Fasting has become one of the most popular components of fat loss in recent years. When used as a proper tool, it can yield really good results. However, there is a thin line between fasting for fat loss and catastrophic starvation. Wellness Journalist Brigid Delaney surely crossed that line.
Brigid Delaney decided to go on a 101-day detox diet for weight loss. The cookie-cutter diet had her fasting for the first two weeks. However, the diet truly turned out to be a 'heartbreaking' diet as her body started to eat itself.
Delaney had drank herbal juices only of around 250 calories during the initial two weeks of her diet. The remaining 87 days of her diet would only include 50 grams of chicken, half cucumber, or a boiled egg.
The diet made her so light-headed that she would struggle to even cross the street. The diet put her in a state of ketosis, the process in which the body burns fat for energy. However, ketosis produces acidic acetone in the body leading to a foul smell. Delaney described herself as smelling like a 'rotten chicken carcass.' She would also have difficulty sleeping along with terrible night sweats.
However, the end of the road for the detox diet was on the 70th day. Delaney started feeling sharp chest pains that felt like a heart attack. She contacted the clinic which was supervising her, but they said not to worry. However, Delaney visited a different fasting and metabolism specialist who claimed that her severe chest pains could be a possibility that her own body was eating her heart muscle for fuel. Delaney finally ended the diet. She ended up gaining even more weight in the next six weeks.
Brigid Delaney is a lawyer turned journalist. She has worked as a writer for well-known organizations like the Sydney Morning Herald and the Telegraph. She has also written for Vogue. She has authored many books. One of her books, "Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness," has been recently turned into a Netflix series titled Wellmania.
(Input from various media sources)