Fasting is technically where an individual will stop eating or drinking or in some cases both. It has been a subject that has held a great deal of controversy. It is done for various reasons by individuals who practice this.

Religious Reasons

Some will go through bouts of fasting based on their religious faith. It may be to signify some event that is taking place within their specific religions. For example, some within the Jewish faith with practice a regime of fasting.

Cleansing

Others will carry out a bout of fasting and abstaining from all foods but may include some liquids in their diet that may be no more than water for a day or two. They are doing this because they believe that it allows the body to rest and cleanse itself.

Fasting to Lose Weight

There are all kinds of different approaches to using fasting for dieting. Some will try and starve themselves for a few days thinking that they will drop a significant amount of weight by doing this. This is perhaps where the most controversy lies with fasting. Some will take it to extremes and this is what leads some within the medical profession to consider it to be a dangerous practice.

Others believe that when a person is fasting their body is going into shut down mode where their metabolism slows down so there are no significant benefits to the fasting.

One of the concerns has been that fasting has become a fad in the diet world. As a result there have been all kinds of fasting programs erupting that are comprised of different time frames for the fasting to last. Some experts in the medical field do believe that proper fasting can have its place, but only when used as part of a strategy for losing weight.

New evidence through studies is indicating that fasting may help with weight loss but only when it is done with a diet that can mimic fasting. This is called the Fasting Mimicking Diet.

The arguments against intermittent fasting are over eating once the fasting has been completed. Some say it can create poor sleep habits. It could also affect muscle loss and then there is a risk of missing out on proper nutrition.

A New Revelation

While it is unlikely that just one study would be able to solve the controversy there has been a recent study that indicates that on and off fasting might help with the fight against obesity.  The study took place with the use of mice. The outcome showed that when mice were subjected to intermittent fasting that the metabolism was increased in these rodents which helped them to generate body heat which in turn burned some of the fat. This is the big argument that many of those who promote intermittent fasting have been presenting all along. To them it just seemed that this concept made perfect sense.

Just one study such as this doesn't mean that all those that are overweight should suddenly adopt intermittent fasting. More studies are required that include the use of human subjects that can be monitored over a period of time.