How do people fast for days on diets?

[asblindasabat]

A relative of mine says he is doing a ‘diet’ for a few days were he will not eat anything for a few days.

surely this is madness? I get that it’s good to lose weight and be healthy, but how can not eating for a few days be healthy in any way?

Surely your stomach would be extremely sore, you’d be tired and fatigued and just generally have no energy for anything?

I know that if I don’t get my lunch by at least half 1, my stomach starts to get sore and I can’t concentrate if I haven’t eaten enough as my head starts to hurt.

No idea how people do it and why it would be necessary!

I'm out of habit but am at my best mentally and physically when I fast twice a week for 18-24 hours.

It takes some getting used to, but after a few goes I felt like the PP and my concentration and mental state really improved as well as my weight! My brain feels much sharper , I have more energy and I like not having to be quite so careful with Cals on the other days. I've lost the weight now but have kept doing it for the mental benefits. Look at the 5:2 diet. Sometimes I've done the 2 days on consecutive days but usually pick different days apart. That's what I follow. So I do eat an evening meal on my "fast " days but it's a low cal veggie meal usually. The weight came off quite quickly and I've kept it off for over a year.

I do 12 - 24 hours regularly, so far I can only do 48 hours after an anaesthetic. I do it because I have several health conditions. it seems to help as none of them have degenerated.
You're usually supposed to drink something like chicken broth, Bovril, or miso soup to keep rehydrated, depending on why you do it.
www.healthline.com/nutrition/fasting-benefits

I don't think it's normal to go entirely without food for several days; I've never seen any mainstream or popular diet plan that involves doing that.

Having said that, I don't think it's usual to get actual stomach pain because lunch is a bit late. What do you mean by "sore"?

That's not a diet, it's an eating disorder!

It really isn't. Fasting helps regulate several serious health conditions. If you're lucky enough not to have any of them, you don't have to think about living with them.

I used to be able to do it relatively easily. Now I struggle to do even 16:8 intermittent fasting.
Like pp said I feel much sharper and more energised when I can do it tho.

On the 5:2 are the '2' days 500 calories only? What are the '5' days?

I mean that my stomach starts to make noises and it has a dull ache because I haven’t eaten in a few hours

I once had to fast for 3 full days for a medical test and I felt horrendous. Terrible headache, couldn't concentrate on anything and when I did finally eat my stomach was agony.

I don't think everyone is the same. I should not fast because I tend towards being underweight, but sometimes if my ADHD gets really bad I can go about 2-3 days without eating anything except some coffee/sugary drinks and a biscuit or two. It was only about day 3 that I'd start feeling faint and lightheaded and then I'd go oh, right, I need some actual protein, shit.

My stomach doesn't hurt and I don't notice a dip in energy until later on.

I probably wouldn't last 3 days now I'm more used to eating regularly, but sometimes I can skip about 3-4 meals before registering that I'm properly hungry.

That dull ache is feeling hungry. It won’t do you any harm in the short term.

Oh… "my stomach starts to get sore" is a fairly dramatic way to describe feeling hungry because it's past lunchtime, but okay.

Not really. It is sore.

I know one person who does this but she has an eating disorder. She takes sudafed, the one with the pseudoephedrine, to block out the hunger for a couple of days. I would not recommend it tbh. She ends up shaking.

Yes, the two days are 500 calories only..... I used to just eat that in one meal a day (dinner) as I found it easier but it depends on the person.

The other five days are just normal days so sticking to 2000 calories or whatever you usually have. If you don't go mad on your non fast days you're creating enough of a calorie deficit to lose weight when you look at the week as a whole.

OP I have recently started the 16:8 fasting plan again having done it successfully last year. I adore food and when not fasting, the thought of fasting is horrendous and I get hungry every couple of hours. But after the first couple of days of fasting I’m fine with it. Eg today I got up at 7.30 and didn’t eat til 2pm, tbh I could have pushed on if I wanted. If I’d had breakfast at 7.30 there’s no way I could have waited til 2pm to eat again for some reason, I’d have been starving again by 10 😂it’s like it’s easier once you’re in the zone.

your stomach shouldn’t hurt because you’re hungry

Yeah, I'm not sure it's usual to experience this kind of mild, lunch-is-late hunger as pain or "soreness".

Maybe OP has an ulcer? That can sometimes cause pain when you've got an empty stomach. The only other times I can think of people describing hunger as painful is either people who aren't getting the bare minimum of food they need to survive, or little children who don't yet have the vocabulary to explain but know it's not a nice feeling.

It is kinda like an uncomfortable hunger feeling I get if I haven’t ate in a while and then if I still don’t eat anything, it starts to hurt.

My hubby did intermittent fasting, he lost a couple of stone and felt great. He was careful though and followed the advised plans. It's supposed to be very good for your body! I think he ate only during a certain time frame and fasted the rest. There's lots about it on the Internet/books etc, it's scientifically proven.

I know that there are supposed to be health benefits to fasting when you do something like 5:2 or 16:8 but I don’t think the days without food that OP is describing are ever recommended! I had anorexia nervosa and would go long periods without eating/eating very little. I didn’t feel unwell (though obviously was) which I guess was because my body got used to it after a while. I wasn’t fatigued and would feel really wired all the time and struggled to sleep for anything like a healthy amount of time.

Now that I’ve recovered I feel a lot like OP and it feels painful when I’m hungry and I get very shaky. I don’t think I could miss a meal and actually function these days!

I regularly don't eat until 4pm. I will have a few coffees though.

Sorry but you're so wrong (and dismissive). I have IBS and suffer very badly with it to the point that there's only about 15 foods I can safely eat, and that's for life, alongside supplements, etc, bring careful with portion size and everything else. If you're not eating for days you have an eating disorder.