I consider fasting for two weeks in October, but I'm unclear about it being beneficial in general or for what kind of fasting it might be beneficial and healthy. Thus this is a kind of request for rational discussion of this topic.
I looked for relevant LW posts but couldn't find clear evidence. I think this is an underrepresented and possibly underutilized lifestyle intervention.
As a starter you might look at
Wikipedia has fasting and intermittent fasting. The latter shows
health benefits include stress resistance, increased insulin sensitivity, reduced morbidity, and increased life span.
But as I'm healthy and lean the benefits of intermittent fasting are likely small for me. What other benefits could there be?
I understand that body cleansing is not a real thing, but I wonder about the effects of fasting on the gut flora. Could it be that fastig has a beneficial effect on your gut bacteria? Just because your body doesn't get rid of any poison this way as the greeks believed doesn't mean that fasting has no cleansing effects at all. It could be that you get rid of some harmful gut bacteria or other parasites (not that these are frequent these days).
Another thing is that fasting might activate and kind of train metabolism cycles which the body may loose over time otherwise. For me it might be too late (I'm 41) for that (mouse experiments show fasting tolerance is plastic with age), but maybe not. On the other hand I'm not very likely to ever need the ability to deal with lack of food (except possibly in case of severe illness of injury).
Links on LW: Low hanging fruit: analyzing your nutrition and If calorie restriction works in humans, should we have observed it already? both mention intermittent fasting but I gain little insight from these.
Also related is Lifestyle interventions to increase longevity. (Intermittent) fasting is also mentioned on Mental rebooting your brain.
My current plan is to use Buchinger style fasting with fruit juice, thin vegetable broth and protein additions (which kind of protein I'm still unclear). I will reduce exercise to balance and walking level types.
I'm also unclear how to measure and track the effect of this diet. Sure I will track weight. But should I track satisaction somehow?
What do you think?
I have been doing Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting for over a year. For six days a week I try to limit my consumption of carbohydrates and protein to a six hour window. I do this in part by having in the morning coffee that contains MCT oil and butter from grass fed cows. My hope is that this is increasing my lifespan by significantly increasing autophagy. I am far from an expert on biology or nutrition, but from what I have read autophagy seems fantastically beneficial.
One immediate benefit I think I'm getting is that my colds are much more mild. I used to get colds that lasted 6-10 days and made me miserable. I could often tell I was getting a cold because my wife or son would usually get one first and then I would get a very dry throat. Since doing intermittent fasting my colds only last a few days and just make me feel a bit worse. I take this as a sign that I'm undergoing increased autophagy.
I twice did 24 hour fasts before I did intermittent fasting and both times I got a cold at the end of the fast. From what I have read this might have been because when you undergo a really long fast your body shuts down autophagy when the fast concludes.
I am keto-adapted, but the transition was difficult in part because I didn't know at the time that there might be a transition. Look up Atkins Flu to learn more about the transition.
Fruit Juice = Liquid Candy. Avoid!
Some fasting regimens suggest fruit juice. I'm aware that it contain a lot of fructose, but for the duration of fasting (a 2-3 weeks) this seems to be an acceptable trade-off, or?