Fasting, and why you should do it.

Just a heads up.  I'm not an expert on this topic.  I'd say consult your doctor before starting anything new with your diet.  But you probably don't even consult your doctor about your diet now.  And doctors aren't nutritionists.  There are so many chemicals in food today that interact with your brain through your gut.  It would be unfair to expect doctors to be able to understand all of what's wrong with you without knowing everything you are eating.  So when I say consult your doctor, consult them as much as you already do.  They treat your symptoms.  What's the best way to avoid all the chemicals in todays foods?  Eat real food.  What's real food?  Everything not in the middle of the grocery store.  That's a good place to start.  Although generalizing.  There are some awful refrigerated foods too, but even those are on the inside fridges, not along the outside.

Anyway.  I wanted to write a little bit about fasting.  I read a number of responses from people about what they thought of when the term "fasting" was brought up.  Many just gave a definition, but for others it left a real bad taste in their mouth.  See what I did there?   As far as I know there is two ways most people have heard about fasting.  The first is from a medical perspective.  Fasting before bloodwork, surgery or another type of procedure.  These are most likely water only from anywhere from 12-48 hours.  The other place is from church.  A type of religions fast designed to make you give up something that you frequent.  For many people this is food.  In the bible it talks about fasting for spiritual reasons and that Jesus fasted for 40 days.  I don't recommend this.  Though I know many that are following a highly restricted food intake plan that can go as long as 21 days or longer.  There was even a man that did a type of fast for over 300 days and lost around the same amount of weight.  However, with those extended fasts, there are times of intentional eating.  But it's minimal.

I think the church has made fasting seem like you are being deprived of something instead of focusing on the "why" behind the fast.  It's more about what you are giving up then what you are striving to attain.  They make it seem like it's going to be really hard to not eat for a day or three depending on the length of the fast.  Last I checked, the church is not a nutritionist.  But yes, it is hard.  Your body is used to eating every 2-3 hours.  And when you stop, it's not happy.  It now has to work and do what it was designed to do. There are some people that have some medical conditions that shouldn't decide today they want to fast and start tomorrow.  Diabetics, for example.  Anyone with hypoglycemia.  Fasting though, is not out of the question.  You just need a few weeks or months to change your eating habits to make fasting possible and seek the advice of a professional or someone that's treated those disease with nutrition.   There are also those with eating disorders that ought to have that treated prior to doing a proper fast as well.

Back to Jesus.  When Jesus fasted, people were not eating the same diet as we do.  They
didn't have complex carbs, twinkles, ho-ho's, chips, bread on every counter, or the massive amounts of plants we do today.  I'd be willing to bet they were in a pretty good state of ketosis or their bodies were primed to burn fat.  They most likely at more fats and proteins than anything else.  So fasting wasn't as much of a shock to the system as it would be for us.  That allowed them to focus more on the connection to God than it did how their bodies were responding.  If you have a carbohydrate rich/low fat diet and go a few hours without food, I'd be willing to bet you aren't doing anything but focusing on the havoc that is happening in your body.  But if you tough it out.  By the start of day 3...you probably feel a lot better.  You have entered ketosis.  And while you aren't that good at using your own body fat, your body is happily producing ketones for you to use for fuel.  Studies have suggested that your body runs 70% better on ketones.

That all being said.  Do you have to fast?  Nope.  Should you?  Yep.  But what if multi day fasts aren't your thing.  You can still get a lot of benefits by Intermittent fasting.  The easiest way to do this?  Overnight.  Stop eating as early as you can, say 6pm.  And then only drink water until lunchtime the next day.  And don't go carb heavy at lunch.  Eat a light meal with some healthy fats. If you can do this a few times a week you'll burn a significant amount of body fat as well as benefit in many other ways.  All of those can be found here, citing various resources as well.  I highly encourage you to check them out.