Pretty much everything about fasting is simple. Less shopping, less cooking, less dishes. It can save a lot of time. There is nothing extra to do or buy. No counting calories. No special foods. It is the epitome of simplicity. But simple does not necessarily mean easy.
When we talk about fasting there is only one significant challenge. Hunger. For some this might not be a big concern, but for others it can be a major obstacle. Now I am going to tell you right up front, I can’t take hunger away. Well, at least not in the short term. If you are going to fast you are almost undoubtedly going to experience some amount of hunger.
What I can do is give you a deeper understanding of what hunger is and what the body is trying to communicate with this sensation. I can also give you a few tips to help you manage hunger and put you in control of hunger instead of hunger in control of you. Read on and I will explain.
Hunger is not what we think it is.
I have tried just about every different fasting practice I could find as I embarked on a study of fasting to determine if this could be a realistic therapeutic tool in my medical practice.
See that story here. Suffice it to say…I have experienced a lot of hunger.
When I feel hungry I feel like my body is calling out “Hey buddy! Eat something now so we can get some energy in here so we can function and be healthy!” Does that resonate with you? I have been amazed to learn that with only a few rare exceptions (severe hypoglycemia, malnourishment) this is not what the body is actually trying to communicate.
This may be the most important insight on this site. The message the body is trying to communicate with hunger is:
I just love watching peoples eyes light up when they hear this. It’s like hearing the language of your body clearly for the first time.
You see we have not appreciated how much work the body has to do to process all the food we run through it. We eat something and we think we are done. No. You just committed your body to 12 hours of work. Digestion is a high-tech process that breaks down all the food into molecules without blowing a hole in you. Every nutrient absorbed, sterilized and organized. Nearly 30% of the energy we get from food just powers digestion!
And we know what it is like if this process is not organized. We feel nauseous, bloated, etc. The body just wants to get a heads up so it can handle this task efficiently. We don’t keep vats of hydrochloric acid just sitting around. The digestive enzymes and chemicals are made on demand.
The body is analyzing our eating patterns. When it thinks we are going to eat it gets everything ready and when everything is prepared it triggers ghrelin release. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone. It makes us feel hungry. The body is trying to send the message “We are optimally prepared to process food now if you choose to eat.” But it is not actually asking for more!
The Guilt is Gone.
I have found this understanding to be more helpful than any other insight in helping people to be successful with a fasting regimen. When you feel that hunger means your body is asking for something it needs, you might feel guilty for not eating. It can feel like a moral failing to deprive your body of something it needs. One can feel compelled to eat even if you are not that hungry.
Fasting can be challenging. But as you come to a deeper understanding of how the body works you may find there are times you are just not that hungry even when you would normally be eating.
You don’t have to eat even if you are hungry. If the hunger is not there, well, that would make this simple indeed.
Fasting can become much easier when you come to understand that the body is just running a scheduling protocol. When you are in a state of good health and feeling hungry, but chose not to eat, your body is literally thinking (to personify) “Oh, you mean we are not doing that now? Hey that’s ok! We will just burn the body-fat and then get on to some maintenance projects we have been meaning to do.”
I would like to point out that hunger also is not dangerous. With the common understanding of hunger there is the subtle implication that if you don’t act on this sensation right now you are going to imminently run short of some precious fuel and something bad might happen to you. As long as you are in good health I can tell you, that is not the case.
The body has immense energy resources. Even a lean individual could live for up to 6 weeks without any food at all as long as they could stay hydrated. Now the end of that process would be pretty bad but for a solid 3 weeks or so people would be doing quite well actually. People who have a bit of extra body-fat stored away can live a great deal longer. That is what the fat is for! We are far less dependent on continuous food intake than we have realized.
Think of it this way.
Have you ever been hungry for lunch but gotten busy and all of a sudden its 3pm? All of a sudden you are thinking of it but you are not so hungry anymore. Then you get hungry for dinner again. It’s about patterns.
Your body thought you were going to eat lunch. It got everything ready for food processing. Sent out the ghrelin signal. But then you disregarded that signal. The hormone went away over the course of an hour and you went on with your life. You didn’t need the energy after all! And you are just fine!
Hunger comes in waves.
Another key insight is to realize that hunger is not a permanent state. I was so intimidated the first times I tried some longer fasting. I thought I was going to be in a constant state of misery. Well, for one thing I have realized that hunger is not as bad as it is made out. Think of all the awful things people experience. Getting shot and stabbed and car accidents etc. Hunger is not suffering like that.
Eating is pleasurable and hunger is much more like simply the absence of pleasure than it is the presence of suffering. It is a fairly neutral state actually. We are just so affluent in our abundance of food that we are experiencing the dopamine rush from constant food and take it as the default state.
But even in its neutral manner hunger does not last. Ghrelin comes and goes over about 60-90 minutes. The key is to ride it out. The best way is to find a pleasant distraction. It can be anything you enjoy. Working makes it easy. Or take a walk. Read a book. Phone a friend. Whatever it takes.
The other helpful way to ride out a hunger wave is to stay hydrated. Any calorie free beverage such as water, coffee, tea or sparkling water is great as long as there are no artificial sweeteners. About 70% of what we experience as hunger is actually thirst.
Here is a good tip, next time you are feeling hungry just grab a big glass of water and then wait 10 minutes. I can almost guarantee you will feel better.
Things get even better.
A lot of the tips I have provided already can help you fast even for a longer period of time. But a great way to start is to go less intense and start at Level 1. Easing into the practice makes it much easier and helps the body to adjust.
The great news is that since hunger is based on patterns, and those patterns are under our control, we can change when we feel hungry by setting new patterns. My experience and that of most people I talk to is that a new dietary pattern can come to feel normal over the course of 2-3 weeks. At that point it is still an aggressive practice, but if it is aggressive and easy then you are in a truly golden place.
The key we are going for is long term sustainability. We don’t want something that just works for a few weeks and then you can’t keep it up. The beautiful thing is that the body can adapt to almost any pattern of eating. I tell people I am not trying to get you on something that is a constant struggle. You put in the hard work of setting a new pattern and it can get easier.
One of the key benefits of a fasting regimen is that it is very strong. I tell people it is flexible and does not require total compliance. Six days out of seven is just fine. A big key is to not stress about it. But there is great benefit to staying in a regimen most of the time. Staying in a similar eating pattern aligns all the hormonal cues in the body and can make it so you will only get hungry at the times you want to be eating.
Final thoughts.
Most people despise standard diets and find them unsustainable because of portion control. You are always eating less than you want and end up feeling guilty about everything you do eat. Eventually the psychological pressure is too much. Simple fasting patterns can be much more enjoyable.
Many people find it is actually considerably easier to eat nothing for a period of time than to eat just a tiny bit. You are not seeing it, tasting it or smelling it. Then, when you do eat, you are eating a normal meal. This can be satisfying and doesn’t have to be a mini-meal. You are already knocking out a whole meal so don’t sweat it. This is why this can become a sustainable lifestyle. You don’t feel like you are depriving yourself.
I will end by noting that what you eat when you are on a fasting regimen is almost as important as the fasted interval itself. You want to nourish your body with the highest quality healthy food you can. In general these foods are lower in carbohydrates. Foods such as greens and hearty vegetables have plenty of fiber that can help you feel full and satisfied as well.
Certainly junk food and soda that spike your insulin and block your fat burning pathways are going to leave you feeling much more hungry than if you are eating healthy vegetables, high quality protein sources, nuts, eggs, seeds, berries etc.
Check out the recommended foods page for more information.