How Much Weight Can I Lose by Fasting for a Week?

Fasting is a good method of losing weight, but it needs to be done properly. The human body will fight efforts to lose weight if energy sources are insufficient, and the process instead consumes muscle mass. Without an intelligent fasting strategy, you gain back all of the weight you lost from fasting and then some.

History

• The human body is designed by evolution to survive famines, which were commonplace thousands of years ago. Metabolism slows down when the body uses muscle mass instead of food, fat or ketones as energy, which begins the body's starvation mode.

First Two Days

• At this time, the body is using food already in the system. There isn't as much need to cannibalize muscle at the beginning.

Starvation Mode

• After about two days, the body runs low on food. Fat stores don't produce enough energy. The body's metabolism drops from consuming muscle mass for energy. The calorie deficit becomes smaller and it is much more difficult to lose another pound.

Solution

• To avoid starvation mode, the body can be tricked into using an alternate energy source called ketones, a byproduct of fat burning. Some organs, such as the brain, cannot use fat stores as energy, but they can use glucose from muscle or ketones. To produce any ketones, the body needs to be deprived of sugar so it produces ketones in place of the missing glucose. With ketones added as a possible energy source, the consumption of muscle as energy is reduced.

Exercise

• Weight training can be used to help maintain muscle mass, thus maintaining metabolism.

Warning

• Inform your doctor before beginning any diet or exercise program.