Fasting, a lost art

[zx12y]

I believe fasting, or going without food and/or water, is a lost art in the Western world. I believe you can improve your life by learning and going through the process. Start slowly by eating one meal a day for a time, then try a three day fast after eating regularly for a time. Here's why:

Bodily purification. This is a time of breaking down the weakest links of your character. It is literally survival of the fittest on the cellular level. Your body decides to rid itself of the weakest units in the organic system so that the healthiest aspects have a better environment to flourish, like weeding or trimming.

Learn better empathy. Learn the real-struggles of others in a controlled environment. Our beloved Final Fantasy characters sometimes go without nourishment for extended periods of time on their travels, and you too can experience the same elevated pride that they do. Think of how a large predator such as a lion eats. A keen predator knows it can bring about its own demise through its own destructive energy. The accomplishment of a successful catch is euphoric and necessitates extreme relaxation.

All hyperbole aside, it can be good for your health, like helping with insulin and cholesterol. Makes losing weight easy and fun.

[Calliope]

"Makes losing weight easy and fun."? "Elevated pride"?

I beg to differ - starving oneself is far from fun (unless you're banking on a hunger high), and any weight you lose from fasting is sure to come back to you once you start to reintroduce solid foods or high-calorie liquids.

This is a food forum, not a lack-of-food forum. Unless you're making a political or religious statement, or you're talking about incredibly precise calorie-restriction then I'm not sure that this thread will be easily digested.

[Pheesh]

I like food, I enjoy eating it cause it tastes great and I feel good after a particularly nice meal. I also don't think we would get hunger pains and all that jazz if our bodies wanted us to not eat.

So yeah, basically if people want to do it then that's their business but it just seems a bit odd to me, and I would never associate it with 'easy and fun'.

[zx12y]

"Makes losing weight easy and fun."? "Elevated pride"?

I beg to differ - starving oneself is far from fun (unless you're banking on a hunger high), and any weight you lose from fasting is sure to come back to you once you start to reintroduce solid foods or high-calorie liquids.

This is a food forum, not a lack-of-food forum. Unless you're making a political or religious statement, or you're talking about incredibly precise calorie-restriction then I'm not sure that this thread will be easily digested.

It's not starvation unless you want it to be. It's kind of silly in my opinion to believe less than 24 hours without food would cause you any harm.

The pride and joy is experienced as a result of the mindset to make a specific commitment.

I don't think one should always be fasting or eating few calories, I stressed the need to have a surplus in my post. Sure the weight will come back, that is to grow healthier

It may be presumptious to think you have some kind of experience in eating disorder, but if that were to be there case; I believe a basic education in fasting would lead one to developmentally reject such impulses and sublimate those desires in a healthy way.

[Calliope]

Fasting is by definition going without food - you can fast for 24 hours, or any length of time you decide to (Being told to fast by a doctor before you have particular surgeries or examinations, for example) - you mentioned building up to a three day fast, which is starving yourself for three days. Beyond that, you really weren't specific about anything, including actual reasons why you think someone should fast (in terms of building character or testing oneself or whatever), proven benefits of fasting, and your own experience with the act.

I do not find your seemingly random statements to make any sense, much less argue the benefits of fasting for anyone. To imply that I may have an eating disorder because I said fasting did not strike me as being "easy and fun" as a shortcut to weight loss is lunacy; much like telling someone you think has an eating disorder they should seek "basic education in fasting" lies somewhere between pathological negligence and utter cruelty.

[Loony BoB]

Anorexia nervosa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fasting for that long persistently is a massive and obvious glaring floodlight-lit siren-sounding flag-waving sign of an eating disorder. It's not a healthy thing to do, it shouldn't be easy and it shouldn't be fun. Whenever someone promotes doing such a thing, I find it all too easy to believe that person has an eating disorder. It's not art. When was it art? That's a fairly stupid thing to call it. xD There's no art to it at all. Just starving yourself, that's all it is.

I'd do the 40 hour famine on occasion as a youngster but I at least get to eat barley sugars for that. It never felt like art. It's done as a protest or a charity gaining venture sometimes and it's done as part of an eating disorder/poor diet on other occasions, and finally it's done against choice on other occasions. I've never seen it done for any reason outside of these things. I've never heard of it being called an art. I'm not really sure if I should be saddened someone thinks of it as a good thing (let alone art) or just laugh at the absurdity of it all.

[noxious.sunshine]

Do Juice fasrs count>>?

fuick me. i'm dunrk

[Chemical]

I read a good article in one of the New Scientist about fasting and Western diets. Mostly as a Western cultural it brought up an idea that we are over fed but by no means should starvation be considered an art it is really more a circumstance of life. People starve because they don't have a choice not because they want to be beautiful. But perhaps moderation is something needed these days, I don't really buy into a 3 square meals attitude either. Just eat when you are actually hungry not because you are bored or more importantly because you can.

[Jowy]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I really feel like I'm on death's door if I don't eat anything every six hours. My entire body breaks down, my muscles get sore, and a migraine develops. As long as you are constantly active, give your body the nutrients it requires. Science has already proven that there are many more negative connotations to this entire deprivation of nutrients. Don't deprive yourself of what its like to be alive and well.

[Loony BoB]

I read a good article in one of the New Scientist about fasting and Western diets. Mostly as a Western cultural it brought up an idea that we are over fed but by no means should starvation be considered an art it is really more a circumstance of life. People starve because they don't have a choice not because they want to be beautiful. But perhaps moderation is something needed these days, I don't really buy into a 3 square meals attitude either. Just eat when you are actually hungry not because you are bored or more importantly because you can.

I was at Burger King once and a guy was waiting on his order for him and his grandkids, but he clearly didn't want to be there. Interestingly, he said that the three meals a day thing is something relatively new as when he was younger they only ever had two meals. Being someone who generally eats only two meals a day, I found this kind of interesting. I do love to eat and sometimes will certainly eat three meals a day and more than I need to, but I must concede that I find my lifestyle much more suited to just the two meals and perhaps a snack at some point.

I'd still say children are suited to three meals a day, though. I don't think I'd have survived on two meals as a kid. I ate bucketloads and never gained any weight.

[Pike]

I voluntarily fasted for 24 hours once because I wanted to see if I could do it. No food, no water, nothing.

It sucked but I survived and I don't recall there being any ill effects - not gonna do it ever again, though.

[NorthernChaosGod]

The human body has specific organs and systems in order to eliminate waste products already. Why would anyone need to fast when they have a liver, kidneys, and other organs?

[Miriel]

I think the OP's theory about getting rid of the weakest link in your body is whacked out and doesn't make any sense.

But I don't think fasting itself is terrible. I know people who fast once in awhile for religious reasons, and it doesn't smurf them up or anything. I DON'T think that depriving yourself when you're hungry is in any way, a healthy way to lose weight. It is a bad bad bad way to lose weight, and any weight you lose will come right back. And maybe even more weight on top of that since people tend to binge when coming off those diets that only last a week or less. IE: fasting, juice cleanse, master cleanse, etc.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I really feel like I'm on death's door if I don't eat anything every six hours. My entire body breaks down, my muscles get sore, and a migraine develops. As long as you are constantly active, give your body the nutrients it requires. Science has already proven that there are many more negative connotations to this entire deprivation of nutrients. Don't deprive yourself of what its like to be alive and well.

What does your diet look like? When I was eating a lot of carbs, if I went more than a few hours without eating, I would have symptoms of hypoglycemia. Shaking, sweating, lightheadedness, dizziness, intense cravings for sugar.

Ever since I went on a low carb, high fat diet, those symptoms just vanished.

I occasionally do what's called intermittent fasting. It was a by product of my diet and just kinda happened organically, and only after I had inadvertently done it a few times did I research it and found out that it was an actual thing that people on LCHF diets do. Basically, because a lot of my diet was comprised of foods with high satiety, I found thatduring most of the day, I simply wasn't hungry. So I would skip breakfast/lunch and just keep going until dinner time rolled around at which point I would eat cheeses and meats and butter and veggies. Then I just wouldn't really be all that hungry the next day and if I did start feeling a bit hungry, a few nuts or a slice of cheese would fill me right up as a snack.

And during these intermittent fasts from the time I woke up, until around 7PM, I was exercising by running about 2 miles. So I had the energy to do that and felt no negative effects from skipping breakfast and lunch.

That being said, obviously I wouldn't recommend doing that for anyone who ISN'T feeling healthy and satiated. And I would only do this about once every other day, although I didn't really have a schedule. I just ate when I was hungry and tried to abstain from eating or snacking when I wasn't hungry. The weird thing is that sometimes when I'm not hungry, I still want to eat, just because I enjoy the act of eating. Which I think is true for a lot of people. Eating can be a nice distraction, but it's probably unnecessary if you're not actually hungry.

[Mirage]

I see no real point in fasting. I can go without food for a reasonable amount of time without feeling exhausted or anything, but I just like eating food so why shouldn't I?

I have no particular diet, and eat pretty much whatever I feel like, so I kinda think that whole thing with not having issues with skipping certain meals maybe just is something that some humans simply tackle better than others, regardless of diets.

[Jinx]

I think the people who assume that fasting for 1-4 days qualifies you for an eating disorder are a bit ignorant. Yes, people with eating disorders "fast" but it stems from a different place. It's also characterized by repetition of "fasting" as opposed to a yearly/bi-annual fast or something. As Miriel has said, many people fast (whether it's one meal, or a few days) for religious purposes. It doesn't hurt them.

Agreed with Miriel again, though, when I think that doing it for weight loss/health is not beneficial. Because, as she said, you tend to over-eat and your body stores up what you consume more, as you've been "starving" yourself. Juice fasts might be okay? But your body is still keeping some nutrients, and those are generally used more as detox anyways, not for weight loss (or how they should be used).