I have had a few comments about the results I have experienced with fasting diets and the exact steps that I personally follow so I thought a quick update might prove useful.
Firstly while I have tried a few different fasting diets over the years I have personally had the best results lately by following Brad Pilon’s fasting diet guidelines. Click here if you’d like to find out more.
As for results. The two photos below show me “before” and “after” my latest bout of fasting. I lost just under 2 stone in total (and lost about 5 inches off my stomach) and this happened over the course of about 10 weeks.
So if you’re trying to decide whether fasting diets work then hopefully the following photos help drive home the results! If that’s motivated you then check out Brad Pilon’s fasting diet guidelines here.
While the theory of fasting diets is really nothing new the last few years have been an exciting time of discovery for those in the fasting diet world. As these types of diets have gained in popularity we have had a far larger number of people reporting on their experiences – both what worked and what hasn’t worked for them and this glut of new information means that a number of weight loss experts have managed to take the basic concepts of fasting and combine it with these real-life experiences to create a number of highly success fasting diets that work incredibly well.
However while fasting diets that work well are growing in popularity in many ways they still haven’t reached the “critical mass” that some other forms of diet – such as the paleo diets – have gotten to and it is for this reason that it can be rather difficult to track down information on fasting diets in your local bookstore. Quite simply not enough people are looking for fasting diets to make it worthwhile for a small bookshop to sell this information.
Of course this is where the internet can really help out and so in the remainder of this article I’d just like to tell you a little more about a couple of fasting diets that work incredibly quickly in my own personal experience to help you make an informed decision about which solution may be best for you.
Juice Fasting Diet – Typically while there are several different versions of the jioce fasting diet they all work rather similarly. You stop consuming any solid food and instead rely purely on juiced fruits and vegetables in the form of nutrious juice mixes. When I tried the juice diet for the first time I found it worked well and really produced results for me though the downside was that I felt hungry regularly and ended up spending a fortune on buying all the bagfulls of fruit and veg you’ll be needing each day to make the shakes. Therefore this is certainly a fasting diet that works from my own experience but isn’t one I am too keen to try again due to the downsides mentioned.
Eat Stop Eat – In many ways this is the “big daddy” of fasting diets in that it has the most success stories of any diet I have ever seen and seems to get mentioned on most of the weight loss sites I read on a regular basis but there is a good reason for this – quite simply this is probably one of the fasting diets that work quicker than any other.
Now fasting diets are never going to be “fun” (though after a week or two they do get pretty easy at least) personally speaking I want a diet that shows results fast because in these cases I find it very easy to stay motivated and stick to my diet. The problem I have found with diets that offer slower weight loss is that I can quickly get frustrated and bored with them due to the lack of results but Eat Stop Eat isn’t one of those diets. It’s a great place to start your fasting diet journey so it’s well worth a look. You can visit their website here.
Intermittent fasting diets function in such a way that you only stop eating for short periods of time. Many of us are able to go for a few hours without food without feeling any real negative effects and over time with a little practise and self-discipline it’s easy to extend that intermittent fasting to a period of 12-24 hours.
Intermittent fasting diets then capitalize on this ability of the body to go without food for short periods of time because during that time your body will be receiving little or no nutrients and so the body’s energy reserves become depleted.
Clearly fasting for a day or less isn’t going to starve anyone. Sure, you might feel a little hungry the first few times, and you may find that you feel a little more lethargic or short-tempered but after a few intermittent fasting sessions you will find that you become accostomed to the diet without any problems at all and this is where the magic really happens.
Your body needs energy to enable you to carry out your everyday activities as wella s keeping your body functioning properly (for example keeping you warm and keeping your heart pumping) and when you undergo an intermittent fasting diet your body can no longer get the energy it needs from your food. So it has to resort to it’s “back-up” plan – namely your fat.
For the period of your fasting diet then you’ll find that you lose weight rapidly with very little effort. You won’t need to exercise extensively (though this can help to speed up the results even more) and you won’t need to calorie count. You just stop eating for a while so essentially an intermittent fasting diet is really the easiest, most “automatic” type of diet there is.
Of course, I am oversimplifying matters here to a degree. Different fasting diets stop you eating for different periods of time and allow different calorie intakes during that period too so it’s worth consulting your doctor for a full health-check before you start any kind of intermittent fasting diet and furthermore it’s well worth investing a few dollars into one of the proven fasting diet books now available.
There are a number of juice fasting diets on the market now though if I’m honest many of these are actually very similar indeed just with different names applied depending on who published the book.
At it’s simplest of course fasting diets involve giving up good for periods of time. This is typically only 24-48 hours while still staying hydrated with water. Too long with no nutrients at all and one may start to feel weak or to actually lose muscle mass.
However juice diets take away the “hunger” element by allowing you to drink a range of fruit juices while fasting. The benefit of this is that you will still have small amounts of energy entering your body which will likely keep you feeling better and furthermore juice fasting diets can therefore be carried out over a longer period of time.
As an example, I carried out a juice fasting diet 2 years ago in which I had to create fruit shakes out of vegetables and fruits and over the course of just a week I managed ot lose 7lbs. All while drinking delicious fruity shakes.
Juice fasting diets therefore have very real potential for fasting diets overall. You don’t feel hungry all the time and you don’t have to give up delicious flavors for days on end.
Indeed with the weight loss I personally experienced the only problem I found with juice diets was that all the ingredients were actually both bulky and expensive. A visit to the supermarket would result in me needing to buy 20+ apples, 2 pineapples and so on! You’ve never seen so many vitamins in a shopping cart!
If you’ve ever been on a diet in the past then you’ll know how much a struggle it can really be to lose weight. You have to cut out all of the foods that you love and this can make them difficult to stick to. You’re always thinking about what you can’t have. Always considering that chocolate you really want. And of course this means that almost inevitably you give up and go back to your old way of eating.
However fasting diets are rather different. Rather than giving up your favorite foods for months to come until you achieve your ideal weight you instead give up virtually everything – but only for a short space of time. Depending on the exact fasting diet you eventually choose you may eat virtually nothing for 1-2 days and then go straight back onto eating more food.
Typically the “fasting” periods are what help you to lose weight and so in between when you *are* eating you can actually eat far more of what you like and stories abound of people who manage to lose 2-3lbs a week all while continuing to eat their favorite foods. And let’s be honest – would you rather lose weight whilst eating what you like or not?! Yes – easy question 
Of course this isn’t the only benefit though it is a very major one. Because you have far more control over what you eat it also means that fasting diets are far easier to fit around a normal everyday life. You don’t have to eat every 3 hours like on some diets. You don’t have to live on cabbage soup like some others. When you’re not on a fasting day you’re free to pretty much do what you like. So you can go out to lunch with your friends without feeling guilty or risking your weight loss progress.
Lastly, fasting for periods of time really helps you to appreciate food that much more. It also helps you to appreciate just how much more food you eat than you need and this too has a knock-on effect when you start eating again as you feel less need for large portions and so tend to consume less food per meal anyway.
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To some people (including me before I tried it) the idea of not eating for half a day, a day or even longer at a time was inconceivable. Sure, I know I needed to lose some weight but I’m naturally a “grazer”. I eat small amounts all day long and whilst missing a meal was no really worry to me, missing all my nibbling throughout the day was a major worry.
I honestly normally don’t go more than 2-3 hours a day without having a little something, so I wondered if I could even manage to not eat for a day and still function.
I have to admit that the first fast was something of a challenge and did require some self-control. Temptation was around every corner. However much to my surprise I *did* manage it and it actually wasn’t as hard as I had expected it.
Even better, it seems that every time your fasting diet requires you to stop eating, it gets easier. It’s like you’re getting your body used to not stuffing itself with food all the time and the body is OK with it.
And in a way not eating, when you’re used to it, can be quite fun. You don’t spend any money on food that day, you don’t have to prepare meals or go out to buy a sandwich at lunchtime so you actually have far more time to do other things which keeps your mind active.
And then of course when you *do* start eating again not only do you find you actually have a *smaller* appetite than before (rather than a large one as I was expecting) but you have far more choice about what you want to eat so cravings really don’t tend to be a problem on fasting diets.
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