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Many people consider fasting in order to lose weight. Fasting involves eating no little or no food for an extended period of time, and drinking only water or juice during that time, depending on the specific regimen.

Fasting is popular because it detoxifies the body to some degree. But can it really help you lose weight as well? The answer is yes, to a degree, you will probably lose weight during a fast. However, for several other reasons, fasting is not necessarily the most effective weight loss tool.

First, the weight you lose while fasting tends to come back after the fast. You’re usually hungry after a fast, so what do you do? You eat a lot. I think you know where all those calories are going to go. Second, even though most fasting programs encourage you to drink a lot of water, much of the weight you lose during a fast is still water weight. Remember that you ingest a lot of water as part of the food you eat every day (for instance, apples are around 80% water by volume). If you’re not eating the foods you usually eat, it’s hard to figure out exactly how much water intake you’re missing. Water weight, of course, also returns when your fast ends.

Fasters do have the right idea in that they are aiming to manipulate their metabolism and calorie intake. But a more moderated approach is more effective. A dieting technique called calorie cycling rotates between light eating and heavier eating in order to modify the metabolism more gradually and results in much longer-lasting and more effective weight loss than fasting. Calorie cycling may be employed through the popular diet plan FatLoss4Idiots, which generates custom meal plans based on the foods you like best, and increases your metabolism so that your body burns more fat every day. (It’s a heck of a lot easier to stick with than a fast, too!)