Sustained Health and Weight Loss Clarity

Several converging concepts inform our health.

* Healthy Eating: Consume nutritious wholesome foods and drinks.
* Healthy Fasting: With awareness, safely practice intermittent and water fasting.
* Healthy Exercising: Exercise, even modestly instead of being sedentary.
* Autophagy: The aforementioned induces autophagy which is the body’s natural healing process.

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Follow these easy steps as a way of life:

* Consume nourishing wholesome foods and drinks.
* Evolve shorter digestion times.
* Modest exercising of cardiovascular, lungs and muscles.
* Induce autophagy, your self-healing process.
* Become aware of emotional eating and drinking.

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There is some evidence that a 24 hour water fast helps with your body’s recycling process for breaking down and reusing old cell parts, called autophagy. This helps protect against disease and inflammation. If you do a 24-hour fast, you should not eat or drink anything other than water for 24 hours.

Why should I water fast?
If you fast for 24 hours on a regular basis, expect to experience health improvements. These include improved cardiovascular health, protection against diseases including cancer, health and weight loss, and the preservation of memory.

How should I water fast for 24 hours?
Firstly, to do a day fast you should prepare yourself for fasting by undertaking some shorter periods where you do not eat in the days leading up to the fast, or by eating smaller portions. Drink plenty of water during your fast. Post fast, it is important to eat smaller meals for 1-3 days.

Risk factors of doing a water fast for 24 hours
Children, pregnant women and older people, and anyone with any health conditions, should always seek medical advice before fasting. You should also be careful about driving or operating machinery, as dizziness during fasting is a common side effect.

A 2 day water fast has the capacity to improve cell repair, prevent diseases, reduce inflammation, promote health and weight loss and improve insulin sensitivity and manage blood sugar. The main risks appear to be dehydration and the negative consequences of introducing food too quickly post fast, however, more research is needed.

Potential benefits and risks of a 2-day water fast

A 3 day water fast benefits the body in a similar way to other longer fasts, by kick-starting a process called ‘autophagy’. This is where your body recycles worn-out and diseased parts from cells, leading to potential health and weight loss and a lowered risk of neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, inflammation, and type 2 diabetes.

3 day water fast benefits – indications from research on fasts over 24-hours

• Weight loss
• Improved metabolism
• Reduced inflammation
• Slowed cell ageing and increased longevity
• Better insulin sensitivity and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes
• Improved cardiovascular health and reduced risk of heart disease
• Reduced oxidative stress which lowers cancer risk
• Reduced cholesterol

A 3 day water fast weight loss program works because calories are restricted. Only water is consumed for 72 hours. If you practice shorter fasts first, eat smaller portions leading up to the longer fast, and do not overeat after the fast, the calorie restriction of a 3 day fast promotes health and weight loss. 

The best method of losing weight is by restricting calories. Wholesome eating and switching to zero added sugar diet lowers the number of calories consumed and therefore leads to weight loss. This is one reason why fast mimicking diets are effective.

However, you need to be careful that you don’t put the weight back on. The best way of making sure that your health and weight loss is stable is to also restrict your calories leading up to the fast, and eating smaller portions after you finish fasting.

For longer fasts, it is recommended to seek medical advice before you start.

You should break a three day water fast by reintroducing food slowly so that you don’t encounter stomach problems. Starting with smoothies then progressing to soups and salads (with no added sugar) over several days helps you avoid bloating, nausea and diarrhea. 

You will be hungry after you finish your water fast, and the temptation is to eat a lot of food. This is not advisable due to the risk of experiencing stomach problems. 

Work your way up to solid food by starting with consuming some lemon water. Try mixing in some cayenne pepper. Next, have smaller snacks and meals which are lower in glucose. It’s important to try to maintain a stable level of blood sugar after you fast. 

For longer fasts, it is always advisable to seek medical advice before you start.

Any fasts of over 24-hours are thought to start a process called ‘autophagy’, where your cells recycle older cell parts, helping with health and weight loss and protection against disease. A 4 day water fast is long enough to kick this process off but not so long that the body enters starvation mode.

Scientists are still unsure about the best length of a fast, although some studies suggest that fasts of up to 5 days help patients going through chemotherapy. There is also evidence that fasts of around 10 days normalizes blood pressure, reducing hypertension. This suggests that longer fasts are beneficial for health, although there is some debate over certain risks, such as mineral depletion, low energy, dizziness, and so on. Medical advice is always recommended for this type of fast.

Another benefit reported by some is the ‘re-setting’ of a person’s relationship with food. 

If you have fasted for shorter periods of time and coped with it well, it is worth experimenting with a 4 day water fast so that you see improved health results, such as health and weight loss, reduced insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammation and slow cell ageing.

5 day water fast results come from drinking lots of water so you don’t get dehydrated. You should consume supplemental electrolytes, including magnesium, phosphate, calcium, sodium and potassium. This, along with breaking your fast correctly, helps to prevent refeeding syndrome.

How to get the benefits of a 5 day water fast
Some of the benefits of a 5 day water fast are health and weight loss, reduced inflammation, protection against disease, help with hypertension, and re-setting your relationship with food. The best way to get these results is to fast properly. That means that you should drink plenty of water every day, consume supplements (but no calories) to ensure that your body has the correct vitamins, minerals and electrolytes to function properly, and break your fast correctly. 

What to do post fast to stay healthy
It is vital to break your fast properly so that you don’t endanger your health. After a long fast, when you start eating carbohydrates again, your body needs nutrients to deal with the big insulin rush that happens to deal with the carbohydrates. As well as electrolytes, supplement with thiamine and B vitamins before you start eating again.

Spend time reintroducing solid food, starting with just a few calories. Remember to avoid foods with added sugar. You do not want to undo the health benefits of your water fasting.

It’s always a good idea to seek medical advice before starting a 5 day water fast.

A 5 day water fast weight loss plan is where you do not eat any calories for five days. This lack of calories promotes health and weight loss. This type of fast works for weight loss in the long term if you continue eco-healthy eating of wholesome food and drinks after correctly breaking your fast. 

Many fasts are not effective for weight loss because people tend to resume their unhealthy eating habits after the fast is over. This leads to a ‘yo-yo’ style of eating. Continually decreasing and increasing one’s weight takes a toll on the body. It is crucial for a 5 day water fast to be part of a longer regime of eco-healthy eating, including moving to a zero added sugar way of eating.

7 Day Water Fast Benefits

• Emotional and psychological benefits
• Regain control of eating
• Sustained health and weight loss
• Increased autophagy (body’s cell repair system) which increases longevity.
• Reduced cholesterol
• Becoming more insulin sensitive – reduced risk of type 2 diabetes
• Improved immune system
• Reduced inflammation

If you have experience doing shorter fasts, such as a fast for 24 hours or 72 hours, a week long fast has the potential to bring the increased health benefits in the list above.

It’s important to remember if your fasting periods are longer than 24 hours, you should seek medical recommendations. It’s also critical that you understand how to break your fast properly so that you experience these benefits.

How do I get 7 day water fast results? 

If you want to see 7 day water fast results, it’s essential to stay as healthy as possible before, during, and after the fasting periods.

How to get 7 day water fast benefits

1. Prepare for your fast by reducing your portions or by intermittent fasting before water fasting.
2. Drink 2-3 litres of water per day.
3. Don’t consume calories but do supplement with electrolytes, including magnesium, phosphate, calcium, sodium and potassium.
4. Do not exercise whilst fasting.
5. Do not do a 7 day water fast more than a few times a year.

Remember to exercise caution and consult a medical professional for undertaking longer fasts.

A 7 day water fast health and weight loss program works because water fasting for a week means consuming zero calories. However, to sustain the weight loss, it’s essential that you break the fast properly and eat a healthy and wholesome diet in the post fast period. Restricting calories before the fast also promotes health and weight loss.

Lots of people find that after a 7 day water fast, they regain the weight that they’ve lost. This is due to returning to an unhealthy way of living, with processed and sugar-filled foods. It is unhealthy to engage in this kind of ‘yo-yo’ dieting.

One of the health benefits of a 7 day water fast is that it resets your relationship with food. Maintaining this new mindset is essential for a 7 day water fast health and weight loss success.

Water fasting for a week allows the body to engage in the process of autophagy, where the body repairs and recycles broken, worn-out and diseased parts of cells. Autophagy has been shown to help your immune system, reduce inflammation, and protect against disease.

One thing to remember is that you should exercise modestly whilst you are fasting, as you are likely to feel low on energy, as well as experience potential dizziness. Indeed, you should rest as much as possible when undertaking a fast of this length. This allows you to get the maximum benefit from water fasting for a week.

There is evidence that frequently and repeatedly subjecting the body to a total lack of nutrients on longer fasts impairs the immune system. One way to guard against this is to use supplements of potassium, sodium, magnesium, and other nutrients that your body requires for functioning. Longer water fasts should be carried out on occasion and it is advisable to seek recommendations from a medical professional.

How to break a 7 day water fast and keep the health benefits

1. Before breaking your fast, supplement with sodium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus.
2. Before you stop fasting, supplement with thiamine and B vitamins for half an hour.
3. After the fast, start with zero added sugar liquids and soft food.
4. When reintroducing calories, add 10 calories per day for every kilo that you weigh, and increase it by 5 calories per kilo per day. 
5. Slowly reintroduce other foods, such as wholesome soups and salads.
6. Continue to eat wholesome, zero sugar foods and do not return to an unhealthy diet. This way you sustain your health and weight loss.

A 1 week water fast has health benefits but also risks, including dizziness, irritability, low energy, mood swings, nausea and consumption of a small amount of muscle fibre before the body switches over to fat consumption. Another danger is the risk of potentially fatal refeeding syndrome if you don’t break the fast correctly.

Without the right supplementation, cardiac functioning has been shown to be impaired in long fasting periods, although it is unclear whether this applies to a 7 day fasting period. 

Also, children, older adults, and people with eating disorders are more at risk and should avoid water fasting. Healthy adults are advised to obtain medical advice. 

10 Day Water Fast Results and Benefits of Fasting for 10 Days

The difference in insulin resistance for different fast lengths is unclear. Studies show that fasting increases insulin sensitivity, but the majority of studies are on intermittent fasting. Whether you choose intermittent fasting, a 24 hour water fast, a 5 water fast or 10 day water fast is down to other factors.

Insulin resistance is where your cells do not respond to insulin’s message to use incoming glucose for energy. Meaning that sugar stays in your bloodstream and then gets stored as fat. This tires out your pancreas and has the potential to lead to diabetes. Fasting helps to reduce insulin sensitivity, although more evidence is needed to say for certain which length of fast is best for doing this.

Is a 2 day water fast better than a 5 day water fast for ketone levels? More to come!

The body needs energy, and that energy comes from glucose. Usually bodies take glucose from food sources, namely, carbohydrates. Fasting changes the source of this glucose. After around eight hours without eating, the body runs out of glucose, and begins a process known as gluconeogenesis. This is where the body starts to make its own glucose from its fat reserves. And where health and weight loss commence.