Wintertime is snacking time. A piece of stollen here, a cookie there. Quickly it happens and your favorite coat tightens at the hip. Now it is time to act and not to get angry. We show you whether losing weight by fasting works and what you have to watch out for.
Winter bacon, a really annoying companion in the actually so beautiful winter months. But the season also lures us again and again with treats.
And with the snow and cold, we're going outside a lot less, too. Put down the chocolate and leave the cake in the kitchen cupboard.
Because now it is called: Away with the pounds, because the spring after in big steps.
We show you now how easy you can lose weight by fasting. Healthy and sustainable. And how many kilos you can actually lose with the help of a fasting cure.
Right now is the right time to get going before the next holidays are around the corner and make you feel even more sluggish.
Table of contents
How can I lose weight through fasting?
The best-known form of fasting is interval fasting. Many people are particularly fond of the 5:2 diet. It says that on five days a week you can eat as usual, without paying attention to the calories. On two days, the calorie intake is reduced to 500 to 800 calories. To achieve this, the diet includes lots of vegetables and water.
But there is a whole range of other fasting methods. From therapeutic fasting to alkaline fasting.
No matter which fasting method you choose, something that is really annoying is the yo-yo effect. Good to know: When losing weight by fasting, this yoyo effect can be prevented more easily than with a crash diet. Now you surely want to know how to do it.
We explain it to you!
To prevent the yo-yo effect, you need to permanently change your diet and do it in a way that is suitable for everyday life without cravings, forced renunciation or malnutrition. How do you do that? By fasting and then changing your eating habits.
Fasting reduces hunger in the long run because your body learns to live off its own reserves.
Fasting enhances your health awareness. You may notice a change in body awareness, which also increases your own need for healthy eating. Due to the increased effect of the happiness hormone serotonin, you feel more desire to break bad habits and live new healthy behaviors.
A fasting diet for weight loss is a reset for your body and for your awareness of your own body. This develops a lasting motivation, so that it will be much easier for you to consistently change your diet after the fasting diet and to steer your lifestyle in a healthy direction.
However, fasting only makes sense if you change your diet in the long term.
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Tip: Nutrition plan
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What are the methods of fasting?
There are many different fasting methods that have very different effects on blood levels, heart health and cell rejuvenation. From short-term diets, to fasting methods that can last for months, there are now quite a few options. Each form has its raison d'être and is suitable for different goals.
So fasting is not just blunt starvation and giving up delicious cookies.
No matter which form you choose - the three presented or a completely different one - all methods have something in common: you detoxify your body from sugar, processed foods and high-fat foods. Your body is thereby cleansed and rebooted.
You will quickly notice how good it does you to do without processed foods and cook yourself. Your skin will be more beautiful, you will feel less tired and you will lose weight.
These are the three most common forms of fasting and weight loss:
- Intermittent fasting
- Therapeutic fasting according to Dr. Otto Buchinger
- Alkaline fasting
1. interval fasting for weight loss
You've probably heard of this before. Many people swear by this method, I myself have also tried it -... here you can read my self-test.
Many forms of interval fasting are perfect for losing weight by fasting. It can be easily integrated into everyday life, you don't need any preparation and there is little risk of a yo-yo effect.
With Intermittent Fasting you do not abstain from specific foods. You must adhere to precise time periods during which you are allowed to eat. This method can help you to lose weight healthily through fasting and to maintain your new desired weight in the long term.
Overall, with this diet method, you make sure that you don't eat sugar and keep your hands off unhealthy foods.
With interval fasting, you can choose between two common methods:
5:2 method
This method is strict. You can eat normally five days a week without counting calories. Of course, your food should be healthy.
On two days, you then radically reduce your calorie intake. Women are allowed to eat 500 to 800 calories, men 600 to 850. In this way, the body learns to draw energy from its reserves.
16:8 method
If you don't want to go two whole days without eating, you can also try the 16:8 method. I've already done that a few times. It's a great method to incorporate into your daily routine.
With this method, you go without food for 16 hours and consume your energy in the remaining 8 hours. In effect, you skip a meal.
For example, if you eat a delicious bowl for the last time at 5 p.m., you may eat breakfast again at 9 a.m. the next morning. Your metabolism goes into a short fast every night.
Here's a great side effect: your body has less to do with digestion at night, which is really good for your sleep. Give it a try!
Try this interval fasting plan!
2. therapeutic fasting according to Dr. Otto Buchinger
A proper fasting cure is particularly suitable for the therapy of overweight. Many clinics now offer the method according to Dr. Buchinger.
During fasting you are allowed to eat between 250 and 300 calories a day. It is therefore not a zero diet, yet a greatly reduced diet and therefore a fasting cure for weight loss.
The approach of Buchinger's therapeutic fasting method is to awaken your body's self-healing powers and treat metabolic diseases. Today you can do it at home to effectively get rid of some winter pounds.
Due to the degrading metabolism, which is caused by the strongly reduced food supply, stored substances are excreted and your blood circulation in the smallest vessels improves. Even your mood is said to be lifted. Hard to imagine when you can eat almost nothing for several weeks, I admit.
You need a preparation day, the relief day, when you will consume only 1000 calories. You should avoid coffee, nicotine and alcohol. Then you need to cleanse your intestines by taking salts.
During the fasting cure then only drink. Water, broth, tea and diluted juices. To reduce protein breakdown can also drink buttermilk.
Accompanying the "not eating" you should also do endurance sports and gymnastics. Relaxation exercises and Kneipp treatments are also part of this fasting method.
If you do Buchinger fasting at home, you should take a week to really get everything done and not stress yourself out. If you are unsure, you can also do it in a wellness hotel or find a doctor who offers this fasting method.
After the actual fasting come the build-up days, on which you slowly eat more again. In this way, you slowly get your metabolism used to food again and crank it up again.
Buchinger fasting brings significant weight loss, but it is above all the cornerstone for a permanently more conscious and healthier life.
How to get started with Buchinger therapeutic fasting!
3. lose weight with alkaline fasting
This method is suitable for you if you are still struggling with the renunciation. Fasting with fruits and vegetables is simple, has a noticeable effect and you do not have to starve.
You only reach alkaline foods. These are mainly fruits and vegetables. The rule is as little as possible, as much as necessary. You can eat alkaline-forming foods, and eliminate acid-forming foods from your diet. You can practice this fasting cure for weight loss for one to six weeks.
For the metabolism to function properly, it is essential that acid and base levels in the blood are in the right balance - this is the approach of this fasting cure.
Our current lifestyle - a lot of stress, little exercise, a lot of meat and few fruits and vegetables - often favors an excess of acid. Then the organism takes minerals such as magnesium and calcium from your bones. Alkaline-forming foods, such as fruits, vegetables and herbs, literally remove the acid from your body.
Before you start alkaline fasting, you need to cleanse your intestines with salts the day before.
After that, only fruits, vegetables, herbal tea and water are allowed. The vegetables should be eaten raw or cooked. You should eat raw vegetables and fruit before 2 p.m., then you can still digest them well. If you generally do not eat anything after 6 p.m., this also relieves your liver and your digestion does not have to start at night.
You can fast for one to six weeks, depending on how much weight you want to lose. To start, however, we recommend one to two weeks.
How to achieve acid-base balance in 3 steps!
How long do I have to fast to lose weight fast?
But how long should the fasting cure last so that I can lose weight? Experts recommend fasting for at least 7 days to ensure a long-term effect. Only then does the body begin to adapt to your new eating habits. Other experts even recommend fasting for at least 2 weeks.
During the fasting cure your body changes the metabolism and burns more fat reserves. The metabolism changes very radically in a relatively short time.
With Intermittent Fasting, you should stick with it for at least 1 month to feel the first effects. Alkaline fasting is a long-term process that should last at least 14 days, preferably longer.
What happens when you fast and reduce calorie intake?
Effect after 12 hours
Already after half a day, i.e. after 12 hours, your body notices: Energy is running out! It starts to tap into its reserves. This process is called ketosis or fat metabolism.
In normal metabolism, food is converted into glucose. In cells, mitochondria change glucose into adenosine triphosphate, the energy for processes in our body.
After 12 hours of fasting, fat is taken from the fat cells in the liver and converted into ketone bodies. This provides your body with energy, strengthens your endurance and reduces inflammation in the body.
Where does the body fat disappear when losing weight?
Effect after 18 hours
The longer you abstain from food after switching to fat metabolism, the more pronounced the positive effect and the more fat cells melt.
The ketone bodies distribute throughout the body and no longer just provide energy for the cells, but also take on other functions. They also activate anti-inflammatory signaling pathways.
Effect after 24 hours
Now you reach the ultimate process of detoxification, autophagy. In ketosis, fat continues to be burned. This is how losing weight through fasting works.
The body's cells now realize that starvation is really the order of the day. Superfluous substances such as waste products are recycled. This also has consequences for your health. The metabolism is relieved and thus reacts more sensitively to insulin again. According to scientists, autophagy could also be used as a therapy for diabetes.
And it also has a few positive effects on your appearance. The skin benefits greatly from the body's own clean-out.
With these 4 rules you can prevent the yoyo effect!
How much do you lose weight if you fast for a week?
According to the renowned physician Dr. Andreas Michalsen, the loss of visceral body fat is a maximum of two to three kilos per week. This thesis is relatively easy to understand mathematically.
One gram of pure body fat has 9 kilocalories. You consume between 2000 and 3000 kilocalories a day. This means that on average you can burn about 300 grams of body fat per day that you want to lose weight by fasting.
So, by fasting, it is possible for you to lose about two kilos of pure body fat within a week.
Too much weight loss would be problematic in the long run anyway. The body would switch from normal metabolism to slow starvation metabolism. This protective reaction slows down fat burning. This hinders your weight loss success and also results in a yoyo effect.
How to continue losing weight after fasting?
It is crucial that you do not start eating again as you did before the fasting cure. Immediately after fasting, you need a lot of discipline and stamina so that you don't put the kilos back on your hips right away. For several days you start to eat again slowly and in small quantities. The metabolism must slowly get used to food intake again.
You should not go back to the amount of calories before fasting. It is responsible for the fact that you have gained weight. It is now the Change diet permanently.
Our conclusion
Losing weight by fasting is a proven and effective method. Especially now, when you might notice one or the other little winter fat, it's a great way to shed pounds.
There are many different forms of fasting and for you certainly the right one to achieve your goals. The best thing about it is that you will also keep your weight in the long term! So then snacking on the holidays is also more fun again.
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