So how bad is this for you?!?!

So I know that you can loose a whole bunch of weight really fast by not eating and taking diet pills and doing a whole bunch or working out. Now I have heard that as long as you drink TONS of water and dont do it for more than about 5 days that you can loose a ton with no major health risk. I say no major health risk because everything has a risk of some sort. So how correct is this?

Fri. Jan 20, 5:08am

Very bad!!! DON'T DO IT!!!

You will ruin your metabolism - your body will go into starvation mode and store anything you eat for days after you've stopped the supposed 'diet'. because you metabolism is slower, you'll lose weight even slower than before!!!
DON'T DO IT!!!

Read other logs and learn from everyone here - healthy eating and exercise is the only way to go!!!!

if there was something as QUICK healthy weightloss - wouldn't everyone be skinny?

Friday, January 20, 2006, 5:36 AM

Just confirming what the previous poster said...you will mess up your metabolism and will gain more weight back when you do start eating again.

Friday, January 20, 2006, 8:31 AM

Original poster, this is a pathetic post. What do you think?

Friday, January 20, 2006, 8:32 AM

I don't think it's pathetic, I just think it's uninformed. PeerTrainer is a great source of information - a lot of people here really know what they're talking about, so it's a great forum to ask questions like this in.

And I agree with the 2nd and 3rd posters - don't do it! If you want to keep the weight off, the only way to lose it is slowly and healthily!

~B

Friday, January 20, 2006, 8:35 AM

I think it is wrong to tell someone they're sincere post looking for information is"pathetic" .

Friday, January 20, 2006, 9:07 AM

their post - whoops ...

Friday, January 20, 2006, 9:08 AM

I know there are people on here who advocate doing things like "Fat Flush" (which I know nothing about) and other flush-out-the-system type diets. They lose a good deal of weight in a few days, but as soon as they return to normal eating, it all comes back immediately. If you're looking to lose weight for a specific event, doing a flush for a couple days before might not be too bad for you. It's not a "jumpstart" to a diet though, because the weight won't stay off (same with not eating and using diet pills - it'll just come right back). And diet pills are ALWAYS very dangerous - they can cause heart problems, and they can be very addictive, even after just a few days.

Friday, January 20, 2006, 10:14 AM

I'm glad you asked, and I hope you do take the concern of the posters seriously. This quick-solve answer is not a realistic or healthy way to lose weight. I may daydream about just waking up the size I'd rather be, but I know that eating more reasonbly-sized and balanced healthy meals and exercising regularly is how I'm going to get there. Let us know if you have other questions we can help with.

Friday, January 20, 2006, 1:12 PM

I had surgery this summer and for one week, I couldn't eat anything. I could only drink water. Let me stress that it was not my choice to do this.
In one week, I lost 8 pounds. Yes, that is a lot of weight, however, those 8 pounds were all back within a couple of weeks of returning to my normal (reasonably heathy) diet.
You will lose temporarily, but you will feel awful, your brain won't work normally and you may mess up your metabolism. I think I did...

Friday, January 20, 2006, 2:06 PM

No Magic Wand

It's tempting to look for a shortcut, but the above posters are right, the straight road is the only one that gets there in the end. It's also tempting to think "all my problems would go away if only I was thin", but that too is an illusion.

We may dream about waking up one day at our goal size, but even if that were possible we wouldn't also turn into beautiful princesses with no cares at all. All the problems and worries you had yesterday would still be there. You'd still be you, just smaller.

So don't punish your body. Learn to take joy in taking care of it, and of yourself, day in and day out. Be amazed at the things your body does and can do when taken care of. Learning to trust and respect your body will lead you to trust and respect yourself. That may give you the courage to tackle the things you hoed would magically disappear if only you were thin.

Friday, January 20, 2006, 2:20 PM

It is not damaging to fast for a short period as long as you stay hydrated. I would be far more concerned about the diet pills. They tend to shock the system a bit under normal circumstances (effect similar to amphetamines and I believe they are related substances).

You may even APPEAR to rapidly lose weight. However not all of that will be genuine weight loss. Your body is physically able to 'burn' ~2 pounds of fat per week and that's what you want to lose. Anything else will be water or worse; muscle :-( If you do this often enough it will be as other posters have said - "you will mess up your metabolism".

Why? Because muscles burn calories. If you follow this destructive pattern of weight loss, everytime you lose muscle instead of fat (rapid weght loss), that is less calorie-burning muscle to take care of your caloric intake. So you could probably use this rapid weght loss system many times before the effect becomes noticable, but just because you can't tell immediately doesn't mean it's not happening to your body.

Sooner or later you will notice that it becomes easier to gain and harder to lose. This does actually happen to you as you age, which is why it is so important to inroduce some regualar moderate weight-bearing exercise into your life.

Pleae take good care of yourself! There's only one of you and this body needs to last you a lifetime. Don't feel the need to punish it or yourself!

Friday, January 20, 2006, 2:21 PM

OP -
Drinking only water is very bad on your system--you CAN over-hydrate and put your body into jeopardy because of electrolyte inbalance... (i.e. the sodium and potassium in your body). The resulting situation is called "Water Toxemia" and in essence, what happens is that the overabundance of water affects your neurological system--your heart, your brain, your other nerves controling other muscles in your body... This CAN be fatal.... (my mother-in-law died of water toxemia (also called "hyponatremia"--it was too long after she had slipped into a coma for the docs to pinpoint the actual cause, but we suspect it had to do with some anti-depressents that were prescribed--apparently the antidepressents can affect your electrolyte balance.) IF you've ever seen the gatorade commercial with the runner who collapsed at the end of his long-distance run, then you have witnessed how too much water can affect the nervous system-- his muscles basically stopped working properly due to drinking too much water.

Diuretics and weight loss pills can make things even worse... (My doc prescribed a diuretic for me for when I get extreme PMS bloat--however, on the label, it talks about how you cannot eat high-potassium foods while on the medication because too much potassium in your system can be very dangerous!)

Yes, it sounds tempting to go on a crash weight loss, but no, it is terribly unhealthy....

I had to drink mostly clear fluids when I had a bad stomach virus once-- I had the virus for about 7 days (could not keep anything in my stomach and had bad diarrhea (sorry, if this is too much info)-- On about the 3rd or 4th morning, I woke up dizzy and nearly fainted... I ended up having to go on a clear fluid diet for the remainder of the week-- I lost about 10 lbs, but they came back and I could definitely tell that I had become weaker due to not eating real foods....

Friday, January 20, 2006, 2:33 PM

My mom always told me about the YoYo dieting theory which means the more quick fixes you use with a diet, the harder it will be for your body the next time to loose weight. It's much better to make a lifestyle change than a quick fix.

P.S. I lived in a Sorority house with 57 girls in college. Almost all of them did some strange crash diet at one time or another and they ALL gained it back within a few weeks.

Friday, January 20, 2006, 4:18 PM

bump... I'd like to learn more about water toxemia

Sunday, January 14, 2007, 12:57 PM

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