#Cholesterol Normal Range

[truwellth]

Cholesterol

Here find detailed info on: Cholesterol Levels. Know about, Cholesterol Foods. Cholesterol Symptoms. Cholesterol Causes. Cholesterol Levels By Age Chart. Know, How To Reduce Cholesterol?... from Rajashree Gadgil… Top Nutritionist in Thane & the founder of TruWellth Integrative Health Center… the best nutrition center in Thane.

[servantofwrath]

just got my blood test results back and i am startlingly healthy for my age and weight i should do drugs about it

[so-much-for-subtlety]

my labs from yesterday morning were already done: my testosterone is actually a little above average (for my age) made coffee and walked to market to get apples and this very mid pan au chocolate and now home for duddy cuddles

[scooplery]

😞

got my blood drawn today please pray that the vials hold the answer

[doberbutts]

I want to talk a bit about the whole "fat trans men are denied top surgery" thing because it's true. Many surgeons have BMI requirements and will not operate on anyone classified as more than "overweight".

But I also want to discuss how testosterone often makes you gain weight, putting trans mascs in a fairly difficult position.

When I started testosterone, I weighed 178lbs. I rapidly shot up to 198lbs. At 5'10" I'm classified as just over a BMI of 30 according to my discharge papers, making me classified as obese. I also started having a bit of a cholesterol problem and being that A: I've also hit my 30s in that time and B: I have an extensive family history of high cholesterol in the men in my family, we tried changing my diet and exercise to see if it was lifestyle or if it was genetic.

In that timespan I dropped 3lbs (bringing me to 195lbs, just under that obese line) and my cholesterol continued to climb. It's been about 7 or 8 months with no other change.

When I tell people that I weigh roughly 200lbs, they don't normally believe me. To be clear I don't really care about any of these numbers, I care about my overall health irt stamina, strength, fatigue, etc and I care about my actual muscle mass and body condition. There are, admittedly, times where I look at my stomach and go :( aww I used to be skinnier. But then there's also times like two nights ago when I looked in the mirror after my shower and just saw A Guy standing there looking at me.

Anyway. My point is, testosterone (and age) made me gain a significant amount of weight, and nothing really I've done has gotten it off. Which is fine with me, because I feel better at this current condition and am stronger and have more stamina than I ever did at lower weights even when I was a competing athlete. Everyone I tell my weight and BMI to is shocked to learn that I am 200lbs and classified as obese. From complete disbelief until I stand on a scale, to the immediate "you wear it well" or "it's all muscle though", to the inevitable "okay but BMI is a load of shit anyway", clearly even though that's what the numbers say I am not exactly the poster child for what lawmakers and fat phobic doctors fear monger about when they discuss the "obesity epidemic".

I am lucky enough that while my surgeon is being very annoying in other ways, she at least has no BMI requirement. For 7 or so months I have been putting in a lot of effort to try and lose some weight to fix my cholesterol and I have pretty much nothing to show for it. If it's that hard for me, someone who visually doesn't really look fat, how difficult must it be for someone who is definitely not toeing the line like I am. How impossible for someone who is in the 400lb, 500lb, 600lb range.

Testosterone makes you gain weigh, and then surgeons won't operate if you gain too much. What a fucking joke.

[alexanderwales]

Notes on 3000 miles

Last year my doctor told me that I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a high resting heartrate. So I started biking on an exercise bike, and by my best estimations, I'm either close to hitting 3000 miles or have already gone past that.

I should clarify that this wasn't all at once. I took many breaks.

So here are some notes.

When I started, I was on an exercise bike that my wife had gotten from her work. It wasn't the best, but it was free, and I made a deal with myself that if I biked every day for a month, then I could justify getting something better. I really really did not want to buy a piece of exercise equipment that would just sit in the house gathering dust, because that would feel awful ... but I do kind of wish that I had gotten the better bike sooner, because it removed some of the "friction" of exercise, where it felt like there were too many reasons not to get on the bike. The new exercise bike (a refurbished Peleton off Facebook marketplace that my wife got me for Christmas) really does just feel and move better. I think the general principle of not doing costly monetary commitments until you've shown costly personal commitment is a good one, however.

Blood pressure is in normal range. Cholesterol is in normal range. Resting heartrate is in normal range. This was all the case three months in, and this level of cardio is more than enough to maintain it.

Right now, I bike for thirty minutes a day, going 8-10 miles according to the bike. That range is enormous, because it represents vastly different amounts of work. Going 10 miles in 30 minutes is 20 miles an hour, and I keep the resistance relatively high, so by the end of it I'm always panting. By contrast, going 8 miles makes me feel like I didn't put in enough work.

My goal every day is sweat-based and completely qualitative. I want to soak through a shirt. This means that doing more laundry than I'd prefer to, which is an unanticipated consequence of the biking. It's also, compared to all the metrics the bike gives me, a very clear sign that I am actually exercising my body "properly" in a way that's achieving something.

I did some of the Peleton classes, and found a lot of the metrics to be motivating, but ... eh. Exercise is mostly about being healthy and maintaining my body, so my current strategy, for the last six months, has been to either shut the brain down or keep it fully engaged in something that passes the exercise time. Usually this means a TV show, especially a foreign one with subtitles, which need slightly more brainpower.

The final two minutes is always the worst. I'm just ready to be done with it. Sometimes there's gas left in the tank, but I still feel sweaty, thirsty, and overheated. I have a water bottle, and I drink from it while I bike, and I have a fan pointed at me that I turn on once I'm warmed up, but I always have a sense, in those last two minutes, of "finally I'm done". I tried the thinking man's solution, only biking for 28 minutes, and this did not help. In my entire year of biking a half hour a day, I didn't ever elect to go into overtime.

I initially lost ten pounds, then slowly gained it back. I am, in fact, overweight, but I'm holding more or less steady now, and there have definitely been some body composition changes, with muscle replacing fat. I went down about four inches at the waist. I've changed very little about how I eat (which is 90% meals that I cook myself, and a daily coffee drink of some kind, usually made myself with sugar/cream/chocolate). Biking amounts to 300-400 calories a day or something like that, so I'm presumably eating more to compensate and just not realizing it.

Mental health has been rocky, but that's just sort of how it is for me. I definitely feel less mentally well on days that I don't bike, and feel better afterward, but I have no idea how tight the correlation is, and if I had been keeping track on a mood tracker, I'm not sure I would be able to sus out from self-reported mood alone whether or not I was biking.

During the summer I replaced a lot of indoor exercise bike stuff with outdoor biking. My son has only recently learned to bike, so he's been with me many of these times. Usually that means that we're either biking a lot less distance, or we're biking for a lot longer time at much lower intensity, sometimes both. There's a bike path that's downhill from our house which goes for maybe six miles, with some good, clear turn back points, but that means a fairly arduous uphill to get back home. If I lived in a place where the weather wasn't frigid for almost half the year, I would probably be doing outdoor biking more.

I think the most important thing, if you're doing exercise every day, is making sure that you're doing it in such a way that it's sustainable and virtually incapable of injuring you. This mostly means proper form. Early on, I had a habit of pressing down the right pedal with the outside edge of my foot, and after fifteen minutes of doing that, the muscles in the foot would be aching and uncomfortable. I'm not sure why I was doing that, but it was difficult to get myself to bike in a way that wouldn't be putting strain on me.

I think it's okay to skip a day ... if it's for the right reason. Of the days that I've skipped, I always try to make sure the reason isn't "fuck it, I don't want to". I should either be feeling sick, feeling like I need to rest, or replacing biking with some other form of exercise like a hike in the woods or some weightlifting or something. If I start skipping days because I just don't feel like it, that's where the whole scheme falls apart.

I am currently sort of wondering how long this is going to go on for, and I think the answer is "for the rest of my life", or at least until I'm unable to keep it up for whatever reason. I don't think there's any particular reason to prefer an exercise bike (or regular bike) over running or rowing or some other form of cardio, but I think I have proven to myself that this is cardio I can do daily and stick with it to the level that is probably necessary for me to stay healthy. I'm not committed to doing it for the rest of my life, since in theory some other form of cardio might come along and sweep me off my feet.

I do wish that I had started earlier in my life, even if daily exercise has not been the panacea for mental health that I had been kind of hoping it would be. I hope that I have the willpower and wisdom to keep up with it indefinitely.

[tobeabatman]

Pre-diabetes is a bs term, pre-obesity is a bs term.

There isn’t any ”pre” for conditions. You aren’t ”a pre-cancer patient” if you are a heavy smoker with no cancer, and you aren’t ”pre” any condition, even though you know there’s a good possibility that you’ll inherit a certain condition later in life because you are genetically predisposed to it.

There is no pre-obesity because not every fat person will get “obese”, aka very fat (not that there’s anything wrong with being ”obese”/very fat either. My BMI is considered ”obese” for my age). Unlike what thin people often seem to think, a lot of fat people have a certain weight after which our weight gain will naturally stop or slow down. You can observe this happening when you look at your fat relatives: e.g your fat aunt most likely isn’t adding on a lot of weight anymore after a certain age.

The term ”pre-obesity” works as a way to justify why we fat people deserve to be shamed or why we deserve to get sh*t care by healthcare professionals. It gives an excuse for treating smaller fat people like shit, even though there’s a lot of contradicting research on the health effects of being a small fat (”overweight”), some even stating that ”overweight” individuals live longer than their thin counterparts. And regardless, the line between ”overweight” and thin was drawn on water and changed over time: there is no reason why we define BMI over 25 as overweight, besides the fact that the number 25 was easy to remember (and BMI itself isn’t even accurate).

There isn’t pre-diabetes, because that’s a stupid fear-mongering term used by health gurus on the internet. I would be considered ”pre-diabetic” by internet graphs that state certain blood glucose levels, and HDL and LDL cholesterol levels to be pre-diabetic.

Despite this, my blood results were considered to be in the normal range, and later (after I expressed concern for my blood tests results due to those stupid ”signs of pre-diabetes” graphs on the internet) a nurse told me that if my blood results had been a sign of me getting diabetes soon, the doctor(s) who analysed my blood tests would have told me that.

Anyway, have a lovely day all!

[macgyvermedical]

The following information is from Sickening, by John Abramson:

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist on main but when I say Big Pharma is a racket I mean...

Doctors work via particular guidelines. Many of them are punished by their hospital systems if they fail to follow those guidelines, which are considered "best practice". The guidelines are written largely by pharmaceutical companies or people paid by pharmaceutical companies.

Just like Disney likes to keep it's copyrights fresh, pharmaceutical companies like to keep their patents. And they do this by churning out new drugs. Only about 1 in every 8 of these new drugs actually represents an actual advantage over existing drugs or therapies. They, of course, market the absolute shit out of all of them as though they did.

In theory, newer insulin analogs (lispro, glargine, etc...) work better and have fewer side effects than older recombinant human insulins (regular, NPH). In the actual trials the only difference between the two is a single average non-fatal hypoglycemic event over the course of 5 years of therapy. There was no difference in effectiveness. Oh. And the newer ones are 10 times the out of pocket price (an average of $468/year vs $5,224/year). Which is considerable considering 1 in 4 insulin-users report "rationing" their insulin for cost reasons. 90% of people on insulin take the newer insulin analogs because that's what's on the guidelines.

Pharmaceutical companies have all the data on their drugs, which they don't share and which they alone interpret. It took 4 years of near-daily pestering for Cochrane Reviews (a major independent reviewer) to get a copy of the data for the drug tamflu. When they got it, they found that in 77 trials, the only thing it consistently did was decrease the symptomatic time from an average of 7 days to an average of 6.3 days, even though the company was marketing it under claims that it reduced complications and hospitalizations- something none of the trials showed.

You have to treat 140 people who have not had a heart attack or stroke with statins (cholesterol-lowering medicines) for 5 years in order to prevent 1 single non-fatal heart attack or stroke. There is no difference in death rates from cardiovascular causes between statin-users and non-statin-users who have not had a heart attack or stroke. You have to treat 30 people who have had a heart attack or stroke to prevent one heart attack or stroke. You have to treat 80 to prevent a death.

According to a very large, independent (non-pharmaceutical industry) study called the ACCORD study, people with type 2 diabetes actually had significantly worse cardiovascular outcomes if their average blood sugar was kept in a "normal" (non-diabetic range) (under 125) vs a somewhat higher range (150-180). So significant were these findings that they ended the study early because too many people in the "normal" range were dying.

Omeprazole and Esomeprazole are technically the same drug that work exactly the same way and exactly as well when given at the same dose. The only thing that makes esomeprazole any better is that it is given at a higher dose. And it's way, way more expensive.

[beesinspades]

long time no t update!!!

last time I did one I was 3 months on t I think?? I'm one year on t now soooo here we go

still no crazy libido, hunger, feeling hot or overly sweaty. i was horny as fuck for like two weeks in may and then it went back to normal. i'm a winner.

i was right 9 months ago, I have pretty decent facial hair already!! I get somewhat scruffy if I don't do something about it. now just waiting for it to fill in more!!

i'm broader

I don't feel like my face has changed That much but everyone tells me otherwise and when I compare pics....yeah. something happened there. but when I look in the mirror i don't really notice

got a hairy tummy and chest now!!! been surprisingly thrilled about the chest hair ngl. top surgery left me with some cleavage which I haven't felt too happy about, but with the hair now growing over it I feel way better about it!!

my voice is definitely more in the male ranges now, but it still gets me misgendered sometimes. and it hasn't changed in like three or four months now....hoping it drops some more over time.

past me who thought they'd be on t for only two or three years was Wrong. I love it I kinda want to stay on it for as long as I'm able haha

my cholesterol levels rose over the recommended limit though so trying to get it under control by exercising more but it's so hard with my adhd...i hope it'll be enough because my health anxiety will put me through hell if it hasn't dropped when I do my next blood test check up in six months....

i still feel 100% non-binary. thought I might realize i'm actually a guy but nah. full enby right here

i need a goddamn haircut because i'm like 90% sure i would get misgendered less often if I hadn't let it grow this much. also would probably notice the changes in my face more. getting one in ten days, hate it because i really don't like being maskless in public especially at this time of the year and I'm broke, but I really don't want to buzz my hair again >:(

anyways i love being on t, no regrets whatsoever even if the future (and even the present tbh) is pretty scary :')

[whimsicalworldofme]

I just need to celebrate a little in a public forum...

I started taking ozempic on Saturday of last week. I have diabetes, insulin resistant pcos, and some other issues. My current diabetes medicine wasn't really doing anything for me anymore. My cholesterol was up. I was worried about my heart and my liver. I saw the studies that show the GLP-1 meds can help your health outcomes in those areas as well as treat the insulin resistance and beetus. So I asked my doctor about going on it and she wrote me a prescription.

I was really scared because I've heard horror stories about people feeling deathly ill on this stuff, being constipated, throwing up endlessly, and other things.

I had a low level of nausea the first couple days after my shot but sipping water made it go away. And for the first time in my life, I feel full after eating!

But more than that, for the first time since getting diagnosed with diabetes, my blood sugar levels are in a normal healthy range. Not healthy for a diabetic, but for a non- diabetic! After watching my numbers go up and up and up no matter how hard I tried for years, seeing them down made me cry happy tears.

This medicine might save my life. Do you know what a powerful feeling that is?!

[truwellth]

Cholesterol

Here get detailed info on: Cholesterol Levels. Cholesterol Normal Range. Cholesterol Symptoms. Cholesterol Causes. Symptoms of High Cholesterol in Females… from Rajashree Gadgil… the best nutritionist in Thane & the founder of TruWellth Integrative Health Center… the best nutrition center in Thane, Mumbai.

[chasing-rabbits]

Life is going too fast, I'm 31 I feel so old lol I mean I know its not really 'old' but it feels like it sometimes like I am an adult adult now I've hit my 30s. I'm feeling so restless lately but at the same time the thought of working on the website is like eh but I need to get it set up. I've been working on it for awhile now which is why in the meantime my impatience led me to try set up the big cartel website but I took that down ages ago because it was just not that great and idk why I remembered big cartel being better before & I had some big life changes that disrupted everything. Its like there's always something, mental health shit or physical health that makes it so hard for me to maintain any kind of shop or something I set up for myself. I started the new year being told my cholesterol is shit & I no doubt have blood pressure issues - if only the GPs were not so shit & actually listened properly to their patients but no they do not so despite consistent high BP readings during my check ups because I can't give them with 2-3 readings a day for 7 days in a row they basically just ignore it every time I go in which is wild given my family history of high BP, strokes & such being so shit especially on my mums side of the family. So yeah my cholesterol is too high its out of the healthy range for normal people let alone those w/ heart issues in the family. But I'm confident that this year will be the year I finally get the website set up sorted & ready to go as dealing with my cholesterol isn't really an obstacle to that goal where as anything mental health related always has been & the issues with my fatigue & such but I'm finding ways to work on that like resigning myself to getting help.

First things first getting a cleaner in as I cannot maintain a nice clean home by myself & my mum was really nice & got me a perching stool again which will help my ability to cook healthy meals as I won't have to stand. I'm also going to get a small table for my kitchen if there's room so I can sit & prepare my food there if I need too. Plus finding healthier foods for when I can't cook than what I currently buy but the biggest thing is that I just don't eat & then I get really hungry & over eat. I'm trying to make sure I actually eat 3 meals a day now downside is gluten free food is expensive & the GF Vegan health brands are often even more expensive. It's just a con really like charging so much more for GF foods I did find out oats are definitely gluten free so I can buy any oats I want but ironically the ones I love are the GF Vegan oats by MOMA but they have some other vegan non GF ones that looked good too, although a lot of the instant pots even some sachets they add skimmed milk powder to them & its like akdjka WHY. I have become addicted to deliciously ella products though, especially her on the go breakfast bakes they are filled with either peanut butter or almond butter & they are so good & surprisingly more filling than I expected for the size. downside is iirc her products aren't the cheapest but I can afford it so it is what it is. If anyone has any links to any good GF Vegan recipes that are easy to make for someone w/ disabilities then I'd love suggestions. I do have a pressure cooker but I have no clue how people do those one pot meals in them I tried doing pasta in it and it did not come out good & not a one pot pasta just the pasta idk if I over cooked it or didnt put enough water in idk but it was gummy and stuck together so yeah.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

My homocysteine is high but my B12 is normal? And I'm on lithium for bipolar which should lower it a bit.

And my LDL cholesterol is high when I can only eat like 600 calories on a good day??

And my glucose was normal despite my not having been able to eat anything for 24 hours at that point.

And my bilirubin keeps going high and then being normal as soon as they try to do further tests on it. Same with my phosphate! The whole reason for this panel was because my phosphate was high and now it's fine?!

This is why I don't bother medicating things unless they get severely out of range. My body doesn't know what the fuck is going on.

[lanaboodhoo]

An Overview of Conditions Treated by Cardiologists

Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, and electrophysiology. A congenital heart defect may occur when the heart or one of its associated blood vessels fails to develop normally before birth. The spectrum of these defects ranges from mild to severe with some children not requiring treatment while others require multiple surgeries to correct. Coronary artery disease is the most common heart disease and accounts for 1 in every 4 deaths globally. It is due to narrowing or blockage of the blood vessels that supply the heart with blood and oxygen, usually due to cholesterol deposits. Heart failure is the inability of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body. This may to be due to weakness of the heart muscle, or if the heart is unable to fill properly. Conditions such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, inflammation of the heart and abnormalities of the heart valves may cause heart failure. Valvular heart disease may affect one or more of the four valves of the heart, which normally keep blood flowing properly through the heart. Treatment for narrowed or leaking valves may be medical, surgical or catheter based. Electrophysiology focuses on the electrical system of the heart, disturbances of which may result in heart rhythm abnormalities. These may include irregular, slow or rapid heartbeats. Treatment may include drugs, implantable devices or catheter ablation, where tissue causing the problem is destroyed. Symptoms of a heart problem may include chest pain, abnormal shortness of breath, dizziness, blackout, palpitation, cough and swelling of the legs. These should prompt referral to a cardiologist if a cardiac cause is suspected.

[shinra-makonoid]

I read those replies about risks of HRT, and it's interesting how one of those studies says "we actually need to study this more", but that person drew a conclusion that "HRT is definitely causing this".

It is annoying. Cofounding factors are a real tricky bit in regards to studies and that person just... Imagine they can know more of them than researchers.

It's in the notes of this post:

Even I kinda go rough when I say "yeah T raises risk for CVD" considering that, as the study says, trans men are smoking more, exercising less, having more anxiety etc than the general population. And despite the rising risks for CVD, mortality stays the same.

I agree there is still a lot we don't know about HRT, I agree we should research it more. Better yet, design specific meds for us to have that are perfectly attuned to our needs. For example, now I'm at almost a full vial of T every four weeks, (0.9ml out of 1ml, it decreased with my weight), so I don't throw away that much. But at one point I was at 0.5ml every two weeks, meaning I was throwing away half a vial every two weeks, aka a complete vial every month. It was crushing me because there are shortage of those meds and I hate throwing away stuff. Had there been a specific med tailored to specific trans needs, that wouldn't have happened.

But to claim that, because the specific med wasn't approved for, specifically, trans people it means it's dangerous and that we shouldn't use it.... Is just false. We have no evidence of that, we have even less evidence that it would outweigh the benefits. That person is just taking a stance that every med used off label should just have a 30 years cohort of test to decide whether it should be used, independently of whether the people who use it really need it or not. Which, even if it were to happen, would probably not even let pharmaceutical companies take the steps to actually make a med for us because we don't bring them enough money for it.

Doctors are also not usually just morons playing with molecules, they engage their responsibility using those meds and therefore make sure it's used well, they are experts in those domains. In my country at least, if you're not an endocrinologist, a gynecologist or a few other specific specialties dealing with hormones, you can't prescribe HRT. It does mean that yes, blood tests every 6 months are important, but like, if something really bad was happening to my body, we'd know. That's also how we realized that I had a fatty liver, which led me to eat better, which led me to have healthier habits in regards to food. So like... I guess T saved my liver in my case, as it has absolutely 0 symptoms before it's too late (the liver is a stealth bastard).

And again, I could go on and on about antidepressants and antipsychotics. I wouldn't advise anyone to stop them or anything, I think sometimes they outweigh the risks, but I personally had disastrous side effects from antipsychotics (taken to treat depression and anxiety, which is not even for that normally so yeah talk about off label I think that's a bigger issue, but i was at a mental hospital and pressured to take them and all) which led to hypothyroidism and prolactin level issues for me. Those side effects are studied and known to belong to antipsychotics, and little do you know when I stopped (after suffering from massive insomnias and bad feelings, it was a real shit med for me) it vanished.

I don't understand why HRT is the main issue when it's about such a tiny number of people, hasn't shown any bad metabolic side effects (except maybe like raising bad cholesterol but it doesn't mean much, it can still very much be in normal range, i still have normal range for ex), and hasn't had any evidence of shortening lives so far. If it ever changes, then I'll change my opinion, but I really don't think we'll find in ten years that T caused people to die, every expert on the issue argues that it's probably safe.

I think it's saner to argue that, even if you have no issue whatsoever, it's important to exercise, eat well, socialize, and avoid drinking and smoking. That advice is for every single person and it will save lives, way more than stopping T will ever do.

[usascripthelpersofficial]

DOES WATER FASTING HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT?

In recent years, water fasting has emerged as a popular method among those seeking to lose weight quickly. Unlike other diet plans that restrict calories or certain types of food, water fasting requires individuals to consume only water for a specific period, which can range from 24 hours to several days. Proponents of water fasting claim it not only aids in rapid weight loss but also offers detoxification benefits and improves metabolic health. But what does science say about these claims, and is water fasting a safe and effective way to lose weight? Let's dive into the evidence.

Understanding Water Fasting

Water fasting is a type of fast that involves abstaining from all food and beverages except water. The duration of a water fast can vary widely, with some lasting for a day and others extending up to 40 days, although prolonged fasts should only be undertaken under medical supervision. The primary goal of water fasting is to induce a state of ketosis, where the body begins to burn fat for energy in the absence of glucose from food. This process can lead to rapid weight loss, as the body consumes its fat stores to sustain itself.

The Weight Loss Mechanism

Short-Term Weight Loss

Initially, water fasting can lead to significant weight loss, much of which is water weight. When you stop eating food, your body uses up its glucose reserves stored in the liver and muscles. Each gram of glycogen (stored glucose) is bound to about 3 to 4 grams of water, so as these stores are depleted, the water is also released and expelled from the body, leading to rapid weight loss in the first few days.

Fat Loss and Metabolic Changes

After depleting glycogen stores, the body transitions to burning fat for energy, leading to fat loss over time. This metabolic switch not only contributes to weight loss but may also offer other health benefits, such as improved insulin sensitivity and reduced inflammation. However, the rate of fat loss can slow down after the initial phase, as the body adapts to the fast.

Health Benefits and Risks

Potential Benefits

Detoxification: Fasting proponents argue that abstaining from food allows the body's digestive system to rest and detoxify. However, the body is naturally equipped with organs like the liver and kidneys that are effective at removing toxins without the need for fasting.

Improved Metabolic Health: Some research suggests that fasting can improve markers of metabolic health, including blood sugar levels and cholesterol profiles, though more studies are needed to confirm these effects.

Risks and Considerations

Nutrient Deficiencies: Prolonged water fasting can lead to nutrient deficiencies, as the body is deprived of essential vitamins and minerals found in food.

Muscle Loss: While the body primarily burns fat for energy during a fast, it may also break down muscle tissue for protein, especially during longer fasts.

Potential for Weight Regain: Once normal eating resumes, there's a risk of regaining the lost weight, particularly if healthy eating habits are not adopted.

Safety and Precautions

Water fasting is not suitable for everyone. Individuals with certain health conditions, such as diabetes, or those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, should avoid fasting. Before embarking on a water fast, it's crucial to consult with a healthcare provider, especially for fasts lasting longer than 24 hours. It's also important to ease back into eating gradually after the fast to avoid refeeding syndrome, a potentially fatal condition caused by the rapid reintroduction of food after a period of malnutrition.

Conclusion

Water fasting can lead to rapid weight loss, primarily from water weight and fat loss. However, it also carries risks and may not be a sustainable weight loss method in the long term. While there are potential health benefits, they must be weighed against the risks of nutrient deficiencies and possible muscle loss. Ultimately, adopting a balanced diet and regular physical activity is the most effective and safe strategy for long-term weight management and overall health.