I’ve been trying intermittent fasting for two weeks now with a partial fast on one weekday (usually a Wednesday or Thursday) and a full fast on Sundays. The partial fasts have been going well but I’m having serious issues with the full fasts from a very unexpected source, my social life.
In terms of hunger or any other physical issues, both the partial and full fasts have been much easier than I imagined. I don’t feel hungry or weak, nor do I have any issues the day after or with subsequent meals and workouts. In fact, the physical aspect of fasting has been a lot easier than I thought it would be.
The mental part of not eating has also been easy. When I initially imagined this experiment, I thought I would spend every fast day thinking about food. I imagined myself as one of those cartoon characters who’s so hungry that he sees everything as a food dish. I saw myself hungry and miserable and unable to think of nothing else other than “when is this going to be over?!?!” However, my actual experience has been completely different. I don’t think about food when I’m fasting, no more than I usually would, nor am I miserable unhappy.
Oh no, if only my issues were something like emotions or sensations, that would be easy. The problem I have is much harder, it’s my social life, my friends and family. I never realized how much of my social life revolved around food until I tried to spend 1.5 days a week without it. It’s ridiculous. Every single social plan with a friend or family member includes eating of some kind. It’s truly a lesson to me as to how big of a place food has in our lives and I’m having a hard time figuring out how to separate my social life from eating.
Lessons
I don’t see how full fasting is going to fit into my life long term. I just can’t imagine being able to completely avoid any and all social engagements on an entire weekend day. My weekends are busy with friends and family and they all want to eat. Sure, I could sit with them and not eat but that would feel weird for me and them. At the same time, I don’t want to try full fasting on a weekday when I work out. I need food for energy on those days. So once this experiment is over, I don’t believe I’m going to continue with the full fasting.
So far though, I’m really liking the partial fast days. Essentially, these are days in which I eat a normal breakfast and lunch but completely avoid dinner. In terms of calories, I probably get about 2000 out of my normal 3500, which is low, but not horribly low. These days leave me feeling energized and happy.
Still, who knows. I’ve only done 2 weeks out of this 30 day experiment. Maybe the next two weeks will change my mind. Either way, I’m already learning some valuable lessons about my relationship to food and what more or less of it does to me and that’s worth the time spent on this sort of experiment.
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Whenever I’ve fasted for a day, I’ve done it on Monday. Like you, it’s simply too hard to do it on the weekend. However, this would also mean I wouldn’t workout either. Perhaps you could fast on Monday, and just do a lighter workout?
- Dave
You’re so right about social interactions and food. Most of the time, when people get together, food is a part of the equation in some form or fashion. I think a big reason for it is the way it gives you time to talk.
It is amazing how much food is a part of our social life and how much we can not pay attention to how and why we eat.
While the fasting I have done has not been of the intermittent type, I think an occasional one day fast be very beneficial. Not only does it give my body a chance to take a break from digestion, it also helps me to think about food and how I eat – and learn things like you have in your one day food-free experience.
I like doing Intermittent fasting the way Brad Pilon recommends in Eat Stop Eat…basically just twice per week you only eat one meal and that is typically in the evening.
A crazy thing about fasting is that you think you wouldn’t have enough energy to workout, but I have found the opposite to be true. My best workouts often happen in a fasted state. I have a posts and a great discussion explaining why this happens.
http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/fasted-workouts-and-fasted-cardio-vs-epoc-for-fat-loss/
Great post…the biggest issue is adapting to this in social situations,
Rusty