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Not so fast — 7 days without calories
I decided to stop eating for 7 days, or 168 hours starting from midnight July 1st to midnight July 8th, which in isolation sounds a bit odd, but hopefully by the end of this story will make more sense.
I’ve known about the numerous health benefits of fasting for quite a while, having been a fan of Dr. David Sinclair, Dr. Michael Greger, and surrounded by health conscious peers that have partaken in various intermittent and selective fasts over the years. I’m an occasional 16:8 / 18:6 / 20:4 person myself.
It wasn’t until I had a chance to read The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung, which was very patiently sitting on my bookshelf for 3 years (I seriously suffer from tsundoku), that I felt inspired to try an extended water/tea/coffee fast. The book was filled with case studies and references to broader clinical and cellular biology studies that really hit home the need to do it more often.
It’s probably no coincidence that the concept of deliberate fasting has been with us through religious and cultural practices.
In any case, after reading the book, I did this for four reasons:
- Weight loss — I had plateaued on my journey to attain my pre-consulting physique (if you could call it that) and wanted to see if I could “shock the system” a bit, by simply burning pure fat…
