Have you seen this video? A woman evidently went on three consecutive 40 day fasts. Someone spliced together her YouTube videos to show the physical transformation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLKsit4u_0s

Of course, the person who made the above video says we shouldn't respect religion because of what this woman did to herself. I don't necessarily agree because I don't think religion is all bad. However, I must admit that the changes in her appearance and demeanor as she completed these three fasts are very spooky and weird.

I grew up in a church that didn't emphasize fasting. I think I would have hated it if I did.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2014 02:53AM by knotheadusc.

Ketosis can make you feel high! Really! The downside, is that your body is burning muscle, not fat. Fasting is very unhealthy. Someone should film this woman 3 years later, when she regains all her weight, plus 30 more pounds. She won't regain muscle, however, and it will all come back as fat.

I knew Mormons who made their children fast. For little growing bodies, that is abuse.

I think you meant gluconeogenesis, not ketosis.

If she was in ketosis, she would have been burning fat by definition. But as she was probably a sugar-burner to start with, she would have been using muscle tissue to produce glycogen through gluconeogenesis. She would also have buggered her metabolism. She will be much more efficient at converting calories to fat now.

If she had started out with a well formulated (fat-based) ketogenic diet and become fat-adapted over a couple of weeks, that would allow her to fast without burning too much muscle. But she was probably not fat adapted to start with, so she would have had to convert muscle to glycogen for energy. Really bad idea.

Evidently, six months after the end of her third fast, she got pregnant with her 8th child.

Jesus.

Fast Sunday was the slowest of Sundays. Hunger pangs could test your mettle. Steal Cheerios from a baby sibling? One quick handful maybe. This was the Sunday the candy man didn't sit on a folding chair in the foyer and hoist you onto his lap for a butterscotch in yellow cellophane. Other kids shared your plight and one grabbed a handful of sacrament bread from the tray. He stuffed it all in his mouth and took the swat chewing. My celestial kingdom for an animal cracker, you prayed. Not eating on purpose felt like a wrong choice.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2014 04:29AM by donbagley.

Starving yourself on purpose as a wrong choice. Well, it would be even more accurate if it was a choice. Kids shouldn't be forced to fast, and neither should adults. And a church shouldn't tell anyone when or how to fast. It should be optional and a personal decision. Looking back that was probably one of the most dreadful things about the church to me. More often than not, I only skipped breakfast. Yeah, I was a cheater about that, but I never felt guilty.

WHen I went to get my patriarchal blessing (I was 15 or so?) I was supposed to fast before it.

We lived in a small branch in the south of the Netherlands and it took hours on the train to reach the patriarch. I was absolutely starving!

Traveling has always made me feel hungry anyway, and this 24 hr fasting really did me in.
By the time we reached the town the patriarch was I was crying, begging my mother to let me have some food.

She bought me a sandwich at the trainstation and I ate it as quick as I could.

That then made me feel horrible! I felt guilty and really scared. I was scared that this holy man could see at first glance that I wasn't worthy. I was convinced that he would send me away as soon as I stepped through his door.

I was trembling, I felt so awful.

He didn't turn me away ofcourse, he didn't even ask about the fasting. (and we didn't tell)

I felt like such a failure for the longest time..


(and then people still ask me why I hate that cult)

Starving (spiritually and physically) children getting skinny so the pigs can get fatter.

"Not even God can talk to a hungry man" -- Gandhi

Good quote. My husband sure knows when I'm hungry.

Finally, a reason to be glad I weigh over 300 pounds and totally cancel this bitch out. LMAO

I'm going to have a Twinkie with breakfast in her "honor."

To this day it amazes me how people can complain about fasting 1 day when they are in the peak of their health. How long can a person fast? Meditate? http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/08/07/buddha-boy-goes-10-months-without-food-or-water-scientific-community-is-baffled/

Buddha boy made the rounds around here awhile ago. The rational skeptics ate him for lunch! No one would be complaining if they had decided to go without food for a day. Note the words...THEY DECIDED. And who says fasters are in the peak of health? My dad had ulcerative colitis. His gastroenterologist told him he should never fast. It's lucky his family survived the escalated abuse when that man would put obedience above kindness and good sense.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2014 10:24AM by Dorothy.

I have a feeling "Buddha Boy" will be found to fall into the same camp as Breatharianism's Jasmuheen. Sadly, the Discovery Channel fell from being a pretty decent channel to "alternative reality" sensationalism.

It makes me freakin miserable and ornery to be hungry. Everybody in the house generally knows I'm hungry before I do, because I suddenly get so cranky. Since fasting didn't 'invite the spirit', I should have just opted out. Usually I cheated by eating late on Sat night, and I almost never waited past Sunday afternoon to eat.

Nobody should be pressured into fasting. It should be completely voluntary. People who have blood sugar issues, get migraines, or other medical issues shouldn't even consider skipping meals. And nobody should be getting dehydrated.

Is nobody shocked that the woman in the video starved for 120 days? The transformation she undergoes is really remarkable. At the beginning of the video, she seems kind of tired and listless. By the end, she's noticeably more energetic, but emaciated.

what's small and round and has cobwebs ?

"Fasting," even the brief version the morg do, weakens you in body and intellectual capacity. It makes you more prone to accept dogma, and to believe nonsense.

It's a tool religions have used for a very long time -- get the people weak and stupid from not eating, then get 'em indoctrinated.

I was acquainted with an independent, slightly mentally handicapped, young LDS man after not seeing him for some time.... he was so bone thin! He had lost about 50 pounds! I asked him if he had been eating to which he stated that the Bishop had told him to fast. I offered him a ride home and took a detour to my house to put together some meals for him while explaining to him that he didn't need to fast.

I later called up his Bishop and basically ripped him one because he didn't realize that this young man was fasting excessively and actually starving himself! He promised that he would counsel him to stop fasting.

This man's family lived in my area so I casually dropped in to see his mother and inquired if she had seen him recently. She stated that she talks to him on the phone all the time, but hadn't seen him in a couple of months. I told her about his condition to which she was completely, and I believe honestly, shocked!

Stupid cult!

The truly dangerous and ludicrous part is the "no water" part. I was fasting in the tropical sun as a missionary and would get dizzy spells. In retrospect heat stroke could have been a serious risk.

There is one fast I would consider though. South german monks used to brew a special fasting beer. Think Guinness. Then they would only drink this beer for 40 days...

I think this woman has anorexia and it has nothing to do with god. She is using God as an excuse to starve and not have anyone intervene.