Many people resort to fasting as a weight loss strategy without fully understanding the serious consequences of this fasting approach. Fasting, especially as a long-term weight loss method, can significantly negatively impact physical and mental health.
Mechanisms of Overweight and Obesity
The mechanism behind overweight and obesity is the consequence of an energy intake higher than energy expenditure, leading to the accumulation of fat and weight gain. Therefore, there is a belief that fasting can minimize energy intake, thus effectively aiding weight loss and hopefully facilitating the breakdown of accumulated fat.
However, fasting for weight loss is flawed and carries both short-term and long-term consequences for the body.
Is Fasting Good for Health?
Initially, when fasting, the body adjusts by suppressing hunger to reduce the sensation of hunger and gets used to consuming less food than usual. However, when you stop fasting, hunger returns, intensifying the desire to eat and leading to overeating.
While fasting may seem effective for weight loss initially, it does not yield long-term results. This has been demonstrated in scientific research, showing that fasting for weight loss is not a safe method.
Health Consequences of Fasting
- Fatigue
During fasting, the body remains in a “hungry” state, and the body’s metabolism slows down to conserve energy. Therefore, prolonged fasting may result in weight loss and normal bodily functions are restricted, leading to fatigue, reduced endurance, lack of energy, decreased concentration and memory, negative mood, and sleep disturbances.
- Muscle Loss
Fasting for weight loss often results in dehydration and low blood sugar levels. Food is crucial for providing basic needs for water, minerals, and nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Fasting causes muscle loss because the body, when starved, first utilizes energy reserves in muscles to compensate for energy deficiency, leading to the accumulation of metabolic byproducts harmful to the body.
- Body Weakening
Fasting for weight loss often leads to inadequate hydration and deficiency in essential nutrients such as iron, zinc, and magnesium, resulting in consequences like malnutrition or even body weakening. Severe electrolyte imbalances like sodium, calcium, and potassium can cause low blood pressure, muscle weakness, or muscle cramps.
- Digestive Disorders
Prolonged fasting can cause various digestive disorders such as constipation or diarrhea, nausea, bloating, and acid reflux. Insufficient food intake may not stimulate the intestinal mucosa to function properly, coupled with reduced physical activity to conserve energy, slowing down the basal metabolic rate, leading to constipation, bloating, and even acid reflux, causing bad breath, and damaging tooth enamel.
Long-term fasting also increases gastric acid, leading to gastric mucosal damage, gastritis, peptic ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome, causing sour regurgitation, and foul-smelling breath.
- Endocrine and Psychological Disorders
Prolonged fasting also has adverse effects on the body’s endocrine glands and can cause psychological disorders. Many cases of menstrual irregularities have been reported, even amenorrhea in women who fast for weight loss due to hormonal imbalance, which can lead to ovarian failure, reduced fertility, and even infertility.
An energy-deficient diet can lead to reduced nourishment of brain cells, decreased metabolism, and nerve conduction velocity, resulting in memory loss, reduced concentration, depression, and anxiety.
Weight loss should be achieved safely by adjusting diet while maintaining diversity, timely eating, and increasing physical activity to expend energy, achieve body firmness, and improve the function of organs such as the heart, lungs, and digestive system.