5 Common Myths about Fasting that May Stop You from

Benefitting from It

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Ritual fasting has been part of religious traditions for thousands of years, from Muslims who fast during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan to Mormons who take a regular break from food the first Sunday of each month. But a recent growing body of research shows that abstaining from food intermittently may have physical as well as spiritual benefits.

1. Fasting may help your heart2. There is chance fasting can cut down cancer risk

3. Fasting won’t help you lose — and keep off — weight.4. There is absolutely no scientific evidence showing that fasting

will detox or cleanse your body.5. Talk to your doctor before you are starting fasting regimen

Fasting Facts

Here is how your body reacts when you stop feeding it:

When you eat, your digestive system breaks down carbohydrates into the sugar glucose, the body’s major source of energy. Which then travels to your body’s cells to provide them with fuel.

If you haven’t eaten recently, the supply of glucose in your blood drops and your body turns to stored glucose, called glycogen, for energy.

Once the glycogen is used up, your body begins to burn fat and muscle stores to make its own glucose to fuel your cells.

After a few days without eating you will lose body weight, blood will become more acidic resulting in bad breath and fatigue.

Fasting Facts

1. Fasting helps weight loss2. Fasting improves Insulin sensitivity3. Fasting speeds up the Metabolism4. Fasting promotes Longevity5. Fasting improves Hunger6. Fasting improves Eating Pattern7. Fasting improves Brain Function8. Fasting improves Immune System9. Fasting contributes to Self-Enlightenment10. Fasting helps clear the Skin and Acne

10 Surprising Fasting Benefits

• Myth: Fasting Slows Metabolism

• Fact: Your metabolism is the energy cost to keep your cells alive; it's the summation of all the biological processes that sustain your life.

• No matter where this myth came from, it's simply not true, because despite popular belief, researchers have proven many times over that only the amount of food you eat matters, not the pattern in which you eat it. That's to say, how frequently you eat or when you eat doesn’t dictate your body co

• Fasting doesn't decrease your metabolism, nor does it put you into starvation mode. Starvation mode is a myth, unless of course, you're actually suffering from starvation. But you're not starving with fasting, not even close.

Myth 1

• Myth: Gaining the Weight back after eating:

• Fact: Some people claim that fasting, or dieting in general, is a waste of time because you'll simply just gain the weight back after you stop. That's why fasting is a lifestyle change. It's not a diet. It's a permanent fixture.

• If your goal is to lose weight, then the reason you're thinking of or have already started fasting is because you were consuming more calories than you were expending, and you needed to reverse it. If you stop fasting, and so reverse it again, of course you'll gain back the weight, because you went right back to taking in more calories than you were putting out.

Myth 2

• Myth: Having low energy without food

• Fact: At first, you may experience a few complaints while fasting, one of which may be decreased energy. After your body and mind adapt to the fasting lifestyle, you won't even think twice about having less energy when skipping meals. You'll feel vibrant and vigorous. You'll have the energy of a thousand suns.

• You can also think of this: Hunger is a motivator, perhaps the most primal motivator of all. Predators hunt when they're hungry. When they're hungry, they expend the most energy. Think of fasting as being on the hunt, as a time when your body is primed to get its most taxing work done.

Myth 3

• Myth: Skipping breakfast is bad and will make you fat

• Fact: Breakfast skipping is associated with higher body weights in the population. The explanation is similar to that of lower meal frequencies and higher body weights. Breakfast skippers have dysregulated eating habits and show a higher disregard for health. People who skip breakfast are also more likely to be dieting, thus by default they are also likely to be heavier than non-dieters.

• Keep in mind that most people who resort to breakfast skipping are not the type that sit around and read about nutrition. They are like most people dieting in a haphazard manner. The type to go on a 800 calorie-crash diet and then rebound, gaining all the weight (and then some) back.

Myth 4

• Myth: Fasting disrupts your eating habit

• Fact: By fasting you willfully set a time to eat that fits your lifestyle.

• You can also deliberately control how much calories you eat.• Fasting improves your eating patterns and reduces your over-

indulgence tendencies in the long run.• Brief fasting can change how you view eating and triggering

the start of a healthier diet plan

Myth 5