Fasting And The Finer Lessons Of Less
Finding the fine line of satisfaction to avoid overeating and feel lighter
Anyone can fast. Most folks are too caught up in rigid eating habits out of convenience over necessity. Days are defined by meal times. The anticipation becomes an incentive.
Eating is a mindless activity born of repetition and pure overindulgence. It all tastes too good to stop and think. The key is to find the line of satisfaction as an endpoint, rather than a constant overloading on your system.
I first starting fasting almost three decades ago to adhere to religious edicts. It soon became apparent that fasting provided tremendous gains in both body and mind.
Let’s dive into the details and see if my journey can convince you to take a trail run. I am not a fitness guru nor a workout warrior. It does help that I am not a foodie. But, eating is an independent act, so each person can find their own path to resistance and better health.
The Finer Lessons of Less
Fasting is all about less. Less food. Less load. Less desire. Less consumption. Less heaviness. Less processing. It is a good bargain to exchange overeating for under-eating. The latter concept is not well promoted, but it can determine your acceptance to redefine your eating habits.
Here are some key pointers and insights developed over the years:
#1. American vs. Asian Diets
Living in Asia gives you a completely different outlook on how to eat compared to the American way. First, the portions are much smaller with lots of small plates on the table. This variety mix offers bits of chicken, fish, veggies, shrimp, tofu, rice and a selection of hot or spicy sauces. People in Malaysia do not gorge, they dip from the food well often without going back for a massive second round. Except for rice.
Americans eat large portions all the time. I can no longer eat a regular entree and have to share the load. Portion control is the first step towards understanding how little you really need to satisfy the eating urges.
The United States tops the kilocalorie scale along with other western nations. Good economies lead to good eats. But it is also cultural eating habits and food choices that build up the fat deposits. The following graph highlights our climb over 50 years and puts our consumption into global perspective:
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Masaqui, 2013)
The major takeaways are that Americans eat too damn much. There is nothing to suggest we have to consume super-calories to sustain our way of life. It’s just girth gone wild. We need to get back to sensible eating practices.
So take a cue from Asia and other less calorie-heavy countries and try to limit your excesses. Fasting is a quick way to test the deficit waters and feel the pangs of your food desires.
#2. Body, Mind and Spirit
Fasting works on all levels. First, your body tries to adapt to the changes in eating times and amounts. Plus, the previous load on your system needs to cycle out and your body has to deal with the new regime.
Here is an absolute truth: your body is an amazing adaptation machine. Within days of fasting it is reconfiguring food intake times and resetting the process. If you cut out coffee and tea, then you’ll get slight caffeine headaches as it exits your system. If not, then your head stays clear.
After a few days your body kicks into fasting gear and the benefits of eating less start to become the new norm. Your body begins to feel lighter. The drowsiness also fades away as that stuffy sensation dissipates.
A heavy food load wears on the mind too. Fasting lightens the mind. Certain individuals gain mental sharpness or increased energy levels. Lightness of mind begets agility. Processing food all day long takes energy. Energy that can focus your attention to complete projects and make progress.
It’s tough to keep in high spirits when the stomach remains full. Fasting is an elixir. It resets your system. It puts your spirits on the right track. Feeling light allows you to raise your game and reach new heights of productivity and creativity.
#3. Short vs. Long Duration
Fitness and health enthusiasts are leading the charge for intermittent fasting, which employs various methods of feeding restrictions, such as alternate-days, daily-times or periodic. Muslims and other groups fast for longer periods of up to one-month without water or food from approximately sunrise to sundown.
All of these techniques utilize a fasting window and a feeding window. One common method is the 16/8 method that divides the 24-hour cycle into one-third eating and two-thirds without food. A major difference between personal versus religious fasts is the restriction of liquids for the latter.
As a practitioner of both versions, being able to drink water and get a caffeine kick makes fasting a much easier endeavour. Liquids allow you to stay hydrated and sustain your exercise routines without a drain on your body. As a general practice, if you consume liquids with less than 50 calories, then your body remains in a fasted state.
Going without water is tough. It may take a higher power or reason to help you out. However, it does teach you a good lesson. Water is the real food. When you break fast each day, you reach for the water first for recovery. Forget the delicious carbs, mighty proteins and decadent sweets. Give me another glassful.
The main point is to experiment with fasting. Test the time feeding schedule. Narrow your feeding window to lessen the overall food load. Refrain from eating after dinner and postpone breakfast a few hours. Work your way to 10, 12, 14 or 16 hour periods.
Find out which types of foods sustain your fast. Throw away the quick energy fixes and junk foods that bring on the hunger pangs. Get all the data you need from your body and mind each day.
#4. Willpower vs. Mindlessness
Willpower remains strong as long as you keep your focus. Most people do not believe they have the mental fortitude for fasting. In truth, you don’t need willpower.
When food is not an option there is no reason to think about it. If your fasting period is set and consistent, then you’re ready to go. The desire for food disappears. Your mind focuses on the task at hand and enters a state of mindlessness. Your stomach sends hunger receptors to the brain, but the mind just dismisses these signals as premature.
This mindlessness state allows you to work and go about your business as normal. I’ve worked long days in the tropical rainforest without food or water until sundown.
Of course for physical activity you have to pace yourself. I’ve also played basketball for two hours and then spreadeagled under a ceiling fan lying still for another two hours awaiting break fasting time. You have to adapt your activity levels to match your energy ones.
The body adapts and the mind is a powerful tool. Fasting is within reach of your capabilities.
#5. Fine Tuning Your Diet
Satiety is a strange term. It’s meant to describe the “feeling of fullness and the suppression of hunger for a period of time after a meal.” The body signals this feeling with “physiological responses that are believed to terminate eating or maintain inhibition of further intake.”
Several meal factors are involved for different satiety signals, such as energy density, weight, volume and macronutrient composition.
Fasting replaces these scientific explanations with a simple gut check. Your body becomes a fine-tuned eating machine. It sends immediate feedback to your brain.
During longer duration fasts, it is hard to eat even a normal-sized meal. Your body adapts to less food and possibly less energy requirements. For me, a regular meal is enough. I never feel the urge to gorge or binge. That just seems counterproductive and unnecessary.
Once your body adapts to a fasting regime, you’ll begin to notice how food consumption plays out. Then you can self-regulate your intake because you start to feel the line of satisfaction or satiation. You’re probably going to be surprised by how fewer calories you need and how uncomfortable it is to eat over the line.
The revelation of finding the balancing line is a major accomplishment. It sets the stage for food restriction, healthy eating regimes and dialing in on your body dynamics.
Everyone knows how horrible it feels to overeat: the bloating, the added stress and the lethargy. Imagine being able to switch on the under-eating button all year round. Fasting helps you to take control of your relationship to food consumption.
#6. Unexpected Outputs
Regularity is a wonderful thing.
One of the least expected outputs of fasting are beautiful bowel movements. Staying in a rhythm keeps your internal machinery from working overtime as snacking and second helpings add to the processing pile.
Normal eating patterns rarely allow digestion to finish its business. Fasting turns the 24/7 factory processing line into an 8-hour workday. For a graphic difference, this means pellets, not pinch offs. You feel like a rabbit. A happy rabbit. I’ll take rabbit poops any day over those long-form alternatives.
#7. Never Fear Fatness
If your choice is to stay leaner, then fasting means never having to fear fatness. Dieting to lose weight is usually a short-term solution. If you don’t have eating disorders, then fasting is a viable way to take care of any extra pounds.
I don’t diet to lose weight; I fast. I do change my diet to test out energy levels and health consequences. But I never worry about getting overweight. Extending an intermittent fasting regime or going hard for a month is enough to keep the kilogram count reasonable. Fasting is a formidable tool to use in your relationship with food and eating patterns.
Fasting deals with restriction, not addiction. It teaches you the enormous value of under-eating. It zeroes in on the fine line that delineates the sensations between lightness and heaviness. It keeps your intestines from constant food processing. It makes you feel more alert and alive over being drowsy and dragging. It proves to you that you are of stronger mind and body than you even realized.
The finer lessons of less are invaluable. Go discover your lesser (and lighter) self.