http://www.howtofast.net/water-fasting.

html

Water Fasting

A water fast might properly be called a water only fast. No solid food, no coffee or tea, and no
juices - nothing but water. Why would someone become motivated to carry out a water fast? The
three biggest reasons are: being prescribed a fast by a physician as a prerequisite to a medical
procedure, belonging to a religion with water fasting as one of its traditions, or being interested
in the health benefits associated with fasting.

How is Water Fasting Practiced?

Water fasting is a pretty straightforward process. Don't eat, don't drink anything other than water,
and don't smoke during the period of your fast. The only variable in the process is the amount of
time spent fasting.

Medically Required Water Fasting

Prescribed water fasting usually requires a fast of at least twelve hours. Many people find it
easier to schedule their procedure for the morning. This means your fasting time can include the
time spent sleeping and, once your medical procedure is completed, you can end your fast before
lunch. The most important thing to remember for a prescribed fast - follow the doctors orders!

Any problems you have with a prescribed water fasting procedure should be discussed with your
doctor.

Religious and Spiritual Water Fasting

Fasting is practiced in many religions but only a few suggest the use of water fasting.

 Pentecostals - the only Christian tradition that specifically advocates water fasts. The decision to fast
is not proscribed for any specific time or event but is left open as an individual choice.

 Hinduism - Individual practices are quite variable but may include 24 hour periods of water fasting.

 Baha'i - Water fasting from sunrise to sunset is obligatory from March 2 to March 20.

1
 Jainism - One of their fasting traditions only allows ingesting boiled water.

Individually Initiated Water Fasting

The length of this fast is entirely up to the person but in

many cases is determined by the purpose or intent in undertaking the fasting practice. One day
fasts are common but there are some people that practice water fasts for many days. Be sure to
ask your doctor about fasting before you try a water fast for the first time - especially if you are
considering a multiple day fast. If you want to read about one person's experiences during a
thirty day fast you can go to Takuin Minamoto Life Beyond the Image blog, beginning with this
post.

There are numerous suggestion about what you can do to prepare, maintain, and end your fast on
the how to fast guide homepage. Here are a few additional things to consider about water fasting:

Drink pure water.

One of the functions of your circulatory system is to eliminate wastes from your tissues and
organs. Water is an important element in this process. When you fast you create an opportunity
for your body to cleanse yourself in a way that it cannot do when you are regularly eating and
digesting food. When you fast and drink the purest possible water it can enhance the positive
effects of your fast. Therefore you should aim to drink the best quality (= most pure) water you
can find or afford.

2
 Bottled water may be OK but it is often just packaged tap water. Filtered water and well water
can be a step up from tap water, provided they are significantly purer than what comes out of
your tap. If you are only able to drink tap water provided by a municipal water works, a water
fast will still have a huge positive effect on your body. Avail yourself of pure water, as best you
can manage or afford, but don't worry to much if you are unable to find an alternative water
source.

How much water should you drink?

You do not need to specifically drink two gallons of water a day, or eight glasses, or any set
amount. There is no rule. If you fast and find you are not drinking to much - say only drinking a
glass of water every four or five hours - you should probably drink a little more. If you are too
conservative with your water intake you may end up dehydrated. On the other hand if you are
running to the bathroom every five minutes to pee you should probably slow down on your
water intake just a bit. Drink as much water as seems comfortable or reasonable to you - unless
of course a doctor has advised you to drink a specific amount. 

Dieting, Weight Loss, and Water Fasting

Some people are led to or want believe that water fasting is a great way to lose weight. I would
like to suggest there are two perspectives or approaches such people tend to bring with them in
regards to weight, water fasting, and their diet. In my humble opinion one approach is helpful
and the other is not.

The misguided side of approaching water fasting is to see it as a quick and magical weight loss
scheme. The dramatic results that may seem possible might appear appealing, at least as a
desperate or dramatic step. Unfortunately losing weight and keeping it off through water fasting
is not a common result. A drastic weight-loss oriented water fast is more like a drastic and
dangerous weight loss gimmick. Dieting and weight are largely a reflection of the cumulative
affect of many daily decisions you make concerning what you eat and how much you exercise
(genes and your metabolism also play a role). Unfortunately changing any of our habitats
generally takes a lot of hard work over an extended period of time. There are no quick fixes. An
extended water fast is not the answer to losing a bunch of weight by not eating anything.

On the other hand, if you are thinking about or working on eating less, exercising more, and are
focused on improving your overall weight, diet, and health - water fasting can be a wonderful
part of making some great changes (check out these weight loss tips if you want to learn more
about dieting). If you practice water fasting once a week, once a month, or a few times a year it
can help as one element of adopting a health minded lifestyle. Every time you go through a day
of water fasting you learn about how you think about eating, how different situations trigger your
desire to eat, and how you react to hunger. Many people know they don't always eat because they
are hungry. Yet we often don't pay attention to why or how we overeat. Fasting reveals, often
quite starkly, many thoughts and reactions we have about food and eating. It can also build our
self restraint "I'm not going to eat" muscles. In sum, regularly practicing water fasting can

3
provide you with useful knowledge and practical experience with denying overindulging in
eating.

Health Benefits: What will Water Fasting do for Me?

Here is a resource that lists some of the health benefits attributed to water fasting. There are also
many books written about fasting and your health. Many of these books are part of the diet book
genre; they are typically trying to appeal to people that want to make changes in their lives. This
means there will be a few thoughtful, well written, and helpful books with good information. The
vast majority of these books though are written to make money by appeal the diet and health
audience. They are not focused on providing good information but are only meant to exploit a
need that people have to try to improve themselves. In doing so such books often make
unsupported claims or promote practices that have little or no known benefits.

You can easily get a feel for this genre of literature by visiting your local library or bookstore
and looking over the books they have about fasting.

Juice Fasting

It is easier to find a consensus as to what to not eat, as opposed to what you should eat, when it
comes to juice fasting. As far as the don'ts - no solid food, no meat, no dairy products, and no
grains. Smoking, alcohol, and caffeine are also not recommended. Beyond this there is a range of
ideas about what kind of drinks you should actually drink. If you added up all the things juice
fasting advocates suggest you could have, the list would include: fresh fruit and vegetable juice,
herbal teas, vegetable broth, Barley Green, wheatgrass juice, and frozen juice popsicles. Few
would agree with all these options.

Some people fast for extended periods of time (many days or weeks) and drink limited quantities
of fruit juice. At the other side of this spectrum are so called juice fasts where all kinds of fruit
and vegetable juices are ingested, with no intent of limiting total calorie intake. These types of
fasts are often undertaken as a diet body detoxification and, in terms of the regime followed, are
perhaps more properly thought of as a diet rather than a fast. Obviously your aims and goals will
play a part in what and how much you juice and ingest.

How is Juice Fasting Practiced?

Spiritual or health reasons can be the driving motivation for this type of fasting. The approach
one takes as to what they ingest is largely dependant on the purpose of the fast.

As a tool to go on a very restrictive multiple day fast some people will opt to drink some fruit or
vegetable juice instead of limiting themselves to water. This can be thought of as a variant of
water fasting, as the goal is not so much to benefit from the juice as much as it is to not

4
completely cut oneself off from calories and nutrients. People that undertake longer term fasts
and lightly imbibe juice typical practice this kind of fasting for spiritual reasons.

The second reason for practicing a juice fast is to improves one's health. The main motivation
here is typically to stop taking in solid food, give the digestive tract a rest, and allow the body to
eliminate toxins in the blood and tissues. Juice fasting in this manner is quite different from a
water fast. Rather than deny yourself almost all forms of food and energy most detox juice fasts
do not restrict the amount of juice you can have in a day.

Juice Fasting for Health Reasons

Juice fasting will have real and noticeable effects on your body but individual experiences do
vary. We are all different and enter into a fast with our unique dietary habitats that have preceded
the fast itself. If you drink coffee everyday and stop when you are fasting, for example, you may
have headaches as a result of caffeine withdrawal. On the other hand you might not get
headaches at all and have periods when you feel you are experiencing heightened mental acuity.

The amount of time one spends fasting will make a large difference in how different effects
actually influence how you feel. A fast of a few days may create a lot of unpleasant side effects
like bad breath, a coated tongue, and other problems (see below). People that fast for longer,
many days or even weeks, say that many early to arise problems do go away and give way to
beneficial effects.  

What are some Benefits of Juice Fasting?

Some argue that juice fasting is more beneficial, from the perspective of your body being able to
cleanse itself, than a water only fast. It is true that the juices of fruits and vegetables provide
relatively pure nutrients and, when juiced, are being ingested without the need for your body to
digest solid food. How this actually influences the physiological effects of fasting is debated by
doctors and fasting advocates. Authors of some juice fasting books claim, sometimes dubiously,
that juice fasting delivers a amazing range of health benefits.

Here are a few of the benefits that some people do experience:

 the elimination of toxins

 reduced allergy symptoms

 healing and cleaning of the digestive system

 increased energy

 mental acuity improvements

 improvements in skin tone

5
Will there be any fasting side effects?

There are numerous minor discomforts you may notice during juice fasting. These include:

 feeling cold

 light headedness/dizziness

 bad breath

 body odor

 constipation or diarrhea

 stomach ache

 acne or other skin eruptions

 increased dreaming

 changes in sleep patterns

 aches and pains

 frequent urination

 coated tongue  - a result of your body shedding toxins and cleansing itself

 headaches – possibly the result of withdrawal from caffeine or a reduction in salt or sugar
consumption  

If any of these symptoms rise above the level of a minor problem or occasional discomfort, you
may need to seek medical attention and/or end your fast.

General Juice Fasting Tips

The first point applies to juice fasting for detoxification. The other points relate to either calorie
restricted or juice detoxification plans.

Drink a reasonable amount of Juice.

6
 How much should you drink? A gallon of juice may seem like a lot but it is not when you think
about it as your food for a day. Some folks will limit themselves to not much more than this for a
day. This is fine and, if fasting is what you are after, is probably not a bad goal. If you are fasting
over many days your hunger will wax and wane through the course of different days so you may
drink more juice on some days and less on others. Try to moderate how much you drink if you
have a tendency to eat to make yourself feel good or simply to change your mood.

Do still drink some water during your juice fasting.

Drink Fresh Juice

Bottled, canned, and "fresh" packaged juices are almost all treated (pasteurized) or added to
( sugars, salts, flavorings, etc) in one way or another. Fresh juice is best. Large metropolitan
areas may have juice bars or food stores that make fresh fruit and vegetables juices. If you do
need to use some form of prepared juice try to use the closest to fresh as possible. There are
some juices you can buy in cartons that are pure juice. Frozen fresh, pure juices are also good as
they typically retain more of their nutrients than with other packaging methods. Juice drinks,
like V8, might seem appealing but can contain a lot of salt or other additives (i.e. ingredients
added to the juice).

Acidic Juices may cause discomfort.

Acidic juices (grapefruit, orange, tomato) may bother your digestive system during a fast,
causing you stomach aches or other minor discomfort. Some people though do not experience
any trouble with such juices.