Advantages and Disadvantages of Fasting

Simplicity – Fasting just makes my life simpler. Unlike diets where I had to worry about food choices and find crunchy 100% cheese chips for snacks I don’t really have to stress out about food because I only am eating in a small window so it limits the planning I need to do.

It gets easier – Unlike all the diets I’ve tried over the years that start out not too bad and then made me sick and miserable, fasting is the opposite. The first 2.5 day fast I did was by far the hardest even more than my 20 day fast. After six months the biggest enemy isn’t hunger, it’s boredom. Food is exciting and fun. Around 6:00 PM if I’m working I find myself thinking I should be doing something different and then I remember that’s dinner. I actually find it harder to fast if I’m not going to the gym, because it gives me something else to do. At about the 6 month mark, effects on general appetite kicked in as well. I find myself getting stuffed really easy. An appetizer portion of food that never would have made a dent before might make me painfully full.

It’s easier to start – Unlike a diet where it’s like you are making a huge commitment, fasting to me is so much easier to start because you know you are going to be stopping in a reasonable time period. I know lots of individuals who put off starting a diet because of impending social events, but even a day long fast will seem to accomplish something.

Results – Nothing succeeds like success! When I started fasting I wasn’t stoked or determined to make some big life change or else. I had failed with every diet before and didn’t expect anything to work, though if I could wish for anything it would have been an effective weight loss solution. Fasting saw immediate results both in weight and health. I also didn’t notice any really serious plateaus that seem to plague every other diet. If there was a plateau when I reviewed how much fasting I’d done it was clearly correlated to not having fasting as much during the time period.

I enjoy eating more – Eating is great and fun. Fasting takes out the conflict because now I know I have a tool to combat the splurges. A feast and famine cycle just feels natural. I can enjoy some gourmet desserts or whatever else takes my fancy without feeling guilty.

Energy- I have lots of energy. I find it hard to fast if I can’t make it to a gym since I’m bursting to spend some excess energy.