When you do not know an answer like the above, you could
just go by the rule that you can overdo anything. You can
drink too much water or eat too much healthy food where
your stomach bursts. You can exercise too much or you can
do fasting for too long. An MD fasted a fat guy for 8
months and he died. So that is too long. He still had more
fat to burn but used up all of his reserve nutrients like
minerals. I say that all rules have exceptions, except
some. You cannot sleep too long, only as long as you need
to. Some people need to sleep 24 hours a day. I know a guy
who did that (in a coma) decades ago for many days but he
is alive and doing well now. Some depressed people need to
sleep 12 hours per day.
The reason that you cannot sleep too long is because you
cannot control how long you sleep. You can control how
little you get but not how much you get. If you doubt this,
then try it. Try to sleep 20 hours. You can lie there for
20 hours but will only be asleep if your body decides that
you need it. Note that I am not talking about stage 1 sleep
where you are drowsy and trying to get to sleep but you are
not really sleeping.
The news announced in November 2006 that 70% of Americans
have trouble sleeping. There is a McDougall website about
getting over depression naturally. It says that sleep is
depressing so you should not even get the suggested 8
hours. This shows that while there is a limit to genius,
there is no limit to stupidity. His other ideas are good,
though. Mariah Carey had a nervous breakdown a few years
ago and she said that it was due to lack of sleep as a
warning to others so the same thing does not happen to them.
I have seen on forums people giving rates of weight loss
(weight loss/time) that are too fast. So I checked it and
could not find any reliable sources for this. An MD on TV
said that people on the same diet can lose weight at
different rates. Also MDs think it is safe (and the FDA
agrees) to lose many pounds of bodyfat in an hour with
liposuction. Like with sleeping, you do not control how
fast you lose weight. That is why you cannot lose weight
too fast. Remember the above rule about exceptions, where
someone with a serious problem can lose weight too fast.
Some people have fasted to lose weight and have complained
that after not eating for 5 days they only lost 2 pounds. I
have fasted many times but I was never overweight. People
would ask how much I would lose but I did not notice any
difference. So I got a scale so I could measure it
scientifically. I weighed myself at the beginning of a fast
and right before the end of a 4 day fast of pure water. I
gained one pound, which does happen sometimes since people
have reserve nutrients and are consuming water and air.
Someone could say "you just retained more water." But most
people lose water weight during a fast. Regardless of
whether I created more bone (people can mend broken bones
during a fast) or retained water is the fact that I had no
control over the rate of weight loss which in this case was
negative one pound.
People can control their efforts to influence this rate.
The way to give yourself the fastest rate loss that your
body will safely allow is to fast and exercise a lot. Some
exercise, like yoga, is OK during a fast. Allan Cott M.D.
suggests walking 3 hours a day during a fast to lose more
weight and for circulation. These are mild exercises. But
you have to be careful about doing a lot of strenuous
exercise during a fast. My mother could eat large amounts
of fattening foods with lots of bad carbs and fat and still
be thin without exercising. Copyright 2007 by Chuck
Bluestein
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Chuck Bluestein is a nutritionist, herbalist and a fasting
expert. His website has information on weight loss, healthy
diet, fasting, neck and back pain, natural cures, pure
water and advice for teenage girls and their parents.
http://www.phifoundation.org/teen.html
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