:26 PM
A water fast for any more than a week is probably very unhealthy. People do all kinds of things for religious reasons; it doesn't give it any logic. A simple (and not anywhere as bad) example is how Muslims only eat whilst the sun is set during Rambutan. The prolonged fastings followed by generous eatings aren't healthy, and eating just before bed either. And it likely leads to sleep deprivation, seeing how short night is in the summer, if they have to wait for sunset to eat, and get up before it for breakfast.

I think it's Ramadan. I think Rambutan is a fruit or something!

On an aside, I think I may try doing a juice fast for one week. Have any of you thought of that? You can still get your nutrients, but much of it is just a good dose of liquefied fruits and vegetables, with maybe shots of spirulina or wheatgrass to boot!

Quote from: Sita on March 16, 2013, 02:57:12 PM
In Christianity, Orthodox adherents will do 40 days of a vegan-type fasting during Lent season.

I don't think it can be considered fasting if you eat. Besides, that just sounds like a month of healthy eating!

Quote from: muuu on March 16, 2013, 02:59:56 PM
The goal with water fasting is mainly to lose weight... If it's healthy or not doesn't really matter. I wonder if it's any unhealthier than eating processed foods.

People demonize processed foods too much. Most of them have too much salt, etc. but that's not ALL of them, and even so, depending on the rest of your diet, it's not necessarily a catastrophe. Most of them also have many compounds that OVER TIME, in SOME people have some bad effects on health. And again, that's not all of them, and not all of them have all of the bad compounds.

Long-term water fasting is direct, punch-like damage to your organism. It doesn't even compare to me. Now, if you put side-to-side a life of eating nothing but processed foods and one month of water fasting, of course the former is worse. But that's like comparing one grape to three cherries and deducing that a cherry is three times as heavy as a grape.

Quote from: Sita on March 16, 2013, 03:00:30 PM
I think it's Ramadan. I think Rambutan is a fruit or something!

...Right. Whoops.

Quote from: Sita on March 16, 2013, 03:00:30 PM
On an aside, I think I may try doing a juice fast for one week. Have any of you thought of that? You can still get your nutrients, but much of it is just a good dose of liquefied fruits and vegetables, with maybe shots of spirulina or wheatgrass to boot!

Uhm, doesn't sound like the best of ideas. You'd be getting all of your energy from sugar. I don't think your pancreas will appreciate. And energy from sugar doesn't last, so you'd likely have a lot of up-and-downs. Also, juice doesn't contain all of the nutrients and vitamins you need - far from that. And finally, just drinking won't really fill you up. Drinking a lot of water with a meal does fill one up more, but drinking just water (or juice - not very different in this situation) doesn't really have that effect; I don't think so, at least. If I'm hungry and drink a lot of water, I'll feel okay-ish for a few minutes, but quickly, the water will be gone further in my system and I'd be hungry again. And if I try to abuse it and drink even more water, I get nauseous, and then hungry.

If anything, leave the juice aside and have a fruit and vegetables diet. Juice is just fruit and/or vegetables minus some of their benefits, and it's liquid. Eating solid carrots, apples, broccoli and such will fill you up much more, give you a bit more nutrients, not be many more calories, and will be digested faster. And if you intended to make the juice yourself, it's less work since you don't have to use the juice extractor or (dramatic music) clean the damned thing.

You could even prolong such a diet without much of a bad consequence, if you wanted. You should just add a multivitamin to be safe and a moderate amount of, say, nuts, daily, to give you a bit of lipids and proteins.

so i guess thats a no then

yeah, a water only detox is a stupid idea. as A said, there isn't any real logic behind it. add in some very small meals, vitamins that will fully cover your basic needs, and then drink only water. that's just a reasonable LIFE diet. that and if you only drink water you're starving the bacterial flora in your digestive tract that help keep your immune system alive.

"No such thing as "Detox" absolutely no evidence for it improving health"

Thats what pharma and the medical "industry" propaganda want you to think. keep taking pills with heavy metals and binders of course the body can be flushed off bad stuff... ever drunk alcohol then sweated it out, thats a detox. the logic is listen to your body and know for yourself, this practice is thousands of years old, stop relying on what being spoon fed everything by others, practices you might do are idiotic like spraying heavy metal to block your sweat glands from excreting so you do not smell of the rotting flesh your consuming thats idiotic.

I'm very sorry, but you'll need to explain to me how you can sweat being drunk off. You're drunk because you have alcohol in your system. The only way to get it out of there is for it to be digested by your liver, right? The only reason one could have the impression impression they've been made sober by sweating would be that some substance made by the body upon sweating/exercising would mask those effects. Just like taking an energy drink after / with alcohol makes you think you're not drunk. But the alcohol doesn't go away.

The way I understand it, whatever bad stuff could be in your body is within the cells or circulating in the blood. So it can't be flushed away by water. Of course, taking only water will stop the input of those bad things, and your system will be able to eliminate it without it replenishing itself. That's true. But eating healthy and organic for a while should do the very same thing, without the bad side effects of starving, no?

Of course, there are benefits to starving, but I'm pretty sure they stop past a few days or a week (BIG maximum).

Quote from: tantra86 on March 16, 2013, 08:43:52 PM
"No such thing as "Detox" absolutely no evidence for it improving health"

Thats what pharma and the medical "industry" propaganda want you to think. keep taking pills with heavy metals and binders of course the body can be flushed off bad stuff... ever drunk alcohol then sweated it out, thats a detox. the logic is listen to your body and know for yourself, this practice is thousands of years old, stop relying on what being spoon fed everything by others, practices you might do are idiotic like spraying heavy metal to block your sweat glands from excreting so you do not smell of the rotting flesh your consuming thats idiotic.

excuse me while I laugh at you and your copy of "how to fight the man 101"

I studied biology. I know how this works. "cleansing" works by stopping the input of harmful materials into your body so your body can process what is already there. no extra supplements or magical diets are going to help it any further than that unless they are strictly made chemically to help boost metabolism without adding in anything the body will have to process as a toxin.

And yes. Heavy metals hurt you. We aren't talking about heavy metals. we're talking about carefully measured pure supplements that aren't bonded with a placebo or a binder.

I'd like to add that in the vast majority of cases, someone who is telling you something that contradicts something else, saying "that's what THEY want you to believe!" is probably the one who wants you to believe something. Saying someone else is lying to you, and then revealing the shocking, hidden truth, is a common strategy used by all sorts of people spreading false things.

And surprisingly, it works more than one would expect. Because once you tell someone X is the enemy, the mefiance will have them rally to you. Just like all of those silly racial, religious and such conflicts get so many supporters in the world. From anti-government paranoiacs to Israelians and Palestinians and sect heads, experience proves it's easy to get caught in that trap. It's instinct. So be careful.

I just want to put it out there that I feel eating fruits and vegetables mostly for a few days would be highly beneficial.

I used to practice Ekadashi, which is a Hindu fasting period that occurs two days in a month. On the day of, the devotees would avoid grains, beans and legumes, and we would eat mainly fruits, dairy (and maybe vegetables).

I feel that this might be something to look into, because the natural fibre of fruits and vegetables themselves, along with lean dairy like yogourt and cottage cheese, will cleanse the body and stimulate bowel movement.

I do not think there should be too much contention if one ate like this for a few days, three at most!

Drink a ton of water, eat some greens, don't forget a touch of fat.  A little bit of healthy fat will help you loose a significant amount of weight.

I have tried to do a similar diet, didn't last a day 

The water diet, should work though even if unhealthy.  I hit a low point in my life when I lost someone and didnt eat for like 2.5 weeks.  Just drank water.  I lost maybe 12 pounds in that time frame. I gained it all back though x 3  Granted it wasn't my choice, I just couldn't eat.

Quote from: tantra86 on March 16, 2013, 08:43:52 PM
"No such thing as "Detox" absolutely no evidence for it improving health"

Thats what pharma and the medical "industry" propaganda want you to think. keep taking pills with heavy metals and binders of course the body can be flushed off bad stuff... ever drunk alcohol then sweated it out, thats a detox. the logic is listen to your body and know for yourself, this practice is thousands of years old, stop relying on what being spoon fed everything by others, practices you might do are idiotic like spraying heavy metal to block your sweat glands from excreting so you do not smell of the rotting flesh your consuming thats idiotic.

Tell me more about how 'pharma' keeps hidden the secret of transitioning with nothing but detox and some voodoo papaya acai tea tree extract.

I'll keep taking my hormones with heavy metals and binders, and keep taking my medication for ulcerative colitis that developed while I was eating 100% organic (correlation or causation not determined), because I've already gone through the moronic holistic/organic/anti-pharma phase of my life.  Good riddance.

Just don't eat like a moron and you'll be all right. No need for this pseudoscientific nonsense.

  It is better to change your diet than to fast.  You still need the minerals, especially calcium, to keep in good order.  Even aboard a Navy ship, one of the punishments from the Captain is no more than a week on a diet of bread and water.  I done a few fasts lasting 2-3 weeks with the binges afterwards.  This is a normal reaction.  My best diet was a simple reduction of fats and not the elimination of it.  Fake fats and suger substitutes may do more harm than good on a good number of people.  I have enough cleansing throughput of water by taking Spiro alone!

  Joelene

I have a medical background, and what you are doing is not healthy. You are doing more harm than good just by upsetting/resetting the chemical and electrolyte balance as well as disrupting many other physiological processes. Diet and exercise. There are no shortcuts or cheat codes. If you are doing this for some sort of religious reasons (which are usually only done once per year), that's one thing. But for any other reason it really makes no sense and can cause more harm than good.