Ramadan Fasting

[squeakywheel]

Yesterday, my first day of Ramadan concluded with horrible, agonizing stomach cramps, which must have been my body's reaction to not eating all day. Not that I was fasting. Frankly, it hadn't really occurred to me to fast, and when I rushed out the door yesterday on my way to the mosque, I grabbed a drink from the fridge and, with that first sip

Comments

[naebliser]

Well if you do decide to fast there is a small silver lining, at least for me, I found that when I fasted in college (not religious reasons - more like ED and financial reasons) that the hunger pains go away by the 5th day. You were on the right track, sort of, in order to avoid initial hunger pains you should work your way into a fast by switching to a liquid diet, but I have found that fruit smoothies work a lot better than coffee (the caffeine will upset your stomach sometimes.) Once the hunger pains go away though the hardest part of a long sustained fast is losing so much energy, it's literally hard to walk far, or like gravity has increased. Two weeks is my limit, and I haven't even had the self discipline to sustain that in years, I can't imagine doing it for a full 30 days, nor would I recommend doing so. (Long term water only fasting can cause electrolyte imbalance, heart arrhythmia, slowed metabolism and digestion of muscle that will hurt weight loss after the fast

[prophetess666]

Ick, I know that pain for sure. If I am awake and go more than about 6 hours without eating, things are not good. No way could I do a fast, it would kill me...probably because I'd pass out and hit my head on something.

Just remember that if you lose weight by fasting for a month, you're going to start putting it back on the day you begin eating normally, so you'll have to probably put together some kind of food plan to help maintain a healthy weight. Not trying to discourage you or anything, but this is something Mike is struggling with right now because he went on a liquid diet for about two months and is now gaining weight back, all because he just refuses to alter his eating habits permanently.