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

Fasting days will not help to lose 10-15 kg per month before summer. They are more suitable for those who need to keep themselves in shape without much effort or who need to get back "in line" after the winter. Landing days for weight loss do not give such impressive results as we would like, but if you do them regularly and then do not stress about food, the effect will definitely please you.

What are fasting days for?

It seems 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 double-checked. And it consists of the following elements:

• 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" known to many against pain. In other words, it is stagnation during the diet. The weight drops to a certain point and then stops, unwilling to move. A hunger strike can serve as a mild stress for the body and a kind of catalyst for fat burning processes.
• And, of course, one cannot fail to mention the "strength test" and the development of willpower.

Types and peculiarities of food unloading

Landing days are conditionally divided into two types:

• "hungry"
• "saturated".

These two options differ in the calorie content of the daily menu and the number of ingredients allowed for use.

The nature and principles of "hungry" days

The easiest and most rigorous option is a day on the water. Deloading, which excludes proteins, fats and easily digestible carbohydrates, is also called a "cleanse". In other cases, in addition to liquid, one product is included in the diet. The maximum daily calorie content is 500 calories. Considering 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 ordinary cucumber is 15. 5 calories. Following these restrictions, you can eat 3. 2 kg of fresh green cucumbers per day.

Important!Regardless of the type of food you eat, 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 better option. They allow 2-3 products that can be combined: meat, vegetables, eggs, legumes, fruits, dairy products. The calorie situation changes a bit, you can't exceed the 800 calorie limit. According to the type of products used, "full" fasting days for weight loss include proteins and carbohydrates.

• Protein unloading is the best option when more restrictive diets cause weakness, dizziness or are not suitable for health reasons. You can eat: lean meat; crustaceans, crustaceans and fish; plant proteins. If you wish, you can diversify the menu with low-calorie vegetables. Chinese cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, greens are successfully combined with proteins. According to the preparation method, it is better to give preference to boiling 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 food rich in slow carbohydrates. Usually it is buckwheat, rice, dried fruits.

When making a 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 unequal fight against excess weight. They will help to get rid of the feeling of heaviness after a busy holiday, promoting a gentle cleansing of the intestines from toxins. Indicated for certain diseases. So, for example, it is recommended to spend "watermelon" days in case of kidney diseases, "potatoes" for the heart and blood vessels, and "cucumbers" for joint problems. Only without initiative, after consulting a doctor. Unloading should be done without fail by those who constantly follow various fitness diets, love protein foods, artificial proteins and other "heavy foods".

It is not possible to unload patients with diabetes, pregnant women and breastfeeding women. For people who are tired of a long illness and suffer from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (only "full" secretions are shown after consultation with a gastroenterologist). During menstruation, it is not desirable to organize unloading.

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

5 landing regulations

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

Rule 1: Obey the conditions

Most fasting days are built on the principle of a monodiet, that is, you can eat one product, but you should do it as often as possible. Of course, in small portions. In addition, you should like the chosen product, it will help ease the already stressful situation for the body. The total energy value of the products must not exceed 800 cal.

Rule 2: Choosing the optimal product

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

Rule 3: The Right Day

Many do not attach importance to this moment, but the choice of the day is no less important. Nutritionists advise not to take the legal holiday, but to choose Monday. This option is not suitable if the work involves physical work. Unloading is best organized on the same day every week.

Rule 4: Rest

On the day of unloading, not only the digestive tract should rest, but the whole body as a whole. It is important to exclude any physical activity, especially training. Alcohol is excluded on the day. And for those who have poor alcohol tolerance, within 2 or even 3 days. On the list of recommended activities: a visit to a 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.

Plenty of time to sleep. Ideally: at least 9 hours. Don't miss the chance to relax at the lunch spot. A long sleep will strengthen the body, and at the same time it will help to transfer the feeling of hunger more easily.

Rule 5: No contrasts

It is very important to smoothly enter the fasting day, calmly go through it and also smoothly leave it.

Smooth entry and exit: Why is it important?

Any diet, even a one-day diet, is a strong stress on the body. At some point, without explaining the reason, they suddenly stopped feeding him. When will it end, or will it ever end? Just as suddenly, he finally receives a portion of calorie-rich food and assimilates it to the maximum. That is why after long diets, the lost weight quickly returns.

How to start a fasting day

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

How to finish unloading smoothly

Of course, you shouldn't start the next morning with fried potatoes. It is better to drink 200 ml of water on an empty stomach and eat some stewed vegetable or a spoonful of rice and then refrain from eating for 2-3 hours. Cereals, vegetables and fruits will help the body transition 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 of unloading

The effectiveness of a particular diet is a relative concept. Each organism is individual, reacts differently to stress, perceives and assimilates products. Therefore, you can only choose the best option empirically. Judging by the reviews of "users", as well as listening to the opinions of nutritionists, the most remarkable results can be obtained by following the diets described below. You can stop at one type of unloading or switch between different ones. So, we bring to your attention the most effective fasting days for weight loss.

Landing day on the water

The most difficult and effective ones are called "liquid" unloading, if only they are done correctly. Many begin to "unload" the day after the holiday or immediately after the holiday, but nutritionists recommend at least a day before "X" day to exclude lactic acid, meat, flour dishes and switch to light food. Of course, everything is fatty, fried, salted and also smoked. It is better to prepare the water in advance. It can be still mineral or ordinary refined, but not boiled.

Really effective fasting days for weight loss are as "strict" as possible. Cut out food completely. It is necessary to drink every hour to get at least 3 liters per day. Due to the fact that the stomach is constantly filled with liquid, there should not be a very bright feeling of hunger. The strictest version of the landing says that on this day you cannot drink tea, coffee or juices, only water.

Advice!It's very difficult, but you have to keep a positive attitude and persevere to the end. Of course, listening to the feeling of well-being. If weakness, dizziness or other bad symptoms appear, the experiment should be stopped.

Be very careful when getting out of the water. In the morning after fasting, they drink a glass of water and eat steamed or stewed vegetables. All the next day you can eat only cereals, vegetables and fruits.

Landing day on cucumbers

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 digestion than it receives), and it is much easier to get enough of them (albeit for a short time) than water.

Those who have not yet encountered the cucumber diet in person should know that this vegetable is a powerful diuretic.

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

For "green" landing, you will need 1. 5-2 kg of fresh cucumbers. This amount is divided into 5-6 doses. Drink without limits. For a change, you can prepare a cucumber salad with greens, which are allowed to be filled with a spoonful of vegetable oil. Salt, of course, is not allowed. Cucumbers remove excess water and this will interfere with this process, but you can add lemon juice to the salad. It is allowed to supplement the diet with a boiled egg during lunch. 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 beneficial properties of the product, the main 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.

The most effective will be a mono-diet on fat-free kefir. The unloading regime is extremely simple: every 2-3 hours you need to drink 1-2 glasses of kefir. By the middle of the day, the product is tired of the order. For the sake of taste, you can crush dill or parsley in it and instead of drinking it, eat it with a spoon. If you want to eat between meals (which you definitely will), 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 to kill it.

There are many options for unloading kefir. Kefir is often combined with vegetables, lean meat or honey. "Full" landing days for weight loss on kefir are perfect for people with weak willpower and those determined by certain health conditions.

Apple unloading day

An apple is a slow-digesting fruit with low calories. It contains 85% water, and the remaining 15% is a valuable storehouse of vitamins and minerals, it is not for nothing that it is called "restorative". Apples are beneficial and healthy, they increase immunity, contain antioxidants, regulate intestinal microflora and promote fat burning. The one-day apple diet is also called a fasting day to lose belly weight. But every coin has two sides. Apples can cause swelling, and a strict apple diet is absolutely contraindicated for diseases of the digestive tract (gastritis, ulcers, hyperacidity, biliary dyskinesia). In these cases, it is allowed to use baked apples.

Let's start with the description of the simplest options for unloading apples, which will require a couple of kilograms of apples.

The procedure is as follows: divide 2 kg of green, unsweetened apples into 5-6 portions or eat one approximately every hour.

You can eat the fruit fresh or fried, or a combination. It is better to use sour apples, but they can increase appetite.

If it's hard to get by with just apples, you can try malolactic unloading. It is allowed to eat 1. 5 kg of apples and 500 g of fat-free cottage cheese or drink 1. 5 liters of kefir per day.

Buckwheat landing day

It probably goes without saying that buckwheat is incredibly healthy, containing trace elements, vitamins and amino acids. In this case, it is more important that the cereals are rich in fiber, which improves digestion, helps restore normal functioning and cleans the intestines. Like many other cereals, buckwheat belongs to foods with a low glycemic index, and therefore reduces the feeling of hunger for a long time.

It is better to prepare for unloading 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 herbs can be added as spices. In the morning, the porridge is divided into 4-5 portions. By the way, it is better to use green buckwheat instead of roasted brown. In it, according to experts, all nutrients are preserved. If the feeling of hunger has worsened, it is allowed to snack on a green apple, but it is better to drink water.

Landing day for rice

One of the most effective is the rice fasting day. This is good because it has practically no contraindications. The main problem is the possibility of constipation. Therefore, it is better not to unload on rice for those who suffer from hemorrhoids or irregular stools. After eating, it is preferable to drink teas with a laxative effect, and start the next morning with kefir and fresh vegetables. In the intestines, grains act as a sorbent, they absorb water and toxins, which are then removed from the body.

To make the right rice porridge, take 350-400 grams of low-calorie brown rice and 0. 5 liters of water. Cereals must be soaked in water for several hours beforehand. Boil the grains until half. The whole porridge (up to 1 kg) is divided into portions. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids, you can have water, green tea, herbal decoctions.

A comparative overview of popular fasting days

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

Landing day type		cucumbers	Apple	Kefir	Buckwheat	Rice
8-00	For breakfast	2 cucumbers + 50 gr. boiled meat	2-3 apples + a glass of kefir	1-2 cups of kefir	100 g of steamed buckwheat + cucumber or tomato	200 g of rice + a cup of green tea
11-00	Snacks	2 cucumbers + green tea or juice	2-3 apples + 100 g of any porridge	200 g of any vegetable	100 g of steamed buckwheat	200 g of rice + 50 g of fish or meat
14-00	Dinner	2 cucumbers + boiled egg or 100 gr of rice porridge	2 baked apples + fresh cucumber salad with a spoon. oils	1-2 glasses of kefir + 50 g of lean meat	100 g buckwheat + 50 g meat	200 g of rice + 1 fresh carrot
17-00	Snacks	Cucumber and apple smoothie with lemon juice	2-3 apples + 1 banana	1 cup of kefir + banana	100 g buckwheat + apple or ½ grapefruit	200 g of rice + a glass of juice
20-00	Dinner	2 cucumbers + a glass of kefir	2-3 apples + 100 g cottage cheese	1-2 cups of kefir	100 g of steamed buckwheat	200 g of rice + 1 glass of kefir

Coffee on fasting days

Coffee lovers may be interested in the question: is it possible to drink coffee these days or even organize "coffee landings"? According to nutritionists, 1-2 cups of the drink will only do you good. In this case, a cup of coffee should not be equal to a bowl of soup. The recommended volume is 90-120 ml. Of course, the coffee must be natural without sugar or cream, but you can add sweetener or skimmed milk.

Coffee lovers did not want to limit themselves in any way and came up with their own version of the diet. The fasting day 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 fluids should be limited. Many reviews write that after one such day they lost up to 3 kg. It's just a shame that this "weight loss" is deceptive. Coffee is a diuretic. During the day, instead of the prescribed 2 liters, about a liter is drunk, and much more is released from the body. Only the weight of water lost is essentially what the scale shows. But the big problem is that the already stressful situation for the body is aggravated by a heavy load on the heart and kidneys.

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

Useful tips

Tips collected from many reviews, but equally well suited for any type of unloading.

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

Offloading days for weight loss have different results. In reviews, they often write that they lose up to 2 kg per day. Those who are attracted to this number should understand that they are not lost 2 kg of body fat! Excess fluid with toxins and "food waste", partially digested food that accumulates on the intestinal walls, leaves. It is impossible to lose weight even by 1 kg per day. With the strongest water discharge, you can get rid of no more than 100-200 grams of fat.