I would like to write about my recent experience over this past holiday
season regarding an inadvertant fast I went on.  I guess it should
technically be called starvation because it was not something I
willingly went on nor can it be classified in any way as some sort of
religious fast.

I had been off work for three months or so and had started a new job
Dec. 13.  I essentially had run out of money and wouldn't get paid
until the next Friday after I started work.  So I started getting
creative at home.  Initially, all I had left was some pasta, brown/wild
rice, and a box of a whole grain/flax cereal. I am also a big guy,
around 300 pounds, so any kind of even moderate calorie restriction
would result in weight loss.  Well, the pasta ran out after a few days,
followed by the rice.  It was now the following Sunday, about five days
before I got my first paycheck.

So I started dipping into the cereal, a half cup a day (sometimes two
times a day).  I had no sugar or milk.  I supplemented it with
artificial sweetener or soya sauce, thoroughly nasty.  I started to
lose weight, but strange things started happening to my body as well.
The first is that when you're starving, no matter how much water you
drink, your urine seems to be very dark.  The second thing is that if
you have any kind of conditions that can be aggravated by your body's
weight, they will become more noticeable.  In my case it is gout.  If
you've never had this thoroughly unpleasant condition, basically it's
the inability of your kidneys to completely flush out the uric acid in
your body's system (and with my kidneys already doing strange things
regarding me going to the bathroom, this was no good).

A third thing that happened is that something seemed to be happening to
my gums.  They bled more when I brushed my teeth.  Plus, the gums by my
wisdom teeth either were receding or got thinner or something weird,
but now I can feel a prominent flap there which I didn't before.

I ran out of cereal the night before I got paid, and when I got paid, I
didn't get a chance to deposit the check until my training ended at
midnight.  Throughout the last four days, your mind plays tricks on
you.  You don't feel as hungry as you think you should, which I guess
made it a bit more bearable.  I desperately tried drinking as much
water as possible, and at work I'd drink the free pop they offered or
coffee, so basically what little calories I was ingesting was 95% carbs
so I started getting headaches.

I honestly can say that I will NEVER again consider any form of
fasting/starvation for weight control, even though we've all flirted
with the idea.  If you should consider severe calorie restriction, they
say a man should not go less than about 1500 a day and a woman no less
than 1200 a day.  If you're quite overweight like I am, don't even do
that because your body would think it was starving and strange things
could start happening to you.

I hope this little Christmas story will serve as a warning for you out
there who don't eat to lose weight.  It's no good on your body, and
sucks really bad, making you feel miserable.

Good luck.

G.A.