I see where you are coming from, since I didn't explain my plan for the entire month...I'm not going to water fast for 30 days (but not for the reasons you mention), I am just doing an "intro" 5-day fast (tommorow is the last day) to put my body into ketosis as soon as possible. Then I will continue with at least a few days of as close to zero-carb diet as possible, so my body stays in (or as close to) ketosis as possible. I also don't like the idea (or risks) of colon cleansing (which is a must for longer-duration fasts), so my plan is to alternate fasting with a "zero" carb, low calorie, but high in volume (fiber) diet. This will help me stick as close to full ketosis (where my body will rely almost exclusively on body fat for energy) as possible, while still produce bowel movements (so I can avoid enemas) and prevent depletion of minerals.
As far as vital organ tissue loss is concerned there are a few things I would like to add. Our bodies are very efficient at surviving without food (not without water) for longer periods of time. First, they will try to sacrifice body fat then they will try to sacrifice muscle tissue and in times of desperation comes the organ tissue. But that being said, muscle tissue is much more easily burned than fat tissue and this happens under the following circumstances:
1. the first two days of a fast, before your body enters ketosis (this is probably where you experience the most muscle loss)
2. if you break your ketosis by adding even a small amount of carbs to your diet (adding dietary fat or protein allows you to stay in ketosis), this is the reason why juice-type detox diets probably produce even bigger muscle loss
3. if during a fast you are overly active (because of increased need for energy, your body is forced to turn to fast-burning energy sources = your muscles)
4. if you overextend you fast and enter starvation mode (if you continue to fast even after you have reached extremely low body fat levels, trying to dig into your essential body fat)
So yes, while fasting will almost inevitably produce some muscle loss, you can greatly reduce this effect by doing things right. And while there isn't much scientific evidence to support some of the other benefits of fasting (weight loss, to me, is more of a welcome side effect), we all have heard of miraculous terminal diseases being cured by fasting. And I don’t know about you, but there is only so much of these one-man-experiments I can keep ignoring.
With this I hopefully alleviated at least some of your concerns that I will “lose my heart” with the 30 pounds I intend to shed, but there is another thing that I love about fasting. Fasting provides a great psychological playground (especially the first three days), I like observing how my mind keeps producing countless excuses and rationalizations that I should just stop with this nonsense already. Basically it whines and complains like a little b#$%h all day long. And in my opinion the inability to understand and properly deal with this process it the main reason why a vast majority of people fail at getting and keeping things off.
That being said I hope a didn’t sound too pro-fasting, because in the end I honestly believe that it doesn’t matter how we get there, so to each his own. If anyone wants to try fasting to get great results they should be warned that it really isn’t a walk in the park and it really can be a potentially dangerous thing (especially if done wrong).
Who's with me?
Oh well... it's what was in the fridge.
