To get rid of edema, excess weight and cleanse the body, it is not at all necessary to go on exhausting diets. Fasting 1 day a week is enough to achieve your goals. Systematic refusal to eat food for a short period of time allows a person to have a positive effect on all internal systems and organs.
If you have long wanted to rebuild your regime and improve your health, fasting is what you need. Just one day of abstaining from food and liquids per week, and how much benefit you can get. But more about everything.
What are the benefits of fasting?
A one-day fast once a week is considered a fasting day, helping the gastrointestinal tract to take a break from constantly processing food. In this case, the effect is much greater than from classic diets. What are the benefits:
- Processing excess food that has accumulated over the past period.
- Complete removal of waste and toxins.
- Creating positive stress for the body - strengthening the immune system.
- Improving the quality of work of the endocrine glands.
- Prevention and treatment of infectious and viral diseases - the body devotes all its strength to fighting illnesses.
- Improving the functioning of the digestive system.
- Increased sensitivity of taste buds. In the future, a person gets much more pleasure from dishes.
- Increased activity and good spirits.
- Easy appetite control. After short hunger strikes, it is easier for a person to fight appetites.
- Correction of eating habits.
Features of fasting once a week
According to biologists and nutritionists, one-day fasting for therapeutic purposes will not give the results of long food breaks. With a short cycle, the body will not switch from external to internal nutrition. Systems and organs will not have time to cleanse themselves of old and diseased cells. Daily hunger helps introduce a regular system of food refusal into your lifestyle, allows you to develop willpower, reduce the amount of fat mass, and maintain slimness without radical diets.
A one-day abstinence from food restores systems and organs, improves metabolism, and helps lower blood pressure. One day of fasting reduces a person's biological age by three months. It does not so much heal as it strengthens the immune system, cleanses the intestines and large vessels, and reduces the risk of tumor formation.
Disadvantages of Fasting
There is no 100% perfect fasting technique. Each program has certain nuances and disadvantages:
- During the first hours, there is a strong feeling of hunger, often leading to breakdowns. If you act correctly, it will pass quickly enough.
- The occurrence of stomach pain.
- Changes in hormonal levels (in women), problems with menstruation.
- Feeling of weakness, drowsiness and fatigue – decreased performance.
- Irritability and stress.
Interesting fact. When fasting once a week, it is important to follow the recommendations and rules. In this case, you can easily avoid unpleasant side effects or minimize their occurrence.
The benefits and harms of fasting from a medical point of view
During short-term and long-term fasting, the following processes occur in the body:
- the process of fat burning is enhanced;
- cleaning, resting the digestive system;
- the level of sugar and bad cholesterol decreases;
- metabolic processes are accelerated;
- immunity increases;
- food addiction is eliminated and appetite decreases;
- salts, toxins, waste, and excess liquid are actively removed.
The negative consequences of fasting include:
- stress, constant feeling of hunger;
- nausea, periodic abdominal pain;
- weakness, dizziness, possible loss of consciousness, convulsions;
- drowsiness, decreased performance;
- Headaches may occur.
During long-term fasting, nutrients are extracted from one’s own reserves, not only fats, carbohydrates, but also proteins are consumed, which leads to:
- to exhaustion, development of protein-energy deficiency;
- Skin elasticity decreases, wrinkles appear;
- immunity gradually decreases, chronic diseases worsen;
- hormonal levels change;
- electrolyte balance and blood circulation are disrupted.
Doctors recommend practicing one-day short-term fasting. It is safe, if the rules are followed, it does not harm the body, and does not require medical supervision.
Preparation
Intermittent fasting requires careful preparation. The day of the week is selected individually. Many people prefer weekends, when they don’t have to tediously arrange their schedule and can spend quiet time at home. The main thing is to make the starving person as comfortable as possible. The following rules apply to the diet:
- A few days before fasting, we stop smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages, and also reduce portion sizes to a minimum.
- We exclude meat from the menu. We give preference to low-fat fish and vegetables/fruits.
- We spend the day before the hunger strike on freshly squeezed fruit juices, light plant foods and porridge with water.
- We will definitely check with a doctor. We make sure that the body is healthy and its condition does not fall under one of the contraindications.
Warnings and contraindications
- If you begin to feel weak and tired, stop fasting. This could be a sign of poor health or that you have not prepared yourself for the process.
- Avoid fasting if you are pregnant, sick, or taking medication. Your immune system may be more fragile in this case, so depriving yourself of nutrition may slow down your recovery.
If you have done a one-day water fast and have something to share (how you felt during and after the fast, what problems you encountered, what results you got), please leave your feedback in the comment form below.
water fasting
How is fasting done?
The fasting process also requires competent actions and compliance with requirements/recommendations:
- We begin to fast after a cleansing enema, which will start the processes of cleansing the intestines of harmful foods.
- It is advisable to spend a day without food at home. This way, it is much easier not to indulge in goodies and, if side effects occur, to eliminate them.
- We drink clean water throughout the day. The volume of liquid is at least 2 liters.
- If you feel hungry, do light exercise.
- If the day of the hunger strike is accompanied by a severe headache and even loss of consciousness, you need to drink a glass of water with a small amount of lemon juice or a dissolved teaspoon of honey. An alternative in this case is herbal tea. Such relief is permissible only once.
Bragg 24 hour fast
During a complete fast, you can, if you wish, add 1/3 teaspoon of raw honey and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to distilled water. This makes the water pleasant and dissolves mucus and toxins. At the end of such a fast, the first food should be a salad of fresh vegetables, mainly grated carrots and cabbage. You can use lemon or orange juice as a seasoning. This dish acts like a broom on the intestines.
After this you can eat boiled/steamed vegetables. They do not form acids unless you add sugar and white bread to the dish. You can eat a variety of greens and - spinach, kale, cooked celery. Fibrous beans can be consumed as a source of protein.
You should never break your fast with animal products: meat, cheese, fish, nuts or seeds. Do not eat any acidic foods for 2 days.
Doing a short 24-hour fast every week leads to significant changes, both in your body and in your attitude towards the world. This is the basis that will allow you to master the next stages of fasting practice much easier.
But don’t expect from such fasting days what they cannot give. We are talking about rapid weight loss. Regular fasting will help improve your physical condition and slightly change your figure parameters. However, the most significant changes will occur in consciousness, energy and health. At a minimum, you will develop a healthy relationship with food, you will get rid of food addiction, compulsive overeating, etc.
Exit
Is the fast over? We exit it correctly in order to maintain the result and not disrupt the functioning of the rested gastrointestinal tract. It is very important to act gradually, without rushing to heavy food the next morning.
First of all, we add freshly squeezed juices diluted with water to the menu. Then you can start eating fresh salads without salt and vegetable oil. The next step is to add baked vegetables and porridge to your diet. After some time, the consumption of eggs, milk, balls, fish and fermented milk products is allowed. We gradually move from light to heavy, without overeating in any case.
Interesting fact. To maintain the result, it is advisable to reconsider your eating habits by switching to proper nutrition. This way, every fast will give excellent results.
The harm of diets
Ivanova Lyubov Nikolaevna
Therapist, Gastroenterologist
April 23, 2021
“Have you ever felt like something was wrong with your body? You don’t seem to be sick, but you don’t seem to have the same strength, and your favorite food doesn’t make you happy, and you’re fed up with everything at work. Why did all this suddenly fall on you? This is your body signaling that too much toxins and ballast substances have accumulated in the body. Over time, they begin to be deposited on the walls of blood vessels, inside joints, in the kidneys, in the intestines, and in the gall bladder in the form of stones. If so, then it’s time to cleanse the body.”
We read such or similar appeals and appeals in newspapers and hear on the radio. On TV you can also see commercials about “the horrors of our body.” The idea of cleansing itself is not bad, and the body needs to be helped to get rid of the toxic substances that accumulate in it. But it is very important to choose the right methods that are necessary for you, and, most importantly, safe for health.
In the most difficult conditions of life, we can be cheerful and healthy. The human body is harmonious, but despite this, thousands of people have chronic diseases. Their defenses are weakened. People eat absolutely inappropriate food, and also abuse it. The diet is oversaturated with proteins and fats of animal origin, it lacks vitamins, minerals, and plant fiber.
Waste or toxins?
What food do we buy at the store? Most often, beautiful packaging with something that is faster to prepare - semi-finished products with synthetic additives, preservatives and flavor enhancers. As a result, the blood reacts to a constant, monotonous load, which depletes the immune defense mechanism. A negative reaction of immune cells to harmful food is “food intolerance”, “delayed type allergy”, “hidden allergy”. There is simply not enough strength for self-regulation, eliminating one’s own sore spots.
During life, a large amount of harmful substances enters the human body with water, food, and air. In addition, many people expose themselves to alcohol and tobacco intoxication. Overeating, a sedentary lifestyle, and emotional stress lead to an increase in cholesterol in the blood, the development of diseases of the cardiovascular system, and premature aging of the body.
Doctors have an ambiguous and often negative attitude towards the term “toxins” In medicine, there are the concepts of “toxin” and “intoxication,” as well as “detoxification,” which means removing toxins from the body. But the term “slag” is not in any textbook. However, there are many methods for removing toxins. There are quite soft ones, there are very hard ones, and their use is life-threatening. Let's look at some of them.
Malakhov with a plus
Liver cleansing
One of the most popular cleansing methods. Increased outflow of bile leads to increased intestinal motility and, as a consequence, to increased frequency of stools, which may result in the release of toxins. The method is based on the use of olive oil and lemon juice while simultaneously warming the liver area. Under the influence of olive oil and lemon juice, the patient's gallbladder contracts and active intestinal motility appears.
As a result, bile is released with flakes of fibrin, cholesterol, as well as a certain amount of stones. They are plasticine-like formations of black, green, brown color, various sizes and often round. However, with cholelithiasis, which you may not be aware of, increased flow of bile can cause the movement of stones from the gallbladder into the bile ducts, even blocking them. And this is a direct path to the operating table.
Conclusion: The bad thing is that liver cleansing in this way usually occurs without a preliminary medical examination and medical supervision.
Cleansing according to Malakhov
You are asked not to eat anything for the entire day. In the morning you need to drink a glass of Glauber's salt solution, and then drink a mixture of citrus juices all day. At night you need to give an enema of two liters of water with lemon juice. The result of cleansing, along with severe diarrhea, can be inflammation of the mucous membrane of the rectum and sigmoid colon. The danger of the recipes promoted by Malakhov (urine therapy, kerosene treatment, etc.) in his own books, which filled the shelves, is aggravated by their widespread advertising in the media.
Conclusion: Such recipes can lead to serious consequences for health and life, including death.
Forward to intoxication
Therapeutic fasting.
In official medicine, this is the name for a short voluntary refusal of food followed by a recovery period, that is, light (dietary) nutrition. It is carried out for a certain time under the supervision of a doctor for therapeutic or recreational purposes. Fasting-dietary therapy can be carried out in specialized departments of a hospital, in sanatorium-type medical institutions. In some cases, the course can be carried out on an outpatient basis. Therapeutic fasting with a fasting period of 7 days is carried out only in a specialized department of the hospital.
There are diseases in which fasting is unacceptable in principle . For example, severe body mass deficiency (body mass index less than 18.5-20), malignant tumors, active tuberculosis of the lungs and other organs, pregnancy and childhood. In addition, you should not fast for many diseases of the heart and blood vessels, liver and kidneys, acute infectious diseases, decompensated diabetes mellitus and many other diseases.
Let's consider this case. You are offered complete fasting for a period of 10 days to 1 month. You can only drink water. It is assumed that the body switches to feeding on internal resources and is cleansed of toxins, but in reality everything is not so simple.
For the first 2-3 days, the body spends mainly carbohydrates for energy purposes. Then fats begin to intensively break down with the formation of ketone bodies (acetone). Following fats in the body, the destruction of proteins begins with the formation of the same ketones and ammonia. As a result, the liver and kidneys may not be able to cope with the release of so many toxins, and intoxication of the body occurs.
Very long courses of fasting can be harmful to human health, since this depletes all fat reserves and the body begins to consume vital proteins, which leads to degeneration of internal organs and death.
Conclusion: Therapeutic fasting is permissible only in a hospital, if there are indications for this method of treatment and strictly under the supervision of a doctor.
We are treated with carcinogens
Professor Neumyvakin's system.
The authors of this extreme technique for healing the body suggest using internally... hydrogen peroxide. You probably remember from your school chemistry course that hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water and the free oxygen radical. This free oxygen atom is a strong cellular poison and carcinogen.
Conclusion: The result of such “recovery” can be stomach or intestinal cancer.
Impressive! Hope so. I understand how you want to quickly normalize your body weight and, by getting rid of excess, give your body a chance to breathe in a new way. But believe me, if you do not have the opportunity to receive high-quality medical supervision, it is better not to fast for a long time, but to limit yourself to fasting days once a week, that is, to carry out not therapeutic, but health-improving fasting.
Health-improving fasting is carried out without subsequent light (dietary) nutrition. Its goal is general prevention. No doctor's supervision is required. Short-term fasts help cleanse the body, rid it of toxins and rejuvenate it.
Conclusion: The main thing in health fasting is to be gradual and prudent.
I hope that after reading the article, you will become more careful and, before starting to cleanse your body, consult a doctor, and not a leaflet. The human body is a very complex mechanism. Don't test its strength! Don't risk your health! After all, cleansing, fasting, and mono-diets can be very dangerous.
Water fasting is a result of Tibetan practice
Undoubtedly, there are benefits from such a technique. Both the body and the brain are cleansed. Excess fat begins to be processed by the body. All excess “garbage” also leaves our body.
To consolidate what has been achieved, you need to repeat the fast after 2 weeks. This is important because the body has already started the process of burning fat and needs help in stimulating the process.
Another point is the psychological dependence on food. Sometimes you don’t feel like eating, but a person sits down to eat “just like that” to chew. But you don’t have to do this. It is after going hungry several times that the feeling of dependence disappears. Thoughts and body are cleansed and several days without food are perceived as healing. And not as torture for the sake of a beautiful figure.
The figure is formed gradually and without unnecessary effort. After all, a few days of fasting are actually not that difficult.
Important: do not forget about contraindications and prior consultation with a doctor.
