Chapter 1: I Lost 45 Pounds by Doing Nothing!

Between January and October of 2017 I lost 45 pounds by doing nothing. I think it’s important to list the things I DID NOT DO:
Prepare special meals
Count calories or carbs or anything else
Eat things I did not like
Exercise (except to mow my half acre lawn, but only when it needed it or my wife bugged me)
Turn down having dessert after every evening meal
Ask for special food or preparation at a restaurant
Take over the counter or prescription drugs for weight loss
Refuse cake and ice cream at a birthday party
Lose weight between Thanksgiving and New Years (actually I feasted)
Give up alcohol
Spend a bunch of money, in fact I saved money. I did spent about $40 for educational materials. However, the best of the 8 books I read was free to anyone.

Using a conventional diet to lose weight is always successful at first and then your metabolism declines, you get disappointed, demoralized, and give up. Less than 2% of dieters using the “move more, eat less” regimen reach goal weight AND keep it off¹. If you need more proof, have you ever seen a reunion show for the winners of The Biggest Loser show. You won’t because only one of the 14 winners remains at goal weight as of this writing¹. The rest have gained it back just like many of us have experienced in our dieting history. When you give up on the diet-of-the-month it’s always your fault says the medical establishment. With a 98% failure rate maybe it’s just bad advice¹.

What I did isn’t for everyone. I don’t like to waste people's’ time so I’ll give up an opinion here and if it fits, you can probably go on about your business without reading on. If you complain about the weather and the direction of your country’s government and other things you can’t control as well as other things you do have control over, but choose not to change, go do something else.

If you are still reading, what I did is ancient. Science has only now had the tools to confirm what people that preceded our time of taking up space on the planet’s surface have known by experience for thousands of years. As usual, I’m a little behind “the curve” as this way of losing weight is big on TV, the internet (youtube), and various other media. I just wanted to share my personal experience as someone you can interact with if you choose to do so.

What I did was fasting and prayer. For my non-believing friends prayer is optional of course. Before I did so, I read three books on the subject before I started fasting and while losing weight I read five more. I will be footnoting them as this series of posts unfolds. Fasting is the greatest threat to ever loom over the medical, food, weight loss, and pharmaceutical industries and they are sparing no expense to discredit it at every opportunity. I can confidently say that whatever you think you know about fasting, unless you have studied it, is wrong. I will be providing physiological references to dispel the many myths surrounding fasting. We are all knowledgeable as well as ignorant, it just depends on the subject.

I have read where people have done water-only fasts for 40 days with no ill effects, but then I read about a man in Scotland in 1965-66 that started out at 456 pounds and ended his fast at 180 pounds after 382 days. That is an average daily weight loss of .7 pounds per day. The fast was supervised by university medical professionals and his only intake was water, coffee, tea, and carbonated water and a daily multivitamin. NO CALORIES FOR 382 DAYS! (Search Angus Barbieri). So what will happen if you skip a meal or two? Nothing.

Everybody is afraid of hunger pangs which cease in the third day of an extended water-only fast. I read about this and then experienced it. On the fourth and fifth day I read about and then experienced a euphoric feeling and increased energy. Your metabolism increases during an extended fast by as much as 12%. This is opposite of diets that feature calorie restriction at each meal.

I lost my fear of hunger pangs when I realized they are more like a child in a shopping cart whining for candy just out of his reach while his frustrated mother puts grocery items on the checkout counter at the grocery store. The difference between hunger pangs and true “natural hunger” is explained very well in Dr. Herbert Shelton’s book Fasting and Sunbathing.

In future chapters I will talk about the health benefits of fasting (yes HEALTH BENEFITS), its history, the leading proponents, the leading detractors, pros and cons, dispelling the myths, my personal experiences, a few Biblical and religious references, and anything else that you ask me to focus on.

One important thing I learned in my study of fasting is that our bodies have been designed to do it. Eating three meals a day, day after day after day, is not physiologically normal for any mammal. We were designed (or evolved by natural selection for my unbelieving friends) to feast and fast.

Fasting isn’t for everyone. Young people under the age of 18, pregnant and lactating women, or people taking prescription drugs should not fast. Morbidly obese people should have medical supervision by persons thoroughly trained and experienced in fasting procedures and expectations. To just start fasting without educating yourself on how to start a fast, what to expect during a fast, and how to break a fast is foolish.

Watch for future posts for facts and the surprising science behind this ancient form of maintaining optimal health and weight.

Thank you!

1 Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung