Fasting - A way of life
Author : C.P.Hariharan
Email id.: cphari_04@yahoo.co.in
Fasting is a way of detoxifying the body. Just as we go for a sojourn for rejuvenating ourselves, organs of our body also need some rest from the routine tasks. If we keep on eating and choking our organs with heavy foods, we will get easily exhausted. That’s why people fast off and on. Some people fast for achieving certain spiritual and professional ends. We should eat easily digestible foods while fasting. Yellow dal with boiled rice is a good combination one can go for, as it is being recommended even for patients.
But, some people eat a lot on the pretext of fasting and they would intake more than they would eat in the normal course, more than what they can chew. Some people go for fasting for the sake of fasting. They fast just to show off and because others are fasting. Such kind of fasting neither makes any sense nor does it yield any positive results, but will end up in a fiasco.
We are not supposed to have junk foods on fasting. Fasting does not mean eating fast or having fast food. Rather, fast foods should not be consumed during fasting. When we give rest to the organs of our body by fasting, we heave a sigh of relief. We find it difficult to sleep, if we eat heavy food at night. That’s why we should not go to bed with heavy stomach. We are supposed to have our supper two hours before going to bed. Fasting is feast to soul. We feel very relaxed and rejuvenated when we resort to fasting. Fasting relieves the energy of organs with which they do things like healing the tissues and cells.
In order to avoid becoming obese, we need to manage our weight consistently. Low fat food and exercise play a pivotal role for remaining fit. We should not skip meals at random. Dieticians recommend a standard package. Some people ignore soaring obesity. Resorting to once in a while but in regular spans fasting is another of way of remaining fit.
Some people can cope up with drinking water or fruit juice only or else they eat only fruits during fasting period. Fasting does not mean giving up eating altogether. It only means eating less than we used to.
Fasting twice in a week helps not only to bring the BP and cholesterol to the desired levels but also improves their response to insulin intake. There is nothing we can do to our body as powerful as fasting. We set limit to our calorie intake on fasting days. We need to follow the diet control only on fasting days, thereby we do not feel facing too much of restrictions and hence easy to adhere. It recalibrates the diet equation and stacks the odds in our favor. More than the motive of weight loss, fasting paves the way for longer healthier life, simultaneously managing weight. We curtail the calorie intake to one fourth of that of normal days. In twice a week module of fasting, women will lose 1lb over a week and a man loses slightly more. Success also depends on not over-eating on your normal days.
Fasting at regular intervals helps to reduce risks of contracting diabetes, dementia and cancer. Those who fast for twice in a week lose more fat and show improvements in biomarkers pertaining to breast cancer risk in women than who resort to conventional daily dieting. Fasting at regular intervals improves insulin sensitivity, an index for reduced diabetes risk. Studies of once in a while fasting in animals have shown that it reduces risk of dementia. Studies on humans have just begun.
Fasting also has a spiritual angle and has been recommended by most of the great religions.
People who are under weight or eating haphazardly and children under 18 years of age, and people having abnormal muscular build ups should refrain from fasting. Type 1 diabetics and diabetics taking medication for their diabetes (other than Metformin), pregnant women or breast feeding mothers should not fast. People recovering from surgery and those who are frail or susceptible have a significant underlying medical condition should seek advice of a doctor before embarking on any weight-loss regime. Fasting should not upset prevailing medication schedules. People feeling unwell or have fever and those taking Warfarin should consult their doctor first to ward off poised escalation in their INR.
We can resort to fasting even if our weight is normal so as to maintain our body cells.
Maiden fasters may find it difficult to adjust with the routine. Fasting at regular intervals is beneficial. By resorting to regular periodical fasting, we can control our diet. We should avoid hectic days for fasting. As we plan in advance, we can have control over our intake.
There is no hard and fast rule as to fasting days. A fast day is considered to be for 36 hours.
Eating a little bit as we feel so hungry is a good way of fasting. Satiating foods like fish, meat and vegetable with protein and fibre are desirable. People generally avoid non vegetarian foods during fasting, specifically spiritual.
Snacks like almonds, carrot or celery sticks, and fruits like apple are good for fasting. We can have low or no calorie drinks like tea, coffee. Milk is a healthier drink with rich in protein and comparatively low in carbohydrates. Alcohol is high in calories and is also likely to produce a spike in insulin. It is desirable to club your dry days with fasting days. Otherwise, you tend to nibble, the more you drink.
It is best to avoid refined carbohydrates on fast days i.e. anything white or sugary. That means pasta, rice and potatoes, as well as the more apparent things like donuts.
Balanced diets specify calorie counts. We burn more fat on exercising before meals than on after meals. Exercise serves as a distraction when we get irritated. We should stop exercise once we feel exhausted.
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We should not fast when we are not feeling well. Fasting will stress our body which is one of the ways that it heals, but we shouldn’t over stress or strain.
Weight management.
There is no hard and fast rule for weighing. We can check our weight twice in a week. If it shots up, we should treat the same as a warning signal to curb our diet. Weight tends to vary quite a bit over a week, so once in a week check is sufficient to monitor the same.
We can measure the girth or waist by standing 20 cm between feet, measuring directly against skin, breathing out normally, ensuring that tape is not compressing the skin, measuring half way between our lowest rib and top of our hip bone roughly in sync with our belly button.
Unless the weight decreases, we should fast thrice in a week. If still our weight remains plateau, we should go for alternate day fasting. We shed 2lbs a week, most of it fat.
We should not get obsessed with weight as our aim is losing fat, preferably around the gut. We should start, measuring our girth (around the navel), and monitor the change over a period of time.
We should keep track of how much calories we are gaining on non fast days. Juices, alcohol, pudding are calorie boosters. Drinking more water and sugar free tea or coffee will help in reducing calories. Juices are lighter than fruits.
We should use stair cases, use a pedometer to know the number of steps we have walked in a day. Walking helps in losing weight.
We should note down on a diary what diet we had for a week.
We should curtail our calories for two days and do not over do for other days. We can lose fat by remaining plausibly active. Fats are energy concentrates and hence losing the same takes time.
Children, teenagers and frail elderly need not fast.
Side effects of fasting.
The most common side effect is feeling hungry, particularly when we are beginners.
Some people cannot sleep without having supper. They can have a glass of milk or snack.
Unless we drink water, it will lead to headaches and constipation.
We will have the same side effect as we expect. Hence, approach fasting with the ease that it will be fine.
Initially we will find fasting rather tough. Apprehensions about fainting due to falling blood sugar levels are a myth. Unless we are diabetic, we can go for umpteen days without food as our body is extremely good at storing blood sugar levels for many days without food just as a camel goes without water for so many days in a desert.
Though at times we may feel hungry, this will also pass. We can distract ourselves by going for a stroll or by having calorie free drinks.
As we reduce calories, our metabolic rate will increase as we have accumulated more calories in non fasting mode. We feel starved only in case of extreme calorie deprivation and our body fat falls drastically. Fasting at regular intervals does not mean crash dieting. We do not starve, if we skip food for a day.
Long term fasting can lead to gout but not fasting at regular intervals. Gout is associated with metabolic syndromes like obesity, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Fasting twice in a week rectifies metabolic syndrome partly through weight loss but also by the reduction in insulin levels. Fasting at intervals mitigates inflammation. We should intake lots of fluids as dehydration will precipitate inflammation. Also avoid fructose i.e. added sugar. In general reducing protein rich foods can reduce risk of gout.
We should not do fasting for few weeks after a minor operation and for six to eight weeks after major operations. We need to take more protein diet to recoup.
Monitoring changes after fasting
We need to monitor changes that take place after fasting. Check weight and measure things like your waist, chest, hips. Some weighing machines will also give you an estimate of your body fat.
Take a measure of your resting pulse, as this is a good indicator of future health.
Measure your fasting glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure
As we attain normal health, we can resort to fasting once in a week which will ward off weight and enable us to retain significant biochemical benefits.
We can cope up with fasting naturally as we embrace the same. Our taste preferences undergo sea change and we will be able to curb cravings and fear of hunger will no longer overpower us. Fasting will become a way of our life in due course.
Body mass index is calculated on the basis of height and weight. It has several demerits. It is not accurate for pregnant women and people under five feet height and people with muscular build ups. As it does not take into reckoning the age, the standard recommendations do not apply for children and teens.
Basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories we burn if we sit idle for twenty four hours .This is Mifflin-St.Jeor’s equations to estimate the BMR which is supposed to be more accurate than the more commonly used Harris-Benedict equation.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the number of calories we burn in a day scaling BMR to level of activity. This is the number of calories we need daily to sustain our current weight and is about how much we should eat on the non fasting days. It depends on how active we are. Regular exercise burns up calories and is good for us. Hence, we should exercise regularly.
People have an inclination to overestimate the exercise they do, so if in doubt, choose the lower activity level.
Sedentary or zero activity level: This activity level is for those who do not or cannot exercise daily. They prefer driving to walking, use lift instead of stair case, have desk top jobs and are immobile or else have limited mobility.
Slightly active:. Those who exercise or sport one to three days in a week fall in this category. Their daily activities include walking, but they do not have any exercise regime as such or else they exercise or play sports less than thrice in a week.
Mediocre: They exercise or sport three to five days a week. They exercise or play sports at the least half an hour at a stretch thrice a week, every week. They keep fitness regime as part of their daily life.
Very active: They resort to hard exercise or sports for six to seven days a week. Serious non professional athletes actively rehearsing for say, a triathlon that entails hard exercise for at the least half an hour at a stretch almost daily fall in this category.
Exuberant: Those who indulge in very hard exercise or sport at the least half an hour at a time for more than once daily and have physical job that entails top fitness, fall in this category. This level is uncommon.
Author : C.P.Hariharan
e mail id.: cphari_04@yahoo.co.in
