Detox and lose weight: These are the most common motives for fasting. Water fasting involves abstaining from everything but water for days or weeks. We will explain to you whether this is dangerous and what effects water fasting has.
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What effects does water fasting promise?
Many a supporter or seller of radical fasting cures promises heaven and earth when it comes to their special weight loss or detoxification method. People who fast do so for a variety of reasons: for some it’s a religious or spiritual journey, for others it’s to detoxify or purify, but for many, fasting is simply an easy way to lose weight. We will now go into more detail on the last two points in connection with water fasting:
- Water fasting is supposed to “detoxify”
A frequently cited argument for fasting cures or fasting phases is detoxification. The aim is to flush toxins, pollutants or “slag” out of the body by means of a liquid treatment. Apart from the fact that there are no waste products in the body, our liver and kidneys already detoxify us 24 hours a day. Only in people who suffer from a corresponding organ damage does the body’s own detoxification no longer work. In general, however, purging or detoxification through fasting is a myth. - Losing weight with water
fasting This effect can actually be caused by fasting methods such as water fasting or therapeutic fasting. However, weight loss from prolonged fasting usually comes at a price – the potential side effects and dangers shouldn’t be underestimated. Below you can find out how weight loss with water fasting works and what the advantages and disadvantages are.
This is what happens when you water fast
This is how your body gets energy
With water fasting, your body does not get the energy it needs from the outside to maintain all bodily functions and to be able to move. Therefore, to generate energy, it mainly accesses the largest energy store in our body: the fat deposits. Even thin people have enough stored fat in the form of abdominal fat and subcutaneous fat. However, we do not only lose fat when fasting, since the body can obtain a maximum of 95 percent of its energy from fat. If there is a lack of energy supply, it gets the remaining 5 percent from the proteins. These are mainly stored in the muscles, which is why longer periods of fasting without food and protein intake lead to muscle breakdownto lead. In addition to energy from macronutrients, your body also needs vitamins and minerals to form hormones and enzymes. If these are missing in the long term, the following health problems can occur.
The possible consequences of water fasting
- Dizziness: The lack of energy and nutrients can quickly lead to circulatory problems. Due to the risk of dizziness, you should therefore neither drive a car nor operate heavy machinery.
- Headaches and fatigue: Fasting is usually associated with low blood pressure. In combination with the lack of energy, headaches and tiredness can quickly appear.
- Nutrient deficiency: Our body can obtain energy very well from stored fat. With water fasting, however, there is a risk after just a few days that you will suffer from a vitamin or mineral deficiency. This can quickly lead to deficiency symptoms such as brittle nails or hair loss.
- Eating Disorders: Extreme dieting and radical fasting, if practiced frequently, can promote eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia in some people.
- Muscle loss: Since the body not only uses the fat deposits but also the muscles, muscle loss is inevitable during prolonged fasting. In the following we will explain how you can prevent this.
How to prevent muscle loss while fasting
To prevent muscle loss during fasting, there are two options that should ideally be combined. First, muscles need to be used and challenged lest the body see them as useless waste of energy. So that more energy is not burned, endurance training is less recommended during the fasting phase. Instead, do a light weight workoutnecessary for all major muscle groups. Second, your muscles need amino acids and glucose to survive and function. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and proteins and glucose is in carbohydrates. A modified form of fasting, in which at least 500 calories per day are consumed in the form of protein and carbohydrates, is therefore particularly suitable for athletes. A high-quality source of this are, for example, potatoes with fried eggs.
Important: In the long run, one-sided diets or radical cures such as water fasting inevitably lead to nutrient deficiencies. In addition to muscle breakdown due to protein deficiency, there can be a lack of vitamins and minerals, which in turn disrupts the hormone balance and enzyme activity in the body. From a medical point of view, zero diets and prolonged water fasts are therefore not recommended for most people. However, there is nothing to be said against intermittent fasting in a 16:8 or 5:2 rhythm.
