Fan Bingbing consumes only water for 7 days, loses 6kg

If you thought losing 1kg in a week is impressive, how does 6kg in seven days sound to you?

Fan Bingbing recently managed to achieve that; however, some netizens feel the drastic loss also affected her health, reported Hong Kong media HK01 today (June 29).

The Chinese actress documented the process of her weight loss regime known as bigu fasting — or grain avoidance — on her Xiaohongshu account between June 20 and June 26, saying she lost a total of 6.25kg.

Bigu is a Taoist fasting technique that avoids the consumption of grains and has been used in hopes of attaining good health, weight loss, longevity and even immortality, according to a medical journal published in 2017.

The journal also referred to the method as one that has spawned a "variety of health problems" due to the severe diet, which had caused "an unusual case of perforation of the alimentary canal" for a 36-year-old woman who had been on the Bigu diet for five months.

Bingbing, 40, said her regime was customised for her and she was doing it for work, adding to netizens not to follow suit.

In her fasting, Bingbing said she only consumed flavoured water, such as jujube water, water infused with lemon and passion fruit, apple cider vinegar and other beverages mixed with protein powder.

On top of her liquid diet, she also exercised by walking and doing yoga among other exertions — she even walked five to six km on her first day.

By her third day, she had already lost 3.6kg.

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"I was a little hungry on the third night, but on the second day I think everything felt good," Bingbing told her audience. She noted that she could visibly see herself becoming thinner and also added that she had no problems with light exercise.

By the fifth day, she had lost 5.1kg.

"I feel very light and I didn't feel sleepy or confused at work. I felt refreshed and in good spirits," she said.

However, netizens noted that Bingbing's health wasn't holding up on the fifth day — she "appeared weak", "had no strength to speak" and had sluggish reactions.

Other netizens also shared their anecdotes on bigu and other similar fasting methods, pointing out that this method was unhealthy and wasn't effective in the long term, since the weight lost could be easily regained.

Some also claimed it caused them hair loss and amenorrhea. The fact that Bingbing was documenting the extreme weight loss regime on social media was also of concern to some users.

This isn't her first rodeo — according to her, she's done bigu fasting before and even maintained it for 10 days.

But health isn't achieved through fasting — scientist and dietitian Dr Megan Rossi explained that people should aim to consume 50g of fibre a day.

In order to maintain "good gut health", people should try to consume "30 different plants a week", Dr Rossi said.

"You don't have to go to extremes. The foundation of the diet is plants, but what you eat on top of that is up to you."

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khooyihang@asiaone.com