To fast for 3 days on only honey water? Friend has lost half stone in 3 days.

[MrsJamieFraser]

Hi Mn

My friend has just finished a 3 day honey water fast and she has lost 7 lbs. Her tummy is flatter and she has lost the constant cravings for carbs

I need to lose an embarrassing amount of weight (40 lbs) and I already have a healthy sustainable weight loss plan set up (5:2 diet + 30 mins daily brisk walk + swimming 2x weekly)

The 'detox' is a cup of hot water with a small spoon of the purest honey you can find, drank 3-9 times a day for 3 days.

WIBU to do this just for a quick drop in the no. on the scale and to motivate me??

I have an event in 3 weeks and every pound counts.

Why does giving up coffee make you lose weight?

Size 6! Blimey I'm 5 8 and even at a size 10 I look too thin. My dance teacher is a size but she's 5 ft or less. She looks like an elf but she knows that.

dance teacher is a size 6*

When we drink coffee, our bodies produce the hormone cortisol — the same chemical that we produce when we’re stressed or scared. This increases blood sugar levels, and it’s this that is turned into fat.

So they say, I think a coffee or two a day is fine.

Really? So can the body produce energy/fat from nothing?

I'm currently 150lb at 5'4 and a 14. On the perennial threads that come up, a lot of people of similar height and weight tend to be 10s and 12s, if they're fitter and have more muscle mass. How come you're a 14 at 3" taller and 10lb less, OP? Where are you carrying your "weight". (In inverted commas because you are a very healthy weight, now)

According to next, who seem to be fairly average as far as the generosity of sizing goes, a size 6 corresponds to 31.5"- 25.5"-34.5". That is pretty tiny. The sort of size I'd expect of 17 year old girls or women who are petite, anyhow. Not women who are 5'7.

IMO and E a coffee EVERY DAY (i used to drink freshly ground decaff coffee and noticed that I needed more and more to actually taste it) is not good but every week or so is fine for me.I reckon that our bodies get used to things that they have every day and it's better not to get into habits. Like drinking wine or spirits every day.

If we change our coffees or whatever it seems to help weight loss.

Well of course starving yourself will lose weight, it will also help you lose all your vitality, vitamins, iron and get you in a general run down state but yes if you like being starved go for it I never understand why people don't get it that you just need to eat less and do more.

Women need about 2000 calories a day to maintain their weight, so 14000 calories a week.

You need to use up 3000 calories to lose a pound. So that's a day and a half of eating nothing to lose 1 pound. To lose 7 pounds you'd need to use up 21000 calories, the same as eating nothing at all for 10.5 days (a week and a half).

To lose 7 pounds on a 1000 calorie a day diet, you'd need to keep it up for 21 days (3 weeks). You'd then be losing 2.3 lbs a week.

Is there any evidence to support this starvation mode stuff?

No stealth it's a widely discredited idea.

I have a question, in relation to the post up thread about taking three weeks on 1000 a day to lose 10lbs. If you did additional exercise each day to balance to around 1000 for three weeks are you likely to put it back on when you drop to normal exercise (couple of hours a week, healthy eater with treats)

Going to buck the trend.

I'm a big fan of fasts, and I now do them regularly.

There is a growing body of evidence that fasting is good for your general health in all sorts of interesting ways. And of course a very quick way to debloat in preparation for squeezing into tight trousers.

Go for it!

The starvation mode myth seems to be based on the observation that people who "dieted" frequently continued to gain weight.
It seems though that this might be more to do with overeating as a result of a period of deprivation rather than any metabolic adjustment or laying down of fat.
Interestingly, this has not been seen to be the case with intermittent periods of fasting.

Have you ever been a size 6, OP? I haven't, not even as a very slim and active 5' 7" teenager. It's a very small size.

You don't say how old you are, but I'm assuming you are out of your early twenties. To be brutally frank, if you weren't size 6 at your naturally slimmest age, it is unlikely you will find it at all easy to achieve now. Crash diets if you persist in them for any length of time will make you unwell, possibly seriously unwell.

Considering this kind of diet and goal is a recipe for disappointment. Please have a rethink.

Common sense :) This 'starvation mmode' stuff seems to be recited as science but afaik with no proof behind it.
But what do I know, I've just scoffed 2 chocolate santas. My body wouldn't know starvation mode if it tripped over it in the street.

I can't see how consuming nothing but sugared water for 3 days is in any way helpful for anything.

In fact add 2 or 3 non calorific ingredients to that sugared water diet and you have delicious coke

BTW A few years back I was 7 and a quarter stone (5 foot 3) and was a size 8 on bottom and 10 on top. I looked too skinny, and my aim now were I to shrink back down would be 8 stone, which would prob translate to a 10 in todays sizes. Interestingly when I was that size I lived on coke, booze and fags. So sugared water with caffeine, sugared water with alcohol, and nicotine. I was thin as a herring for years on that lifestyle. Probably wasn't terribly healthy, though.

I think stick to your original plan of walking, swimming, and 5+2 diet which does seem to have some properly measured positive results and isn't bizarrely masochistic.

Size 6?

I'm 5 8...and with a BMI of 21, pretty much bang in the middle of healthy - I was a size 12.

I would concentrate on setting a weight goal (and yours sounds on the low side to me as well tbh) and seeing where you are when you hit that goal and how you feel.

Yes a US 6 is our 10.

Agree about the conclusions on size 6 (even here with vanity sizing it's not a real size 6 which is IMO not right for anyone unless they're naturally small).

If you're a size 14 then you must have a healthy appetite (not being rude, just saying) so you could probably get to a size 6 but could you stay there?
It's also impossible to lose 7lbs of fat in 3 days. Most you could lose on this 'fast' would be 1.5 at an absolute maximum. As soon as she starts eating again the water will be replaced and the scales will to up.

Starvation mode won't kick in after 3 days of fasting though, it takes weeks for your metabolism to respond to constant under eating.