Very exciting result, but not all that surprising. It has been known for a long time (although curiously ignored by oncologists) that patients who eat less have a better average survival that those who eat a lot. Doctors look at a patient's weight and implore them to eat more (like all those pro-marijuana advocates who say one of the medical benefits is increased appetite). In reality, eating less appears to be a healthier choice. This study kind of sheds some light onto why that is the case.
I think with the appetite thing there's probably some kind of co-morbidity associated with fasting + cancer. My (Completely uneducated, I know about the heart, not cancer) initial thought would be some kind of chemo interaction, lipid profiles in the blood and such.
I did a month of intermittent fasting for kicks, where I would only have water on Mondays and Thursdays. In the morning, it wasn't too bad, especially if I could get engrossed with my work. Afternoons were tough, with some stomach pangs and a strong desire for food. After that afternoon hump, though, I was usually fine and didn't think of food until well after dinner, where I would have some strong cravings for late night food. The odd thing is the next morning, I wouldn't be starving-- I would not really be hungry again until closer to lunch that following day.
I ended up losing about 12 lbs over the course of a month. It was an interesting experiment. After going back to regular eating, I put about 10 of those pounds back on.
I typically don't eat breakfast, so it was only at lunchtime today that I started to really feel it. The feeling has subsided a bit since then. I expect that I will be feeling it again around dinner time. Tomorrow around lunch will likely be the worst.
I'm not looking to lose weight, but I did weigh myself beforehand.
Not so good. I made it 26 hours.
I am going to do it again in a couple of weeks. I am grant writing, and the hunger pangs became a distraction that was keeping me from being productive. I felt hungriest at the times that I would normally be eating, but it subsided a bit after that. I did drink some Powerade which has 0 calories, but has electrolytes. That felt pretty good, and I recommend it.
I did a liquid-only diet in high school for almost 5 days. However, at that time I was drinking juice, milk, and soda, which makes a big difference.
72hrs is going to be tough. Best of luck. You might want to warm up to it with a couple of shorter fasts.
We'll see how the long fast goes. I'm going to allow myself water, tea, and coffee. I've read plenty of recommendations for blending butter in your coffee. A colleague who is health nut and usually right-on with most things recommends instead blending coconut oil (or a kind of coconut oil paste) in with coffee to give a little energy and not interfere with the benefits of fasting.
Opinions vary wildly on what is or isn't permitted during a fast, so I need to decide if I'm going to go for the butter/oil or not. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks for asking! I made it 11 hours... and then my wife told me we had dinner and drinks planned with friends that night, and a school banquet the next night, and I was asked to do a juggling show on what would be the 3rd day of fasting, so it was 1-2-3 strikes right in a row. I'm moving the fast to Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Disappointing when I was all psyched up for it, but it can wait a few days.
I'll let you know!
Excellent. I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.
Also, you juggle?
I want to know more about this. I want all the stories and glory!
Did you see that #goodlongread post on juggling I posted a bit ago? I had no idea that there was such an intense culture around juggling.
No, didn't see the post. Which one?
I learned to juggle in college and it took over my life. I was heavy into the juggling culture for years -- I ran the college juggling club and went to all the conventions and even ran our own convention at MSU. Good and crazy times. I eventually dropped out of college and survived on small gigs and big dreams. I eventually went back to university and finished getting a math degree and then went to RIngling and Brothers and Barnum and Baily Clown College (class of 93). Afterwards I toured with Royal Hanneford Circus on and off for a season and then decided I wanted to be a math teacher and so enrolled at FSU in the masters program. FSU has a student circus and I did juggling, trapeze and slack wire for two years while getting my masters. I enrolled in the PhD program afterwards and had my first child and so had no more time for circus. I do a show now and then, or do a math of juggling performance. I've written a paper on it. And even given a talk at a sci-fi convention called "Math, Juggling and Time Travel". Juggling has been an important part of my life.
Math teachers. What a bunch of clowns!
Nice story Mike. I'll be sure to share it with my sixth graders this year. BTW, I can juggle just a bit, but it's also how I met my wife. She tells our kids how , moments after she met me, I grabbed three plums from a fruit bowl and juggled them for her. Juggling changed my life man.
https://hubski.com/pub?id=141481
Ill comment further when I get on my computer. :)
I drank coffee. I usually take cream, but I had it black as I was going for 0 calories. According to this article, the idea is to calorie starve yourself enough to start cannibalizing your white blood cells. From the experiment here with mice, they just took their food away entirely. However, I am not sure if the equivalent experiments with people is the same.
I bet the hungry mice eat their poop. I've seen our rats do it without taking their food away.
George Orwell often went for days between meals when he was broke and in his 20s (Down and Out in Paris and London). If I recall correctly, the first two or three days without eating are the hardest; after that it starts to get easier.