Does a starvation diet work? How long does it take to lose any noticiable weight?

I'd like to know from any of you that have tried it. I've got to do a 3,000 word essay for a $1,000 scholarship on dangerous diets. Any info would be great. I can't find shit anywhere. Thanks

Your body will eat your muscles for energy.

People that do that to themselves have no idea what they are doing to their bodies.

speaking of starving ...

how do you tell when an etheopian woman is pregnant?
her tampon comes out half eaten

That was cold [:|]

A starvation diet will absolutely work. (I don't recall seeing any overweight people in concentration camp photos.)

However, since the body is genetically programmed to retain it's most fuel-dense energy source; ie: fat, you will lose 600g of muscle tissue and only 400g of fatty tissue for every one kilogram you starve off.

So, you can be slim and weak....

Or...you can eat sensibly, exercise consistently, utilizing calories in excess of intake, and lose the fat weight in a more selective fashion.

I did too. But they are irrelevant articles containing the phrase "starvation diet". I didn't see any that had to do with what I wanted.

try this


[url]http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=starvation+diet&meta=group%3Dsci.med.nutrition[/url]

While your body gains energy from sugars or fats, your body also burns through a lot of protein just doing it's normal thing, so when you starve yourself your body will cannibalize your lean muscle very quickly. Not healthy.

Thanks for the helpful info guys. Much appreciated.

There are many who believe that 'fasting' is a great way to detoxify oneself.  There are those who think fasting is a great way to kill yourself.

Although I've tried a couple of times to fast on water alone, I've lacked the willpower to go more than 3 days without food.

The basic idea/theory/mumbo-jumbo is this: (I'm not an expert on this, okay?  You need to ask this of professionals - on both sides of the arguement, not arfcom wannabe know-it-alls.)

First you burn off all the carbs stored in your body (liver, bloodstream etc).  Then you burn protein and fat through ketosis.  The protein you burn (this is where it gets into the non-proven or wishful thinking) are the old, infirm, dieing and basically crappy cells.  All the sites on fasting I've hit have stated (as fact more than belief, but belief it is), that the body searches out old dieing cells first, along with all the crap stored in the cells.  I've seen no scientific backing of this.  

It's something that has intrigued me.  I'd still like to try it for 10 days just to see for myself.  The fasting types believe that somewhere after 11 to 15 days the body resorts to burning "useful" and "healthy" proteins/cells, which by definition is starving.  Prior to that, it burns and uses the waste.

As I've said before, this place is filled with people of strong opinion, but rarely of real professional background.  Go to both sides of the argument and check it out.  I'm not sure of the answer myself.  I will not pretend to know the answers.  I only know some of the thoughts behind the basic theories.

We are not the medical community.  Go to a forum of doctors or biology experts, and ask them.  We are gun owners and are therefore NOT qualified to answer your questions in this.

"cleansing" by starvations seems like new age mumbo jumbo to me

Ive been on a self imposed pow diet before...it works but you loose valuable muscle mass.

for me, a low calorie diet of ramen noodles, 1 a Day plus vitamin  coupled with liberal usasge of cocain/    amphetimines (preferably smoked) will melt the pounds away....a bit unhealthy, but hey, it's better to look marvelous than to feel marvelous....


-HS

As far as being a "diet" to lose and keep off weight the starvation diet will actually cause you to gain a ton of fat back as soon as you start eating again.

As others have said when you go into starvation mode your body will use your muscles for fuel first.  In addition it also dramatically slows down your metabolism.  When you go back to eating, your body is still in starvation mode and tries to store everything you eat because your body is not sure when you will eat again.  The extra food and slow metabolism will just pack on weight like you would not believe.  The result is you lost a lot of muscle but gained back all the weight as fat.  Not a good thing.