Is Fasting Worth It?

In a word – yes.

I started on December 11 at a weight of 227 pounds which I had held for over a month after my modified semi fast had taken me from 257 down to below 220. As with most fasts, I drifted back up to 227. So what! I had dropped 30 permanent pounds with the effort. (At least permanent for now until the beast in the Fat Savage kicks in and I binge for a year or two.)

So two weeks before Christmas, I started fasting and expected it to run until the holiday. Unfortunately, I had to end it prematurely after losing 7.5 pounds in 5 days.

Now some of the big criticisms of fasting are that the weight loss is just water, the weight loss is not permanent and people are prone to binge level eating after fasting. Now I admit there might have been some binge level eating and drinking associated with the holidays but that activity had been planned long before the fast.

My daughter, her family and my niece showed up and because of the kids we were eating three meals a day. Breakfast was at our favorite resort hotel usually followed by swimming in their pool. Dinner was always a formal affair with lots of wine and conversation and no “Push – aways” from the table allowed – except to chase a wandering kid. My niece and son-in-law are both party people so there was some serious binge level activity until 3am in the morning on a few occasions.

The night of the Governor’s inaugural ball, we had a steak dinner at 6pm followed by the ball at 9pm with wine and eating. We got home reasonably sated at about 1 am but since my son-in-law was golfing the next day, my niece and I decided to torment him by continuing the party without him. Naturally, the temptation was too much and we all stayed up competitively drinking Cuzan Rum until 3 am. (Yeah, I felt like crap the next day while he got up and went golfing.)

I started the new Year at 222 down 35 pounds from the year before and the binge activity (more food than booze) continued until Jan 10 when everyone went home. It is now January 14th and I weighed in this morning at 222.5 after a couple of days of accidental fasting. I’m really not planing my next fast before January 25th but if accidentally beneficial days come along, I will naturally take advantage of them.

Was the fasting worth it? Well, I started the new year with weight under my control, I lost 5 permanent pounds and I am down 35 pounds from a year earlier.

Fasting really works for me – you will have to test it at some level on your own body to find your own results.

Good luck.