THE TREND TOWARD FASTING 

Part of the aging process seems to have conversations often with friends that are dominated by comments about illnesses and infirmities. I certainly want to be courteous and sympathetic toward others, but I’m probably less inclined than most people to spend much time on these topics. I’d rather talk about ways that we might reduce the odds of future maladies.    

There appear to be more recent online news items than ever before concerning how to increase human “health span” and longevity. One of the more interesting topics to me has been growing advocacy for intermittent fasting.    

I don’t recall any real coverage of the issue of fasting in my public schooling days, but it was a topic that was raised occasionally in church and Sunday school classes. From the Christian Bible, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, commonly involves forms of fasting or restrictions from eating certain food items. Different Christian denominations often have contrasting notions about fasting. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions also have fasting traditions. Early Egyptians, Babylonians, and indigenous cultures worldwide developed various fasting activities tied to seasonal cycles, coming-of-age ceremonies, or communication with the divine.

My first experience with fasting started in college when I experienced the Freshman 15. Being high strung and involved in many sports activities earlier, I hunkered down in my early engineering school studies and was less physically active. Like many others, I added over 15 pounds of excess weight. It took a year or so afterwards and periodic resort to fasting then to maintain close to what I considered about the right weight for me. Over my college years and for about ten years after, I would occasionally avoid all solid substances for about three to five days when I felt my weight was creeping up. Fasting didn’t seem that difficult for me then and it seemed to work for weight control. I didn’t consider it as having any health benefits though.  

The practice of intermittent fasting (IF) has become more popular in recent decades. Health research has identified some potential health benefits, but the quality of evidence varies, and results don’t appear to be universal for all individuals. Trying to make personal sense of the different types of intermittent fasting and their health implications, I turned first to my current favorite AI chatbot – Claude 4 Sonnet.   

More popular IF methods reported by Claude are the 16/8 method (fasting for 16 hours and eating within an 8-hour window each day), the 5:2 method (eating normally for five days and restricting calories to 500-600 on two non-consecutive days, and alternate-day fasting (fasting for 24 hours every other day). Other IF approaches are the one meal-a-day approach (fasting for 23 hours and eating one large meal within one hour), the eat-stop-eat method (24-hour fasts once or twice per week), and the warrior diet (fasting for 20 hours each day and eating only within a four-hour window). I had read before about the 16/8 method, but knew little about these other IF approaches.

Claude told me that IF had well-supported research results for moderate weight loss, improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control, reduced inflammation, favorable changes in cholesterol levels, and blood pressure improvements. Promising, but less certain, benefits of IF coming from animal studies and limited human research suggest it might also have positive cellular and molecular effects, aid in the cellular cleanup process (autophagy), cognitive function, and longevity.

Human responses to IF can apparently vary considerably. Some people experience significant benefits while others see minimal effects.          or have negative consequences like fatigue and irritability, difficulty concentrating, increased hunger and urges for binge eating, and sleep disturbances. For most healthy adults, IF may offer an alternative to traditional dieting approaches and have noticeable health benefits. Those considering IF, especially those with serious or moderate health concerns, should obviously consult healthcare providers first.

As for me, I decided about two months ago to try the 16/8 alternative – and not for weight control. I was interested, instead, in trying IF for other reasons, particularly improving my digestion and gut health. As a younger adult, I could eat almost anything with few or no digestive side effects. I wanted to reduce the poorer digestion and bloating that I occasionally felt over the last decade or two. Giving the stomach more time for rest and recovery seemed to make some sense to me.

My challenge with the 16/8 approach was the urge to snack at night and other times, especially after exercise or completing a work project. Snacking had long been a type of reward and a relaxing experience for me.

I set 12 noon to 8pm as my personal window for eating and swore off food consumption at other times of the day. Giving up late-night and morning snacks turned out to be easier than I expected once I made a commitment for change. So far, I have seen a modest improvement in my digestion, and I think that I can stick with the 16/8 alternative for the foreseeable future. I imagine that there will be an occasional day when circumstances or family/peer influences will make it difficult to do a faithful 16/8, but even a 90-95% success rate over a year at maintaining scheduled eight-hour eating periods seems a worthwhile health goal for me.

Good luck with your own health goals and commitments.