What Is Dry Fasting, and Is It Safe?

Dry fasting involves restricting food and water intake. Dry fasting may be dangerous because it can result in dehydration, nausea, headache, muscle pain, and other symptoms.

Fasting is popular among people trying to lose weight. For example, time-restricted eating (intermittent fasting) is a method of eating for a limited period of time and fasting for the majority of the day. However, such methods may restrict only food. You can often drink water and other low-calorie liquids such as black tea and coffee throughout the day. In contrast, dry fasting is stricter and requires abstinence from both food and liquids for the fast period. 

Intermittent fasting is effective for losing weight and controlling some diseases. For most people, it is safe and poses no great hardship. Dry fasting, on the other hand, puts you at risk of dehydration and other health problems. 

Read on to learn more.

Your body enters fasting mode about eight hours after your last meal. By this time, your intestines have digested and absorbed all the nutrients possible. After this time, fasting forces your body to use stored sugar from the muscles and liver. After this source of energy is used up, your body uses stored fat. If you fast for many days at a stretch, your body will use protein for its energy needs. Then, you may risk losing muscle and becoming weak.

Eating a meal or two every day will replenish your energy stores and prevent your body from using proteins for energy. However, if you eat an enormous meal immediately after fasting, the excess calories will again be stored as sugar and fat. Along with fasting, you must maintain a negative calorie balance over time.

Weight loss is the chief benefit of fasting plans. Fasting can help you lose 7 to 11 lb over 10 weeks. 

Balanced fasting rids you of excess stored fat but preserves your muscles. Such fasting also reduces your cholesterol levels, so weight loss helps control diabetes and blood pressure. Any toxins stored with the fat are also freed and removed. 

Your body is used to going without food during the night while you sleep. Extending this non-eating period by a few hours will not harm you, and you can reap the benefits of fasting. That being said, some people should not fast:

• Growing children and teens under 18
• People with diabetes mellitus type 1
• Pregnant or breastfeeding people
• People who have had eating disorders

Restricting your eating time and the amounts you eat is effective for weight loss. Restricting liquids, too, does not seem to offer additional benefits, though. Of course, dry fasting has not been investigated scientifically because restricting water for prolonged periods is dangerous. Knowledge about dry fasting mostly comes from people who perform it as a religious practice. 

Muslims around the world practice dry fasting. During the holy month of Ramadan, they fast from sunrise to sunset. Depending on the time of the year, the fasting period could last 11 to 14 hours. During the time of fasting, they don't partake of any food or liquids. It's worth noting, though, that Muslims perform food and water abstinence for spiritual reasons, not for health or weight loss. They often consume heavy meals during the night with a greater variety of foods and sugary and high-calorie beverages.

The health benefits of fasting, though, will depend on what you eat during the non-fasting time of the day. To improve your health and reduce weight, eat a balanced diet. Complex carbohydrates are found in foods like grains, seeds, beans, rice, and oats. They provide you with steady energy during the hours of fasting. Fiber-rich foods like cereals, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains are also digested slowly and keep you feeling full. 

Meanwhile, protein foods like meat, dairy, legumes, and eggs are vital to meet your body's protein requirement. The critical thing to remember is to remain in control after the fast and not commit dietary excesses that nullify the benefits of the fast .

Dry fasting is associated with rapid weight loss. Orthodox Christians practice dry fasting during Lent and go without food and water for varying lengths of time. People who dry fasted for five days before Easter lost 3.06 lb (1.39 kg) a day during this period. Neck, hip, waist, and chest measurements were reduced, too. The greatest reduction was in waist circumference and the least in neck circumference.

The most effective fasting period for weight loss is 16 hours of fasting with an 8-hour window for eating.

Going without food and water for a prolonged period affects your health. People on dry fasting experience:

• Thirst
• Nausea
• Muscle pains
• Headache
• Tiredness
• Heartburn

One of the chief dangers of dry fasting is dehydration. Your body continuously loses water from the lungs during breathing, the skin during sweating, and the kidneys during the production of urine. The kidney is able to reduce urine production if you stop consuming liquids, but the other two water losses continue. If your water loss is more than your intake, you will be dehydrated. If you're dry fasting, watch for these signs of dehydration.

• Feeling very thirsty
• Tiredness
• Dry mouth
• Infrequent urination
• Dark-colored, smelly urine
• Dizziness
• Fast heartbeat

Dehydration is a life-threatening condition if not treated on time. Consult your doctor immediately if you have such symptoms.

Dry fasting causes weight loss in the short term because you're losing water through your lungs, kidneys, and skin without replacing it. But this is an unhealthy way to lose weight. 

When you fast or adopt a low-calorie diet, your body uses up stores of glycogen and fat. Metabolizing these for energy produces waste products that your kidneys excrete. You need more, not less, water at these times. 

Fasting is frequently practiced by people to lose weight. It is effective but needs careful planning of the meals you eat during the non-fasting period. Weight loss depends on a negative energy balance — you must consume fewer calories than you use daily. Fasting is as effective as continuous low-calorie diets for losing weight.

Most of the weight loss in intermittent fasting and calorie restriction is because of fat loss from the body. Weight loss is sustained even after the intermittent fasting is stopped, though there is some weight gain. Part of the weight loss in dry fasting is due to dehydration, which you regain as soon as you rehydrate.

Obesity is a problem by itself and leads to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and several other disorders. Losing weight will certainly improve your health and feeling of well-being. Fasting can be a path to weight loss, but dry fasting is an extreme measure. You should consult your doctor before you try this potentially dangerous method. Restricted calorie diets or intermittent fasting will yield similar benefits with greater safety.