1 month fast? thoughts and advice needed

[GFE]

Hello C2 forum thanks for the add it's great to be here.

I have always been on the heavier sides of life even as a child I was always the big lad but it's not all bad I never got bullied or nothing like that. I went on to leave school and I moved out of my family home, secured myself an office job and everything in terms of cash and living was looking good. but, After 6-8months I started blowing up like a balloon to very unhealthy weight. After a while, I knew I had to be making some changes so I started going to the gym 4 days a week and after a year I was back down to 93kg which is a weight that I am comfortable at. I had taken 1 month off due to feeling tired all the time and felt it was time to give the gym a break. In that month I put 12kgs back on like it was nothing and now it just won't shift.

So, after quite a bit of research already I have almost decided to do a 1 month fast, where I will only consume water for 1 month. I understand some of you might think I am crazy but the size/weight I am this is perfectly safe and I know symptoms I should be looking out for if something was going wrong. Has anyone on here done a month fast before? If not ho9w long have you fasted for and what were the pros and cons? did it change your personality? stress levels? things like this pretty much anything you can think of that might help me out.

Thanks

[Kafka]

Hi GFE and welcome,

I'm no expert and I haven't tried fasting so maybe my advice is worth nothing, but I think that fasting at all is not at all a good thing to be doing.

Fasting for a month? How you propose to get the required protien and nutrients into your body drinking just water for that time?

No doubt the weight will fall off, but you'll be fit for nothing - assuming you survive without lasting organ damage.

And, assuming you survive, what then? You start eating again and the weight goes on?

Extreme diets are great... while you're on them.

You said you have an office job - presumably fairly sedentary (like mine.) You didn't mention what your diet is like.

It's a simple fact that if your diet is calorie-negative at the end of each day you will lose weight - the more you have to lose the easier it is - always harder to shift that last kg.

Exercise, like erging, will give you 'credit' in that calorie deficiency battle.

Seriously mate, don't try surviving on water for a month - it'll do you no good at all.

No doubt some people with more experience in weight loss battles will be able to offer better advice, but I'd be surprised if anyone agrees that your plan is a good idea.

[hjs]

Very bad idea, if you make it you will be close to dead. It will take a long time to recover from.
If you can gain 12kg in a month, you eating is very bad.

You need a long term sustainable diet. Search for low carb high fat. Your problem, 90% certain is carbs...

[Dangerscouse]

Totally agree with Kafka and HJS, this sounds like a really bad idea mate. The detrimental effects surely out weigh the benefits.

If you feel a need to fast, not that I personally think it's a good idea at all, surely you should try a more manageable fast i.e. the 5:2 diet? Weight loss is never that important unless it's life threatening without it.

[sekitori]

Search for low carb high fat.

Not all fats are created equal. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are healthy. So are omega-3 fatty acids. Saturated fats and trans fats increase cholesterol levels and should be avoided as much as possible. The American Heart Association recommends that no more than 6 percent of daily calories should come from saturated fat. Trans fats or “partially hydrogenated oils" not only increase bad cholesterol (LDL) levels but they also decrease good cholesterol (HDL) levels. As unhealthy as excessive levels of saturated fats are, trans fats are even more harmful.

[hjs]

Search for low carb high fat.

Not all fats are created equal. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are healthy. So are omega-3 fatty acids. Saturated fats and trans fats increase cholesterol levels and should be avoided as much as possible. The American Heart Association recommends that no more than 6 percent of daily calories should come from saturated fat. Trans fats or “partially hydrogenated oils" not only increase bad cholesterol (LDL) levels but they also decrease good cholesterol (HDL) levels. As unhealthy as excessive levels of saturated fats are, trans fats are even more harmful.

For the large part disagree. Only the transfats and omega 3/6 relation are I agree on.
Cholesterol ideas are complete wrong, and values are mostly genetic. Again, excess carbs are the real evil doers.

[Gammmmo]

Simply not viable and dangerous too. What's wrong with gradually exercising more and eating less? So many people want instant results with fitness etc when it's the consistent, long game that brings lasting rewards.

[Slacker]

I don't get it. You have already proven you can lose weight. The problem is the maintenance levels afterwards. This doesn't fix that either.

[Cyclingman1]

Mr. GFE, you have not given any particulars about age, ht, wt, etc. I don't know how to say this all that gently, but your history of weight and weight gain is pretty clear indication of someone with a serious problem regarding food. You apparently cannot analyze what you need and then consume that amount; I'm speaking in terms of calories. A weight gain of around 30lb in a month is almost impossible unless someone is consuming a lot nearly all day long. The first thing you've got to do is figure out your caloric needs and eat accordingly. Exercise can help weight loss, but it is nearly impossible to lose large amounts of weight through exercise alone. 3500 calories burned is a pound. Think about how much exercise that is. That's about 30K on a rower. Very few can sustain that. You might need some professional help in figuring all of this out. Your fasting for a month is a crazy idea. Forget it immediately.

Secondly, the issue of low carb vs fat diets seems to come up all the time. I'm going to post a link to an article written by a Dutchman that gives some perspective. The first point is for whom is the diet and for what purpose. For high level endurance athletes, it is not even a question. Carbohydrate stores are what are used for high intensity exercise. Hitting the wall in marathons is not due to lack of fats - one just about cannot run out of fat - but is due to the limited amount of carbohydrate that one can store. For someone interested primarily in losing weight and generally does low intensity exercise, a low-carb diet is a consideration. The body will start consuming fats when carbs are not available. But the bottom line in weight loss is calorie count. One must maintain a deficit. Keep in mind that the consumption of 1g of carbs equates to 4 calories, while 1 g of fat equates to 9 calories.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/food ... -athletes/

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/carb ... rformance/

I offer this reply only because it seems you are barking up the wrong tree and need some real help and not everything being posted here is all that relevant.

JimG

[edinborogh]

In that month I put 12kgs back on like it was nothing and now it just won't shift.

im not a medical doctor, but i have spotted a big problem in your recount.
when you think that your weight is not shifting - you are wrong, it is.
i was stuck twice, but kept on going, added some training, changed some training, added some volume, changed intensity but bottom line - it took long time before weight dropped again.

never the less, when i looked at body fat percentage - it dropped even without effecting the overall weight.

before taking extreme measures - naturally consult with a doctor, nutrition specialist and a fitness instructor. i can attest for myself that i started with 84KG 14 months ago, and today im at 69-70KG, and im stuck on this weight for 3 months already.

[H2O]

I recommend you work out 6 days a week.
I lost 35 lbs doing this and combining high intensity rowing (15-30 mins) with very low intensity cycling (1hr+)
all in all 90 - 120 mins pure exercise time (mostly but not always). Since weight loss was not the only focus I also did some
lower intensity rowing.
However I believe that the combination of high intensity with very low intensity is the key.
In the past larger volumes of medium intensity rowing had no effect on the weight.
I could and did eat all I wanted (including lots of brownies, cakes and protein bars)
but skipped breakfast (for convenience) thus engaging in intermittent fasting (sort of).
This seems to be a good idea.

This should do it for you and anyone else without going to potentially unhealthy extremes.
Getting off your exercise regimen for a whole month in response to feeling tired is a bad idea.
I did the above with very little sleep (often only 6 hours a day). Occasionally I felt deadly tired but seemed to revive
miraculously as soon as put on exercise clothes.

In case of doubt go for the exercise and back off only when the signs are very clear.

[sekitori]

naturally consult with a doctor, nutrition specialist and a fitness instructor. .

Of all the posts in this thread, that sentence makes the most sense. Some posters have mentioned actions they have taken that have worked for them. However, they may not work for others. You can learn quie a bit from doing research but that has one major drawback. It isn't personal. If you do something so drastic as go on an extended fast based on nothing more than reading articles, you probably will run into a lot of problems--some of them possibly quite severe.

As I have often said, this is a wonderful forum for receiving advice on things related to the use of C2 egometers. It is also a terrible place to receive personal medical advice. You have a severe weight problem and the only way you can approach it intelligently it is via professional consultation relating specifically to you. First, make an appointment with your doctor to be sure you are able exercise adequately. If you are, contact a nutrionist and somone who is an expert on exercise, either a highly qualified fitness instructor or an exercise physiologist. They should be a big help to you. Whatever you do, get some help. Despite what you may believe, you can't do this successfully without it.

[Oldcolonial]

1 month fast where all you consume is water is insane... Unless you are some sort of political prisoner trying to make a point it makes no sense at all. Sure, it probably won't kill you but its hard to believe that it would be healthy. It could also make it much harder to keep and maintain a healthy weight going forward. There is increasing evidence that in response to crash diets metabolisms react by becoming more conservative. The last thing you want is to shock your body into developing a metabolic condition where it is in some sort of starvation survival mode. Then, you will feel lethargic, be hungry all the time and have a really hard time loosing weight because your body will do what it can to hold on to every possible food calorie.

Eat sensibly, keep moving, drink lots of water, get plenty of sleep and your body will find a healthy weight. If it does not start trending in that direction, after a few weeks, go see a doctor. You probably have a metabolic condition.

[GFE]

First off thanks for the replies you guys have made some really good points. I have spoken to my doctors and a nutritionalsit and they all said it wouldn't kill me if I'm careful but they wouldn't advise anyone to do a over 24hrs let alone month fast.
From what I read above I think that the maintenance side is the problem, I don't want to do this fast, go through all that effort, and then the weight just comes back on in the next month. So, how do I maintain? this is the direction I obvesouly need to go in whether I fast or not.

[Kafka]

Surprised that your team of doctors and a nutritionist can't offer the simple advice that I aluded to in my reply to your original post;

If, at the end of the day, your body has used more calories than you put into it, then you will lose weight.

Exercise will give you more credit in the calorie balance.

You still haven't told us what you weigh and what your diet and exercise regime is like - useful information if you want meaningful advice.

So, start to understand about food and calories in, exercise and calories out. As with most things these days, there's an app (or 10) that can help you with that (MyFitnessPal is one).

Track calories in and out and get negative at the end of the day. Do that for a month and tell us how much weight you lost.

That's all you need to worry about at this stage - people will confuse you with this type of fat is worse than that type of fat, carbs this, protien that etc.

Keep it simple to start with and by learning about the calorific content of various foods, you'll soon know what to avoid.

If, like you said, you put on 12 kg a month, that shouldn't be too difficult to work out.