If there’s one thing that most nutritionists agree upon is that fasting is a bad way to lose weight. I believe, however, that although fasting is a terrible way to lose weight directly, it can have some indirect benefits. In my case, it helped me shed over 20lbs of weight over the course of 90 days, and I had only fasted for one of them.
As part of an effort to raise money to combat world hunger, I participated in the 30 hour famine program in high school. Me and a group of other high schoolers gathered pledges for the thirty hours in which we would not eat one ounce of solid food. We were given an allowance of fruit juice to keep our blood sugar levels up, so it wasn’t a “real” fast, but it was real enough for kids who had never gone without their three squares a day. (more…)