Fasting and weight loss

From: Roger Lepine (body_222_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/24/04 

Date: 24 Jul 2004 09:24:43 -0700

Dear experts,

Here's an interesting question for you.

Given: a standard 2000 calorie diet.
Activity: normal office activity, no exercise
Weight: 200 pounds, male.

If a person fasts for, 32-36 hours, say from
Thursday night, until Saturday morning,

What can the expected weight loss be for the this
time period?

Perhaps 10 glasses of water drunk through this
time period.

Remembering my high school science, there is
the law of conservation of mass.

Applied to eating, this means, that to gain
10 pounds, you must consume at least 10
pounds of food and water. Obviously, a lot
more than 10 pounds, because so much of the
food and water is converted to energy, waste,
and evaporated through the skin.

With this physics, you cannot eat a few ounzes,
and gain a few pounds.

Assume all other things being equal.

I know that diet has become a religious war
item these days, and I'm not interested in such.

Please don't bother speculating about long
term averages, about eating more when you break
the fast, etc. Or about exercise, red herrings,
or other variables that are not in the question.

Please also don't bother talking about
whether this is adviseable or not.

Just the answer please.

Hopefully based on some kind of science or
experience, not speculation.

Thanks a lot

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