Fasting for Weight Loss (eat your fat)
What Causes Weight Gain
Trying to stay on a diet can turn a simple journey to the supermarket into an epic challenge of self-discipline. How can you ignore all the florescent-lit aisles of junk food offering every temptation known to the tongue when you are hungry depressed and feeling deprived? It becomes a war of desires where your willingness to surrender is quickly rewarded.
In a culture that esteems fashion-model thinness as perfect beauty, fat is the ugly disease that must be cured. This creates an obsession with weight-loss that increases the difficulty in losing weight. It is like trying not to think of a white horse. The more you try not to think of it the more it comes back into your thoughts.
Obsession, slow metabolism and high-calorie food are a deadly combination for weight gain. The worst offenders of weight gain are starches, fats, and refined sugars. Since the biggest part of our diet is starch in the form of breakfast cereal, cookies, cakes, pies, chips and bread, it has the greatest impact on weight gain. Starches are worse than sugar. For a short amount of time, the blood sugar will peak allowing the body to store the excess sugar as body fat. Starch is different in that it is a slow release of sugar, which is perfect for long-distance runners, however, if you are inactive, the slow-releasing sugars will be turned into body fat. Excess calories equate to excess fat.
Fat is stored calories for periods of starvation, but the only time that occurred in this century was the Great Depression when people worked long hours on small amounts of food. Now, we have the opposite. Most people eat too much with too little physical activity. It takes about 30 seconds to eat 150 calories of cookies but a mile and a half of jogging to burn it off. Getting stuffed at an all-you-can-eat buffet fills the stomach with 4,000 calories. To burn off that many calories would require 40 miles of jogging. Instead, we spend much of the day sitting in front of a computer, TV or driving. The end result is inevitable weight gain.
Fasting is to Eat Your Fat Cells
Fasting is the quickest way to lose weight. Excess fat is nothing more than extra calories stored in the fat cells. During fasting the body uses this fat resulting in weight loss. The process is a metabolic process called catabolism. You body is using fat for fuel. That is why fasting is effective for weight loss. You can see the pounds melt away on a daily basis. You don’t even feel hungry, but you lose weight. Your health is improved and the skin regains its natural elasticity resulting in a youthful tone and more energy. You can’t get a better weight loss program than that.
The purpose of fat cells is to use it as fuel in times of famine. For North America, famine does not exist. Instead, the North American diet is a continual indulgence of high-calorie foods, eaten in an attempt to fulfill emotional needs. The fat cells get bigger and the body gets pudgier. Fasting demands the fat cells to be used as fuel. As soon as the body needs calories, the process or catabolism (tearing down) starts. Each pound of fat has approximately 3,500 calories, which becomes fuel for the body.
As each day passes, you get thinner and thinner. I have seen people lose over 50 pounds in 30 days without flabby skin. Natural elasticity and skin tone had been restored. Their friends were in shock as the difference was so amazing. And the weight never came back. Exercise and a diet high in raw foods became a lifetime way of eating that kept them thin. The chapter, Fasting for Weight Loss, will give you all the details.
Read amazing stories of weight loss.
Gray Hodge: Weight Loss 26.5 lbs.
Grace Lang: Weight Loss 21 lbs.
Debbie Ried: Weight Loss 30 lbs.
Carl Wineberg: Weight Loss 140 lbs.
Ron Harrison: Weight Loss 40 lbs.
Elaine Harrison: Weight Loss 40lbs.
Brian Chason: Weight Loss 28 lbs.
Paul Erwin: Weight Loss 12lbs.
Paul Erwin: Weight Loss 12lbs.
Steph White: Weight Loss 25 lbs.
You may also interested about the danger of Weight Loss Supplements.
Read about different types of weight loss procedures.
By Tom Coghill of Fasting.ws Articles may be copied or reproduced as long as the back links to fasting.ws are intact and the author’s name is included.
Cindy Pa-ac 
Amy Seery 
Totes Boots 
Grace Fawoye 
Clay Lapre 
how come when i click on the “kim lee lost 20 pounds” link it says it was deleted. like, for all those. it says they have been deleted. did you remove them from the site?
Hi Ashley,
Seems to work. /juice-fasting/fasting-stories-and-testimonies/caffeine-addiction-high-blood-pressure
The page is there. Try again.
Hey there…all the links are missing a bit after juice-fasting…add:
fasting-stories-and-testimonies/
can you post the broken link skye?????
Hi,
I have a problem I think there is something wrong with my body… I have water fasted for 4 days 2 weeks ago, felt terribly sick I felt like I was going to die, my muscles my joints, my bones, everything hurted I couldnt even walk, it took too much to turn my head while laying in bed, my heart pounded like crazy I could feel it pulsating through out my whole body, and I sweated bullets for no reason, I even had menstrual cramps and they werent scheduled for another 3 weeks, and I lost 4 pounds I chewed an itty bitty piece of gum to make the water more interesting. Afer I researched and found out that it was bad I just broke the fast period, I ate whatever I wanted and as much as i wanted for a week straight and I ate all day long. After pigging out for a week I didnt gain an ounce of weight back actually I lost 2 more pounds eating and doing nothing. After that week I restarted my fast and made it to 5 days this time, but didnt feel sick at all for the first day I had terrible headaches and felt really dizzy when I stood up, after that no problems no pain and no weightloss!!!! 5 days and I didnt loose anything. I break the fast again and eat whatever I want how much I want all day, I get on the scale the next morning and I’ve lost 4 pounds. Before that day while I was on the fast for 5 days and not a drop of weight loss I was 160lbs but the morning after the broken fast 156lbs… What is wrong with me??? I broke the fast wrong and didnt feel sick or bad at all. why is it that I lost weight when I felt like crap the first time? but the second time being just a week after the first I felt fine with almost no symptoms and tons of energy, but also had no weight loss. but when ever I start eating I lose weight, if I dont feel sick is the fast ineffective??? is it normal to not lose any weight while fasting? is my metabolism screwed up or something???
Hi Ashley
All the negatives you had on your first water fast were due to a massive toxin release that was building up for years waiting for the chance to be eliminated. The second fast was easier as you had passed much of the toxin that are eliminated easily. You could have saved yourself much suffering by juice fasting for 3 days before the water fast. Weight loss will vary according to water retention. You have some compulsive eating issues that will prevent you holding the benefits of fasting. You are moving to fast, slow down and learn. The foundation of discipline is peace and positive thoughts without it you go nowhere.
Hey Ashley,
Your metabolism may be confused by all the “anything-goes eating” and fasting right next to each other. This is why Tom encourages us to juice fast for days on either side of a water fast.
That said, the scale can be very deceptive, especially when you are dealing with short fasts. That’s one reason I never weigh myself. The scale shows fluctuations in menstrual cycle (in your case), as well as water and bowel matter, and those can amount to several pounds in either direction, but don’t necessarily reflect fat loss. In other words, the scale can both hide legit fat loss, and make you think you’ve lost fat when you haven’t.
I judge myself based on the size and fit of clothes I wear. If I drop a size or two, I’m happy. If things start to get really tight, I know I’m in trouble.
The fact is, if you’ve fasted for 5 days, you’ve succeeded in doing something really cool, and it WILL help you in the weight situation UNLESS you go back to bad eating habits.
Now, about the feeling sick. I get all those same symptoms you mentioned, some times worse than others, every time I attempt a fast longer than a day. It’s absolutely normal.
It’s your body reacting to having all those toxins dumped into your bloodstream (another reason to juice fast for a few days before you try water fasting). The symptoms go away after day 10, usually earlier. But as I said, fresh-squeezed veggie juice and enemas can also relieve the symptoms without wrecking the usefulness of the fast (as happens if you immediately go back to bad eating habits).
Next time you fast for weight loss, go for the achievement of a certain number of days (a 3, 5, 7, or 10 day fast, or longer if you juice), and ignore the scale. Judge your success by your clothes, and give it a few days for the results to fully show up. And be sure to juice and eat nothing but veggies several days before and after your fast. That way your body won’t flip out.
Best!
–rhet
You guys are totally right, I mean I feel fine but who knows what I am doing to myself by trickin my digestive system in these terrible methods. I remember to to not regard the weight loss I got so wrapped up in it…but its not at all the goal. Health should be the goal, its more mental than physical. And its more about patience than seeing rapid catastrophic results. I dont know what was wrong with me… I eat and all and dont feel sick but I feel like a garbage bin. I just feel full of trash, thats got to be a bad thing. Thanks I’ll try juice and shoot for 10 days on distilled water, then break it the right way. Even if I break it prematurely which I hope I dont I’ll break it the way I should, and try again in a few months after eating right. I definately think it was too fast, and I definately think my frame of mind was wrong, and not in accords with the spirit of fasting, I connected too much with the hollywood side of it.
Thanx alot Rhet and Tom Big Help!!!!!!!!
Hi everyone,
I embarked on my 40 day water fast although I’m not over weight and I am weighing in at 125 pounds at the height of 5’7, I enjoy fasting and how peaceful fasting can be when the body is cleansing and resting from food digestion and constantly having to work. I am aware that I am at risk for losing a lot of skeletal muscle me being as thin as I am but muscle is quickly re-gained through strength training
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I originally fasted to heal from bulimia. I realized I needed to learn control and fasting has ultimately healed my bulimia. I’ve realized the body is pleasant when it isn’t being harmed ,common sense, and I’ve realized that whether through fasting or exercize or dieting, the body is remarkable in that it can lose weight or gain weight and it can even lose muscle or gain muscle too! The body is beautiful in that it will change to whatever changes one makes to their body. This has helped me realized that I do not need to fear food if I eat in moderation of the unhealthy foods and consume healthy foods on a daily basis; in addition, incorporate some exercize each week. Through fasting I have found balance in my eating. Balance that was missing from my life when I dealt with bulimia and the painful purging and the internal and external burning of my skin for nearly two years of my life.
Furthermore, as I embarked on my 40 day water fast and resting period of literally staying in bed, writing in my fasting journal, listening to rain and the occasional watching DVDS on my laptop,trying to avoid the dizzyness and nearly passing out stages, I was on my 8th day of my water fast when I learned of the horrible news that my father is most likely going to pass away within this year because of his misery, guilt, sadness he just let his diabetes go. I never truly knew my father for nearly 15 years…I just knew him as an abusive person who had severe bipolar disorder and OCD who just was not a normal person, however, in my heart I know that my father loves me and that there is someone normal inside of this monster person he made himself out to be. I had hopes of knowing my father as a normal person and establishing a loving father-daughter relationship, however, my dreams were not full-filled. My father’s memory is shot and he is living in another world. I became so depressed and broken that I ended up eating on the night of my 9th day. I would not say I binged because my desire for food had faded from fasting but I consumed some unhealthy foods that I wish I had not consumed. On the second day I also ate but I wouldn’t call it a binge but I did eat all kinds of foods throughout the day some healthy and some unhealthy. I didn’t eat because I was hungry but I ate because I was sad and in tears. I ate even when my stomach told me it was full. Being that my stomach did sort of “shrink,” it made the stuffing of food inside of me worse and more worse at the fact that I wasn’t even hungry but I just ate anyway out of pain! Then I sat and felt extremely guilty. I had lost 5 pounds within the first week of my fast and I was scared that I would gain 1 or 2 pounds from eating again so I thought about reverting to my old bulimic ways until I thought about fasting again and how fasting can make me lose weight again even if I did gain the 1 to 2 pounds of fat. Basically, fasting healed my bulimia only within those 9 days. I dont have to purge to fear gaining weight because fasting made me realize that I can lose weight through fasting or exercize and that purging was only damaging to my body.
So this is my note to all people on this site who are struggling or beginning their fasts: DO NOT be afraid to fail on your fasting for the first or two times, it does not make you a bad person and do not doubt yourself. The body is so remarkable that it can allow you to shed fat, detox and even lose muscle that you don’t care to have! The body is that remarkable and no matter what happens and no matter how long it takes you will reach your goals through fasting and be proud that you’re about to embark on a journey that a lot of people are scared to participate in. If you binge because you became discouraged or hunger pains got to you, you can always begin fasting again and you can still shed your unwanted pounds. Fasting is amazing and does wonders to the body and to one’s mind and emotional being. Fasting is worth it and you can do it! Love you all and everyone here has my support
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Having typed much thus far, I gathered myself together after the bad news and my wish not having been fulfilled, I planned on starting my fasting tomorrow if I can get my water pills from my doctor tomorrow because I MUST take my water pills no matter what and that means I have to take them during my fast so I’m truly hoping my doctor is able to get my refill order so I can begin fasting again! I’m feeling a bit bad without them
.
Anyway, good luck to my fellow fasters! <3.
Mr. Coghill,
Please send my love to Theresa, she like most cancer patients are dearly special and extremely brave souls; I certainly commend her and will pray no matter the results.
Thanks for those who read my story! lol
Ashley, I thought I would help you out a little in your fasting. I sort of had the same results except half of the affects was because I had didnt take my water pills while fasting but regardless, I am not allowed to stop taking them without my doctors permission. Second, I had to make a bowel movement that was causing extreme pain in my stomach for two of the days of my fasting and it made me shakey and weak and so forth. So just look for signs as to what it might be. You may very well have lost fast and not water weight. I thought I lost just water weight but I also lost some fat throughout the first week of my fast. But eventually, you’ll lose fat on your fast even if it is water for the first few days. Don’t become discouraged! You can do it
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Hi again Tom,
)
your website have been most helpful.
I have a question though:
I’m on day 8 of a water fast and will do it until day 14.
I’m ~6’0(181cm) and 180 lbs(81Kgs), I have lost about 14 lbs and I think I’ll be 173 by the end of my fast.
You often say that the weight normalizes quickly after the fast, what can I do to mantain this new weight, what should I eat and for how long??(can’t make vegg juices yet
Thank you very much.
I really need to know that because my fast is almost done and I don’t know how I will start eating again.
Thanks.
Hi TWSPOL
One day of breaking to 3 days of fasting. Start with soft fruits on day one. Wait till day two to have a salad. Do not eat grains, milk products or refined foods until the end of the breaking process. Chew your food. If you over eat do a day of fasting. Juicing is great before breaking the fast about 3 days on a long water fast is perfect.
Hey Tom,
This aricle says that you can regain skin elasticity. Just curious, does that mean that a body could be cured of blemishes such as acne, strechmarks, aging skin, and things like that?
Please reply soon, thanks. [:
Hi Vivian,
A long juice fasting can make you look 15 years younger. The skin is an organ that heals. The healing may not me total but you always see a marked improvement. Do a sugar and coffee scrub as described on this site.
Hello Tom,I am Suna 32F. I’ve been checking this site out since last year, I am very interested in fasting to lose weight and get the health benefits from it.I had aortic valve replacement surgery 5 years ago so im on coumadin,and seems like what ever i do my inr comes out low. I rarely eat greens anymore. I feel very unhealthy.I wonder if you think its ok for me to do fasting while on coumadin(warfarin sodium)?I am planning to do juice fasting for a week and water fasting for 30 more days.im going to start my fasting journey tomorrow.Thank you for wonderful website..
Hey all. I’m going on my second 40 day water fast in which my first 40 day water fast was successful and amazing! I lost 40 pounds the first time. Now I’m doing another fast. My first day and everything seems like. Let me know if anyone wants some support!
Oops! Type-o…Fine* not like.
Tom, I have just completed 27 days of juice fasting but still struggling with a lot of mucus. Any suggestions?
Hi Marthamac,
Lemon, horseradish and radish and rid the body of mucus quickly.
Even a 1/4 teaspoon of horseradish with work.
Hey Tom,
I’ve currently been water fasting and I am on day 6 of a 13 day water fast. I have heard that I could maximize weight loss by going back and forth between water fasting and juice fasting. Is this true? Thanks!
Hi lee1234,
It will maximizes healing and health is great for weight loss are you feel more energetic. Long water fasts often damage the body as there is no nutritional reserves to fast on.
Juicing for one day per 5 water days or one small juice per day prevents these problems.
Our wold is toxic our food is toxic and fasting long term is harder on the body.
TOM Update: We are gearing up for a national education program for Papua New Guinea and changing laws. We are now working on food labeling laws and an unhealthy food tax.
Lots of radio and TV camera time. Great response from the governor and Jamie is the most powerful man in the country. Well respected.
Except for 14 hour workdays it has been a blast. Any volunteers out there????
Hi Tom. For the past week, I’ve been reading everything I can find about water and the importance of keeping the body properly hydrated, juice, water and dry fasts too. I have lived the majority of my life eating SAD. Many fad diets, pills, low-fat, low-carb, portion control, calorie counting… nothing worked for any length of time. Last year I discovered what -my body- likes and that is eating raw. Mostly salads with fruit frequently. I felt good, I began losing weight (lost a lil over 40#), much better outlook… until I broke the new lifestyle change with lobster. For a week I ate lobster, which in itself wouldn’t be so bad… but after the lobster ran out, I reverted back to old standby, SAD.
I managed to maintain my -new- weight for 9 months eating SAD with portion control. Old habits die hard, I felt like I was missing out on food, my body wasn’t working right and the weight started creeping back. Then the stores started selling one of my favorite seasonal candies and I went HOG WILD. In 2 weeks time, I blew up, gaining 35 pounds! I KNEW I was poisoning myself and essentially killing myself, but I didn’t care.
Somewhere 2 to 3 weeks ago, I decided that this had to stop. The only way I would be able to break this addiction to food that I had, was to change how I looked at food. I made the informed choice of going back raw and I don’t intend on going back. I have/had MULTIPLE health concerns stemming primarily from my weight from diabetes and high blood pressure to having ruptured a disc in my lower back in 1997. Doctors only want to prescribe pills or talk about bariatric surgeries. I’m bipolar and don’t take my medication as it is, I don’t need anymore medicines to add to that pile.
Being raw again (13 days) I have lost 28 pounds (I can afford to lose another 175) lowered my blood pressure from 140/90 to 110/80 and gained a much healthier respect for my body. I have been struggling to eat enough food for the past 3 days. I think my body wants to fast now, but I was trying to hold off starting something seemingly so ambitious during a time where I’m about to begin expending much more energy than I have spent physically in 10 years. We’re about to start renovating our home and I want to be able to actually DO something.
With all that said, I really want to start fasting now. I’m pretty certain my aversion to ALL foods is a sign my body is giving me to start the fast now, but I have a couple questions.
1) I know that changing from a SAD way of eating to raw way, will have detoxifying effects (ie. I have already experienced some acne, but that has cleared up now and skin looks great) including pain, which I have noticed a pain in my lower back and shoulder blade, which has gone away now. Do you think it possible to go from raw (I’ve only had about 2 cups of grapes all day and don’t wanna really eat) straight to a water fast since I did have some small detoxing?
2) The back pain I recently experienced did not seem related to the back surgery I had years ago. From what I’ve been reading, old injuries can be especially painful during a fast. Can I expect my surgery site to be very painful?
From what I’ve read of your responses to others, I think you might advise me to juice fast before going to a water fast, but I really have reached a level of consciousness that feels like rejecting everything right now. The thought of having to even drink something other than water makes me feel a little ill. Perhaps I can start the water fast now, since I’ve been raw and finish the fast properly with a juice fast once my body is ready to begin accepting food again?
I know long fasts aren’t recommended for new fasters… but i plan on listening to my body to when it’s ready to quit, with a minimum time of 3 days for my first fast. However if my body is willing and able, I will continue on.
I thank you for any advice.
Hi toxicmanic,
Great to see all the positive changes you are making. Yes water fasting can increase the pain of old injuries but that is part of healing so that is good. Yes follow your body it know the path back to health.
Wow… thanks for such a fast reply!! I didn’t expect an answer so quickly. LOL Thanks so much, I think I just needed a little positive encouragement to listen to my body. My doctor and husband are fighting me on it… dishing out all the old western medicine myths about food and how unhealthy it is. I’m unhealthy now! I’ve been unhealthy for all of my life, I’ve tried it their way, now I’m gonna try listening to what my body is saying for a change.
I just hope I can get over the detoxifying symptoms without my husband trying to have me hospitalized! Thanks again for all the wonderful advice and encouragement you are providing everyone.
“Long water fasts often damage the body as there is no nutritional reserves to fast on” – Tom is this true even if you have fat still on your body? Normally I exercise and take quite a number of vitamins when not fasting so I assumed that I’m loaded up. This is my 3rd fast and I’m on my 17th day. I’ve lost 19 pounds (1.2 pounds per day) and feel FINE!! I do light exercise every other day for 30 minutes to help my body get rid of toxins and move fluid through the nodes.
My 1st fast was 20 days and like everyone thats does the first one I was basically a invalid. I basically didnt get out of the bed the entire time. Had the headaches, aches, Super Coated Tongue, etc… Now that I’m on my 3rd its easy peasy!! The every other day exercise seems to help quiet a bit. I know my metabolism wants to slow down but I wont let it. After exercise I’m wiped out but after a nap I’m charged up and actually feel quite normal for the remainder of the day and the second day non-exercise day too.
On my other fasts I blew it when I broke the fast and ate too much but this time I’m ready for the overwhelming urge to eats and will juice, fruit and veg the hunger desires away. So in conclusion, I feel great! I’m losing weight and wanted to continue until all visible fat has melted. Are you saying that I’m harming my body in spite of the fact that I’m not getting any signals that this is happening? What is the possible damage I’m causing? Thnx!!
Hi Tom, I hope you get this as I have been trying to find a way to reach out to you… I am on day 23 of my first ever juice fast. In the beginning I started doing this because I watched fat sick and nearly dead which was so inspirational. I started at 156-160lbs and today I’m at 138lb which is so exciting
. I didnt originally do it for weightloss but it was an added bonus. My only concern is, breaking the fast and adapting back to a healthy lifestyle. Before I started fasting i looked fine and i was exercising and eating very healthy but i want to try and see if i can balance eating certain unhealthy foods once in a while, while exercising alot (running and weight training) and still maintain my weight. I hate to think I am going to always eat healthy all the time… i still want to be realistic within moderation… what are your thoughts on how i break my fast and a routine that would be excellent for toning once its complete? i dont have food addiction i just want to be able to workout hard and still eat foods i enjoy without feeling awful… I appreciate your help on this..
i also wanted to mention which is super important for future fasts: I started off drinking alot of juice but towards the end of my fast i have been having a tall glass of juice in the AM and drinking water and herbal teas (Oolong and Green tea). Is it okay to be partially water fasting? I feel great, just dizzy at times when i move to quickly but i keep thinking i should have had more juice…i just dont have the stomach for it… is Juice/Water fasting okay? Thanks in advance Tom!