There are many things that you can do too much of but this does not apply to things that the body controls. You cannot sleep too much, only as long as you need to. Some depressed people sleep 12 hours per day. You can fast too long or exercise too much.

Since you cannot control how long you sleep, you cannot do it too much. You can control how little you get but not how much you get. If you doubt this, then try it. Try to sleep 20 hours. You can lie there for 20 hours but will only be asleep if your body decides that you need it. Note that I am not talking about stage 1 sleep where you are drowsy and trying to get to sleep but you are not really sleeping.

The news announced in November 2006 that 70% of Americans have trouble sleeping. There is a McDougall website about getting over depression naturally. It says that sleep is depressing so you should not even get the suggested 8 hours. This shows that while there is a limit to genius, there is no limit to stupidity. His other ideas are good, though. The singer, Mariah Carey, had a nervous breakdown years ago and said that it was because of lack of sleep to warn others so the same thing does not happen to them.

I have seen on forums people giving rates of weight loss (weight loss/time) that are too fast. I checked this out and did not find reliable sources saying this. An MD on TV said that people on the same diet can lose weight at different rates. Also MDs think it is safe (and the FDA agrees) to lose many pounds of bodyfat in an hour with liposuction. Like with sleeping, you do not control how fast you lose weight. That is why you cannot lose weight too fast. Remember the above rule about exceptions, where someone with a serious problem can lose weight too fast.

Many have fasted for 5 days (trying to lose weight) and only lost 2 pounds. I have fasted many times but I was never overweight. People would ask how much I would lose but I did not notice any difference. So I got a scale so I could measure it scientifically. I weighed myself at the beginning of a fast and right before the end of a 4 day fast of pure water. I did gain one pound which does happen sometimes when people have reserve nutrients and are consuming air and water.

Someone could say "you just retained more water." But most people lose water weight during a fast. Regardless of whether I created more bone (people can mend broken bones during a fast) or retained water is the fact that I had no control over the rate of weight loss which in this case was negative one pound.

People can control their efforts to influence this rate. Fasting and exercise gives your body the chance to lose weight the fastest. Some exercise, like yoga, is OK during a fast. Allan Cott M.D. suggests walking 3 hours a day during a fast to lose more weight and for circulation. These are mild exercises. But you have to be careful about doing a lot of strenuous exercise during a fast. My mother could eat large amounts of fattening foods with lots of bad carbs and fat and still be thin without exercising. Copyright 2007 by Chuck Bluestein