If it doesn’t have that, then it draws from muscles.” It makes sense that these extreme fasts would have this result, she said, because “your body needs a constant intake of protein. This is the opposite of what happens most of the time during weight loss, where more fat is lost than muscle. She did note that the participants in these prolonged fasts lost about two-thirds of their weight in lean mass and one-third in fat mass. There were no serious negative effects in the studies, such as metabolic acidosis or death. The most common side effects of these prolonged fasts were similar to those from intermittent fasting, Varady said, such as headaches, insomnia and hunger. Some of the studies included participants with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, who suffered no ill effects from the fasting, though they were monitored closely and had their insulin doses adjusted while fasting. Improvements to blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels were short-lived, returning to baseline levels quickly after participants started eating again. In contrast, it was clear that the metabolic benefits of the fasts disappeared soon after the fasts ended. In two other studies, only a small amount of the lost weight returned, but those studies encouraged participants to restrict their calorie intake after the fasts ended. In one of those, people gained back all they had lost in a five-day water fast within three months. Only a few of the studies in the review tracked whether participants gained back the weight they had lost once the fast ended. People who fasted for five days lost about 4% to 6% of their weight those who fasted for seven to 10 days lost about 2% to 10%, and those who fasted for 15 to 20 days lost 7% to 10%. Varady’s team looked at the results from each of those papers to see what story they cumulatively tell about the fasts’ impact on weight loss, as well as a number of other metabolic factors.įasting did seem to spur noticeable short-term weight loss, the researchers found. The new paper is a literature review of eight studies on water fasting or Buchinger fasting, a medically supervised fast that is popular in Europe where people consume only a tiny amount of juice and soup a day. (Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin/UIC Photo Services) She figured if she was going to comment, she should investigate the existing research.
Varady, an expert on intermittent fasting, said she wanted to study water fasting because she suddenly started getting contacted by journalists last fall who wanted to hear what she thought about it. She stressed, however, that no one should undertake one of these fasts for more than five days without medical supervision. “My overall conclusion is that I guess you could try it, but it just seems like a lot of work, and all those metabolic benefits disappear,” Varady said.
However, there do not appear to be any serious adverse effects for those who do a water fast or a similar kind of fast where people consume a very small number of calories a day, said Krista Varady, professor of kinesiology and nutrition, who led the research, which is published in Nutrition Reviews. And the other metabolic benefits of water fasts, such as lower blood pressure and improved cholesterol, seem to disappear soon after the fast ends, the researchers found.
Water fasts - where people consume nothing but water for several days - might help you lose weight, but it’s unclear how long you’ll keep it off, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago.
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