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Cascade fasting for weight loss day after day
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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There are many fasting methods developed for therapeutic and preventive purposes, to get rid of excess weight. Most of them are quite exhausting and require a lot of willpower to achieve success. Cascade is a special type of fasting, which differs from the others in its cyclical course, in which days of fasting alternate with food, and the periods of fasting can be different, depending on how much the body can withstand without a threat to health. Cascade fasting is gaining more and more popularity due to its effective and sustainable results.
General information cascade fasting
The concept of "cascade" involves replacing "hungry" days with "full" days. This method is, first of all, psychologically easier to bear, since a person knows that he will soon eat, and during the feeding period he does not immediately pounce on food. The stages of fasting can be arranged in different ways: do not take anything, do not even drink, or fast on water. Its essence is to block the source of energy from the outside and switch to using your own resources. The duration of food restrictions can be different. The following schemes of cascade dry fasting are used: every other day - the "hungry" day is replaced by eating plant foods; two days after two; three days after three, and so on. A week and a half before the beginning of the procedure, it is recommended to conduct a preparatory period, giving up heavy food, sweets, semi-finished products and switching to raw vegetables and fruits.
Cascade fasting 10 through 10
It is not worth throwing yourself into such desperately long periods of absence of not only food but also water, such as cascade fasting 10 through 10, on your own. Usually such sessions are conducted either by gurus who not only preach these theories, but also repeatedly resort to them themselves, or in the conditions of a hospital of a medical center, sanatorium under the guidance of doctors, in the company of other such people.
Only a specialist can objectively assess the patient's condition, recognize the body's readiness for such tests. It is very important to get a moral attitude, to be involved together with other fasting people in some distracting activity, to go through a proper food preparatory period, which takes up to 2 weeks. You will also have to solve the problem of stool with an enema.
Cascade fasting according to Lavrova
Many methods of dry gradual refusal of food have been developed, including cascade fasting according to Lavrova. Her system involves careful preparation for the procedure, including saturating the body with water, healthy food: fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains, legumes. You can eat fish, poultry, seaweed, porridge, but meat, sweets, alcohol, coffee are excluded. It is recommended to start with one day of fasting and one day of eating. Moreover, it is important to observe the combination of the exact time of the beginning and end of the cycle. Such a rhythm is maintained for a sufficiently long time and only then, when the body gets used to the periodic absence of food, you can move on to the next stage with a longer duration.
The maximum duration of fasting according to Lavrova is 5 days. During this period, not only is it forbidden to drink water, but even brush your teeth, wash yourself, or bathe yourself - any contact with it is prohibited.
Cascade fasting according to Malakhov
Malakhov popularizes therapeutic fasting, which he tested on himself. According to him, it helps to get rid of various diseases and achieve spiritual purification. Among his methods is the cascade method. Its peculiarity is that food intake exceeds the fasting periods for 5-10 days.
According to the author, during the refusal of food, there is a release from food addiction, and from the fifth day, clarity of consciousness appears, the brain's hunger center is switched off, the person's condition becomes comfortable. The body switches to internal reserves: fats and glycogen, and external ones are also used: solar energy, air. At this time, various neoplasms are absorbed, a cleansing process is launched, toxins and slags from tissues enter the blood and are excreted through the excretory system. The digestive organs, not participating in the processing of food, rest and recover.
Cascade fasting according to Voitovich
In Soviet times, the doctor, candidate of medical sciences Voitovich developed his own system of therapeutic cascade (fractional) fasting and used it to treat a number of diseases: respiratory system - tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, sarcoidosis; cardiovascular pathologies, oncology, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Cascade fasting according to Voitovich consists of 3 cascades or cycles: the first lasts from 17 to 20 days, the second - 20-25, the third - 10-20. They alternate with nutrition, this period is restorative. After the first fraction, it lasts a month, the second - up to 2 months. The full course of the procedure takes six months. Then it is recommended to resort to preventive fasting according to the scheme: after 4, 6, 8 months. Between them, you can fast once a week, or 5 days every month. Voitovich compares his method with a major overhaul of the body: the immunogenetic apparatus is restored, the microcirculatory bed is revived, organs and systems are strengthened.
Cascade fasting requires a mandatory preparatory stage, which consists of cleansing the intestines with a laxative. During fasting, daily enemas with 1.5 liters of a weak solution of potassium permanganate are necessary. This is an example of cascade fasting on water. The method involves drinking a large amount of it (up to 2 liters). In this way, according to the author, fats are broken down better. Water can be raw, boiled, distilled, melted, in a word, any, except carbonated or sweet. Before drinking, rinse your mouth with herbal infusion, soda solution or just cold water. To enhance the therapeutic effect, you need to spend a lot of time outdoors, take long walks, take a shower or bath every day. Use soap only once a week, it is best to wear natural clothes. Massage, autogenic training, breathing exercises, acupuncture are also possible.
Exit from cascade fasting
A very important aspect is the exit from cascade fasting. Using the Voitovich method as an example, the recovery period begins with drinking fresh juices, preferably carrot and apple, half diluted with water. From the second day, you can eat both raw and baked vegetables, as well as fruits and berries, little by little, but often, at least 4-5 times. The next day, add dried fruits in soaked form, honey. Then you can eat porridge on water, seasoned with vegetable oil, nuts and gradually switch to 3-4 meals a day. Each new day, an additional ingredient is introduced: legumes, bread. And only from the sixth day, a three-meal diet is established, the menu is close to the usual, but with a limitation of animal products (meat, milk) and eggs.
Coming out of a short-term cascade fast, for example according to Lavrova, involves drinking plenty of cool boiled water, then after 2 hours fatty dairy products are recommended except for yogurts, and a little later - unsalted chicken broth.
Benefits
By resorting to cascade fasting, a person sets a goal to cleanse the body of waste and toxins, to establish metabolic processes so that all calories received are burned, and not accumulated in the form of fat deposits. Its undoubted benefit, first of all, consists in effective and sustainable weight loss, acquisition of a positive attitude, additional energy, and good health.
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Contraindications
Depending on the duration of the fasting periods, there are contraindications and risks associated with cascade fasting. Thus, Lavrova does not indicate specific diagnoses, but urges to listen to yourself, keep a diary of your well-being and, if the usual state of weakness, dizziness, headaches does not pass for a long time, then stop the procedure. General contraindications for longer refusals of food and water than 24-36 hours include low human weight, liver diseases (cirrhosis, hepatitis), endocrine pathologies, renal failure, low blood pressure, neoplasms, active tuberculosis, cholelithiasis. The method is also unacceptable for pregnant and lactating women, as well as after transplantation.
Complications
The main danger of cascade fasting is hormonal imbalance. During food refusal, there is an increased production of corticosteroids - anti-inflammatory hormones, which leads to a disruption of the hormonal balance in the body. Possible complications are associated with a malfunction of the endocrine system. As a result of the imbalance of the acid-base environment, which occurs with improper breakdown of fats and the release of ketone bodies, ketoacidosis can develop, which is dangerous for the body due to poisoning. The presence of ischemic heart disease can lead to a fatal heart attack.
Reviews and results
According to people's reviews, only a few resorted to prolonged fasting, but many adopted short schemes. They note certain psychological difficulties at first, deterioration of physical condition, but those who coped with it are very pleased with the results: weight was reduced and stabilized, the body felt lighter, skin color improved, and eyes sparkled.