Intermittent Fasting

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) posted an interesting diet-related article (UPDATE: Oops, I forgot to include the link: Breakfast is Overrated) on his blog last week (I'm a little behind) offering his "crackpot theory" that being slightly hungry may make you feel more creative, energetic and productive. His view is that this is an evolutionary adaptive response (when you get hungry, becoming more creative, energetic and productive can help you to get food).

A link in one of the comments goes to Martin Berkhan's LeanGains blog, which explains the process in more detail (as part of his post on debunking the "Top Ten Fasting Myths"). I can't say I've given much thought to fasting, but as I read his post, I realized that I believe many of these supposed myths. I haven't looked into his explanations and evidence very deeply, but on the surface, what he's saying seems to make sense, so I did a bit of googling for more info on intermittent fasting.

Generally, there seem to be two main types of intermittent fasting (IF). Periodic (some do it once a week, others more or less frequently) long-period fasting (24+ hours), and regular, short-period fasting, where you eat every day, but you fast for a significant part of each day (like, say, from 7 pm one night until noon or later the next day). What I think is interesting is that with both types of fasting, you can eat more when you're not fasting to make up for the calories you missed, and that doesn't seem to reduce the effects of the fast.

Adams says he generally eats little (at most a banana and a protein bar) or nothing from 8pm one night until noon the next day. As I've mentioned in a few posts lately, I'm often finding that I'm either not at all hungry, or just a little hungry, in the mornings, and I haven't really been sure if I should eat breakfast or not. I'm thinking that from now on, I'm going to try to eat only when I'm hungry.

The only two potential problems with that plan are 1) it's better if I eat dinner with the family, whether I'm hungry or not); and 2) since I don't have complete control over when I can eat at work, so if I don't eat something before work, it may be another 3 to 5 hours before I get another chance.

And maybe I'll do a bit more research and then try the fasting thing.