Alternate Day Fasting ADF

Maria you need to watch the programme...I did study diatetics prior to nursing...so its always been an interest. The point made was that fasting helps reduce your dangerous cholesterol....and knock out various hormones that can trigger cancer, heart disease, circulatory disease that could lead to strokes. Humans were not made to eat daily....we used to be hunter gatherers...and we ate when food was available and then starved when there wasnt....the majority of us take in too many calories as evidenced by our weight. Being 10% underweight tends to increase life expectancy. Its a fascintating subject to read up on....

I'm in!

I have fasted for 3 days, twice now and both experiences were different, the last time was January and it was extremely difficult the last of the 3 days, toxins (they say) being released, I was having aches & pains - however, I feel completely worth it as I no longer drink coffee in the am and have been doing yoga regulary!!! so, it is a time to cleanse - I did a one day fast a few months back when I had the stomach flu and viola, one day without food, only water and I was great the following day!

Gotcha, a little earlier I was thinking commercially produced stuff like Kwashie, but got it a couple of comments back. Also, loyalty to your juicer is an attribute ;)

I love my juicer Brian, you can consume most of the nutrients of the veg/fruit from the juice and it's very easily processed. The quantity of raw fruit would be just too much otherwise.

For example I just drank the juice of;

1 courgette ,half a cucumber, half a lime, a big chunk of ginger, 8 carrots and one apple.

:) No chance!

Your combination sounds ace… I had images of you with a litre of Sunny Delight lol…

Kwashie, that is exactly right. Anyway, why use juices when fresh fruit is available and water for (re)hydration?

The juice I had was not of the sugary shop variety, it was made freshly in my juicer from the following ingredients;

Courgette, cucumber, ginger, lime, carrot and apple.

The lemon/lime hot water I will definitely try though.

Thanks

j

I forgot to say well done. And I’m into the group too.

I’m in, too!

James, juice is wasted calories…try squeezing fresh lemon and lime into hot water and sipping it as you would jasmine tea. The acidity helps break down fat and aids digestion of what remained in your gut after not eating. apparently:)))

I'm in, please.

diana

I'll set up a group if there are enough of us interested, let's say around 15, who's in?

Just had a quick look at the programme again. On a reduced intake day - two in each week - he had for breakfast scrambled egg with ham and a bowl of strawberries - then other food during the day to take in 600 calories. He seemed to find it difficult when sitting with people eating meals out, but then so would I.

After five weeks of this 5/2 regime he had lost "well over one stone" and gone from "27% body fat to below 20%". A bit vague over exact figures. The other levels: blood sugar glucose dropped to 90 - normal again, IGF-1 (the major risk factor for cancers) dropped by 50%, cholesterol bad down and good increased.

Has anyone else on here had a gastric bypass?

Started to get a headache, although I was slightly dehydrated as I've just spent a few hours at the Fete de Dax, came home, had a couple of large glasses of water and a glass of fresh juice. I feel fine now. As I ate at 9pm last night, that's 20 hours so far so apart from water I've had a black coffee and a glass of juice and I don't feel hungry, although I am looking forward to eating later.

I, too, only watched it yesterday and intend to start once I've got my head round doing it! How is everyone measuring 500 calories? Websites seem less than helpful. Thanks,

diana

Gretchen, that is actually a very good idea. I think it would lend support to each other and comparing notes would be much easier.

Interesting question. I used to do it, in a way there were two reasons. One was that I was travelling a lot and with long flights and bus journeys I have almost always not eaten but kept a watch on fluid intake. I would then get somewhere and go to a hotel and sleep, particularly after long flights on which I never sleep. So I guess I have done up to three days at a stretch which ended with a good sleep and come out of that feeling great. So that I got into the habit of do that for a day or two on trips and regularly at home. The other reason was that I had a lot of friends who were into macro-biotics, Hinduism, Buddhism and other then 'trendy' things where selfdenial was part of the game, including fasting. However, that went away being married to a Type 1 diabetic for a long time since she could not allow herself to do that at all and...

My brother-in-law is Algerian and has been fasting for Ramadan. Fine, but he shovels in a large breakfast before 0600 then sits watching TV until 2100 when he has a large dinner. He joked to my daughter that he is going to lose a kilo by this time next year, being well over 100k, because he fasts. In fact what he is doing is sharing out what he normally does between breakfast and dinner and may, in fact, be eating more. It got me thinking though. I have put on 10 kilos since breaking my shoulder in February, which starting at 68k then is proportionately a lot. I need to turn that around. My rationale to begin with, is that because I am less physically active I am eating less and my calory, etc. intake is actually lower. I put on weight just once years ago and no diet in the world helped, but a lot of exercise did. I used to do long distance walking and on a 50 kilometre one in June I could reckon to lose several kilos, but I am older and with my shoulder cannot contemplate that. So I am going to begin to have fast days of 24 hours each four weeks, reduce that to three after a while and then down to once a week and get whatever extra exercise I can. I have had medical checks galore this year. I am not diabetic, my heart is healthy, my brain is undamaged (two scans now show that, for all of you with doubts) and my body is saying it wants to do it - also my trouser waistbands are sending a similar message. In terms of reducing the volume of food to acheive that, well I actually eat relatively little and seldom get an empty belly feeling which I know makes some people give up.

It is something that cannot be designed or planned out by a dietician precisely, so trust your own body and go into it step by step and, as I hope for myself, the benefits will accrue with time and patience.

I saw the programme and was impressed and although it is not fully proven for humans yet, the theory makes sense. I did my first day's fast last week by not eating for 24 hours after breakfast. I think it's best to do it on a work day when you are fairly busy and also when you are not planning to exercise too much. I didn't feel very hungry at all and the water and tea helps this. I will be trying to do it once a week at least. One problem is being invited out for dinner/parties. As my wife is French, dinner parties are a common event

:-)