Going on 72 hours without food; slight hunger detected.

Major Benefits of Fasting #2: Enhanced olfactory acuity.

96 hours of fasting; hungry only at night.

Major Benefits of Fasting #3: Bullet-proof self-congratulation.

HI,

Does this mean you wake up hungry? Having any vivid dreams beyond whatever norm you may enjoy?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

Does this mean you wake up hungry? Having any vivid dreams beyond whatever norm you may enjoy?

Regards,

I don't wake up hungry, but the dreams are really something (and may be tomorrow's major benefit).

pairs4life wrote:Wow! What timing. I am a Baha'i and our 19 day fast does not conclude until Friday the 20th. It is from sunrise to sunset. There is no consumption of any food or water during that time.
Some mornings I do not get up before sunrise, but I am finding that I am not watching the clock at sunset to break the Fast.

I've always been curious: do religions that prescribe a fast (Baha'i and Islam spring to mind) allow modifications for conditions, such as diabetes or pregnancy? I imagine they must, but I wonder how the fast is modified.

I have been laid up after minor surgery this week, and should likely be fasting myself - or at least reducing my intake to compensate for my lack of activity, but I find that the less I move, the hungrier I am. I wake up hungry and go to bed hungry, which never happens normally.

My understanding is that Islam does make exceptions for pregnant women (don't know about diabetes). Pregnant women who do not fast are supposed to make-up the fast when they are able. In practice, many pregnant women still fast. There's actually some research on the health effects of fasting during pregnancy.

HI,

I was at a restaurant where the owners were observing Ramadan, though it was open to accomodate people who were not. I observed one family member eating. He later offered he has diabetes and is absolved from participating in the fast.

Catholics don't eat on Sunday until after communion. My Mom has told stories of some people fainting because they had not eaten. Those people were given permission to have something light to tide them over.

From this small sampling, it appears health considerations are accomodated.

Regards,

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

pairs4life wrote:Wow! What timing. I am a Baha'i and our 19 day fast does not conclude until Friday the 20th. It is from sunrise to sunset. There is no consumption of any food or water during that time.
Some mornings I do not get up before sunrise, but I am finding that I am not watching the clock at sunset to break the Fast.

I've always been curious: do religions that prescribe a fast (Baha'i and Islam spring to mind) allow modifications for conditions, such as diabetes or pregnancy? I imagine they must, but I wonder how the fast is modified.

I have been laid up after minor surgery this week, and should likely be fasting myself - or at least reducing my intake to compensate for my lack of activity, but I find that the less I move, the hungrier I am. I wake up hungry and go to bed hungry, which never happens normally.

It may depend how minor your surgery was, but I'm not sure that fasting right after surgery is a good idea.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:I've always been curious: do religions that prescribe a fast (Baha'i and Islam spring to mind) allow modifications for conditions, such as diabetes or pregnancy? I imagine they must, but I wonder how the fast is modified.

My lifelong understanding of Judaism's fast (on Yom Kippur) is that the health and well-being of the person is paramount. In those exceptional cases in which a fast would threaten the health and/or survival of the person (or an unborn child), eating is not only permitted but demanded.

David Hammond wrote:

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:I have been laid up after minor surgery this week, and should likely be fasting myself - or at least reducing my intake to compensate for my lack of activity, but I find that the less I move, the hungrier I am. I wake up hungry and go to bed hungry, which never happens normally.

It may depend how minor your surgery was, but I'm not sure that fasting right after surgery is a good idea.

Perhaps "fasting" is too strong of a word. I should say "would do better to be eating fruit instead of cheeseburgers and that Boston Cream Pie I just made".

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:

David Hammond wrote:

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:I have been laid up after minor surgery this week, and should likely be fasting myself - or at least reducing my intake to compensate for my lack of activity, but I find that the less I move, the hungrier I am. I wake up hungry and go to bed hungry, which never happens normally.

It may depend how minor your surgery was, but I'm not sure that fasting right after surgery is a good idea.

Perhaps "fasting" is too strong of a word. I should say "would do better to be eating fruit instead of cheeseburgers and that Boston Cream Pie I just made".

I'm disinclined to consider "fasting" anything other than a regimen that includes only water, which I'm told one needs to survive. I've been reading about "fasts" that involve fruit, veg, rice, even fish. To me, those are diets, good healthy diets, but not fasts, which I am taking to mean abstaining from food altogether.

That said, I would think a fruit, veg, rice and fish diet would be very good for anyone, before or after surgery.

riddlemay wrote:

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:I've always been curious: do religions that prescribe a fast (Baha'i and Islam spring to mind) allow modifications for conditions, such as diabetes or pregnancy? I imagine they must, but I wonder how the fast is modified.

My lifelong understanding of Judaism's fast (on Yom Kippur) is that the health and well-being of the person is paramount. In those exceptional cases in which a fast would threaten the health and/or survival of the person (or an unborn child), eating is not only permitted but demanded.

This is what I have been taught as well. Still, I felt very odd bringing my lunch to the synagogue on Yom Kippur when I was pregnant.

IIRC, not only are pregnant Muslim women exempt, it is considered a sin for them to fast - I believe this also applies to menstruating women. I worked with some young women who were actually quite upset that they couldn't participate in the fast, if even for a short period of time.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:I've always been curious: do religions that prescribe a fast (Baha'i and Islam spring to mind) allow modifications for conditions, such as diabetes or pregnancy? I imagine they must, but I wonder how the fast is modified.

You are correct, the Baha'i Faith has several exemptions from the Fast http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-7-2.html.

The Bahá'í Fast

As has been the case with other revealed religions, the Bahá'í Faith sees great value in the practice of fasting as a discipline for the soul . Bahá'u'lláh designated a nineteen-day period each year when adult Bahá'ís fast from sunrise to sunset each day. This period coincides with the Bahá'í month of Ala (meaning Loftiness), from March 2 to 20, inclusive. This is the month immediately preceding the Bahá'í new year, which occurs the day of the vernal equinox; and the period of fasting is therefore viewed as a time of spiritual preparation and regeneration for a new year's activities. Women who are nursing or pregnant, the aged, the sick, the traveler, those engaged in heavy labor, as well as children under the age of fifteen, are exempt from observance of the Fast.



Peace,

Cathy2 wrote:Catholics don't eat on Sunday until after communion. My Mom has told stories of some people fainting because they had not eaten. Those people were given permission to have something light to tide them over.

That must be a holdover from a long time ago, at least as far as Roman/Latin Rite Catholics go. Growing up in the 80s, the Eucharistic fast was only required to be one hour before taking communion. It looks to me that the one-hour rule came into being in the mid-60s. Before that it was 3 hours for solid foods, one hour for liquids, and then before that it was from midnight.

Food-free for 120 hours.

If you've ever gone scuba diving, you know that when you get 100 feet or deeper, you suddenly feel that you can keep going further, deeper and deeper. That's what I'm feeling at the moment.

Major Benefits of Fasting #4: Pleasing sensation of auto-consumption.

Binko wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Catholics don't eat on Sunday until after communion. My Mom has told stories of some people fainting because they had not eaten. Those people were given permission to have something light to tide them over.

That must be a holdover from a long time ago, at least as far as Roman/Latin Rite Catholics go. Growing up in the 80s, the Eucharistic fast was only required to be one hour before taking communion. It looks to me that the one-hour rule came into being in the mid-60s. Before that it was 3 hours for solid foods, one hour for liquids, and then before that it was from midnight.

My Mom went to Catholic school in the 40's and 50's. I went to CCD on Saturdays in the 60's and 70's, which apparently means I am Catholic-lite.

Regards,

David Hammond wrote:96 hours of fasting; hungry only at night.

Major Benefits of Fasting #3: Bullet-proof self-congratulation.

Maybe you can help me, then...
How do you sleep if your stomach is growling?
This may be the answer to avoiding future instances of getting up every two hours for a cheese sandwich...

Dave, it must be a week or so now since you completed your fast (at least, I hope it's been that long -- otherwise, you're on about day 13). I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on the experience.

John R, thanks for asking, I should have provided some closure on my narrative of this experience.

Here’s how I broke the fast. Around noon last Saturday, April 4, I made a bowl of popcorn (salt but no butter) and ate a cup or so every half-hour, followed by about a half-cup of fruit juice. Later in the afternoon, I ate a yogurt; at dinner, I had some bread and cheese and celery. On Sunday, I had an apple and banana for breakfast, no lunch, and then for dinner had lasagna and a salad…the salad was kind of rough going, but otherwise I felt pretty good.

Overall, the fast was an excellent mental exercise. I think many of us are so accustomed to eating all of everything we want all the time, that it’s interesting to put oneself through brief periods of self-denial. It does seem to sharpen the senses.

Physically, I lost about 8 pounds, but I assume I will gain most of this back and, as mentioned, weight loss was never a major objective.

I plan to try this little exercise in deprivation again sometime soon, but when I do it the next time, I will probably prepare myself a little more carefully…perhaps with popcorn and a salad the night before I begin the fast. Before starting this recent fast, I just happened to eat a lot of meat and little veg or carb the night before; as the week progressed, I started to think that maybe this was not the right way to go.

As always David, very interesting.

David, welcome back to the land of living (eating). I am curious, why did you choose popcorn to break the fast? I see the fiber aspect of it, but it seems as if it might be a little hard on the gut.

razbry wrote:David, welcome back to the land of living (eating). I am curious, why did you choose popcorn to break the fast? I see the fiber aspect of it, but it seems as if it might be a little hard on the gut.

I had read on a few sites that popcorn was recommended as a gut broom after fasting. I thoroughly chewed no more than two kernals at a time, taking my time and enjoying the simple eating. Though I air popped the corn, and used no oil, I found the rich almost "buttery" flavor of each kernal quite enthralling. Starvation does that to you. Eddie Murphy addresses this same issue, and compares to other forms of denial and satisfaction; warning: adult language and shameless finger-licking.

David-

Congratulations on your fast and I am happy for you that it brought about the intended results, plus some.

David Hammond wrote:I'm disinclined to consider "fasting" anything other than a regimen that includes only water, which I'm told one needs to survive. I've been reading about "fasts" that involve fruit, veg, rice, even fish. To me, those are diets, good healthy diets, but not fasts, which I am taking to mean abstaining from food altogether.

While you are entitled to consider fasting to mean only deprivation of all food, I doubt most dictionaries would agree. I don't say this to be argumentative (which is generally my nature ) but to start the conversational point that limited fasting often yields great benefits as well (and has yielded exceptional results for me). This point was only touched upon in the posts above.

I regularly go on a sugar fast to re-calibrate my taste for sweetness. We are subjected to so many artifical sweetners, including the so call "natural" and ubiquitous HFCS that I often take a week without any sweetners in any form to recognize how much I am ingesting and digesting without any thought or mindful awareness.

As a funny anecdote, I recently went to an orientation for a 28-day cleanse at a raw food restuarant. I brought along a friend. As the chef was explaining how you eat the raw foods, then the herbs, then the juice... up until the time you fast, my buddy interjects "what do you mean fast? what the hell is with the veggies and fruit? to me that is fasting! "

pd

I think it's really amazing that you were able to go 120 hours without eating, but am I really to believe that you went 2 days without eating before you were even remotely hungry? I HONESTLY feel like I will pass out or get physically sick if I don't eat SOMETHING every 4-6 hours. There is no way that I would be able to go days without even FEELING like eating.
You weren't even light headed??? How much water do you think you were consuming a day? That's the only thing that I can imagine would keep your tummy full, but honestly, that doesn't even work for me.

I'm seriously in awe of your ability here. Any pointers?

bella54330 wrote:I think it's really amazing that you were able to go 120 hours without eating, but am I really to believe that you went 2 days without eating before you were even remotely hungry?

I think what happened was I got bored of food. I snapped out of it, but it took some serious systemic recalibration.

David "Sometimes, I amaze even myself!!" Hammond

I realize that there are many, many reasons to fast other than weight loss, but I'm particularly interested in weight loss. Has anyone found fasting to be effective for this, once you returned to eating? Or do you fairly quickly return to your previous weight?

I just wanted to comment about types of fasting. For many Christians of earlier centuries, Lent was the time of fasting-- and that was the term used to describe what was done -- but that certainly didn't mean abstaining from all food. We have friends who are Eastern Orthodox, and they have many periods of fasting throughout the year, including Lent. But again, this does not mean that they do not eat during these times.

This year, they visited us during Lent. The 18-month-old baby was not on any sort of Lent-related restrictions. The nursing mother of the baby restricted herself a little bit -- no to meat, but yes to cheese, eggs, oil, and dairy -- and the father was adhering to the restrictions entirely: no meat, no dairy, limited oil.

As for fasting and weight-loss: most of the stuff I've read has said that it gives you temporary weight-loss, but not long-term. I thought that the New York Times article on fasting a few years ago did a good job of covering some of the major issues.

I do know some people that fast for one day per week. They do it for what they consider to be health benefits. I recently was sick and lost everything both ways if you know what I mean. I did not eat for about twenty four hours. The sickness was gone. I had the most amazing amount of energy I've had the day I got better and had not eaten. More energy than I've had for years. I do think food weighs us down.