~ Fasting and Nutrition ~

[CoolDude68]

Greetings!

In order to conquer an ongoing battle of a weight issue I've had well over two decades I've decided to incorporate fasting within my lifestyle. I've never tried this before and I'll explain why.

When I was younger (teens/early 20's) I was into bodybuilding, so I've always had the mindset that I need to eat every two-three hours to feed muscle tissue and keep my metabolism running efficiently. Well, my lifestyle has changed over the years. I no longer lift weights and I am much older now, yet I keep hanging on to that old mindset.

Losing weight boils down to calorie intake so I have decided to learn more about fasting and how to approach it both for health and spiritual discipline.

I'd like to discuss this new venture with folks here who have experience fasting. I am leaning towards water fasting when I do this. I will start out slowly, skipping one meal a day (lunch) three times a week, then do a total 24 hour fast maybe once a week until I get acclimated to the process and see how my body responds. If I have success with that I can add a longer fast, or try a 24 hour fast a few times a week.

If anyone wants to discuss this with me that would be great! My main intent for this lifestyle change is for my overall health but it will also benefit me in my faith as I learn to pray while suffering the trials of hunger.

 

[Zoey <3]

All I can add here is a gentle reminder: Be sure, if you wish to fast in a positive manner, that your focus is 100% on God and 0% on losing weight. I speak from personal experience. You cannot grow close to God while feeding Satan's negative thoughts. If you are fasting to lose weight, it is because you don't like something about yourself. That was never God's intention.

I have done the same thing in the past. It only resulted in me feeling more distant from God. Fasting is a time for answers and deep fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It is not a time to focus on losing weight.

I know this may not be what you want to hear, but I hope you understand that I am sharing this to help you. Take care, brother. And God bless.

 

[CoolDude68]

No, I hear you.

But also my weight is unhealthy so I need to do both, which is the plan. The weight loss is not for the purpose of vanity, but for the sole purpose of feeling better and getting closer to God as I work through the trials of hunger and fasting.

 

[Zoey <3]

No, I hear you.

But also my weight is unhealthy so I need to do both, which is the plan. The weight loss is not for the purpose of vanity, but for the sole purpose of feeling better and getting closer to God as I work through the trials of hunger and fasting.

Sounds good You will have to let me know how it goes I like your idea of gradually going into it. That is what most people suggest. Going into the 24 hour fast it helps sometimes to spend the day before eating less and eating healthier to sort of prepare yourself. The day after you will want to binge, but again start slow.

Also bear in mind Satan attacks like never before when you fast. Don't let him get to you 24 hours may sound like a breeze but when you are fasting you are usually starving by the time the first hour is up. That's just how it is most of the time

It can be hellish if you aren't careful. Remain steadfast and stay safe!

 

[Hidden In Him]

Also bear in mind Satan attacks like never before when you fast.

This is correct, LoL. Expect food to come at you from everywhere.

Ok, I have a good bit of experience with fasting, so maybe I can be some help. But I'm going to approach it from the perspective that you both want to lose weight and fast for spiritual reasons.

1. To lose weight, you DO need to keep your metabolism going, so eat small meals every few hours, but try and switch to stuff you will digest quickly (fruit, vegetables, soup, salad, etc).

2. Nobody said you can't return to some exercise either, just don't overdo it. As you seem to understand already, to lose weight involves keeping the metabolism up but while managing low calorie intake and calorie burning.

3. Now to incorporate the spiritual side of things, fasting goes with prayer, so set aside some prayer time and maybe even a prayer spot. After fasting the flesh down far enough to where your stomach starts to shrink and you become a little weaker, the great thing you will notice is that this drives your flesh to pray. The mild physical need that your body is continually experiencing causes you to convert over quickly and easily into seeking God. It puts you in a type of "needy" state, if you will, so turning to God and "praying incessantly" becomes almost automatic. By contrast (at least for me anyway), if you eat like a pig you will hardly pray at all.

4. The trick however is not to get confused about what your main goal is. You will lose weight faster with some exercise, but that will require you to keep up your strength a little more, and that will mean you need to eat more, and that will sabotage coming into a true state of weakness that drives you to pray. So it's all a matter of staying cognizant of what your ultimate priority is.

 

[Zoey <3]

This is correct, LoL. Expect food to come at you from everywhere.

Ok, I have a good bit of experience with fasting, so maybe I can be some help. But I'm going to approach it from the perspective that you both want to lose weight and fast for spiritual reasons.

1. To lose weight, you DO need to keep your metabolism going, so eat small meals every few hours, but try and switch to stuff you will digest quickly (fruit, vegetables, soup, salad, etc).

2. Nobody said you can't return to some exercise either, just don't overdo it. As you seem to understand already, to lose weight involves keeping the metabolism up but while managing low calorie intake and calorie burning.

3. Now to incorporate the spiritual side of things, fasting goes with prayer, so set aside some prayer time and maybe even a prayer spot. After fasting the flesh down far enough to where your stomach starts to shrink and you become a little weaker, the great thing you will notice is that this drives your flesh to pray. The mild physical need that your body is continually experiencing causes you to convert over quickly and easily into seeking God. It puts you in a type of "needy" state, if you will, so turning to God and "praying incessantly" becomes almost automatic. By contrast (at least for me anyway), if you eat like a pig you will hardly pray at all.

4. The trick however is not to get confused about what your main goal is. You will lose weight faster with some exercise, but that will require you to keep up your strength a little more, and that will mean you need to eat more, and that will sabotage coming into a true state of weakness that drives you to pray. So it's all a matter of staying cognizant of what your ultimate priority is.

Great advice!

 

[Hidden In Him]

Great advice!

Well thank you! Great compliment!

 

[Zoey <3]

Well thank you! Great compliment!

Of course!

 

[bhsmte]

Greetings!

In order to conquer an ongoing battle of a weight issue I've had well over two decades I've decided to incorporate fasting within my lifestyle. I've never tried this before and I'll explain why.

When I was younger (teens/early 20's) I was into bodybuilding, so I've always had the mindset that I need to eat every two-three hours to feed muscle tissue and keep my metabolism running efficiently. Well, my lifestyle has changed over the years. I no longer lift weights and I am much older now, yet I keep hanging on to that old mindset.

Losing weight boils down to calorie intake so I have decided to learn more about fasting and how to approach it both for health and spiritual discipline.

I'd like to discuss this new venture with folks here who have experience fasting. I am leaning towards water fasting when I do this. I will start out slowly, skipping one meal a day (lunch) three times a week, then do a total 24 hour fast maybe once a week until I get acclimated to the process and see how my body responds. If I have success with that I can add a longer fast, or try a 24 hour fast a few times a week.

If anyone wants to discuss this with me that would be great! My main intent for this lifestyle change is for my overall health but it will also benefit me in my faith as I learn to pray while suffering the trials of hunger.

Fasting can be a good way to mobilize fat for energy, if you exercise along with fasting and don't fast for too long. Periodic fasting is fine, because the body will not go into survival mode and actually lower metabolism, which is the last thing you want. Periodic fasting, also reducing insulin release, which promotes fat storage and especially so, in people who are sedentary.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Fasting is something that needs to be done very carefully...every once in a while it's fine for the reasons @bhsmte listed...however, there are healthier ways to lose weight.

Losing weight boils down to calorie intake so I have decided to learn more about fasting and how to approach it both for health and spiritual discipline.

That's not as clear cut as people once thought it was...

Calories do play a factor, but not as much as carbohydrate intake and insulin levels.

There are diets you can go on where you can take in 2,500 calories a day and lose weight rather quickly, and there are diets where you can take in only 1,200 but struggle to lose a pound.

For example, if you went on a paleo-style diet where you were keeping the carbohydrates between 50-70 grams per day, you could drop weight pretty quickly even eating > 2,000 calories per day.

However, if you went on a vegan-style diet where the protein was low and most of your calories were coming from starches, grains, and sugars (IE: carbs), even eating under 1500 calories per day, losing weight could still be quite a struggle.

 

[Shempster]

I believe fasting might be one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself.
I have discovered that regular, 16 hours fasts a few times a week has dramatic effects on the body and mind.
While fasting, your immune system is not under a strain and can scan your body for rogue cells and infections and neutralize them.
It has been shown that after about 12 hours of fasting, the brain releases a chemical that sharpens your mind and increases focus.



It also creates an environment to where one seems to gain more self-control.
Fasting seemed to be an ancient practice and it would do us all well to do it.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Greetings!

In order to conquer an ongoing battle of a weight issue I've had well over two decades I've decided to incorporate fasting within my lifestyle. I've never tried this before and I'll explain why.

When I was younger (teens/early 20's) I was into bodybuilding, so I've always had the mindset that I need to eat every two-three hours to feed muscle tissue and keep my metabolism running efficiently. Well, my lifestyle has changed over the years. I no longer lift weights and I am much older now, yet I keep hanging on to that old mindset.

Losing weight boils down to calorie intake so I have decided to learn more about fasting and how to approach it both for health and spiritual discipline.

I'd like to discuss this new venture with folks here who have experience fasting. I am leaning towards water fasting when I do this. I will start out slowly, skipping one meal a day (lunch) three times a week, then do a total 24 hour fast maybe once a week until I get acclimated to the process and see how my body responds. If I have success with that I can add a longer fast, or try a 24 hour fast a few times a week.

If anyone wants to discuss this with me that would be great! My main intent for this lifestyle change is for my overall health but it will also benefit me in my faith as I learn to pray while suffering the trials of hunger.

You have outlined a great plan. Take it slow and see what happens. I recommend Paul C. Bragg's book, "The Miracle of Fasting". It is called the "bible of health" by many in the health culture community. It is inspiring as well as informative. I have been a devotee of his teachings for many years, with great success.

 

[EclipseEventSigns]

Hopefully the O.P. found an answer. There is now so much information about Intermittent Fasting. Check out Dr. Gundry's "The Keto Code" for the latest and greatest evidenced research in this area.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Hopefully the O.P. found an answer. There is now so much information about Intermittent Fasting. Check out Dr. Gundry's "The Keto Code" for the latest and greatest evidenced research in this area.

I thing about a lot of these diets is that while there's some scientific information to back them up for promoting some quick weight loss, people try to do them in a very unscientific manner.

For instance, most of the people I've known who say they're "doing keto", actually aren't, they're not using test strips to see if they're actually in ketosis or not, they're just "cutting carbs" and doing a lot of estimating.

Similar story for intermittent fasting. There are a lot of people who follow the 16/8, which is the popular one, and people are going for autophagy, but people don't really know if they're in that state, they just start eating again when they see it's reached a certain time and stop when the timer goes off.


For most of the people who say "I'm doing IF" or "I'm doing Keto", many aren't even in the bio phase those feeding habits are aiming for achieving, they're just benefiting from a reduced caloric intake.

I tried what I thought was Keto some years ago, and I did drop 15 pounds somewhat quickly, but found out that I wasn't actually in Ketosis after using test strips. It was just that my "Keto diet" was consisting of a calorie count that was about 1000 less than what I had been eating before. I could've not restricted carbs at all, and just eaten a 1000 calories less per day and achieved the same results.

 

[EclipseEventSigns]

That is EXACTLY what Dr. Gundry talks about. His book corrects what people are getting wrong and adds important NEW scientific data.

 

[rayraysh]

I've been experimenting with fasting recently (this article explains it). Initially I started with 16hr fasts, moved onto 24hr fasts commonly known as OMAD (One Meal A Day) and most recently I have done a 3 day fast after learning of therapeutic properties of autophagy on long fasts. All were water fasts.

 

[Kenneth9820]

There are actually different types of fasting, but not all of them are beneficial. My aunt once tried different diets, but there is not much benefit when your body is used to specific meals and you restrict it during diets. Therefore, she started taking medication to lose weight. The result appeared quite quickly. You can also try if you don't want to be on diets forever

 

[daniella8]

Fasting is really difficult and not for me

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Fasting is really difficult and not for me

Fasting is like quitting smoking. If you want to you will, if not you won't.

 

[timewerx]

I think intense daily physical activity is the key.

I can eat all the carbs I want and still hold a pretty low BMI of 19 and also keep flat abs. This in my forties.