Does fasting for weight loss work?

I am currently doing the smoothie routine and yes it can be costly if you go fresh whole foods but can be way more affordable if you make a few adjustments. Frozen berries are much less costly than fresh as are frozen veggies. I put in 2 – 3 tablespoons of raw uncooked generic quick cook oatmeal and blend the crap out of them with the berries and veggies or whatever else you include and find the oatmeal will keep me feeling full a lot longer than smoothies without the oats. I also invested in a tub of vanilla flavored whey protein powder that may seem expensive at first but costs less than $.25 per serving and the smoothies taste amazing. Invest in almond or coconut milk and plain Greek yogurt and for about a $2.00 a smoothie you will have a kick ass very healthy meal.

$2.00 is about my budget per person for dinner.

Temporarily, maybe. But in the long run, it won’t do much and might actually make you gain more weight. If your body doesn’t get the calories (fuel) it needs for your specific activity levels, it will shut down your metabolism and horde all of the calories and fat as an emergency scenario, because you run the risk of making your body think it’s starving. If it matters, I took nutrition classes in college.

It sucks, but just counting and cutting calories out in relation to your activity levels really is the best option. If there are foods you eat a lot and won’t get sick of eating them, what you could do – rather than having to count every single day – is pick out a few things you’d be glad to eat consistently, count the calories once and just stick to those for a while.

Fasting is neither a healthy nor long-lasting weight-loss solution.

The main thing no matter what you eat is portion size, also helps keep notes on what you eat per day including water,be honest with your notes and in a couple days you can see where you might be over doing it and be able to cut back.

For clarification, I’m not talking about fasting long periods of time, just one 24 hour period per week. I used to do Wednesdays, because I was conveniently at church and away from food for most of the day anyway.

My diet is predominantly made up of cheap carbohydrates and protein, with some vegetables. It doesn’t look like that’s changing any time in the near future.

I’m not looking for any kind of long-term lifestyle change, just trying to undo about ten pounds of depression-weight.

What helped me, was simply cutting my portion size to ⅓ of the amount of whatever I would have eaten anyway. Beyond that, I have mostly cut out cheese. Not altogether, but I don’t buy cheese and add it to anything like I used to (like salads or sandwiches). If I get a burrito and it has cheese in it, that’s fine, but I’m only going to eat ⅓ of the burrito and then have the rest as leftovers. If I make a frozen pizza, I will eat 2 slices instead of six, and save the rest for leftovers.

I purposely eat and make a lot of easy salads, and pickled vegetables. I make salads out of greens (kale, Swiss Chard, etc.) beets, carrots, radishes (a lot of which I get at the 99 Cent Only store). I don’t use cheese or cream dressings, usually just a little bit of olive oil, vinegar, or lemon juice, with a sprinkle of black pepper. I also make salads with canned beans, and grains.

It helps to have some small containers (Tupperware or ziplock bags, whatever works for you) and to make your meals for the next day, or few days in a row, ahead of time. Then just grab and eat. When you’re done, you’re done.

I also drink a lot of regular or decaf un-sweetened (not even non-caloric sweeteners, which make you crave more) tea. I never drink soda, alcohol, and rarely do I even drink juice.

You can’t lose and maintain weight, without actually changing your eating habits for life. Otherwise you’ll just gain it all back (as most of my friends and relatives have that have been on the 21 day cleanses, drinking smoothies, then going back to their regular ways).

I aim for nutrient dense, lower in calories food. The portion control packages that I make, make it much easier. Instead of gorging until I’m full, I just eat what’s in the package I made the night before, and when I’m done, I’m done.

Also, especially at work, I learned to appreciate donuts and cookies and candy for how they look. I watch and enjoy everyone else eating them. I don’t eat them. Not anymore. I don’t feel deprived, any more than I do looking at pine trees or candles. They smell nice, but they’re not food (even if other people seem to think they are Lol).

I also do a regular workout every single day. Not some iron man type of thing, just some toning exercises and some aerobics. I can do it all at my house, no need for a gym. I started out slowly (especially with the pushups, I did girl pushups for 9 months, before I switched to regular boy pushups). The workouts don’t really do anything for the weight, but they have toned up my tummy, my butt, my boobs and my butt and my thighs. Plus doing the exercising actually gives me more energy than I had before and gives me a mental boost too, and makes me not have un-controllable cravings. I can actually get past a craving in about a half hour if I feel one come on. Before, they would overcome me.

If you need any cheap, but tasty, recipes, let me know : )

I’m not a fan of fasting. While I don’t think you need to do the eat little and often thing, I do think you should eat when you’re hungry. Just don’t snack if you can avoid it. Can you boost the leafy veg, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and the like, and minimise the starchy veggies? Legumes are very filling but lower in calories. Fill up with them rather than the starchy veggies like potato etc. That might help. And as @Kardamom said, really cut back your portion sizes. I find eating chicken thigh meat rather than breast is a good option. It’s tastier and less dry, and they’re cheaper. Fish is excellent for you. Even if you buy frozen fish with no sauce. That can be low cal, cost effective and very healthy.

This isn’t working. I am specifically not asking for dieting methods or recipes.

Let me try rephrasing the question:

Would removing one-day’s-worth of food from my weekly food intake result in an adequate reduction in caloric intake to assist in reasonable and safe short-term weight loss?

Removing it from the daily total would be better. Evening out the lack of calories and sugar is better for your pancreas. You don’t have a gall bladder any more to consider, so I assume you are already making the ‘fat’ alterations to your diet. You are better off skipping some calories each day than skipping all calories on just one day.

I’m not sure if I’m the best person to ask. All I had yesterday was two pieces of toast with cinnamon and sugar on it. Best diet is to acquire an eating disorder like mine, I guess.

Believe me, this is me actively resisting the urge to sink back into bulimia. It’s not quite as trendy when you’re not 15.

Well, I hate to go against the grain here, but I’m going to say that if you’ve already done this regularly for the purposes of religious custom, it isn’t going to do you any harm to do exactly the same thing for weight loss. I mean, if you are otherwise making sure that you eat nutritious foods, one day of fasting per week could be fine. You will probably notice if it is not as fine as it used to be – your age may be a factor here. It may not have made you lightheaded at 18, but now? If it does, don’t persist.

But as to whether it works? Well, you likely spend around 2000 calories if you lie around on the couch all day. So taking in no calories for a day means you’ll have a big calorie deficit for that day. For me, I know that this would translate to… maybe… losing a pound or two. But I also notice that my weight fluctuates by around that much on a daily basis anyhow. You’d need to make sure that you’re not overcompensating by eating more on the days you don’t fast. I don’t know whether one day per week would lead to your metabolism slowing – that is a real thing, but if you’re back to eating normally the day after the fast, I doubt it would have a reason to kick in. Point being… you might find that your weight goes down over time, but I’m guessing it would take a long time if you make no other changes.

And remember that you need to take in specific vitamins and minerals that your body needs to do… stuff. So obviously don’t eat crap for six days then eat nothing for a day. That’s not going to help you.

You can also create a calorie deficit by exercising. It’s probably smarter to pick up an exercise bike on Craigslist, then spend some time reading on the bike every day. At least this way, you’d be getting stronger as you lose weight, not weaker.

Bulimia assumes you have food to binge upon that can be wasted. Not a good diet or budget plan.

Like @dappled_leaves said, it’s still all about your calories in vs. out and your regular activity levels. If you fast for a day or two but then eat like crap the rest of the days, there won’t be any change. And the rate at which your metabolism shuts down and hordes everything you eat also isn’t possible to judge, because that’s highly individualistic. For instance, do you lead a mostly sedentary life? Do you exercise? Do you move around a lot because you’re always doing errands? All will make an impact on how many calories your body needs. You could slowly lose weight, you could gain weight, or you might stay exactly the same.

Also, any kind of diet – which fasting still is – that makes you lose weight rapidly, isn’t reliable in the long run and you’ll be likely to gain it all back as soon as you stop fasting, regardless of how much better your eating habits might become in the future, so unless you plan on doing it forever, don’t count on the weight staying off.

So, again, the downside is that you might not lose weight and you could even gain it. The best suggestion you’ve had so far, which is the least likely to cause you to actually gain weight, is to just significantly cut your calories down on the days you would/would have fasted.

I know some folks who swear by a once a week fast. They don’t really do it for weight loss but for regular detox. I have spent a couple weeks trying it on every Friday and while I felt like shit on that day I did seem to feel better through the week. Weight loss did slowly happen. Is it really healthy? Your guess is as good as mine. I know you may have some issues that prevent exercise so it’s worth a shot. Doing it a few times is probably not going to do any harm. It would be good to hear what a real doc would say.

You might mess with your metabolism… but, other than some possible cognitive and blood sugar issues, you should be fine. Have you been maintaining your weight with your current food intake? If so, you should lose weight. You could also play around with it… 24 hours once a week vs. skipping breakfast 4 days a week vs. skipping breakfast and lunch 2 days a week…

I’ve read a bit about intermittent fasting, but not enough (or recently enough) to provide you with information. I’d encourage you to google it.

Make sure you stay hydrated.

Also, pay attention to cravings and rebound eating. If you’re eating more on the days that you’re eating, then it’s not working.

There was an article on this subject today. It was mostly to save money but weight loss was one of the mentioned side benefits.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/smart-spending/eat-less-to-save-money-1.aspx

According to This Article on WebMD fasting is not a good idea for weight loss and can be dangerous in the long run.

It’s still better to simply eat less calories every day. When you stop eating (fasting) your body’s metabolism goes into a starvation mode. That is the opposite of what you want for losing weight. Also, fasting can be dangerous if you have some underlying health problems, especially of the liver or kidneys.