Re: why doesn't fasting make me lose weight anymore?
Fasting is not the way to permanently lose weight, here is why:
1. It doesn't change the intake/burn balance. Everyone weighs what they do based on how much they eat vs. how much they burn. You can change this on either end, by eating less CONSISTANTLY on a daily basis, or exercising more on a daily/weekly basis. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is how much your body burns naturally.
2. Fasting and your BMR
Your BMR is loosly based on your genetics, and is heavily influenced on your consistant eating patterns. Your BMR is highest in the morning, and drops off as the day progresses. Your BMR will drop if your body is not digesting food, the body's cell basically take a rest if they have nothing to do. Fasting drops your BMR significantly.
You can take advantage of this by eating more in the morning and progressivly less as the day goes on. (We Americans have a horrible habit of eating the biggest meal of the day at the end of the day.) Also, eating 6 smaller meals instead of 3 large meals is healthier and keeps your BMR up.
You asked if fasting would ruin your weight loss, and it will to a point, especially the more often you fast. Your body is not designed to go without food for long periods of time.
(I am not saying fasting is bad, it is just NOT a good way to lose weight)
The initial weight you lost is mostly water weight (first 10-15 lbs of any weight loss), it is transient and will return fairly quickly.
The only proven way to lose weight is to change your intake/burn balance and to take advantage of your BMR. Now, to do this you cannot go nuts. You need to count your average daily caloric intake and subtract 100-200. This will allow your body to maintain its BMR as well as burn excess fat. You can expect to lose about 1 lb a week, which is the healthy way to lose weight.
WeightWatchers is a program that does all of this, however, you can do it on your own too if you are willing to put a lot of effort into it. Its hard to start, fairly easy to maintain once you have a rythym.