you think all the evidence is "western" ? really ? yeah it's been practiced as a form of punishment or sacrifice. a current nba player carmelo anthony fasted the other week. his performances dropped, his energy levels dropped, his ability to recover from training & workouts dropped. he said he felt lethargic & it put him at risk of injuries. bear in mind he's doing this at a professional sports club so would've had more than adequate facilities & nutritional advisers

it's not a few hours is it, it's two days ffs

i've got this email on my laptop that i sent a friend who asked for help losing a bit of weight. it seems lengthy, it's basic stuff. does this honestly seem harder than starving yourself for 2 days ?

Take in roughly 2500 calories a day if you want to maintain your weight. This will obviously vary with people and your excercise regimes, but it's more or less correct. Take in about 500-700 less if you want to lose weight so 1800 to 2000 per day.

In terms of food you need to be eating complex carbs - ie wholegrains, wholewheats etc. never let a simple carbohydrate touch your lips if possible. It's refined, and spikes your energy levels, causing a huge surge. This huge surge is followed by a drop back down which will drastically mess up your metabolism. So nothing white, no white bread, white rice, no doughs, etc. Stick to wholegrains, wholemeals and that.
It's complex carbohydrates which give your body a slow burning efficient energy source that maintains your metabolism at an efficient rate over a long time - result is you burn more fat, and feel less tired throughout the day.

Cut out the "junk food" completely if you can. It's obvious what that is so I'll leave it at that. Look avidly at the nutritional labels on everything for calories, and tot up your daily calories in your head if you find it helps you.

To boost your metabolism and ensure everything is working right, drinking at least 2 litres of water is essential. Some of the following also boost your metabolism:- green tea, almonds (no more than say a handful tho’) and chilli peppers (jalapeños and that).

Don't drink more than 2 cups of coffee(or similar caffeine content drinks) a day, although caffeine does boost your metabolism.

Eat a bit of protein - from lean meats (best is turkey). Whey protein is good too but you have to be careful with not buying the cheap stuff and I personally would only take it while/after working out on weights or a game, and I would only take it as long as I have been training very seriously and for a few months. If you take whey and you’re not training it’s pretty pointless and could actually lead to you putting more weight on.

Eating 5 smaller meals a day boosts your metabolism - start off with a good hearty breakfast with complex wholegrain carbs, then mid-morning have a little snack - like almonds then a good lunch and a midday snack and then a nice tea. Try not to eat any carbs after 6pm if you can.

Also if you want to be fit ideally you should cut out booze as much as you can. It's empty calories - meaning they don't actually fill you up, decreasing the amount of food you eat, which then encourages the body to eat more. The worst thing about the effect alcohol has on you in encouraging appetite is while your liver goes to work on breaking down the alcohol, it stops any work on burning calories. Anything you eat while alcohol is in your system will pretty much be stored as fat. It can also inhibit testosterone and human growth hormone - two hormones which help burn fat and build muscle.

Working out first thing in the morning also raises your metabolic rate for the rest of the day.

As for exercise, I don't really know what your regime is like now so can't comment. But in general I'd recommend trying a full body workout instead of body parts. Obviously you'll have to work it out so there's a day of rest in between each weights session. Normally you want to aim for about one hour of cardio exercise a day.

Another key thing to look out for on labels of food is Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil and Glucose Fructose Syrup - quite simply if you want to be fit and healthy stay away from things with those in. Glucose Fructose Syrup is in a LOT of things - Red Bull, Chocolate Bars even slimming food - its a man made sweetener made in a lab in the 1970s which is cheap and good for profits. It doesn't show up on the sugar scale on the labels so they can put it in anything and it doesn't look as bad. Problem is because it's man made your body can't break it down very well and it just goes to fat.