I would be more inclined to believe that it goes back. Thousands of people, including myself, have fasted for long periods of time, losing lots of weight, and then went on to a healthy Diet only to gain a few pounds back. Don't worry about it, if you break the fast properly and then move on to a healthy Diet you will not gain the weight back and your metabolism should balance itself out. There will be no damage done.

It's also my experience that this slowdown is certainly not permanent. I think how much you gain back if you overeat also depends from how efficient your metabolism was before the fast, but 4-6 weeks should really be enough for everybody to bring it back to normal. It's especially the first 2 weeks that you have to be very careful. And this will be really hard, as you will be very hungry.

In fact, I have the opposite experience, i.e. that I have been able to get my setpoint weight down a bit by fasting. I have never been overweight and fast mainly for detox, but like most women I want to be rather on the slim than on the chubby side of normal. With 5 long and some shorter fasts, I have been able to get my setpoint weight down by +/-10 pounds. Of course, if I start eating heaps of junk, then my weight will go above that point again. But if I now eat a normal amount of healthy food (well, most of the time at least!), I can keep my weight 10 pounds lower than when I ate the same amount of healthy food before those fasts. Mind you, in order to achieve this, during those longer fasts I did fast until I was underweight (as they were for detox mainly) and that weight of course I did gain back.

"On the other hand, Joel Furhman in his book "Fasting and Eating for Health" says that it comes back to normal after 4-6 weeks."

i think he has the best info on fasting and the safest.

anyway...it seemed about a month for my digetsion to return to normal post MC. but all in all...even without fasting it off...i feel like fasting has actually improved my metabolism. i am guessing this happened because my colon is clean, my stomach shrank, and i cant continue to pig out on junk food because i notice it makes me feel like crap. if i do put on a pound though it comes off easily. more easily than it did before i started fasting. and when i say comes off..i get it to come off while eating food.

with juice you get less of a slow down as oppose to water. i notice this greatly in just a short Water Fast as compared to a juice fast that is twice as long.

i dont think i am going to do Water Fasts longer than 24-48 because of this. its a HUGE difference.


there is a book i would like to read that might interest you too.
its a diet secret of japanese women book. it says to only eat until you are 80% full or something.

you BMR post fast goes down to 75% of what it was originally from what i read. so just take 1/2 of what you would normally eat as your portions, exercise a bit, eat a teeny thing every 3 hours (like a cheese stick or handful of nuts or apple)
this seemed to be the fastest way i got my metabolim back up.

and of course wonderful water. (1/2 you body weight in ounces per day)

take a multi vitamin post fast. it will help with you cravings and keep you from overeating. it REALLY makes a difference in me post fast.

Wow, thank you so much for your answers! I feel a lot more confident now. I'll go forward with my fast. Finishing day 10 now!

I also made a bit more research on my side, and found out that at least part of the metabolic slowdown comes from loss of muscular tissue along with fat. Muscles need quite a bit of energy, even at rest, so the more muscles you have, the more calories you burn "naturally". So by exercising post-fast in order to rebuild my muscles, I should manage. And also Life-n-light, eating less than I normally would sounds good enough... let's see if I can manage!

Thanks again!