Longevity & Why I now eat One Meal a Day

Are you interested in the easiest way to burn fat, improve your mood, grow your brain and lengthen your lifespan? Not to sound like an infomercial, but fasting can do all these things. 

In rodent studies, for instance, fasting for 24 hours every day or twice weekly, extended their lifespan up to 30% . 

This is why one of the first strategies I recommend to improve your health is fasting.

The OMAD diet or one meal a day diet, is an extended version of intermittent fasting. It’s my preferred way of eating. 

This post will explain everything about why people are interested in it and the science behind how it works. 

The Evolutionary Basis of Fasting

In today’s society, most people lack control. They don’t control their emotions, their reactions or their health. 

The epitome of this is the tyranny of food — especially carbohydrates. 

Look around. Most of the world revolves around food. Wherever people go they carry a snack with them, lest they have to be hungry for a few hours. People structure their days around the prototypical 3 meals. And to them, deviating from the typical schedule sounds crazier than defying gravity. 

But this isn’t normal. It was only recently  that we domesticated animals and grains and had constant access to food. Homo Habilis, the first Homo, emerged 2.8 million years ago. It’s only in the last 10,000 years that we had agriculture — that’s only 0.3%. 

If evolution of the Homo species was on a yearly calendar, it would only be on the last day of the year — New Years Eve — that we developed agriculture. 

Before this period humans ate intermittently. We had to work for the food — we couldn’t stroll into any random coffee shop and pick up a pastry. Kill or be killed. 

Instead, humans would be fasted all day while they hunted and gathered, and they would eat afterwards. They had to work for their food…literally. 

The modern interest in fasting is attempting to get us back to this evolutionary norm.

Fasting is the best first step to take back control of your life. From a stoic perspective, how can you take back control of your life if you’re always at the whims of your hunger? 

Fasting is your rebellion. The best way to take back control of your health and your life. 

The Science of Fasting

Dietary recommendations have destroyed your health by changing both:

  1. what you eat and
  2. when you eat.

If you want to improve your health, you need to restore both to your evolutionary ways.

Let’s jump right in. Why does fasting work? 

Fed vs Fasted States

You can only get energy from two sources: Food or body fat. But you can’t get energy from both at the same time.

When you’re getting energy from food, this is called the fed state. When you’re getting your energy from body fat, this is called the fasted state. Insulin and glucagon — two hormones — regulate this process.

Your body isn’t used to such a quick hit of energy because for most of history we were not eating pringles. So this puts you in what I referred to above as the fed state — but on steroids (insulin signals this).

After you eat junk food, your body has abundant energy available and will only burn that for energy instead of your stored body fat.  

Because we’ve been brainwashed to eat this junk all day long, most people are perpetually in the fed state.

They are never burning body fat. 

Intermittent Fasting: How to Enter the Fasted State

It takes ~12 hours to lower insulin far enough to actually burn body fat and entered the fasted state. But most people are eating all day, and not giving their bodies enough time to lower insulin levels and burn body fat. 

Even after their 8 hours of sleep most people shut this natural process off by eating a high carb (also translated to dessert) meal first thing in the morning. 

Psychological Benefits of Fasting

https://www.webmd.com/diet/psychological-benefits-of-fasting

 Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on October 25, 2021

IN THIS ARTICLE

Fasting means choosing not to eat food for a period of time each day. You might not eat for several hours or only have one meal a day. Not eating for certain periods can help raise ketone levels. Ketones are chemicals your liver makes that your body uses as energy. But that’s not all fasting does. It also offers health and mental benefits you might not expect.

How Fasting Works

The liver’s ketone-making process looks something like this: Glucose (sugar) is the main fuel your cells use to produce energy. Fasting uses the liver’s store of glucose, causing cells to release fats. When these fats travel to your liver, they’re converted to ketones your body uses for energy.

Before humans learned how to farm, people hunted and gathered food to survive. They would go long stretches without eating. It took a lot of energy and time to gather nuts and berries or hunt game. The human body adapted to that by using what stores of energy it had. Today you don’t have to hunt and gather your food the way your ancestors did, but fasting may still benefit your physical and mental well-being.

With intermittent fasting, you can eat only during a specific time. When you go hours without food, the body uses all its sugar stores and starts burning fat. This is a phenomenon known as metabolic switching. As your body burns through the calories consumed during your last meal, intermittent fasting prolongs that period and then begins burning fat.

During the times you’re not eating, you can drink water and zero-calorie beverages such as black coffee and tea. And during your eating periods, you can “eat normally,” but that doesn’t mean eating whatever you want. It’s recommended to stay away from high-calorie junk food, fried food, and treats.‌https://d5980cf6b58430b52c24b844fb158258.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The most common fasting plans include:

16/8 fasting. This is the most common approach. It involves eating every day within an eight-hour window and then fasting for 16 hours after your last meal.https://d5980cf6b58430b52c24b844fb158258.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

5:2 approach. This approach involves regularly eating five days a week. For the remaining two days, you limit yourself to a single 500–600 calorie meal.

Longer periods without food, such as 24-, 36-, 48-, and 72-hour fasting periods, may be dangerous. If you go too long without eating, it might encourage your body to store more fat in response to starvation. If you want to fast the right way, learn about the best methods and test them.

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Benefits of Fasting

Mental function. When you fast, your body has less toxic materials flowing through the blood and lymphatic system, making it easier for you to think. While fasting, the energy you’d normally use to digest food is available to be used by the brain.

You likely won’t notice this mental change until the first few days of a fast because your body takes time to adjust. You might have headaches or pain points at the beginning of the process. But after your body clears itself of toxins, your brain has access to a cleaner bloodstream, resulting in clearer thoughts, better memory, and increased sharpness of your other senses.

Healing rejuvenation. Fasting puts your body through a rejuvenation experience. It dissolves diseased cells, leaving only healthy tissue. There’s also a noticeable redistribution of nutrients in the body. The body hangs onto precious vitamins and minerals while processing and getting rid of old tissue, toxins, or undesirable materials.

Increased willpower. Choosing to fast requires mental strength and the ability to resist short-term gratification to pursue long-term goals. When you choose to participate in such a challenging exercise and succeed, you’ll likely experience enormous gratification and a renewed sense of accomplishment.https://d5980cf6b58430b52c24b844fb158258.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Tips to Use Fasting to Improve Your Well-Being

Ease into it. Try not to go from eating to not eating all at once. Instead, try to cut back on food and drink intake over a few days or weeks.

Avoid sugar. Food and cookies made from sugar can make you feel satisfied at first, but when your blood sugar goes down, you might become hungry and weak. To prepare for an experience like fasting, fill up on things like pasta, rice, meat, beans, and potatoes instead.

Cut back on activity. When you’re fasting, try to take it easy on yourself. Try not to do much strenuous movement or exercise. Your body doesn’t have the ability to replenish itself when you’re not eating.

Consider medication. Before you start a fast, check with your doctor about any medications you might take. If there are medications you have to take every day, talk with your doctor about whether it’s OK to take them without food.

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Stop slowly. When you’re getting ready to finish your fast, get back to eating slowly. Don’t eat a huge meal right away. Instead, spread out your meals and let your body adjust and get used to the process of digesting food again.

Keep in mind that fasting too much or too often can be dangerous and cause dehydration, mental stress, and disrupted sleep.

Also, doctors warn against fasting if you:https://d5980cf6b58430b52c24b844fb158258.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

  • Have diabetes
  • Have kidney disease
  • Are recovery from surgery or illness
  • Are breastfeeding
  • Are underweight

Limits of Fasting as a Mood Booster

Even if you fast sometimes, you still need to make healthy food and life choices overall. When you eat is important, but what you eat matters more.

It’s also important to consider that while fasting can be a powerful tool for rejuvenating your mind and body, it’s not a substitute for mental health treatment. Talk to a licensed mental health professional if you’re feeling sad or down for long periods of time.

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