Intentional fasting is one of the main factors that triggered my decade-long struggle with food and my body:
- Eating way too little.
- Exercising way too much.
- Eventually overeating and binging.
- Constantly obsessing over food.
- Developing an eating disorder.
- Being dissatisfied with my body, even when I was clinically underweight (and my goal was thinness).
Intentional fasting can lead to food obsession, new health issues, and weight fluctuations, even in people who have never struggled with food or their weight in the past.
Almost all my perspectives on food and body image involve nuance and caveats, but this is one area where I’m firm:
I don’t recommend intentional fasting, period.
Intentional fasting can cause more harm than it’s worth.
Let’s look at one study that supports this:
“Hunger made the men obsessed with food.
They would dream and fantasize about food, read and talk about food and savor the two meals a day they were given.
They reported fatigue, irritability, depression and apathy.
Interestingly, the men also reported decreases in mental ability, although mental testing of the men did not support this belief.
The experiment also looked at unrestricted rehabilitation and – even though participants were warned against it – some engaged in extreme overeating.”
– The psychology of hunger
Of course, I respect religious-based fasting, but keep in mind, even that can lead to the psychological and physical issues I’m covering today.
Your mammalian brain doesn’t know that your fasting is religious, it just goes into starvation mode.
If you fast for religious reasons, it’s important to have extra support in place, like a therapist with eating disorder training and a nutritionist.
But didn’t our hunter-gatherer ancestors fast?
Yes, but not intentionally.
They fasted when food was unavailable.
If food was available and they were hungry, they would have eaten.
The modern adaptation of fasting is to eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full (intuitive eating) – not to intentionally fast when food is available and you’re hungry.
There may be times when your appetite is lower, you naturally fast overnight, or you’re just craving lighter foods, and that’s completely normal.
I rarely recommend eating when you’re not hungry, or pushing yourself to eat certain foods – like protein, for example – when you’re not craving them, but I never recommend intentional fasting.
Intentional fasting does a number on the body and mind.
Why is intentional fasting so harmful?
1. It impacts mental health:
When food is taken away, we begin to obsess over it.
It’s the classic forbidden fruit dynamic: We want what we can’t have.
We don’t obsess over things that are always available to us.
They become neutral and we come into healthy relationship with them.
2. It triggers overeating:
On the physical level, that obsession leads to overeating – when you finally break your fast, you might overeat or binge.
This is what used to happen to me (and so many clients, colleagues, and friends), and what triggered a decade of restrict-overeat cycles.
I would fast or eat very low-calorie, then finally break down and binge.
Ultimately, fasting can play a large role in the development of eating disorders.
3. It impacts physical health:
Fasting then overeating can lead to weight fluctuations and blood sugar issues, which can impact every area of the body, from the brain to the heart to the liver.
95% of diets “fail.”
I put quotes around fail because the studies that prove this phenomenon see weight gain as a failure, which may not always be true.
But of course, weight gain can create new health issues, and the majority of dieters regain the weight they lost, plus more.
Fasting is always a form of dieting, by default. If you intentionally fast, you are intentionally dieting.
Even if you don’t personally overeat or binge after fasting, fasting can still lower your metabolism, which impacts every area of your health.
That’s why someone who eats low-calorie or fasts may develop weight loss resistance – the inability to lose weight, regardless of how little they eat or how much they exercise.
They think they need to eat even less and work out even more to lose or maintain their weight, but that just tanks their metabolism further.
With a lowered metabolism, weight maintenance can become difficult too.
You may find that you’re gaining weight, even though you’re eating and exercising the same as usual.
If you’re in this position, you need to stop dieting and fasting to focus on refeeding (intuitive eating), which, with the right plan and support in place, will restore your metabolism and help you stabilize at your ideal weight.
What’s the solution to fasting?
Intuitive eating.
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is following your body’s guidance when it comes to food, rather than following a diet plan, counting calories, or counting macros.
Through intuitive, non-restrictive eating, I naturally:
- Healed my PCOS
- Balanced my hormones
- Cleared up my skin
- Balanced my blood sugar
- Stabilized at a healthy weight
- Improved my mental health
… and so much more.
To truly eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full, it’s important to address emotional eating and mindless eating:
To notice why you’re eating, and to integrate new tools to process your emotions and bring you satisfaction.
Food can never regulate your emotions or act as a replacement for an exciting life, a fulfilling career, or a healthy relationship.
Intuitive eating is just as much about not eating when you’re not hungry (some exceptions apply), as it is about eating when you’re hungry (always applies)…
… but intuitive eating never involves intentional fasting.
Intuitive eating is backed up by science:
One study shows that intuitive eaters typically have a lower body mass index and less disordered behavior than people who diet (fasting is a form of dieting).
Additional studies reflect weight maintenance, weight loss, less psychological stress, and improved physical health factors like blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Here’s the thing about intuitive eating:
Your biochemistry shifts when food is always available, and food is always safe –
– when there are no rules for when or what you should eat, and you’re truly free to listen to and deeply respect your body.
Learning to stop fasting was challenging for me, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for my health.
Letting go of the noise around fasting, eating when I’m hungry, and stopping when I’m full changed everything for me.
That one step rippled out into the rest of my life.
After living in New York my whole life and following a relatively traditional path, today I’m living my dream in Costa Rica, working remotely, traveling, and intentionally creating each day.
I experience the world with childlike wonder, and do deeply satisfying work.
My mind is so much clearer, and I feel so much more relaxed and inspired, now that I’m not wasting my energy overanalyzing food and my body.
There’s a lot of resources on fasting, and different approaches to fasting.
None of that matters, because none of that can override the basic human reaction I’m describing here:
Scarcity and restriction lead to mental fixation and overeating.
Do you struggle with fasting? Is it something you’re trying to shift away from?
Share with me in the comments below and I’ll send you some support.