Your body needs nutrition to live. Fasting will only bring on bingeing. You can lose weight healthfully by eating at a calorie deficit but not to large of a deficit and exercise. I have lost just about all my excess weight by counting calories, eating a balanced diet and exercise. You don't need to starve to lose!!!

Once a mo. I fast for 1 to up to 3 dys.. during that time I still have dry fiber one cereal,n at least 1 banana ( some type of fruit ), I incress water intake, n I eat some type of raw veg.. I like kale w mix vegs in hot water. I put a chicken falvored bullion cube in water n heat n then add veg's. Low cal soup. over cooked veg are easy to digest n low in cal's, it is the way that I make my fasting soup.
Ya I lose weight n ... when I fast but I chalk that loss up to water weight loss n pretty much emptying lrg n small intestants.
Part of my reg schedule, I will save dyly veg's left over, cooked vegs n have veggy soup on Fri r during the wk end.

Ive read in several different places that if you eat less than 1200 cals a day, your body will go into starvation mode and will hold onto the fat you have. You may lose doing this but when you go back to eating more than 1200 cals a day, your metabolism is slower and you will gain. For example, look at how fat the ppl from tv show survivor have gotten when they come back for the reunion show!!

In January I tried the 5:2 Diet. Two days out of the week (not consecutive) I ate only 600 calories. The other five days about 1,700. This caused the calorie intake to be very different, to change a lot. That is sometimes known as "calorie cycling".

I am 67 years of age and do not lose fast or easily. In Jan. I lost 5 lbs., which for me is a lot for the month. This month of Feb. I have just been eating moderately (not cycling). I have hardly lost anything and there is only one more week to Feb.!! So my belief is that it's OK TO GO LOW, just not every day. If you starve every day, your metabolism will indeed slow down and hold on to your fat.

Not eating slows your metabolism down so once you resume eating, the body holds on to whatever and stores it as fat....not sure when it would be fed again. The key is to eat every 2-3hrs which helps you lose weight when combined with exercise. Take Care!