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Water fasting weight loss can be very dramatic. In the early days of a water fast, a few pounds per day of weight loss is common. As the fast progresses the weight loss slows.

Water Fasting - Weight Loss Success
By Alison H Andrews

Water fasting weight loss can be very dramatic. In the early days of a water fast, a few pounds per day of weight loss is common.

As the fast progresses the weight loss slows.

Weight Loss Averages

The average weight loss for the first week of a water fast is 11 pounds. For the second week it is 7 pounds and for the third week 3 pounds.

Therefore the average daily weight loss for a fast of 21 days is a pound per day.

The rate of FAT loss during a water fast is around 2 or 3 pounds per week.

The rest of the water fasting weight loss is water weight.

The body stores water in order to dilute its toxic load. So the more toxic a person's body, the more water it is likely storing.

As the toxins are cleaned out during a water fast, this water is released.

The glycogen stores of the body are depleted during a longer fast and this, together with the few pounds of water needed to store glycogen, account for a few pounds of the weight lost.

This weight will come back within a couple of days after breaking the fast as the glycogen stores are replenished.

So, now that you see that the rate of FAT loss is only around 2 or 3 pounds per week, do you still think you should try extended water fasting for weight loss?

Water Fasting Diet

Using fasting as a diet is not a good idea in my view. Being on a diet means that you tend to feel deprived, and once you come off the 'diet' you will tend to reward yourself (with food!), which then returns all the lost pounds to your hips.

If you instead choose starting a raw food diet and couple that with some great exercise and maybe some intermittent fasting (short fasts) to shift excess weight quickly, you can easily lose just as much fat, as well as a lot of water weight that you are retaining.

A low fat raw food diet allows your body to cleanse and detoxify and therefore you will lose some excess water weight as the toxic load on your body is lowered.

Fasting And Weight Loss

If you choose a longer fast in order to achieve water fasting weight loss, you will likely encounter the following:

• You will be unable to exercise while fasting as your energy decreases dramatically after a couple of days (as it should, you are supposed to rest while fasting).
• After you break the fast you will take some time to recover sufficiently to begin intense exercise (roughly the same amount of time that you fasted you will need to gradually ease back in to intense exercise).
• Your metabolism will slow down after longer fasts (longer than 72 hours).
• You will need to eat very carefully following your fast in order to maintain your water fasting weight loss.

So, with this all being the case, don't you think it's a lot easier to embark on an intensive exercise routine along with a great diet NOW instead of fasting? Or perhaps just try some intermittent fasting instead?

Water Fasting For Health

If you have another reason, besides weight loss, for fasting, then great!

However, if weight loss is your only reason for it, then there are better ways to lose weight in my view.

When it comes to weight loss our minds are our most powerful tool, and it is crucial, and I mean crucial that losing weight feels like pure joy and ease and absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with deprivation or punishment.

If the steps we take to lose weight feel like anything other than joy and ease then it is very likely that all we are creating is disorder and disharmony and it is then almost guaranteed that our success will be short-lived.

So I guess it's all in how you think about it.

I am all for short 2 or 3 day water fasts to ward off a cold or flu or other infection, or just to hit the re-set button on your body and your mind and feel yourself starting afresh. I am also in favor of short 24 hour fasts, such as the Eat Stop Eat method mentioned above.

However, the emphasis needs to be on positivity! You're doing something good for yourself, not punishing yourself because you ate too much last week!

For longer fasts, I believe that you should have a powerful motivating factor that has nothing whatsoever to do with weight loss. And remember for all fasts longer than 72 hours, you must get professional supervision, such as at a fasting retreat.

Maintaining Water Fasting Weight Loss

Okay, so you've been on an extended water fast, you've lost some weight, now how do you keep it off?

I did two ten day water fasts in the past, where I did lose lots of weight, but gained it all back, so I certainly know what NOT to do!

The what NOT to do's include eating too many calories from raw fat sources, such as nuts and seeds; eating cooked foods that included cooked oils and other high fat plant foods such as tofu, and eating too little fruit (therefore craving and filling up on fatty food).

You come off a fast and your appetite returns, often with a vengeance, so you need to be eating highly satiating foods, and, since our bodies run on glucose, the most satiating foods are the high carb foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. If you try to fill up on fatty foods, you'll be lost....

Since my two 10 day water fasts, I have done shorter 3 day fasts very happily as well as many short 24 hour fasts and kept off the weight lost.

Water Fasting Weight Loss Maintenance: The Must Do's!

• Eat raw fruits and vegetables exclusively for at least as long as you water fasted, (i.e. if you water fasted for 10 days, eat only raw fruits and vegetables for 10 days after). Absolutely no overt fat sources (i.e. no nuts, seeds, avocados etc).
• Eat fruit meals for breakfast and lunch and vegetables for dinner
• Eat a pound or more of raw greens per day (i.e. any lettuces or baby spinach).
• Ease back into exercise, but be sure to get your heart rate up every day for at least 30 minutes. As soon as you are up to it, get back into intense exercise such as high intensity interval training.
• When or if you return to cooked foods, keep these to a minimum and include only whole unprocessed foods. Steamed vegetables, baked potatoes or yams or some unrefined grain products such as wild rice, quinoa etc are acceptable.
• Absolutely NO oil, ever! Either raw or cooked, this is 100% refined fat and of no nutritional benefit and will go directly into your fat cells.
• After several weeks, when your weight is very stable, you may add in small amounts of overt fat sources such as nuts or seeds, up to a maximum of one oz per day OR half an avocado.

So this is your post water fasting weight loss plan. If you stick to this, you will be able to maintain your water fasting weight loss. Actually if you choose to skip the water fasting altogether, this works well as a general weight loss plan too!

Here's to maintaining your water fasting weight loss!

Alison Andrews is a raw food writer and coach. She is also a singer/songwriter, actress and author. To find out more about water fasting weight loss check out: http://www.loving-it-raw.com/water-fasting-weight-loss.html

To find out more about the raw food diet, see Alison's website: http://www.loving-it-raw.com