Starving or Fasting?

Did you hear the story about the child who didn’t want to eat his peas? His mom told him, “There are starving children in Africa who would love to have your peas.”

Oh! What about the one about the child who hated broccoli? His mom made him stay at the dinner table until he ate the last piece so he slept with his head on the table until morning.

There are lots of myths and stories surrounding food. As long as humans have existed, I am sure stories were told about how the hunting party ate for months after they took down a large bison. But, one of the most common reactions I receive from people when they hear that I am refraining from eating… on purpose… because I want to… is a look of horror and disbelief. The first thing they ask, because they care and want to share their concern without being rude, is, “Is that healthy?” It is a fair question because most people have never heard of anyone doing a long-term fast for any serious length of time and certainly NOT for longer than a year!

The second question I invariably receive is, “Why are you starving yourself?” The notion that fasting equates to starvation is an interesting development within our wealthy modern American society. Food is so plentiful in our country that we can purchase oranges or strawberries in December in northern Wisconsin. Many items on the grocery store shelves are so inexpensive that even poor American families have more affordable food available to them than ever before in human history.

The concept of religious fasting almost doesn’t exist in the United States, or at least it isn’t often publicized. Jews, Catholics and Muslims practice fasting during specific times of the year and Buddhists utilize fasting as a form of disciplined renewal. I am Catholic and I can tell you that many of my Catholic brothers and sisters regard the fasting time of Lent as a time to refrain from a small vice in their life, such as refraining from eating chocolate, or fasting from television. However, it is required by the Catholic Church to refrain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent, excluding fish, shellfish, and other seafood. It is also necessary to eat two smaller meals and only one larger meal on those days during Lent. In other words, the practice of fasting today for Catholics is a form of intermittent fasting, which allows the penitent to feel the pain of hunger, sacrifice their discomfort to the Lord, and remember Jesus’s suffering for all people when He died on the cross. But how many Catholics actually know this and practice the fasting required by their church? Americans are not easily swayed from the comforts we have come to cherish in our privileged lives.

But, humans have naturally fasted throughout history. When food was scarce, fasting was necessary until food became available once again. Our amazing human body adapted to this natural way of life from our early ancestors. The effects of this adaptation linger in our physiology today. Could you imagine the fights that would break out among a tribe of cavemen over the last berry from the last bush as autumn approached, knowing winter was coming and their bellies would be empty? Imagine if a time of food scarcity resulted in lethargy, fatigue, weakness, mental fog, or death. The panic that early man would have felt if they ever went hungry would have been quite intense!

But, instead humankind has a built in fasting mechanism that turns on the liver’s ability to change from using glucose for energy to using ketones for energy, which is a much more highly efficient and effective form of energy. Far from creating a fasting fog of forgetful demise, fasting actually revs up the body’s energy levels, stops hunger pangs, and creates a type of euphoria in order to allow man to have the stamina he needs to seek out and harvest food once again.

So, what exactly is the difference between starving and fasting? Obviously, early man had periods of time when he had no choice to fast and food was not readily available to him. Was he starving or fasting?

Starving: suffering or dying from hunger.

Oxford Dictionary

 

Fasting, abstinence from food or drink or both for health, ritualistic, religious, or ethical purposes.

britannica.com

The body can enter a fasting state, which is not the same as starving.

If your body is not already healthy, devoid of fat stores, and food does not become available again before your fat stores run out completely, then you are starving. People who are starving are completely malnourished and their body has no choice in order to sustain itself but to convert muscle for energy. The heart is a muscle and the person who is starving due to lack of proper nutrients will eventually experience heart failure and die. This can occur both because the person chooses to starve their body, such as in the case of anorexia nervosa, or not choose to starve their body, in the case of extreme poverty.

If your body is otherwise healthy, has adequate fat stores, and food becomes available again before your fat stores run out completely, then you are fasting. This can be involuntary, as in the case of our ancient ancestors or natives living today in various locations around the world, or it can be voluntary, such as for health or religious practices. The body is not in distress, an adequate level of fat stores are present to maintain the term of the fast without causing the body to convert muscle into energy, and the person on the fast has the ability to gain food again in the future before fat stores run out.

In my case, I have an excessive amount of fat stores; so much so that I might be able to fast for longer than 382 days without losing too much body fat to where my body has no more fat to consume. I have struggled with weight for so long and piled on the pounds for so many years, that I have accumulated enough of a fat storage container surrounding my body that I can live off of that stored energy as long as my body mass index does not drop down too low. In two weeks of fasting, I have lost 6 pounds. If I continue this trend of losing around a half a pound a day, then I am on schedule to break the record for the longest days gone without eating.

Only when my body becomes depleted of its fat stores should I need to worry about stopping the fast. When I break the 200 pound mark for the first time in fifteen years, then I will begin to really think about my body mass index and how much I should still lose on the fast. I am aiming for 150 lbs by the end of the fast and hope that this will regain my health and be enough time to break the record.

By the way, the previous record breaking fast happened in the 1970s and I will take the time to honor his accomplishment by posting specifically about his fasting journey in a later article.

About Jennifer Stoeckl

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Hello there! I am a former special education teacher turned business owner who is now the CEO and founding member of Dire Wolf Project, Inc. I wrote a non-fiction book on the Dire Wolf Project and am fully immersed in the world of dogs. However, I have also spent my entire life trying to find a permanent solution to my morbid obesity, which has plagued  me since adolescence. Now, I have embarked on a  long-term fasting adventure to turn my life around  and take control of my body’s cries for help.

	TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BODY, DON’T ALLOW FOOD TO RUN YOUR LIFE! Record Breaking Fast is all about helping you  free yourself from the food addition causing  you to eat uncontrollable amounts of food  and gain weight at a rapid pace. Don’t allow food  to dictate who you are and what you will become.  Live free from the foods that cause you to binge.