Continued from Part 2
My one week fast was a success. There was no gotchas. It felt good overall.
What was my take away? Eating is overrated. Food numbs your brain :-) Just kidding.
Jokes aside.
I should say I have a new found appreciation for the pain of starvation. The first 2 days was painful, quite excruciating really. In my case the starvation was a choice. I had access to food all the time and I could have broken my fast anytime. It was my choice to will myself not to. But the people in the world that are really starving because they can't get anything to eat is a whole different story. I am sure the mental agony of not knowing when they or their kids would have their next meal is far worse. I can't claim to know exactly how they feel. But the first 2 days of the fast certainly gave me a better insight into how it feels than I had before.
Now to the later part of the fast. Once I pushed myself past the first 2 days. The hunger and the pain that goes with it actually stopped. By the fourth day, I was past craving for food. I wasn't feeling completely energized but I wasn't feeling completely tired either. Normal would be closer to how I felt. But there was a marked difference in my mental perception of my surroundings. Felt more alert. My mind felt fresher than my body.
From what I've read, once the body burns the sugars and then carbohydrates, it falls back to a process called ketosis where it starts to burn the stored fat. And once all the fat is burnt, the muscles start to atrophy starting with the non-essential ones. Its natures way of surviving and keeping you alive as long as possible. Now theoretically I don't believe my body went to the last stage. But I certainly think it entered into ketosis, coz there is no way my sugar or carbohydrates could have lasted a week.
The process of ketosis generates ketones, which I read, is another form of energy that gets generated by burning fat. Interestingly, there seems to be research showing that the brain functions on ketones more than sugar. That there is really something call brain food and that they are ketones.I did feel mentally sharper and more agile during the second part of the fast, the period of ketosis. But was it because of the ketones, I can't tell. But it does seem to correlate. Statisticians will tell you, correlation does not imply causation. But in my mind it does imply that there could be and hence something worth researching.
Now going back to the root of the why, I tried a one week no food fast, and what were my conclusions. Indian history and mythology talks about sages that meditated in the forest and mountains for months and years without food. Is it really possible? And why would they do it? Why not eat between meditations.
First, even though I fasted, I did drink a lot of water. I can see someone meditating for weeks without food. But I suspect they would need water in some form or the other.
Second, Since meditation is an exercise of the mind, I can certainly see how getting your body into ketosis and hence lots and lots of brain food could be helpful.
Third, I still went through my daily work schedule during the whole week of fasting. If I sat myself and meditated the whole time, my energy requirements would be far less and I can totally see how someone can do this for weeks together or even months.
Fourth, mythology claims even years, but that could be bit of exaggeration which happens when stories are told over generations. But then there could also be additional factors at play that I may not be considering such as reducing one's heart rate to a very low level, which yogis have shown to be able to do. Akin to hibernation.
In conclusion, it was an interesting experiment and experience.
My one week fast was a success. There was no gotchas. It felt good overall.
What was my take away? Eating is overrated. Food numbs your brain :-) Just kidding.
Jokes aside.
I should say I have a new found appreciation for the pain of starvation. The first 2 days was painful, quite excruciating really. In my case the starvation was a choice. I had access to food all the time and I could have broken my fast anytime. It was my choice to will myself not to. But the people in the world that are really starving because they can't get anything to eat is a whole different story. I am sure the mental agony of not knowing when they or their kids would have their next meal is far worse. I can't claim to know exactly how they feel. But the first 2 days of the fast certainly gave me a better insight into how it feels than I had before.
Now to the later part of the fast. Once I pushed myself past the first 2 days. The hunger and the pain that goes with it actually stopped. By the fourth day, I was past craving for food. I wasn't feeling completely energized but I wasn't feeling completely tired either. Normal would be closer to how I felt. But there was a marked difference in my mental perception of my surroundings. Felt more alert. My mind felt fresher than my body.
From what I've read, once the body burns the sugars and then carbohydrates, it falls back to a process called ketosis where it starts to burn the stored fat. And once all the fat is burnt, the muscles start to atrophy starting with the non-essential ones. Its natures way of surviving and keeping you alive as long as possible. Now theoretically I don't believe my body went to the last stage. But I certainly think it entered into ketosis, coz there is no way my sugar or carbohydrates could have lasted a week.
The process of ketosis generates ketones, which I read, is another form of energy that gets generated by burning fat. Interestingly, there seems to be research showing that the brain functions on ketones more than sugar. That there is really something call brain food and that they are ketones.I did feel mentally sharper and more agile during the second part of the fast, the period of ketosis. But was it because of the ketones, I can't tell. But it does seem to correlate. Statisticians will tell you, correlation does not imply causation. But in my mind it does imply that there could be and hence something worth researching.
Now going back to the root of the why, I tried a one week no food fast, and what were my conclusions. Indian history and mythology talks about sages that meditated in the forest and mountains for months and years without food. Is it really possible? And why would they do it? Why not eat between meditations.
First, even though I fasted, I did drink a lot of water. I can see someone meditating for weeks without food. But I suspect they would need water in some form or the other.
Second, Since meditation is an exercise of the mind, I can certainly see how getting your body into ketosis and hence lots and lots of brain food could be helpful.
Third, I still went through my daily work schedule during the whole week of fasting. If I sat myself and meditated the whole time, my energy requirements would be far less and I can totally see how someone can do this for weeks together or even months.
Fourth, mythology claims even years, but that could be bit of exaggeration which happens when stories are told over generations. But then there could also be additional factors at play that I may not be considering such as reducing one's heart rate to a very low level, which yogis have shown to be able to do. Akin to hibernation.
In conclusion, it was an interesting experiment and experience.
