To those that have not actually done an extended fast, the idea of fasting may sound miserable, dangerous, and counterproductive to general goals of health and fitness. As there are already many good explanations as to why fasting is not something to be afraid of for most people, I refer you to a very educational YouTube channel called What I've Learned which goes over these things (among many other interesting topics) in short, well-made videos which cite appropriate literature. I'll briefly outline why fasting is a good idea below, but reading about these things from a more biologically or medically learned person may be more informative if you wish to learn more; I am not an expert in these things!
Just as we respond to staying awake for extended periods of time with sleep (e.g. staying awake for 16 hours and then sleeping for 8), we can respond to continuous feeding with fasting (not taking in food). In fact, we all fast everyday while we sleep, so really fasting isn't doing anything radically new. It's just a matter of degree.
Except, there are some good things that only fasting for an extended period of time (something like more than 48 hours, and then some additional benefits maybe after around 7 days) can unlock. When we fast, we give our body a chance to rest and rebuild. It is easy to see how this is the case for the digestive system, which is finally given time to do some pipe cleaning. But this also applies for other systems in our body.
The main advantages for fasting for a person like me (first world, not malnourished, a bit overweight) come in its "reset" effects. Firstly, there are immediate psychological effects of fasting. Just as establishing a budget will force you to look at your spending habits, deciding to go on a fast (or do any quantification of what you use to nourish your body, for that matter) forces accountabiity and refelection on daily habits. During fasting, you will lose weight. This will likely just be temporary, and mostly come from water weight though. The real changes in weight loss that many people report come from a re-allignment of attitude towards food, which inculdes reeling in compulsive behavior and being more appreciative of eating, process and substance.
By becoming more aware of ourselves and our bodies, we learn to better self-regulate. We allow mis-calibrated equipment (e.g. hormonal imbalances making us hungry all the time and screwing with our sugar intake) to correct itself. We become more appreciative of what we had conditioned ourselves to take for granted.
The fast
I did a 4.5 day, (practically) zero calorie fast. The calories came from black coffee, which I didn't give up. Also, I had a couple of diet sodas (yes, yes, bad, bad).
Hunger
Previously, I had done another 4.5ish day fast, so I subjectively had a good idea of expect this time around.
Hunger was basically a non-issue for me. For the past couple years I have been repeating the mantra "hunger is a part of life" to myself (and others that repeatedly offered me food) so I have gotten pretty decent at keeping hunger at bay. As hunger pangs would arise, I would practice those mindfulness techniques of observing the hunger for what it was ("sensations") and moving on with my plan. That is to say, I experienced hunger, but I had prepared myself psychologically to observe hunger for what it was here (I knew I wasn't really starving) and deal with it appropriately.
Being social
By far, the most challenging part of this fast were social issues. Fasting isn't something that most people do, so "I'm fasting" is often an explanatory remark to say why or why not you are doing a particular activity. While suggesting to go to eat lunch with a friend is a fairly natural thing to do, to tell a friend that you will not meet for lunch but can meet at a coffee shop might take some explaining. This is one of the main reasons I decided to take up an (almost) zero calorie fast as opposed to a water only fast, though there are many detoxification effects that can come with longer water only fasts.
Fasting made me more conscious of the sorts of social encounters I usually find myself in. For many people, social encountetrs are centered around eating. Especially around colleges, drinking is adde to this mix. Fasting brought to my attention not just the sorts of social situations I find myself in, but also how I am helpful/hurtful in designing social encounters for other people (e.g. as parts of organizations making plans).
One thing that kept me going with this fast was understanding that in order to "restart" many of the benefits of fasting, at least the "work" of the preceding days must be "redone". That is, I cannot reach Day 4 of fasting again without first fasting 3 days again, if I choose to break my fast at some point. If I didn't fast an adequately long period of time too, I wouldn't have much to write about here, dear readers!
Energy levels and Mental Clarity
One of the main reasons I became interested in trying fasting myself was to see the effects it had on concentration. I read up on reports of improved concentration, peace of mind, and other cognitive benefits.
After somewhere between one and three days, the body will switch primarily to ketosis to get energy. If you are a Toyota Prius (hybrid car), and you normally get energy by constantly charging your electric engine, switching to Ketosis can be thought of as switching to your full gas tank for power instead. Running on a different power source feels different. Returning to the Prius analogy, using gas as opposed to electricity is louder, for instance.
The experiential difference I found with running primarily on ketosis (mostly burning my own fat for energy) was more stable energy levels (no food comas, no spikes in energy or fatigue) and a general increased ability to remain calm and concentrate. A future topic to look into is to see how fasting relates to the "fight or flight" response.
The future
Overall, I have found fasting itself to be very positive, eye opening experience. Fasting is still taboo in the mainstream, and I hope that more research and communication help people understand fasting better rather than automatically repulsing away from it. Many accounts of fasting make it sound like a magic bullet. Maybe in some ways it is, though it must be a relatively slow and deliberate bullet.
If I am to repeat a fast similar to this, or even go longer, I think that it would probably be worthwhile to gather some more data during the fast (such as weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc). I didn't bother to do these things this time around because I was eager to get started and didn't have easy access to the equipment to get these readings.Labels: culture, health, psychology