Take a break from food: the secrets of curative fasting

“The first time I tried therapeutic fasting, in order to lose weight. There was almost no effect, but I liked the process itself, and I returned to this experience several times.

Like any newcomer, 40-year-old Ekaterina was convinced that without food she would feel very ill. And, like hundreds of other people, she realized that spending several days on the same water is an experience that is not only interesting, but also useful. Of course, this practice can only be beneficial if carried out under medical supervision.

The weight will return

According to a survey on psychologies.ru, more than a third of those who have tried fasting have done so in order to correct their weight. Is eating nothing an effective way to lose weight? No, it’s an illusion. If we don’t get any calories for a week, we lose about 10% of our initial weight. However, one has only to return to the usual diet, as we at least regain our previous kilograms, or even gain extra.

“During fasting, a person, as a rule, loses more weight than with various diets, but this continues only until he starts eating again,” says Zainudin Zainudinov, head physician of the clinic of the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. According to his observations, after starvation, weight is restored much faster than after diets.

Prolonged (more than six to eight days) fasting reduces the basal metabolism, and when we start eating, the body manages at first with much less energy than before. And everything that is not consumed goes into fat reserves. “Fasting in the treatment of obesity is used, perhaps, only in Russia, all over the world it has already been proven that it is absolutely ineffective in terms of long-term results,” says nutritionist Lidia Ionova, founder of Dr. Ionova’s network of clinics.

Fasting will help the renewal of the body

Most often, those who want to become healthier turn to the method of curative fasting. Traditional medicine uses the so-called unloading-diet therapy for bronchial asthma, coronary heart disease, hypertension, vegetative-vascular dystonia …

“It is reasonable to prescribe fasting for autoimmune diseases, since it suppresses the activity of the immune system,” adds Lidia Ionova. The manual on unloading and dietary therapy of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation indicates 16 diseases in which a temporary refusal of food can bring relief.

How long the patient will need to spend without food, the doctor decides, he also controls his well-being and prescribes related procedures, and if necessary, medicines. “With fasting, the effect of a temporary improvement occurs,” explains Valentina Meshcheryakova, a methodologist at the clinic of the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. – The pain subsides, the general condition stabilizes. But all this lasts while a person is starving, then everything often returns to normal.”

The method of curative fasting is necessarily accompanied by daily cleansing enemas and water procedures. The result, as they say, is obvious: many who have gone hungry at least once talk about the effect of external rejuvenation: some bruises under the eyes disappear, some have bags and flabbiness of the skin. The condition of hair, nails often improves, sweating decreases.

“Usually I always have pimples on my face, but after a three-day fast and a cleansing enema, my skin cleared up, became smooth and remained that way for about a month. I had a clear external effect of starvation,” recalls 30-year-old Nina.

“The condition of the skin is inextricably linked with the activity of the intestines,” explains dermatologist Yuri Sergeev, head of the dermatological department of the PMC UD of the President of the Russian Federation. – Toxins are absorbed into the blood from it, which are products of the breakdown of substances and the vital activity of microbes, as well as those harmful substances – for example, dyes and preservatives – that come with food. Therefore, for healthy skin, it is important that the intestines work. Fasting activates digestion processes, reduces the load on the digestive system, slightly cleanses the mucous membranes, including the intestines.

Fasting changes habits

Even those who have suffered the predictable fiasco in the fight against excess weight, thanks to the experience of fasting, have received one or another important knowledge.

“For me, the most important effect of fasting is that after it it became much easier to give up bad habits,” says 26-year-old Ekaterina. – So, last year I stopped drinking coffee in frantic quantities, which had a positive effect on my gastroduodenitis. I began to eat less sweets and starchy foods. It turned out that after fasting, it’s easier for me to switch to a healthy diet.”

After several days of such food austerity, there is an opportunity to take a fresh look at your attitude to food, realize your dependence on it or analyze your fear of not getting something.

“Food in modern society satisfies not only the need to physically nourish our body – it is also directly related to our social rituals, values, family traditions,” explains psychologist Olga Lovi. “Sometimes we focus too much on the norms imposed on us, which is why we can’t hear the signals of our body.

Fasting makes it possible to reconsider our food stereotypes, to hear and interpret these signals, because at this time sensitivity to our body increases, we become open to the information that comes from it.”

Often this experience changes eating behavior. 30-year-old Natalya, who fasted three times a week, could not learn to eat less, but she partially coped with her food addictions.

“Now, instead of eating a whole bar of chocolate in a day, I eat only a quarter, and that’s enough for me,” she rejoices. “During fasting, it becomes possible to distinguish between your need for food and emotional pleasure, to find other sources of it,” says Olga Lovi.

Learn to taste food better

Many who have tried fasting say that, psychologically, abstaining from food gives a lot. Proper fasting, which necessarily implies a smooth entry into it and an even smoother exit, helps to learn to more subtly feel the taste, smell and texture of food, pay attention to the nuances.

“Before I started fasting, I ate mostly meat,” says 38-year-old Kirill. – Two days before fasting, I switch to light vegetable food, on which I come out of fasting – and each time I am surprised how much taste there is in those products that seem almost tasteless to me at normal times! After the first week of fasting, I fell in love with vegetable dishes and green salads, and before that I probably only ate them as a child.

“During fasting or dieting, taste buds “rest,” comments Marina Basmanova, psychologist at the clinic of the Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. “After that, our patients often begin to perceive more subtle nutritional nuances.”

Become more conscious

“After fasting, there is pride in myself: I was able to do it, I control my life,” says 37-year-old Ekaterina. “This has a positive effect on self-esteem and is very helpful in developing willpower.” For her, the main feeling during the fasting period is not described by many “lightness”, but a feeling of complete control over the situation: over the body, over emotions.

But you should not experience false illusions: not everyone has a smooth refusal to eat. “A lot of our existence is connected with food,” says psychologist Maria Osipova, a specialist in eating behavior. “It is not only pleasure, it is the very rhythm of life. A person who has started fasting often finds that he has a lot of free time, and the need to understand what to do with this time becomes a separate problem. Often he is faced with the fact that he is not satisfied with what life offers him.

Starvation also puts us in front of the need to give up the pleasure that food brings us: from taste sensations, smells, positive emotions associated with this. And from the support that we used to find in it.

“I was just like a drug addict during withdrawal, terribly lashed out at others,” recalls 30-year-old Nina. “Before that, I didn’t even think what a big place food occupies in my life. As it turned out, when I eat, I calm down, I stop being nervous. And there is no food here – and I can’t calm down. ”

Choose a place to eat

“Outside the city, I fasted for a week, in the city – usually no more than two or three days: it was harder for longer because of the aggravated sense of smell and increased sensitivity,” says 43-year-old Tatyana. – In nature, it turned out that which is usually given with difficulty: to slow down the flow of thoughts. I entered into meditation almost without difficulty. During the walk, breathing in the forest smells, I realized what joy my dog ​​feels when running through the soft needles.

A key condition for successful fasting is an environment that will not be associated with the usual daily routine and regular meals. The ideal place is a specialized clinic. However, experienced “starving” in good health, doctors sometimes allow independent short fasting.