Re: Does anyone water fast every other day?
I don't agree with any sort of fasting helping an ED.. an ED is mental and 9 tims out of ten stems from abuse etc.. and fasting cannot cure being physically or sexually abused. You have to deal with those issues one has been buring and figure out why one uses food as an emotional outlet whether eating or starving. Fasting cannot help with something like this. You can't fast out a mental disorder.
Bulimia is actually more dangerous than anorexia, and with anyone recovering weight should NEVER be an issue, easier said than done, but it shouldn't be or you will never recover. I put on 45 lbs when I started to really recover and it was a frickin nightmare, but I got through it and once I started eating properly the weight falls off and toyu get to your set weight. Then after that was I ready to work out and do what i wanted with my body in a healthy manner.
For say a bulimic.. its still getting that weight off and fasting will just encourage that. Making new eating habits will not happen overnight and someone who has suffered from an ED will always struggle with it. Hell I still do have that voice in my head saying don't eat this.. maybe I should starve back down.. or feeling guilty at times and working out. Hell it happened during my last 5 day fast. I broke it.. ended up feeling guilty and did an hr of cardio just to burn what I ate off. I stopped myself any further. So if you can imagine someone who is still in the early steps of recovery fasting would actually encourage staying the way they are.
as for calorie restriction.. I was directly stating what the OP said.. doing 300-400 cals then fasting the next day.. yeahh thats gonna really screw up your metabolism. And what after doing that and getting 100 lbs off and not being obese what then? You still haven't established healthy eating patterns or the root that got you that obese to begin with.. I guess you'll have to yo yo everyday for the rest of your life? Eating 400 cals a day is not good and will trick your body into starvation after awhile, and you will look sick and flabby. And things like this believe it or not do develop into ED's.. it is not uncommon for someone obese to turn into an anorexic or bulimic nor is it uncommon for people to weave back and forth into several types of ED's.
I don't expect people to understand this, its hard unless youve lived it or know someone.. and Ive lived it and worked as a psychotherapist for those who do as well.
But I just thought I'd throw it out there because I see too many careless posts and everyone encouraging just because its a fast. Not all fasts are good for the body :)
Hope this made some sense :)