Fasting – What is it and should you do it?

Contrary to what some diet novices would like to believe, fasting isn’t actually about how quickly you can chow down a burger. Rather, it is one of the diet world’s most popular trends today. So what exactly is fasting? And why are people getting so into it?

What is Fasting?

Fasting is the act of stopping yourself from consuming anything for a certain period of time, usually from 12 to 24 hours. And yes that includes the small bar of chocolate on your desk, and yes that also includes iced coffee. But at least you can drink water. And no, not flavoured water like tea. Just the plain old, classic, rejuvenating water.

Sounds pretty easy. For some of us though who like to munch as we go about our daily crunch or sip our iced mochas to energise our brains, fasting can be a pretty challenging feat.
But just because you’ve fasted for the day doesn’t mean you can eat a whole pizza and still expect to lose weight. Fasting only becomes truly effective for your weight loss when you reduce the number of calories you consume.

Let’s do a bit of basic maths, shall we?

The suggested healthy daily intake of calories is 2,000 for women. That’s a total of 14,000 calories in a week. Consuming this amount of calories a week, you neither lose weight nor gain any.

To effectively lose 1kg within a week, you will need to have a deficit of 7,700 calories (32,216 kj). That means you can only consume 6,300 calories in a week – that’s 900 calories per day.

Okay, 900 calories do sound a lot – but 100g of chocolate is already 556 calories. So let’s make sure we put our 900 calories to good use.

If you totally skipped that snooze-fest bit of maths, here’s what we’re really trying to say:

Fasting is a great way to help you lose weight because you get to avoid all the little calories you pick up along the way.

Before you proceed and fast, we suggest consulting your GP first, especially if you suffer from gastro-related issues or if you’re diabetic. While it’s good to look great, remember that health is truly the best wealth.

What you eat and the quality of food you eat still play a big part in your weight loss journey. Thankfully there are meals you can reward yourself with after hours of fasting, like Dietlicious. Not only are they great for your taste buds, but they also keep your calorie count low, helping you reach your goal. So it’s like you’re not dieting when you totally are. Check out our full menu here.

TLDR 

Fasting is a great way to lose weight by creating a shortage in the number of total calories you can consume and achieve your goal. So reward yourself after fasting by eating Dietlicious meals – because not only are they low in calories, they’re also very tasty and satisfying.