Target Weight: 200 lbs
(the ultra Radical, tired of being a fatso, weight loss plan!)
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Game Plan: Walking a mile each day, Fasting for several days between meals
while taking daily multi-vitamin and eating a daily health bar from Garden of Life and drinking as much water as possible.

Starting weight: 293 lbs (on 3/01/07 when diet started)

Fasting: 3/01 thru 3/09
Eating: 3/10 - Had a 6in sub sandwich with small bag of Sun Chips
Eating: 3/11 - Had salad with Salmon with small amount of pre-dinner appetizers
Current Weight: 285 lbs (as of 3/14/07)
*Lost 8 lbs in 14 days!

Currently fasting since 3/12....
(will post in a few days when I get on the scales again)

Ok, rock on. You might want to check out the 100+ forum for people with similar struggles (me included) and also maybe the 300 and ready to try again forum (again, same reason). But welcome, welcome.

I don't like this fasting idea though. You know that you need to eat to lose weight right? Fasting won't work for weight loss, for one, you metabolism shuts down and while you will lose weight, it won't be that fast or efficient AND you could screw it up permanently so that you won't be able to eat a normal amount of food afterward without gaining. I'd rethink that one. There are so many healthy lifestyle options that people choose on this site and I doubt many will be supportive of that choice.
We WILL, however, be supportive of you being healthy and losing weight in a safe way.

Rockz, I'm afraid I must agree with shrinkingchica, who really must know exactly what she's talking about given that she's lost no less than 131 pounds (wow!).

I just dont get why you're going from eating probably over 2000 calories a day (I'm totally guessing but that's really not a high amount; basically less or the same as what the average slim person eats). I would almost guarantee with money behind it that you would still lose between 1 and 3 pounds per week by eating 1600 calories per day if you walked the one mile a day that you're doing now (that is awesome by the way).

I'm also willing to bet that most of the 8 pounds is water, with a bit of fat and muscle thrown in. We lose fat and muscle (and even bone) when we starve ourselves. However, I do think the goal for most people is to lose fat only, so another reason to eat.

As far as the metabolism slowing down, I saw this firsthand when I got food poisening this past winter. I had been losing about a pound per week steadily when I got violently sick. I didn't eat for 2 days and ate limited amounts for the next 2. I lost 4 pounds..yah! Well, those pounds came right back on within 2 days of my illness and stayed with me for the next few weeks. Those few weeks were a total wash. Once my body got back to normal - and I started eating again - I started losing again.

If you are on any medications at all, talk to your doctor before fasting, also it REALLY screws with your metabolism. I lost my first 75 lbs every, mostly by fasting (in high school my doctor gave me a diet pill which killed my appetite) and I only ate on weekends. I got within five pounds of my goal (by the skin of my teeth, as the last several months were dead slow) at 155 lbs. I hadn't been at that weight for more than five minutes when the doctor lowered "my goal" to 145 lbs.

I sure wish he had allowed me to enjoy "victory" before lowering the boom, maybe it would have made a difference, but I went off my fast that day, and gained all the weight back, plus a bunch. It came on so fast, it was like an eyeblink. In less than six months it was all back on, plus another 35 - 50 lbs.

In a very real way, I have dieted and fasted my way to this weight. If you're very healthy, a limited fast probably won't do permanent harm, and will give you a "rush" with some quick weight loss, but that "rush" can be dangerous in itself. It sets up unrealistic goals and expectations for weight loss, and it becomes very difficult to resist the extreme, and unhealthy methods of getting the weight off, and doesn't in any way support the habits you need to develop to maintain.

As hard as weight loss is, maintenance is thousands of times harder, which is why so many of us have lost our current body weight many times over, if you add up all of the pounds we've lost over the years (without subtracting the weight we gained). It is very possible that I have lost a ton or more in my lifetime (since I was put on my first diet, at age 5, and can only remember a couple years when I consciously did not diet (graduate school - my weight was high, but it did not fluctuate more than 10 lbs - which reinforces my belief that if I had never been put "on a diet" at 5, I may have been normal weight, or nearly close to it, but not much point in beating that VERY dead horse).

My longwinded point is that you are playing with fire, please be very careful

We wish you the best of health, but we don't support extreme or starvation diets here. Our goal is reaching a healthy weight through a healthy diet and fitness program.

We would like to encourage you to browse some of our diet forums such as Weight Watchers or South Beach, and see if anything looks appealing to you. We'd be happy to support you as you follow the plan as written.

You might also be interested in our Chicks in Control forum, which is filled with great people that struggle with eating patterns, many are recovering from eating disorders.

Good luck