Do fasting days help to lose weight and how does it work?

Fasting days will not help you lose 10-15 kg per month before summer. They are more suitable for those who need to keep in shape without making any special efforts or to get back "in shape" after the winter. Unloading days for weight loss do not bring as impressive results as we would like, but if you do them regularly and then do not rush on food, you will certainly like the effect.

What are fasting days for?

It looks like what can happen after a day of fasting, but this is only at first glance. The benefits of fasting days have long been proven, tested and retested. And consists of the following:

• After a short hunger strike, a feeling of lightness appears due to bowel cleansing;
• Stress tones the body;
• It helps to overcome the "plateau effect", painfully familiar to many. In other words, it is a stagnation during the diet. The weight drops to a certain point and then stops, not wanting to move. A hunger strike can serve asmild stress for the body and a kind of catalyst for fat burning processes.
• And of course, we cannot fail to mention the "test of strength" and the development of willpower.

Types and characteristics of nutritional unloading

Unloading days are conditionally divided into two types:

• "hungry"
• "saturated".

These two options are distinguished by the caloric content of the daily menu and the number of permitted ingredients.

The essence and principles of "hungry" days

The simplest and strictest option is a water day. Deloading, in which proteins, fats and easily digestible carbohydrates are excluded, are also called "cleansing". In other cases, in addition to liquid, one product is included in the diet. The maximum daily calorie content is 500 calories. Given that you can eat low-fat kefir, cucumbers, apples, cabbage or citrus fruits, generally low-calorie foods, it will be easy not to exceed the permissible bar. For example, the calorie content of 100 grams of an ordinary cucumber is 15. 5 calories. With these restrictions, you can eat 3. 2 kg of fresh green cucumbers per day.

important!Regardless of the type of food consumed, you should drink 2 or more liters of water. Plain still water will be supplemented with green tea or herbal decoction.

"Full" unloading: types and rules

A more favorable option. They allow 2-3 products that can be combined: meat, vegetables, eggs, legumes, fruits, dairy products. The calorie status changes slightly, you cannot exceed the 800 calorie limit. According to the type of products used, "full" fasting days for weight loss are protein and carbohydrate.

• Protein loading is the best option if more restrictive diets cause weakness, dizziness or are not suitable for health reasons. You can eat: lean meat; shellfish, crustaceans and fish; vegetable proteins. If desired, the menu can be varied with low-calorie vegetables. Chinese cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, vegetables are successfully combined with proteins. According to the method of preparation, it is better to give preference to cooking or steaming. There is no strong feeling of hunger during the day.
• Carb unloading - sounds tempting, but it has nothing to do with sweets. In this case, we are talking about foods rich in slow carbohydrates. Usually it is buckwheat, rice, dried fruits.

When drawing up the menu for a "full" fasting day, it is important to take into account the compatibility of products.

Product group name		Meat, fish, poultry	Legumes	Vegetable oil	cereals	sour	semi sweet	Sweet and dried fruits	Vegetables	Dairy products	eggs
							Fruits
Meat, fish, poultry		/	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	-
Legumes		-	/	+	0	-	-	-	+	-	-
Vegetable oil		-	+	/	+	+	0	0	+	-	-
cereals		0	-	+	/	-	-	-	+	-	-
	sour	-	-	+	-	/	+	0	+	0	-
Fruits	semi sweet	-	-	0	-	+	/	+	+	+	-
	Sweet and dried fruits	-	-	0	-	0	+	/	+	+	-
Vegetables		+	+	+	+	+	+	+	/	+	+
Dairy products		-	-	-	-	0	+	+	+	/	-
eggs		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	/

Benefits and contraindications

Fasting days will help in the uneven fight against excess weight. They will help to get rid of the weight after busy holidays, contributing to the gentle cleansing of the intestines from toxins. Indicated in certain diseases. For example, it is recommended to carry out "watermelon" days for kidney diseases, "potato" days for cardiovascular diseases, and "cucumber" days for joint problems. Only without initiative, after consultation with a doctor. Unloading must necessarily be carried out by these, who constantly follow various fitness diets, love protein foods, artificial proteins and other "heavy foods".

It is impossible to unload patients with diabetes mellitus, pregnant and lactating women. People exhausted by prolonged illness and suffering from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (only "full" discharges are shown after consultation with a gastroenterologist). It is not desirable to organize unloading during menstruation.

advice!You should not get carried away with "hungry" unloading, they are carried out no more than once a week, while "full" can be done 2-3 times.

5 rules for unloading

In order for fasting days to bring the expected result, five simple rules must be followed.

Rule 1: abide by the terms

Most fasting days are built on the principle of a mono-diet, that is, you can eat one product, but you should do this as often as possible. Naturally, in small portions. In addition, the chosen product should be liked, this will help to relieve the already stressful situation for the body. The total energy value of the products should not exceed 800 cal.

Rule 2: choosing the optimal product

Usually, unloading is carried out on low-calorie foods, with a minimum content of fat and carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, kefir). For a carbohydrate diet, you can stop at one type of cereal with a low glycemic index (buckwheat, rice, oatmeal). With protein loading, low-fat meat and lean fish are allowed. The most effective are "liquid" fasting days, when the teeth are resting, but you can only drink.

Rule 3: the right day

Many do not attach importance to this moment, but the choice of day is no less important. Nutritionists advise not to take your legal days off, but to choose Monday. This option is not suitable if the work involves physical labor. Unloading is best arranged weekly on the same day.

Rule 4: rest

On the unloading day, not only the digestive tract should rest, but also the whole organism as a whole. It is important to exclude any physical activity, especially training. Alcohol is excluded per day. And for those who have poor tolerance to alcohol, for 2 or even 3 days. On the list of recommended activities: visiting a bath or sauna. Sauna procedures calm the body, help to cope with stress, improve lung ventilation and promote the elimination of toxins. Leisurely walks in the park are also shown.

Lots of time to sleep. Ideally: at least 9 hours. Don't miss the opportunity to relax instead of lunch. Prolonged sleep will strengthen the body, while at the same time it will help to transfer the feeling of hunger more easily.

Rule 5: no contrasts

It is very important that you smoothly enter the fasting day, go through it calmly and also smoothly exit it.

Smooth sign-in and sign-out: why is it important?

Any diet, even one day, is a strong stress for the body. At one point, without explaining the reason, they suddenly stopped feeding him. When will it end, or will it end at all? Just as suddenly, he finally gets a portion of high-calorie food and digests it to the max. That is why after long diets, the lost pounds quickly return.

How to start a fasting day

Proper preparation of the body will help to achieve the maximum effect of unloading. On the eve of lunch, they refuse heavy food. Dinner is replaced with a light salad, fruit, kefir. Before going to bed, it is recommended to do a cleansing enema. You can drink herbal tea, which has a laxative effect, but without fanaticism.

How to smoothly complete the unloading

Naturally, you should not start the next morning with fries. It is better to drink 200 ml of water on an empty stomach and eat some stewed vegetables or a spoonful of rice, then abstain for 2-3 hours. Cereals, vegetables and fruits will help the body to switch to stable work. It is better to give up meat, legumes, eggs or fish. Due to the production of cortisol (stress hormone), appetite increases and food is absorbed to the maximum.

The most efficient way to unload

The effectiveness of a given diet is a relative concept. Each organism is individual, reacts differently to stress, perceives and assimilates products. Therefore, the best option for yourself can only be chosen empirically. Judging by the reviews of "users", as well as the opinion of nutritionists, the most noticeable results can be achieved by following the diets described below. You can stop at one type of unloading or alternate between different ones. So, we present to your attention the most effective fasting days for weight loss.

Unloading day on the water

The most difficult and most effective are called "liquid" unloading, only if they are performed correctly. Many begin to "unload" on the day after the holiday or immediately after the holidays, but nutritionists recommend at least one day before the "X" day to exclude lactic acid, meat, flour and switch to light food. Naturally, everything is greasy, fried, salted and smoked. It is better to prepare water in advance. It can be non-carbonated mineral or ordinary refined, but not boiled.

Really effective fasting days for weight loss are as "strict" as possible. Completely exclude food. It is necessary to drink every hour so that at least 3 liters are obtained per day. Due to the fact that the stomach is constantly full of liquid, there should not be a very strong feeling of hunger. The strictest variant of unloading states that on this day you can not drink tea, coffee or juices, only water.

advice!It is very difficult, but you have to keep a positive attitude and stick with it until the end. Of course, listening to the well-being. If weakness, dizziness or other bad symptoms appear, the experiment should be stopped.

You have to be very careful when you get out of the water. In the morning after fasting, drink a glass of water and eat steamed or stewed vegetables. Throughout the next day, you can eat only cereals, vegetables and fruits.

Cucumber unloading day

The vegetable, which is 95% water, is adored by nutritionists, and the cucumber fasting day for weight loss is so popular that it does not need advertising. Cucumbers are a product with a negative calorie content (the body spends more on digesting them than it receives) and it is much easier to obtain them (albeit for a short time) than water.

Those who have not yet come face to face with the cucumber diet should know that this vegetable is a strong diuretic.

So during the day it is better to be near the toilet. Active social life will have to be postponed, after dinner, weakness may appear, especially in the legs. Some have increased stool. One-day cucumber unloading is indicated for uric acid diathesis, obesity, hypertension, gout, arthrosis and atherosclerosis.

For "green" unloading, you will need 1. 5-2 kg of fresh cucumbers. This amount is divided into 5-6 doses. Unlimited drinking. For a change, you can prepare a salad of cucumbers with herbs, which is left to infuse with a spoonful of vegetable oil. Salt, of course, is not allowed. Cucumbers remove excess water and it will prevent this process, but you can add lemon juice to the salad. At lunch, it is allowed to supplement the diet with a boiled egg. Too bad it won't save you from starvation.

Kefir unloading day

Kefir can compete with cucumbers in popularity. A lot has been written about the useful properties of the product, the most important thing is that it is available all year round, helps normalize pressure, is effective in the prevention of atherosclerosis and, of course, normalizes the digestive tract.

A mono-diet of fat-free kefir will be most effective. The mode of unloading is extremely simple: every 2-3 hours you need to drink 1-2 glasses of kefir. By the middle of the day, the product starts to get saturated with the order. For taste, you can crush dill or parsley in it, and for variety, do not drink, but eat with a spoon. If you want to eat between meals (of course you do), you can drink a glass of water. And if the feeling of hunger is very strong, a tablespoon of wheat bran, unsweetened vegetable or fruit will help you kill it.

There are many options for unloading with kefir. Kefir is often combined with vegetables, lean meat or honey. "Full" unloading days for losing weight on kefir are ideal for people with a weak will and those who are dictated by certain health conditions.

Apple unloading day

Apple is a slowly digestible and low-calorie fruit. It contains 85% water, and the remaining 15% is a valuable storehouse of vitamins and minerals, it is not for nothing called "rejuvenating". Apples are affordable and healthy, they increase immunity, contain antioxidants, regulate the intestinal microflora and promote fat burning. A one-day apple diet isalso called a fasting day for losing weight in the abdomen. But every medal has two sides. Apples can swell, and a strict apple diet is absolutely contraindicated in diseases of the digestive tract (gastritis, ulcer, increased acidity, biliary dyskinesia). In these cases, it is allowedthe use of baked apples.

Let's start by describing the simplest version of unloading apples, which will require several kilograms of apples.

The procedure is as follows: 2 kg of green, unsweetened apples are divided into 5-6 doses or eaten one at a time approximately every hour.

You can eat the fruits fresh or roasted, as well as combined. It is better to use sour apples, but they can increase appetite.

If you have a hard time sticking to apples alone, you can try an apple-lactic acid cleanse. It is allowed to eat 1. 5 kg of apples and 500 g of low-fat cottage cheese per day or to drink 1. 5 liters of kefir.

Buckwheat unloading day

You probably don't need to repeat that buckwheat is incredibly healthy, contains trace elements, vitamins and amino acids. In this case, it is more important that the cereal is rich in dietary fiber, which improves digestion, helps to restore normal functioning and cleanse the intestines. Like many other cereals, buckwheat belongs to foods with a low glycemic index and therefore dulls the feeling of hunger for a long time.

It is better to prepare for unloading with buckwheat the day before. A cup of cereal (about 250 g) is poured into a small pot, poured with boiling water (0. 5 liters), covered with a lid and left overnight. Naturally without salt, but you can add vegetables as spices. In the morning, the porridge is divided into 4-5 meals. By the way, it is better to use green buckwheat, not baked brown. According to experts, all nutrients are preserved in it. If the feeling of hunger worsens, you can eat a green apple, but it is better to drink water.

Unloading rice day

One of the most effective is the rice fasting day. It is good because there are practically no contraindications. The main problem is the likelihood of constipation. Therefore, those who suffer from hemorrhoids or irregular stools should not be burdened with rice. After a meal, it is recommended to drink teas with a laxative effect and start the next morning with kefir and fresh vegetables. In the intestines, the grains act as a sorbent, absorbing water and toxins, which are then removed from the body.

To prepare the right rice porridge, take 350-400 grams of low-calorie brown rice and 0. 5 liters of water. Cereals must be pre-soaked in water for several hours. The grains are boiled until half done. The whole porridge (up to 1 kg) is divided into portions. Do not forget to drink a lot of fluids, you can water, green tea, herbal decoctions.

Comparative overview of popular fasting days

The table shows a sample menu for each of the fasting days described above ("full" option).

Kind of an unburdening day		cucumber	An apple	Kefir	buckwheat	Rice
8-00	breakfast	2 cucumbers + 50g. boiled meat	2-3 apples + a glass of kefir	1-2 cups of kefir	100 g of stewed buckwheat + cucumber or tomato	200 g of rice + a cup of green tea
11-00	Light breakfast	2 cucumbers + green tea or juice	2-3 apples + 100 g of any porridge	200 g of any vegetables	100 g of stewed buckwheat	200 g of rice + 50 g of fish or meat
14-00	Dinner	2 cucumbers + boiled egg or 100 g of rice porridge	2 baked apples + salad of fresh cucumbers with a spoonful of rast. oils	1-2 cups of kefir + 50 g of lean meat	100 g of buckwheat + 50 g of meat	200 g of rice + 1 fresh carrot
17-00	Light breakfast	Cucumber and apple smoothie with lemon juice	2-3 apples + 1 banana	1 cup kefir + banana	100 g buckwheat + apple or ½ grapefruit	200 g of rice + a glass of juice
20-00	Dinner	2 cucumbers + a cup of kefir	2-3 apples + 100 g of cottage cheese	1-2 cups of kefir	100 g of stewed buckwheat	200 g of rice + 1 cup of kefir

Coffee on fasting days

Coffee lovers are probably interested in the question: is it possible to drink coffee these days, or even organize "coffee unloading" at all. According to nutritionists, 1-2 cups of the drink will only be beneficial. In this case, the cup forcoffee should not be equal to the bowl of soup. The recommended volume is 90-120 ml. Naturally, the coffee should be natural without sugar or cream, but you can add sweetener or skim milk.

Coffee lovers did not want to limit themselves in any way and came up with their own version of the diet. The daily fasting menu for weight loss is extremely simple - 5-6 cups of coffee at regular intervals. You can also eat fresh fruits and vegetables. The amount of other liquid should be limited. Many reviews write that after one such day they lost up to 3 kg. The only shame is that this "weight loss" is a scam. Coffee is a diuretic. During the day, instead of the prescribed 2 liters, about a liter is drunk, and much more is excreted from the body. Only the weight of water lost is basically what the scales show. But the big problem is that an already stressful situation for the body is exacerbated by a heavy load on the heart and kidneys.

The conclusion from this is simple: it is not desirable and even dangerous to organize fasting days for coffee, but it will be useful to supplement the unloading with 1-2 cups of natural coffee. The key is to drink plenty of fluids.

Useful tips

Tips compiled from many reviews, but equally suitable for any type of unloading.

• The days of hunger strike will be much easier if you spend them in your favorite foods (but not in biscuits and sweets).
• During fasting days, it is recommended to supplement the diet with decoctions of medicinal herbs. You can use ready-made herbal teas for weight loss. As a rule, they have a complex effect, they have a laxative, fat burning, cleansing, appetite reducing, diuretic and choleretic effect.
• There is no need to try to do everything at once and combine diet with physical activity in one day. But breathing exercises will be just the way.
• If it is difficult to maintain five meals a day, the daily part can be divided into more meals.
• Avoid sugar, salt and spices completely.

Deloading days for weight loss give different results. In the reviews, they often write that they lose up to 2 kg of weight per day. Those who are attracted to this figure should understand that 2 kg of body fat is not lost! Excess fluid with toxins and "food scraps", half-digested food that accumulates on the walls of the intestine, leaves. It is impossible to lose weight even by 1 kg per day. With the strictest disposal of water, you can get rid of a maximum of 100-200 grams of fat.