Okay, by now you know I am not normal – to further prove that, I have started a fast.  As of this writing, it has been 41 hours since I last ate (that was half a bucket of popcorn at the movie theatre.)

Why?

I have a couple of reasons for fasting:

  1. I am working on some issues and want clarity in the associated decisions.  I believe that fasting really opens you up to clarity.  It works in prayer.  It works in deep thought.  There is something about humbling yourself that brings the important things to the forefront.
  2. I wanted to see what it was like to be hungry. I can’t say that I have ever really felt hunger.

Plato fasting

Sure, I have wanted to grab a juicy burger or pop some M&Ms into my mouth in the past – those were cravings… but I have never really experienced hunger.  My recent reading of Unbroken was what got me thinking about a real fast.  To say this book has been influential in my life is an understatement.

In it, I read about Louis Zamperini being stranded in a bullet-hole-riddled life raft for 47 days with only the rain that fell on him to drink and the occasional bird or fish he caught by hand to eat.  After all that, he was starved and sadistically tortured for years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.  He came out of it stronger and more resilient…  I figure that a few days without food wouldn’t hurt me.

In reading about fasting, I discovered while reading on AllAboutFasting.com that:

True hunger is a sensation in the mouth and throat, similar to thirst, and not a gnawing pain in the stomach. The way it will get your attention is that comes after many days of experiencing no hunger. Seemingly out of the blue, you’ll have an intense desire for food.

I read that it also comes after about three days without food.  After that, the body goes into ketosis.  It is a period of extremely high energy and great clarity.  I am told that there is also absolutely no hunger at that point.  The body turns on “muscle sparing” mode and starts to break down fat as fuel.  It looks as though the lengths a person can go varies greatly, but I should stop when I experience that “true hunger.”

I am not trying to starve myself, but it will be interesting to see what that experience is like.  I now have an occasional quick pain in my stomach, but it passes quickly and there are really no other symptoms… well other than the fact I have lost 7 pounds already.

What are your thoughts?  Have you ever fasted?  How long?  Why? What were the results?

by Chris Doelle