Control Food Cravings with Fasting
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated December 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Fasting, that is, not consuming calories, is becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. The incredible benefits of fasting are numerous, from extending lifespan (1) to curing diseases (2), and fasting is certainly a wellness tool everyone should learn to use properly in their quest for optimal health. Fasting has such powerful effects upon the body because it removes a key component to life, food. Basically the larger the lever you pull (water, sleep, food, sunlight, air quality, etc), the larger the potential effect, positive or negative.
When an organism starts to fast, cellular autophagy ramps up (3) and metabolism increases (4), and a whole host of other important bodily systems are adjusted in ways that boost longevity and promote health. Because fasting is free and requires little more than perseverance, water, and electrolytes (for extended multi-day fasts), it has a low barrier of entry for anyone to try, no matter how inexperienced. While extended multi-day fasting can be a powerful weight loss tool, a better approach for those new to fasting is to first start small with a 24 hour fast, and potentially experiment with longer fasts from their after consulting with their doctor.
Fasting for the sole purpose of losing weight can be incredibly successful, but with that success a misguided behavior may establish itself that the best way to maintain weight is to not eat. The best way to maintain a lean and healthy body is to be mindful of metabolism, not just choosing not to eat for 3 days every week. To be clear, fasting is a powerful tool and is best not used irresponsibly.
Hunger vs Cravings
During a 24 hour fast body fat is burned and the digestive system is partially healed and reset. For a first timer though, what is learned about the interaction between eating, psychology, and behavior is even more valuable. Fasting is a fantastic way to learn how to differentiate between two types of hunger everyone has experienced: Physiological hunger and psychological hunger (also known as cravings). A good example demonstrating the difference can be summarized with the following hypothetical conversation:
Rebecca - “Oh my god I’m so hungry! Hey Dave what should we have for dinner?”
Dave - “I’m ravenous too! How about we grab some burgers?”
Rebecca - “I’m not feeling burgers, does Mexican food work (cravings)?”
Dave - “Yeah sure I’ll eat anything (hunger)!”
Dave was experiencing physiological hunger. His body required calories, and anything would suffice. Rebecca on the other hand wasn’t physiologically hungry. If Rebecca was more aware of the difference between hunger and cravings in this instance, she might have decided to not eat again until she was actually hungry, therefore consuming less calories and likely maintaining a healthier body weight.
A 24 hour fast is a great way to learn the difference between cravings and hunger. Over the course of that 24 hours, the average person will usually experience food cravings a couple times because they are used to eating every day consistently. By remaining strict and continuing with the fast, it’s discovered that 10-30 minutes after the food craving first started that it subsides or disappears. Focus the mind on something else and completing a 24 hour fast is easy.
A 24 hour fast will also teach how the body becomes adapted to receiving food at regular intervals. Eat breakfast everyday at 7 am? Guaranteed your stomach starts growling everyday at 7 am or shortly afterwards. That signal isn’t necessarily a sign that you’re hungry, it’s just your stomach contracting via muscle memory as it’s used to processing food around that time. Muscle memory and psychological behaviors are often intertwined, and it’s easy to confuse a normal biologic process with a conjured up signal of “I’m super hungry right now”.
Fasting Resets the Microbiome
Schedule a 24 hour fast on a day where there will be little if any food temptations, and once a few 24 hour fasts have been successfully completed in that manner, do a 24+ hour fast on any random day where temptations of junk food may arise. Armed with the knowledge that you’ve already successfully completed a 24 hour fast, when food cravings are encountered because someone brought cake or donuts, you’ll be well equipped to handle the situation in order to successfully complete the 24 hour fast. If you slip up, simply refocus your willpower and try again! Once you’ve broke your fast with a healthy meal, follow these 3 digestion improving steps.
The 24 hour fast is a great tool to intuitively learn the difference between cravings and hunger, but it won’t make much of a dent on serious digestive health issues. A diseased gut is an inflammation machine, placing your body into a state of chronic inflammation which can result hundreds of known health issues which manifest in other parts of your body like the brain, skin, or other organs. Additionally, a weak gut leads to a weak immune system, as the gut is the bodies primary barrier which keeps pathogenic microbes out. Fasting can heal the digestive system and restore balance to the microbiome.
Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.
The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.
Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.
References
De cabo R, Carmona-gutierrez D, Bernier M, Hall MN, Madeo F. The search for antiaging interventions: from elixirs to fasting regimens. Cell. 2014;157(7):1515-26.
Documentary. The Science of Fasting. Directed by Sylvie Gilman and Thierry de Lestrade.
Jung CH, Ro SH, Cao J, Otto NM, Kim DH. mTOR regulation of autophagy. FEBS Lett. 2010;584(7):1287-95.
Knapik JJ, Meredith CN, Jones BH, Suek L, Young VR, Evans WJ. Influence of fasting on carbohydrate and fat metabolism during rest and exercise in men. J Appl Physiol. 1988;64(5):1923-9.
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