Water Fasting: Is it true that drinking only water can help you lose weight? Is this trend safe or dangerous? Let’s study the information before thinking about trying it.
Weight loss trends these days have a variety of methods to choose from, such as Water Fasting , a method of fasting to lose weight that has received quite a bit of attention. Many people believe that it can help with weight loss and cure certain diseases. However, before losing weight using any formula, we should understand both the benefits and risks first, for health safety.
What is Water Fasting?
Water Fasting is a fasting without eating anything except drinking water for a specified period of time, which is usually set at 24-72 hours or 3 days because if you fast for longer than this, your body will lack nutrients and have other health effects.
However, water fasting is not a new trend. It is a fasting method that has been practiced since ancient times for religious and spiritual reasons. However, in the past few years, people have started to do water fasting in the hope of losing weight and promoting overall health. This is because it is believed that fasting stimulates the mechanism of cells eating themselves (Autophagy), which is a natural recovery process of the body. And there are studies that indicate that this mechanism helps repair and create new cells. It also reduces the chances of developing certain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia.
What can you eat during Water Fasting?
In doing Water Fasting, we must mainly drink water. However, if you are really addicted to coffee, you can drink black coffee. Do not add cream, sugar or other additives because it will add calories to the body.
Does Water Fasting Really Help You Lose Weight?
In principle, drinking only water can help you lose weight because when you don’t get nutrients from any food, your body will first use up the starch stored in your liver. After that, it will start using the accumulated fat as energy instead, which will result in weight loss. However, be careful, the longer you fast, the more at risk your ufabet https://ufabet999.app body will be.
How to do Water Fasting
Before doing Water Fasting
- Consult your doctor before beginning any fasting method.
- Set an appropriate time frame. You can start by fasting for a short period, such as 12-16 hours, and gradually increase the duration as tolerated, but it should not exceed 72 hours or 3 days.
- Choose to do water fasting on a day off when you are not doing any heavy work.
- Choose a time when you are healthy and have no symptoms of illness.
- Eat a balanced and adequate diet before doing water fasting.
During Water Fasting
- Drink enough water throughout the fast, at least 2-4 liters per day, by sipping water throughout the day. Do not drink it all at once because you risk water intoxication from drinking too much water.
- Focus on light exercise or exercise that requires concentration, such as yoga, but avoid strenuous exercise, as this will make you hungrier than usual.
- While doing Water Fasting, you may experience headache, dizziness, fatigue, dizziness, and discomfort. Always monitor yourself. If symptoms are severe, stop immediately. Do not force yourself to continue.
- You should not drive or work that requires the use of machinery while doing Water Fasting because if you feel dizzy, faint or weak, it can be life-threatening.
After Water Fasting
- When the fasting process is over, start eating small amounts of food to allow your body to adjust. Eat vegetable juices, fruit juices, and choose easily digestible foods such as rice porridge, soup, fish, chicken, grains, etc.
- It can be divided into 5 small meals a day: breakfast, snacks, lunch, snacks and dinner.
- Avoid eating processed foods such as sausage, ham, and foods high in sugar.
- You should not eat a large meal at once because it risks Refeeding Syndrome, where the body competes to absorb nutrients, causing the electrolytes in the blood to decrease. There may be an abnormal balance of water and sodium, which affects the entire brain, nerves, and muscles.
Benefits of Water Fasting
- It helps to lose weight quickly because it reduces the amount of calories entering the body. It also helps to reduce fat and triglycerides.
- Increases insulin and leptin sensitivity to body cells. If the body is more sensitive to insulin, it will have a positive effect on blood sugar control. The body that is sensitive to leptin will process hunger and satiety signals better, helping to suppress appetite, not hungry all the time.
- Helps eliminate various toxins that remain in the body.
- Reduce inflammation in the body
- Stimulates cell self-eating (autophagy) which helps the body eliminate damaged cells and create new cells to replace them naturally. Many animal studies have found that cell self-eating may help prevent diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, etc. However, further studies in humans are still needed.
- It may help lower blood pressure. Studies have shown that fasting can significantly reduce blood pressure and weight in people with high blood pressure, but more research is needed.
- It may help reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, but it has only been studied in animals.
Dangers of Water Fasting
The longer you fast, the more it affects your health, as follows:
The body lacks nutrients
Since you only drink water, your body lacks essential nutrients. If you do water fasting for too long and too often, it can weaken your immune system and affect your overall health.
The body lacks vitamins and minerals.
Essential vitamins and minerals are often found in food. Deficiencies can affect blood sodium levels, leading to low blood pressure, fatigue, muscle cramps, and in some cases, serious harm.
Dehydration
Drinking only water without eating anything can also cause dehydration. Normally, 20-30% of the water we consume each day comes from food. Therefore, if we do not eat anything, we risk not getting enough water. People who are losing weight with the Water Fasting method need to drink more water than normal, which is 2-4 liters per day. However, do not drink too much at once to prevent water intoxication, which is life-threatening.
Loss of muscle mass
Fasting for more than 3 days can cause muscle breakdown because the body burns both fat and muscle for energy instead.
Orthostatic Hypotension
When we change from lying down to standing or sitting to standing up, we may feel dizzy, lightheaded, or faint.
Digestive system problems
After eating again, you may experience bloating, indigestion, and stomach pain because you have not eaten for a long time.
It’s easy to become fat again.
Although fasting can help you lose weight, it is only for a short period of time. If we go back to eating the same way, without controlling our diet or exercising, there is a chance that we will gain weight again.
Water Fasting is not suitable for everyone.
There are several groups of people who should not do water fasting, including:
- Children and adolescents under 18 years of age
- Elderly
- Pregnant or breastfeeding women
- People who are underweight
- People with heart problems
- People with diabetes
- Gout patients
- People with low blood pressure
- People with eating disorders
- People who have uncontrollable migraine pain
- People who are receiving blood transfusions
- People who are taking medication
- People with other chronic diseases