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Life in the Fasting Lane - how to make Intermittent fasting a lifestyle(1)

Contents

Eve Mayer

I grew up in south Louisiana, where you don’t eat to live. You live to eat! If Willy Wonka had set up shop in my hometown of Thibodaux, he would have specialized in crawfish, gumbo, boudin, and étouffée instead of lollipops, jawbreakers, and gumdrops.

To top it off, my mom is one of the best cooks in the universe, and growing up in our family, we followed the saying Laissez les bons temps rouler, meaning, “Let the good times roll.” We celebrated absolutely everything, and those festivities—shared with friends, family, and neighbors—centered on food. Cake was love. Crawfish fettuccine was happiness. Fried beignets dusted with generous amounts of powdered sugar meant community.

When I was eight, my mom was diagnosed with a devastating chronic disease for which there was no known cure. For thirty-four years, I watched her fight for her life. She went to specialists all over the country, and she dealt with treatments and medicines that often made her feel even worse. Thankfully, in 2016—when I was forty-two years old—she finally conquered her disease. But until then I wasn’t sure if the person at the center of my life would make it another year, and I adopted unhealthy behaviors to cope. I buried my feelings in food: hiding it, sneaking it, and gorging myself multiple times a day. I checked out of my life by letting my brain sail away on a high of waffles, fried chicken, Cajun sausage, and anything sugary I could find in the house. I devised my very own brand of carbohydrate-induced meditation, without the healthy benefits of mental peace.

I’ve been fat my entire adult life, and at my peak I swelled to a size 26 at three hundred pounds. Every diet plan I tried worked for a short while, but because I always felt hungry, I’d give in, break my diet, and gain back more weight than I had lost. Like many of you who are in a similar boat, I’ve frequently felt like a failure. I’ve been ashamed at the doctor’s office, at the pool, and in the plus-size store. I’ve felt embarrassed at the gym, at restaurants, and at family reunions.

In 2018, I decided to try to lose weight again, this time by following a low-carb, high-fat diet. I secretly assumed this diet would fail, too, but, after a month, something felt different. I wasn’t hungry every moment like I had always been. After a few months, I’d lost about thirty pounds, but then I started to stagnate. Worried that the weight would pile back on like it always had, I asked for advice from my friend Dr. Suzanne Slonim. She suggested I buy The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung.

When I started to read Dr. Fung’s book, I was on a plane, buckled in for a four-hour flight. Within minutes, I could not put it down. The Obesity Code validated my low-carb, high-fat approach to eating, but then Dr. Fung suggested something I hadn’t expected. He recommended that people who struggle with their weight benefit from practicing fasting.

What? I had never missed more than one meal in my life unless I was under some sort of medical direction to do so! But the studies Dr. Fung cited in his book made sense to me, and so I decided to give fasting a try. That decision changed my life. I began to lose weight again, I felt healthier than I’d ever been, and my body began to change in ways I never could have imagined. Best of all, the constant hunger messages flooding my brain stopped for good.

That’s right. I wasn’t starving all the time. And when I did feel hungry, it didn’t really bother me. I had been worried that I’d pass out if I skipped more than two meals, but I didn’t. I thought fasting would make me tired and give me brain fog, but it didn’t. I thought not eating would slow down my metabolism, but the opposite happened. I felt like a new woman.

I began to question everything I’d ever learned about losing weight and improving my health, and then I got furious. Where had this information been all my life, and why was I just hearing about it now, after I’d been through so much?

I reached out to Dr. Fung, and when we spoke, I knew I’d found a brilliant, kind soul willing to collaborate with me. He also introduced me to his health educator, Megan Ramos, and I felt a connection with her as soon as she explained her own struggles with weight and a host of other medical conditions. Within a month, we formed a plan, and the book you hold in your hands is the product.

In Life in the Fasting Lane, we want to empower you to approach weight loss and health in a whole new way. Maybe you’ve Googled fasting, discussed it with a friend, seen it on the news, or heard one person say it was amazing—and then another claim that it will cause you to starve to death. It seems that the opinions on fasting are as numerous as the stars in the sky, and much of the information can be so complicated and overwhelming that it makes you want to give up before you begin. You may be under the impression that fasting is only for those struggling with obesity, like I was. It’s not; fasting can help you lose five or ten pounds—or more or less, depending on your goals. Maybe you need an approach to eating that goes beyond weight loss. Can fasting help sharpen your mind and reduce your risk of cancer? It sure can. Are you desperate to improve your polycystic ovary syndrome, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, heart disease, and more? Fasting can help.

You need a friend who will tell you the absolute unfiltered truth about fasting, and, in this book, you have three: a veteran of the diet wars (me), a top fasting researcher who has endured her own health struggles (Megan Ramos), and a pioneering doctor (Dr. Jason Fung). Together, we have been there and done that, and we can give you answers about fasting without the sugar coating.

This book is more than just a step-by-step fasting plan. At its core it’s a lifestyle guide that will help you prepare yourself, your kitchen, and your family for your new eating routine, as well as troubleshoot common concerns surrounding fasting, like how to deal with holidays and vacations, and how to handle any unexpected side effects. I’ll spell out exactly how to prepare your mind to fast, help you find your fasting lane, and give you a plan for sustaining the new, healthier you. I’ll tell you exactly why you do not deserve the blame for your weight gain and why this time it will be different. I’ll hold your hand on this new, exciting journey, and, when it’s all done, we’ll celebrate your success.

You have questions, and the three of us have answers. The doctor, the layperson, and the researcher: this is the team you need on your side. We’ve got your back, so let’s go!

Megan Ramos

Nearly a decade ago, I suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and type 2 diabetes. I was also overweight. Today, I am disease-free, I’ve lost more than eighty pounds, and I’m living out my good health through my career. I’m a clinical researcher who focuses on preventive medicine, and I educate people about how fasting and proper nutrition can help them lose weight and improve their overall health.

For the first twenty-seven years of my life, I ate whatever I wanted and didn’t gain an ounce. I was that obnoxious girl walking around in size 0 jeans with a soda in one hand and a bag of chips in the other, and in one of my high school yearbooks, my best friend wrote, “I hate you because you can eat all the chicken nuggets and fries you want, and still seem to lose weight.” While I was definitely skinny, I wasn’t healthy—in my mind or in my body. In fact, I was constantly fooling myself, thinking that weight was an indicator of physical well-being. But evidence of the real truth lay in the diseases that had caught up with me in middle school.

When I was twelve years old, I was diagnosed with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition in which excess fat builds up in liver cells. Then, when I was fourteen, I found out I had PCOS, a disorder characterized by cysts throughout the ovaries that leads to irregular or absent ovulation. I was so thin that my doctors didn’t advise me to change my diet, but instead assumed that I would grow out of these conditions. They were wrong. Nothing got better with time. I got worse as I continued down an unhealthy path, stuffing myself with junk food without understanding the consequences. Was I using food to cope, like Eve did? Possibly. After all, my beloved mother was sick, too.

My mom had suffered from several metabolic and genetic conditions during most of my childhood, and she visited doctor after doctor and endured countless surgeries over the years. One of my most vivid memories is hearing her scream in pain in the hallway of an emergency room, waiting to be admitted. I decided no one should be sick like that—much less see their mom suffer so terribly—so I vowed to become a doctor when I grew up. I wanted to be someone who held the possibility of making you better—just like that. At age fifteen, I got a summer job in medical research at a private clinic with a group of nephrologists, or kidney disease specialists, including Dr. Jason Fung. In my work with them, I met many beautiful people with type 2 diabetes who were developing kidney failure from their disease. My research focused on finding ways to detect this kidney damage earlier because, if we could do that, we could potentially prevent full-scale failure. I worked with these doctors throughout my high school and college years and loved every minute. But, eventually, I hit a wall. I realized it didn’t matter when we caught the kidney disease; most of the time, it would just keep progressing. Early diagnosis felt worse than living in ignorance, and I remember thinking how terrible it must be to live your life knowing what might kill you.

Yet I had chronic diseases, too, and I was doing nothing about them. Worse, I was telling myself I was passionate about preventive medicine, but I was slowly killing myself with food. I guzzled diet sodas at 5:00 a.m. and snacked on sugary treats all day long. I downed bags of junk food while my former partner ran errands. I’m fairly certain that I was a food addict, and while I knew that the case of diet soda I stashed inside my car and the bag of pretzels I hid in my purse weren’t healthy, I just couldn’t help myself.

Everybody has a vice, and mine was food—not cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol—so I justified it as safe. Food is sold everywhere, legally, and carbs were the food group the government and my doctors told me to eat. They were what I was served at school and at home, by my parents. How could they be that bad? And, most of all, I was so skinny, so wasn’t I doing something right?

I wasn’t. My PCOS became so severe that, at the age of twenty-two, my doctor suggested I was probably infertile. For my whole life, I’d wanted nothing more than to become a mother and now that dream might never come true.

Five years later, when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it was the worst day of my life—even more terrible than when I found out I was likely infertile. When I heard the news, I remember feeling my heart beat so fast, I thought it was going to explode. Everything felt foggy, and I began gasping for air. This was my first anxiety attack.

I was only twenty-seven, and when my doctor handed me my lab results, it felt as if he had given me a death sentence. What kind of life was I facing? Would I suffer kidney failure at thirty-five, just as my research subjects had? Would I get Alzheimer’s at forty? Or how about a heart attack at forty-five, followed by a stroke at fifty?

I went home, threw myself onto my bed, and burst into tears. Forget helping people through medicine. I would give up my dream of being a doctor and do something else.

When I finally settled down, I decided I needed to do whatever it took to reclaim my health. My first step was to start eating regular, healthy meals. As a Canadian, I turned to Canada’s Food Guide (similar to the guidance provided by the USDA in the United States). I figured, since experts created it, I’d follow its advice to a T. And I did, eating three meals a day, plus several snacks in between. Guess what happened? Instead of being a skinny sack of fat, I became a large sack of fat.

Months later, desperate for a solution, I thought of Dr. Fung—with whom I still worked—and suddenly knew that my diabetes diagnosis might be the greatest blessing of my life.

Always someone to think outside the box, Jason had just started doing research into fasting. One afternoon, I heard him talking to a small group of people about how fasting might help reverse type 2 diabetes, and I thought, No way. This is too extreme. But I had nothing to lose. In fact, I had everything to gain.

I spoke to Jason and immediately started fasting and applying his principles of good nutrition, eating a variety of low-carb, healthy-fat, whole foods. Within weeks, I realized that, for my whole life, just about everything I’d learned about nutrition was wrong. It’s been eight years since I began following Dr. Fung’s recommendations, and I’ve maintained an eighty-six-pound weight loss. I have completely reversed my type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and PCOS.

Today, I’m a very happy and healthy thirty-five-year-old, who is privileged every day to help clients successfully lose weight and reverse their type 2 diabetes. I’m still working with Jason, and, together, we created a program called The Fasting Method. It’s a Toronto-based online community staffed by fasting coaches who partner with clients to help them lose weight and improve their chronic health conditions. I also consult with clients one on one, giving them the kind of lifesaving advice my doctors never gave me. This is one of the most satisfying parts of my job because I get to know women like Jennifer.

Like me, Jennifer was overweight and had PCOS. The condition also caused her to have acne and male-pattern hair growth, an unfortunate side effect of the hormonal fluctuations the disorder causes. She didn’t get her period until she was eighteen, and after that, she menstruated at most once a year. After years of failed attempts to get pregnant, she and her husband decided that they would try—at most—three rounds of IVF. Just to be safe, they would also fill out adoption paperwork and hope that—one way or the other—they would have a baby.

Hundreds of hormone shots later, through all three rounds of IVF, Jennifer’s follicles never matured, so doctors weren’t even able to extract—much less fertilize—one of her eggs. Thankfully, an adoption came through, and Jennifer and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby boy named Nico into their family.

Jennifer still worried about her health and weight, though, so she consulted with one of our fasting coaches, who guided her through a program of sugar reduction, low-carb eating, and fasting. Jennifer lost some weight, and her menstrual cycle began again. On a whim, she decided to try a fourth round of IVF. She got pregnant, and her second son, Oscar, was born when Nico was two and a half. She continued her healthy habits, and, three years later, she spontaneously became pregnant with her third son. Jennifer is now a healthy, slim mother of three with regular periods and a happier life than she could ever imagine.

Because of fasting, I have confidence that, like Jennifer, I’ll be a mom someday. Until then, I am excited to continue the work I am doing to help people change their lives for the better. Together with Dr. Fung and Eve Mayer, I’m here to be your guide, offering a researcher’s perspective on how fasting can help you lose weight and stop chronic health conditions in their tracks.

Dr. Jason Fung

I am a nephrologist—or kidney disease specialist—who completed medical school and internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto, then finished my fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. Over the last twenty years, I’ve worked day in and day out to treat my clients’ kidneys, supporting these vital organs’ normal functioning. I’ve prescribed the proper medications, recommended the right treatments and surgeries, and followed the correct procedures to help those with renal issues, including stones, diabetes, cancer, inflammation, and more. So, it always seems a little strange to me that I am now practicing obesity medicine, trying my best to take people off their medications, escape the surgeon’s knife, and avoid dialysis. Basically, my life’s mission is to put nephrologists like me out of a job.

Why? Because a decade ago I noticed a disturbing pattern. In the past, the most common cause of kidney disease was high blood pressure, followed by type 2 diabetes. Over time, as proper screenings and the introduction of blood pressure medications helped reduce diseases caused by hypertension, type 2 diabetes surpassed it as the main cause of kidney disease. Medications and technology were obviously not helping these people, and I became increasingly aware that my efforts to treat kidney disease with drugs, dialysis, and more were never going to be successful on a large scale because they were not addressing the root cause of the problem. It was clear that excess body weight, which leads to type 2 diabetes, was the true culprit. Therefore, the only logical solution is to help people lose that excess weight.

But how can effective, long-term weight loss be achieved? How can people best reach their weight-loss goals and improve their health? For decades, the prevailing wisdom from doctors has been to eat less and move more. But that doesn’t work for the vast majority of people, and countless scientific studies (which I will cite in this book) have proved that calorie restriction is ineffective. Everybody—and I mean everybody, myself included—has tried this diet and failed, whether they wanted to lose 5 pounds or 205. Unfortunately, I learned next to nothing about nutrition and weight loss in medical school, so I made it my job to understand both. Weight was arguably the most important determinant of my clients’ health, so I knew I had to become an expert on this topic.

But learning new material isn’t nearly as difficult as un-learning the failed paradigms ingrained in my mind, and most of what I thought I knew about weight loss—or learned in medical school—has proved to be completely wrong. Caloric restriction is a case in point. In medical school, we were taught that losing weight is a simple matter of eating fewer calories than you expend. “Calories In, Calories Out,” right? The truth is that this strategy will not help you lose weight, and that’s not just my opinion. The success rate of calorie restriction is roughly 1 percent. Obesity has become a global epidemic, even as people have counted their calories more obsessively than ever.

Given the importance of weight loss to health, and particularly in kidney disease, I reviewed the scientific basis of this advice. It stunned me to discover that this entire theory of calorie restriction is without scientific merit. There are no physiologic pathways in the body that rely upon calories. There are no studies that prove that reducing calories reduces weight. On the contrary, every study shows that calorie restriction is futile. If we already knew it was pointless, then why were medical professionals championing this failed method? It boggled my mind.

I decided to look for more successful methods of weight loss, and I found some time-tested strategies that had been forgotten. Soon, in addition to recommending that my clients eat less sugar and fewer refined grains, I introduced them to fasting. This advice was transformational. These people lost weight, adopted healthy habits, and improved many of their chronic conditions.

But there’s a component of fasting that extends far beyond what you see on the scale or what shows up in a blood test: the mental and emotional issues surrounding weight loss and poor health, including addiction, shame, and guilt. It is as imperative to address these struggles as it is to tackle medical issues.

That said, I recognize that I’m probably not the best person to address the mental and emotional side of weight loss. I’ve pretty much stayed the same weight since high school, and I actually wore a pair of pants I’d had for thirty years until fairly recently, when my embarrassed wife threw them out. Sure, I’ve gained a few pounds now and then, usually after a holiday or vacation, and I lose a little, usually when I get really busy. So, while I understand the struggles of weight loss, I don’t relate to them in any serious personal sense.

However, I’m certain that Eve Mayer, who is brilliant and articulate, can put a human voice to these issues, and my longtime colleague Megan Ramos knows obesity from both a personal and professional perspective. Together, we hope to show you how a lifestyle of fasting can help reverse weight gain and a host of chronic conditions. This is why we are writing Life in the Fasting Lane. To teach. To learn. To laugh. To cry. To form community. To break down myths and stigmas. Mostly, we’re writing this book together to help you understand a beast that we are all trying to tame: obesity.

Part I
Fasting, Food, and Hormones

Chapter 1
The Science of Fasting

Eve Mayer

Science. It’s an intimidating word to me, and always has been. Even in high school, where I steadily earned As and Bs without much effort, I was haunted by the one D on my report card in honors chemistry.

This fear and inability to understand basic science helped keep me fat for twenty-four years. Today, I’m no longer obese, and science doesn’t terrify me. Have I suddenly become a scientific savant? Heck, no! Sometimes I still get confused by the simplest terms. But something has changed, and I know that part of the reason I shed so many pounds and got healthier was that I became curious about what was going on in my body.

I’m going to talk to you about the science of fasting in the way I wish someone would have spoken to me: in very simple terms. Dr. Fung and Megan will continue with deeper, more detailed explanations about what happens in your body after you eat, but allow me to describe my own personal experience—and how learning about metabolism, digestion, hormones, and more has helped change my life.

For years, I was fat, and I didn’t want to be. I also struggled with prediabetes, infertility, allergy issues, sinus infections, joint pain, bronchitis, and pneumonia. I went to one doctor after another to solve my problems, and because I’m a hard worker, I did what they said. I ate fewer calories. I worked out. I took medication. I went to therapy. I ate more fruit and vegetables. To get my slow metabolism to speed up, I consumed smaller meals more often. I had lap-band surgery twice, and later I had the size of my stomach permanently reduced with the gastric sleeve procedure. Results varied with each of these actions. But, most often, I lost weight, only to have it return later. Through it all, I never uncovered the root of the problem.

I thought my body was broken. Then I tried a new approach.

At the beginning of 2018, I cut sugar out of my diet and greatly lowered my carb intake, and an astounding thing happened. I was no longer hungry all the time. It was a dramatic—and more than welcome—change, and suddenly I wanted to know why and how my new approach had worked. When I read The Obesity Code, a light came on in my head, and I realized:

Being fat is a problem with my hormones. What I eat and when I eat affects my hormones. Therefore, if I change those two things, I can lose weight.

Doctors had told me I was prediabetic and that there were issues with my insulin, but they had never explained to me what the heck that meant. Why is insulin important? What does insulin do in the body? What is insulin resistance? Why do diabetics take more insulin if increasing insulin is a problem? Why am I taking metformin other than the fact that it will help me not go from prediabetic to diabetic?

Dr. Fung’s approach explained everything to me. Now I understand that my body can either be focused on storing energy or burning energy. But not both at the same time. When I eat often, my body becomes busy packing away energy as fat. When I eat less often, my body has more time to burn energy—and fat. Fasting allows my body to focus its efforts on using energy instead of storing energy. I still have warehoused energy in my body in the form of excess fat. My metabolic and digestive systems are completely capable of using that fat as energy—but not unless I give them the opportunity by not eating for a period of time.

I believe this science because of how I feel. My health issues are gone. I am not prediabetic, I rarely get sick, I take no daily medications, and I feel like a million bucks. When I eat often, I feel hungry, tired, and down—and this is because of my hormones, not because I ate a certain amount of food. Fasting is sort of like a good night’s sleep. I go to bed to let my body and mind rest. Overnight, my body can focus on replenishing and repairing rather than the million things it has to do when I’m awake. Sleeping also allows my mind to process everything that has happened and sort out what to do with all that information. It’s an efficient period of bodily rejuvenation—just like fasting.

If you are fascinated yet overwhelmed by the science of fasting—like I was—take it easy and be kind to yourself. Fasting is worth exploring whether you want to lose three pounds or three hundred pounds, or simply improve your health. The best scientific proof you can ever get is trying it and feeling the changes in your own body.

Jason Fung

There are so many reasons to make fasting a part of your life. From a purely medical standpoint, many diseases are caused in part by excess body fat. Being overweight increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Losing weight increases your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good” cholesterol levels and lowers your triglyceride levels, which helps reduce the risk of those same diseases. Excess weight may raise your blood pressure, lead to or aggravate arthritis, disrupt your sleep, cause back pain, cause liver disease, and more. Type 2 diabetes, which is closely related to increased body fat, is also the number one cause of blindness, kidney disease, nontraumatic amputations, and infections. As a nephrologist, I’ve seen forty-year-olds with type 2 diabetes go into renal failure and need dialysis, which is a life-sustaining treatment they endure for the rest of their years. I’ve seen fifty-year-olds with type 2 diabetes develop poor circulation in their legs and require amputation. I’ve witnessed more people with type 2 diabetes lose their vision than I can count. Yes, in those cases, losing weight would have greatly improved my clients’ health and helped them avoid the diseases and side effects that diminished their quality of life—or, tragically, ended their lives entirely.

But, as Megan discussed in her introduction, there are many people who are not overweight—as defined by body mass index (BMI)—and are still metabolically unhealthy. And there are many people who are overweight—again, defined by BMI—and are metabolically healthy. So, while weight is not the entire story, fasting has been shown to help decrease the prevalence of many metabolic syndromes, including type 2 diabetes.

I know this may be overwhelming, or worse, too good to be true. How can skipping a few meals—or even just one meal a day—make such a difference in your health? Our client Natasha offers an example of just how beneficial a fasting lifestyle can be.

Natasha was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in early 2012. Even though she’d tried altering her diet, exercising, and taking metformin (a drug prescribed to treat diabetes), almost nothing worked. She didn’t lose weight from her small, 5-foot frame; metformin made her miserable; and her blood sugar spiked even when she ate a tiny amount of carbs.

Natasha had tried fasting, and she liked it, but she was afraid to fast longer than a day. Her fasting coach eased her fears about extended fasting, and, today, Natasha refrains from eating for forty-two hours two or three times a week. Her blood sugar level is now within a normal to prediabetic range, and she’s down to a size 2. She looks great. She feels great. And, best of all, her health has been restored. Fasting has changed her life.

I know there are those of you out there who are scared to fast for a few hours. Even the idea of cutting out something as simple as snacks may make you feel anxious. But, if you’re like Natasha, it could just be fear that’s holding you back. Or, perhaps, you don’t understand the science behind why fasting works, and what it can do for you. Knowledge is power, so allow me to explain how the foods you eat impact your body, why they may lead to hormonal fluctuations that cause weight gain and chronic disease, and how fasting can help.

Digestion, Hormones, and How Food Is Stored for Energy

The second that food enters your mouth, your body begins the hard work of turning that food into cellular energy. However, the path isn’t always easy or straightforward, and if you eat the wrong foods or consume them in excess, your body may develop problems.

The body’s endocrine system includes a vast network of glands that release hormones into the bloodstream to regulate all the body’s functions, including sleep, metabolism (the conversion of food to energy for cell function), reproduction and sex drive, mood, hunger, and more. When we eat, the pancreas—a narrow, six-inch-long organ that sits behind the stomach and is part of both the endocrine and digestive systems—secretes the hormone insulin. Insulin signals to the rest of the body that food is now available to process into energy, and this food energy (calories) needs to be stored away for the future.

The body stores food energy in two different ways: as sugar and as body fat. Sugar is available for quick energy, while fat is kept in reserve, available to burn when our body doesn’t have blood sugar at the ready. Let’s talk about sugar first, as the stable regulation of blood sugar—also known as glucose—is one of the central benefits of fasting.

One of the easiest ways to spike your blood sugar is to eat carbohydrates, which, chemically speaking, are chains of sugars. When we eat carbohydrates, some of this sugar is used by cells in the kidneys, liver, brain, and more. If there are carbs left over, they’re stored in the liver as glycogen, another chain of sugar. We’ll come back to glycogen in just a minute.

The other way our body stores energy is body fat. When we eat dietary fat (found in all kinds of plant and animal foods, from potato chips to red meat to milk), the individual fat molecules, called triglycerides, are absorbed directly into the bloodstream and delivered to fat cells. If we eat too much glucose and exceed the body’s ability to store it in the liver as glycogen, the liver converts this glucose to triglycerides. The triglycerides then feed fat cells.

These two systems of energy storage—glycogen and fat—are complementary. Glycogen is easy to use and simple for the liver to process, but the liver has limited space to store it. Body fat is harder to get to and more difficult for the liver to break down, but it offers the advantage of unlimited storage space (as anyone worried about the rolls of fat on their belly knows all too well!). Think of glycogen as a refrigerator. You can easily put food into it and take it out at a moment’s notice, but you only have so many shelves. Think of body fat like a basement deep freezer. It’s harder to get to, harder to cook the food in it (because it’s frozen), but it’s huge and almost never full.

Insulin and the Development of Diabetes

As I stated previously, insulin is the hormone that signals your body when it’s time to convert food into energy. But its job doesn’t stop there. Insulin also regulates the body’s glucose levels, making sure they don’t spike or plummet. It does so by helping to extract glucose from the blood to store it in the liver as glycogen or in the body as fat. Because the body needs fat for protection, warmth, and energy in times of famine, insulin also prevents us from using too much body fat as a source of energy.

If your insulin levels are high, the body will put food energy into storage, both in the fridge and the freezer. Problems begin, however, when your pancreas goes into overdrive, secreting too much insulin. How does this happen? All foods, which contain a variety of macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates), will stimulate insulin production to some degree, but certain foods are more effective than others. The worst offenders in this regard are refined carbohydrates, like white bread, sugary drinks, cakes, and cookies.

If we eat lots of sugar or carbohydrate-rich foods too often, as is the case with the typical Western diet, where people regularly eat six or seven carb-heavy meals or snacks a day, our insulin levels will spike. High levels of insulin tell the body to keep trying to store food energy, preventing us from burning our fat stores. We are, in essence, continuing to restock the refrigerator, while wondering why our basement freezer is bursting at the seams.

Eventually, when there is too much insulin flooding your system, the cells in your pancreas that produce it can no longer respond, and your blood glucose levels become high. If they stay high, you can now call yourself one of the estimated 500 million people in the world with type 2 diabetes.

Measuring and Treating Diabetes

If you become diabetic, your symptoms may include increased thirst, fatigue, blurred vision, hunger even though you’re eating more than you normally do, frequent urination, tingling, pain, or numbness in your hands or feet, or cuts or bruises that are slow to heal. But you may not have any symptoms. Many people discover they’re at risk of diabetes or already have it only after they have a blood test.

There are several tests doctors use to determine if a person has diabetes, but I’ll talk about two of them because many of my clients have them regularly—and many see their results improve dramatically after they try fasting.

The first test is the A1c test. This simple blood test measures what percentage of your hemoglobin—a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen—is covered with sugar. A1c measures average blood sugar levels over two to three months, so one carb-heavy meal won’t necessarily impact the results. People without diabetes have low A1c levels, between 4 percent and 5.6 percent. If your A1c levels are between 5.7 percent and 6.4 percent, you’re at risk for developing diabetes, often referred to as prediabetic. And if your levels are over 6.5 percent, you have type 2 diabetes.

The other test is called the fasting plasma glucose test, or FPG. This test measures blood glucose levels at one point in time, and it’s given after you’ve fasted for eight hours, typically in the morning. A high result—indicating you have diabetes—is anything over a level of 126 mg/dL. A prediabetic level is between 100 and 125 mg/dL, and anything under 100 mg/dL is considered normal.

If your test results are in the prediabetic range, you’ll need to adjust the foods you eat and perhaps consider some of the medications I’ll discuss below. But remember to focus your health efforts not just on diabetes. Midrange A1c or fasting glucose levels also mean you’re at risk for heart disease, stroke, cognitive difficulties, or insulin resistance (a disease in which your body doesn’t respond well to insulin and raises your blood sugar).

In addition to weight loss, exercise, and diet modifications—typically a diet low in sugar and carbs—the most common treatment for diabetes is prescription medication. Metformin is the gateway drug for diabetes treatment, and it works by limiting the amount of glycogen your liver converts into glucose, as well as helping your body use insulin more productively. Other drugs—including sulphonylureas—help the body produce more insulin or become more sensitive to it, excrete glucose into the urine, or slow digestion. Typically, the last resort for diabetes treatment is insulin, given by subcutaneous injection.

However, it’s disheartening—to say the least—that fasting is not recommended by the health community. Why? Because more than any drug or diet modification, fasting helps control your insulin. Type 2 diabetes is essentially a disease of too much sugar and too much insulin. What decreases sugar and insulin? Fasting. When your insulin is in check, your blood sugar stays in check, your weight stabilizes or decreases, and your risk of developing any number of chronic health conditions goes down.

Where Fasting Comes In

If I could sum up fasting in one sentence, I would say this: fasting regulates your hormones. It’s more than a diet; it resets your body’s internal controls, allowing it to burn the right amount of energy to keep you alive.

When we don’t eat (fast), insulin levels fall, and this signals our body that no more food is available. In order to survive, the cells then draw upon the stored energy supply, either in the form of glycogen or, if that’s been fully expended, fat. This is the reason we don’t die in our sleep every night, or why we can live a few hours—or a few days or more—without eating. The body has a wondrous ability to store food energy, then find it in either the refrigerator or freezer to burn it.

Therefore, it figures that the most logical solution to keeping our blood sugar levels stable, allowing the body to continue to use its stored reserves of energy, is to fast. By not eating, we allow insulin levels to drop, which tells the body that food is no longer available and that it’s time to eat some of the food in the fridge (glycogen) or freezer (body fat). Weight loss and preventing type 2 diabetes—as well as a host of chronic conditions I’ll outline in the next chapter—are about correcting the underlying hormonal imbalance that caused obesity. This hormonal imbalance, again, is an insulin level that stays high for too long.

Fasting and Metabolism

But what about metabolism? Doesn’t fasting kill it, as many of you have heard? For that matter, what is metabolism? Our metabolism, or basal metabolic rate (BMR), is the amount of energy (calories) required to keep our bodies alive while we are at rest. BMR is the measure of what we need to keep our body’s very basic functions—such as brain activity, circulation, and digestion—chugging along. If you have a high metabolism, your body burns energy more efficiently, and you tend not to put on weight rapidly. If it’s lower, weight loss will be more of a struggle.

Our BMR is not fixed. Our bodies may increase or decrease BMR by 30 to 40 percent depending on our diets, level of activity, age, body temperature, and more. But, from a dietary perspective, the most significant determinant of BMR is insulin.

The body only exists in one of two states: the “fed” state, after we’ve eaten, and the “fasted” state, when we have not eaten. In the fed state, insulin levels are high, and the body wants to store food energy as sugar or fat. Our metabolism is humming. In the fasted state, when insulin levels are low, the body wants to burn stored food energy. So, we’re either storing calories or burning calories, but not both at the same time.

If we elevate insulin levels (by eating foods that stimulate insulin) and keep them persistently high (by eating constantly—say, by consuming six or seven snacks or meals per day instead of three), then the body must stay in the “fed” state. The body stores calories because those are the instructions we’ve given it. If all the calories are going into storage, then there are fewer calories to use, and therefore the body must slow down its energy expenditure, or BMR.

Suppose we are eating 2,000 calories per day and burning 2,000 calories per day. We neither gain nor lose body fat. We now reduce our calories to 1,500 by eating high-carb, low-fat foods six or seven times per day, as many health professionals urge us to do. Insulin levels stay high but calories drop. Now, the body cannot burn body fat stores because insulin is high, and we are in the “fed” state. With only 1,500 calories coming in, the body must reduce its calorie expenditure to 1,500 as well. We cannot make up this caloric deficit because insulin prevents us from burning fat. We are in “fat storage” mode. This is the dirty little secret of the low-fat diet. At first, the weight comes off, but as our BMR drops, the weight plateaus and then eventually returns.

What happens during fasting? A study of four consecutive days of fasting—that is, four full days without any food to eat—showed that BMR increases by about 10 percent. Yes, metabolic rate increases when you don’t eat. Why? We know that fasting decreases insulin but increases counter-regulatory hormones, so called because they run counter to insulin. If insulin falls, these hormones go up. If insulin rises, these hormones go down. The counter-regulatory hormones include noradrenaline (responsible for stimulating muscle contraction and heart rate), growth hormone (stimulates cell growth and regeneration), and cortisol (the so-called stress hormone, responsible for triggering motivation and action). If noradrenaline increases, then metabolic rate is expected to also go up.

The increase in BMR is likely a survival response. Imagine that you are a caveman. It’s winter, and there is nothing to eat. If your metabolic rate decreases, that means that for every day you do not eat, you get a little weaker. This makes it that much harder to find and hunt for food. It’s a vicious death spiral. As you get weaker, you’ll be less likely to find food. As you don’t find food, you get weaker. If this is what happens to your body, you would not have survived. Your body is just not that stupid.

Instead, your body switches fuel sources. Instead of relying on food, you turn to stored food (body fat), and your body does not shut down. It ramps up by increasing noradrenaline, cortisol, and the other counter-regulatory hormones. You power up by using a different fuel source. Concentration increases. Focus increases. So BMR increases during fasting. If you maintain BMR during weight loss, as opposed to burning 500 calories less per day, that is a huge advantage.

So, the key to the energy balance equation of “Calories In, Calories Out” is not the number of calories we eat and the exercise we do. That is virtually irrelevant. The key is to control hunger and maintain basal metabolic rate. In order to do that, we must eat foods that increase satiety hormones and keep insulin (fat-storing hormone) low. Fasting provides the hormonal changes necessary to successfully lose weight in the long term. Hunger decreases while BMR is maintained. And guess what? Fasting has been used for thousands of years, during which time obesity has been no more than a passing footnote in the pantheon of human illness.

Megan Ramos

When I think about all the clients I’ve met over the years, I can’t even count the number of conditions that fasting has helped improve. Diabetes and obesity are the two obvious ones, but I also think about a woman named Marta, who suffered from acne, PCOS, joint pain, asthma, allergies, gall bladder disease, restless leg syndrome, mood swings, reactive hypoglycemia, fatigue, heartburn, Hashimoto’s, and sleep apnea—in addition to being overweight and receiving a devastating diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Until she saw success with fasting, Marta didn’t know that all of these conditions can be related—or that fasting could fix them, as it did for her.

But what about the more serious illnesses, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease, that Marta might have developed in the future if she kept up her unhealthy lifestyle? There are now credible and compelling scientific studies showing that the science behind fasting doesn’t end with obesity, diabetes, and blood sugar regulation. Fasting is a lifestyle that may prevent a host of chronic conditions that seem to have nothing to do with the food we put in our mouths. Fasting can have significant benefits for your brain, your mood, your risk of cancer, and more.

Fasting and Your Brain

The brain is a remarkable, complex, and resilient organ, and it’s one that’s not impacted negatively by fasting. So, if you’re concerned that fasting will cause you to be mentally slow, dull, or foggy, worry no more.

Fasting may even help your brain. I say “may” because unfortunately, no authoritative studies exist on fasting’s impact on the brain. However, two human studies—one that measured brain activity after a twenty-four-hour fast and one that measured it after two days—established that reaction time, memory, mood, and general function were not impaired by fasting. And in a study of rats who were put on a fast, the mammals improved their scores of motor coordination, cognition, learning, and memory. In addition, they showed increased brain connectivity and new neuron growth. Now, I know rats aren’t humans, but these results echo what so many of my clients say: that fasting makes them feel sharper.

Evolution also provides some clues to how fasting can help your brain. During times of severe caloric restriction, the organs of many mammals shrink in order to survive. But there are two exceptions: the brain and the male testicles. Obviously, the testicles stay the same size so that the males of the species can continue to attempt to mate, but what about the brain? Think about how you’d feel if you were starving. You’d want to be sharp and focused so you could search for food, right? That’s what happens with most mammals. Conversely, when we eat too much, we may experience brain fog, or what’s often known as “food coma.” Consider how you feel after a huge Thanksgiving dinner: lethargic, dull, and able to focus only on the thought of a nap.

The most encouraging research I’ve seen are the animal studies that demonstrate that rats who were subjected to fasts showed fewer symptoms in models of Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s disease. Fasting induces autophagy—a cellular process that helps the body clear out old or damaged cell parts—and, in these studies, rats on a fast saw a decrease in the accumulated proteins that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. Imagine if fasting could prevent, treat, or even reverse these heartbreaking degenerative neurological conditions? Lives could be saved, suffering reduced, and we’d save tens of billions of dollars in healthcare costs.

Fasting and Cancer

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death worldwide, killing about 10 million people every year. One out of six people will die from it. Many cancers develop due to genetic factors, unintended toxic exposure, viruses, or some other, often unknown cause. For the most part, these unfortunate cases are difficult to prevent. But there are promising studies that show that cancers that were previously thought to be unavoidable may be preventable, in part, through fasting.

One of the keys to these findings, as with type 2 diabetes and obesity, is insulin. If you extract breast cancer cells from tissue, it’s quite simple to grow them in a lab. If you add glucose, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and insulin, they multiply rapidly. If you then take away the insulin, they die. Let me repeat that: breast cancer cells proliferate with high levels of insulin and die without it. What lowers insulin levels? Fasting.

The second reversible link to cancer is obesity. A 2003 study released by the American Cancer Society highlighted the findings from 900,000 US men and women. From 1982 to 1998, these people were tracked every few years to determine who had died and how they’d died. At each interval, their BMI (body mass index) was also factored. While all were free from cancer at the start of the study, after sixteen years, just over 57,000 of them were dead from cancer. Shockingly, for those with a BMI over 40, the death rates from all cancers combined were 52 percent higher for men and 62 percent higher for women. BMI was positively associated with death from esophageal, colon, rectal, liver, gallbladder, pancreatic, kidney, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma, breast, stomach, prostate, cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancers. Researchers concluded that being overweight or obese accounts for 14 percent of all deaths from cancer in men and 20 percent for women. The evidence was clear: obesity is a major risk factor for cancer. What helps you lose weight? Fasting.

Finally, autophagy may slow down cancerous growths or prevent cancer from occurring—a finding that shocked scientists, who had previously believed that autophagy increased cancer growth. A 2019 study published in Nature concluded that autophagy played a major role in killing certain cells linked to cancer. When autophagy is stopped, these harmful cells can continue to replicate, fueling the growth of cancer. What causes autophagy? Once again, fasting.

Fasting and Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome, also called Syndrome X, is a group of conditions that meet three of the following five criteria: abdominal obesity (as measured by waist circumference), hyperglycemia (type 2 diabetes), high triglycerides, low HDL, and hypertension.

The common factor among these conditions is that they all involve an excess of insulin. When insulin is too high for too long, the body stores more body fat than it needs to. Cells become overloaded with glucose, and they become resistant to insulin. Glucose from the blood can no longer go into the cells, and blood glucose levels become elevated. This is the disease known as type 2 diabetes. When the liver is overloaded with glucose, excess sugar gets stored as fat, and fatty liver develops. Attempting to unload all this extra fat, the liver exports the glucose into the blood, which causes blood triglyceride levels to increase and HDL levels to decrease. In short, excess insulin causes a series of problems that collapse, one by one, like dominoes.

Since metabolic syndrome is a disease of too much insulin, lowering insulin levels is critical to reversing it. Refined carbohydrates cause the greatest increase in insulin, so eating a diet low in refined carbs and sugar is a great start. Because all foods contain a mix of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, eating even those foods that are healthy will raise your insulin level somewhat. This is why fasting is so effective for treating metabolic syndrome. When you refrain from eating, your insulin levels drop and remain at a lower baseline.

Clearly, fasting helps to stabilize blood sugar. But having stable blood-sugar levels is only one of many benefits of a fasting lifestyle. As we will soon see, it can do wonders for the mind as well as the body.

Chapter 2
Beyond Science
The Mental and Emotional Benefits of Fasting

Megan Ramos

It’s logical to assume that if you’re not fat, sick, overmedicated, and exhausted—all situations that fasting can alleviate and reverse—you’re going to be a happier person. This is the case with thousands of clients I’ve seen over the years. As they begin to lose weight, take fewer medications, and suffer fewer of their painful symptoms, their moods improve. They’re not depressed anymore. They don’t fight with their spouses as much. They begin doing activities they love.

Even if you only want to lose five, ten, or twenty pounds, or if your health problems are minimal, fasting can still change your life. I think of a sixty-seven-year-old client I had, named Paul. Paul started fasting to support his wife, who was extremely overweight and had just received a diagnosis of borderline type 2 diabetes. Unlike her, Paul wasn’t bothered by bad health, and he figured the twenty excess pounds he was carrying around were a natural product of aging. But out of devotion, Paul stopped snacking and skipped meals a few times a week, and, within several months, he lost all his excess weight. Not just that, but he felt great—physically and emotionally.

The mood-stabilizing properties of fasting aren’t merely anecdotal. A 2016 study published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition measured the effects of an eighteen-hour fast on fifty-two women whose mean age was twenty-five. The study looked for changes in mood, irritability, sense of achievement, reward, pride, and control. At the end of eighteen hours, the study concluded that, while the women felt more irritable than they had before the fasting period began, they had, on the whole, a significantly higher sense of reward, achievement, and pride.

These findings are consistent with my clinical observations over the years. Some people new to fasting can experience anxiety, which can be attributed to the hormone noradrenaline that is secreted during a fast. Noradrenaline causes your blood pressure to increase, your heart to beat faster, and your nervous system to become more alert. Together, these effects may be experienced as anxiety. Usually, they don’t last longer than two weeks, when the body adapts to the increased level of noradrenaline.

However, most of my female clients—of all ages—don’t report feeling irritable on short fasts (meaning intermittent fasts of forty-two hours or less, three times a week) either. Instead, I’ve noticed they may become more emotional or irritable only on extended fasts of five days or more—and only when they’re new to fasting. These women may become emotional because, during an extended fast, you start to lose belly fat in large quantities. Excess fat cells produce excess estrogen, and the loss of those cells releases estrogen out of storage and into the bloodstream. So, for a short period of time, your hormones soar, which has an impact on your emotions.

I’ve found that people who lose the most water weight—an accumulation of fluid in the tissues and body cavities, often leading to bloating—are the ones most likely to report mood swings and irritability. We believe this is due to the electrolyte loss that’s experienced when there’s a decrease in water weight. This is only a short-term problem, though, and mood tends to stabilize when the body stops dumping excess weight.

Jason Fung

Being overweight affects more than just your physical health—it also impacts your mental and emotional health. While I strongly believe that we should accept ourselves and others regardless of weight, as a culture we have a long way to go toward acceptance. The truth is that misinformed attitudes about weight pervade just about every part of our society.

These beliefs create an unconscious bias that generates a lot of discrimination. A lot. Many people unwittingly perceive overweight people as lazy, gluttonous, and lacking willpower. This is the direct result of the “Calories In, Calories Out” mode of thinking, endorsed by most health professionals and researchers. Those who believe in the erroneous “energy balance equation” imagine that weight loss is such a simple formula that everybody has the knowledge and ability to lose weight, if only they try. You just expend more energy than you put in your body. Therefore, if you’re gaining weight, it’s because you lack the willpower to get off the couch, put down your fork and knife, or move your body. You have a character defect, and it doesn’t seem to matter that 99 percent of people who try a calorie-restricted diet fail to lose weight over the long term. Or that every single study of this “Eat Less, Move More” approach has failed. Every single one.

People who believe in calorie restriction are, in my opinion, misguided. The problem is not with the 70 percent of adults in America who are overweight or obese, but rather, with the dietary advice we’ve been given. Indeed, since the advent of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1977, consumption data from the United States Department of Agriculture shows that Americans have been doing exactly what they have been told to. Americans have consumed less meat and dairy and replaced their animal fats with vegetable oils. They’ve eaten more grains, fruits, and vegetables. And what has happened? A tsunami of obesity the likes of which the world has never seen.

Nevertheless, because of this prevailing view that obesity is a personal shortcoming, studies consistently find that obese individuals are viewed as less desirable subordinates, co-workers, and bosses in the workplace. They are perceived as disagreeable, emotionally unstable, lazy, and lacking in self-discipline. This always struck me as slightly odd. Considering the lengths to which most people have gone to try to lose weight, “lack of self-discipline” is one of the least accurate descriptions of most of the overweight people in my practice. Women, as is often the case, are judged more harshly than men. A full 60 percent of overweight women consider that they have been on the receiving end of weight discrimination, compared to 40 percent of men.

The problem with most “Calories In, Calories Out” proponents is that they think far too simplistically about the human body. They believe that obesity is only a first-order problem rather than the more complex issue it really is. Let’s start with the “Calories In” part of the equation. Most nutrition “experts” say that this is determined by the foods you eat. This is true. But that is first-order, simplistic thinking. What makes you put that food in your mouth? The answer can be many things. Hunger. Emotions. Stress. Medications. You must deal with the root cause of the problem, not the simple first-order cause.

How about the “Calories Out” part of the equation? Most nutrition “experts” believe this is determined by exercise, or the number of steps you take in a day. This only makes up a minority of the calories you burn in a day. The overwhelming majority of calories are used for metabolism, the energy needed for your brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other organs and systems.

In the disease of obesity, what causes “Calories In” to exceed “Calories Out,” therefore causing fat accumulation? A simpleton would say “How much food you eat and how much exercise you get.” The more nuanced understanding of human physiology suggests that the main problem is hunger and metabolism. Yes, you can decide what you want to eat, but no, you cannot choose to be less hungry. Yes, you can decide to exercise, but no, you cannot resolve that your liver will use more energy. So, if you cannot consciously make a decision about hunger and metabolism—the more important root factors of weight gain—then obesity is not a personal failing. It’s not a breakdown of willpower. It’s a failure of knowledge.

Let’s return to the issue of weight bias. The effect of weight on earning potential is staggering, significantly impacting salary, but the result is different for men and women. For women, the skinnier you are, the more money you’ll make, even to a startling seventy pounds below average weight. In fact, women are punished for any weight gain, and very thin women earn approximately $22,000 more than an average-weight woman. Very heavy women earn about $19,000 less than the average.

The opposite holds true for men, who make more the heavier they are—except when they reach the top of their profession. Both men and women hit the proverbial glass ceiling if they’re obese, meaning they have a BMI greater than 30. According to a 2009 study, only 4 percent of top male CEOs were obese, compared to 36 percent of the general male population. But 61 percent of top male CEOs were overweight (BMI 25–29.9), indicating a level of tolerance for those who are only modestly heavier than the average. The differences for women were much starker. Only 3 percent of top female CEOs were obese, compared to 38 percent of the general population. But only 22 percent of top female CEOs were overweight, compared to 29 percent of the general population.

These statistics are shocking and are part of what drives my work to destigmatize obesity and give everyone the tools to live the healthiest life possible.

IT’S SUSTAINABLE. This isn’t a short-term eating plan, where you cut out one food group for a few weeks until you’ve shed the pounds. It’s a long-term, sustainable lifestyle.
IT’S FREE. There are no special foods or gimmicks to buy into. In fact, fasting will save you money.
IT’S FLEXIBLE. Just skip snacks, skip one meal, or fast for an entire day. Customize a plan that works for you.

Chapter 3
Hormones and the Hunger Bully

Eve Mayer

I used to believe that hunger was a bully. It was bigger, stronger, and meaner than I was, and it was present in my home, at work, at my parents’ house, on the street . . . everywhere. But unlike childhood bullies, I couldn’t just walk away from it or report it to my teacher. I believed there was only one way to make the Hunger Bully go away.

Feed it!

The Hunger Bully insisted I consume mass quantities of unhealthy food in order to satisfy it, and over the years I ate so much that the amount required to feel full increased. I even had my stomach surgically reduced—three times!—and I still never got relief. The Hunger Bully always seemed to show up at inopportune moments, when my full attention should have been focused on what was happening in my life and not what I wanted to go into my mouth. My stomach grumbled loudly at my cousin’s graduation, my daughter’s kindergarten play, and a giant pitch meeting with a client who might help make me rich.

The Hunger Bully knocked on my brain hundreds of times each day, so I ate in excess, usually six to ten times, trying to make it quiet. Sometimes it wanted sugar, so I’d eat enough to give me a high and make the Hunger Bully calm down. That high got shorter over the years, so I binged on more and more sweets. Soon, my sugar high was replaced by pain from eating too much food and a deep, coma-like sleep that temporarily separated me from my feelings in a sweet release.

I hadn’t always thought of hunger as a bully. When I was young, I saw it as a natural part of life. But when I got fatter and hungrier in my adult years, I just accepted that I was worse at dealing with hunger than other people. I believed that my willpower was nonexistent, and my body and mind were somehow broken. This seemed odd since I could outwork most people in all other situations in my life. Why was I so powerless when it came to weight and health? It just didn’t make sense.

My daughter, Luna, was the one who finally gave me the answer. When Luna was in elementary school, she was the target of bullies. One kid in particular became an ever-present problem, and the bullying got so bad that school administrators had to intervene. Nothing changed, and the bully’s behavior continued to escalate. The school took a new approach, and we decided to do so at home as well. I began to work with Luna to see what behaviors she could change to lessen the chances of being bullied in the future.

When I talked with Luna and thought hard about the kind of kid she was, I realized one of her most notable characteristics was her desire to fit in—and her willingness to do anything to make it happen. That need to be accepted had caused her to take the bully’s taunts to heart. She obsessed about his comments, decided everything he said about her must be true, and, instead of fighting back, became powerless around him. She reasoned that if she could only give the bully what he wanted, the suffering would end. It wouldn’t, of course. A bully’s goal is to cause distress in order to gain power.

As Luna and I discussed her motivations and reactions to the bully, I realized I needed to learn this lesson, too. Hunger was my bully, and only my actions and reactions could give it power. My belief that my hunger would only stop if I gave it the food it wanted was ludicrous; if I just ignored it, like most bullies, it would disappear.

Let me tell you that hunger is temporary. It will not always go away if you give it enough food. Once I changed my way of eating and only saw the Hunger Bully four or five times a day, I began to simply notice it instead of feeling afraid of it. You don’t have to give in to it; simply recognize the constant hunger that comes from unhealthy, long-standing habits, and understand that, with fasting, you’re working to turn those around.

Today, when I fast I visualize the process of my body choosing to burn stored fat as energy. I even go so far as to place a Band-Aid on a fatty area of my body (like my thigh) and remind myself that when I fast, I am not depriving myself. Even if I get hungry, I am not starving. I am simply feasting on the fat stored in my inner right thigh, which I have saved up for this very day! You can do the same. If you have excess fat on your body, then you already have the energy you need to make it through a day, three days, a week, or more! Food is not required, and it’s the Hunger Bully that’s tricking you into thinking that it is.

HUNGER IS A HABIT: Hunger often arises around the times that you’d normally eat. When you reduce the frequency of when you eat, hunger soon goes away.
HUNGER IS FLEXIBLE: When you start to make better choices about the things you put in your mouth, hunger lessens over time.
HUNGER WILL GO AWAY: If you don’t eat when you become hungry, eventually that hunger will pass.
HUNGER IS NOT STARVATION: You can and will rely on the ample extra fat supplies in your body to sustain yourself while you fast.
HUNGER HAS DIFFERENT CAUSES: It can be a message from your brain, your body, or both.
HUNGER DOESN’T ALWAYS NEED TO BE FED: You don’t have to give the Hunger Bully food. If you notice it, you can give it water, other liquids, or ignore it entirely.
HUNGER DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A CAPITALIZED WORD: With strong mental practices and new habits, you can transform the Hunger Bully into just hunger.

Jason Fung

Probably the number one concern most people have before starting an intermittent fasting regimen is whether they’ll get hungry. The answer is yes, but it won’t be as bad as most of them believe. Hunger isn’t a problem if you manage, treat, and think about it differently than you have in the past. Hunger also doesn’t need to be something you fear. Being able to wrap your brain around it can be key to overcoming it.

Hunger and Hormones

Why do we eat? Because we’re hungry. What stops hunger? There are certain hormones that make us feel full. These are called satiety hormones, and they are very powerful. The stomach also contains stretch receptors. If the stomach is stretched beyond its capacity, it will signal satiety and tell the brain to make us stop eating.

People often imagine that we eat just because food is in front of us, like some mindless eating machines. That’s far from the truth. Imagine that you have just eaten a huge 20-ounce steak. It was so delicious that, even though you thought you wouldn’t be able to finish it, you did. Now you’re completely stuffed, and the mere thought of eating more nauseates you. If somebody set down another steak and offered to give it to you for free, could you eat it? Hardly.

Our body releases satiety hormones to tell us when to stop eating. And once these kick in, it’s extremely difficult to eat more. This is why there are restaurants that will offer you a free meal if you can eat a 40-ounce steak in one sitting. Trust me, they aren’t giving away many free meals.

The main satiety hormones are peptide YY, which responds primarily to protein, and cholecystokinin, which responds primarily to dietary fat. The final hormone associated with hunger is ghrelin, which is appropriately called the “hunger hormone.” I’ll get to ghrelin in a minute.

The reason that most people are hungry all the time is that they’ve been conditioned to believe that the only thing that matters as far as weight loss is concerned is to consume fewer calories than they expend. Governments throughout the Western world have pushed for a diet heavy on carbs—the very substances that lead to hunger. Think about it. Imagine you sat down to a carb-based, calorie-reduced breakfast consisting of two slices of white bread with jam. How does this meal impact satiety? Sure, it doesn’t allow for many “Calories In,” but does it control hunger? No. There is no protein to activate peptide YY. There is no fat to trigger cholecystokinin. There is no bulk to activate stomach stretch receptors. The starches in this meal (which are chains of glucose that are essentially mainlined into the bloodstream) increase insulin. We’re left hungry because we have not signaled to the body not to be hungry. At 10:30, we find ourselves scrounging around for a low-fat muffin that will, once again, leave us ravenous by noon. At lunchtime, we’ll look for a large bowl of low-fat pasta and sauce. Already, instead of eating three larger meals, we’re on target to eat six or seven smaller meals. By 2:30, we are starving again, so we grab a low-fat granola bar, and then eat rice for dinner, and then scrounge around the refrigerator for a nighttime snack, because we are so hungry.

But if you eat bacon and eggs for breakfast—a meal that’s high in dietary fat and protein—do you want to eat again at 10:30? No.

The problem becomes amplified if we are eating, as most people are, processed and refined carbohydrates. When you consume refined carbs, your blood sugar levels skyrocket, telling your pancreas to produce a surge of insulin. The job of insulin is to tell your body to store food energy as sugar (glycogen in the liver) or body fat. That huge spike in insulin immediately diverts most of the incoming food energy (calories) into storage forms (body fat). This leaves relatively little food energy for metabolism. Your muscles, liver, and brain are still crying out for glucose for energy, and you get hungry despite the fact that you’ve just eaten. It’s the worst kind of domino effect if you’re looking to maintain or lose weight.

In addition, because these processed foods have had most or all of their fiber removed, they don’t take up much space when they hit your belly; therefore they don’t activate the stomach’s stretch receptors. At snack time, most of your ingested calories of food energy have already been deposited into your fat cells, so it’s no wonder that you get hungry fast!

Hunger, Fasting, and Ghrelin

What happens to hunger during fasting? People always assume that hunger will increase until it becomes unmanageable. The truth always surprises people. Hunger tends to decrease during fasting. Why? There are two reasons, and the first has to do with the two means by which your body derives food energy.

During fasting, your body switches fuel sources. Instead of relying on blood glucose (derived from food) for energy, your body begins burning body fat (which is stored food energy). That switch is your body entering a state called ketosis. Once you begin ketosis, your body has access to hundreds of thousands of calories stored in the fat. You’re feeding it, giving it everything it needs, so why would it need to be hungry?

Ghrelin is the so-called hunger hormone, and—unlike peptide YY and cholecystokinin—it increases appetite. So, if you want to lose weight on a long-term basis, you need to tune down ghrelin. How do you do that? In one study subjects undertook a thirty-three-hour fast, and ghrelin was measured every twenty minutes.

Ghrelin levels are lowest at approximately 9:00 in the morning, the same time that studies of circadian rhythm indicate hunger is lowest. This is also generally the end of the longest period of the day during which you have not had food. This reinforces the fact that hunger is not simply a function of “not having eaten in a while.” At 9:00, you have not had food for about fourteen hours, yet you are the least hungry. The surge of counter-regulatory hormones that happens before we wake up also serves to deaden the appetite.

Therefore, again, if hunger is not simply a function of an empty stomach, and is instead a product of our hormones, then eating does not necessarily make you less hungry.

There are three distinct ghrelin peaks, corresponding to lunch, dinner, and the next day’s breakfast, suggesting that hunger can be a learned response. We are used to eating three meals per day, so we begin to get hungry just because it is “time to eat.” But if you don’t eat at those times, ghrelin does not continually increase. After the initial wave of hunger, it recedes, and it spontaneously decreases after approximately two hours without food. So, studies suggest that if you ignore your hunger, it will disappear.

If you stop and think about this, you’ve experienced this diminished ghrelin response before. Think of a time that you were so busy, you worked right through lunch. Maybe at about 1:00 you were hungry, but you just drank some tea, put your nose to the grindstone, and by 3:00 p.m., you were no longer hungry. In those two hours, you “ate” a meal of your own body fat. Your body relied on your stores of food energy to get you through that missed meal. And that’s completely natural. That’s precisely why we have body fat. You rode a wave of hunger, and it passed because your body took care of itself.

Your average ghrelin levels over twenty-four hours of fasting decrease, meaning that eating nothing over a long period of time makes you less hungry. This holds true on very extended fasts, too. A recent study showed that, after three days of a fast, ghrelin and hunger gradually decreased. Yes, you read that right. Test subjects were far less hungry when they didn’t eat for three days. This jibes perfectly with our clinical experience with clients who are on extended fasts.

Finally, it’s worthwhile to note that there’s a substantial difference between men and women as far as ghrelin is concerned. When men fast, the hunger hormone decreases only a small amount, but women show a huge decrease in ghrelin. Therefore, you’d expect women to benefit much more from fasting because their hunger drops more. I’ve found this to be true; many women have told me how a longer fast seemed to completely turn off their cravings.

In conclusion, most people who start fasting are shocked that their hunger was not just manageable, but actually decreased. They usually say something like, “I think my stomach shrank,” or “I just can’t eat that much anymore.” That’s perfect. Because if you are no longer as hungry, you are now working with your body to lose weight instead of constantly fighting your body. Intermittent and extended fasting, unlike caloric restriction diets, helps to fix the main problem of weight gain: hunger. Ghrelin, the main hormonal cause of hunger, decreases with fasting, making hunger a manageable problem. In fact, it may not be an issue at all. So, get ready and never fear; you will learn to beat the Hunger Bully just as soon as you start fasting. And it will be much, much easier than you think.

Megan Ramos

Have you ever eaten a few pieces of garlic bread, a bowl of pasta, and a bowl of ice cream and still felt hungry? Have you come home from dinner and then wolfed down a bag of popcorn in secret to fill yourself up before bed? You’re not alone. I hear these stories from people every day, and I have some of my own. Your mind tells you that you’re full because you have to undo the top notch on your belt, but your stomach is still complaining it’s empty. These people feel helpless and out of control, bingeing on foods they know won’t fill them up.

Then there are the people who are the complete opposite. These are the individuals who eat half a sandwich or a small salad at lunchtime and then declare themselves completely stuffed. And they’re not trying to be modest! They are full, and they won’t eat more, because it is uncomfortable for them to do so.

Many of my clients have undergone bariatric surgery. Their appetites were so far out of control that they felt they needed to be cut open to regulate their bodies. Despite all the promises doctors make that this surgery will help patients lose weight and improve their health, it almost always fails. Initially, most people lose some weight, but after several months the pounds creep back on. Worse, they feel that their appetite is just as out of control as it has ever been. “How can this be?” they ask despairingly. “I’ve had my stomach physically stapled to make it smaller!”

This is an example of how much we misunderstand the idea of hunger. You don’t feel famished because your stomach is so big you can’t fill it up. Hunger is also not about your self-control. You can’t will yourself not to be hungry. You cannot decide to be less hungry. You are hungry or you are not. Your appetite is hormonally driven, so hormones are what we need to fix. Not surgically rewiring our intestines. Not counting calories. If you don’t regulate your appetite on a hormonal level, you’ll never regain control, no matter how small your stomach is. Weight loss, at its core, is not about controlling calories, it’s about controlling hunger.

Hunger Is a Habit

I knew I had a problem with hunger when I nearly attacked a woman on a plane for not eating the entire bag of mini pretzels the flight attendant had just given her. I’d devoured my own little bag in less than sixty seconds, and I couldn’t figure out how this lady could eat two pretzels and leave the rest sitting there. Confusion, anger, frustration—and most of all, hunger—flooded my body for the rest of the flight, and when the plane landed and I deboarded, I started to cry. I felt pathetic. But there was more to it than that. The clinical, rational part of my brain had gone into overdrive.

What was going on? I was a successful medical researcher, yet I was flipping out over a bag of free pretzels. I’d been disciplined in every other aspect of my life, and there was no reason why I couldn’t also be that way about food. Something had to be seriously wrong, and it wasn’t lack of willpower or discipline. It wasn’t a character flaw. My hunger was a conditioned response. Simply put, it was a bad habit.

If we consistently eat breakfast every single morning at 7:00, lunch at 12:00, and dinner at 6:00 p.m., then we learn to be hungry at those times. Even if we ate a huge meal at lunch, and would not otherwise be hungry at dinnertime, we may still become “hungry” because it is 6:00 p.m. and “time to eat dinner.” Young children, who have not yet developed these habits, often refuse food at mealtimes, whereas older children learn these habits and will eat despite not being naturally hungry.

These days, we aren’t conditioned to eat just three times per day. Most of us are now snacking or having a meal six or more times per day. At a recent conference I went to, for example, attendees were fed a full breakfast. At 10:30, a midmorning snack was provided, and most of the physician audience nibbled on something. In offices around North America, somebody will bring muffins or bagels to the midmorning or midafternoon meeting. Let’s think about this. We just ate. Why do we need to eat again? There is no reason at all. We are building a habit of continually eating, despite the fact that we cannot possibly all be hungry.

Finally, hunger is also a highly suggestible state. That is, we may not be hungry one second, but when we smell hot, delicious, cheesy pizza while walking through the mall food court, we may become quite ravenous. That is a natural stimulus. For me, hearing that little bag of mini pretzels opening was like ringing a dinner bell. I wasn’t hungry, but once I thought about food, I couldn’t stop dwelling on it. It was a reflex and had nothing to do with discipline or strength of character.

So, the question is: How to combat this? Fasting offers a unique solution. Randomly skipping meals and varying the eating intervals helps break our current habit of feeding three to six times a day. Rather than being hungry just because it is time to eat, we become hungry only when we are really and truly famished. Similarly, by not eating throughout the entire day, we can break ingrained associations between food and a stimulus—watching TV, going to the movies, taking a long car ride, going to your child’s sports practice, and so on. For me, being on an airplane was a stimulus—the idea of those little bags of pretzels roused my hunger. By the time the flight attendant came around to serve me, I was already drooling.

Fasting can break all these conditioned responses. If you are not accustomed to eating every two hours, then you will not start salivating like Pavlov’s dog every two hours. If we form habits to eat every two hours, then it is no wonder we find it increasingly difficult to resist all the fast-food restaurants while walking around. We are bombarded daily with images of food, references to food, and food stores. The combination of the convenience and availability of food and our ingrained Pavlovian response is deadly for our health.

But going cold turkey is not the most successful method of breaking habits. Research and my clinical experience suggest that a more effective strategy is to replace an unhealthy habit with another, less harmful one. For example, suppose you have a habit of munching on chips or popcorn while watching TV. Simply quitting will make you feel that something is missing. Instead, replace that fattening snack with a cup of herbal or green tea. Yes, you will find this unsatisfying at first, but you will feel a lot less like something is “missing.” I discovered over time that I really love jasmine green tea, and eventually I used that to fill my need to consume something. This is the same reason that smokers trying to quit usually chew gum. During fasting, instead of completely skipping lunch (or breakfast), drink a cup of coffee. Try replacing dinner with a bowl of homemade bone broth. Switching habits instead of going cold turkey will be easier in the long run.

Social influences also play a large role in eating habits. When we get together with friends, it is often over a meal, coffee, or a cocktail. This is normal, natural, and part of human culture worldwide. Fighting it is clearly not a winning strategy. Completely avoiding social situations and friends is not healthy, either. What to do? Don’t try to fight it. As I’ll show you in chapter 20, you can fit the fasting into your schedule.

The day I knew I was healed hormonally from hunger had nothing to do with blood test results, body composition analysis, or dress size. My best friend—who was closer to a sister really—nearly died during labor. While she was recovering and her newborn boy was being monitored in the neonatal ICU, I went to see her, distraught. When I entered the hospital, I had an intense desire for jasmine green tea, so I went to the hospital cafeteria.

As I drank my tea, I realized I was surrounded by all my old comfort foods. There were pretzels, potato chips, bagels, and French fries all around me. But all I wanted was my tea. I didn’t care for those other foods nor did I care about the people stuffing their faces at the next table. It had been such a long and hard battle, but I won. I had changed a destructive habit (eating junk foods) to an innocuous one (drinking green tea).

Fasting has given me back control over my body. I can’t even describe how much that empowers me. Part of me is still sad from time to time that I had to struggle with this in the first place. Part of me is angry at the world for the state of our entire food system. What calms me down is knowing that there is something I can do about it, and that I can teach others how to do this and succeed, too.

A young doctor I know struggled with obesity for many years but eventually lost some weight with a low-carbohydrate diet. He wasn’t at his ideal weight, but he felt happy enough that he was experiencing some success. Unfortunately, though, he still struggled to avoid unhealthy foods.

After spending the week with me and seeing all the ways fasting had benefited my clients, he was motivated to try a seven-day fast, which meant—you got it—not eating for a full week. He started his fast without much difficulty, but he was nervous knowing his problem with hunger. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Just wait.” When I followed up with him after his fast was over, he said to me, smiling, “For the first time in my life I turned down food because I just didn’t want it. It wasn’t that I was abstaining because I was fasting. I just really wasn’t hungry. My appetite decreased! Megan, I’ve never turned down food like that before.”

Every day I see clients like this. Clients come into my office and cry because for the first time in years they feel in control of their bodies. I can see the change in how they carry themselves. They stand taller, with their chests more upright. They hold their head higher. Even their eyes seem clearer. Witnessing this kind of change is the best part of my day.

Eat only at the table. No eating at your desk. No eating in the car. No eating on the couch. No eating in bed. No eating during class. No eating at the movies or at a sporting event.
If you’re tempted to eat at a certain time of day, like 3:30 p.m. because you always snack at 3:30, set an alarm for that time. When the alarm goes off, drink a glass of water or a cup of tea instead of eating. Chances are, you’ll feel full.
When you’re on a plane, put on headphones when the flight attendant walks by and decline offers of snacks.

Chapter 4
Forget Calorie Restriction

Eve Mayer

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone repeat some version of, “Put the fork down, honey, and you’ll lose that weight!”

If you’re like me, you’ve tried to eat less a thousand times, and each and every time you’ve failed. I’ve dabbled in the art of dieting since I was eight, when I first started worrying about getting chunky, and pretty much all these efforts involved some version of cutting calories.

Calories in versus calories out.
Eating less or eating smaller meals more often.
The energy balance equation.
Portion control.
In scientific terms, the Law of Thermodynamics.

My first real diet was probably the most ridiculous version of calorie restriction you can imagine. When I was in my early teens, I’d put on an extra fifteen pounds. After carefully considering what food always filled me up, I proudly designed a diet around it. Ladies and gentlemen, my creation was called “the Candy Bar Diet.”

I skipped breakfast and lunch, and at the dinner table every night, I tricked my mom by pushing food around on my plate and eating a bite or two when I wasn’t talking. At school in the afternoon, when my stomach had really started rumbling, I’d creep into the stairwell where the vending machine stood, and I’d secretly purchase one Kit Kat. I’d peel back the paper from the Kit Kat and make my delicious “meal” last twenty minutes by biting off the outside chocolate and pulling apart each of the individual layers one by one to enjoy them separately. I knew that if I could eat 1,000 calories a day, I would lose weight. A Kit Kat only contained 218 calories, so I would be skinny in no time!

The Kit Kat diet lasted one week, and I lost six pounds. After one week of feeling like crud and being hungry all the time, I officially gave it up, and I went back to eating as I had before. I gained nine pounds in the following two weeks.

The idea of going on a diet always started the same way for me. I’d look down at my rolls of belly fat or feel my thighs rubbing against each other, and I’d think about the promise of a new life. I’d plan for a day or two, then hit the ground running. Over the years, I tried SlimFast, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, the Cabbage Soup Diet, and any number of juice cleanses. I found diets in magazines, featuring glossy photos of portion-controlled plates, I picked up diets designed by spas and health organizations, and I followed a diet program created by my doctor. I’ve been on at least fifty diets that have restricted how many calories I eat, and I’ve counted fat, sodium, water, and macros, and almost any other nutrient there is. I’ve eaten 200, 600, 800, 1,200, or 1,800 calories a day, and I’ve always lost weight at first. Yet I’ve always felt grumpy, tired, angry, frustrated, distracted, and miserable doing it.

The less I consumed, the hungrier I felt, and the more times I failed to lose weight, the more I reinforced the belief that I was a failure. Feeling hopeless, I’d eat whatever I wanted when I was off my diet, and not only did I gain the weight back, but I added a few extra pounds for good measure. I call this my “Big, Fat Circle of Despair” because it’s a dangerous ride I can never safely escape from, and the only time I felt happy is in the day or two before I started a new diet.

I didn’t know it a few years ago, before I started fasting, but calorie restriction is a lie. Through all the miserable days of my many failed diets, I was constantly hungry and unable to break free from obesity, yet I had no idea why.

Megan Ramos

Why? Because the notion of calories is overly simplistic, and the theory behind calorie restriction is completely wrong. Let me break it down for you.

Calories and Metabolism

The famous “Calories In, Calories Out” (CICO) hypothesis of obesity—more formally called the Energy Balance Equation—comes down to a simple formula: Fat Accumulation = Calories In—Calories Out. We spend most of our time obsessing over “Calories In” without giving much consideration to “Calories Out,” other than exercise. The reason most people don’t think of calorie expenditure in more complex terms is that it’s tough to wrap your brain around your body’s basal metabolic rate, or BMR. As we discussed previously, BMR is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns just to stay alive. BMR does not include exercise; it’s solely the energy required by your organs to function. BMR is hard to measure, so most “experts” assume it doesn’t change.

This is completely untrue. BMR can go up or down by 50 percent depending on your caloric intake, as well as other factors like breathing and total energy expenditure.

That’s why calorie-restriction diets stop working. When you cut calories, your basal metabolic rate begins to slow down. You’ve reduced your calories in, but in response, your body has reduced “Calories Out.” Your organ systems start making budgetary energy cuts across the board—a little bit from your reproductive system, a little bit from your respiratory system, a little bit from your cognitive function—and soon you’re expending fewer calories. For example, if you eat 500 fewer calories, but your body burns 500 fewer calories, you will not lose body fat. This is the dirty little secret of calorie-restriction diets.

I don’t know a single person who hasn’t tried one or more of these diets, and most, if not all, have lost weight initially, then plateaued. Like Eve, they feel hungrier with each passing day, and, because their bodies are burning fewer calories, they get cold and tired, too. When their metabolic rate hits rock bottom, these people redouble their efforts, which works, but only for a short period of time. Then they give up, convinced their body is broken, and go back to their old way of eating. Within a few weeks they weigh more than before they started. A few months or a year after that, they go on a different diet, but it’s another version of caloric restriction, and it entirely ignores the idea of BMR.

Sound familiar?

Let me show you a better way to think about calories.

Calories Differ

When I meet with a new client, I start by asking them: What are five non-junk foods you should cut out of your diet to lose weight? They generally respond by naming bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and corn. I then explain that, while these foods are definitely fattening, they’re also extremely low in fat and calories. You read that right: the foods that can make you gain weight are also low in calories.

Most of my clients initially seem shocked, but I don’t explain anything to them right away. Instead, I let it sink in that much of the nutritional information they’ve heard for years is completely wrong. Then I ask them two further questions:

Which is more likely to make you gain weight: a can of soda or a handful of raw almonds?

Without fail, my clients suddenly perk up because they feel they can confidently answer. Of course, they choose “soda.” Then, I ask:

Is a handful of raw almonds good or bad for weight loss?

Almost every person says that the answer is “good.”

This is when I go in for the kill!

A can of soda is 160 calories, and it’s likely to cause weight gain. But a handful of raw almonds is also 160 calories, and it’s likely to lead to weight loss. How can the same number of calories do two totally different things? If calories differ so much, how do they affect weight gain or loss? And, if it doesn’t really matter what you eat, does it follow that a person can live on soda—or, if you’re Eve, Kit Kats—and still lose weight?

Of course not. The way our bodies process food is more complex than that.

Our body’s hormonal response to two food items containing equal calories is measurably different depending on the composition of the food. The sugar in a soda will spike your blood sugar levels and cause your pancreas to produce huge amounts of insulin. The nutrients in the almonds—which include protein and fat—will not. Once almonds are digested, your body experiences only a small increase in its blood glucose levels.

Therefore, it goes to figure that a calorie is a calorie, just like a dog is a dog, but there are many different breeds of dogs. Your body’s hormonal and metabolic responses to the soda and almonds are completely different, and therefore the fattening effects of those foods differ as well. In addition, every single bodily function—from blood sugar control to body temperature—is regulated by a network of hormonal systems. The “Calories In, Calories Out” hypothesis of obesity asks us to assume that fat cells are unregulated. Why would our hormones control everything in our body but fat cells? This thinking doesn’t make any sense.

So, if calories don’t matter, how do we gain weight? The answer to this question shouldn’t be a surprise to any doctor who has ever prescribed insulin to a patient with type 2 diabetes. As soon as the person starts taking insulin, they gain weight, and they put on more and more each time their dose increases. It doesn’t matter if they eat less or move more; they’ll gain weight regardless.

Therefore, the answer to weight regulation lies in insulin.

How Fasting Is Different

The common dietary advice to avoid fat and eat small meals to boost your metabolism did nothing to control your hunger. For years you’ve been told that you lack the willpower to eat less, and that being overweight is your fault. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s calorie-restriction diets that cause your metabolism to slow down to a crawl.

Fasting does just the opposite. The hormone noradrenaline, which is produced during a period of fasting, boosts metabolic rates. As you fast more and regularly over time, metabolic rates go up, and more weight loss is achieved.

For example, we worked with a forty-seven-year-old woman who’d tried every popular diet in the United States, yet ended up having a BMR of 487 cal/day.* This is extremely low. A 135-pound, 5-foot, 5-inch forty-seven-year-old woman should have a BMR of around 1,200. After six months of intermittent fasting and following a low-carb, high-fat diet, this client was able to raise her BMR to about 800. A year later, it went up to around 1,200. She didn’t start to lose weight until six months of following this new lifestyle, but she understood the science and knew fasting and her new diet were her solution. She was patient, and I’m so glad she was! Close to the eight-to-twelve-month mark she really started to lose weight, and, as of this date, she’s down sixty pounds. She never could have done that on a calorie-reduction diet!

Jason Fung

As I argued in my book The Obesity Code, the obsessive fixation on calories is incorrect. Let’s think about this. Up until the 1970s, there was little obesity, yet people had virtually no idea how many calories they ate. They also didn’t pay attention to how many calories they burned. Exercise was not something you did for fun, yet people all around the world were far healthier and slimmer than they are today. If the majority of the world’s people were able to avoid obesity without counting calories, then how is counting calories so fundamental to weight stability today? Our society wasn’t grossly overweight for over five thousand years, but since 1980, we can’t live without calorie and step counters? It doesn’t make sense.

There have been two main changes to the American diet since the 1970s. First, we were advised to lower the fat in our diets and increase the amount of carbohydrates we consume. This directive to eat more bread and pasta turned out not to be particularly slimming. But there’s also another problem that has largely flown under the radar: the increase in meal frequency.

Our Culture of Overconsumption

Before the 1980s, people typically ate three times per day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you were not hungry, then it was perfectly acceptable to skip a meal. By 2004, the number of meals per day had increased closer to six—almost double. Now, snacking was not just an indulgence, it was encouraged as a healthy behavior. Meal skipping was heavily frowned upon. What kind of strange world was this, where you need to eat constantly to lose weight?

Doctors, dieticians, and magazines told people to never, ever skip a meal, warning of dire consequences. But what happens when you don’t eat that is so bad? Let’s see. If you don’t eat, your body burns stored body fat in order to get the energy it needs. That’s all. We store fat so that we can use it, and if we don’t eat, we use the body fat.

Retail and culture—societal, familial, and business—have mushroomed around this habit of overconsumption. Today, there are dozens of eating opportunities in a single day, including breakfast, midmorning meetings where somebody orders muffins and bagels, lunch, midafternoon coffee breaks, dinner, after-dinner drinks (with snacks), and then time to curl up in front of the TV with some more snacks.

This is a relatively new phenomenon and is the product of a culture where cheap, low-quality food products are mass produced. If you think about it, doesn’t it seem strange that consuming is the norm, and abstaining from food is something that takes effort? Consider what it would take to eat a doughnut in the past. If you lived on a farm in nineteenth-century America, you would need to plant some wheat, raise some cows to produce milk, and buy some sugar. Six months later, you could harvest the wheat, grind it into flour, mix it together with your milk and sugar, then spend a few more hours cooking it in order to enjoy your tasty treat. With all the work involved, you probably wouldn’t bother, right?

Not these days. There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts at every highway exit. There’s even a doughnut shop in the hospital where I work.

What about the 1970s, before the obesity epidemic? It was much easier to get a doughnut than it was in the 1800s, but it was still not socially acceptable. If you asked for an after-school snack, your mom would usually say, “No, you’ll ruin your dinner.” If you wanted a bedtime snack, she said, “No, you should have eaten more at dinner.” If you brought a muffin to your midafternoon meeting at work, your colleagues would look at you like you were rude or crazy. If you were a naughty child and sent to bed without dinner, nobody worried that missing a single meal would irrevocably ruin your health. Dieticians, doctors, and all other nutritional professionals were quite clear that we should eat three square meals a day.

All that’s changed.

Furthermore, the body of people who used to understand and support fasting has moved to the fringe. In the past, if you were to fast, you would do it within a community of like-minded people. For example, if you were Catholic, during Lent, your priest would discuss fasting, and your family and friends at church would fast with you. There wouldn’t be plates of food on every conference-room table or snack machines in every hall, and you would not be expected to cook because nobody was eating. The same applies to Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and others during their particular periods of fasting.

Under these conditions, fasting was not so difficult. Sure, you might have been hungry, but knowing that everybody else was feeling the same was comforting. There were no foods to tempt you to “cheat,” and while you’d understand that fasting was uncomfortable, that was the point of Lent. It was something you did naturally at that time of the year. Sometimes you feast, and sometimes you fast.

Fast-forward to the present day. Snacking is actively encouraged as healthy, even as we groan under the weight of an obesity crisis. If we don’t give our children snacks, people practically consider that child abuse. It is socially acceptable to eat in your car, at your desk, while walking, while talking on the phone, in the movie theater. We’ve put cup holders into our cars to make eating there easier. Doctors, nutritionists, and dieticians will tell you to make sure you eat constantly throughout the day or else you’ll go into “starvation mode,” and they argue that skipping meals will make you fat.

We often think that we’re in control of the decisions we make, but behavioral psychology suggests that motivation comes, in larger part, from societal influences. The Nobel Prize–winning work of Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler in behavioral economics showed that humans are, as Dan Ariely puts it, predictably irrational.

Consider the example of organ donation rates.

In Denmark there is about a 4 percent rate of organ donation. In neighboring Sweden, that rate is 89 percent. The Danes and Swedes are very much similar in almost all respects, so why the huge discrepancy? The answer lies in the default state. In Denmark, you check the box if you would like to opt into the organ donor program. In Sweden, you check the box if you would like to opt out of the organ donor program. The difference does not lie in the people or their values.

Take this example, too. Recently I signed up for a free trial of Amazon Prime and was automatically enrolled. Long after it ceased to be beneficial for me, I’m still a member. This phenomenon, of course, is well known. If a problem is too complex or overwhelming, then inertia takes over. When we don’t know what to do, we simply take the choice that’s already been made for us.

So, how is weight loss automatic in the 1970s and weight gain automatic in the 2000s? The problem is not the people; the problem is the system or default. The biggest issue is that we see obesity as a people problem instead of a system problem. For example, consider the logic that would suggest that if more people are obese today than in the 1970s, then people today have less willpower. Does that even make any sense? This is what leads to fat-shaming.

The major difference between the 1970s and today is that the default today is “eating,” while the default in the 1970s was “not eating.” This, just like the organ donation issue, has overwhelming implications. Luckily, it doesn’t take any willpower to change this model of behavior. It is a matter of fixing the default. You need to change your environment, which is a lot easier than changing yourself. If you set the default to “not eating,” then it takes willpower to eat.

Let’s look at an example of a midafternoon meeting. You’re bored and not particularly hungry, but you start to think about a delicious chocolate chip cookie. Do you suddenly and rudely leave the meeting, get into your car, drive to the local bakery, and buy a cookie? Do you walk back into the meeting, with crumbs on your shirt, as your colleagues stare in silent, horrified disapproval? Of course you wouldn’t do this. But what if the office manager had ordered a plate of cookies and coffee for the meeting? Perhaps 90 percent of us would mindlessly eat that cookie placed temptingly in the room. The difference between you eating and not eating? Just as with the Danish and Swedish donation rates, it is the default state. You can go get a snack anytime you want, but it’s mandatory to have it sitting in front of you during meetings. If you fix the default, then weight loss will become automatic. Intermittent fasting, of course, sets the default to “not eating” and helps people lose weight. “Not eating” becomes the new “eating.”

I believe there’s a large degree of comfort in changing our perspective about the amount and kinds of foods we eat—and when and how often we consume them. If we look at our environment differently, recognizing that eating all the time is not normal, it takes a lot of the pressure and choice out of high-stress food environments. The burden of constantly needing to eat is gone. The anxiety about continuously shopping and stopping to snack is absent. Hunger is no longer an imposition; it’s a natural part of our body chemistry. At first, fasting may feel challenging, but it ultimately liberates your body, your mind, and your lifestyle.

Chapter 5
A Path to Healthier Eating

Eve Mayer

One of the surest ways to succeed with fasting is to have a clear picture of what you’re planning to consume. That’s right. Weight loss while you’re fasting is as much about what you are eating as what you aren’t.

Interestingly, this idea would seem to fly in the face of some research. There are now numerous medical studies that show that fasting works even when a person doesn’t change their diet. This research says that fasting on its own can help to lower blood sugar levels and assist in weight loss—regardless of what you eat. I’ve met a few people who are proof of this, including Sally, a woman in her late twenties who uses intermittent fasting to keep her weight steady. She also does cardio exercise and strength training three times a week. Sally is in great shape and has always consumed anything she wanted, including doughnuts, cake, sweet potatoes, steak, and fried chicken. However, Sally explained to me that she eats what she likes but does so very strategically, often only eating once or twice a day and never after 8:00 p.m.

I also spoke with a sixty-four-year-old gentleman who has repeatedly tried to cut down his sugar intake—especially ice cream and cookies—and found it impossible. However, Jack is able to say no to most sweets when he does intermittent fasting, finding it easier to abstain entirely from snacks than to pass on sweets when he is eating. Jack began skipping breakfast and eating twice daily, at noon and 7:00 p.m., and, in two months, he dropped twenty-five pounds and went off his blood pressure medicine.

So, if it’s been proved that fasting without changing what you eat can lead to success, then why are we going to talk about food? Because most of the people I meet aren’t like Jack and Sally. Most of the individuals I’ve come across have struggled with poor food choices most of their lives, and while fasting alone can provide some success for them, eating better can lead to better health outcomes. Indeed, combining a healthier diet with fasting is likely to give most people greater success that lasts longer.

This has been the case for me. Gone are my days of endless gumbo and beignets. I stay away from carbs 90 percent of the time these days and eat mostly protein or fats in the form of avocados, cheese, meat, and seafood, plus green vegetables and occasionally berries. The other 10 percent of the time I allow myself to eat whatever I want, including cake, breaded or fried foods, chocolate, fruit, and grains. When I stick to a high-and-healthy-fat and low-carb way of eating 90 percent of the time, I can count on my weight to either decrease or stay steady. My body also feels strong, and I rarely get headaches or sinus infections, which I used to experience frequently when my diet was poor. I tend to feel hungry four or five times a day, which is wonderful because, for most of my life, I felt starving almost every minute of every day. Upping my intake of high-fat foods has also helped me to stay fuller longer.

Now is the time for you to decide what foods fill you up and create the best chance of health in your body. Megan will offer you clear, easy-to-follow advice about how low-carb/healthy-fat options can make a fasting lifestyle easier for you. But you will have to choose and test these foods for yourself, paying attention to what is best for you.

Megan Ramos

The science is clear: the inability to lose weight, and all the health complaints that may surround it—including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, stroke, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and more—signal a hormonal instability. The foods you choose to eat may raise your blood sugar and insulin levels, inhibiting fat-burning and suppressing your body’s ability to signal that it’s full. Fasting is going to help with these problems, but, like Eve said, what you put on your plate is often just as important as what and when you don’t.

While we won’t offer a set eating plan or step-by-step diet in this chapter, Jason, Eve, and I—as well as many doctors and researchers—are strongly of the opinion that sticking to a low-carb diet that’s high in healthy fats will help keep you in the fasting lane. How often you need to follow it is up to you, and everyone is different. Eve maintains this diet 90 percent of the time. Other clients of mine can’t go near an unprocessed carb—ever. Here, we’ll simply paint the broad brushstrokes, giving you an overview of the benefits of a low-carb, healthy-fat lifestyle and offering a few categories of foods from which to choose.

What Is Low-Carb?

Carbohydrates are compounds consisting of sugar, starch, and fiber. Found in all kinds of foods—from potatoes to bread to rice to soda—they can be an abundant source of energy for the human body. Contrary to the food pyramid, however, they are not a necessary source. In the absence of them, our bodies will convert protein into glucose for the very few of its parts that may need it.

There are two types of carbs: refined and unrefined carbs. Refined carbs contain two sugar molecules, and they have been stripped of bran, fiber, and nutrients. These include pasta and pure sugar, and they cause a blood sugar spike. When they hit your stomach, the pancreas increases insulin secretion so that they can be converted quickly to glucose.

Unrefined carbohydrates—found in whole grains, beans, potatoes, and more—are made up of longer sugar chains. The body burns them more slowly than it does refined carbs, but they still cause the pancreas to secrete a surge of insulin. They still cause blood sugar to rise.

As we’ve previously discussed, persistent high glucose levels can lead to type 2 diabetes, as well as increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and more. Since your body quickly burns the glucose that carbs help produce, it has less of a chance to enter fat-burning mode. With carbs, a sudden rise in blood sugar leads to an equally sudden drop, so you’re hungry. You’re tempted to eat more. You do eat more, and more frequently. You get fat.

But what exactly is low-carb? What amount should a person aim for? While there’s no set definition, and every diet plan will tell you something different, a liberal low-carb diet is generally considered to consist of 50 to 100 grams of carbohydrates a day. A moderate low-carb diet is between 21 and 50 grams a day, while a strict, ketogenic diet is 20 grams or less a day. In the Western world, men typically eat about 200 to 330 grams of carbs a day, while women eat around 180 to 230 grams daily. These numbers truly illustrate how profound our culture of excess carb consumption is, and they demonstrate the fact that most people need to cut down their carbs.

We don’t recommend counting carbs obsessively, though. Not only is it time-consuming, it also causes you to focus on numbers rather than the quality of the food you’re eating. A low-carb diet is not one that includes three Milky Way bars a day (40 grams of carbs each), with no other carbohydrate source. Simply avoid the foods on the following list, focusing instead on dairy foods, fish and seafood, poultry, red meat, vegetables that grow above ground, and nuts. Together, these will give you a healthy serving of carbs without causing you to go overboard.

Candy: 70 grams of carbs*
Doughnuts: 49 grams

White bread: 46 grams
Cooked pasta: 29 grams

Cooked rice: 28 grams

Potatoes: 15 grams

Beans: It’s a surprise to many people, but beans are high in carbs, so it’s best to avoid them on a low-carb diet unless you are a vegetarian or vegan.
Fruit: Berries like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries are typically fine to eat about once a day. Avoid other fruits. Bananas, mangoes, and oranges may be full of vitamins, but they’re high in carbs, which raise your blood sugar.

*

The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

To fully understand the impact of carbs on your blood sugar, you’ll need to understand two dietary terms: glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL). GI is a measure of how quickly 50 grams of a food containing carbohydrates is digested and begins to impact your blood sugar levels. Every food is scored, 1 to 100, on the glycemic index, with the lower number indicating foods that don’t cause a spike in blood sugar and the higher numbers being those that do. (To determine the GI index of a food, simply search online. The value is rarely on a food label.) Not surprisingly, many carb-rich foods score high on the glycemic index.

What matters in terms of blood sugar levels, though, is not just the GI value of the food, but also how much of it you eat. For some foods, 50 grams is far more than a typical serving, and for others, it is less. Taken together, the GI value and the portion are called the glycemic load (GL), which indicates how high your insulin levels will rise and how long they’ll stay that way. The way to calculate that number is:

GL = (GI × grams of carbohydrate) divided by 100.

For example, an apple has a GI of 38 and contains 13 grams of carbohydrates, so its GL = (38 x 13)/100 = 5. A Snickers has a GI of 55 and contains 64 grams of carbs, so its GL = (55 x 64)/100 = 35. I’m sure you didn’t need the GL value to tell you this, but a Snickers is going to spike your blood sugar, then cause it to crash a lot faster than an apple will.

Staying on a low-GL diet is not just about losing weight, either. Carbs like oatmeal and barley—which have a GL value under 20—will help reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.

Carrots
Nuts
Meats and seafood
Berries
Plain yogurt
Cheese

The Importance of Fats

When I was growing up, dietary fat was demonized. Most people believed that foods containing high amounts of fat made you gain weight, so butter, cheese, oil, eggs, red meat, and anything greasy was off-limits if you cared anything about your health. Fats became enemy #1, due, in part, to a misunderstanding about the role fat plays in cardiovascular health. People believed that—across the board—fat raises your cholesterol levels. Cholesterol clogs your arteries. Clogged arteries lead to heart attacks. Heart attacks kill.

This has been the prevailing wisdom since the 1960s, and it is just plain wrong.

There are two types of fat: saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fats, which are fats that are solid at room temperature, can be found in animal meat, cheeses, and butter. Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, and they include oils like avocado, canola, and olive oil. Saturated fats elevate low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, so people used to fear that this would lead to clogged arteries, then to heart disease. But a 2005 study that followed 235 women with established heart disease over three years found that there was no relationship between fat intake and the increase of arterial blockages. In fact, the women eating the most saturated fat saw a regression in their blockages over the women who ate less fat!

This study wasn’t alone in showing that saturated fats aren’t bad for you. A 2010 Japanese study followed 58,543 men and women over 14.1 years and discovered that eating more saturated fat helped protect test subjects against heart attack and stroke. We’ve been getting the wrong information for years! All kinds of fats—including saturated fats—are actually good for you.

Where can you find the best sources of fats? I recommend that you choose a diverse range of foods from the following categories:

MEAT: Choose beef, pork, lamb, game, or poultry. You can eat the fat on the meat and skin on the chicken. Try to choose grass-fed meat, as it contains fewer hormones.
FISH AND SEAFOOD: Any kind, but especially salmon, mackerel, sardines, and herring because they contain so many omega-3 fatty acids.
EGGS: Cook them however you like.
FATS FOR COOKING: Coconut, olive oil, butter, ghee (clarified butter used in Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Indian cuisine), avocado oil, and beef tallow are all healthy options.
DAIRY: Choose full-fat dairy, yogurt, and unprocessed cheeses.
NUTS: Macadamia, pine, Brazil, walnuts, and almonds. Avoid peanuts and cashews.
FRUITS: Olives and avocados. Eat berries no more than once a day.

Ketosis and Fasting

Ketosis is a state when the body stops burning glucose and starts burning fat. It is a perfectly normal metabolic process that happens during fasting after approximately twenty-four hours without food. Ketones cross the blood-brain barrier and give the brain much of the energy it needs to function. Ketones are never used by any other organ in the body, or by the muscles, but to the brain, they’re essential during fasting.

There has been some confusion between ketosis and fat adaption, so allow me to clear that up. Fat adaption is a process that happens after at least four weeks of ketosis. It’s the end of your period of transition into a low-carb diet. During fat adaption, your body is fully acclimated to burning only fat. You no longer crave carbs, and you tend to get fuller faster and stay that way longer. When you eat carbs, they don’t spike your blood sugar the way they used to, and blood sugar returns to a normal state more quickly. Your body may even become fat adapted without your even knowing it.

Other Diet Considerations

A good diet while fasting is all about balance. A person shouldn’t intentionally add a fat to a meal, thinking it won’t matter. For example, don’t put extra butter on your pork chop just because you know that eating fat can be healthy. Yes, the fat in the pork is good, as is the fat in the butter, but your body doesn’t need the extra. Your body won’t burn extra fat simply because it exists.

Vegetables should also be part of your meals. Add them liberally and try a variety. Vegetables that grow above the ground, including cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, bok choy, spinach, asparagus, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, cucumber, onions, peppers, and leafy greens (including lettuce) are full of vitamins and minerals your body needs. They’re also super-low in carbs. Eat avocados and olives liberally—they’re loaded with healthy fats—but consume berries no more than once a day, when you have a craving for fruit.

Stay away from processed sugar and processed foods. I can’t say this enough. No candy, cookies, chips, or sodas. If you look at packaging and see that something has dozens of ingredients in it, don’t eat it. Choose fresh, whole ingredients whenever possible, and drink plenty of water whenever you’re thirsty. We often mistake thirst for hunger, so keep water on hand at all times; staying hydrated will help keep hunger pangs away.

Chapter 6
Prepare to Think Differently About Food

Eve Mayer

Globs of warm, crystallized sugar spread over my tongue like a blanket as I crunched the pecan bits. My eyes rolled back in my head with a pleasure so pure it could rival finding a pile of Christmas presents under the tree.

I was seven years old, and I was licking the spoon from the pot from my mom’s pralines.

A praline is one of Louisiana’s most famous sweets, made of sugar, evaporated milk, butter, pecans, and a few secret ingredients. You stir this sweet nectar of the Cajun gods in a heavy pot until it gets to the precise temperature and emits a fragrance beyond your wildest candy land dreams. My mom’s pralines were so good that she started a candy company, and many nights after my parents got home from work and I’d completed my homework, we’d sit around the table together bagging and labeling pralines for sale and packaging them to be shipped.

These nights together—with pralines crumbling on the table and me eating the broken bits—meant family. Food wasn’t a way for my body to generate energy, it was the height of pleasure and time together with the people I loved most. For me, food was emotionally charged—full of excitement in the good times and bitter comfort when my mom got sick—and, together, those deeply ingrained beliefs made me fat. When I began fasting, I had to let go of them, so I decided to start thinking of food differently.

Food Is for Energy

The first step in reframing how you think about food is to see it as a potential source of energy. Full stop. Food can (and should!) taste good to you, and while there’s no reason that my aunt Rose’s deviled eggs, Lebanese kibbeh, and roast shouldn’t have been a part of every family gathering, it didn’t help me to think of food as love. Every delicious praline crumb did not make family conversation better, and every morsel in my mouth did not communicate my thanks to the chef. When I started fasting, I consciously and deliberately had to think of food as energy and nothing more, divorcing it from the more complicated places it had always stood for in my mind.

I also had to tell myself—repeatedly—that I already had plenty of energy stored as fat, and that fasting would help me burn it.

What Does Food Mean to You?

For so many of us, food is a reward. In my family, every time something went well—an A on a test, a good run at softball, a solo in band, even beautiful weather—we stuffed our faces. Food was always there to be my friend, to help me celebrate, and to accentuate my joy when things were good.

It was never a fickle friend, either. It also showed up when things went badly, like when my dad and I sat in the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and he gave me a half smile, hugged me, and blinked back tears as he told me they were testing my mom to figure out why she was so sick. We stopped for lunch in the cafeteria that day, and I ate the most delicious, juicy cheeseburger, piled high with provolone cheese. That hamburger whisked away an eight-year-old’s emotions and protected me from my greatest fears.

For many others just like me, food is there in times of boredom or loneliness, a friend or a diversion to fill the gaps in one’s heart or one’s schedule. When I started college, I realized I was sick of being in every club, which I’d done in high school, and I was tired of pushing myself to my limits. I just wanted to be lazy, and food was there to be my friend. I ate to keep myself occupied—my hands busy and my mind entertained—alone or with friends. In two semesters, I gained 50 pounds. As a 225-pound twenty-year-old, I found dating tough. My self-confidence plummeted, and I started dating men who weren’t right for me because I believed they were my only options. When things inevitably didn’t work out, food was there for me, and there was no pain a cupcake couldn’t conquer. By the time I was an adult, I’d swelled to a size 26, at 300 pounds.

Food is certainly not the enemy, but it also shouldn’t be leaned on as a best friend, a comfort, a reward, a distraction. How can you begin to explore what food means to you? One way is to recall the times you’ve overindulged in an extreme way. Was it at your best friend’s wedding, when you were so happy you ate three pieces of cake? Or was it after your beloved grandma’s funeral, when the crab dip at the appetizer table was the only thing standing between you and despair? Or maybe it’s much simpler, like when you’re sitting at your desk working, and you want something to distract you when your mind needs to take a break from whatever project you’re busy tackling. If you’re like me, these moments when food has been your emotional support are too many to remember—or, perhaps, they’re just too painful. I’ll make this task easier for you:

Grab a notebook on a Sunday and bookmark seven pages, labeling them Monday–Sunday. The following day, begin writing down all the foods and beverages you consume in that day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between. Write down everything. Next to each meal or snack, note how you felt when you ate or drank and why you ate or drank. Write down every emotion or state of being—and yes, they can include the obvious one: hunger. You should be sure to log your notes right after eating, so you may want to use a small notebook that you can keep in your bag. Or, perhaps, you can have several notebooks in your kitchen, your car, and your office. Your phone works, too! Try to avoid the temptation to go back and look at the previous day or days’ pages the next day. Stay honest—no editing!

At the end of the week, compile the emotions you felt onto one list. Edit the content as needed, so “Ate three Oreos when I was mentally tired and unproductive. Felt hyper after,” may become “Mentally slow. Listless. Instant but short-term energy.” As you begin to implement fasting, you can work on identifying and processing these feelings as they connect to food so that you can take the emotion out of eating.

Find What Feels Good

Choosing the right healthy foods while you’re fasting is important, but it’s also vital to listen to your body and follow its cues in terms of the foods that make you feel full and energized, versus those that make you sluggish or slow down your digestion. I’ve found it helps me to keep lists on my phone that I can add to whenever I want. I have one list for foods that make me feel good and another for foods that make me feel poorly. The more you add to it, the sooner you will see patterns, and you can then create shopping lists full of foods that will make you feel great.

After a month of keeping these two lists, I want you to review them. Keep the list of foods that make you feel poorly and rename it, “Is It Worth It?” You can test out these foods again to see if your taste for them—or how you react to them—has changed. For example, rice was on my “Is It Worth It?” list, but recently I was in Japan, and I chose to eat a small bowl because I was very curious to see if it was as good as I expected. I decided that the possibility of not feeling great after I ate it was an acceptable risk. Lucky for me, the rice was delicious, and it didn’t make me feel bad! Now I make rice a part of my diet every now and then. On the other hand, I recently ate cotton candy because it used to be one of my very favorite treats. After not having cotton candy for a year (and very little sugar, for that matter), I was shocked to find that I didn’t like the taste of it! I can remember a time when I had eaten four bags of cotton candy in one sitting, but now, I don’t want even a bite—all thanks to cutting it out of my life.

Lettuce, bacon, cheese, steak, salmon, avocado, tomato, grass-fed ground beef, eggs, sausage, chicken, broccoli, raspberries, dill pickles, tuna fish, ribs, cabbage, stevia-sweetened dark chocolate.

Ice cream, cotton candy, potatoes, bread, bananas, flour, sweet potatoes, heavy cream, peaches, stevia-sweetened key lime pie.

If you don’t have many items on your list that you truly enjoy, then it is time to try a wider variety of foods. You are not here to punish yourself. Eating should always be an enjoyable activity.

Megan Ramos

Food plays a role in every celebration in every culture in the history of the world. Holidays call for midday feasts. Birthdays are celebrated with cake. Backyard barbecues, tailgates, neighborhood potlucks . . . food is used to create community and connection. This is totally okay, and the good news is that fasting doesn’t require you to skip these special occasions. But a problem arises if we are feasting or eating cake every day instead of once in a while, because that’s when we’ve crossed the line from simple enjoyment of food to addiction.

When Enjoyment Becomes Addiction

There is a very fine line between enjoyment and addiction. While people have enjoyed eating since the dawn of time, food addiction is almost entirely a modern problem.

Over the course of our evolution on this planet, we developed a taste for foods that are nourishing, give us energy, and can sustain us both throughout the day and in the long term. We also learned how to stop eating. If our caveman and cavewoman ancestors became too fat, they wouldn’t survive. They wouldn’t be able to catch prey, and they couldn’t run away from predators like lions, tigers, and bears. The survival of our species has always depended upon eating enough and not eating too much—not eating simply because food is available to us.

When it is time to stop eating, our body engages natural satiety mechanisms. Whole foods like a rib-eye steak are delicious and provide long-term energy and plenty of nutrients for fat storage. But could you eat a giant 50-ounce steak at one sitting? No way! Once you’re full, you can’t eat anymore. The protein and fat in a huge steak activate those natural powerful satiety signals to stop us from eating too much. Even naturally sweet foods like fruit have properties that trigger satiety mechanisms in our body that make it difficult for us to become addicted to them. When was the last time you heard of someone addicted to apples? Or totally, completely hooked on carrots? Never.

Few of us are running from predators or hunting game for survival anymore. Instead, we’re at the grocery store, scanning the frozen food section, or we’re sitting in front of the television with a bowl of chips in front of us. Processed foods like sugary beverages, sweets, chips, crackers, and white bread are everywhere, and they’re what we, as a modern society, have become addicted to.

When foods are processed in factories, they’re stripped of many of their naturally occurring nutrients, including protein, fat, and fiber. This allows the bypass of your body’s natural satiety mechanisms. Without fat and protein, the satiety hormones peptide YY and cholecystokinin aren’t activated, so they can’t signal when we’re full. Without the bulk that fiber provides, our stomach’s stretch receptors don’t know to respond. Essentially, all that’s left behind are refined carbohydrates (glucose) and sugar, which cause your pancreas to secrete a surge of insulin and store that sugar as fat. Your blood sugar drops dramatically, and your body craves more sugar. The cycle repeats.

In addition to bypassing natural satiety mechanisms, a food must be highly rewarding to be addictive. Our brains register all pleasures in a similar way, whether they’re from a psychoactive drug, a monetary reward, a sexual encounter, or a satisfying meal. Pleasure has a very distinct signature: the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells underneath the cerebral cortex. This area is referred to as the brain’s pleasure center.

Illicit drugs like heroin cause a particularly powerful surge of dopamine in the brain. Sugar does exactly the same thing. The hippocampus, the portion of the brain responsible for the formation of new memories, stores this rapid sense of satisfaction, leading you to dream of candy, cookies, and soda.

Our modern processed food addiction is no accident. The food industry spends billions of dollars in research and development to determine the precise combination of salt, sugar, fat, and artificial flavors to maximize temptation, then they cook it up in a lab and roll it out onto conveyor belts, shipping it perfectly packaged to a store near you.

My clients often tearfully confess that they’d rather be addicted to alcohol or drugs than to food. Why? Because they’d get more understanding and empathy from friends and family. When a recovering alcoholic celebrates, you don’t buy them a beer. When a drug addict mourns, you don’t commiserate with a shot of heroin. But what do people tell sugar addicts to do? Celebrate with sugar. Food is your best friend because it makes you feel good.

Other clients report that their addiction to food is even harder to break than other addictions because food is everywhere. For example, I worked with a sixty-two-year-old woman who was a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. In her twenties, she went to rehab twice and was successful in her recovery with outpatient therapy. She says that never in her history of addiction did she struggle like she has with sugar. The reason is that when she goes into a coffee shop, there’s no heroin, but there are muffins and sweet rolls next to the cash register. When she goes to church, there’s no cocaine afterward at the reception, but there’s plenty of cookies and cake. She can go visit her mother without being pressured to have a glass of wine, but she can’t get her to understand that she doesn’t want a piece of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving because it’s killing her. All these are reasons why she became 160 pounds overweight and became a type 2 diabetic who was placed on insulin.

Because of her long-term history with addiction, she understood and recognized that she was a sugar and food addict, and she was determined to rehabilitate herself for her health, well-being, and family. She changed her diet, but after falling off the wagon and bingeing more times than she can count, she realized she can never, ever have just one potato chip or one slice of cake. Today, she lives a life without the foods that triggered her, and she’s reversed her diabetes and lost 160 pounds.

The Importance of Breaking Food Addiction

At this point in my career, I’ve worked with thousands of clients who are looking to make healthy changes and lose weight. So many of them have told me that part of their struggle to make better food choices is the result of family, friends, and colleagues pressuring them to eat foods they’re trying to avoid, especially sugary foods. Their spouses will say things like “I can’t believe you won’t even try this cake that I went to the trouble of baking for you” during birthday celebrations. And everyone has that one friend or relative who says, “Oh, it’s Christmas time, it’s okay to have a few cookies!” I can sympathize because I, too, feel this type of pressure to eat to please others. My mother thinks that every time she sees me is grounds for celebration with things like pasta, bread, pretzels, and popcorn—all my old favorites from my addict days.

Most people don’t understand just how dangerous sugar addiction can be. Again and again, the research shows that sugar is directly linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other chronic diseases. Yet, our brains have become hardwired to associate processed foods with instant pleasure, happiness, and belonging. The thought of giving up these foods—even for a short fast—feels impossible.

Eliminating sugar may just tell you more about yourself and your relationships than a decade of therapy. I didn’t realize this myself until I had made my own significant transformation. But, in fact, my whole childhood was shaped by my idea of the brain’s pleasure response to food. My dad usually came home with his face beet red from the day’s stresses, his eyes full of anger. He would avoid us kids for the first hour or so, not wanting to take out his frustrations on us. My mom would quietly prepare a glass of chocolate milk, a plate of pasta, and a bag of potato chips. After she gave them to my father, he would sit and eat them in silence.

When my dad was done eating his big plate of comforting carbs, he’d be eager to hear about our day. As a small child, I could see it clearly: Yummy food made Daddy better. Refined, highly processed food was my family’s friend.

Pizza
Chocolate
Chips
Cookies
Ice cream
French fries
Cheeseburger
Non-diet soda
Cake
Cheese

Breaking Food Addiction and Unhealthy Habits

Habits are formed by three things: cues, routines, and specific rewards. A cue, such as stress, triggers a routine that leads to a reward—a feeling of relaxation or happiness. For example, you might hate visiting your in-laws, so every time you have to go see them, you hang around the kitchen, nibbling on sugary and salty snack foods. The highly processed foods activate your brain’s pleasure center, and your brain is flooded by a feeling of happiness that overwhelms the stress of being in a house you’d prefer to run from. The routine (in this case, eating) is the all-important intermediary between the cue and the reward. If you cut out that routine—or do something else instead—you can avoid the perceived reward.

There are all kinds of cues. There are positive ones like getting married, being on a wonderful vacation, or getting your dream job. There are also negative ones like work stress, sadness, loneliness, and sickness. But no matter the cues, the routine always stays the same: highly processed and refined carbs. Let’s celebrate—with ice cream! I’m feeling sad—let’s get some ice cream! To change our habits, we must change our routine. The reward—to feel good—does not require the use of highly processed carbohydrates or sweets.

I spend most of my days counseling clients on other ways they can experience relaxation and happiness—that is, feel a real reward—without having to depend on food. We use two strategies to help them beat this cycle. First, we substitute fat for sugar each time we have a craving. The fat signals to our brain that we are nice and satiated, and to turn off our appetite. Second, we fast. Fasting similarly helps regulate our hormones so we regain control over our appetite, but it also gives us freedom. And freedom is the number one benefit of fasting that clients report to me.

I once worked with a fifty-two-year-old executive named Peter. Peter grew up in an Italian family and lived at home throughout most of his education. If he had a bad day, his mom would make him his favorite lasagna and cake. If he had a good day, she’d do the same to celebrate. This situation compares to most of my clients—as well as all their families. Peter’s attachment to food was not an addiction but rather a deeply ingrained habit. Together, we worked to find other ways to celebrate his successes and destress from his tough moments, and after about three months of planning, trial, and error, he got into a good pattern. Instead of cake and pasta, he’d reward himself with a yummy rib eye, or some bacon and eggs cooked in bacon fat. He experimented with going to the driving range, boxing classes, meditation retreats, and tai chi until he found a few things that calmed him down. Rather than stuffing his face, he would treat himself to a new golf club to celebrate a success or make time to give his daughter a call to share good news.

If I’m having a stressful workday and I’m fasting, I don’t need to eat lunch. Instead, I can take a walk during my lunch hour. This walk will help reduce my stress level and boost my mood and energy. It will also provide me with access to vitamin D from sunlight, which I won’t get if I’m stuck in the lunchroom of my office. After lunch I go back to work with a clear headspace, feeling rested and recharged after taking time to do something for myself that has a positive impact on my physical and mental well-being. Fasting gives me freedom to do things for myself and to reconnect with others.

Getting a massage
Taking a nice Epsom salt bath with lavender oil
Working out
Getting a manicure or pedicure
Going out to the movies
Meeting a friend for coffee
Calling a friend
Listening to a new podcast
Reading a book
Getting outside for a walk or bike ride
Tackling a nagging task you’ve been avoiding
Meditating
Writing a gratitude list

You don’t need to eat in order to feel close to your spouse or family, and you don’t need to snack to cope with an unpleasant task. My husband and I will hike, play a board game, or do a puzzle together instead of eating while trying to connect. Come up with your own routine to replace eating junk.

Preparation is key for success. I ask all my clients to write down their cues and desired rewards, and then come up with a list of routines they can do that aren’t food related. For example, a person might say their cue is arriving home at the end of a stressful workday, and their desired reward is food. Instead of eating, I might suggest they go outside and take a walk. This redirected reward is the first stop on their road map to success. Come up with your own list of routines, and keep it in your wallet, purse, or briefcase. Post it on your fridge. Just remember: success is no accident. You can achieve it if you have a plan.

So, now that you understand the science behind fasting, what foods to eat and which to avoid, and how to think differently about your relationship with food, let’s get in the right mind-set and start to formulate that plan. It’s time to get in the fasting lane!

Part II
Prepare to Fast

Chapter 7
Ready, Set, Goal!

Eve Mayer

You are at the beginning of an exciting journey. You may be tense and eager, ready for the gun to fire so you can launch toward the challenge. Or—if you’re like most of us who’ve battled weight and health challenges for years—you might be anxious about what lies ahead.

Desperation and self-doubt are some of my most familiar companions. They sit next to me, invisible to the rest of the world, whispering words of discouragement softly into my ear. They remind me that I have failed at eating better and getting healthier for most of my adult life. They snicker at my hope and laugh at my thoughts that this time might be different. Self-doubt nags at me, asking: Why would I ever think I can fast if I haven’t been able to stop shoveling massive amounts of food into my mouth for decades?

It’s time to stop thinking this way. No matter how many calorie-restriction diet plans you’ve tried in the past . . . yes, you can do this.

Remember: you are not the problem. You’ve simply been fed incorrect information for years. But with the right knowledge, your body can heal itself. In fact, it may be even easier than you think because it’s possible your body and mind are not as broken as you suspect. Like me, you may discover that beneath the extra weight, you are healthier than you could ever imagine. This is why a plethora of people who fast heal their type 2 diabetes, resolve their high blood pressure, or go off their medications with shocking speed. My father is a case in point.

When my dad saw the success that my husband and I had with fasting, he decided to give it a try as well. He reduced his sugar intake (although my mom told me he was still eating ice cream or cookies at least once a week) and cut down on breads, pasta, and potatoes. He followed an easy fast, skipping breakfast most days and reducing his snacking, and he lost fifteen pounds the first month.

About three weeks in, Dad felt so dizzy that he had to stop driving. He went to his doctor, reported his dizziness, and said he’d been fasting. He then explained to the doctor that he had lost weight, and that while his blood pressure had improved, he was still taking his prescribed blood pressure medicine.

The doctor told him to stop fasting immediately but to continue eating healthy, reduced portions. The doctor also felt that it was very possible he might have vertigo, so he prescribed another medicine and suggested that my dad see a specialist to help resolve it.

My mom was worried about my dad, but she was skeptical of the doctor’s diagnosis of vertigo. It seemed suspicious that her husband had suddenly developed vertigo for the first time in his life. She felt that it was more likely that the fasting and changes in diet had to do with his dizziness. It turned out she was correct. Because of his fasting and low-carb diet, my dad’s blood pressure had gone down fast, in three weeks. That meant he was currently taking more medicine than he needed and was becoming dizzy because of it. My dad cut his blood pressure medication dosage in half and continued with his new way of eating and fasting. Over the next week, his dizziness was gone, and he decided to cancel the appointment with the vertigo specialist. He also left the vertigo pills unused in the cabinet.

In a few more weeks, after carefully monitoring his blood pressure three times a day and losing a few more pounds, he was able to cancel his blood pressure prescription completely, as well as to get down to 229 pounds for the first time in twenty years.

How did he accomplish this huge, life-changing feat? Because he’d set a powerful goal from the very beginning. My dad loves to ski more than anything in the world, yet he hadn’t hit the slopes for many years due to his high blood pressure and extra weight. He told himself that if he could get his weight into the 220s, he would go skiing. Now he’s planning his trip!

FASTING WILL MAKE YOU SICK. Quite the opposite! Fasting can lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.
FASTING WILL CAUSE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR TO CRASH. Your body does a wonderful job regulating blood sugar levels, so there’s little chance of your body having a negative hypoglycemic response.
FASTING WILL SLOW DOWN YOUR METABOLISM. There is no research that shows that fasting—even fasts up to three days—suppresses metabolic rates.
YOU’LL DIE OF HUNGER. This is my favorite! Have you ever skipped a meal? Look what happened! You didn’t die. I know this because you are reading this book.

Goals Start with You

If you are out of the habit of goal setting, it is time to get back in the groove.

Many people feel comfortable putting everyone else in their lives first when it comes to setting goals. They make a goal that their sixth graders will get on the honor roll this semester, or that their spouse will get a raise by the end of the year. When did we get so busy helping others that we forgot to take a moment to consider what we truly desire?

Now is the time for you. You are reading this book to discover how your body, mind, and life can be changed when you incorporate fasting. Start by deciding what you want to gain by fasting. The answer can be anything at all.

When I began this journey, I had only one goal. I wanted to be hot again!

Before I started fasting in my mid-forties, the last time I felt good about my body was when I was eighteen. It was beyond time for me to wear a two-piece bathing suit again. Was I vain? Who cares? I was doing this for me, and my vanity drove me toward my goal. After a few months, I got down to 195 pounds (a thirty-pound weight loss), and I wore that two-piece bathing suit. I felt better about myself than I had in more than two decades.

Your goal is individual to your wants and needs—and it is vitally important to your success. Reaching your goal may not be fast or stress-free, but nothing worthwhile ever comes easily. Picture your fasting skills as a muscle you must exercise, rest, and grow. Some days you’ll flex that muscle with ease. Other days are going to be a challenge. It’s during those times that focusing on your goal becomes important. When you’ve had a few difficult days in a row and find yourself wondering, Is this worth it?, it’s your goal that will remind you why you are on this journey—and that you are worth it.

Goals Change

Over the course of my journey, my goals shifted. As I gained more confidence with fasting, learned new techniques, and lost more weight, I began recognizing how much easier it was to keep up with my husband and my eleven-year-old daughter. For years, I’d suffered from allergies, recurring upper respiratory infections, and bronchitis, but I stopped getting sick. I didn’t need to constantly take medicine for my respiratory issues. I stopped getting headaches every other day. My teeth also got healthier—much to the shock of my dentist.

Feeling so much better and seeing numbers on the scale that I hadn’t seen since I was a teenager—and with less work than I’d ever put into weight loss before—was a bewildering experience. But I realized I was on to something, so I set an even more challenging goal. Knowing that body composition (the percentage of body fat in relation to muscle) is as critically important to good health as weight, I decided that I wanted to reduce my body fat percentage by 5 percent.

This road can get bumpy sometimes, so I want you to create one very specific goal—or, if you must, no more than two—that will help keep you motivated. I’m sure you want to achieve many things, but limiting your focus to the one or two most important goals will help you keep your eye on the prize and lessen your chances of getting overwhelmed. The amazing thing is that once you accomplish just a few small goals, you’ll find that some of your other hopes start to come to fruition, too. For example, maybe your goal was to go from an A1c level of 7 percent (diabetic) to 6 percent (prediabetic). One of the unexpected side benefits could be that the tingling in your toes—which had been a constant nuisance—stops. Or that, suddenly, you’re able to walk up a flight of stairs without losing your breath.

Your goals should be clear, specific, concrete. For example, an unclear goal would be “I want to be more active” (active how and when?) while a clear goal could be “I want to walk a 5k.”

Get off type 2 diabetes medicine
Wear a new dress to my high school reunion
Complete a triathlon
Reduce my body fat percentage
Buy pants that aren’t stretchy
Get pregnant
Get sick less often
Get off blood pressure medicine
Wear high heels that don’t come in a wide size
Be able to walk with the dog one mile
Stop having migraines
Have better focus at work
Play with my grandkids
Lose a certain number of pounds

Once you’re clear about what your goals are, I want you to write them down in three places. You can keep your goals on a piece of paper in your top desk drawer at work, scribble them on your mirror at home, type them into your phone, or make them your computer screensaver. Every time you come across your list, read it out loud three times, adding the words “I will” at the beginning of each goal. You can also say them silently in your head.

So often, we put aside what we want for “just one more day” until the “one more day” stretches into months and years. Keeping your goals in the front of your mind and reminding yourself of them daily will help reinforce them.

Megan Ramos

You can’t just name your goals; you also need to create a plan to achieve them, and then follow through with your plan. So, what makes us get up and take action to make our dreams a reality? Motivation. It is the force that moves us from being stuck or stagnant to doing something proactive. As a health educator, I’m here to explain how to do that.

What Motivates You?

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation means that what drives a person comes from within, and that their desire to perform a specific task is in accordance with their belief system. Eve’s desire to “get hot” and “feel hot” is an example of intrinsic motivation. Other examples would be to feel better, have more energy, and reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.

In extrinsic motivation, an individual’s stimulus is external, even though the results will still benefit the individual. A classic example of extrinsic motivation is money. In this case, that might mean reducing healthcare costs or becoming more focused and efficient at work to achieve a promotion. Goals and the motivations behind them are as relative and dynamic as the people who set them, so it doesn’t matter if your objective is extrinsic or intrinsic. What matters is that the goal is powerful to you.

As an educator, one of my primary intentions with each client is to identify what motivates them. Are they sick and tired of feeling sick and tired? Are they struggling to pay for their medications? Or do they want to simply feel better in their own skin? I spend time getting to know everyone I counsel and figure out what makes them tick. Once I understand that, I use it as leverage to help inspire them through their journey.

Sometimes I meet a client whose motivation isn’t in alignment with their lifestyle. For example, one woman told me she wanted to lose weight so she could enjoy more time with her family. Unfortunately, she said the only time she had to connect with her family was during mealtimes—and she was going to be skipping meals! I worked with her to find other opportunities to spend time with her family, and, after a few months, her fasting habits stuck.

Overcoming Bad Habits and Bad Times

Our motivation for weight-loss success can often be derailed by bad habits or life’s unexpected curveballs. When things are stable, we’re able to fast successfully and be mindful of our sugar intake. When life is chaotic, we tend to fall back into our deeply ingrained old dietary habits.

This is why it’s so important for me to understand what is motivating a client to make a change. If someone is trying to improve their health so they can be around to see their grandchildren grow up, for example, that motivation is a great way for me to help them stay inspired or get back on track. If that client reports having a lot of energy while they were babysitting their grandkids, I remind them of their motivation and help them create positive associations with fasting and their goal.

I use two tools to help motivate me. The first motivating tool is a photo of myself wearing a bikini while hanging out with my friends in Miami Beach on my twenty-first birthday. I carry this picture around because—as much as I say my goal is to be happy and healthy—like Eve, I also want to look good. Am I ashamed of that? Not at all! I also carry around the blood test results that diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes. This piece of paper scares the hell out of me, and I’ve used it dozens of times over the last nine years to prevent myself from eating an entire large pizza alone after a bad day.

Go online and read testimonials from people who have reached their weight-loss and health goals through fasting.
Listen to relevant podcasts and save the most motivating ones for review when you need an extra kick.
Read books about fasting and write down pages that inspire you for future reference.
Carry around a note to yourself about why you’re doing this, so you can read it when you’re tempted to break your fast on a stressful day.
Keep old blood test results with you to inspire you to stay the course.

When You Lose Sight of Your Goals

Years ago, I was diagnosed with a very, very early stage of cervical cancer. Fortunately, I required minimal intervention, and three months later it was like a bad dream. But, at the time, it was very real and deeply frightening. When I get to a place where my usual goals aren’t providing sufficient motivation, I recall the feelings I had during this dark time in my life, and I think about how many cancers are associated with obesity.

After I started sharing this strategy with clients, I was surprised at how many of them were also motivated by fear. Maybe they’re not concerned about a cancer diagnosis, but they might worry about a trip to the hospital because of mild chest pains, a diagnosis of prediabetes, or a hereditary family condition. For example, a client named Rose once came to us after a terrible medical scare involving her hip. At forty-nine years old, Rose was 5 foot 3 and 180 pounds. She underwent a total hip replacement, and during her long, painful recovery she put on weight, topping out at 201 pounds. Four months after her surgery, Rose was stretching, and her hip socket came out of joint. A specialist was able to repair it, but he said it was a terribly difficult process. “Why?” she asked. He responded, bluntly, “Well, you’re short. But also because of the weight.”

Rose never wants her hip to be a problem again, so she’s now following a keto diet and doing 36-hour fasts when she can. She’s down to 160 pounds and wants to lose 20 to 25 more. Best of all, she says she’s had no further hip problems, and her orthopedic surgeon is thrilled!

Another tool I offer clients when they’re losing sight of their goals is visualization. You can visualize positive events, like what the outcome of your goals would look like in real life (for instance, spending more time with family or lying on the beach in a two-piece bathing suit). You can also visualize negative outcomes, like your doctor delivering the news that you’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Whether you’re imagining happy or sad experiences, visualization engages your senses and your emotions in a powerful way that can help you keep focused on your goals.

When I look at my old blood test results, I don’t just look at the numbers for motivation. I try to recall how I felt when I got those results. What did my doctor’s face look like when she gave me the bad news? How did it feel to hear the disappointment in her voice? My body still remembers the chills down my spine, the tears forming in my eyes. That’s enough for me to push through a fast when I’m tempted to eat a bag of pretzels.

Prioritize

One of the biggest struggles I have with clients is that they often have too many goals, and because of that, they want to dive into a fasting program before they’ve had a chance to prepare for it. For example, they may want to lose 150 pounds, stop taking their medications, reverse their type 2 diabetes, and avoid the Alzheimer’s diagnosis that runs in their family. These are wonderful goals, but they can’t all be achieved at once, no matter how hard you try.

I help clients prioritize their goals by asking two questions: “What is going to kill you first?” and “How strong is your fasting muscle?” Most are aware that they need to lose weight in order to reverse their type 2 diabetes, which will result in a reduction in the number of medications they take every day. If they don’t beat that, they’re putting themselves at a high risk for metabolic-related cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, diabetes is the disease that may kill them first, and it’s what they need to focus on first and foremost.

But these eager clients can’t and shouldn’t dive into something as intense as an all-day fast. Many of them haven’t fasted longer than twelve hours for a blood test before, so fasting for twenty-four hours straight, right off the bat, isn’t going to be an easy task. With priorities, you can focus, which may help an impatient person proceed into fasting slowly. For example, you may choose to skip breakfast two nonconsecutive days a week, then increase the frequency bit by bit.

As Eve said, I encourage you to write down a list of your goals and prioritize them. The most successful people concentrate on one thing at a time, and they know that trying to do too much at once will inevitably lead to failure. You don’t want to take chances on your health, so be patient and consistent. If you are, you will reach your goals.

Chapter 8
Get Your House in Shape and Your Family on Board

Eve Mayer

Your goal is firmly in place, and you’ve decided what types of food fuel you and what foods might derail you. How can you give yourself the best chance for success? Some of the answers lie right in the comfort of your home.

Cleaning House

It is time to take stock of the spaces you live in and do a clean sweep. Examine your fridge, your cupboards, as well as your car or your desk drawers at work—any place that you spend more than one hour a week. You want to get rid of the sugary and processed foods you’ve decided not to eat most of the time—those tempting, pesky little items so easily accessible that they’ll be magically in your mouth before you realize it.

Start with your kitchen. Identify all the foods you’ve decided to refrain from eating, then get rid of them within twenty-four hours. Donate food items that are acceptable to a food bank and give others to family members or friends. And I know this may make your food-loving heart wilt, but if you cannot donate the food in twenty-four hours, I want you to throw it away. Why? Because the longer food you have decided is harmful to you stays in your home, the better the chance it will end up in your mouth, and you will put off your goals for one more day, one more week, or one more month.

After you’ve cleaned out your kitchen and pantry, you need to repeat the process in the other rooms of your home. See that candy dish? Get rid of it. Replace it with flowers or a keepsake you enjoy. Next, it’s time to examine the contents of your purse, your backpack, your storage area, your car, and your garage. Clean out all the items you were saving for a rainy day. You might be thinking, I’m giving up ice cream most of the time, but I still plan to have it sometimes. Why should I throw it out if it’s far away, in the deep freezer in my garage? Your goal is to make the foods you only want occasionally harder to get. Eating a gallon of ice cream that took you five minutes to retrieve from the garage is easier than driving fifteen minutes to the ice cream store for one scoop. The extra work forces you to examine if you really need that ice cream.

Living and Working with Others

If you live with others who are not eating the same way as you, you likely won’t be able to get rid of their food. However, there are ways to make things a bit easier on yourself. Separate your food from theirs—in the fridge, pantry, and elsewhere—making it clear who the items belong to. If you have the opportunity to cover their food with foil or place it in snack boxes, do so. Out of sight, out of mind!

You want to keep your supply of foods front and center. In the fridge, store veggies in a decorative bowl or on plates you find pleasing to the eye. In the pantry, organize your food neatly, making all healthy choices visible in glass containers. Put labels with your name on the packaging that contains your food, and if you are an overachiever, place a whiteboard in the kitchen or use your phone to create a menu plan for the next few days or week.

Next, let’s examine your workplace. If you work from home, then you already know what to do. Open your desk drawers and give away those chips, granola bars, and candy bars. In fact, do away with all the food items in your office. If you work outside the house, go to the shared work refrigerator and throw out the old food you haven’t yet brought home. Do the same at any location where you might have stored snacks for yourself. Do you always grab pretzels from the break room on your way to the bathroom? Try taking a different route when nature calls. In the next section, I’ll explain the importance of skipping snacks and show you how to go about doing it, but, for now, know that paving the way for new habits is essential to your success with fasting.

Making Your Family Part of Your Team

If you’re single or living alone, without a roommate, kids, or partner: congratulations, you get to skip this step!

I still remember those blissful single, childless days, stretching out the width of the bed, sleeping till ten on weekends, and having the TV remote all to myself! But then things happened. Marriage, a daughter, a divorce, falling in love, marriage again, and then a puppy. Many of us are living with a roommate, spouse, friend, parent, children, or some combination of people sharing our lives on a day-to-day basis.

The people you make your home with almost always affect most areas of your life, and they can have a huge influence on when and what you eat. Now that you have decided to implement some changes to your diet, it’s important to communicate your plan to them, ask for their support, and in some cases suggest that they join you on this journey.

It’s possible your partner already has some of the behaviors that you wish to adopt. Perhaps they eat healthy foods, don’t snack, or even practice intermittent fasting themselves. If this is the case, you will likely find supportive smiles coming your way when you share your plans for changing your eating.

Some families live together yet rarely eat together because of varying life, school, or other schedules that make it nearly impossible. If this is your situation, there’s not much of a need for getting buy-in from them. But if you eat at least one meal each day with the people you live with, they’ll need to be consulted. While your decision to fast is a very personal one—and you have every right to make it—problems or differing opinions may crop up, and it’s best to prepare yourself for them.

The cornerstone of your relationships is usually your partner, so it’s probably best to discuss your new eating plans with him or her first. Just remember that it doesn’t have to be dramatic. When you start, you are simply testing the waters on fasting, so there is no need to proclaim to your partner that you’ll be fasting every other day for the rest of your life. Instead, start slowly and gently, just as you will with fasting. Tell your partner about your goal, how you plan to reach it, and what type of support you specifically need from him or her. Here are two examples:

Some partners will be happy to cheer you on on your new eating regimen. Other might have feedback or want more information. Listen to your partner’s concerns, take them seriously, and answer them completely. If they ask you a question about food or fasting you can’t answer, tell them you aren’t sure at that moment, but you will get the information to them soon. Then do your research and share what you’ve found with your partner. Our website, FastingLane.com, is a useful and instructive place to start, with blogs, articles, and a podcast. You may need to research again and again! I’m almost two years into my new way of life, and I’m still learning new things every few days.

It is understandable for a partner who cares about you to be worried. I can’t imagine what my response would have been a few years ago if mine had told me he was planning to skip meals. I would have been worried about his mind-set and his health, and I would have warned him that his metabolism was going to slow down (it won’t!). If your partner questions, prods, and explores—just like I would have done—try not to get frustrated. Listen to their questions and be happy that someone cares enough to show concern for you. Use it as a learning opportunity to find the answers you haven’t explored yet.

Next, think about how these changes will affect your partner and address those concerns. Perhaps you’re responsible for cooking for the family, but you want to skip eating dinner on some nights. It is reasonable for your partner to be concerned about how that might affect the rest of the family. Try to anticipate this and address it before you’re asked, then come up with creative solutions that are helpful to both parties. Here is an example:

I expect your partner to ask questions, show concern, disagree with some of your methods, be curious, and even sometimes buck at the changes you’re proposing. Sometimes you strike gold, and your partner decides to join you. This will certainly make life easier, but if they don’t, ease them in by inviting them to taste the new, healthier dishes you plan to prepare. Ask them to join you at the gym or even to skip breakfast once. Your partner has the right to decline your offer, and it’s important to respect their decision. I understand how frustrating this can be if you live with someone who’s overweight or suffering from weight-related health conditions. You’re probably thinking, The solution is right in front of you! But we can’t force anyone, including our partners, into decisions they haven’t chosen for themselves.

You also deserve kindness from your partner through the changes you are making. It is okay for them to question you, but it is not okay for them to interfere with your progress. If your partner is unsupportive through this process, I would suggest communicating your needs very clearly. You might say something like, I’m making these changes to improve my health. Your love and kindness would be a huge help.

During any time of transition, it’s important to be patient with the people around us. We made the decision to change, not them. We are all so quick to be critical of our partners, and often, I find this is because we have become habitually critical of ourselves. It is so easy to treat our partners with the same cruel voice we hear inside our own head. So, speak kindly to your loved ones, and you may find it easier to speak kindly to yourself.

Megan Ramos

Many couples decide to fast together, which can be beneficial if both parties stick to their plans, don’t sneak food, and remain emotionally supportive of each other. However, if you’re in a male/female partnership and decide to embark upon a fasting lifestyle together, you need to be mindful that your patterns of weight loss may be very different.

Fasting Differences Between Men and Women

Most of the women I’ve worked with have tried every diet out there. Whether it’s Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or any number of juice cleanses, almost all these weight-loss plans have one thing in common: they focus on reducing calories and increasing energy expenditure. Not only are these ladies demoralized by their continued failure, but their BMRs are at rock bottom. Constant dieting has killed their metabolism.

It’s quite the opposite for men I see for the first time. These men may be carrying twenty, fifty, or one hundred extra pounds, but they haven’t tried many diets. They’ve either ignored their weight gain or been in denial about it, so, unlike their girlfriends or wives, they haven’t obsessed about trying to lose the extra weight. Because of that, their metabolism is still high.

Women are more hormonally complex than men, which makes balancing hormones—a process fasting kick-starts—somewhat tricky. Couple that with vastly different metabolism levels, and men and women who try to fast together can find themselves losing weight at very different rates.

Jason and I have observed the following patterns when it comes to men and women who start to fast:

WEEK 1 OF FASTING: Men can expect to lose a half pound of body fat for their first 36-hour fast. Women will lose about a quarter pound.
WEEKS 2–4 OF FASTING: Men lose about one pound of body fat per fasting day (i.e., a 36-hour fast).
WEEKS 4–6: Women’s metabolism catches up to where men are, and they begin to lose about a pound per fasting day. Men have leveled off, and they lose about a half pound of body fat per fasting day.
BEYOND WEEK 6: Both men and women lose about a half pound of body fat per fasting day.

Typically, men lose more weight with 24-hour fasts, while women may need to do 36-hour fasts to achieve the same degree of weight loss. This may be frustrating to women, but if you manage your expectations as a couple, knowing that each of you can and will reach your goals differently, you can avoid getting upset. Even though men and women lose weight differently, couples often find that dieting and fasting together is easier than apart. Just remember to educate yourself, and always communicate.

Jason Fung

There are several other hormonal changes that occur during fasting, and one of them typically impacts women more than men. I’m talking about the increase of human growth hormone, or HGH.

During a fasted state, the body produces higher levels of HGH, noradrenaline, and cortisol. These three hormones are referred to as the counter-regulatory hormones, and they help increase blood glucose at times when it can’t be derived from food. HGH, which is produced by the pituitary gland and secreted during sleep, is central to healthy growth in children, but it also helps maintain muscles and bone mass in adults. When an adult doesn’t have enough of it in their system, they may develop more body fat and lose bone mass and muscle.

HGH secretions go way up during fasting. In fact, according to a 1988 study, a two-day fast can help you produce five times as much HGH! This is greatly beneficial for men and women because strong, lean, sturdy bodies are better for health than leaner, weaker muscles and skeletal frames. However, a pound of muscle is denser than a pound of fat, so many women are shocked when they step on the scales after a fast and discover that, while their pants fit better, they haven’t lost any weight.

I’ve found that men are less concerned with this issue. They tend not to step on the scale as much, so they don’t care as much about weight. Not so for the women in their households, who tend to feel greater disappointment.

To the women out there reading this book: you don’t need to feel concerned. As Megan explained, over time, women tend to lose weight at an equal pace as the men in their lives. Thanks to HGH, stronger, sturdier muscles and bone mass are the icing on the cake, giving you a healthier body, not just a slimmer one.

Chapter 9
Sex, Pregnancy, and Fasting

Megan Ramos

If digestion, weight gain, fat storage, fat burning, muscle growth, and bone mass are, in part, ruled by hormones, what about those hormones? You know what I’m referring to: the hormones you feel pumping through your veins when you’re with someone you’re attracted to, that then drive you to reproduce successfully? As you embark on a lifestyle of fasting, should you be ready to put your sex life on hold or postpone your dreams of getting pregnant? Not at all. If anything, you should prepare for a reenergized libido. And, while we don’t recommend fasting during pregnancy, it can help pave the way to getting pregnant.

Fasting and Sex Hormones

Some women worry that fasting will deplete their energy, which will cause their sex drive to plummet. The opposite is often true. Because fasting helps regulate all hormones, women find that fasting actually increases their sex drive. Fasting also may boost vaginal moisture, which helps many women enjoy sex more than they did before.

Don’t expect these changes to happen overnight, though. Positive sexual side effects usually occur within the first three months of consistent fasting—whether that’s skipping breakfast every day or doing a 36-hour fast twice a week. Consistency is key: a regular practice of fasting helps keep hormone levels stable, and going off it may cause them to fluctuate.

There are some women who experience a decreased sex drive due to fasting, but this is rare and can usually be attributed to inadequate intake of dietary fat (from natural fat sources such as avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, and fatty fish) or sodium on eating days, leading to a nutrient deficiency. Usually sex drive returns or increases once sodium levels are restored, though this can take four to six weeks, depending on compliance and the woman’s unique physiology.

Sodium intake is very specific to each individual, so I encourage you to salt food according to your taste on eating days. On fasting days, you can consume sugar-free pickle juice or you can add salt to water or place a pinch on your tongue and then drink water. Whichever way works. You require, on average, between 1 and 3 teaspoons of salt per day, but if you have a certain medical condition like high blood pressure, you may need to avoid salt entirely. Always check with your doctor. And if you’ve noticed that your salt intake has no effect whatsoever on your libido, you’re obviously ingesting the right amount for you!

Jason Fung

Research into the relationship between sex hormones and fasting is almost nonexistent, so Megan, Eve, and I can only speak from our personal experiences and our work with clients throughout the years.

One happy side benefit of fasting may be a pregnancy that had previously been impossible due to a condition such as polycystic ovary syndrome. High insulin levels increase production of testosterone from the ovaries, which eventually leads to the abnormal growth of multiple cysts. By reducing insulin, fasting may help reverse this condition.

Jennifer—the PCOS sufferer you met in the introduction to this book—proved that fasting can help alleviate PCOS as well as lead to a successful pregnancy. So when a client asks, “I’m trying to get pregnant. Can I still fast?” my answer is always an emphatic “Yes.”

By helping you lose weight, fasting may also help prevent some of the unwanted complications that can occur during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. That said, it’s important for a woman who is fasting for fertility reasons to closely monitor her cycles and stop fasting as soon as she knows she is pregnant. Pregnancy is a time for growth, and fasting restricts the nutrients that are needed for growth. Fasting may also negatively impact the quality of breast milk, so we recommend that nursing mothers not fast. However, it’s perfectly okay to focus on time-restricted eating during this time—that is, eating meals within an eight-hour window and abstaining from snacking.

Eve Mayer

You might be thinking, what is a chapter on sex doing in a fasting book? I understand that it may not be pertinent to everyone, but the truth is that it’s a question that comes up a lot with Dr. Fung and Megan’s clients, and it’s also one that comes up with my very best girlfriends who’ve been on the fence about fasting. They wanted to know how they’ll have enough energy to have sex. They were curious about whether they’d get headaches that would cause them to lose interest—or feel too lousy—to be in the mood. And they wanted to know if fasting would cause their hormones to go into overdrive, causing them to get more emotional or to fight with their partners.

I feel lucky that I am in a committed relationship with a man whom I find to be a stone-cold hottie. I thought fasting would make me grumpy, irritable, and not in the mood. Boy, was I wrong! Fasting gives me more energy. In fact, when I first began fasting for multiple days I had so much energy that I often couldn’t get to sleep. Hmmm, what is one to do when they’re lying in bed awake at 1:00 a.m. with their husband? I think you can fill in the blanks here.

Getting Pregnant, Girlfriend to Girlfriend

If I knew then what I know now, I absolutely, positively would have fasted when I decided to start trying to become pregnant. Fifteen years ago, I weighed three hundred pounds, was prediabetic, got sick every month, and had PCOS. I knew I had to get my body in a better condition to healthily carry a child, so I went to doctors to figure out a solution to my obesity. I had already tried every diet and exercise and therapy with dismal results; I just kept getting fatter and unhealthier.

Mostly because I wanted to have a child, I turned to the suggestion of a doctor to explore bariatric surgery. I chose the lap band, and it did help me shed quite a bit of weight. Even with eighty pounds lost, though, I remained prediabetic, was often sick, and still suffered from PCOS, which required me to seek the help of a fertility doctor to get pregnant.

From my own experience, I can say, without question, that I would have used fasting instead of surgery had I known about it and understood it. Because of fasting, at forty-five years old, I am no longer prediabetic, and I no longer suffer from PCOS. My forty-five-year-old self is so much healthier than she ever was at thirty, when I ate nine times a day.

Every week, I read stories online and hear from women who used fasting to improve their health, including their fertility. Of course, it is no magic bullet, and infertility is complicated, with different factors involved for every woman. But it is a strategy that isn’t always discussed—and one that I have seen help a lot of women.

Chapter 10
Working with Your Doctor

Eve Mayer

For more than twenty-four years, I followed the advice of doctors to overcome my weight problems. They told me what to eat and what not to eat. I listened to what they said so closely that I tried hypnosis, therapy, rehab for binge eating, doctor-supervised weight-loss programs, calorie-restriction diets, daily walking, growth hormone injections, diet pills, and three bariatric surgeries. I always lost weight at first. But I always felt hungry, overwhelmed, and unsatisfied. I always gained the weight back, and I often gained even more.

For decades I experienced respiratory illnesses about every two months. I had frequent bouts of bronchitis and a few cases of pneumonia. I was prediabetic, and I went on medication for it. I struggled with polycystic ovary syndrome and couldn’t get pregnant without bariatric surgery and the assistance of a fertility specialist. I was on antibiotics and steroids often. I had recurring headaches at least every other day. My dentist couldn’t understand why my teeth seemed to be rotting away, even though I had regular checkups and practiced good dental hygiene. Through it all, I accepted that I was simply a sick person with a compromised immune system.

Then I got better. And I did so when I stopped taking my doctors’ advice.

Let me step back a bit and qualify what I just wrote. I know that in order for you to improve your health, you’re going to need support from others. Your doctor may be one of them, especially if you have a health condition that requires you to take medication or be under regular care. But questioning your doctor’s advice about your diet is okay. Trusting your own gut is even more okay.

The truth is that many doctors give terrible advice when it comes to nutrition. During medical school and the years of training after it, they’ve only received a few hours of nutrition education—as Jason Fung will attest to. Why would you put your food choices solely into the hands of someone who hasn’t had much more instruction in that area than you have?

Think about it. You didn’t ask your doctor’s permission—or seek his or her advice—while you were eating poor-quality foods. When you ate two pieces of cake, did you call your doctor? Every time you ate between meals, ordered a Grande Vanilla Latte with whipped cream, grabbed a second doughnut at work, ordered into the speaker of a fast-food drive-through, supersized something, or had a fourth meal that day, did you ask your doctor’s permission first?

No. You most certainly did not.

If you didn’t get your doctor’s permission to eat an extra meal, why do you need to ask him or her about skipping a meal?

Unless you’re under medical orders not to fast, you really don’t.

If you do decide to speak with your doctor, be prepared to be told that fasting is a fad. My answer to that is: if fasting is a fad, it sure must have some staying power because it’s been practiced by humans for thousands of years. You should also be ready for your doctor to insist you stop fasting and instead tell you to limit how many calories you eat. This approach has been working well for you so far, right? Nope. So why not stop snacking first and see how you feel? Then skip just one meal to see if this is something you want to pursue? If you find it compelling and want your doctor’s advice, then make an appointment. But, I recommend that you go to the doctor only if you need him or her to offer you a specific and important piece of information or service related to your health.

You want a medical record of your weight and accountability with a medical professional you trust.
You have diabetes, high blood pressure, or other diseases that need to be managed during fasting.
You are on medication that needs to be adjusted because you take it with food, or you have lost weight and need a different dosage.

I am not a doctor. I am a person who failed for twenty years, and then I succeeded, ending my suffering after following my own heart and my own advice. I don’t know for sure that fasting is the answer for you because only you can find the right path. I believe that if the other things you have tried failed, there is a strong reason you should try fasting. And I think there’s a ridiculously strong chance you may succeed.

Jason Fung

There are certain things that doctors are great at doing. Prescribing medications? Yes. Doing surgery? Yes. Nutrition and weight loss? Just as Eve wrote, the answer is no. You might be a little stunned to hear that admission, coming from a medical specialist like myself. But it all comes down to a physician’s training and what they see as their circle of competence.

Medical training extends more than a decade, and there is barely any attention paid to nutrition or the equally thorny question of how to lose weight. In medical school, the standard curriculum includes a mandated number of hours for nutrition, which varies depending upon where you did your training. Generally, during the four years of medical school, you receive ten to twenty hours of instruction on weight loss, and it’s about as insightful as your latest issue of Cosmopolitan. Eat less. Move more. Cut out 500 calories per day and you will lose about a pound of fat per week. This is the same old, same old advice that studies have shown doesn’t work.

When I was doing my medical training at the University of Toronto and the University of California, Los Angeles, nutritional lectures centered on things like the metabolic pathways of vitamin K or learning the pathway of vitamin D activation in the kidney and skin. Yes, perhaps you might consider that a lesson in nutrition, but it’s really much closer to biochemistry. We also learned about diseases such as scurvy (vitamin C deficiency, which was common centuries ago among men who spent most of their lives as sea) and pellagra (niacin deficiency). Knowledge of scurvy certainly came in handy during exams, but the last person whom I diagnosed with scurvy was, uh, no one. That’s probably because I am a modern-day physician and not a pirate of the Caribbean.

As a doctor, most of my clients want to know things like: Should I eat more carbs? Fewer carbs? More fat? Less fat? Is sugar bad? How often should I eat? How do I lose weight? Most medical schools provide less training in these real-life nutritional issues than most health clubs or gyms. Sure, every medical student knows that obesity plays a dominant role in metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome and, in turn, these metabolic diseases raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, kidney disease, blindness, and amputations. But those are diseases, and doctors are trained to treat diseases with drugs and surgery rather than providing solutions that address their root causes.

Does it change after medical school? Yes, it gets worse. A doctor’s specialty training, internship, residency, and fellowship last another five years after medical school, and during that time there is no formal curriculum for nutrition education. That’s another five years where doctors learn that weight loss has nothing to do with them. Leave it up to Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and magazines. It’s not real medicine.

So, should you talk to your doctor about weight loss? Would you ask your plumber to remove your wisdom teeth? Would you ask your barista to check your vision? No. It’s possible your doctor is an expert on nutrition and weight loss, but it’s more likely that he or she is not. Unless you are currently under the medical care of a doctor for a specific ailment, please trust yourself to make wise decisions about the food you eat. After all, it’s your health.

Chapter 11
Letting Go of Shame

Eve Mayer

The first time I ever squeezed my body into a pair of Spanx, I was in Paris.

Paris is a strange place for a plus-size woman. I was there to speak at a conference, and the women in the audience were young, sophisticated, and, most of all, thin as rails. These gorgeous creatures looked beautiful and healthy, and I . . . well, I did not. With my 240-pound body stuffed into a pair of Spanx, I felt like a giant sausage in a tight casing.

I’d heard women from around the world praise Spanx, saying they could smooth out your extra curves while simultaneously obliterating your body image issues. I couldn’t help but admire the company’s founder and CEO, who had the guts to make a business that would help women feel and look their best. But, too embarrassed to try on my Spanx in the store’s fitting room, the first time I’d put them on was in my hotel room before my speech, and the ordeal took me a full eight minutes. As it turned out, the size I bought was too small.

I tried to ignore the fact that the band of the top kept rolling down, and as I pulled on my dress, I told myself I could breathe (I couldn’t). But I knew how I was really feeling. I was about to stand in front of a crowd of sexy French people—who seemed to never gain an ounce, no matter how many baguettes, cheese plates, or macarons they devoured—and, even though I was a successful author and entrepreneur, deep down I was ashamed.

The Issue with Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is a tricky thing. On the one hand, you can have all the success and confidence in the world, but the shame of being overweight can destroy every inch of your ego. I am a case in point.

Every day growing up my parents told me I was amazing, special, talented, and that I could accomplish anything I wanted. I got a great education, and at school I won competitions for oration, science projects, writing, and business. I was the drum major of the band, helped out at the radio station, and was voted “most revolutionary” my senior year of high school.

After college I had a number of great jobs—and I relished paying my own bills and having money to spare. This small-town girl traveled to L.A., Nashville, New York, Singapore, and Japan. Along the way, I started my own companies, wrote three books, was recognized by Forbes as the 5th most influential woman in social media, and worked with Fortune 500 executives. I gave birth to a wonderful child, survived a divorce, and later met the man of my dreams. I am what most people would consider successful, fortunate, and blessed, but there has always been that one thing that prevented others from envying me.

I’ve been fat and sick most of my adult life.

Many of you are like me. I spent over two decades trying to overcome my struggles with weight and chronic health conditions, and all that time, something in the back of my mind always told me I just needed to accept that I was a loser. The dichotomy of extreme failure and extreme success in my life made no sense to me. If I was as smart and hardworking as anyone I knew, and if I could overcome obstacles and find success in my business and personal life, why was I still always one of the fattest people in the room? I couldn’t find answers, and that drove me into self-doubt, binge eating, shame, and self-loathing. It robbed me of some of my joy and forced me to become an expert at compartmentalizing my feelings. Something had to be wrong with me, right?

No. Nothing was wrong with me—it was all the dieting advice that was incorrect. Being fat was not my fault. As you head into your new life—one that will be changed by fasting—it’s time to let go of your shame.

Tell yourself the past is the past. Repeat this mantra every time you start to kick yourself for unhealthy habits or behaviors.
Write down five good things about yourself. These can be anything, from your beautiful hair to your fierce sense of humor to your compassion and intelligence. Keep this list handy, look at it daily, and keep adding to it.
Each morning when you wake up, say one positive thing you plan to do that day. This could be as simple as finishing your to-do list at work or being the best mom you can be. Be vigilant about doing it.
Do one good thing for another person or the world every day. Look in on an elderly neighbor, buy the person behind you in line a cup of coffee, or give $10 to your favorite charity.
Call one person in your support network every day. You don’t have to talk about much; just say hi and that you’re thankful for them.
When you make a mistake, don’t scold yourself. Laugh instead.
When you go to bed at night, say, “I am thankful for myself,” out loud.

Jason Fung

Obesity is inexorably intertwined with shame because so many people believe that being fat reflects a person’s willpower and character. Obesity is completely different from almost every other disease because there is always the unspoken accusation that you did it to yourself and that you could have done something about it if you weren’t such a weak-willed person. Many physicians engage in fat shaming, too, thinking it will give their patients extra motivation to lose weight. I’m always perplexed by this tactic—as if it’s not enough that the whole world makes them suffer every single day, the last thing obese people need is to be shamed by a trusted medical professional.

Who deserves the blame for the rise in obesity? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the “Calories In, Calories Out” model of weight loss. This school of thought may say, “It’s all about the calories,” but the hidden message is, “Your weight is all your fault.”

If you develop breast cancer, though, nobody secretly thinks that you should have done more to prevent it. If you have a stroke, nobody condescendingly tells you to “get with the program.” Because of “Calories In, Calories Out” (CICO), obesity has become a disease singularly unique in its association with shame. But the medical establishment, the government, and many diet “experts” are really just trying to deflect the responsibility from the horrible dietary advice they’ve peddled for decades.

The current mainstream way of thinking—that we limit calories, yet eat more often—has helped cause about 40 percent of the American adult population today to be classified as obese (BMI>30), and 70 percent as overweight or obese (BMI>25). But since CICO is the dominant paradigm among doctors and most of society, the obesity crisis is now believed to be an epidemic of weak willpower. Enter the terrible levels of shame that fat people feel today.

It’s time to let this go. Being overweight or obese is not your fault. You’ve just been getting the wrong information for years. Soon, though, you will embark on a new way of eating, thinking, and living that’s going to change your life. I can’t wait to show you how.

Part III
Your Fasting Plan

Chapter 12
Fasting Simplified

Eve Mayer

When I began fasting, I did everything wrong. Sure, the plan worked. But the amount of emotional and physical suffering I endured was unnecessary. I read so much that I was overwhelmed with too many choices, and I wished I had a fairy godmother who could solve all my woes. Of course, that didn’t happen, and it took me a year of reading, researching, trying, and failing before I finally figured out what worked best for me.

I’ll be honest with you. I like to do the least amount of work for the highest reward. I wish someone had simplified how to fast for me the way I am going to do for you. I’m no fairy godmother, but you can count on me as your blunt best friend, who will tell you the truth about how to ease into fasting and find your groove.

Simple Fasting

Look, I get it. You just want to know if fasting is for you, and you’d like to avoid spending a ton of money, time, pain, and agony to gain the health and body you deserve. I hear you! These wants and our human need to put in the least amount of effort for the greatest reward are exactly why fasting is something you should consider and try.

Why?

Because fasting is simply a manipulation of time. It seems like such a little thing that it couldn’t possibly be the answer you have been searching for all these years. But, really, that is all fasting is: how long you need to go between periods of eating to gain the health you desire.

Perhaps you have five pounds to lose or perhaps you have five hundred pounds to lose. I still believe that choosing to control when you eat is a magnificent place to start. So right this minute, adopt a no-cost, no-time-commitment plan to see if fasting might help you at the very lowest level of work. It’s okay to be lazy. It’s not okay to ignore your own needs, wants, and dreams. You deserve your heart’s desire. You hold the key to unlock it.

The most stress-free way to begin fasting is to use a process I call simple fasting—or, because it takes so little effort, lazy fasting. Simple fasting involves starting slowly, with a manageable fasting schedule, then extending it if you like. But if doing minimal work forever is best for you, that’s fine, too.

By now, you should have already clearly identified your goal, which is essential in this process. If you haven’t, take some time to decide what you are really after in this process. Only after that can you set out on a new lifestyle, with simple fasting guiding you.

So many people feel stressed about choosing the right fasting schedule and making the right decisions about which meals to skip and when to eat. They want to follow strict rules and know exactly what to do. Maybe they’ve been reading articles and blog posts recommending conflicting fasting schedules, and they feel overwhelmed by all of it. I’ve been there. That’s not what I intend to do here. Instead, I want to present an easy entry point with simple fasting.

When you get right down to it, all fasting really means is that you are going to eat less often. Fasting is customizable, and everyone requires a different solution. This is why you have to find what works for you. When I started fasting, I was eating eight times a day, but you may be eating way less often than I was. This is why the series of plans offered in the next chapter is for anyone who wants to find the right fasting lane for them.

I am not a fan of all the words people use to describe various fasts, like 16:8 (meaning you eat only during an eight-hour period and fast during a sixteen-hour span), 36 (a full-day fast), or EF (an extended fast of more than thirty-two hours). I prefer short, plain, easily understandable words because, when you are new to a subject, the lingo that more experienced people use can make you feel like you’re hearing a foreign language. So, please, just remember what you read a moment ago. Fasting is simply eating less often. And don’t worry. At the end of this book, we do define the many fasting terms you may come across on this journey.

Will I See Unicorns?

Some people experience euphoria and rainbows and peace and visions and freaking unicorns when they fast. If you are one of those people, congratulations! Also, I am jealous of you.

All joking aside, many people do experience increased mental clarity, focus, better sleep, and improved energy within hours of beginning a fast. Others don’t—or only feel this after fasting for a few days or weeks. People respond to fasting in all different ways, which is why no one can tell you the ideal schedule. You must try the process and find it for yourself. If you can hit the goals you set for yourself by following one of the easier plans in this book, then you may never need to do a more rigorous fast.

I’m over the suffering and deprivation we’ve been taught is needed if we want to lose weight. I’m not going to do that anymore. I’m going to eat less often and do the minimal amount of work to reach and maintain my goals. That’s right. I’m urging you to be kind to yourself, step into the process, and find your solution by feeling out what’s right for you. Imagine that? I now have a healthy body and I’m nice to myself. Honestly, I am my own unicorn!

Megan Ramos

I remember when my husband and I wanted to get in shape, so I found the perfect gym where we could lift weights. When I told my husband, he replied, “Megan, we haven’t worked out in two years. I bet we’d both hurt our backs just trying to bend down to touch our toes. Let’s instead wake up tomorrow morning and try to stretch.”

He was right. The next morning, I started stretching, and I was sore for three days afterward. But by taking baby steps—doing body weight training at home, then months later joining the gym—I was finally ready to lift weights with the big guys.

I recommend approaching fasting in a similar way. It’s like developing a muscle, and some people have naturally stronger fasting muscles starting out than others. Some muscles are out of practice, and others bounce back quickly. To work your fasting muscle, you have to have some flexibility, and that’s why the plans in this book are laid out from easiest to hardest. Choose what’s best for you, but I recommend starting at the beginning rather than diving in with a multiday fast.

Many factors play a role in determining how strong our fasting muscles are. High insulin levels can cause a constant state of hunger that is often difficult to bear, and, other times, medications and health issues (like diabetes) may limit multiday fasts. Our habits play a role, too. Some of us have schedules that require us to eat at certain times of the day (which might limit a daylong fast) and others have beloved traditions they don’t want to part with. That’s okay. There is a plan for you.

You can strengthen your fasting muscle by keeping two key things in mind. First, build up to your goal gradually with simple fasting. Start slowly, making changes week by week. Taking this gradual approach reduces potential side effects. Second, fast consistently because you’re never going to strengthen your fasting muscle if you don’t use it on a regular basis. If you go to the gym four times in a year, you can’t complain when you don’t gain big muscles.

Stress is both good and bad for our bodies. Some stress helps our muscles grow, while too much is harmful. This is the same approach Eve and many others take when it comes to fasting, especially if they’re nervous about incorporating it into their lifestyle.

Many people start off with the goal of fasting for thirty-six hours, three times a week. Some do just fine, but they’re the exceptions. Most others must start with the basics of just eating three times a day, with no snacking, like our grandparents did. At first, even this might seem like a struggle since we’ve become such grazers, and we tend to eat more snacks than meals these days. But, eventually, it becomes very easy to stick to your meals and avoid snacking. I had a twenty-six-year-old male client who found all the success he needed by fasting this way. He’d gained thirty pounds in grad school, and while he hadn’t developed any diseases, he hated carrying the extra weight. He cut out snacking and started skipping breakfast. Within three months, he lost all his excess weight.

It may feel challenging to cut out one meal, but over time it gets easier. When it’s no longer challenging, then it’s time to increase your fast just like you would the weight of a kettlebell at the gym. Fasting gets more manageable over time as your body adapts to fueling itself with body fat rather than food. In fact, sometimes you barely notice you’re fasting because you don’t feel hungry.

Fasting Training Wheels

Most people assume that, during a fast, you should only drink water. That’s one way of doing it, but there are many variations that may be just as successful. We encourage people new to fasting to drink bone broth, pickle juice, tea, or coffee in addition to water (still or sparkling). If you love coffee or tea, drink two cups of water for every one cup of coffee or tea in order to stay hydrated. It’s also better to drink your tea and coffee black, but even that is a huge change for many, so Dr. Fung and I let our clients add one or two tablespoons of fat to help them adjust (see the full list here).

Salt is crucial to help prevent dehydration because, when you fast, your insulin levels drop. This signals the kidneys to excrete water and electrolytes. Sodium is the gateway electrolyte, so it’s critical to replenish it. In short, hydration isn’t about just fluid. It requires electrolytes as well. Taking in sodium will cause the body to maintain healthy levels of all other electrolytes.

Think of the products below as your training wheels. It’s okay to drink them when you’re brand-new to fasting, but you don’t want to be using them forever. As the fasting gets easier, you’ll find that you need less of these items as time goes on. And you don’t have to take them if you don’t feel like you need them, either. If you’re new to fasting and are nervous, go slowly, challenge yourself a bit each week, be consistent, and use your fasting training wheels until you don’t require them anymore.

Your fasting training wheels include:

Bone broth. Because it’s full of vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes, bone broth is great for weight loss, longevity, and disease prevention.
A homemade low-carb vegetable broth.
Pickle juice, no sugar.
Three tablespoons of lemon or lime juice added to water.
Apple cider vinegar. This is a great appetite suppressant because it mildly decreases your glucose levels. Drink a couple of tablespoons at a time through a straw to protect your tooth enamel.
Sauerkraut juice.
Tea and coffee (cold or hot, any variety), with 1 to 2 tablespoons of fat, including heavy cream, half-and-half, whole milk, unsweetened coconut milk, unsweetened almond milk, butter or ghee, or coconut or MCT oil. Avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners.

Common Questions About Fasting

When you start fasting, you’re likely to have a lot of questions. We’ll discuss many of those issues in Part IV of the book, but we want to address here a few of the most common questions we receive from clients and readers.

Do I have to practice extended fasting for long-term success?

It depends on your fasting goals.

How much weight will I lose when fasting?

Not including water weight, you’ll lose about half a pound of body fat per twenty-four hours of fasting. Men and women lose weight at different rates, however. See here for details.

What is the difference between fasting and starving?

Starvation is not voluntary; fasting is. Most people who fast are not malnourished individuals. They tend to be overweight and overnourished.

How long do I have to fast to get into fat-burning mode?

It begins after having fasted for sixteen hours straight. If you fast just by skipping lunch, you’re certainly working your fasting muscle, but you’re not yet in the fat-burning zone.

What is autophagy and when does it start?

The word autophagy derives from the Greek “auto” (self) and “phagein” (to eat). The word literally means “to eat oneself.” This is the body’s way of getting rid of all the broken-down, old cell parts that don’t serve the body. It’s different for everyone, but it starts after twenty-four to thirty-six hours of not eating, increases 300 percent at thirty-six hours, and plateaus at seventy-two hours. The study of autophagy is relatively new and, as such, our knowledge of it is incomplete. Thus, it’s recommended if you are fasting for autophagy that you only consume water and salt.

I’ve heard that fasting can burn muscle. Is this true?

Up to about twenty-four hours or so during a fast, the body mostly uses glucose for energy. During the switch from burning glucose to burning fat, there is a short period when the body uses protein to produce new glucose for energy. This phase is called gluconeogenesis. Many people assume that this period of burning protein is detrimental to health, but it’s likely the opposite. Protein is not the same as muscle, so burning protein does not necessarily mean that you are burning muscle. You also have lots of skin and connective tissue. During longer fasts, the body switches to burning mostly fat for energy, and this period of protein metabolism stops.

Can I work out while fasting?

Yes! Movement is encouraged while fasting, and we will discuss this in detail in chapter 15. When you feel lethargic on a fast, the worst thing you can do is do nothing. Walking is great. Vertical movements aid weight loss because they drain the lymphatic system. Some individuals prefer to work out in a fasted state, and professional athletes sometimes train in a fasted state.

I’m afraid that if I fast, I will just pig out later and gain weight. Does that happen?

No. Most people report a dramatic decrease in appetite. Mentally, they may feel hungry, but as soon as they start to eat, they fill up quite quickly.

Will I lose hair from fasting?

Hair loss is one of people’s biggest fears because they think that if their hair is falling out, they must be malnourished, but that’s not the case. Hair loss is not associated with fasting; it is associated with rapid weight loss. Those who practice intermittent fasting and lose weight steadily—rather than rapidly—don’t have issues, as their body is expecting the weight loss. Those who do extended fasts or experience a drastic change in body composition experience hair loss regardless of the type of diet they’re on. Hair loss can be stopped by slowing down weight loss, or you can wait it out once the rapid weight loss is over.

Will I have extra skin when I lose weight?

It depends on the individual. Our program has yet to have one client require skin removal surgery since we started in 2012.

How much water should I have daily?

How much water you need varies from person to person, so you should drink water whenever you’re thirsty. Thirst is also frequently mistaken for hunger, so drink when you feel hungry, too.

How much salt should I consume daily?

It completely varies per person. Start with ¹^/4 teaspoon in your water and continue to add more until you stop experiencing headaches or lethargy.

Can I drink alcohol while fasting?

We don’t suggest it. Alcohol puts you at risk for dehydration and can raise your insulin levels, which you’re trying to lower during a fast. We even recommend abstaining from alcohol—except, if you wish, a glass of wine—during your first meal after a fast. If you do drink, I recommend dry wines (red or white) and spirits as long as the mixers don’t have sugars or sweeteners in them. For example, a vodka soda with lime won’t raise your insulin like, say, a margarita. Also, we encourage people to limit themselves to one drink per day. If you drink more than one alcoholic beverage, alternate the booze with a glass of water. Finally, it’s better to consume alcohol during rather than outside your eating windows (say, during the time you’ve set aside for dinner).

Can I have sugar or stevia while fasting?

This is a hard no. Both sugar and stevia will stimulate the production of insulin, which you are trying to reduce with fasting.

Can I take my vitamin or daily supplements while fasting?

Supplements may hinder autophagy. When fasting for metabolic reasons (meaning insulin resistance–related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, PCOS, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease), the effectiveness of supplements is questionable. Most vitamins are fat soluble, but if you’re not taking in fat they won’t be as effective. Probiotics are fine to continue taking while fasting.

What do I do about medications I normally take with food?

Talk to your doctor.

Chapter 13
Stop Snacking

Eve Mayer

Your first major step toward fasting is to stop snacking—for good. If you’re like I was, this may be the most intimidating part of fasting. Trust me, though. If I could do it, you can, too!

When I used to be hungry, I snacked. I snacked a lot. How many times a day on average do you think you eat? Three or four times? You might be surprised at the truth. Seriously, stop for a minute and add up how many times you ate yesterday and try to think back to the day before as well.

Yes, the two pieces of candy from the candy bowl count as one time. Yes, the biscuit you had with your coffee counts. Yes, the half chocolate bar you ate when you needed a little something sweet late at night counts. By the time you add all of this up, I bet you reach at least six or seven teeny-weeny, innocent, mindless snacks.

Many of us have been told that we need to eat small meals and snacks throughout the day to keep our metabolic engines running. Well, guess what? I snacked and snacked like a champ. I did my very best to keep that engine running while eating smaller portions, and, shockingly, my hope that these tiny meals would keep my metabolic engines burning didn’t work for me. I got fat. I tried diets, and I stayed fat. I had bariatric surgeries and I remained (a bit less) fat. My bariatric surgeries made my stomach smaller, so I ate smaller meals more often. Yet I never, ever felt full for much more than an hour. The never-ending cycle of hunger, food selection, food preparation, eating, cleaning up, and repeating took up a huge portion of my life.

When I learned about fasting, I thought it was a ridiculous idea. Determined to prove Dr. Fung’s theories wrong, I jumped in headfirst with a thirty-six-hour fast. Obviously, over time I realized Dr. Fung was right, and fasting helped me to discover a new, wonderful, healthy life. But had I been smarter, I would have progressed at a more reasonable rate doing what Megan suggests: treating fasting like weight lifting, gradually building my fasting muscle.

It’s easy to start. Are you ready? Stop snacking. Right now.

Step One: How Not to Snack

The rules are simple. Eat three meals a day until you are full. Each meal should take no longer than one hour, and you get to choose the time of the meals. You get to pick the food in the meals. If you drink soda or any kind of drink, even diet drinks, start limiting them to your mealtimes. If you must have gum, have it after you eat and within one hour of a meal.

But, no snacks, which means: no gum, candy, mints, sugar, food, juice, sweet drinks—natural or otherwise—broth, smoothies, or sports drinks, except at mealtimes.

If this sounds easy to you, then I completely admire you. And, pardon the pun, but I bet fasting might just end up being a piece of cake for you. If you’re a bit older, like myself, not snacking may even sound familiar. I remember being told that if I had a snack after school it would spoil my dinner. Eventually, the prevailing wisdom changed, and parents—mine included—gave their children snacks after school.

Baby Steps May Be Necessary

Some of you reading this may realize that you eat eight to ten times a day. If that’s the case, don’t stop snacking cold turkey. If you do, you’d be eating only a third of the times that you currently do. This compares to a person smoking a pack of cigarettes a day going to just a few cigarettes a day. You’re likely to fail quickly, and I don’t want that to happen.

Instead, cut out one snack time per day for a week, just like this:

WEEK 1: Go from eating eight times a day to eating seven times a day.
WEEK 2: Go from eating seven times a day to eating six times a day.
WEEK 3: Go from eating six times a day to eating five times a day.

Get the picture?

When I stopped snacking, it was uncomfortable, but it was not painful or unbearable. It just felt foreign because I was used to eating at certain times of the day, and my body and mind knew it. At first, I felt hungry during the periods I would usually eat. But my body began to adjust and didn’t expect the food I had been giving it at that time slot. When I skipped my usual snack, I also felt hungrier than normal at my next eating period, and I would eat a bit extra then. But my body adjusted to this over time, too.

I now avoid snacking about 90 percent of the time, and it’s one of the reasons I feel that I’ve been able to maintain a healthier weight for the first time in my life. Sometimes, I can’t resist sneaking in something extra delicious, or if I have a hunger that lasts for hours, I may have a snack. But this is rare. Thankfully, now that I’m used to it, staying away from snacks isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I understand that fit people do the right things most of the time, and that is what I strive for.

Jason Fung

Controlling hunger is crucial to weight loss, so how do you rein it in? The standard dietary suggestion given to most people by doctors and diet books is to eat six or seven small meals per day because, if you can prevent hunger, then you may also be able to make better food choices and avoid overeating. On the surface, this advice seems pretty reasonable. But dig a little deeper and it falls apart.

The most important determinant of how much you eat is how hungry you are. Yes, you can deliberately eat less, but you can’t decide to be less hungry. If you are constantly eating, but are still hungry, it takes a toll on your health, day after day, month after month, year after year. You are in a never-ending battle with your own body. However, if you are less hungry, you’ll eat less. You’ll be working with your body to lose weight, not fighting against it.

Is there any scientific evidence to suggest that snacking or eating small meals constantly will prevent hunger? That would be a big NO. Let me repeat that. Science does not support the idea that eating nonstop will alleviate the gnawing, aching grumbling in your stomach that leads you to snack. It’s also not necessary to snack because our body stores food energy (calories) as body fat for the exact reason of providing calories when we need them. Finally, eating all the time is sort of a nuisance. If you are trying to find food six or seven times per day, when are you supposed to get anything done? You are constantly thinking about what you need to eat and when to eat it.

You might believe that grazing or snacking will prevent overeating. If this were true, what is the point of an appetizer? An hors d’oeuvre is served to make us eat more. Eating a small, tasty morsel makes us hungrier because it causes us to start salivating and thinking about food. In French, this is called an amuse-bouche, meaning “something that amuses the mouth.” Why? So that we will eat more. Giving too large a portion would stimulate the satiety hormones and dull the appetite. But a tiny portion does the opposite.

Now, think about a time where you weren’t really hungry, but it was breakfast time, and you ate because people have always said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. To your surprise, after you started eating, you finished an entire meal. Before you first lifted your fork, though, you could have easily skipped the meal and been fine. Has this happened to you? It’s happened to me many, many times, and I’ve noticed it simply because I’ve conditioned myself to think about hunger. In short, eating when you are not hungry is not a good strategy for weight loss. Yet people are continually scolded for having the temerity to skip a single meal or snack. This flies in the face of all logic.

If we eat small meals six or seven times per day, we whet our appetite, then deliberately stop before we’re satiated. We then repeat this multiple times per day. This is not going to decrease our appetite, but it will increase it—a lot. And because we’re hungry but haven’t eaten our fill, we must exert a significant amount of willpower to stop ourselves from snacking. This is exhausting, yet, day after day, it continues.

The way to break this cycle—and continuously give yourself a smaller appetite—is to eat less frequently and stop snacking.

Chapter 14
Stepping into Fasting

Eve Mayer

I know you’re ready to move forward with your life in a transformative way. You’ve been able to stop snacking (step one), so it’s time to head right into fasting. Don’t worry, it’s not that difficult! We’ll ease you in, and as we said before, there is no need to move on to a harder next step if you’re not ready or able. Stick with the step you’re most comfortable with and continue on when you’ve mastered it.

Step Two: Skip Breakfast

Yep, that’s it. Instead of eating three meals a day, you will eat two. And remember, no snacks.

How can you prepare the night before you skip breakfast? Great question. Your dinner should consist of healthy, whole foods that will fill you up and make you feel good. Preferably, stick to a low-carb diet, like we described in chapter 5. When you eat sugary foods or other products you’ve decided are not great for you, they can make you feel hungrier the next morning. I find it helpful to consume lots of healthy fat the night before fasting, like meat or cheese, plus a big green salad loaded with vegetables. You should eat this meal within one hour, a time period that allows you to enjoy what you’re eating and who you’re eating with—and get full.

When you skip breakfast the next day, you will be hungry at first because your body is used to eating in the morning. Distract yourself by hydrating instead. Drink water, carbonated water, tea, or coffee. If you must, have a splash of heavy cream in your tea or coffee. I skip breakfast every morning, but I drink two cups of coffee, and they set me right. Do not use sugar or sweetener of any kind, including natural sweeteners like stevia. Why? Because for many people that sweetness can very well trigger hunger and make fasting more difficult than it needs to be. Remember, weight loss is about controlling hunger, not calories. When it’s time for lunch, eat within your one-hour eating period, then wait no more than eight hours until dinner, when you should dine within one hour again.

There was a time when I woke up and ate as soon as possible, hoping to get my metabolism running. Now, I rarely eat in the morning, and it has come to be no big deal. In fact, I was shocked to find that once I was used to it—which took me about six months—I hardly ever felt hungry. If I did, my trusty coffee with a splash of heavy cream did the trick.

How often you choose to skip breakfast is completely up to you. If the first day feels like no big deal, skip breakfast again the next day. If not eating is hell, only do it once or twice a week until it is bearable. Eventually step up your frequency (I recommend adding one day a week, day by day) until you reach a place that’s comfortable to you.

You may have an unusual schedule and want to know if you can skip dinner instead of breakfast. Of course you can! The meal you choose not to eat doesn’t matter. The goal here is for you to get comfortable with eating only two meals a day, each consumed within one hour, separated by no more than eight hours between the two meals.

Can you still work out on the morning that you fast? Yes, you certainly can. I do, and I find I exercise so much better while I’m fasting than I do when I work out after eating. Another unexpected surprise for me about skipping breakfast is that now my family has more time to sit together on the sofa, sip coffee, and give the doggy extra belly rubs. Plus, we don’t have to do breakfast dishes before we run out the door, and we save money on groceries. Win-win!

In short, skip breakfast as frequently as you wish and see what changes happen in your body and mind. I know many people who do this daily, and this is the total extent of their fasting practice. I’ve seen these people lose weight, get off medications, and change their lives for the better. This may be the case for you, or you may find after a time that you wish to go further. Again, it’s up to you. This is your life.

Step Three: Skip Lunch

Now that you are never snacking and regularly and comfortably skipping breakfast as often as you wish, you’re ready for a day where you only eat an evening meal.

If you think about it, skipping lunch after not eating breakfast only adds about six more hours of fasting. For most people, it also isn’t nearly as traumatizing as they think it will be. Plus, you only have to try for one day. The following day, you can go back to the eating schedule you normally follow.

Yes, you are going to get hungry at lunchtime, but keep yourself busy, hydrated, distracted, and determined to reach your goals. When dinnertime rolls around, eat healthy, filling foods for a period of one hour, and make sure to finish up at least two hours before you go to bed.

If eating only dinner for a day isn’t that difficult, try it again the following week. If the process continues to be easy for you, begin eating only dinner two days per week but not on consecutive days. After a period of time you feel comfortable with, decide if you want to eat only dinner three days a week, nonconsecutively.

Does it matter which meals you skip? Just as with step one, no. You can eat at the mealtime of your choosing. I have suggested eating only at dinner because this is the meal most commonly shared by family or socially. If you have an untraditional schedule, feel free to go with just breakfast, or you could choose to eat only lunch. The only necessity is that you eat a meal with a fasting period of twenty-three hours before it. So, if you decide to eat only lunch, your last meal the day before would need to be lunch.

As a person who had zero experience fasting before I dove into this new lifestyle, I never found a twenty-four-hour fast too mentally or physically difficult. I’d worked up to it by skipping snacks and breakfast, so one more meal didn’t seem terrible. I still feel this way, and now I skip breakfast most days.

Step Four: Skip Dinner

I’m going to be honest; I think that step four is the most difficult. But if you have stopped snacking, often skip breakfast, and are at ease with bypassing lunch a few times a week—yet still aren’t hitting your weight loss and health goals—then it is time for a thirty-six-hour fast.

I know, I know! You may be thinking, Wait. Thirty-six hours? I thought I was only fasting for a full day? Stop for a second and think: This fast is referred to as a 36 because you will not be eating for thirty-six hours. You finish dinner at, say, 7:00 p.m. You sleep for the night. You don’t eat the following day. You sleep again. You wake up and eat breakfast at 7 a.m. Boom, you just fasted for thirty-six hours!

I didn’t use the schedule above for my first thirty-six-hour fast, and I found it extremely difficult. Why? Because I was awake for a lot more of it, obsessing over my hunger. I ate breakfast and then began a thirty-six-hour fast, which means I was only asleep for eight hours of it. It is so much easier to do a thirty-six-hour fast when you are asleep for sixteen hours of fasting time. This means you only deal with hunger for twenty hours, or the hours that you are awake.

I recommend scheduling this fast on a day you are as busy as possible and around as little food as possible. Set yourself up for success, not suffering, and do your best to limit mealtimes with others, shopping, and cooking. Because these things are sometimes unavoidable, you should always ask for support, and you may just be surprised at how helpful people will be. I also tend to sleep less when I fast for a full day, and while this was once confusing and discouraging, I now view it as an opportunity, and I plan to get extra things done when I’m not sleeping.

Finally, remember that not eating for one day is called fasting, not starving. Choice is the differentiator, and while going to bed with no food in your stomach may be scary, once you’re asleep you won’t even notice. Plus, during the day you can practice all the tricks you did before: hydrate, find an activity you enjoy, and remind yourself that you’re doing awesome things to reach your goal.

Will you be hungry? Yes! You aren’t used to going a day without food, and your body is going to get hungry in response to the behaviors it has been used to. But remember that hunger isn’t a bad thing; it’s your body telling you it’s burning fat. Plus, you’re heading into uncharted territory here, and every time you fast is a singular experience. When you lengthen a fast for a longer period than you have ever done before, you will probably feel hungrier. But you can handle it because you’ve built up to it.

The frequency of a thirty-six-hour fast is completely up to you. If you find your first 36 traumatic, wait one month before trying it again. If you think it’s pretty darn easy, do it again the following week. As the thirty-six-hour fast becomes more seamless, you can use it as a tool to speed up your progress toward your goals.

Remind yourself that the sooner you get to sleep, the sooner you will eat in the morning.
Make sure you are well hydrated. Some people find a mug of warm caffeine-free tea (like chamomile) helps them to feel fuller.
Consider melatonin supplements if needed.
Warm baths are great but are most helpful at least a few hours before bedtime.
Avoid computer, TV, and phone screens for a couple of hours before bed if possible.
Try meditating, deep breathing, aromatherapy, reading, or whatever makes you feel restful.
Decide what you will eat for breakfast. Don’t prepare it because you might end up shoving some of it into your mouth accidentally that night (it has happened to me!). Knowing what you are looking forward to enjoying foodwise in the morning can make the hunger more bearable.

Step Five: Extend the Fast to Day Two

Just look at you! You have become an impressive fasting beast. You stopped snacking, often skip breakfast, can also skip lunch when you choose, and can even go a full day with no food. Guess what? You’ve already completed an extended fast because most people define one as being longer than twenty-four hours. Nice going!

So how does one prepare to not eat for more than one day? First, you must decide if you want to do it at all. So many people have lost weight and met all their health goals without ever doing an extended fast, and that is more than fine. For example, one woman I followed online stopped snacking and skipped breakfast every morning. With this schedule, she lost sixty pounds in a year, and her doctor took her off her medication for type 2 diabetes because her blood sugars were in a healthy range. Another man I followed lost over one hundred pounds over a nine-month period by skipping breakfast every day and forgoing lunch on two of those days. He also lowered his blood pressure and was taken off the medication he had used for eighteen years.

This is not the case for everyone, though, and there are many reasons you might want to try an extended fast. They include:

You want to speed up the process toward your goal.
Your weight and measurements have stalled for a month or more.
You are curious to see what it is like.
You are seeking added health benefits beyond just weight loss. For example, extended fasts are more effective at lower insulin levels in those with type 2 diabetics. After thirty-six hours, ketosis begins, and after forty-eight hours, autophagy, or the process of cellular cleansing, kick-starts. Extended fasts are also reported to heighten mental clarity.

To strengthen your fasting muscles and see if an extended fast will work for you, start by not eating for a whole day, sleeping, and then fasting until lunch the following day. If this feels comfortable, a few days or so later, try forty-two hours. Then forty-eight. Later, step up to seventy-two hours, then five days. The important thing is to increase your fasting window bit by bit. Once one fasting regimen becomes easy, then extend it to the next level of fasting.

It is tempting to think that the longer the fast, the better. This simply isn’t the case. I have done two extremely long fasts: one for eleven days and one for ten days. My results were impressive: I lost about twelve pounds each time, and my skin glowed like I’d had a $300 facial at a fancy spa. But the fasting was very tough mentally, and my weight loss was the same as it would have been if I’d just fasted for ten single, nonconsecutive days over a month. Other than those, I have done about twenty extended fasts, most being thirty-six to forty-eight hours. They can be tough for me to stick to, but if I schedule them when I am busy and when my husband can cook and grocery shop, I can usually complete them.

On my eleven-day fast, I was shocked at all the thoughts and emotions that went through my head. I kept a diary, and I sometimes go back and marvel at how psychologically amped up I felt. My most powerful emotion was anger. I was mad at my trainer—whom I’d known for two years—telling me she didn’t feel comfortable with me working out midway through my fast. I was angry at the fact that I wore my husband out by telling him almost hourly about all the new data I’d found about fasting’s success rates. I was upset that, some nights, I didn’t sleep well—or woke up at 4:00 a.m.—because I had so much extra energy. I was angry when I realized I was going to have to start living a new life that wasn’t focused on food, and that would require me to develop new skills and interests. And, most of all, I was angry that I hadn’t tried fasting earlier. I’d spent years struggling and failing to lose weight and failing to feel better, and, yet, during an extended fast, I felt healthier and more energetic than I had in years. It was like I was living a new life! I kept thinking, Why didn’t anyone tell me about fasting earlier?

When you decide to do an extended fast—especially one that’s more than forty-eight hours—I think it makes sense to consider having a doctor involved. When I did my eleven-day fast, I was under the care of Dr. Fung and Megan, and I also informed my primary care doctor, who was supportive of my exploring new methods for my health. As I said in chapter 10 as well, a doctor’s care becomes especially important when you have health issues or medications you normally take with food.

Regardless of what you decide to do, extended fasts can be a wonderful reboot for your weight and overall health. As part of a larger fasting plan, they can be life-changing for any number of health conditions, and they may even change your perspective on your health, happiness, and self-worth.

Jason Fung

Now that you know the many ways you can begin a fast and proceed through it, it’s time to learn what to do when you break your fast.

For most fasts—that is, five days or less—you don’t need to worry too much. Just eat slowly and mindfully. As you know by now, once you start eating, your body will tell you to keep eating until your hormones signal satiety. Don’t eat beyond that point. Your meal should be made up of colorful, nutritious, healthy foods that make you feel good. Chew slowly and deliberately, and do not stuff food into your mouth. The first bite of food may feel strange—or, conversely, taste more delicious than anything you’ve experienced before. Just sit with that feeling and don’t overthink it. Plan to eat your meal within one hour, and remember to drink plenty of liquids over the course of it.

After longer fasts of five days or more, I often advise people to plan a small snack—like a handful of nuts or a small salad—about thirty minutes ahead of the main meal. The small snack is a form of refeeding. When doing longer fasts, there is a small risk of something called refeeding syndrome, where a large meal upon breaking a fast causes electrolytes to move into the cells too rapidly. This can be very dangerous, and refeeding slowly reduces that risk.

The second reason for refeeding is to prevent the overeating that some people do when they break a fast. It gives the digestive system a chance to “warm up,” if you will, since it hasn’t been used for many days. For shorter fasts of fewer than thirty-six hours, it makes little difference.

Chapter 15
Exercise for Health, Not Weight Loss

Eve Mayer

Note: If you love your workouts and are more or less at the body weight you want, you can probably skip this chapter and go straight to chapter 16.

However, if you groan at the thought of working out, are struggling to fit exercise into your schedule, or have never achieved the fitness results you hoped for, then keep reading!

My Struggles with Exercise

Many years ago, when I weighed about 280 pounds, I decided to train for a three-day, sixty-mile walk in support of the fight against breast cancer. Besides raising money for this worthy cause, my preparation called for me to walk three to fifteen miles per day, several days a week, for six months.

Have you ever exercised carrying around an extra 30, 60, or 100 pounds? I have, and then some! At 280 pounds, I was dragging around an extra 130 pounds, so you might as well imagine me carrying an adult woman on my back. One mile of walking was certainly uncomfortable, but months of walking at that weight were agony. Everything chafed and hurt, and my feet strained to support the weight of my body. I spent every weekend walking up to ten miles, while joggers and speed walkers zipped by me. I felt sluggish, slow, and ashamed. Yet I persisted, trained, and was determined to complete the walk on behalf of the women I knew who had suffered through breast cancer so bravely.

Although I trained at home in Dallas on mostly flat terrain, the walk I’d signed up for with a group of old college pals was from San Jose to San Francisco. Let’s just say California is a slight bit hillier than my training had prepared me for! The locals said they were small hills, but they immediately felt more like giant mountains to me.

For three days, I lined up near the front of the group with thousands of other participants behind me. Yet without fail, by the end of the day I was always one of the last people on the course, if not the very last. There was a sweeper van at the end of the crowd of walkers that picked up participants who needed to be transported to the next water stop. There was also a kind volunteer who rode her bike behind the very last walker. The biker and I became very well acquainted, and by day two, she “kindly” suggested that perhaps I should take advantage of the van just to get a little break. I “politely” declined, and as morning turned into afternoon, she practically forced me into the van.

The three days of the walk were humbling at best and mortifying at worst. People of every age and size passed me, from fit walkers to not-so-fit walkers to a few ladies who were even larger than I was. One day I looked up to see a woman who was likely in her seventies, her bald head suggesting she had cancer, breeze past me, sure-footed in her stride. I’m not sure if I imagined this, but I swear I also remember an elderly woman on crutches cruising by, eyeing me with pity.

I’m sharing this story to show you that, all throughout my obesity, I exercised. For years, I spent money, time, and hope on weight training, dance classes, walking, yoga, gyms, personal trainers, Pilates, and more. Yet exercise was never an effective way to help me lose weight. In fact, during my six months of training for the three-day walk, I gained five pounds. Perhaps it was muscle, you ask? I’m not so sure. My clothes were tighter, so I think it was fat.

In order to lose weight and regain your health, you need to add something else to your lifestyle other than exercise. That something is fasting.

Exercising While Fasting

Many people are shocked to find out that working out while fasting is not only allowed but encouraged. Since I started fasting two years ago, I’m now in the best shape of my adult life, with more muscle than ever. I continue to lose fat and gain muscle at a slow yet steady rate, and I’m filled with vitality almost every day.

I’ll tell you a secret. I spend less time exercising than I used to. In the past, I used a walking desk at least three hours a day, plus I worked out with a trainer a few times a week. I was in worse shape, and I was fatter and much hungrier. Today, I actually enjoy fitness—most of the time!

My routine is simple. Most days I walk the dog at a brisk pace that gets my heart going for about twenty minutes, and I do weight lifting with barbells or machines about twice a week for forty-five minutes each time. When I say weight lifting, I want you to picture very basic, small weights or machines set at low resistance, under the supervision of a personal trainer or using a workout app with my husband at the gym. Recently, I added CrossFit into the mix two times per week. I’m often the worst in the class, but I feel like a stud doing squats and lifts with barbells, even if the weight I’m using isn’t substantial.

In short, with fasting, I’m exercising less, but I am more fit than ever before.

Should you exercise? Yes! Fitness benefits your brain, your breathing, your heart, your lungs, your muscles, your digestion, your cellular composition, your mental health, and more. When I abstain from exercise completely, I find that my mood and contentment level start to dip after about ten days. Once again, finding the right exercise for you is a personal journey, and while Megan will lay out some recommendations, no one should tell you with assuredness that three hours of any specific activity a week is exactly what you need.

Recently, my husband and I went on vacation to Nevada. We traveled to a tiny town called Blue Diamond, which is nestled in the desert mountains and has a charming restaurant, a bike shop, and 150 miles of rocky trails meant for biking, horseback riding, or walking. My husband and I made the very uncharacteristic decision to head out on a hike—the first real hike of my life. I was nervous, to say the least! But I forced myself to think positive and do it. The two-mile trail took one and a half hours, and when we reached the top of a peak, we were rewarded with stunning views of red- and brown-striped mountains and a crisp, cool wind on our faces.

Suddenly, I was overcome with emotions, and I began to cry.

I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of friends at the top of some beautiful mountain, their arms reaching into the air in celebration. Many of my friends have posted these photos online, and I’ve always felt happy for them that they were strong enough to reach the peak. But I knew it was something I’d never be able to do.

When I climbed to the top of that Nevada mountain, suddenly and unexpectedly, I proved myself wrong. You can do the same!

CHOOSE SOMETHING YOU CAN AFFORD AND THAT FITS IN YOUR SCHEDULE. Don’t sign up for a marathon if you can only devote two hours a week to running. Don’t enroll in expensive private Pilates classes that your budget will not allow.
FIND SOMETHING THAT YOU ENJOY. If you are groaning now, I get it. I used to hate any and all kinds of exercise because getting up and moving was painful. I chose walking because I enjoyed the peace of being outside, and I worked my way into it slowly. If you can’t find an exercise you like right away, then choose to exercise in an environment you enjoy. For example, if you’re looking for a low-impact way to reduce stress, try gentle yoga. If you love the pool, sign up for a water aerobics class.
CONSIDER DOING LESS CARDIO AND MORE STRENGTH TRAINING. Many people who haven’t found a great exercise routine find cardio intimidating because it wears them out quickly. You can work your way into strength training slowly and build up. Seeing progress as you add more and more weights to your routine is so satisfying.
ONCE YOUR EXERCISE ROUTINE BECOMES EASY OR BORING, ADD SOMETHING TO IT, MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT, OR CHANGE THE ENVIRONMENT. Your body is highly adaptable, and without constant change, your workouts will decrease in effectiveness.
EXAMINE YOUR MOOD EACH WEEK AND LOOK FOR A CONNECTION BETWEEN YOUR WORKOUTS AND YOUR MENTAL STATE. Do you feel calmer when you take walks outside? Do you feel happier when you lift weights a few times a week? Many people find that exercise is a huge influence on their emotional state.
GET AN EXERCISE BUDDY. Exercise is a great excuse to spend time productively with someone you enjoy. This could be your spouse, partner, friend, boss, mom, or neighbor. It really doesn’t matter. If you are both fasting, this will also help to replace some of the bonding time you may have spent together in the past eating.
OPTIMIZE YOUR WORKOUTS. Compare your workouts when fasting and feasting to find the ideal time to do them. I personally have a much better workout when I fast, but some people may see better results when feasting.

Megan Ramos

I used to hate everything about exercise: the sweating, the exertion, the “burn . . .” Everything. Now that I’m healthy and energetic, I don’t mind it. Some days, I even feel like I fit in at the gym. I’ve focused on following my trainer’s program, and I’ve made great progress each week. I’ve gained muscle, and I’ve added bone mass, which has been especially important because I was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age thirty.

Exercise has also been a great outlet for my stress. I used to cope with stress by eating my weight in pizza or pasta, which left me feeling emotionally and physically awful. Today, I can be having a terrible day, and I know that I will leave the gym feeling renewed. Many times, I’ve walked into the gym in tears on a rough day, and left practically dancing down the street, ready to conquer the world.

But, like Eve, it took me a long time to get there. For nearly a decade I spent thousands of dollars going to the gym with the sole intention of losing weight, and I always failed miserably. Today, I work out to relieve stress and to get stronger, but not to lose weight.

Let me say that again: Do not go to the gym to try to burn calories. Do not get on the stationary bike like I used to, turn on the calorie counter, and step off when you’ve cycled off the 250 calories that were in the glazed doughnut you had for breakfast. Weight loss is not about “Calories In, Calories Out,” so while exercise will deplete calories, it will not reduce fat. That’s why I never lost weight. I wasn’t broken, I was just misinformed.

I’m not the only person who’s been in the dark about this. Many of the people I meet tell me that they’re exercising harder than they have in their lives, but they’re still gaining weight. They may be consuming only 800 calories a day and burning 1,500 calories a day, but the pounds pile on. What is going on here? The issue is that the “Calories In, Calories Out” model of obesity is extremely flawed. As we’ve discussed, weight changes are hormonally regulated, with insulin playing the key role in fat storage.

The truth about exercise and weight loss didn’t fully hit me until I went to Paris shortly after I lost 60 pounds by fasting and following a low-carb diet. I spent several days roaming the streets with my friends and didn’t see a single gym. Not one. Yet the locals weren’t obese. In fact, you can’t even be obese and function normally in Paris. There are no escalators. The elevators are tiny. I am 5 feet 3 inches tall and was 120 pounds at the time, and I got claustrophobic in one. The seats on the subway are narrow, and so are the hallways.

I was traveling with a friend who was quite overweight, and she said to me, “Megan, I’m never coming back here until I’ve lost weight. I didn’t realize how obese I was until this trip. I don’t get it. The locals don’t have breakfast. They eat twice a day, and their diets are full of fatty foods like cheese, butter, and eggs. Parisians walk a lot, but they don’t work out otherwise. And they’re so skinny!”

Exercise won’t help you lose weight. Obesity is hormonally regulated, so it doesn’t matter how many minutes you spend on the treadmill. If you’re eating the wrong foods too often and not giving your body a chance to burn fat, you’re not going to lose any weight. Yes, you can exercise your muscles. But you can’t exercise your hormones.

Most of my clients have been completely brainwashed into thinking that they won’t lose weight unless they work out, or that exercise will somehow speed up the process. This notion has failed repeatedly, but it’s something that is so difficult for people to let go of. Yes, exercise has many other health benefits, including improved muscle tone, mood, flexibility, and stamina. But it will not improve your weight loss.

For those other health reasons, I drag myself out of bed four times a week at 4:30 a.m. to lift weights. I walk my two greyhounds for at least an hour every day. I’ve happily gained several pounds of lean mass by doing so, and I now have strong, healthy bones. But exercise didn’t help me lose weight before, and it doesn’t really help much now.

The “Calories In, Calories Out” model of obesity is completely broken, giving people the illusion of control. I’ll often ask clients why they think working out will help them lose weight when it hasn’t before. They always answer that they haven’t been working out hard enough.

Losing pounds is in your control, but it has nothing to do with an aerobics class. It has everything to do with what you eat and, especially, when you eat. Although I encourage all my clients to be as active as they can, we should not be exercising to lose weight. We’ve tried it over and over, and we’ve just gotten fatter. So, please, exercise and fast.

Jason Fung

One of my most famous clients is UFC champion Georges St-Pierre. On November 4, 2017, this mixed martial arts legend was set to fight Michael Bisping in the UFC Middleweight Championship. Georges hadn’t fought a title bout in four years, so the stakes were high—for him, his fans, and the sport. He needed to put on pounds before the weigh-in, so he began eating every two hours. Throughout his life, he’d been conditioned to think that, to build muscle, you need to consume greater quantities more often, so, in addition to his rigorous workouts, his food intake was at an all-time high. The results were disastrous. He began having cramps, he couldn’t sleep, he regularly threw up his breakfast, and, most alarmingly, there was blood in his stool. Unable to find a diagnosis, Georges literally muscled his way through the pain. Against all odds, he managed to win the championship in the third round.

Afterward, doctors finally determined that Georges was suffering from ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes ulcers in the intestines. He was prescribed medication, but, in addition to it, Georges wanted to find another way to deal with his symptoms. He came to me, and I recommended intermittent fasting. Within weeks, Georges’s symptoms vastly improved. He began sleeping better, his inflammation subsided, and he stopped experiencing cramps. His bone and muscle mass improved, and his fat percentage went down. Best of all for an elite athlete like Georges, his energy was up, and he felt his workouts were better. Today, Georges starts his day by training on an empty stomach, and he says he feels lighter on his feet, with better concentration and more focus.

The truth is that exercising on an empty stomach will give you a better workout than exercising after you’ve eaten. Think about it: Would you rather wrestle with a hungry lion or a lion who’s just stuffed himself with a big, juicy antelope? You’d never choose the hungry lion because he’d be fierce, fast, and out for the kill!

When you train while fasting, your insulin levels are down, but your noradrenaline and growth hormone levels are up. In this hormonal state, you have more energy (because noradrenaline and HGH provide it) so you can work out harder. And when you do eat after working out, your HGH stays high. HGH helps rebuild muscle, so you recover faster.

There is no physiological reason a person needs to eat before working out. In fact, I often encourage people to work out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach because they already have all the fuel their body needs. At 4:00 a.m., your body experiences a surge of hormones that allows glucose to enter your bloodstream. When you wake up to work out at 6:00 or 7:00 a.m.—or any time in the morning—your body is still burning that glucose. You don’t need to eat.

Working out in conjunction to fasting may lead to a leaner, more muscular, more energized you. Just remember, it’s not the exercise alone that’s helping you lose weight. It’s the fasting.

Chapter 16
Feasting Without Guilt

Eve Mayer

The act of fasting is choosing to refrain from eating for a specific amount of time. Feasting should be the act of choosing to eat for a specific amount of time. Forget the extended, gluttonous hamburger-, pizza-, soda-, French fry–, and ice cream–soaked feasts you’ve indulged in in the past, though. I’m going to show you how to feast mindfully, healthily, and satisfyingly throughout your new, fasting-inspired life. Because, yes, feasting is allowed when you’re not fasting—though it will feel a lot different than it did before.

What Does a Feast Look and Feel Like?

When I was first learning to fast, I was terrified of the unknown. Would I feel hungry? Would I starve? Would I even be able to do it? After I’d completed a few short fasts, though, I started to know what to expect. I became comfortable with a little bit of hunger, and I stopped being startled when the hunger ceased even though I hadn’t eaten. There are times when I am fasting that I feel incredible, and fasting has helped me have moments when I’ve experienced clarity of thought and joy at a higher level than I did in the past.

I still look forward to eating, though, and I still enjoy eating a lot. I adore everything about feasting, from the smell of the food, to the texture and taste of it in my mouth. Before I started fasting, I assumed that people who skipped meals just didn’t like eating that much, and that they were weirdos who could never be foodies. I worried that, if I fasted, I would become someone like that, too.

I was so wrong!

For every fast, there should also be a feast. Let me be clear that feasting is not what I used to believe: an extended period of gluttonous eating until I was in pain from my stomach begging for mercy. Instead, a feast should be a period of time—around one hour, ideally—when you eat healthy foods joyfully and mindfully until you are full.

I am not suggesting that if you abhor broccoli you should control your emotions enough to sit down to a big bowl of broccoli with a lustfully ravenous look in your eye. Ideally, you should pick low-carb, healthy-fat foods that you enjoy eating, preferably whole and organic. It is true that you won’t love everything that is healthy for you, but over time, your preferences and tastes will change.

And this is a crucial change.

Feasting does not mean eating perfectly, though. Even fit people sometimes indulge in unhealthy foods. Today, 90 percent of the time, I eat what I know makes me feel great, and 10 percent of the time, I have something that has no nutritional value and is not likely to make me feel good. I freaking love hamburgers, and I wish I could eat them as often as I used to. But I know that if I eat fries, a double-bacon cheeseburger, and a chocolate milk shake, I will feel sluggish and gain weight. I also notice that when I eat this way, I have incredible, undeniable cravings the next day. Instead, I enjoy a giant bowl of salad greens with grilled onions, avocado, bacon, shredded cheddar, and jalapeños, with a juicy, medium-rare wagyu beef patty sizzling on top of it. I relish this meal, eating every delicious bite. After I’m done, I feel like a million bucks, and cravings do not come back the next day!

How does one eat mindfully, you ask? Let me share a few tips.

First, select foods that you enjoy and that make you feel full. If you’re not the world’s best cook, find someone in the family who is. If you have the time, arrange the foods beautifully—use the fanciest dinnerware you have, even if it is just nice paper plates. The foods you lay out should have a variety of colors, textures, aromas, and temperatures. Play with flavor combinations and unexpected pairings, like a crisp, tart green apple with cheddar cheese. If you enjoy eating with company, share a meal with friends, family, or colleagues. Turn off the television and put down your phone. Chew the food slowly and focus on the taste. Mmmmm.

The goal is to make a feast an event with as little distraction as possible, gorgeous presentation, and top-quality foods you love. Then eat until you are full. Do not count the calories, limit the healthy fats, or stop eating because you perceive that others will think you are overeating. Eat until you are satisfied, satiated, and comfortable.

Sound like a dream you will never, ever be able to make true? Sure, I’ll admit that what I just described is an ideal situation. In the real world, sometimes we don’t have the time, the money, or the inclination to prepare a beautiful meal on fancy china with our loving families smiling next to us at the dinner table. Sometimes we work eleven hours, haven’t gone to the grocery store, or our teenager is annoying and won’t sit down with us. Or maybe we’ve fasted for twenty-four hours and are so ready to eat, we shove a hunk of cheddar wrapped in hot bacon into our mouth, burning our tongues and dripping bacon grease over the sink. (Jeez, I hope this isn’t just me!)

Situations are not always ideal, but the fact remains that we should both fast and feast. Neither should be a punishment, and both activities can be joyful. We can find freedom in fasting with fewer dishes, less shopping, less cooking, and more time for ourselves. We can find excitement in feasting with foods we love, a new recipe, a dinner shared with friends, and a glass of wine.

The truth is we deserve to eat, and we deserve to enjoy it. I’ll admit that changing what I ate was difficult, and giving up sugar felt like a mourning process to me. But by eating the way I have chosen for myself, I am able to eat something outside my healthy food list 10 percent of the time and still maintain my weight loss.

Your friends and family may also be happy and relieved to see you feasting. Although they’ll learn to live with your fasting lifestyle, there are times you’re going to complain about being hungry or missing foods that are awful for you (Cheetos, anyone?). When you are fasting, remember that it is your choice to do so, and you can end it at any time. This also means you can complain every once in a while—but never forget that it can get annoying for others. After you have fasted, loved ones are going to want to see you feast. They need to know you aren’t starving yourself and that you have a healthy attitude about nourishing your body. The best way to prove that to them is to authentically enjoy eating food.

So, feast away. Eat delicious food. Enjoy every bite. Munch on healthy, beautiful, delicious morsels and relish every moment of it. People often say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that’s true for the mouth, too. Fasting can actually heighten your enjoyment of food!

Eating is a natural human process necessary for the continuation of life. Eating should be a joyful experience. Learning to enjoy food without guilt is a powerful step in learning how to fast.

Gain control of what, when, where, and for how long you will eat. One hour is an ideal amount of time for eating a meal.
Remove distractions from your meal. For example, put away your phone, turn off the TV, and put down the book.
Remind yourself that you are a living being who is powered by food and that receiving that food is meant to be an enjoyable experience.
Eat until you feel comfortably full. Don’t stop eating until you have had enough and don’t keep eating because you fear hunger later. There will be opportunity for more food later.
Don’t compare your food choices and amounts to others’. Each body is unique.
Remember that eating is okay. Do not punish yourself for enjoying food. You deserve nourishment no matter your size. It simply isn’t natural for humans to loathe doing something they must do to keep themselves alive.

The Problem with Sweets (and Other Overly Tempting Foods)

I caution against eating foods during your feast that will cause you to gorge or fall into a rabbit hole of addiction. Except for the three times I was in the hospital after bariatric surgery, I ate something sweet every day of my life until I started fasting. Sometimes multiple times a day. Yes, I am addicted to food and, yes, I am most certainly addicted to sweets. I crave them, look forward to them, relish them, and feel excitement from them.

Before I took up fasting, I’d tried to wean myself off sweets, and I’d failed completely. Although I cut down my sugar habit significantly, when I craved something sweet, I’d bake myself a low-carb sweet using erythritol and/or stevia. At first, I found the taste strange, but after a short time, I liked it just fine. I thought, If I can lose weight and still have sweets—even “fake” sweets—then I can live like this.

There was a problem, though. Eventually my weight loss stagnated at about twenty-five pounds. I wanted to lose more, and I knew I couldn’t do that without taking my diet to the next level. The other problem was that I learned that natural sweeteners like stevia affected my insulin levels even though they have few or no calories. I was insulin resistant, so if I wanted my blood sugar to be stable, the sweets were out. Maybe not for forever, but at least until I reached my goal size and got my health in check.

With my first fast in early 2018, I gave up all the sweetness in my life. It was devastating. I got grumpy drinking my morning coffee because I hated how coffee with cream and no sugar tasted. I worried that food wouldn’t be exciting anymore because sweets were always my favorite part of a meal. I was like a drug addict detoxing, and I couldn’t figure out why, after a fast—when I’d lost weight and felt healthier than I had in years—I could still miss something that was so damaging to my health.

I cheated, a lot. For instance, on my eleven-day fast, I put 4 drops of stevia in my two daily coffees. Once, I was alone at my parents’ house, and I shoved the last doughnut in the kitchen in my mouth and threw away the box outside, as if someone was going to conduct a crime scene investigation about the missing doughnut. Another time, I ate a chewable melatonin when I probably didn’t need the help sleeping just because I wanted to experience the sweet taste on my tongue for a few moments.

Finally, I decided I had to avoid more temptation. I threw out all the sweets in my house, plus my supply of erythritol and stevia. Sure, I felt guilty about being wasteful, but I couldn’t have those things around me. I wanted to be healthy. I didn’t want a substance to have this much control over me, and I knew, to do that, I had to go cold turkey.

So, I did.

Pretty soon, I started to miss sweets a lot less. I remember one day, when I’d planned to skip breakfast and lunch, I didn’t get hungry until 3:00 p.m., when I finally sat down to eat. As I put the first bite of food into my mouth, I realized why I hadn’t been hungry: I hadn’t been craving sweets.

Today, I refrain from eating sugar and sweeteners about 90 percent of the time. I now like coffee without any sweetener in it, which I swore to everyone would never ever happen. When I do have something sugary, it is usually at a special occasion or a craving I can no longer ignore.

My mind is now clearer, and I’ve been maintaining a healthier weight for the first time in my life. I’m hardly ever sick, and I feel great in my body. I guess my life is pretty sweet after all. I’m living proof that you can give up sugar—or any substance you might be addicted to. You may feel like your life will lack excitement without sweets, but as with any addictive substance, it simply isn’t true. The sugar is tricking your body and mind into believing that you need it to survive. You don’t.

Sugar and sweeteners make it much more difficult for many people to fast because they stimulate cravings. For many, they also stagnate weight loss. Cut your sugar intake in half every week for one month until you get to none and notice the difference in your thoughts, body, and weight. Only after that should you decide how much you would like to indulge.

Feasting Is Not Binge Eating

A controlled feast composed of healthy foods is not the same thing as a binge. While the term bingeing is sometimes used casually to describe almost any episode of overindulgence, the reality is that binge eating is a disorder. In fact, it’s the most common eating disorder in the United States—and it’s one I suffered from until I was thirty-six. During the day I would eat normally, but every night I would sit in front of the television and devour chips, ice cream, meat, and candy—all in mass quantities. The entire time, I’d hear cruel things in my head, telling me, on the one hand, that I was fat and ugly, and on the other, that food would make me feel better. I’d gorge myself until the voices stopped and the stress of my life faded away, covered up by the pain of having eaten way too much.

Abusing food in this way kept me from dealing with the realities of my life. Food shielded me from being happy, sad, and proud and left me an unfeeling zombie, plodding along, trying to do my best without truly experiencing life. I blocked out joy and sorrow with fried chicken and cake.

I was miserable and desperate, but I realized I had to be a positive role model for my young daughter. If I taught her to eat and abuse food this way, I could never forgive myself. So I took action and enrolled in an outpatient treatment facility for forty days. Through various types of therapy, I overcame my binge-eating disorder.

If you think you might be suffering from a binge-eating disorder, rehab might be a good fit for you. But it might not. Many people also benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. But first I recommend paying attention to your thoughts while you eat. Do they include things like:

“You don’t deserve to eat.”
“You should be ashamed to eat in front of these skinny people.”
“You are the fattest person in the room.”
“You are disgusting.”

If you feel this way, imagine how you’d react if someone spoke to your daughter, son, best friend, or partner this way. You’d want to protect them from that abuse, right? Then why would you allow yourself to be talked to that way? If you suffer from binge eating, I urge you to seek therapy, where you will learn to speak to yourself with love.

Recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food (often very quickly and to the point of discomfort).
Feeling a loss of control during the binge.
Experiencing shame, distress, or guilt after overeating.
Regularly using unhealthy compensatory measures (e.g., purging) to counter the binge eating.

Megan Ramos

Most diets teach people that eating until you’re full makes you fat. This misconception is so ingrained in the public consciousness that I’ve had countless clients (male and female) burst into tears when I’ve asked them to step on a scale the Monday after Thanksgiving. “I swear I didn’t eat any bread, potatoes, or dessert, but I ate so much,” they always say.

But when the numbers pop up on the scale’s screen, their tears of regret turn into tears of laughter. Without fail, almost all my clients have either lost weight or maintained their weight, despite the festive feasting! They just can’t understand how they could eat so much food and not gain at least ten pounds!

The Science Behind Feasting

My clients don’t gain weight after a Thanksgiving feast because adding pounds is not about how many calories you put in your body versus how many you expend. Weight gain is controlled hormonally, primarily by insulin. Eating lots of refined carbohydrates until you’re full will raise your insulin levels substantially, prevent the activation of your body’s natural satiety hormones, and cause you to put on fat. But you don’t usually eat a carb-heavy meal at Thanksgiving. Sure, there may be bread rolls, stuffing, and pumpkin pie (all carb-heavy foods) laid out on the table, but you typically eat as much or more Brussels sprouts, turkey, and sweet potatoes, which affect insulin much less significantly.

Even if you did have a huge carb blowout at Thanksgiving and ate the whole apple pie yourself, are you really in trouble? The answer is no if you “fast it off.” I do this all the time. As much as I’d like to tell everyone that I’m some sort of superhuman who never eats carbs, I can’t. Occasionally, I enjoy pizza, and I usually eat way too much of it. It’s okay. I always schedule a fast afterward. Fasting “fixes” the hormonal blip I got from the pizza by lowering my insulin levels and burning any stored food energy from fat. It also erases any guilt I used to have while eating it, too.

It’s tough for many clients to be at peace with eating until they’re full, or with eating carbs periodically. All they know is that eating until they’re satiated usually results in weight gain, and it typically takes weeks if not months to undo the damage from a big, carb-heavy meal.

This was a tough lesson for me to learn, too.

In 2012, I regained my health and control of my weight with fasting and a low-carb diet, and I made a plan to go to Europe for a month with two of my best friends. Then, something hit me, and I started to cry. How could I go to Italy and not eat pizza or pasta? I wanted to truly enjoy the culture of the countries we visited, and food is so much a part of every way of life. I didn’t want to miss out.

Then I realized that my weight, my thoughts about eating, and my desire to feast were completely within my control. If I was planning to eat pizza for dinner or pasta for lunch, I could fast during the day while we were sightseeing. I could also fast during every travel day between cities, just in case I saw a gelato that looked too good to turn down.

I executed my plan on my European adventure, and I lost ten pounds during the time I was away. I even had to buy a new pair of shorts in Rome toward the end of our trip because mine became too big. More than any other time, that trip was when I knew that fasting was the tool that would enable me to control my body and my well-being. I could feast and fast and be just fine.

Most of the people I work with have developed fear around eating but are also scared to not eat. They’ve been told that not eating for periods of time will cause them to binge and make them gain weight. I’m here to tell you that feasting and fasting are a natural cycle, and you can enjoy all parts of that cycle. Have faith that eating the right foods or scheduling in a fast here or there around a high-carb indulgence will give you a sense of control. Most of all, enjoy spending time with loved ones during the holidays, and don’t worry too much about what your vacation eating habits will do to your waistline. We are designed to feast with our loved ones and to fast between celebrations.

PLAN AHEAD: If you have a holiday or vacation coming up, try to fit in a few fasts before and after the event. These can be short or extended fasts depending on how strong your fasting muscle is. But try to stretch a little. If you’re someone who usually fasts for twenty-four hours, try to fast for thirty-six hours a week before and after.
TIME YOUR FEAST: It’s better to eat an early dinner rather than a late one because you have a few hours before bedtime to burn off whatever you ate. If you’re going to eat carbs or sugar, try to do it midday rather than in the evening or nighttime.
STICK TO A SCHEDULE AND DON’T SNACK: Enjoy your feast while you’re doing it and try not to snack before or after it. Sticking within your meal windows is important because it limits the number of times per day your body secretes the fat-storing hormone, insulin.
SKIP THE SODAS: Try to avoid drinking sugary drinks, especially if you know you’re going to be indulging in carbs or dessert at a later meal. Be mindful of what you’re mixing your spirits with, too. Margaritas, piña coladas, and many other tropical drinks are extremely sugary, so, if you like mixed drinks, mix the alcohol of your choice with seltzer or soda water and a splash of lime juice instead.
BE MINDFUL ABOUT WINE: If you’re going to drink wine, try to drink a dry wine, which is a wine with no residual sugar. Unlike Moscato and Riesling, which have a higher sugar content, cabernets and dry champagne tend to be lower in sugar so they are a safe choice if you’re staring at a wine list and unsure of what to order.

Healthy Eating Habits

Fasting can and will do wonders for your waistline and overall health, but this new pattern of eating is not all you need to maintain your lifestyle. You need a new set of healthy eating habits so you can feast and not get off track forever. These five tips will help you progress in that lifestyle and allow you to enjoy the new you.

Tip #1: Spoil Your Appetite

During a meal, it’s not just what you eat that matters, it’s the order of the food you consume that can make you or break you. I learned this lesson the hard way during a holiday family dinner.

When I first started following a low-carbohydrate diet, I would eat only two of my mother’s delicious roasted potatoes at Thanksgiving, and I’d always eat them first. Why? Because I’d been thinking about them for days, and I figured, It’s a holiday, and these are my treats.

This was a recipe for disaster. The potatoes spiked my blood sugar levels, causing my pancreas to produce a surge of insulin, which made me ravenously hungry. I would end up eating way too much and craving more potatoes, and then I’d feel bloated and terrible for three days after the feast. I thought this meant I could never touch my mother’s potatoes again, but it turns out this isn’t true. I can still enjoy them, but I need to approach my plate differently.

Now, I eat my food in a different order. I start off with protein, fat, and non-starchy vegetables on my plate. These may include salad, turkey breast, turkey skin, or Brussels sprouts, but, whatever they are, I always eat them before the potatoes. By the time I’m ready for my “treat,” I am full and can barely look at the potatoes. At the end of the meal, the potatoes have a very different effect on me. The other foods have already sated my appetite, so I don’t crave the yummy potatoes as much.

If you are eating out or going to a big dinner, always start with any non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens, or vegetables that grow above the ground, such as broccoli or cauliflower. Then eat any protein, and save the starches and sugars for last. You will already be full and unable to eat too many of those temptations. You can even go one step further and eat something at home before going out to deliberately “spoil” your appetite. When you are full, it is much easier to avoid tempting foods that may derail your dietary plans.

Tip #2: Don’t Eat Mindlessly

Are you eating while standing up? Are you having lunch while working at your computer? Are you eating so quickly that you aren’t even chewing your food? You can consume a full meal, but still feel hungry if you are eating mindlessly. We’re all busy. Everybody wants an extra six hours in the day, so most of us eat at least one meal a day on the go, which leaves us feeling hungry again within the hour.

Many clients tell me that sometimes they feel full after a meal and sometimes they don’t, but they’re not quite sure why. I ask them to keep a diary of what they are doing when they eat. These diaries always reveal some version of the same thing: Sometimes my clients have lunch or dinner at the office. Sometimes they are rushing to take their kids to soccer or pick up the grandkids from school. But the story is always the same. When people eat on the go, they’re never satisfied. When they take time to enjoy a meal, they experience a strong sense of satiation.

So, what do you do if you don’t have time to eat? That’s simple. Don’t eat. Eat when you have time, and don’t eat when you don’t have time. Don’t eat just to eat. Fasting is always an option. You have the freedom to decide when you consume food. Don’t pressure yourself to eat several times a day even if you’re not hungry and you’re too busy.

Eating when you have time to enjoy your meal means you can go slowly and chew your food thoroughly. Jennifer Lopez claims she chews each piece of food twenty times, so why not you? There is a time lag from when we start eating to feeling satiated, and when we eat too quickly, there is no room for our bodies to register that we have eaten. The result is hunger that just won’t go away!

Tip #3: Don’t Go Food Shopping When You’re Hungry

Grocery shopping while fasting usually means lots of regret the next day. If we’re hungry in the store, we’re much more likely to gravitate toward the junk foods we’re trying so hard to resist.

I try to go to the farmer’s market or the store on a Sunday morning when I’m not in a rush. This has really improved my relationship with food and the quality of foods that I buy. I’ve noticed that if I’m in a rush, I’m more likely to buy “quick and easy” refined foods that I’ll later regret.

Tip #4: Eat from Smaller Plates

When I was creating my wedding registry, I told the store associate, “I want the smallest dinner plates in the store!” She looked at me like I had ten eyeballs and said that it was the first time anyone had ever asked her that. Every other customer she’d helped wanted the largest plates possible. And apparently, the store had figured this out, too, since they only had one normal-size plate and two dozen sombrero-size ones.

When you use a smaller plate, it sends a signal to your brain that you need to eat less. This is because adults tend to use external cues to figure out when to put down their forks. This is the opposite of children, who rely mostly on internal cues to signal them to stop. If we finish the food on our smaller plate, we can always get more. But a small plate forces us to think carefully about whether we want more. It helps us eat mindfully. Are we eating because we are hungry, or are we eating because we want to finish our plate?

Tip #5: Only Eat at Mealtimes

Even with “healthy” foods, snacking is the quickest way to start packing on the pounds. A handful of almonds here and there, and pretty soon the weight starts coming back. Almonds are fine, but make sure they’re part of your mealtime. Remember: snacking is not your friend.

Some practical strategies for implementing non-snacking may be to allow yourself to eat only at your dining table. This will help break the habit of mindless eating, which we shouldn’t be doing. We should be eating only when we’re hungry and not if we aren’t. Are you snacking because you are hungry, or are you doing it because you are bored?

I used to have a long commute, and I would often buy a bag of nuts at the gas station. This was a hard habit to break until I had my car professionally detailed, and the man who cleaned the inside said he found a cup of almonds scattered throughout it. When I got a new car several days before a road trip from Toronto to Orlando, I was so determined to keep it clean and food-free that I ended up fasting for the entire car ride! So, take some time to tidy up your car, giving yourself a “clean slate” and reducing your snacking on the road.

Another hack I recommend to people who watch TV in the evening is to buy a puzzle book and keep it on your coffee table. This way you can distract yourself during commercials—which are often about junk foods—with something that will exercise your brain.

Above all, don’t be afraid. You can enjoy food between fasts, and you can feast appropriately. Between these tips and using fasting as a tool when necessary, you’ll be able to maintain your new weight and be happy and healthy for years to come.

Chapter 17
Meeting Your Goals and Going the Extra Mile

Eve Mayer

By now, you may have completed several longer fasts and made intermittent fasting a part of your lifestyle. Everyone reaches their goals at a different pace, so if you haven’t hit them, that’s fine. You’ll get there!

Tracking Your Success

As you progress with fasting, you’re probably going to want to measure your success. Tracking how far you’ve come is about so much more than pounds, though. Your success can be measured in the activities you can now do, the medications you don’t have to take, or the hours you’re sleeping after years of waking up due to health complaints. Remember those personal goals you wrote down before you started fasting? Pull out your goal list and look at it. And, if you didn’t write down your goals, quickly think of some and write them down. Right now. It’s okay, I’ll wait.

Ready?

You can now adapt that list by creating your own goal tracker. On a piece of paper, online, or on your phone, make note of the date you started fasting, where you are now, and another date you consider a goalpost. This “goalpost” date could be your birthday, your wedding day, or any random day. It also doesn’t have to be an end date. After all, fasting is a lifestyle, not a race, and I encourage you to make it part of your life forever.

Here’s a goal tracker I used. My goal is to get to 29 percent body fat. I am currently at 36 percent body fat, so I wrote down the day I made that goal, a day by which I’d like to reach that goal, and a few goalposts in between. If you’re tech savvy, you can get fancy and make your tracker a spreadsheet that automatically graphs, or you can be lazy like me and sketch it out. Regardless, you should use whatever gives you a motivating visualization of your process toward your goal.

For example:

Start October 2018	Goalpost #1	Goal!
36% body fat	32.5% body fat	29% body fat

I’ve found that this is the simplest way to track my progress toward my goal, and it’s one that focuses my attention on my overall health and happiness rather than just my weight.

Are Scales for You?

To weigh or not to weigh. That is the question. Just like you must make the decision of what to eat and when to fast, you must also decide if getting on the scale helps or hinders you. My husband loves the scale, and the first thing he does in the morning after going to the bathroom is to step onto it. Sometimes it goes up, and sometimes it goes down, but either way, he stays levelheaded and logs the data point into an app. His brain processes the number on the scale as data, or simple information that can be changed by pulling one lever or another. He feels that weight is meant to fluctuate over time, and the data never affects his mood. He is what I might refer to as scientific and reasonable, but he is not like me. If you relate to these feelings of levelheadedness and find that weighing yourself every day gives you information that helps you make dietary and lifestyle decisions, then go for it.

When I weigh myself, I respond very differently than my husband. I am sensitive (to say the least) and when the scale goes up, I immediately experience a flurry of emotions including guilt, dread, sorrow, regret, shame, sadness, and fear that I will become fat again at any moment. These emotions happen whether I gain 0.3 pounds or 3 pounds in one day. When the scale throws an ugly number in my face, I want to cry—and, sometimes I do, especially if the efforts I have made in the days before do not match up with what I see on the scale. A number I dislike on the scale can very well set the tone for a bad day for me no matter what happens.

Then there are the days that I step on the scale and the number is down from the day before. My emotions include glee, joy, excitement, expectations of grandeur, superiority, happiness, giddiness, and fabulousness. If the scale goes down after a day that I enjoyed the very rare indulgence of a birthday cupcake, I feel victorious. My mind says, Ha ha, scale. I have finally fooled you. Yesterday, I ate an entire cupcake with tons of icing, and you didn’t even figure it out. I can probably eat whatever I want from now on because even when I cheat, I don’t gain weight. Finally, I have figured out how to trick my body!

Trust me, I’m not proud of these thoughts, and I know they’re not based on any kind of reality. But I now understand my food-obsessed mind, so I choose to not weigh myself every day for the sake of my sanity.

The fact remains, though, that the scale doesn’t always make sense. When I completed my first extended fast, I lost weight every single day until suddenly I started gaining weight back toward the end. That’s right. I hadn’t eaten a morsel of food for over a week, but I still packed on pounds. I also weighed 195 five years ago and could barely zip my tight jeans if I wanted to enjoy the sport of breathing. When I arrived at 195 again this year, those same jeans were sliding off. Why? Because I had built up more muscle and carried less fat. My body weighed the same, but I had a healthier, more balanced composition, with more muscle.

The scale method doesn’t work for everyone, nor does it take into account everything, like the fact that muscle is more dense than fat. If you’ve been weight training, your clothes may fit better (like my jeans did), but you may weigh more than you did before you ever hit the gym. The scale also doesn’t account for other very important indicators of health, like bone mass, blood pressure, heart rate, and more.

If you’re on the fence about whether to use the scale, here’s a way to gauge your dependence on it, as well as your emotional reaction to it: Weigh yourself every day for one week at the same time each day. Record your weight and your feelings. If you’re not alarmed by weight fluctuations, keep doing this. If you panic every time you go up an ounce, maybe you should weigh yourself once a week, once a month, or not at all. Pick an interval or time that suits you best, and if you are too obsessive about weighing all the time, donate the scale to a friend or Goodwill. If you have family members who want to keep the scale, then have them hide it from you.

Tracking Your Measurements

Instead of getting on the scale every day, I prefer to take my measurements, including my body fat percentage and inches lost or gained. Bear in mind that these measurements don’t fluctuate as rapidly as weight, so taking them daily—or even weekly—can be problematic. They can also differ greatly based on who is taking them and what instruments are used. For example, mine are totally different depending on whether I take the measurements, my husband does, or my trainer does. Try recording your measurements once a month, and have the same person use the same tools to do them.

I’m pretty old school and use a tape measure to record my inches gained or lost. But if you want to go high-tech and don’t mind spending the money, I find DEXA body composition scans to be very effective. You can search online in your area and find places that specialize in testing this way. There are usually packages you can buy to reduce costs if you want to go back monthly or quarterly, which is what I do. These machines are quick, painless, and give you a full report of your measurements, body fat percentage versus lean mass, bone mass density, and more.

DEXA scans are very simple—you remain fully clothed while a 3-D scanner analyzes your body. When the results come back in minutes, they include graphs and data, and if you return later for another scan, you’ll receive graphs that compare the numbers from your earlier visit.

These scans show me things I had never thought about before. For example, apparently I have very good bone mass. Why? Probably because I was super fat for twenty years, and my bones got very strong carrying all that weight around. They also show that my visceral fat (the fat around the internal organs) is decreasing, which is great news because visceral fat is an indicator of a propensity to develop specific health problems like heart disease, metabolic syndrome, or type 2 diabetes.

Bear in mind, however, that DEXA scans will show you a side of yourself you might not want to see! Before my first scan, I was left alone in a room with directions to strip down as much as I felt comfortable. I was told to stand on a circular platform while holding two handles, then let go and press a few buttons. I wanted the most accurate measurements possible, so I got totally naked. The technicians had directed me to put my hair up, so I piled it on top of my head like a sumo wrestler. With my feet hip width apart and my naked body exposed to the machine, I held on to the handles and pressed the buttons as the circular platform began to spin me around slowly. I now understand exactly what a rotisserie chicken feels like!

When I put my clothes back on and left the room, the staff said the information would be delivered to me via email that day. I left the office, and when I returned home, I opened my email. There it was! Excited to receive the data, measurements, and information about my body, I moved the mouse to open it, but was shocked to see what was in the email’s preview bar. What was it? Motion pictures of my naked, rotisserie chicken–like body spinning around on my extra-large monitor screen. Sure, it was a computerized image, but anyone could have been able to tell it was me. It was shocking, devastating, and I was not prepared to see every flaw on my body. I thought I was already well acquainted with my many imperfections, but I was wrong!

After the shock wore off, I became intrigued by the spinning statue model of my body, and now I find these types of scans useful for accurate measurements. But I could have used a word of warning that my naked body would show up on email!

Other Ways to Track Your Success

You can measure your success in any way that works for you, but here are a few methods you might want to try:

Wear the same outfit on the same day each month and have someone take a full-length picture of you in the same spot. Put the picture on the fridge each month with your date and weight on it.
Find a pair of jeans you can’t fit into anymore and try them on once a week.
Wrap string around your waist each week and cut it down to the size of your waist. Hang the string each week starting at the left and watch as the strings get shorter and shorter—sometimes even when you don’t lose pounds on the scale!
Monitor your blood sugar and use an app to track it. Review your progress weekly.
Take your blood pressure twice a day with an automatic blood pressure cuff—available online—and use a spreadsheet to track it. Render a graph each week to see your progress.
Walk around the block and time yourself. Track the time once a month and compare it to last month’s.
Do a timed plank once a day and track how long you can hold it.
Take a selfie at the same angle once a month and compare it to the previous selfies.
Remember what hole in your belt you are on and see if it changes.
Notice if you are out of breath when you walk up a set of stairs.
Go to your doctor for a full blood panel, including cholesterol, lipids, and triglycerides. These are often fully paid for by insurance during an annual physical.

Measuring your success is essential to achieving it. You can’t know that you have succeeded if you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish—or how far you’ve gone. Sometimes you will hit a dry spell where it seems like forever since you have had a win. Other times the wins will come one after another in bursts. Track your measurements and bask in your success. Share them with someone who cares about you and supports your goals. We spend so much of our time beating ourselves up, but it is time to lift yourself up and give yourself credit where credit is due.

Once You’ve Reached Your Goal

You did it! Congratulations, you’re a rock star!

Now you have a choice to make. You can decide that your original goal is enough. This means the goal you started with is where you want to stay. Or you can decide to move the goalposts a little further and settle on a more aggressive goal—one of less weight, greater health benefits, or more life rewards. No matter what you decide, it’s up to you, and you can stop at any point. After all, a lady or a gentleman always has the right to change their mind.

The truth is that it is perfectly okay to be happy with where you are now. If you find yourself in a body you’re content with, and your health is good, there is no need to push further. Instead, notice yourself, congratulate yourself for what you’ve accomplished, enjoy it, and learn what you need to do to maintain it. Make sure to give yourself some credit and to find an encouraging way to monitor that you are staying on track. Remember that your goal does not need to be a number on a scale. Your goal can be increased flexibility, fitting into an old pair of jeans, a specific body fat percentage, the ability to hike without wheezing, or whatever you deem worthy of your effort.

Just bear in mind that some people find it as difficult, or more difficult, to maintain their goal as they did to get there in the first place. I’m not saying this to scare you; I’m just being honest. Settling into a place where you’re happy with your goals doesn’t mean giving up and ordering the super-size cheeseburger, fries, and soda meal at your local greasy spoon, or deciding never to fast again. You have to keep working, even when you’re maintaining. But, remember, you may slip up or fail from time to time, and that’s okay. In chapter 21, we’ll discuss the many ways you can get yourself back on track.

Making Bigger Goals

Once you have properly celebrated reaching your goal and maintained it for the amount of time you wish, you may decide that you want to go the extra mile. This means you need to set a brand-new goal. For example, I am currently maintaining the achievement of my first body fat percentage goal—37 percent—but when I decide to start another race with myself, I’m going to push for a body fat percentage of 29.9 percent. The same rules apply for setting your goal that you used the first time. If you need a refresher, turn to chapter 7: Ready, Set, Goal!

Deciding that reaching my goal is enough, and that I don’t have to keep trying, is a strange experience for me. I’m an overachiever, so my impulse is to keep working until I collapse. But, today, I am learning to give myself credit for my accomplishments, enjoy my new body, try out new clothes, hike for the first time ever, and accept that what I always wanted finally happened. I wish the same for you!

When (Good) Accidents Happen

Just bear in mind that your decision to change your goals may come by accident. When I reached my most recent weight-loss goal of 195 pounds, I was ecstatic. After a few decades of losing weight and gaining it back, it was the first time I was able to stay there for a week. Then, through a combination of fasting and keto, I started losing even more weight. I ended up at 185 pounds, and, for the past seven months, I have bounced between 181 and 189. This feels like a stellar achievement to me, and for now, it is enough. I am filled with pride and am still adjusting to the fact that I am in the 180s and shop in regular stores. I honestly didn’t believe I had a chance at a life that didn’t include shopping in plus-size stores and ordering wide-size shoes! Plus, I feel incredible. I’ve only been sick once this year, which is a jaw-dropping improvement from getting sick five or six times a year.

Moving Ahead

Setting a second or third or fourth goal does not diminish your achievement of your first goal. This is like reaching the moon and deciding to visit Mars. Why not? You can decide what you want, and the journey can end or continue as you wish. My only suggestion is not to have more than two goals max running concurrently. This helps you to focus clearly and visualize your eminent success. We as humans aren’t great at working toward many things at once. There are always new goals to achieve, so you never have to worry about running out, and you can always strive to be your best self.

Part IV
Problem Solve Your Fast

Chapter 18
Solving Health Complaints

Megan Ramos

It’s reasonable to expect that you’ll experience some new physical changes while you’re fasting. Yes, you’ll need to learn how to deal with hunger, but you might also experience unexpected issues like increased thirst, headaches, or sleeplessness. These symptoms don’t happen to everyone, but they do occur, and they’re nothing to be concerned about. If you encounter more serious health issues like anemia, kidney or liver dysfunction, or irregular heartbeat—all of which are rare—you need to seek medical advice.

In this chapter, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most common physical reactions people experience when they begin fasting. Please bear in mind that everyone is different, and everyone’s body responds differently to fasting. Again, if you experience more serious symptoms, it’s best to consult with your doctor.

Bad Breath or Bad Taste in Your Mouth

People sometimes report a metallic taste in their mouth when they start fasting. Others report that their breath smells like nail polish or fruit. This is a sign that your body has entered ketosis. Ketones—beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, and acetone—are expelled through urine and exhalation, and they may have an odor (for instance, acetone is one of the ingredients in nail polish). This odor or taste will go away over time, though you may need to brush your teeth more often for the first few weeks.

Bloating

If you’re bloated, you may have consumed too much salt, and your body is retaining water because of it. Try reducing your salt intake or drinking water rather than bone broth or another salty beverage.

Coldness

If you feel cold while fasting, that’s a sign that your body is entering ketosis. Your body is simply having a bit of trouble moving from burning glucose to burning adequate fat to keep you warm. It’s nothing to be concerned about. You should warm up once your body becomes fat-adapted and fully makes the switch from burning sugar to burning fat.

Constipation

Fasting causes your insulin levels to drop, which sends a signal to your kidneys to release stored water. This can cause you to become dehydrated, then constipated. During the days that you aren’t fasting, increase the amount of leafy greens and fiber you consume. During your fast, soak in Epsom salt baths and take magnesium citrate (at a starting dose of 400 mg once per day) if you must. Hydrate with salt and water.

Many people assume they’re constipated during an extended fast when, in fact, they just don’t have anything in their intestines. If you haven’t had a bowel movement during a long fast, but you aren’t cramping, then you’re fine.

Depression

As we discussed in chapter 1, people often report feeling less anxiety and experiencing an improved mood when they fast. Depression is unusual, so if you do feel depressed, we suggest seeking the advice of a therapist.

Diarrhea

If you experience diarrhea while fasting, try mixing 1 to 2 tablespoons of chia seeds or psyllium husk with water, wait 10 minutes, and drink the mixture. Chia and psyllium both absorb excess water in the digestive tract, allowing less liquid to be expelled with loose stools.

Dizziness

Dizziness is often a sign of mild dehydration. Be sure you’re drinking water throughout the day. Consume extra salt in the form of pickle juice or bone broth. Some people, like Eve’s dad, may also be experiencing a stabilization of their previously high blood pressure. If you’re on blood pressure medication, have started fasting, and are experiencing dizziness, be sure to see your doctor. You may need to lower your medication dosage.

Dry Lips

This may sound counterintuitive, but dry lips are a sign you are drinking too much water and not enough salt. Add salt to your diet in the form of pickle juice or bone broth.

Fatigue

When you start fasting, you may feel tired at first as your body transitions from burning sugar to burning fat. This should pass within your first three or four fasts, when you begin to feel more energetic.

Headaches

Headaches are very common when you’re fasting. We don’t exactly know why they happen, but there is speculation that they may be due to a salt deficiency. To prevent and treat headaches, consume more salt in the form of bone broth or pickle juice. Stay away from ibuprofen and other painkillers.

Heartburn

If there’s no food in your belly to absorb your stomach acid, some of it may come up, causing a tight, burning sensation in your chest. Try an over-the-counter antacid or speak to your doctor about a prescription if the problem persists.

Intense Emotions

Volatility and feeling intense, often explosive emotions aren’t incredibly common, but they may happen when you start fasting. It’s a dramatically new lifestyle, and it’s normal for your mind to feel overwhelmed. Hang in there! Surround yourself with people who love and understand you, and seek professional therapy if needed.

Nausea

Feeling nauseated is not considered normal while you’re fasting, and it can be a sign of dehydration. Drink water, and if you experience anything more than short bursts of nausea, or if nausea increases to a degree that makes you uncomfortable, stop fasting.

Sleeplessness

Most people report having sleep issues during their first two weeks of intermittent fasting. This is the result of your body adapting to the increased level of adrenaline that it produces while you fast. Create a calming, relaxing bedtime ritual to try to wind down. You might dim the lights, drink a cup of warm herbal tea, and curl up with a book until your body tells you it’s ready to sleep. Avoid looking at screens—televisions, phones, laptops, tablets—before bed, as they emit blue light that interferes with sleep. If sleeplessness persists, try taking a melatonin supplement.

Thirst

Increased thirst is completely normal while you’re fasting because after your body burns the fuel in your stomach, it burns glycogen. Glycogen is bound with water molecules. Ever hear someone say that, instead of losing fat, you’ve lost water weight? That’s what they’re referring to. If you feel thirsty while you’re fasting, drink more water. Strive to consume at least half your body weight in pounds to ounces and drink that each day.

Upset Stomach

An upset stomach—as opposed to nausea—is likely just the result of hunger pangs, which can be alleviated by drinking mineral water.

Chapter 19
Mind Tricks While Fasting

Eve Mayer

When I started fasting, I thought that I would be in a constant battle with my stomach, but I was completely wrong. For me, the biggest struggle was with my mind.

Before fasting, my life centered on food. I planned meals, anticipated my cravings, shopped, ate, cooked, researched restaurants, made reservations, ate, took pictures of my food, posted those photos on social media, ate, came up with clever food hashtags, discussed the food with friends, cleaned dishes, wrote food reviews, and ate some more.

Then I started fasting, and I realized I had to center my life on something besides food. But to do that, I needed to retrain my brain.

Battling Boredom

When I began to practice intermittent fasting, I found that I suddenly had a staggering amount of free time. I had hours with nothing to do, and I got bored—fast. I needed to develop new hobbies and interests that would take my mind away from its habitual desire to snack or sit down to a meal. I started mentoring, shopping with my daughter, and reading more books. While it took a few weeks to find my groove, now I can’t believe I ever preferred spending my time sitting in front of the TV, shoving food in my mouth!

It may be so long since you’ve cultivated a habit that you find it difficult to get started doing anything. Don’t stress out about that, especially since anxiety might cause you to want to snack. Instead, try to remember the things you enjoy doing with friends and family—other than eating. If you can’t recall any, ask them or, even better, find out what kinds of activities (other than eating!) your loved ones would like to do with you. Often people are surprised to hear that their kids have missed spending time with them because all those hours had involved being stuck in the kitchen. Start by going on a walk with your family or buying tickets to a concert. You may discover a love of live music or the outdoors you’d long forgotten.

Before I started fasting, I found it helpful to make a list of the things I enjoyed doing outside of eating. I was shocked to remember how much I liked throwing the Frisbee to my dog, walking in my neighborhood, reading, reaching out to old friends, and organizing my house. Early on, when my mind was wandering, thinking about how much I’d love to drown my emotions in a tub of ice cream, it was therapeutic to revisit this list. Like I said, it took me some time to reengage with many of my old interests, but now I can’t imagine my life without them.

Drink water.
Listen to music.
Call your mom.
Research your next vacation.
Go for a walk outside.
Clean the kitchen.
Walk your dog.
Read a book.
Update your résumé.
Call a friend.
Visit the library.
Knit or crochet.
Journal.
Watch a TV show you’ve never seen before.
Do ten jumping jacks.
Make a cup of tea.
Fold laundry and put it away.
Go to a yoga class.
Go shopping.
Clean out your email in-box.
Visit a neighbor.
Drop off the dry cleaning.
Say a prayer or meditate.
Organize a closet.
Sit outside in the sun.
Take your child on a fun adventure.
Organize your digital photos.
Scrapbook.
Play a board game.
Listen to an audiobook.
Garden.
Make a craft project.
Go to a museum.
Write a thank-you note.
Read a magazine or newspaper.
Tackle the junk drawer.
Watch old family movies.
Clean the bathroom.
Pick wildflowers and put them in a vase.
Rake or sweep outside.

Things Not to Do While Fasting

There are so many activities that you might not think are centered on food, but in fact highlight food prominently. If you participate in them while you’re fasting, I can promise you you’ll start doing mental somersaults around the idea of eating, and before you know it, your hand will be in the cookie jar.

I’m warning you! From the moment you begin a fast to the minute you end it, you should avoid the following activities:

Looking at Social Media

Guess what people post on social media? Pictures of delicious-looking food! If you are like me, when you are first learning to fast, it’s impossible to resist running to the refrigerator when images of food pop up every two seconds. Worse than the temptation, though, is the self-loathing you might feel. I’ve found myself getting frustrated looking at these photos and associating them with the person who posted the images. I start to think, How can [this person] eat all this sugar and fried food and look so great? Why am I the only person who can’t have food?

Of course, these are ridiculous statements, but they eat away at you at a time when you need to be strong and confident. Remember, you are in control. You are the person who has made the decision to get healthy. You are the one who has decided to fast, and you can stop fasting at absolutely any moment.

Grocery Shopping

Before I started fasting, I’d go to the grocery store determined to get lettuce and tomatoes, but instead return home with Cocoa Krispies and Pop-Tarts. I’d shop while hungry and snack on something straight out of the bag. I rarely had a list or a plan when I went to the store, so it became a free-for-all involving me grabbing random ingredients hoping I could come up with enough dishes to make for my family. This often led to repeat grocery trips each week, wasting my time and money. My lack of planning always led to me throwing out food that had gone bad, which made me feel guilty for being so wasteful.

Fasting helped me become a better grocery shopper and a better cook. If I was going to eat fewer times, then I was going to make sure the meals I did prepare were delicious and enjoyable.

When I’m fasting, though, I can’t grocery shop. Even if I’m not hungry, I start battling with my reflexes any time I see a free food sample in the grocery store. As I push my shopping cart down the aisles, I feel like I am surrounded by temptation and things I can’t have. I become so resentful and deprived that I usually break my fast sooner than I want to. Sometimes, I go on to eat more than I truly need.

I strongly recommend planning your grocery shopping carefully before or after your fast, even if you are feeding a family. Ask for help from family members or use a delivery service if possible.

Cooking

When I am fasting, I do not cook. The sight, feel, and smell of food are too much for my senses to overcome. This is not about my lack of willpower, either. When your senses are bombarded by food, it’s only natural for you to want to taste it.

I am fortunate to have a husband and an eleven-year-old daughter who can cook for themselves. Not everyone is in this position, though, so if you have to cook while you’re fasting, here are a few tips I recommend:

Prep your family’s meals before your fast so you can just heat things up.
Ask for help from family members who are able to cook.
Buy prepared foods or send your family out to eat.
Cook items that are their favorites but aren’t yours.
Turn on the vent or open the window to reduce the smell of food.

Cleaning Dishes

You might be surprised to hear this, but cleaning dishes for others is tough for me when I am fasting. Years ago I “accidentally” stuck my finger in leftover pudding and licked it, and once a piece of chicken on a dirty plate ended up in my mouth on hour forty-two of a forty-eight-hour fast. I had decades of experience snacking and nibbling, and breaking this bad habit took time.

Now, I am much more accustomed to fasting, so I could probably wash dirty dishes with ease while I’m not eating. However, I’m not going to mention it to my husband because I hate washing dishes and he is kind enough to always take care of it. (Sssshhhh!)

Going to the Mall

Going shopping at the local mall seemed like a great idea when I first started fasting. After all, what was I supposed to do with all that extra time on my hands? Indulge in a little retail therapy! But when I stepped into the mall, the smell from the pretzel shop wafted out and slapped me across the face. I felt angry at the people walking around holding cinnamon rolls and pizza slices, and I wondered if I could just maybe have a bite or two.

Today, I can go to the mall with ease while fasting and still love my fellow humans—even when they have a giant pretzel. But that wasn’t the case at first, so don’t make the same mistake I did.

Going to the Movies

I love going to the movies. It used to mean a cool, safe place to shove all the popcorn and candy into my face in the dark without the judgment of others. As I changed my eating, I switched the popcorn and Coke out for a giant dill pickle and water, and I felt pretty happy. But, even today, the idea of fasting at the movies just does not sound fun to me. I know I should be well adjusted to fasting and at the theater only for the entertainment, but, unfortunately, I can’t break the habit of wanting to eat in a theater. You may feel the same.

I suggest you remove yourself from the situation and plan your movie theater outings for when you’re feasting. You can watch plenty of movies at home without needing to snack.

Going to a Party

I plan my fasting around social events. There is a time to fast and there is a time to feast, and, for me, a party is a time to feast.

As a middle-aged married woman with a preteen, I realize that my social life isn’t filled with fancy, food-centric soirees all the time, so this is easier for me. If your lifestyle requires frequent social gatherings, and you can’t schedule your fasts around them, try holding a glass of water or a club soda with lime in your hand while you’re working the room. People will question you less about eating, and having a glass to carry will give you something to do. In addition, waiters will offer you food less often if you are drinking and socializing. You may think people watch everything you eat, but often they won’t even notice if you go to a party, have a few cleverly disguised drinks, socialize all night, and eat nothing. If they do offer you something to eat, the easiest thing to do is to thank them and say you aren’t hungry at the moment.

Going on Vacation

I am comfortable with intermittent fasting on vacation, but extended fasting is tough for me if I’m away from home. I like to experience different cultures and places through food, so a long fast while I’m on a trip makes me feel like I’m losing opportunities to learn something. However, intermittent fasting on vacation works great for me because I feel like I can make one or two meals that day really count with a feast.

This list of dos and don’ts while fasting may be different for everyone. Like anything else, fasting truly gets easier with practice. I honestly didn’t believe that when I started, but it is true. At first, I couldn’t go to parties, the mall, or near any store with food while fasting. Now, I can do most of these things with ease. Just remember: You get to make the decisions of when you will fast and when you will stop. You get to be in control. You get to decide what is best for your mind and body during this entire process. For control freaks like me, once you accept that you are truly in charge, fasting becomes an enjoyable thing to do.

Finally, don’t judge yourself so harshly if you need special circumstances when you first start fasting. I made that mistake and saw myself as weak.

I wasn’t weak, I was inexperienced, and I got more experienced over time.

Now, I know I am strong. I gave myself the time and the situations to develop the skill of fasting. I am not the secret loser I thought I was! You deserve to give yourself the best chance of success. And bit by bit, you’ll see your body and your mind begin to change into what you always dreamed they could be.

Jason Fung

I’ve understood since I was a kid that the mental challenge of fasting is far more difficult than the physical challenges. Physical hunger passes very quickly, and, luckily, I learned this firsthand many years ago.

When I was twelve years old, I had to undergo a gastroscopy and colonoscopy because I’d become anemic. Doctors eventually discovered I was suffering from peptic ulcer disease, but before my diagnosis, my symptoms were unexpected and mysterious. During a gastroscopy, a small camera is inserted into the mouth and passed into the stomach to search for bleeding. In a colonoscopy, a tube is also inserted from the bottom up, to look at the intestines. Before the procedures, I wasn’t allowed to eat anything for twenty-four hours. On top of their concern over what I might be suffering from, my parents were worried that I’d be ravenously hungry and become weak. After all, kids are growing, and they need food—and a lot of it!

But what I remember more vividly than either procedure was how normal I felt during the day I didn’t eat. I wasn’t tired, I didn’t go crazy, and I didn’t pass out from hunger. I was mildly uncomfortable at worst. I was shocked, but I filed it away for years until I began to recommend fasting to my clients.

Why did I not think about fasting for years? Because we live in a culture that values and promotes nonstop eating. When you’re fasting and run headlong into well-meaning people who don’t understand that fasting is, in fact, totally healthy and natural, I recommend employing some mind tricks to turn that thinking on its head.

Know That Fasting Is Common

There are societies where millions of people fast on a regular basis. Many Muslims fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Many Catholics fast during the season of Lent. Many Jews fast during Yom Kippur. Buddhists, Mormons, and Hindus all have their own fasting traditions. The point is not the specific traditions of each particular faith but rather that, within these societies, it’s not strange for large groups of people to fast on schedule more or less throughout their entire adult lives. They seem to do it without much difficulty, it’s not frowned upon, and even their mothers don’t worry that they’re going to pass out, stop growing, or die from hunger. Yet in our society today, most people I approach with the idea of skipping even a single meal seem dead certain that they will be quite unable to do such a thing. They think that not eating even a single meal is impossible, is strange, or breaks all the rules of civilized society.

When you embark upon a fast and struggle with the idea that you’re doing something strange or unprecedented, don’t worry. You’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong! Your choice is totally normal, and billions of people throughout history have done exactly what you’re doing on a regular basis.

Chapter 20
Fasting with a Social Life

Eve Mayer

Now that you’re fasting, you may fear that it’s time to put your party clothes in storage. Not to worry: fasting doesn’t mean you have to give up your social life, vacations, celebration time with family, or anything else that’s important to you. This chapter will guide you through the thorny logistical and personal issues surrounding your social life. I promise: a successful fasting plan and a robust social life are not mutually exclusive goals!

Scheduling Is Everything

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to navigate social situations while fasting, you need to understand some basics. One of those involves getting organized. While fasting can be incredibly flexible, working for all kinds of people in all kinds of situations, one critical component of any type of fast is sticking to a preplanned schedule.

At this point I’ve been fasting for so long that sometimes I allow myself to become too flexible with my approach. I may think to myself, Hmmm, I haven’t been eating the way I should for the past couple of days, so I’ll just fast tomorrow. Then I push back tomorrow a couple more times, and suddenly I don’t fast for a week. This usually results in a one- to three-pound weight gain for me over one week. And it isn’t muscle I put on during that period. It is fat.

On the other hand, my obsessive tendencies can get the best of me. I may start a fast that I intend to do for twenty-four hours. The fast will go smoothly, and I’ll start to think, Hmmm, why not extend this to thirty-six hours, or forty-eight hours, or maybe three days, or a week? Suddenly, all my well-laid plans about work and family are up in the air, and my life feels more disorganized than it’s ever been.

These examples are meant to illustrate that fasting is so flexible that you can easily fast too much or not enough, thinking that you can just adjust your life accordingly. If you’re like me, you can’t; life is just too busy not to stick to a plan. Unfortunately, no one can give you a prescription for the exact schedule you need. It’s up to you to figure that out.

When I started fasting, I found this incredibly maddening. I figured that if I found the best specialists in the world, they could just give me the magical fasting schedule that would allow me to meet my goals. But though I met Dr. Fung and Megan Ramos—the best in the business—early on in my fasting journey, even they couldn’t offer such a magical solution.

Now I get it. Megan and Dr. Fung are such pros that they know an ideal fasting schedule must be discovered by people for themselves. Experts can guide, suggest, and share what has worked for thousands—and, in fact, Megan will offer a few great sample plans starting here—but they cannot know the particulars of your life. They can’t know that you love to eat late at night or that you cook for three kids every day or that when you pass McDonald’s your car magically turns into the drive-through. They won’t know that Sunday brunch after church is sacred in your family, and that you need to plan your fasting schedule around it, or that you have a business dinner planned for next week. We all have our quirks, triggers, and schedules to overcome, and only you hold the key to figuring those out.

Fasting requires balance, accountability, and a plan. You get to pick this schedule, and it is customizable to your lifestyle, but you need to work hard on it and adhere to it. If you love to make schedules, then this will come easily to you. Once you decide how often you want to fast on a regular basis, take a look at your life and fit fasting into it.

Here are a few tips on fitting fasting into a wonderful social life.

Don’t Be a Martyr or a Jerk

When I began fasting, I did not know how to plan my fasting around my life. I didn’t strategically select when I should fast, nor did I think about how I’d feel when I fasted. Therefore, when I went to work and saw the free breakfast or lunch my company supplied each week, I’d glare at my co-workers. Sure, I knew when both the free breakfast and free lunch were scheduled because they were on the same day every week, but I thought I’d be okay. I wasn’t. Even though my co-workers were supportive of me the whole time I was fasting, I was an irritable, resentful, all-around-grouchy colleague.

You can learn from my mistakes.

I realize now that it was acceptable to announce my weight loss in the portion of our Monday meeting devoted to each person’s personal and professional win of the week. I also know that it would have been perfectly okay for me not to tell anyone I was fasting. It’s my business, and I could have avoided a lot of questions if I’d done that. However, it was not acceptable for me to fast during the free company meals and be resentful of my colleagues. It was not collegial of me to complain in public about not being able to eat breakfast, nor to announce loudly that I couldn’t have lunch because I was fasting. It was disruptive to my colleagues to wear my terrible circumstances like a badge of honor and bitch about wishing I could eat.

I acted like a martyr, and I regret it.

Luckily, it took only a few months for me to learn how to turn this behavior around, but I wish someone would have told me from the beginning how to not be a jerk when I was fasting. So here it is: When you fast, don’t make it all about you. Fasting is within your control, and you’ve chosen how and when to schedule it. Don’t act as though you’re helpless or suffering because you decided to do it over Thanksgiving, a vacation, or on free breakfast Monday at work. You are in charge of your fasting schedule, so own it.

When to Fast

If possible, plan your fasting to avoid group activities where food is free, available, or everywhere. I could have easily chosen not to fast on the days when my company offered free meals, allowing myself to make healthy food choices with them (or sneak in a doughnut) and fast during the times when food would be less central. I wasn’t fasting every day, so I could have been flexible.

If you are going to be at a group event or party where you know or have a strong suspicion that there will not be foods that are included in your healthy way of eating, bring a dish that you’ll enjoy and share it with the group. If it’s not possible to bring your own dish and you don’t want to eat the type of food that’s being served at an event, eat a full meal before you walk out the door. Grab a drink, keep it in your hand at the party, and focus on socializing. Or, simply go to the party and try a few of the appetizers—in moderation. You’ll be surprised how much this takes the pressure off you to be perfect. Choosing to fast in a nearly impossible situation where there are so many delicious treats can set you up for failure.

Sometimes, it is tough to remember that fasting is a choice. It’s not something you have to do, and you certainly don’t have to do it on a particular day. You have chosen to fast because you want to lose weight and improve your health. You should choose to fast on a particular day because the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term enjoyment of any particular food. You hold all the cards, and you have all the control.

“No, thanks, I’m full.”
“Thank you, but I’m not hungry.”
“It looks great, but I already ate.”
“I’m good for now.”
“It looks great, but I’m all set.”
“I may check it out later, but right now I don’t feel like eating.”

“I’m fasting.”
“I’m not snacking anymore.”
“I do not eat snacks.”

Adjust Your Priorities

Fasting is going to require that you alter some things yourself and how you spend your time. After all, if you changed nothing about your life, you would end up living in the exact same body you decided could use some improvement. If your social life consists of business lunches five days a week, happy hours with appetizers five days a week, weekend brunches with friends, Friday night dinners with your spouse, and Sunday all-day eating with your family, then yes, you are going to have to make major changes to your social life. You are going to have to adjust your priorities and choose fasting over a life that revolves around food. Luckily, if you’re like me, you can look at your schedule and realize there are minor alterations you can make that will deliver big results.

As a businesswoman, I previously conducted most of my business meetings around food. I provided doughnuts, unhealthy lunches, and birthday cakes for every staff member, and I loved going out for lunches with current or prospective clients three or four times a week. When I started fasting, I cut back on a lot of these food-centered activities. Because I knew my staff still loved sharing treats and meals, I provided healthier alternatives, and instead of individual parties for each member of my staff, we celebrated once a month with cake. When I decided to skip lunch a few days a week, I began to change all my business lunches into coffees. No one seemed to care, and, in fact, few seemed to notice!

Know Your Limits

Many of us put ourselves in truly difficult situations to try to prove we are strong enough. This is a ridiculous and painful way to handle things. What if instead you treated yourself kindly and gave yourself the best possible chance of succeeding?

Now that I know I can fast successfully and have maintained my weight for the first time in my life, I know when fasting is the right choice for me. Personally, I do not fast for longer than seventeen hours at a time while on vacation or when my extended family is visiting because I know there will be delicious food around that I want to enjoy. I choose to do longer fasts when I am at home, usually just with my husband, and I can keep busy. These are the easiest times for me to be successful.

When do you have the best chances of success? This is when you should schedule your fasting. Fasting is not about saying no to yourself. Fasting is about saying yes to yourself on your own terms!

All these techniques may feel odd at first, but over time they become natural and you stop noticing that you have to do them. To truly change your mind and body, you must expect to make changes to your environment—but that’s not a bad thing. It can be empowering to realize how much of your environment you can control. Give yourself the time you need to adopt the new behaviors and be patient with yourself. Soon, you will begin to enjoy your time at home, at work, at the grocery store, and at restaurants more than you would have ever believed possible because there will be fewer decisions and less stress. Notice your successes, even the small ones, and give yourself credit for making each change. These changes add up quickly, and suddenly, there is a new, happier you staring back from the mirror!

Megan Ramos

My recommendation to my clients is always the same: fit fasting into your lifestyle, don’t fit your lifestyle into your fasting schedule. Just as Eve said, fasting is flexible. That’s why, with a little practice, you can find a balance between fasting consistently enough to reach your weight-loss goals and still maintain a healthy social life. Missing one fasting day is not a big deal, but you also can’t miss them all.

Our lives are hectic, though, and it’s hard to strike a balance between appointments, obligations, and fasting. I’ve found that sometimes overly organized people tend to be too inflexible about their fasting schedule. For example, here’s a scenario I commonly hear:

On the flip side, some people can be too casual with their fasting schedule, letting it slide just because they associate a situation, a group of people, or a time of the year with feasting. For example, summertime is often problematic for fasters because people are so eager to socialize, barbecue, drink al fresco, and nibble at appetizers by the pool when the weather is nice. Here is another common conversation:

The truth is that life is always busy. We often use the summer or weekends as an excuse, but we’re highly social creatures all year long. Holidays are scattered every few months throughout the year as well. Being too rigid, too extreme, or too laid back is a recipe for failure. The people who get the best results from fasting are those who have flexibility and consistency and can plan and organize well. To start you off, here are a few examples of successful, balanced fasting regimens:

The Twenty-Four-Hour Fast, Three Times a Week

The twenty-four-hour fast doesn’t need to be done on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You can do two days back-to-back and a third day later in the week. You can even do all three days together, which works well if you have a busy long weekend ahead. Many successful people fast Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and socialize guilt-free with friends and family for the rest of the week.

I don’t recommend committing your fasting schedule to three particular days of the week, every week. Plan your weeks in advance, and if something unexpected pops up on a day you had decided to fast, then fast the next day in your schedule that isn’t blocked off with social engagements.

The Thirty-Six- or Forty-Two-Hour Fast, Three Times a Week

The thirty-six- or forty-two-hour fast can be very successful, but it’s tough to do it three times a week without disrupting your social life. A good strategy I’ve used myself is to fast for forty-two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays are flex days, when fasting is an option depending on social engagements. I found it relatively easy to fast for forty-two hours consistently on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I struggled on Fridays and weekends, having tried and failed countless times. Finally, I decided I would just fast twenty-four hours on Fridays and be proud of it. Otherwise, I was being self-destructive on Fridays because a social situation would pop up about 80 percent of the time, so I’d either feel like I was missing out or blowing my fast.

Set a goal of fasting for twenty-four hours to forty-two hours, three times a week. Whatever you can do, be proud of it. Keep your attitude flexible and positive. Don’t try to do too much because you’ll only set yourself up for failure.

The Seventy-Two-Hour Fast Once a Week

Some people find it easier to extend a fast once they’ve started it rather than doing several smaller fasts. If you’re one of these people, a seventy-two-hour fast may be the best option for you. Most people who practice this fasting schedule start the fast Sunday night after a weekend of good feasting, and they break their fast Wednesday night and eat for the rest of the week. This works great for people with very busy weekends with friends and family.

Three days of fasting sounds like a lot, but you’re actually only skipping two weekday dinners, which is good for those whose dinner hour is important family time. It also works well if you’re the primary cook at home since you have to plan in advance for only two meals during the week.

Planning for Holidays, Vacations, and House Guests

There will be times of the year when you just can’t fast at all. These are occasions like holidays and reunions, or maybe you have overnight guests visiting from out of town. During these occasions, you should still avoid snacking. Why? Because you’ve worked hard to get your blood sugar level stable and reduce your insulin level; snacking will throw a wrench into that progress, and you’ll start to feel hungry all the time again.

During holidays, my major piece of advice is to avoid grazing as much as possible. I know it’s hard because food is everywhere, and so much of it comes in the form of sweets or junk food or greasy hors d’oeuvres—easy-to-eat foods that quickly become hard to keep track of once you start popping them into your mouth. But if you want to embrace and enjoy a feast, you need to focus on the one, full, satisfying meal. Eating less more often is the worst thing you can do for your progress.

Many of my clients have full-blown panic attacks before they go away on vacation. They’ve seen what a week of feasting over Christmas can do to them, and they’re petrified that a week touring Tokyo is going to be twice as bad. Relax! The truth is that vacations are so much easier than holidays! Why? Because during Christmas, Thanksgiving, or many other major family or religious holidays, we’re usually in a house, tempted to graze nonstop. We’re presented with a massive spread of food from the moment we show up at our holiday celebration until the minute we leave. That’s hours of eating! But when you’re traveling, you’re out and about, exploring, walking, visiting the local sights. You’re only stopping to eat meals. That’s it.

A client of mine recently returned from London, terrified to get on the scale.

“Megan, I drank beer and ate chips at every meal,” he said.

Guess what? He lost seven pounds despite eating chips and drinking beer at every meal because he was only eating twice a day while he was away. He wasn’t sitting on the couch in his hotel room every night snacking while watching Netflix. So try to go easy on yourself on vacation, and embrace the feasting. There will be times of the year when you can feast more, and others when you can fast more.

Chapter 21
Getting Back on Track

Eve Mayer

No one is perfect. And when you make any major lifestyle change—especially fasting and giving up the unhealthy foods you love—you’re going to fail sometimes. It’s okay, I promise. You can always get back on track.

One recent Saturday, I stumbled and fell off the wagon, too.

I was having a rough day. Years ago, my way of coping had been to binge on sugary and carb-filled foods, which took my mind away from my pain. I used food like most people used alcohol and drugs—sometimes in groups, but most of the time at home alone, in front of the television. Giving in to my constant hunger distracted me, and bingeing became an easy, comforting form of therapy.

Suddenly, that Saturday, my pain cascaded over me like a waterfall, becoming more intense the more it pounded into me. Panic enveloped me, and I became desperate for something, anything, to calm me down. Then it hit me: I could binge. Just this once—and never again—I could use food to stop my feelings. I was alone, so no one would know. I also had cash, so my husband wouldn’t be able to see the credit card bill, with evidence of the bender I was about to head out on.

If you’ve never been addicted to a substance, then it’s hard to describe the satisfaction—and, paradoxically, the desperation—that pills, liquor, or Twinkies can bring to an addict’s life. But as I stepped on the accelerator and sped my car into the parking lot of a Nothing Bundt Cakes store, I felt that frantic urge, deeply. I slammed my door, then looked at my car and noticed that I’d parked it at an angle. I didn’t care. I was crazed, ready to shove everything rational aside so I could get my sugar fix.

My heart sank when I went inside and saw six people in line. I didn’t have that kind of time to wait—even to put that sweet Bundt cake with creamy icing into my mouth. Luckily, in the corner I noticed samples of red velvet Bundt cake with tiny dollops of white icing on them. I sprinted over, shoved one in my mouth, and swallowed without chewing. Then I turned my back to everyone and ate another sample, praying they hadn’t seen me. Wiping crumbs from my mouth, I stepped back in line to wait my turn, noticed that there were still six people in front of me, and went back to the sample plate to devour two more tiny pieces of red velvet cake.

Then I scurried out of the store, hoping I’d become magically invisible.

You’d think I would have stopped there and headed to my car, but I didn’t. I knew that in the same shopping center was an upscale grocery store that had food samples laid out around it. I walked through its doors and started bingeing on every sample they had—from yogurt to juice to beef jerky to grapes to my favorite: the fresh baked bread and cookies at the bakery.

I knew I was temporarily insane, and, yes, I was deeply ashamed of myself. But I was out of control, so I pushed those thoughts back down and reached for a piece of pumpkin bread.

Suddenly, I heard a voice near me. It was faint at first. Then it got closer.

“Eve! Hi, Eve, it’s good to see you!”

I looked up and waved. To my horror, it was someone I knew. I was wearing no makeup and had my hair in a decidedly unattractive bun on top my head, and between those two things and my mouth stuffed full of bread, I should have looked like a monster. But I hadn’t seen this friend in two years, and I was fifty pounds lighter than the last time we’d met up.

“Oh my gosh, you look fantastic!” my friend exclaimed.

“Thank you,” I said, sincerely meaning it.

When I got home, I told my husband everything, from my pillaging of the samples of Bundt cake to my rampage through the grocery store. I cried as I told him how ashamed I was for cheating on a diet that had done so much for me, and I cried when I recalled how I’d been “caught” by someone I knew. As the tears flowed down my cheeks, though, he started laughing.

“Isn’t it nice to be told how great you look when you have bread falling out of your mouth?” he asked.

It was true. It was pretty hilarious to receive a compliment at such a low point.

We chatted for a few more minutes after I dried my tears, and I started to take account of what had driven me to binge the way I had. Talking with my husband, I realized that I’d had some issues I’d avoided dealing with. I had concerns over my husband’s new job, and my transition from a busy business owner to a consultant and full-time writer. I was losing my confidence and questioning my purpose, and those fears manifested themselves, allowing me to fall back into bad habits and let food control my life again. I felt like such a loser until I took a deep breath and realized: my binge had been just twenty minutes. That’s it, twenty minutes of ridiculous, stupid behavior.

That’s the lesson here. Even though you may have come so far—and still feel like you have a long way to go to be even healthier—you will always have minutes, days, or even weeks when you’re not your best. You are only human, and that makes you imperfect. You are incredible, but you are also fallible. No matter how much you improve, how much work you put in, or how much you think you have your health all figured out, every once in a while, you are going to get knocked on your ass! And that’s okay.

Hopefully you’ll only have small problems, like my out-of-control binge fest. But other times, your problems will be huge. You may suffer from a disease, sustain a major injury, lose a job, end a relationship, or care for a sick family member. Life is a persistent, unforgiving roller coaster. Your job in the midst of this wild ride is to remember that you are worth the effort.

It is a cliché, but you are going to get off-track when you start fasting. I mess up, fail, and stumble. But now, instead of beating myself up for a lengthy amount of time, I simply start again. I have discovered that skinny people, who have been mysterious creatures to me for so long, pig out sometimes, too! Skinny, healthy people eat bad food and good food, but they follow a system of eating and/or fasting that works for them most of the time.

So, please, when you stumble and wonder if you’ll ever get back on track, just tell yourself that it’s okay to start again. Every big journey begins with just one step, so don’t be afraid to get up, dust yourself off, and start over. You are worth it!

Forgive yourself as soon as possible.
If you can learn to laugh at yourself, you will heal twice as fast.
Examine what is going on in your life and consider that you might not be getting something you need. If possible, try to give yourself what you need in a healthy way.
After you finish examining how you screwed up, recognize how you have succeeded. Give yourself a moment to be proud of your accomplishments.
Keep going. Try to do better than you did yesterday.

Chapter 22
Finding a Community

Eve Mayer

We’ve discussed the fact that fasting can be a polarizing topic. Because people tend to have strong reactions to the notion of skipping meals, sometimes it makes sense to keep your goals to yourself and not share the details of your new lifestyle widely.

That said, you also need and deserve support, and the more people who can help you on your journey, the better. In this chapter we’ll discuss the best way to build a community.

Timing Is Everything

In my experience, it’s better to share the fact that you’re fasting after you have decided it’s something that works for you. Your initial period of research, when you’re educating yourself and deciding if you want to fast, is not the time to petition friends for their advice. Why? Because they don’t live inside your body, and they haven’t visited the depths of your mind. Like I’ve said before, too, they may be entirely uninformed about the health benefits of fasting.

If you’re like me, taking a stab at losing weight or improving your health one more damn time puts you in an extremely vulnerable state. You might feel shame about your imperfect body, repeated failures, or supposed lack of willpower. When you’re feeling exposed in this way, the opinions of others may carry more power than they should.

Hitting pause before announcing your new lifestyle to your friends or office mates allows you to exist in a vacuum of quiet where you can listen to your own opinions. For some of us, it takes great concentration to tune in to what our body and mind are trying to tell us, especially when we’ve been down on ourselves for so long. The choice of what you eat and when you eat is a singular, private, and personal one. Oftentimes, that decision can only happen when you listen to yourself, paying attention to your own needs and vision, for an extended period of time.

The best way to keep it private is to schedule fasting around your lifestyle. After all, canceling your appearance at a long-planned dinner party or avoiding your traditional Sunday brunch is going to raise some eyebrows and lead to a lot of questions you may not be ready to answer. Instead, plan to start your fast during a quiet, solitary, undisturbed time. If fasting works for you, you’ll probably feel mentally prepared to talk about it with others sooner than you think.

Announcing Your Lifestyle

When you decide you’re ready to form a community that understands and supports fasting, you might feel unsure about who’s going to be receptive—or whether anyone will be. Yes, you can expect some strong reactions. Some people may express concern about the safety of what you’re doing. Others will ask a million questions. And some people may get angry because your choice to fast makes them uncomfortable about their own choices. The inevitability of these reactions is why you need to know your stance first. If fasting has worked for you, stand firm and defend it. Don’t let other people’s questions or concern sway you. This is your choice and your health.

However, I encourage you not to be too defensive when you talk about fasting, for two reasons. One, when you’re protective or apologetic about something, you often seem weak. Worse, you feel weak. That tentativeness does nothing to convince yourself—or others—that you’ve set out on the right path. Be sure of what you’re doing and show it! Second, you might just be surprised about who’s going to support you. I know I was!

A few weeks after I adopted intermittent fasting, I went to the office on a twenty-four-hour fast day, and there was free food in the conference room. The doughnuts that a kind co-worker brought in some mornings and the weekly birthday cakes my company provided contributed to a hefty portion of my weight gain, so I braced myself and worried, What if someone asks me why I’m not eating? While I could have kept my mouth shut, though, I decided I was firm in my stance about fasting and prepared to answer anything.

Not two minutes passed before a co-worker asked me if I wanted a slice of the delicious-looking birthday cake. The moment had arrived. I was more than ready to broach the subject, so I answered.

“No, thank you. I’ve been fasting regularly for the last few weeks, and today I’m on a full-day fast.” The room had been quiet, so I knew others had heard me. I braced myself for an onslaught of questions, funny looks, and insults that I was sure were about to come my way.

They didn’t. Instead, I was astounded by the reaction in the room. My colleague smiled and shrugged like my fasting was no big deal, and a few other colleagues walked up to me and congratulated me. Some just ignored the issue entirely. I asked a few co-workers who approached me if they’d fasted, and some responded that, yes, they had for religious reasons when they were children. A few others were now regularly using intermittent fasting for weight loss, weight maintenance, or health.

A few people were curious about hearing more about my fasting, and others expressed the types of concerns that I had once worried about, too. They asked if my metabolism would slow down, did I feel faint or have a headache or feel hungry. These people were shocked to hear that I hadn’t eaten for about eighteen hours and still felt great.

My group of co-workers were kind, supportive, and open, and I was lucky to have them. But, again, even smart, compassionate friends can be scared for your life when you start fasting. When I told my friend Jameelah that I hadn’t eaten for four days, she begged me to stop fasting. As I continued fasting for a few days, she checked in with me and suggested repeatedly that maybe I could eat a little something or have some juice just to be safe. And when I went to visit my parents in Louisiana for the first time while fasting, these educated, open people who love me more than anything in the world were terribly concerned. I am their only child, after all!

That’s why I recommend reading a few books, doing lots of research, following the blog and listening to the podcasts on FastingLane.com, and being firm in your convictions. You need to be equipped to deal with your most challenging critics as well as be prepared to be surprised by encouraging, understanding friends. But, most of all, know that if fasting is working for you, yours is the only opinion that matters!

Educate yourself about all aspects of fasting—from its health benefits to the science behind it—before sharing your story with others. That way, you’ll be prepared to answer unexpected questions.
Schedule your fasting around your life and not your life around fasting.
Wait until there is a solid, compelling reason that you need to share your fasting with others—if, for example, you won’t be eating breakfast with your co-workers one morning or if you have to politely decline a piece of office birthday cake.
Expect emotional responses for or against your fasting.
Have at least one book and one online site you trust and can share with concerned friends or family members if they ask for more information.
Remember that what and how often you eat is ultimately your choice.

Build an Online Support Team

If you’re anything like me, your entire life is contained on your smartphone. I keep my calendar and to-do list on it, I use it to check email, and every contact I’ve saved for the past ten years has been added to my phone rather than to an address book. My phone is often the last thing I see before I go to bed and the first thing I reach for when I wake up. It is my support system for every aspect of life.

Fasting is a significant lifestyle change, and many of us need help making it last. When it’s going well, you’re going to feel like you’re on top of the world, and when it isn’t, you’re going to feel frustrated and need the support of people you trust who are available when you need them. Real-life friends and family should always be your first choice, but, eventually, they may get sick of you talking about what you ate or didn’t eat, and how you feel. That’s why I recommend finding a community online.

I first learned about fasting through a friend who suggested I read The Obesity Code by Dr. Fung. I then looked Dr. Fung up online and read about him, watched his videos, listened to his podcasts, scoured his website, and learned of his partner, Megan Ramos. I also joined his online fasting support groups, and they led me to some of my favorite sites, like DietDoctor.com, and Facebook groups specific to low-carb, keto, and fasting. Through Facebook groups, I met people like me who were new to fasting and had a million questions. I began interacting with people from all over the world who had been fasting for years and had so many answers. Today, I believe that online resources are a huge reason I’m experiencing lasting success with my weight loss for the first time in my life. In fact, they’ve been so important that I started my own site and podcast at www.FastingLane.com, which collects the low-carb and fasting doctors, pros, and successful everyday people whom I admire and have learned from. I’d love for you to join us there and perhaps to share your own story someday.

To develop the best online support system, start with medical professionals. Find doctors and researchers who explain the science of fasting and food in a way that you understand. Make sure their words resonate with you and test their theories to prove them to yourself. I don’t expect that you will believe every word any person will say, but I believe you will find a small group of professionals who will help you find the best guidelines for improving your health.

Next, look for people on a social media platform you use daily who are online personalities living the type of lifestyle you want to live. For instance, if you use Twitter and are doing extended fasting, follow someone who does the same and tweets about it. Read this person’s tweets, and if you get really bold, interact with them.

The easiest place you can do this is Instagram. There are loads of people who post specifically about any type of eating or fasting you can imagine. If you decide to eat low-carb, for example, you can search this term and find all the people you could ever want discussing this topic on a daily basis. Find a few whose recipes look good to you and whose style of posting content you find entertaining and informative. Some people will also offer tips, give encouragement, tell stories, and offer discounts. Others will just post “before” and “after” pictures with measurements and share details of their fasting regimen. Find people you look up to and can learn from. You get to pick your inspiration, and that can mean one person or several who each give you a little bit of what you need.

When you want to interact with a group of people who have similar goals as you, I recommend that you turn first to either a paid site run by a professional group you trust or a Facebook group. Facebook groups have been surprisingly helpful to me. Bear in mind that a Facebook page is different from a Facebook group. The purpose of a Facebook page is usually for a brand or organization to get their message out to the people who choose to like the page, while the purpose of a Facebook group is to build a community for a group of people with something in common. The organization that owns a Facebook group will sometimes post, but the group is intended for like-minded people to help one another.

I find it very comforting to hear how others feel when they fast. I like to know that at hour 36 of a forty-eight-hour fast many people feel very hungry and are tempted to give up. It is one thing to recognize that common experience with a single person, but when I see it repeated from all types of people at different times in a Facebook group, I feel validated. Reading strangers’ stories online makes me feel less like a freak because we all have so much in common.

When you begin to fast, it can be very helpful to have people online who are fasting along with you. You will very often experience the same frustration, hunger, success, and joy at the same times. It is comforting when you decide to do your first week of three twenty-four-hour fasts and you get to do it with a group of people you have never met. Some of your questions and fears are easier to tackle with online strangers. I find it very encouraging to answer questions online because I’m able to share the knowledge I’ve collected, and I know how that person feels because I was once there. It is a reminder of how far I have come. Watching people post their “before” and “after” pictures can also be a huge source of inspiration. After all, if they can achieve their goals, you can, too.

Finally, an online support system will help you celebrate the little NSVs (non-scale victories) that your real-life friends might grow weary of. These include victories like needing only half of your diabetes medication daily, or being able to take a selfie that you are proud of. An online support system is there twenty-four hours a day, ready to answer your questions, hear your frustrations, and celebrate your wins while you help them do the same. You deserve all types of friends—even the ones you will never meet in person but who will cheer your victories every step of the way!

Choose a few doctors and researchers to follow on fasting and eating who resonate with you and sign up for their online newsletters or join their group.
On your favorite social media platforms, follow two chefs or recipe developers who specialize in your type of fasting and eating.
Join an online group or two on Facebook where you can ask questions and exchange support for people going through the same experiences as you.

Chapter 23
Living Your New Life

Eve Mayer

It wasn’t easy for me to adjust to my new fasting lifestyle. Why? Because I don’t smoke, I rarely drink, and I don’t bungee jump. When I go on vacation I want to relax, and I want to EAT! What was I going to do now that nonstop snacking and gorging were no longer on the table?

All I had to do was open my eyes and look around to discover a new source of joy—one that made me truly, deeply happy in my own skin.

My first vacation was a three-week road trip in a camper with my husband. Now, this was no ordinary van. With a foldout bed, a hidden toilet, a fridge, a microwave, counters, and, most important, a coffee maker, it defined the word glamping. Solar panels on top allowed us to enjoy full power and internet, but that still wasn’t enough for me. Road trips used to mean Cheetos, chocolate, salt and vinegar chips, and endless amounts of soda and coffee, and my inability to stock the mini fridge made me feel nervous, disappointed, and, quite honestly, not nearly as excited about vacation as I normally am.

I learned on day two that a surprising amount of the country does not have great cell phone service or access for my hotspot, so I talked to my husband and sat with my thoughts, which were mostly about food. Still, I forced myself to focus on other things, so I looked out the window at the sky. It was beautiful. It was purple in the morning and pink in the afternoon, and as we drove through Wyoming to Montana, more and more birds filled it. As we crossed into Canada, gorgeous mountains extended into it, disappearing into the clouds when we arrived in Banff.

The times we ventured out of the camper were even more amazing. In Yellowstone National Park, I gasped at the sight of buffalo and giggled when people got sprayed by a nearby geyser at Old Faithful. I stared at snowcapped mountains from the back porch of a library while my puppy romped with a new doggy friend through the tall grass. I sipped coffee with no sweetener in crisp summer mountain air, in awe at the sight of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. I slept late, kissed my husband, went on long walks, looked at the fish in the clear water of the river, listened to a cellist play in the library, and watched movies in the van. I played Frisbee with the puppy and bought a new backpack. And, slowly but steadily, I thought less about food and more about what was around me.

It was like I was coming back to life.

I had never really appreciated nature. It’s for fit, healthy people, after all, and it’s hard to appreciate the view when you can barely breathe because your body is too heavy to carry you up a tiny hill. It’s hard to think about things other than food when your hormones are conditioned to tell you to eat every damn minute of the day. It is hard to appreciate your dog, your husband, your child, your life, your anything when every moment your mind is screaming at you to EAT! But I started fasting, and I found out that I could do so much better. Life was different from what I thought it was, and it was during that vacation that I started to feel something new.

It was freedom.

Fasting has helped me to develop an appreciation for many things I’d been taking for granted. I still love to eat, but, for me, there’s so much more to life than that. Fasting is going to give you more free time and money to use in whatever way you wish. But, above and beyond that, it’s going to give you the freedom to get out there and enjoy life.

Let’s celebrate!

How to Celebrate

In the past, when I achieved something in life, there was only one way to celebrate. Cake! And champagne. And steak. And a loaded baked potato. You get the idea. Once you change to eating healthily and fasting, celebrating every little success by gorging on food no longer works.

You need new ways to celebrate!

You are going to have a lot of celebrating to do. You need to honor your big goals, but you can also celebrate small achievements along the way. Maybe your big goal is to lose eighty pounds, but your interim goal is to bench-press eighty pounds. The celebration should be commensurate with the achievement. Reward yourself with something small when it takes little effort to achieve it. For example, you might get the remote control to yourself for a night when you complete your first twenty-four-hour fast. Celebrate with something big, though, when it takes time and persistence to get there. For example, you might mark losing twenty pounds with tickets to see your favorite band play live.

I’ll be honest; I still celebrate with food, but I’ve found a better, healthier way to do it. It seems pretty strange to reward weight loss by eating, but there’s something kind of cool about enjoying a big medium-rare rib-eye steak and a wedge salad at a fancy restaurant after a long fast.

Celebrating is a big deal because it reminds you of where you came from and what you achieved. It reinforces your confidence and your commitment. I recommend honoring your achievements with someone who supported you in your goals as a way of thanking them. Set aside some of the money you save from fasting and put it in a bank account or an actual piggy bank for your celebration fund. It doesn’t matter if you can afford two bucks a week or $200 a week. You can watch the savings toward your eminent success grow as you get healthier.

How you will celebrate depends on what you enjoy doing. But regardless of whether you buy a new outfit, take a long bath, or buy yourself flowers, do something to commemorate all that you’ve achieved. You deserve it!

Afterword: Is Bariatric Surgery for You?

Eve Mayer

I’ve had bariatric surgery not once, not twice, but three times. Yes, you read that right, three times. Before I discovered fasting, I failed to keep weight off through diets, so I did some research and learned that most studies show that people lose weight after bariatric surgery. I visited multiple doctors, got the support of my family and friends, and decided to go for it. In 2004, I underwent my first procedure, then waited patiently to see if the pounds would fly off.

They did—at first. Going under the knife also allowed me to go off medications and reduce the side effects of polycystic ovary syndrome, which helped me become pregnant with my daughter. These were the upsides—and they were huge. But the bad news was that, all three times I had bariatric surgery, I eventually gained back some or all of the weight. The relentless hunger I’d felt my whole life, which had faded away right after surgery, returned as well. In other words, the surgery didn’t fix my “broken” body. That would happen years later, when I discovered fasting.

If you are considering bariatric surgery, I urge you to not only do the necessary research but also speak with others who have been through it. I hope my story will show you its positive and negative aspects, and help you decide whether it’s the right choice for you.

My Story

My first bariatric surgery was a lap-band (short for “laparoscopic-band”) procedure. In lap-band, doctors insert a band into your body around the upper part of your stomach. The band can be adjusted to be tighter or looser by adding saline through a needle and into a port that’s placed just under your skin on your stomach. When working properly, a lap band should make you feel fuller more quickly and for longer. The surgery is minimally invasive and is usually done with a few small incisions on the abdomen. It can also be reversed if there is ever an issue.

During the first few months after the procedure, I was ecstatic. My recovery time wasn’t more than a couple of weeks, and the pain was bearable. For three months after the surgery, I was hungry less often, and I went from about 300 pounds down to around 225.

However, in the fourth month after my first lap-band surgery the hunger returned with a vengeance. My weight loss slowed and, over the next few months, stopped completely. Then the weight began to creep back up. Within four years, it had stabilized at around 230. My goal had been to get to 185, so this was a failure in my book.

There were side effects to lap-band surgery. If I ate rapidly—especially fibrous or dry food like chicken breasts or broccoli—or consumed too much, I threw up. If the lap band was adjusted too tightly, I also vomited. With the lap band, nighttime was brutal because if I ate within three hours of going to bed, my dinner would come right back up. As I lost or gained weight, the band needed to be adjusted since my internal organs also contracted or expanded. I found it very difficult to find the sweet spot with the lap band, so, over time, I got fewer adjustments and did what many people do. I worked around the lap band, not with it.

Since I was no longer losing weight and now gaining, I began speaking with the surgeons where I worked. They suggested I get my lap band taken out and have the new, improved version put in. So I did, and my second bariatric surgery in 2007 removed my original lap band and replaced it. As before, I thought this would be a permanent solution to my hunger, and once again, it worked like magic! My weight went down to about 185, and I was ecstatic.

It didn’t last. I stayed at 185 for exactly two days, and then I began the journey back up again to 225. My diet with the lap band was also less healthy than it had been pre–lap band. Why? Because I was motivated to try to eat, feel full, and not get sick. I ate hamburgers with extra mayo and greasy fried meats with as much sauce as possible. I knew I was making bad choices, but I missed eating, and I was hungry.

That’s right. After about three months with the new lap band, I was just as hungry as I had been before. The only difference was that now my stomach was small and filled up quickly. This meant that I ate all day long.

Six years went by, and I continued to struggle with steadily increasing weight. I was a prisoner to my constant obsession with food, so I decided to research bariatric surgery for a third time. I considered having a gastric bypass, a surgery that divides your stomach and makes the portion in which food is digested smaller. It’s a complicated, serious procedure, so I opted instead to have my lap band removed and get a gastric sleeve, an easier surgery in which the stomach is made narrower, like a cylinder. A gastric sleeve is typically done with small incisions and does not require more than a couple of weeks of downtime. It is not adjustable, and I liked the idea of not having the issues I’d had with the lap band. Unlike my lap band, the gastric sleeve is not reversible, but I was determined to solve my hunger issues once and for all.

All in all, I had a good experience getting my gastric sleeve. The doctor was proficient and kind, and I did not experience a lot of pain. I was back to full speed in a couple of weeks. For the first few months I felt much less hungry, and my weight dropped to under 200. But after about three months, the constant hunger was back. Sure, I was happy to find that I could consume more fibrous and healthier foods than I had before, but I was crushed that I still felt famished.

As of this writing, I’ve had a gastric sleeve for about seven years. The gastric sleeve was a much more effective surgery for me compared to the lap band, but the truth is that three bariatric surgeries never fixed my body or my mind. If I could get in a time machine and go back fifteen years, I would spare myself the risk, the money, and the pain of those surgeries. Fasting was the ultimate solution for me, and if you’re considering bariatric surgery, I urge you to try fasting first.

Jason Fung

It is often said that bariatric surgery is the only scientifically proven method of long-term weight loss, but I have found that it’s rife with problems.

The first is that it’s not usually successful in the long term. The Cleveland Clinic has stated that gastric bypass surgery carries a 10 to 20 percent risk that you will require a follow-up operation to correct complications, that about a third of patients will get gallstones, and that almost 30 percent will experience nutritional deficiencies. With lap band, they claim that most of their patients experience at least one serious side effect, including bowel obstruction, hair loss, bleeding, and clots.

My own clinical experience with bariatric surgery tells much the same story. Almost all my clients who have undergone lap banding have already had it removed. One of my clients who had gastric bypass surgery required repeated procedures, and because her stomach kept scarring, she had persistent nausea and vomiting. So far, I have not met a single person who maintained a clinically significant weight loss using surgical techniques.

The numbers back this up because the success rate over the long term is low, and even for the most powerful gastric bypass surgery, there is a significant risk of weight regain that increases over time. For individuals ten years out from bariatric surgery, the failure rate is up to 35 percent.

The problem is not that we need better surgical techniques, but that we need to change the entire culture of weight loss. The medical profession is so steeped in the “Calories In, Calories Out” philosophy of weight loss that, when it fails (which it inevitably does), doctors resort to drastic and draconian measures of mutilating a normal body for the purposes of weight loss. To me, this represents an admission of defeat, and it’s simply not good medicine. Doctors are supposed to prevent their patients from having surgery, not endorse it, right?

Luckily, the poor performance rate of bariatric surgery seems to be catching up with the numbers. In 1999, bariatric surgery was virtually unheard of, with only 6.9 procedures per 100,000 people. In five short years, that rate increased more than tenfold, to a rate of 71.06 per 100,000.

Then a funny thing happened.

Growth in bariatric surgery completely flatlined after 2003. The zenith was reached in 2009 at a rate of 71.26 surgeries per 100,000 people, then started a slow, inexorable decline. Why? The reason was clear enough. Surgery for obesity just didn’t work very well, and the people who’d had it were clearly warning their friends to avoid it. The word on the street was out. Bariatric surgery wasn’t good. Bariatric surgery rates have been slowly declining since then.

I often think of a client, Pamela, who weighed 335 pounds when we first met. Pamela wasn’t experiencing obesity-related conditions like hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or fatty liver. But she’d developed asthma, joint pain, depression, low energy, and irregular periods. Vowing to lose weight, she set herself a goal of losing 135 pounds. Her doctor said that if her progress had stalled or stopped in six months, they should discuss bariatric surgery.

She told herself that she’d never go that route.

Instead, she dropped refined sugars from her diet, drastically reduced her carb intake, focused on eating healthy fats, and began intermittent fasting. One year and twenty-six days after changing her lifestyle and diet, she reached her goal. At 200 pounds, she’s lost twenty-three inches off her waist. Today, Pamela fasts for forty-two hours three times a week and often extends those fasts longer. She has loads of energy, and she’s decided to keep losing weight until she hits 150 pounds. Best of all, she’s done all that without going under the knife!

The success of people like Pamela and the failure of bariatric surgery for thousands of people are among the many reasons why it’s time to consider fasting for its proven long-term success. It’s high time for fasting to enter the mainstream, be endorsed by doctors and the medical establishment, and gain recognition as the simplest way to maintain weight loss and great health. If you’re overweight or suffering from chronic health complaints, I urge you to try it, too.

Acknowledgments

Eve Mayer

My deepest thanks go to my dear friend, Dr. Suzanne Slonim, who first introduced me to Dr. Fung’s work. Thank you to Dr. Jason Fung and Megan Ramos, my gurus of fasting, who were so kind to pursue this book in partnership with me.

To my husband, Levi Sauerbrei, my partner in life and in fasting, who held me all the days I cried because I was angry that I hadn’t discovered fasting sooner: Levi, thank you for supporting my dream of helping others with FastingLane.com. Thank you to my friend and team member, Bridgette Hardy of FastingLane.com, who dived into fasting and surpassed my own skills. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to my daughter, Luna, who at only thirteen years old has used my experience to change her own eating for better health. Luna is forever grateful I no longer force her to eat breakfast when she isn’t hungry. To my parents, Guy and Regina Mayer, who were scared for me when I said I wasn’t going to eat for ten days but then stayed open: thank you, thank you. My parents watched my experience, asked questions, offered support, and made changes to their own way of eating for better health.

Thank you to our agent, Rick Broadhead, for his tireless work on this book. And thank you to the talented Sarah Durand for making our book even better!

Thank you to HarperCollins for supporting this message and delivering it into the hands of so many people who can have longer and more fulfilling lives because of it.

Megan Ramos

This book would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of Dr. Jason Fung. Not only was he fearless in combating the current standard of care to fight for the best medical practices for patients, but he also saved my life. Having been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at a very young age, I was on a fast track to an early demise. Today I’m healthy and strong. Even when people said fasting was crazy, Jason kept talking about it. He spent countless hours researching to provide the most sound, well-referenced scientific explanations possible. He lifted the sugary fog that was impeding my vision. And because of this dedication, I get to spend my days helping people take control of their health and overcome chronic disease that would otherwise kill them.

After working with thousands of patients from all over the world, I’ve learned one thing: people need to know they’re not alone in this. Eve Mayer’s selflessness and transparency in sharing her incredible story in this book fill that void. Her story is something I wish every single person I meet in our clinic could hear. She hasn’t just amazed me with her incredible story, passion, and southern charm through this process; she’s also become a mentor and a best friend.

I’d like to thank our team: Rick Broadhead, Sarah Durand, and our incredible editor at Harper Wave, Julie Will, for making this book and getting it out there for the thousands of people who need to hear Eve’s story. I hope one day they realize the number of lives they have helped us save.

To the thousands of people whom I have worked with through Intensive Dietary Management and The Fasting Method, thank you for trusting me to help you. Thank you for letting me learn so that I can go on to help so many more people. Thank you for making every day never feel like a workday.

Thank you to the readers of this book, who have yet to give up on themselves. You are my heroes, and you deserve to feel good in your body!

Last, but not least, I’d like to thank my incredible husband, Angel, for joining me on this wild ride. I can’t count the number of times he’s made dinner or done errands alone so that I can work on this book. He’s my rock.

Jason Fung

I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to my co-authors, Eve Mayer and Megan Ramos, for making this book a reality.

At HarperCollins, special thanks to my editor, Julie Will, with the able assistance of Haley Swanson and Emma Kupor. Thank you as well to Andrea Guinn, Brian Perrin, Yelena Nesbit, David Koral, and Bonni Leon-Berman.

Fasting Glossary

5:2 Diet: Eating five days a week and fasting the remaining two days.

16/8: Sixteen hours of fasting with an eight-hour eating window.

20/4: Twenty hours of fasting with a four-hour eating window.

24: Fasting for twenty-four hours.

Acetic Acid: The main component of vinegar, outside of water. It gives vinegar its pungent smell and sour taste. Vinegar can be used to suppress appetite and slow the digestion of starchy and refined carbohydrates, which lessens the spike of blood sugar as the carbohydrates are digested. Vinegar deactivates an enzyme called amylase, forcing your pancreas to produce the amylase and slowing the digestion in your small intestines.

Alternate-Day Fasting (ADF): Alternate-day fasting involves fasting one day, eating the next, and repeating the pattern.

Amino Acids: Organic compounds that make up proteins. When broken up during digestion, the liver reassembles the amino acids to make new cellular proteins such as blood cells, bone, muscle, connective tissue, skin, and more.

Apoptosis: A form of programmed cell death that occurs in multicellular organisms.

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV): Apple cider vinegar has a long history as a home remedy, used to treat multiple ailments. It is thought to help regulate blood sugar and improve your digestion.

Autophagy: This is the body’s mechanism of getting rid of all of the broken-down, old cell machinery (organelles, proteins, and cell membranes) when there’s no longer enough energy to sustain them. It is a regulated, orderly process to degrade and recycle cellular components. It starts to occur after approximately twenty-four hours of fasting.

Blood Glucose (BG): Also known as blood sugar, blood glucose is sugar absorbed into cells via insulin to feed all major tissues and the brain. The only major tissue not fed by blood glucose is the liver. Excess blood glucose is stored in the liver and turned into fat.

Bone Broth: A broth made from simmering the meat bones of animals with vegetables, herbs, and spices for several hours. It provides nutrients during fasting.

BulletProof Coffee (BPC): Coffee mixed with butter and MCT oil. Intended to add additional fats to coffee for nourishment.

Calories In, Calories Out (CICO): The commonly held belief that “calories in” minus “calories out” equals the amount of fat stored or fat lost (deficit).

Chia Seeds: Good source of additional fiber that cannot be broken down into refined sugar; ingesting it also helps a person feel fuller longer.

Dry Fasting: Going without food or drink for an extended period. This type of fast combines fasting with light dehydration and is not recommended.

Electrolytes: Certain minerals in the bloodstream that include sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. During fasting, your electrolyte levels may become low.

Erythritol: Made from fermented corn or cornstarch, erythritol is a sugar alcohol that occurs naturally in small quantities in fruits and fungi like grapes, melons, and mushrooms. It is only partially absorbed and digested by the intestinal tract, which can cause gastrointestinal discomfort in some people. It is known as a low-carb approved sugar substitute.

Extended Fasting (EF): Extended fasting consists of fasts longer than seventy-two hours (three days).

Fat Adapted: When your body shifts into burning fat for energy instead of glucose.

Feasting: The opposite of fasting; days when you eat food.

Ghrelin: The hunger hormone that turns on appetite.

Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT): Identifies how someone’s body handles glucose (sugar) after a meal. The test is an oral test conducted after at least eight hours of fasting.

Glycogenesis: The creation of glycogen in the liver. Insulin is the main stimulus of the creation process.

Hangry: Hungry to the point of becoming angry.

HC/HWC: Heavy cream/heavy whipping cream.

High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL): Cholesterol level measurement often called the “good cholesterol.”

Hypothyroidism: Decreased metabolism as a result of thyroid hormone deficiency.

Inflammation: A localized physical condition in which part of the body becomes reddened, swollen, hot, and often painful, especially as a reaction to injury or infection.

Insulin Resistance: When cells are no longer responsive to insulin and normal amounts of insulin are not able to move glucose into cells, resulting in the buildup of glucose in cells. To compensate, the body has to produce more insulin, leading to a constant high level of insulin, which blocks fat burning. If your fasting blood sugar is 5.7 (103) and your insulin is high, too, over 12 μU/mL, you are insulin resistant and on your way to type 2 diabetes. If your blood sugar is 5.7 but your fasting insulin is under 9 μU/mL, you are insulin sensitive and likely in glucose refusal mode from a low-carb diet.

Intermittent Fasting (IF): Time-restricted eating cycled with longer periods of voluntarily not consuming food. IF focuses on when you eat, not what you eat.

Keto/Ketogenic: Eating a diet consisting of 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein, and 5 percent carbohydrates, resulting in the body entering a state of ketosis. A ketogenic diet is a very-low-carb diet and may contain 20 grams of carbohydrates or less. A person’s body switches its fuel supply to burning fat. Insulin levels drop significantly and fat burning increases dramatically.

Ketone: An alternative fuel source produced in the liver when the body is burning fat. Ketones fuel the brain when glucose is low and are produced when low amounts of carbohydrates, moderate amounts of protein, and high amounts of fats are eaten.

Ketosis: A metabolic state entered when the body produces ketones.

Leptin: The hormone that travels to the brain to signal we are full. Upon reaching the brain, leptin decreases appetite, stopping eating and lowering insulin.

Low Carb High Fat (LCHF): A low-carb, high-fat diet.

Macronutrient (Macros): Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, the three components of human diets.

MCT Oil: The medium-chain triglycerides of coconut oil and palm kernel oil extracted from their original state of fat.

Metabolic Syndrome: Insulin resistance, also called prediabetes, resulting in a cluster of co-occurring symptoms, including increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

Metformin: Blood-sugar-lowering medication commonly used in type 2 diabetes management.

Monk Fruit Sweetener: A relatively new sugar substitute derived from a round, green fruit grown in Southeast Asia. It has noncaloric compounds called mogrosides that provide its intense sweetness. It is considered an LCHF-approved sugar substitute.

Net Carbs: Total carbohydrates minus grams of fiber and sugar alcohols.

Non-Scale Victory (NSV): A weight-loss success that is not a number on a scale (e.g., a smaller clothing size or being able to run one mile).

One Meal a Day (OMAD): Fasting where a person eats only one meal a day.

Periodic Fasting: Another name for intermittent fasting.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): PCOS is the most common reproductive disorder in the world and is a hormonal disorder causing enlarged ovaries with small cysts on the outer edges. It affects an estimated 8 to 20 percent of women of reproductive age.

Standard American Diet (SAD): Based on the food pyramid and several studies conducted in the 1970s and early 1980s, the diet references how most Americans eat. It recommends a minimum of three meals a day, with most calories and elements being refined carbohydrates. The SAD has led to epidemic levels of obesity, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes.

Stevia: A low-calorie sweetener made from the leaves of the stevia plant. In the United States, the active sweet compounds are extracted and processed into liquid or powder.

Strict Keto: Following a ketogenic diet fully to include the elimination of sugar, grains, starchy vegetables, and processed foods while keeping daily carbohydrates at or under 20 grams and eating natural protein sources.

Time-Restricted Feeding: Intentionally cycling between eating and fasting states, focusing on when a person eats, not what they eat. This is also called intermittent fasting.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): Total number of calories expended every day.

Type 2 Diabetes: A condition in which insulin levels are high and the body has become insulin resistant. Blood sugar is elevated and doesn’t allow insulin to do its job. It differs from type 1 diabetes in that the body can still create insulin.

Water Fast: A fasting cycle supported by water only.

Way of Eating (WOE): Describes what, when, and how someone consumes food.

Sources

Chapter 1: The Science of Fasting

Chapter 2: Beyond Science

Chapter 3: Hormones and the Hunger Bully

Chapter 5: A Path to Healthier Eating

Chapter 8: Get Your House in Shape and Your Family on Board

Afterword

Index

The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your ebook reader’s search tools.

abdominal obesity, 19

activities, while fasting, 199–206

addiction, 71–80, 167, 222–23

alcohol, 73, 174

allergies, 4, 87

almonds, 46–47, 63, 178

Alzheimer’s disease, 16, 17, 94

anger, 149

announcing your lifestyle, 229–31

anxiety, 22, 195, 199

appetite, spoiling, 175–76

apple cider vinegar, 129

arthritis, 6

autophagy, 17, 19, 130–31, 133, 148

avocado, 63, 65

back pain, 6

bad breath, 194

bariatric surgery, 36, 109, 136, 240–46

basal metabolic rate (BMR), 13–15, 45–48

baths, 147

beans, 58, 60

belly fat, 19, 22

berries, 60, 62, 65

binge eating, 169–71, 222–24

bloating, 23, 194

blood pressure, 6, 84, 148, 182, 185

blood sugar, 7–14, 16, 19, 20, 32, 47, 55, 57, 58–61, 73, 85, 185

blood tests, 186

body mass index (BMI), 6, 18, 26, 120

bone broth, 128, 129

bone mass, 103, 104, 157, 182–84

boredom, battling, 199–201

brain, 8, 16–17, 31, 32, 64, 73

bread, 10, 59, 60

breakfast, skipping, 141–43

breast cancer, 18, 120, 152, 153

butter, 62

cake and cookies, 10, 50, 53, 59, 65, 66, 73, 74, 76, 167–69, 215, 223, 229, 230

calories, 8, 13–15, 23–25, 32, 42–54

cancer, 6, 16, 18–19, 75, 85, 92, 94

carbohydrates, 4, 8, 9, 10, 20, 31–33, 49, 56, 57–62, 64, 73, 76, 77, 172, 175, 245

carrots, 62

celebration, 238–39

cervical cancer, 18, 92

cheese, 62, 76

chocolate, 76

cholecystokinin, 31–33, 73

cholesterol, 6, 19, 62

clothing, 185, 186

coffee, 39, 128, 129, 142, 167, 168

coldness, 194

common questions about fasting, 130–34

community, 227–35

constipation, 194–95

cooking, 203

cortisol, 14, 15, 103

dairy foods, 24, 59, 63

depression, 195

DEXA scans, 183–85

diabetes, 4–12, 16, 19, 47, 74, 75, 85, 88, 91–94, 112, 114, 148

diarrhea, 195

digestion, 7–9

dinner, skipping, 145–47

dishes, cleaning, 203–4

dizziness, 84–85, 195

doctors, 110–15, 119, 150, 233, 235, 240

dopamine, 73

drugs, 73, 74

dry lips, 195

eating disorders, 169–71

eggs, 62, 63

electrolytes, 129, 151

emotions, 21–26

employment, 117

endocrine system, 8

energy, 5, 7–9, 12–15, 23, 33, 50, 67, 108, 125, 132, 139, 245

euphoria, 125–26

evolution, 17

exercise, 25, 126, 152–61

extended fast, 147–51

family, 78, 79, 90, 95–104, 144, 165, 215, 220–21, 231

fasting, 3–20

fat, body, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 22, 33, 47, 50, 63–64, 87, 132, 183–84

fat, dietary, 49, 57, 62–64, 73, 106

fat adaptation, 64

fatigue, 196

fat shaming, 24–26, 53, 116–20

fear, 92, 132, 173

feasting, 162–78

fiber, 58, 73

fish and seafood, 59, 62, 63

food, 27–41

fruits, 24, 60, 63, 65, 72

Fung, Dr. Jason, advice and experience from, xv–xviii, 6–7, 23–26, 30–35, 49–54, 103–4, 107–8, 113–15, 119–20, 138–40, 150–51, 160–61, 206–8, 243–46

gastric sleeve, 243

ghrelin, 31, 33–35

glossary, fasting, 251–56

gluconeogenesis, 131

gluten, 60

glycemic index (GI), 60–61

glycemic load (GL), 60–62

glycogen, 8–9, 12

goals, 83–94, 99, 127, 130

grains, 24, 58

habits, 37–41, 77, 127

hair loss, 132

headaches, 87, 108, 196

health complaints, solving, 193–97

healthy eating, path to, 55–65

healthy eating habits, 174–78

heartburn, 196

heart disease, 6, 11, 62, 63, 75, 85

hiking, 155–56

holidays, 220–21

hormones, 4, 7–15, 27–41, 47, 57, 78, 150, 159, 161, 172

house, 95–104

human growth hormone (HGH), 14, 15, 103–4, 161

hunger, 25, 27–41, 45, 54, 65, 69, 73, 85, 127, 146, 241, 242

Huntington’s disease, 17

hypertension, 19, 85, 106, 112

ice cream, 76, 96

inertia, 52

infections, 6

infertility, 4, 107–9

insulin, 4–5, 8, 9–14, 18–20, 32, 47, 57, 58, 73, 107, 127, 133, 161, 167, 172

ketosis, 33, 63–64, 194

kidneys, 8, 128

kitchen and pantry, 95–97

lap-band surgery, 241–44

lemon juice, 129

lies about fasting, 85

limits, knowing, 215–16

lips, dry, 195

liver, 8, 9, 19

living your new life, 236–39

lunch, skipping, 143–45

malls, staying away from, 204

martial arts, 160

Mayer, Eve, advice and experience from, vii–x, 3–5, 27–30, 42–44, 55–57, 66–71, 83–89, 95–101, 108–13, 116–19, 123–26, 135–38, 141–57, 162–71, 179–89, 198–206, 209–16, 222–43

mealtime, eating at, 178

measurements, tracking, 183–85

meats, 24, 59, 62, 63, 72, 76, 164

medications, 7, 112, 134, 148

meditation, 147

memory, 16, 17

mental benefits of fasting, 21–26

metabolic syndrome, 19–20, 114

metabolism, 4, 8, 13–15, 25, 63–64, 102, 142

mindless eating, 176–77

mind tricks while fasting, 198–208

motivation, 89–93

movies, 204–5

muscle, 64, 103, 104, 131, 154, 157

nausea, 196

nervous system, 22

noradrenaline, 14, 15, 22, 48, 103, 161

nuts, 46, 59, 62, 63, 151, 178

obesity, 4, 6, 13, 15, 16, 21–26, 68, 109

oils, 62, 63, 106

online support team, 232–35

organ donation, 52, 53

overconsumption, culture of, 49–54

pancreas, 8, 9, 10, 47, 58, 73

Parkinson’s disease, 17

parties, 205, 213–14, 220, 228

pasta, 59, 60, 172, 173

peptide YY, 31, 32, 33, 73

pickle juice, 128, 129

pituitary gland, 103

pizza, 76, 172, 173

plan, fasting, 121–89

plate size, 177

polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), 107, 109

potatoes, 58, 60, 76, 175

pregnancy, 105–9

preparation for fasting, 81–120

priorities, adjusting, 214–15

probiotics, 134

problem solving your fast, 191–246

protein, 9, 20, 32, 47, 73, 131, 175

Ramos, Megan, advice and experience from, x–xv, 15–17, 21–23, 35–41, 44–48, 57–65, 71–80, 89–94, 101–7, 126–34, 157–60, 171–78, 193–97, 216–21

refeeding syndrome, 151

religion, and fasting, 51, 207–8

restaurants, 38

rice, 60

routines, rewarding, 78, 79

salt, 106–7, 128, 129, 133, 194

saturated vs. unsaturated fat, 62–63

scales, 181–83

science of fasting, 3–20

self-esteem, 117–19

seventy-two-hour fast, 219–20

sex, 8, 105–9

shame, 116–20, 181

shopping, grocery, 177, 202–3

skin, excess, 132

sleep, 5, 8, 125, 149

snacking, 37–39, 97, 127–28, 135–40, 151, 174, 178, 213–14, 220

social life, 39, 59, 204–6, 209–21

social media, 202, 232–35

soda, 46–47, 65, 76, 174

starch, 58, 60, 175

starvation, 130, 146

steps, fasting, 141–51

stevia, 133, 167–68

stress, 77, 78, 124, 127, 157, 199

stroke, 6, 11, 120

success, tracking your, 179–80

sugar, 4, 8–10, 19, 20, 28, 32, 47, 50, 56, 58, 59, 65, 66, 72, 84, 133, 142, 167–69, 223, 245

supplements, 133–34

surgery, 4

sweets, 10, 50, 53, 59, 65, 66, 73, 74, 76, 167–69, 215, 223, 229–30

swimming, 156

tea, 39, 40, 128, 129, 142, 147

television, 39, 50, 72, 147, 178

testicles, 17

testosterone, 107

things not to do while fasting, 201–6

thirst, 197

thirty-six-or forty-two-hour fast, 145–47, 219

tracking fasts, 144–45

tracking measurements, 183–85

tracking success, 179–80

training wheels, fasting, 128–29

triglycerides, 6, 8–9, 19

twenty-four-hour fast, 218

ulcerative colitis, 160–61

upset stomach, 197

vacation, 205, 215, 220–21, 236–38

vegetables, 24, 59, 64–65, 164, 175

visualization, 92–93

vitamins and minerals, 114

walking, 78, 153–56, 186

water, 65, 128–29, 142

water weight, 23

weight lifting, 155–57, 159, 182

weight loss, 6, 12, 15, 21–26, 55, 130, 132, 149, 167, 188

yoga, 156

yogurt, 62

About the Authors

JASON FUNG, MD, was born in 1973 and trained in Los Angeles and Toronto as a kidney specialist. He founded The Fasting Method (www.TheFastingMethod.com) to provide evidence-based advice for weight loss and managing blood sugars, focusing on low-carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting. It had become obvious that conventional medical treatments were failing patients. Although many of today’s chronic medical issues are related to diet and obesity, treatments are focused on medications and surgeries. If you don’t deal with the root cause, the problems never improve. A dietary problem requires a dietary solution. Dr. Fung is the author of The Obesity Code, The Complete Guide to Fasting, and The Diabetes Code. He is also the scientific editor of the Journal of Insulin Resistance and the managing director of the nonprofit organization Public Health Collaboration (Canada), an international group dedicated to promoting sound nutritional information.

EVE MAYER is an author, speaker, humorist, and entrepreneur. She lives in Carrollton, Texas, with her husband, Levi, her daughter, Luna, and her mutt, Holly. Eve is the author of Social Media for the CEO, The Social Media Business Equation, and Get It Girl Guide. Eve is a consultant to companies at the intersection of marketing and company culture, enabling them to build better core values, market honestly, and embrace diversity. For her entire adult life, Eve struggled to overcome obesity and poor health. Despite experiencing success in most aspects of her life, her failure to take control of her own health and body brought feelings of deep shame. After twenty-four years of dedicating herself to diets, therapies, punishing exercise regimens, and three bariatric surgeries, Eve found lasting wellness through a combination of intermittent fasting and low-carb eating. Eve once fasted publicly for ten days straight under the coaching of Dr. Jason Fung and Megan Ramos, sharing the joy, anguish, and humor of what really happens during a fast. Through her raw transparency and brash sense of humor online at FastingLane.com, she has inspired many to find their own health and hotness.

MEGAN RAMOS is a Canadian clinical researcher and expert on therapeutic fasting and low-carbohydrate diets, having guided more than fourteen thousand people worldwide. Passionate about overcoming her own health hurdles through fasting, diet, and lifestyle modifications, she co-founded Intensive Dietary Management and The Fasting Method. Her days are dedicated to creating education and providing support to those looking to regain control of their health. Megan lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and two greyhounds. She is a director of the nonprofit organization Public Health Collaboration Canada (PHC Canada) and works on the editorial board of the Journal of Insulin Resistance.

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This book contains advice and information relating to health care. It should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or another trained health professional. If you know or suspect you have a health problem, it is recommended that you seek your physician’s advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this book as of the date of publication. This publisher and the authors disclaim liability for any medical outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this book.

LIFE IN THE FASTING LANE. Copyright © 2020 by Fung Health Consultants Inc., Eve & Levi LLC, Megan Ramos Nutrition Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Cover design by Andrea Guinn

Cover photographs © Chee Siong Teh/EyeEm/Getty Images (plates); © Robert Rowe/EyeEm/Getty Images (avocado); © gbh007/iStock/Getty Images (salmon)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

Digital Edition APRIL 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-296946-0

Print ISBN: 978-0-06-296944-6

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* BMR measurements are often taken by a health professional. To complete them, measurements of carbon dioxide and oxygen levels are recorded after a person fasts for twelve hours and gets at least eight hours of sleep. Your ideal BMR can be measured roughly using this formula:

For men: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) – 5 × age (years) + 5

For women: BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) – 5 × age (years) – 161

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Fasting, Food, and Hormones

Chapter 1: The Science of Fasting

Chapter 2: Beyond Science: The Mental and Emotional Benefits of Fasting

Chapter 3: Hormones and the Hunger Bully

Chapter 4: Forget Calorie Restriction

Chapter 5: A Path to Healthier Eating

Chapter 6: Prepare to Think Differently About Food

Part II: Prepare to Fast

Chapter 7: Ready, Set, Goal!

Chapter 8: Get Your House in Shape and Your Family on Board

Chapter 9: Sex, Pregnancy, and Fasting

Chapter 10: Working with Your Doctor

Chapter 11: Letting Go of Shame

Part III: Your Fasting Plan

Chapter 12: Fasting Simplified

Chapter 13: Stop Snacking

Chapter 14: Stepping into Fasting

Chapter 15: Exercise for Health, Not Weight Loss

Chapter 16: Feasting Without Guilt

Chapter 17: Meeting Your Goals and Going the Extra Mile

Part IV: Problem Solve Your Fast

Chapter 18: Solving Health Complaints

Chapter 19: Mind Tricks While Fasting

Chapter 20: Fasting with a Social Life

Chapter 21: Getting Back on Track

Chapter 22: Finding a Community

Chapter 23: Living Your New Life

Afterword: Is Bariatric Surgery for You?

导读

翻译

脑图

笔记

Life in the Fasting Lane - how to make Intermittent fasting a lifestyle(1)

全文摘要

这本书是《在禁食中寻找自由》（Life in the Fasting Lane），作者是Eve Mayer。这本书讲述了作者从小生长在美食之都南路易斯安那州的故事，以及她母亲患上慢性疾病后，她如何通过饮食控制自己的体重，并最终战胜了自己。

这本书的独特之处在于它不仅仅是一本关于减肥的自助书籍，更是一部感人至深的家庭故事。作者的母亲患病多年，而她的家庭也因此变得支离破碎。然而，在这个过程中，作者学会了如何面对生活中的挑战，并且找到了一种新的生活方式，即通过禁食来控制自己的食欲。

书中有很多有趣的内容，比如作者小时候对食物的热爱，以及她如何逐渐转变了自己的饮食习惯。此外，作者还分享了一些实用的技巧，如如何制定健康的饮食计划，如何克服饥饿感等等。

如果你正在寻找一本能够帮助你改变生活方式的书籍，那么《在禁食中寻找自由》绝对值得一读。无论你是想减肥还是改善健康状况，这本书都会给你带来很多启示和灵感。

章节速读

禁食中的生活

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伊芙·迈耶

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我在路易斯安那州南部长大，那里不是为了活着而吃东西。而是为了吃东西而活着！如果威利·旺卡在我的家乡蒂博多开了店，他专门出售小龙虾、杂烩汤、血肠和失传已久的食物，而不是棒棒糖、大块硬糖和软糖。

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更妙的是，我妈妈是宇宙间最好的厨师之一，在我们家长大，我们遵循着“让美好时光流逝”的说法。意思是，“让美好的时光流逝”。我们庆祝一切，那些与朋友、家人和邻居一起分享的庆祝活动以食物为中心。蛋糕就是爱。龙虾宽面是快乐。炸甜甜圈上撒满了大量的糖粉意味着社区。

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我八岁时，母亲被诊断出患有一种无法治愈的慢性病。在接下来的34年里，我看着她与疾病抗争。她去过全国各地看专家，尝试了各种治疗和药物，但往往使病情变得更糟。幸运的是，在2016年——也就是我42岁的时候——她终于战胜了疾病。但在那之前，我不确定我生命中最重要的人是否还能再活一年，为了应对这种情况，我养成了不健康的习惯。我把感情埋藏在食物中：隐藏它、偷偷摸摸地吃、一天吃好几次。让我的大脑沉溺于松饼、炸鸡、卡真香肠和房子里能找到的所有含糖食物带来的愉悦中，以此来逃避生活。我发明了一种不需要精神宁静就能达到的碳水化合物冥想法。

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我成年后的大部分时间都处于肥胖状态，体重最重时达到300磅，腰围85厘米。我尝试过各种减肥方法，但都只坚持了很短的时间。因为我总是感到饿，所以会放弃节食计划，结果反弹回来比减掉的还多。像你们很多人一样，我也经常觉得自己是个失败者。我在医生办公室、游泳池、加大码服装店都感到羞愧。在健身房、餐馆和家庭聚会中我都觉得很尴尬。

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在2018年，我决定再次尝试减肥，这次通过低碳水化合物、高脂肪饮食。我私下里也认为这种饮食也会失败，但一个月后，我觉得有些不同了。我不像以前那样总是饿了。几个月后，我已经减掉了大约30磅，但是后来停滞不前了。担心体重会像往常一样反弹回来，我向我的朋友苏珊·斯隆姆医生寻求建议。她建议我购买杰森·方医生的《肥胖密码》。

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当我开始阅读方医生的书时，我正在飞机上，准备进行为期四小时的飞行。几分钟后，我就爱不释手了。肥胖密码证实了我的低碳水、高脂肪饮食方法，但方医生推荐了一些我没有预料到的东西。他建议那些在体重方面有困难的人应该练习禁食。

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什么？在我的生活中，除非有某种医学指示，否则我从未错过一顿饭！但是 fung 博士在他的书中引用的研究对我来说是有道理的，所以我决定尝试禁食。这个决定改变了我的生活。我又开始减肥了，我感觉比以往任何时候都健康，而且我的身体也开始以我无法想象的方式发生变化。最重要的是，大脑中不断涌动的饥饿感终于停止了。

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没错。我并不总是饿着肚子。当我感到饥饿时，这也没有什么大不了的。我一直担心如果我跳过两顿饭，我会晕倒，但我没有。我以为禁食会让我觉得累并让我的大脑昏沉，但它并没有。我以为不吃东西会减慢我的新陈代谢，但事实相反。我觉得自己像一个新女人。

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我开始质疑我之前学到的所有关于减肥和改善健康的知识，然后我很生气。这些信息为什么在我经历了这么多事情之后才出现？为什么在我一生中没有听到过呢？

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我联系了方医生，当我们交谈时，我知道我已经找到了一个愿意与我合作的聪明、善良的灵魂。他还向我介绍了他的健康教育家梅根·拉莫斯，当她解释自己在体重和其他许多医疗状况方面的挣扎时，我就感觉到我们之间有一种联系。一个月内，我们就制定了一项计划，你现在手里的这本书就是这项计划的成果。

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在《禁食之道》中，我们希望赋予您以全新的方式来应对减肥和健康问题的能力。也许您已经谷歌搜索过禁食，与朋友讨论过它，在新闻上看到过它，或者听到有人声称它是神奇的——然后另一个人说它会让你饿死。禁食的观点似乎多如牛毛，许多信息可能会让你不知所措，甚至在开始之前就想放弃。你可能认为禁食只适用于那些肥胖的人，就像我一样。事实并非如此；禁食可以帮助你减掉五磅或十磅——或者更多或更少，这取决于你的目标。也许你需要一种超越减肥的饮食方法。禁食能帮助你提高记忆力，降低患癌症的风险吗？当然可以。你是否渴望改善多囊卵巢综合征、二型糖尿病、脂肪肝、心脏病等疾病？禁食可以做到。

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你需要一个朋友，他会告诉你禁食绝对不加修饰的事实，在这本书里，你有三个：饮食战争的老兵（我），经历过健康问题的顶级禁食研究者（梅根·拉莫斯），以及先驱医生（杰森· fung 博士）。我们在一起经历了这一切，我们可以给你提供关于禁食的答案，没有糖衣。

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这本书不仅仅是一本逐步节食计划。它是一个生活方式指南，帮助您为新的饮食习惯做好准备，包括厨房、家人以及如何应对禁食时常见的问题，比如如何处理假期和度假，以及如何应对任何意想不到的副作用。我会明确地告诉你如何准备你的思想来禁食，帮你找到你的禁食方式，并给你一个保持新的、更健康的自己的计划。我会告诉你为什么你不应该为体重增加负责，为什么这次会有所不同。在这段充满挑战和兴奋的新旅程中，我将与你同行，最后我们一起庆祝你的成功。

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你们有问题，我们三个人有答案。医生、外行和研究者：这是你需要站在你这边的团队。我们支持你，所以让我们开始吧！

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梅根·拉莫斯

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十年前，我患有多囊卵巢综合征（PCOS）、非酒精性脂肪肝病（NAFLD）和2型糖尿病。我也超重了。如今，我已经不再患病，体重减轻了80多磅，通过我的职业生涯享受着健康的生活。我是一名专注于预防医学的临床研究员，并教育人们如何节食以及适当的营养可以帮助他们减肥并改善整体健康状况。

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我人生头二十七年，想吃什么就吃什么，一点也没胖。我是那个穿着0码牛仔裤的女孩，一只手拿着汽水，另一只手拎着一袋薯片，我的高中毕业纪念册上写着：“恨你是因为你可以随心所欲地吃鸡块和薯条，但仍然可以减肥。”虽然我确实很瘦，但我并不健康——无论是心理上还是身体上。事实上，我一直欺骗自己，认为体重是身体健康状况的指标。但在中学时，疾病找上门来，这就是真实情况的证据。

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我十二岁时被诊断出患有非酒精性脂肪肝病，这是一种在肝细胞中积累过多脂肪的情况。后来，在我14岁的时候，我发现我患有多囊卵巢综合征，这是一种以卵巢中充满多个囊肿为特征的疾病，导致不规则或无排卵。我当时非常瘦，我的医生建议我不必改变饮食，而是认为我会随着年龄的增长而痊愈。他们错了。随着时间的推移，没有任何事情好转。我继续沿着一条不健康的道路走下去，吃着垃圾食品，却不知道后果。我在用食物来应对吗？也许吧。毕竟，我深爱的母亲也生病了。

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我妈妈在我大部分童年时期都患有多种代谢性和遗传性疾病，她多年来看了一个又一个医生，忍受了无数次手术。我记得最清楚的是，在急诊室的走廊里听到她的尖叫，她在等待入院治疗。我觉得没有人应该这么痛苦——更不用说看着自己的母亲如此痛苦——所以我发誓长大后要成为一名医生。我想成为一个可以让你变得更好的人——就像那样。15岁时，我在一家私人诊所找到了一份暑期医疗研究工作，与包括Jason Fung 博士在内的肾病专家团队一起工作。在他们的工作中，我遇到了许多患二型糖尿病的人，他们正在患上肾衰竭。我的研究集中在找到一种方法来检测肾脏损伤，因为如果我们能做到这一点，我们可能会阻止全面失败。整个高中和大学阶段，我都和这些医生一起工作，热爱其中的每一分钟。但最终，我碰到了瓶颈。我意识到，无论我们何时发现肾病，大多数情况下，它都会继续恶化。早期诊断感觉比生活在无知中还要糟糕，我记得当时的想法是：知道什么会杀死你的生活一定很糟糕。

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然而，我也有慢性病，但我没有采取任何措施来治疗。更糟糕的是，我告诉自己我对预防医学充满热情，但我在用食物慢慢杀死自己。我在凌晨五点狂喝苏打水，白天吃着甜食零食。我的前任去办事时，我狼吞虎咽地吃了垃圾食品袋。我很确定我是食物上瘾者，虽然我知道藏在车里的那瓶苏打水和藏在手提包里的那袋椒盐卷饼都不健康，但我就是无法自拔。

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每个人都有一个弱点，我的弱点就是食物——不是香烟、毒品或酒精——所以我把它当作一种安全的消遣。食物无处不在，合法出售，而碳水化合物是我被告知要吃的那一类食物。他们在我上小学和中学时，在家里都给我吃。它们怎么可能那么糟糕呢？最重要的是，我太瘦了，所以我在做什么是对的吗？

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我并没有。我的多囊卵巢综合征已经非常严重，医生在我 22 岁的时候告诉我，我可能无法生育了。我一直想成为一名母亲，而现在这个梦想可能永远都无法实现。

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五年后，当我被诊断出患有 2 型糖尿病时，那是我一生中最糟糕的一天——甚至比得知自己可能不育还要糟。听到这个消息时，我记得我的心跳得很快，我以为它会爆炸。一切似乎都变得模糊，我开始喘不过气来。这是我的第一次焦虑发作。

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我只有二十七岁，当我的医生把化验单递给我时，我觉得他好像给了我一张死亡判决书。我会面临怎样的生活？会不会在35岁时患上肾衰竭，就像我的研究对象一样？ 40岁时我会不会得老年痴呆症？或者45岁时心脏病发作，50岁时中风？

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我回到家，一头扎到床上，大哭起来。我放弃通过医学帮助别人了。我要放弃当医生的梦想，做点别的事情。

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当我终于安定下来时，我决定尽一切努力恢复健康。我的第一步就是开始吃正常的、健康的饭菜。作为一个加拿大人，我转向了加拿大食品指南（类似于美国农业部提供的指导）。我想，既然专家们制定了它，我就应该严格遵守它的建议。而且我还真这么做了，每天三顿饭，中间再加几顿小吃。猜猜发生了什么？我没有瘦下来，反而变成了一个大胖子。

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几个月后，当我迫切地想要找到一个解决办法时，我想起了我仍然在工作的 fung 博士。我突然意识到我的糖尿病诊断可能是我生命中最大的福音。

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总有人跳出固有思维，杰森刚刚开始研究禁食。一天下午，我听到他跟一群人讨论禁食可能有助于逆转二型糖尿病，我想，不可能吧。这太极端了。但我没有任何损失。事实上，我还有所收获。

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我和杰森聊了聊，然后我立刻开始禁食，并遵循他良好的营养原则，吃各种低碳水化合物、健康脂肪和全食物。几周之内，我就意识到，在我的整个生活中，我对营养学所学到的东西几乎都是错的。我按照方医生的建议已经八年了，我一直保持着86磅的体重下降。我完全逆转了我的2型糖尿病、脂肪肝和多囊卵巢综合征。

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今天，我是一个非常快乐、健康的35岁人。每天都很荣幸能够帮助客户成功减肥并逆转2型糖尿病。我仍在与杰森合作，我们一起创建了一个名为“禁食法”的项目。这是一个多伦多在线社区，由禁食教练组成，他们与客户合作，帮助他们减肥和改善慢性健康状况。我还为客户提供一对一咨询服务，给予他们一些能救命的建议，这是我医生从未给过我的。这是工作中最让我满意的部分之一，因为我认识了像詹妮弗这样的女性。

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珍妮弗跟我一样，体重超标，并患有多囊卵巢综合征。这种情况也导致她长痘、体毛过多，这是疾病导致的激素波动的不幸副作用。她18岁才来月经，之后最多一年来一次。多年不孕不育后，她和丈夫决定最多尝试三次试管受精。为了安全起见，他们还填了领养文件，希望不管成功与否，最终能有孩子。

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经过数百次激素注射，以及三轮体外受精后，詹妮弗的卵泡从未成熟，医生甚至无法提取她的任何一个卵子，更不用说使它们受精了。幸运的是，一个领养的机会来了，詹妮弗和她的丈夫欢迎了一个名叫尼科的漂亮男孩进入他们的家庭。

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尽管如此，詹妮弗仍然担心自己的健康和体重，所以她咨询了我们的禁食教练之一，后者指导她进行了一个糖分减少、低碳水化合物饮食和禁食的项目。詹妮弗减了一些肥，月经周期也恢复了正常。心血来潮之下，她决定尝试第四轮试管受精。她怀孕了，二儿子奥斯卡在尼科两岁半的时候出生了。她继续保持着健康的习惯，三年后，她又意外怀上了第三个孩子。如今，詹妮弗是一位身体健康、身材苗条的母亲，三个孩子的月经都很规律，生活比她想象中要幸福得多。

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因为禁食，我有信心像詹妮弗一样，有一天我会成为母亲。在此之前，我很兴奋继续做我现在正在做的事情来帮助人们改善他们的生活。我和方医生以及伊芙·迈耶一起在这里作为你们的向导，为你们提供一个研究人员的角度，讨论禁食如何帮助你们减肥并阻止慢性健康状况的发生。

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Jason Fung 博士

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我是一名肾病学家——肾脏疾病专家，从多伦多大学医学院和内科住院医师培训毕业，然后在加州大学洛杉矶分校完成了我的专科医生培训。在过去的二十年里，我每天都努力治疗客户的肾脏，支持这些重要器官的正常运作。我已经开出了适当的药物处方，推荐了正确的治疗方法和手术，并遵循了正确的程序来帮助那些患有肾脏问题的人，包括结石、糖尿病、癌症、炎症等等。所以，我一直觉得有点奇怪的是，我现在正在从事肥胖医学，尽我所能地让病人不用吃药，避免动手术刀，避免透析。基本上，我的人生使命就是让像我这样的肾病学家失业。

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为什么？因为十年前我注意到了一个令人不安的趋势。过去，肾病最常见的原因是高血压，其次是二型糖尿病。随着时间的推移，随着适当的筛查和降压药的引入，高血压引起的疾病有所减少，而二型糖尿病已成为主要病因。显然药物和技术对这些人没有帮助，我越来越意识到用药物、透析等治疗肾病的努力永远不会取得大规模成功，因为他们没有解决根本问题。很明显，导致二型糖尿病的身体超重才是真正的罪魁祸首。因此，唯一的解决方案就是帮助人们减肥。

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但是，如何才能有效地、长期地减肥呢？人们怎样才能最好地达到他们的减肥目标并改善他们的健康状况呢？几十年来，医生们一直建议少吃多动。但这对绝大多数人来说都不起作用，无数科学研究（我将在本书中引用）已经证明了卡路里限制无效。每个人都——我指的是每个人，包括我自己——都试过这种饮食，并失败了，不管他们想减掉5磅还是205磅。不幸的是，在医学院期间，我对营养学和减肥几乎一无所知，所以我决定要了解这两者。体重无疑是客户健康的最重要决定因素，所以我知道我必须成为这方面的专家。

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但学习新知识并不像忘记我脑海中根深蒂固的失败范式那样困难，而我所知道的关于减肥的一切——或者是在医学院学到的——结果证明都是完全错误的。热量限制就是一个很好的例子。在医学院，我们被教导说减肥就是少吃多动。“摄入少于消耗”，对吧？事实是，这个策略不会帮助你减肥，这不仅仅是我的观点。热量限制的成功率只有约1%。尽管人们比以往任何时候都更加痴迷地计算卡路里，肥胖还是成了全球流行病。

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鉴于减肥对健康的重要性，尤其是肾脏疾病，我查阅了这一建议的科学依据。令我震惊的是，我发现整个卡路里限制理论都没有任何科学依据。身体内没有任何生理途径依赖于卡路里。没有研究表明减少卡路里的摄入可以减肥。相反，所有研究都表明卡路里限制是没有效果的。如果我们早就知道这是没有意义的，那为什么医学专家要提倡这种失败的方法呢？我很困惑。

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我决定寻找更成功的减肥方法，发现了一些被遗忘的经过时间考验的方法。很快，除了建议我的客户少吃糖和精制谷物外，我还向他们介绍了禁食。这些建议带来了转变。这些人减肥了，养成了健康的习惯，并改善了许多慢性病。

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但是，禁食所涉及的因素远远超出了你在体重秤上看到的或在血液检测中发现的东西：减肥和健康不佳带来的心理和情感问题，包括成瘾、羞耻感和负罪感。解决这些问题与应对医学问题一样重要。

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话虽如此，我承认我不太适合谈论减肥的心理和情感方面。自从高中以来，我的体重基本上没有变化过，而且直到最近，我才把我穿了三十年的一条裤子扔掉，当时我感到非常尴尬，因为我妻子把它们扔掉了。当然，我现在偶尔会增加几磅，通常是在假期或度假后，然后我又会减掉一点，通常在我很忙的时候。所以，虽然我理解减肥的困难，但我并没有在任何严肃的意义上与他们产生共鸣。

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然而，我确信艾芙·迈耶 (Eve Mayer) 可以用她那聪明且善于言辞的头脑来为这些问题赋予人性。我的老朋友梅根·拉莫斯 (Megan Ramos) 从个人角度和专业角度都对肥胖问题有着深刻理解。我们希望向你们展示禁食的生活方式是如何有助于减肥以及一系列慢性疾病的。这就是我们写《禁食之道》的原因：教育、学习、欢笑、哭泣、建立社群、打破迷思与污名。我们一起写这本书是为了帮助大家了解一个我们都试图驾驭的怪兽：肥胖。

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伊芙·迈耶

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科学。对我来说，它一直是个令人敬畏的词。甚至在高中时，我总是不费吹灰之力就能拿到 A 和 B 的成绩，但荣誉化学课上的一个 D 却让我耿耿于怀。

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这种恐惧和对基础科学知识的无知让我胖了 24 年。如今，我再也不是胖子了，也不怕科学了。我是不是突然成了科学奇才？当然不是！有时我还是会被最简单的术语搞得一头雾水。但我知道，我的体重减轻、身体变得更健康的原因之一是我开始对我体内发生的事情感到好奇。

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我将用我能想象到的方式，以最简单直接的语言来跟你聊聊断食。冯博士和梅根会继续讲解更深入、更详细的关于你进食后身体会发生什么变化的内容，但请允许我描述一下我个人的经历——学习新陈代谢、消化、激素等等是如何改变我的生活的。

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多年来，我一直很胖，我不想这样。我还患有糖尿病前期、不孕不育症、过敏问题、鼻窦感染、关节疼痛、支气管炎和肺炎。我去看了一个又一个医生来解决我的问题，因为我工作努力，所以我照做了。我减少了卡路里的摄入量。我锻炼身体。我吃药。我去接受治疗。我吃了更多的水果和蔬菜。为了加快新陈代谢，我经常少吃多餐。我做了两次腹腔镜手术，后来通过胃袖套手术永久性地缩小了我的胃部大小。这些措施的结果各不相同。但通常情况下，我会减肥，但过一段时间体重会反弹。在这期间，我从未找到问题的根本原因。

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我以为我的身体出了问题。然后我尝试了一个新的方法。

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在2018年初，我从饮食中剔除了糖分，并大大降低了碳水化合物的摄入量。令人惊讶的是，我不再总是感到饥饿了。这是一个戏剧性的——而且非常受欢迎的——变化，突然间我想知道为什么以及我的新方法是如何起作用的。当我读《肥胖密码》时，我的脑海里亮起了灯泡，我意识到：

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肥胖是我的激素问题。我吃什么，什么时候吃会影响我的激素水平。因此，如果我改变这两件事，我可以减肥。

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医生告诉我，我有糖尿病前期症状，并且我的胰岛素有问题，但他们从来没有解释过那是什么意思。胰岛素为什么重要？胰岛素在身体内起什么作用？胰岛素抵抗是什么？为什么糖尿病患者需要更多的胰岛素，而增加胰岛素却是个问题？除了它能帮助我把前驱糖尿病变成糖尿病外，我为什么要吃二甲双胍？

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冯博士的方法让我明白了所有的事情。现在我明白我的身体要么专注于储存能量，要么燃烧能量，但不能同时进行两者。当我经常吃东西时，我的身体会忙于将能量储存为脂肪。而当我少吃的时候，我的身体有更多的时间来燃烧能量和脂肪。禁食让我的身体集中精力使用能量，而不是储存能量。我仍然在我的身体里以过剩的脂肪的形式存储着能量。我的新陈代谢和消化系统完全能够利用这些脂肪作为能量——除非我不给它们机会，通过一段时间不吃不喝。

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我之所以相信这种科学，是因为我的感觉。我的健康问题都消失了。我不再处于糖尿病前期，很少生病，也不用每天吃药了，我感觉自己像赚了一百万一样。当我经常吃饭时，我会感到饥饿、疲劳和情绪低落—— 这不是因为我吃了多少东西，而是因为荷尔蒙的作用。节食有点像睡个好觉。我上床睡觉是为了让身体和大脑得到休息。在睡眠期间，我的身体可以专注于补充和修复，而不是在我醒着的时候必须做的那一百万件事。睡眠也让我的大脑有时间处理所发生的事情，并决定对这些信息采取什么行动。这是一个有效的全身恢复期——就像禁食一样。

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如果你对禁食科学感兴趣，但又感到不知所措——就像我一样——那就放轻松，善待自己。无论你是想减掉三磅还是三百磅，或者只是想改善健康状况，禁食都值得一试。你能得到的最好的科学证据就是亲身体验并感受自身的变化。

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Jason Fung

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禁食有很多理由。从医学的角度来看，许多疾病都与身体多余脂肪有关。超重会增加患心脏病、中风和癌症的风险。减肥可以提高高密度脂蛋白（HDL）或“好”的胆固醇水平，并降低甘油三酯水平，从而降低罹患这些疾病的风险。多余的体重可能会提高血压，导致或加重关节炎，打乱睡眠，引起背痛，造成肝脏损害等等。与体内多余脂肪密切相关的2型糖尿病也是失明、肾病、非创伤性截肢和感染的主要原因。作为一名肾脏科医生，我见过四十岁的2型糖尿病人发展到需要透析来维持生命的地步——这是他们余生都要忍受的维持生命的治疗。我见过五旬的2型糖尿病人因为腿脚血液循环不良而不得不接受截肢手术。我见过更多因2型糖尿病而失明的人，多得数不过来。诚然，在那些案例中，减肥本可以极大地改善我的客户的健康状况，帮助他们避免那些影响生活质量的疾病和副作用，或者，可悲的是，完全挽回他们的生命。

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但是，正如梅根在她的介绍中所讨论的那样，有很多人并不超重——按照身体质量指数（BMI）来衡量——但他们的新陈代谢仍然不健康。也有很多人超重——同样，按照BMI衡量——并且新陈代谢健康。所以，虽然体重并不是全部，但禁食已经被证明可以帮助降低许多代谢综合征的发生率，包括2型糖尿病。

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我知道这听起来令人难以置信，或者更糟的是，这是不真实的。不吃几顿饭——甚至一天只吃一顿饭——怎么可能对你的健康产生如此大的影响呢？我们的客户娜塔莎提供了一个例子，展示了禁食的生活方式可以有多大的好处。

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娜塔莎在2012年初被诊断出患有2型糖尿病。尽管她尝试过改变饮食、锻炼和服用二甲双胍（治疗糖尿病的一种药物），但几乎没有什么效果。她在那瘦小的身躯上没有减掉任何重量；二甲双胍让她痛苦不堪；甚至当她只吃少量碳水化合物时，她的血糖也会飙升。

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娜塔莎尝试过禁食，她很喜欢，但她害怕禁食超过一天。她的禁食教练消除了她对长期禁食的恐惧，如今，娜塔莎每周有两三次在不吃东西的情况下生活长达42小时。她的血糖水平现在处于正常到糖尿病前期的范围内，而且她的体重也减到了2号。她看起来很棒。感觉很棒。最重要的是，她的健康得到了恢复。禁食改变了她的生活。

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我知道你们中有些人害怕禁食几个小时。甚至只是不吃零食这种简单的事情也会让你感到焦虑。但是，如果你像娜塔莎一样，这可能只是一种恐惧阻碍了你。或者，也许你不明白为什么禁食能起作用，以及它对你有什么好处。知识就是力量，所以让我来解释一下你吃的食物是如何影响你的身体的，它们为什么会引发导致体重增加和慢性疾病的激素波动，以及禁食如何帮助你。

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消化、激素以及食物如何储存能量

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食物一旦进入口腔，身体就开始努力将食物转化为细胞能量。然而，这条道路并不总是容易或直接的，如果你吃错了东西或者吃得太多，你的身体可能会出问题。

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人体内分泌系统包括一个庞大的腺体网络，这些腺体向血液中分泌激素，以调节所有身体功能，包括睡眠、新陈代谢（食物转化为细胞活动所需的能量）、繁殖和性欲、情绪、饥饿等。当我们吃东西时，胰腺——一个位于胃后面、属于内分泌和消化系统的狭长器官——会分泌胰岛素。胰岛素会向全身发出信号，表明现在有食物可以被处理成能量，而这种食物能量（卡路里）需要储存起来以备将来使用。

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身体以两种不同的方式储存食物能量：糖和脂肪。糖可以快速供能，而脂肪则被储藏起来，在我们体内血糖不足时供燃烧。我们先从糖说起吧，因为稳定地调节血糖——也称为葡萄糖—— 是禁食的主要好处之一。

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最容易使血糖升高的方法之一就是摄入碳水化合物，从化学的角度来说，碳水化合物其实就是糖链。当我们吃下碳水化合物时，肾脏、肝脏、大脑等细胞会利用其中的一部分糖分。如果还有剩余的碳水化合物，它们就会被储存在肝脏中，以糖原的形式，也就是另一种糖链的形式储存起来。我们马上就会再回到糖原上来。

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我们身体储存能量的另一种方式是脂肪。当我们吃脂肪(存在于各种各样的植物和动物食物中，从薯片到红肉再到牛奶)，称为甘油三酯的个体脂肪分子会直接进入血液并被输送到脂肪细胞。如果我们摄入过多葡萄糖超过了肝脏将其转化为肝糖原的能力，那么肝脏就会将这些葡萄糖转化为甘油三酯。然后，甘油三酯会为脂肪细胞提供营养。

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这两种能量储存系统——糖原和脂肪——互补。糖原很容易使用，也很容易被肝脏处理，但是肝脏储存它的空间有限。脂肪更难获取，也更难被肝脏消化，但它有无限的存储空间（任何一个担心腹部赘肉的人都能知道！）。把糖原想象成冰箱。你可以随时把食物放进去或拿出来，但只有那么多架子。把脂肪组织想象成地下室的大型冰柜。它们很难到达，里面的食物也不好烹饪（因为都冻住了），但是容量很大，几乎总能装满。

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胰岛素与糖尿病的发展

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正如我之前所说，胰岛素是一种信号激素，可以告诉身体何时将食物转化为能量。但它的任务不止于此。胰岛素还能调节体内血糖水平，确保它们不会出现急剧上升或下降的情况。它通过帮助从血液中提取葡萄糖并将其储存在肝脏中的糖原或在体内的脂肪中来实现这一点。由于身体在饥荒时需要脂肪来提供保护、保暖和能量，因此胰岛素还可以防止我们过多地使用体内脂肪作为能量来源。

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如果你的胰岛素水平很高，身体会把食物能量储存起来，无论是冰箱里还是冷冻库。然而，当你的胰腺超负荷运转，分泌过多的胰岛素时问题就来了。这是怎么发生的呢？所有含有多种宏量营养素（蛋白质、脂肪和碳水化合物）的食物在一定程度上都会刺激胰岛素的产生，但有些食物比其他食物更有效。在这方面最糟糕的是精制碳水化合物，如白面包、含糖饮料、蛋糕和饼干。

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如果我们经常吃大量的糖或高碳水化合物的食物，比如典型的西式饮食，人们每天都会定期吃六到七顿富含碳水化合物的饭或零食，我们的胰岛素水平会飙升。高水平的胰岛素会让身体不断尝试储存食物能量，防止我们燃烧脂肪储备。我们本质上是在不断地补充冰箱，同时奇怪为什么地下室的冷冻室要爆裂了。

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最终，当你的系统中有过多的胰岛素时，产生它的胰腺细胞就无法再做出反应了，而血糖水平就会升高。如果它们一直保持高水平，那么你现在就可以自称是世界上约有 5 亿二型糖尿病患者之一了。

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测量与治疗糖尿病

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如果你患糖尿病，你的症状可能包括：口渴、疲劳、视力模糊、即使吃比平时多也会饿、尿频、手脚刺痛或麻木，或者伤口愈合缓慢。但是你可能没有任何症状。许多人在验血后才发现自己有糖尿病风险或已经患病。

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医生使用几种方法来判断一个人是否患有糖尿病，但我会谈谈其中两种，因为我的许多客户都会定期进行这两种检查——许多人发现，在尝试禁食后，他们的检测结果有了显著改善。

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第一个测试是A1C测试。这项简单的血液检测测量的是红细胞中的血红蛋白——一种携带氧气的蛋白质——被糖覆盖的比例。 A1C检测的是过去两到三个月内的平均血糖水平，所以一顿高碳水化合物的大餐并不一定会对结果产生影响。没有糖尿病的人A1C水平在4%至5.6%之间。如果你的A1C水平在5.7%至6.4%之间，说明你患糖尿病的风险很高，通常被称为“前驱糖尿病”。而如果超过6.5%，就属于2型糖尿病。

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另一种测试被称为空腹血糖，或FPG。这项检查测量的是某一时间点上的血糖水平，而且是在禁食8小时后进行的，通常在早上。如果结果高于 126毫克/分升，则表明您可能患有糖尿病。预期前糖尿病患者的血糖值在100到125毫克/分升之间，低于100毫克/分升则被认为是正常的。

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如果你的检查结果处于糖尿病前期，你需要调整饮食，并可能考虑我下面讨论的一些药物。但请记住，关注健康不应该仅仅是为了预防糖尿病。中等程度的 A1C 或空腹血糖水平也意味着你有心脏病、中风、认知困难或胰岛素抵抗（身体对胰岛素反应不佳并导致血糖升高）的风险。

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除了减肥、运动和改变饮食——通常包括少吃糖和碳水化合物——糖尿病最常见的治疗方法是处方药。二甲双胍是治疗糖尿病的入门药物，它通过限制肝脏将肝糖原转化为葡萄糖的数量，并帮助身体更有效地利用胰岛素来发挥作用。其他药物——包括磺酰脲类药物——可以帮助身体产生更多的胰岛素或对胰岛素更加敏感，排出尿液中的葡萄糖，或者减缓消化。通常情况下，糖尿病的最后一道防线是皮下注射胰岛素。

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然而，令人沮丧的是，禁食并未得到健康专家的推荐。为什么？因为禁食比任何药物或饮食改变更能帮助控制胰岛素。 2 型糖尿病基本上是一种糖分过多、胰岛素过多的疾病。什么可以减少糖和胰岛素？禁食。当你的胰岛素水平正常时，血糖就会保持稳定，体重会下降或减轻，患一系列慢性病的风险也会降低。

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禁食的作用

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如果我只能用一句话来总结禁食，我会说：禁食调节你的激素。它不仅仅是节食；它重置了身体内部的控制机制，使身体能够燃烧适量的能量以维持生命。

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当我们不吃东西（禁食）时，胰岛素水平会下降，这向我们的身体发出信号，表明没有更多的食物可供使用。为了生存，细胞会利用储存在肝脏中的糖原或脂肪来获取能量。这就是为什么我们每晚不会在睡眠中死去，或者为什么我们可以不吃东西活几个小时甚至几天的原因。人体有惊人的能力储存食物的能量，然后在冰箱或冰柜里找到并燃烧它。

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因此，保持血糖稳定、让身体继续使用其储备能量的最合理解决方案就是禁食。不吃东西会让胰岛素水平下降，告诉身体食物不再供应了，现在是时候消耗一些储存在冰箱里（糖原）或冷冻库里的食物（脂肪组织）的时候了。减肥以及预防II型糖尿病——以及我在下一章中概述的所有其他慢性疾病——都是为了纠正导致肥胖的激素失衡。这种激素失衡，再次强调，是一种长期高水平的胰岛素。

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禁食与新陈代谢

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但是，我们的新陈代谢呢？你们很多人听到的禁食不是会杀死它吗？事实上，什么是新陈代谢？我们所指的新陈代谢，或基础代谢率（BMR），是我们身体在休息时保持运转所需的能量（卡路里）。BMR是我们需要的基本生理功能——如大脑活动、循环系统和消化系统的运作——的衡量标准。如果你的基础代谢率很高，那么你的身体燃烧热量更有效率，你也往往不会迅速发胖。如果较低的话，减肥就会变得比较困难。

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我们的基础代谢率不是固定的。我们的身体可能会根据饮食、活动水平、年龄、体温等，使基础代谢率增加或减少30%到40%。但从营养角度来看，影响基础代谢率最大的因素是胰岛素。

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身体只存在于两种状态中的一种：进食后的“饱腹”状态，以及没有进食时的“空腹”状态。在饱腹状态下，胰岛素水平很高，身体想要把食物能量储存为糖或脂肪。我们的新陈代谢正在运转。在空腹状态下，当胰岛素水平较低时，身体想燃烧储存的食物能量。因此，我们不是同时储存卡路里和燃烧卡路里。

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如果我们提高胰岛素水平（通过吃能刺激胰岛素分泌的食物），并保持其持续高水平（比如，每天摄入六七顿零食或正餐，而不是三顿），那么身体必须保持“喂饱”的状态。身体储存卡路里是因为我们给它下了这样的指令。如果所有的卡路里都被用来储存，那么消耗的卡路里就会减少，因此身体必须降低能量代谢率，即基础代谢率。

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假设我们每天摄入 2000 卡路里，每天消耗 2000 卡路里。我们既不增肥也不减肥。我们现在减少到 1500 卡路里，通过少吃多餐的方式——这是健康专家一直敦促我们的。胰岛素水平保持高位，但卡路里摄入却减少了。现在身体无法燃烧脂肪，因为胰岛素含量很高，而且我们还处于“饱腹”的状态。当只有 1500 卡路里的热量进入体内时，身体必须相应地减少其热量支出到 1500 卡路里。因为胰岛素会阻止我们燃烧脂肪，所以我们无法弥补这个热量赤字。我们的身体处于“储存脂肪”的模式。这就是低脂饮食的一个鲜为人知的秘密。起初体重可能会下降，但是随着我们的基础代谢率下降，体重会达到一个平台，然后再次增加。

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禁食期间会发生什么？一项对连续四天禁食的研究——也就是说，整整四天不吃不喝——表明基础代谢率约增加10%。是的，当你不进食时，你的新陈代谢会提高。为什么呢？我们知道禁食会导致胰岛素水平下降，但会导致与之相反的激素增多，这些被称为“对抗”胰岛素的激素。如果胰岛素下降，这些激素就会升高。如果胰岛素上升，这些激素就会下降。这些对抗性激素包括去甲肾上腺素（负责刺激肌肉收缩和心率）、生长激素（刺激细胞生长和再生）以及皮质醇（所谓的应激激素，负责激发动力和行动）。因此，当去甲肾上腺素升高时，预期代谢率也会升高。

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基础代谢率增加可能是生存反应。想象一下，如果你是个穴居人。现在是冬天，没有吃的。如果你的新陈代谢下降了，这意味着你每不吃东西就虚弱一点点。这会让你更难找到食物并猎食。这是一个恶性循环。随着你的身体越来越虚弱，你会变得越来越难以找到食物。当你找不到食物时，你会变得更虚弱。如果这是发生在你身上的事，你就活不下去了。你的身体不会那么愚蠢。

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相反，你的身体会切换燃料来源。不再依赖食物，而是转向存储的食物（体内脂肪），这样身体就不会停止运转。它通过增加去甲肾上腺素、皮质醇和其他调节激素来加速运转。你可以使用不同的燃料源来增强动力。注意力集中度提高。专注力也提高了。因此，在禁食期间基础代谢率会升高。如果你在减肥的同时保持基础代谢率，而不是每天少消耗500卡路里，这是一个巨大的优势。

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所以，卡路里摄入与消耗的能量平衡方程的关键不是我们吃了多少卡路里或者做了多少运动。这几乎是不相关的。关键在于控制饥饿感并保持基础代谢率。要做到这一点，我们必须吃那些能增加饱腹激素的食物，并使胰岛素（储存脂肪的激素）保持在较低水平。禁食为成功减肥提供了必要的激素变化。当基础代谢率得到维持时，饥饿感会降低。猜猜是什么？数千年来，禁食一直被用于减肥，而肥胖症不过是人类疾病宝库中的一个注脚。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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当我回想起这些年来我见过的所有客户时，我都无法计算禁食帮助改善了多少种情况。糖尿病和肥胖是其中最明显的两种，但我也在想一个叫玛尔塔的女人，她患有痤疮、多囊卵巢综合征、关节疼痛、哮喘、过敏、胆囊疾病、不安腿综合症、情绪波动、反应性低血糖、疲劳、胃灼热、桥本氏病和睡眠呼吸暂停——此外还超重，并被诊断出患有一种毁灭性的二型糖尿病。直到玛尔塔看到禁食的效果，她才知道所有这些情况都可能是相关的——或者禁食可以解决这些问题，就像它为她解决了一切问题一样。

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但是，如果玛尔塔继续不健康的生活方式，她可能会在未来患上癌症或阿尔茨海默病等更严重的疾病。现在有可信且令人信服的科学研究表明，禁食背后的科学原理不仅仅局限于肥胖、糖尿病和血糖调节。禁食是一种生活方式，可以预防许多与我们吃的食物似乎无关的慢性疾病。禁食对大脑、情绪、患癌风险等方面都有显著的好处。

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禁食与大脑

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大脑是一个神奇、复杂而有弹性的器官，它不会受到禁食的负面影响。所以，如果你担心禁食会让你思维迟缓、昏昏欲睡或头脑不清，那就放心吧。

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禁食甚至可能对你的大脑有帮助。我之所以说“可能”，是因为目前还没有权威的研究证明禁食对大脑的影响。然而，两项针对人类的研究——一项是在禁食24小时后测量的大脑活动，另一项是在禁食两天后——表明反应时间、记忆力、情绪和整体功能都不会受到禁食的影响。在一项对被禁食的老鼠进行的研究中，哺乳动物改善了运动协调能力、认知能力、学习能力和记忆能力。此外，他们表现出更强的大脑连接和新的神经元生长。我知道老鼠不是人，但这些结果与我的许多客户所说的结果是一致的：禁食让他们感觉更敏锐。

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进化论也为我们提供了禁食如何帮助大脑的一些线索。在严重热量限制期间，许多哺乳动物的器官会缩小以求生存。但有两个例外：大脑和男性睾丸。显然，睾丸保持不变是为了让该物种的雄性继续尝试交配，但大脑呢？想象一下如果你饿了会怎样。你会变得敏锐和专注，这样你可以寻找食物，对吧？大多数哺乳动物就是这样做的。相反，当我们吃得太多时，我们可能会经历脑雾，或者通常被称为“食物 coma”。想想你在一顿丰盛的感恩节晚餐后的感觉：昏昏欲睡、迟钝，只能专注于小憩的想法。

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我见过的最有希望的研究是关于动物实验，这些实验表明遭受饥饿的老鼠在阿尔茨海默病、亨廷顿病和帕金森氏症模型中表现出较少的症状。禁食会导致自噬—— 一个帮助身体清除旧的或损坏的细胞部件的细胞过程——在这些研究中，禁食老鼠体内积聚的蛋白质减少了，这些蛋白质是阿尔茨海默氏症的标志。想象一下，如果禁食可以预防、治疗甚至逆转这种令人心碎的神经退行性疾病会怎样？可能会拯救生命，减少痛苦，我们可以在医疗保健上节省数万亿美元。

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禁食与癌症

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癌症是全球第二大死因，每年夺走约一百万条生命。六分之一的人会死于癌症。许多癌症是由遗传因素、意外中毒、病毒或其他通常未知的原因引起的。在很大程度上，这些不幸的情况很难预防。但有希望的研究表明，以前被认为无法避免的癌症可能部分可以通过禁食来预防。

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这些发现的关键之一，与 2 型糖尿病和肥胖症一样，是胰岛素。如果你从组织中提取乳腺癌细胞，在实验室里培养它们是非常简单的。如果你加入葡萄糖、表皮生长因子（EGF）和胰岛素，它们会迅速繁殖。然后，当你去掉胰岛素时，它们就会死亡。让我再说一遍：乳腺癌细胞在高浓度的胰岛素下增殖，并且没有它就无法生存。什么降低了胰岛素水平？禁食。

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肥胖与癌症之间的第二个可逆联系。美国癌症协会在2003年发布的一项研究，重点调查了九十万美国男女从1982年到1998年的经历。每隔几年就会对这些人进行跟踪调查，以确定他们的死因。在每个阶段，他们都会测量身高体重指数（BMI）。虽然所有人在研究开始时都没有患癌，但16年后，超过57,000人死于癌症。令人震惊的是，那些BMI超过40的人，男性总体死亡率比正常人高52%，女性高62%。 BMI与食道癌、结肠癌、直肠癌、肝癌、胆囊癌、胰腺癌、肾脏癌、霍奇金淋巴瘤、多发性骨髓瘤、乳腺癌、胃癌、前列腺癌、宫颈癌和卵巢癌的死亡率呈正相关。结论是：超重或肥胖占男性癌症死亡总数的14%，女性为20%。权威研究表明：肥胖是引发癌症的一大诱因。那么，减肥最有效的办法是什么呢？答案是：禁食。

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最后，自噬可以减缓癌症的增长或防止癌症的发生——这一发现震惊了科学家，他们之前认为自噬会促进癌症的发展。《自然》杂志在2019年发表的一项研究得出结论称，自噬在杀死某些与癌症有关的细胞中发挥了重要作用。当自噬停止时，这些有害的细胞可以继续复制，为癌症的发展提供燃料。是什么导致了自噬？又是禁食。

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禁食与代谢综合征

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代谢综合征，又称X综合症，是一组符合下列五项标准中的三项的疾病：腹型肥胖（以腰围测量），高血糖（2 型糖尿病），高三酰甘油，低高密度脂蛋白胆固醇和高血压。

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这些状况的共同点在于它们都涉及胰岛素过多。当胰岛素水平过高过久，身体会储存比所需更多的脂肪。细胞中糖分含量过高，对胰岛素产生抵抗。血液中的葡萄糖不能再进入细胞，导致血糖升高。这就是所谓的二型糖尿病。当肝脏中糖分过多时，多余的糖分会转化成脂肪并形成脂肪肝。为了卸掉这些多余脂肪，肝脏会向血液输出葡萄糖，这会导致甘油三酯水平上升而高密度脂蛋白水平下降。简而言之，胰岛素过剩会引发一系列像多米诺骨牌一样一个接一个地崩溃的健康问题。

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由于代谢综合征是一种胰岛素过多的疾病，降低胰岛素水平对于逆转它至关重要。精制碳水化合物对胰岛素水平的影响最大，因此少吃精制碳水化合物和糖是一个很好的开始。因为所有食物都含有蛋白质、碳水化合物和脂肪的混合物，即使吃健康的食物也会使你的胰岛素水平升高一点。这就是为什么禁食对治疗代谢综合征如此有效的原因。当你不吃东西时，你的胰岛素水平会下降并保持在较低的基线水平。

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显然，禁食有助于稳定血糖。但是稳定的血糖水平只是禁食生活方式带来的许多好处之一。我们很快就会看到，它对大脑和身体都有神奇的作用。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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如果你不胖、不病、不用吃太多药、也不再疲惫——这些情况禁食都可以缓解甚至逆转——那么你会更快乐。这是我在过去几年里见过的数千名患者的情况。随着他们体重减轻，减少用药，症状改善，情绪也会好转。他们不再抑郁了。他们不会再跟配偶吵架了。他们开始做自己喜欢的事情。

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即使你只想减掉五磅、十磅或二十磅，或者你的健康问题并不严重，禁食仍然可以改变你的生活。我想起了我的一位客户，他叫保罗，今年67岁。为了支持妻子，她超重，刚刚被诊断出患有糖尿病前期。与她不同的是，保罗并不介意自己的健康状况，他认为自己身上多余的20磅体重是他衰老的自然产物。但出于对妻子的爱，保罗停止吃零食，并每周不吃几次饭，几个月后，他成功减掉了所有多余体重。不仅如此，他的身体和精神都感觉很棒。

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禁食对情绪稳定的益处并不仅仅局限于轶事。 2016 年发表在《营养前沿》杂志上的一项研究测量了 52 名平均年龄为 25 岁的女性进行为期 18 小时的禁食后的情绪变化，包括易怒、成就感、奖赏感、自豪感和控制力。结果发现，在禁食 18 小时后，虽然这些女性比禁食前更容易烦躁，但她们的整体奖赏感、成就感和自豪感都显著增强。

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这些发现与我多年来在临床上观察到的结果一致。一些初次禁食的人可能会感到焦虑，这可以归因于禁食期间分泌的去甲肾上腺素。去甲肾上腺素会导致血压升高、心跳加快、神经系统更加警觉。这些作用加在一起可能会让人感到焦虑。通常情况下，这种症状不会持续超过两周，当身体适应了高水平的去甲肾上腺素后就会消失。

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然而，我的大多数女性客户——各个年龄段——在短期禁食(每周三天或更少的间歇性禁食)期间也没有报告感到烦躁不安。相反，我注意到她们只会在五天或更长时间的长期禁食中，在开始禁食时才会变得情绪化或易怒。在一个较长的禁食过程中，你会大量失去腹部脂肪。脂肪细胞会产生过多的雌激素，而这些细胞的流失会将雌激素从储存中释放到血液中。因此，在短时间内，你的荷尔蒙会上升，从而影响你的情绪。

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我发现，那些失去最多水体重的人——即组织和身体腔内的积液，往往会导致腹胀——最有可能报告情绪波动和易怒。我们认为这主要是由于水分减少时所经历的电解质损失所致。然而，这只是短期问题，当身体停止排出多余的重量时，情绪往往会稳定下来。

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Jason Fung

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超重不仅会影响你的身体健康，还会影响你的心理健康。虽然我坚信我们应该接受自己和他人，无论体重如何，但作为一个文化，我们仍然有很长的路要走才能实现这种接受。事实上，关于体重的错误观念已经渗透到我们社会的方方面面。

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这些信念会产生一种无意识的偏见，导致大量歧视。很多。很多人不知不觉地认为超重的人懒惰、贪婪、缺乏意志力。这是大多数健康专家和研究人员支持的“卡路里摄入=卡路里消耗”的思维方式的直接结果。相信错误的“能量平衡方程”的人想象减肥是一个如此简单的公式，每个人都有知识和能力减肥，只要他们努力。你只需要消耗比你身体摄入更多的能量。因此，如果你体重增加，那是因为你没有毅力离开沙发，放下刀叉，或者移动你的身体。你有性格缺陷，似乎并不在乎尝试限制卡路里的百分之九十九的人都无法长期减肥，或者每一个研究这种方法的研究都失败了。每一次。

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我认为，相信卡路里限制的人被误导了。问题不在于美国成年人中有 70% 超重或肥胖，而在于我们得到的饮食建议。事实上，自 1977 年《美国人膳食指南》出台以来，美国农业部的消费数据表明，美国人一直都在做他们被告知要做的事。美国人减少了肉类和乳制品的摄入，并用植物油代替了动物脂肪。他们吃了更多的谷物、水果和蔬菜。发生了什么？出现了有史以来最严重的肥胖症大流行。

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然而，由于人们普遍认为肥胖是一种个人缺陷，研究发现，在职场中，肥胖者往往被视为不太理想下属、同事或上司。他们被认为是令人讨厌的、情绪不稳定的、懒惰的、缺乏自律的。我一直觉得这有点奇怪。考虑到大多数人为了减肥所付出的努力，“缺乏自律”是我实践中大多数超重患者最不准确的描述之一。通常情况下，女性比男性受到更严厉的评判。高达60%的超重女性认为她们遭受过体重歧视，而男性只有40%。

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大多数“卡路里摄入与消耗”理论的支持者对人类身体的理解过于简单。他们认为肥胖只是一个第一级问题，而不是它实际上更复杂的问题。让我们从卡路里的“摄入”部分开始。大多数营养专家说这是由食物决定的。这是真的。但这是一种第一级、简单化的思考方式。是什么让你把食物放进嘴里？答案可能有很多。饥饿。情绪。压力。药物。你必须解决根本原因，而不是简单的直接原因。

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那么“卡路里消耗”部分呢？大多数营养专家认为这取决于锻炼，或者你一天走了多少步。这只能占你每天消耗的卡路里的少数。绝大多数卡路里用于新陈代谢，也就是大脑、心脏、肺部、肾脏、肝脏和其他器官和系统所需的能量。

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在肥胖症中，是什么导致“摄入热量”超过“消耗热量”，从而导致脂肪堆积？一个傻瓜会说：“你吃多少食物，做多少运动。”对人体生理学有更细微了解的人则认为，主要问题在于饥饿感和新陈代谢。是的，你可以决定吃什么，但不，你不能选择减少饥饿感。是的，你可以决定要锻炼，但不，你无法解决肝脏使用更多能量的问题。所以，如果你不能意识到饥饿感和新陈代谢——体重增加的重要根源——那么肥胖不是个人失败。这不是意志力的破裂。这是知识的失败。

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让我们回到体重偏见的问题上。体重对收入潜力的影响是惊人的，显著影响工资，但男性和女性的结果不同。对于女性来说，你的体重越轻，赚的钱就越多，甚至低至平均体重以下令人吃惊的 70 磅。事实上，女性因任何体重增加而受到惩罚，非常瘦的女性比普通体重的女性多挣约 22,000 美元。非常胖的女性比平均水平少挣约 19,000 美元。

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对男性来说情况正好相反——他们体重越重，赚得越多——当然如果他们达到了事业的巅峰。如果肥胖的话，无论男女都突破不了所谓的“玻璃天花板”，即他们的体质指数（BMI）大于30。根据 2009 年的一项研究，只有 4% 的顶级男性 CEO 肥胖，而普通男性人口的比例为 36%。但是 61% 的顶级男性 CEO 超重（BMI 为 25–29.9），这表明对于那些比平均水平只重一点点的人来说，容忍度很高。女性之间的差异要大得多。只有 3% 的顶级女性 CEO 肥胖，而普通人群的比例为 38%。但只有 22% 的顶级女性 CEO 超重，而普通人群的比例为 29%。

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这些数据令人震惊，正是我致力于消除肥胖污名化，并为所有人提供尽可能健康的生活方式的动力。

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禁食与其他减肥计划的不同之处

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这是可持续的。这不是一个短期饮食计划，你只在几周内不吃某一种食物，直到减掉体重为止。这是一个长期、可持续的生活方式。它是免费的。不需要买特殊的食品或花招。事实上，禁食会省钱。它是灵活的。只要跳过零食，跳过一顿饭，或者禁食整整一天。定制适合你的计划。

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伊芙·迈耶

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我曾经认为饥饿是一种欺凌。它比我大、比我强壮，也比我狠毒，在我家、在工作场所、在我父母家、在街上……到处都是。但与儿时的欺凌者不同的是，我无法摆脱饥饿，也无法向老师报告。我相信消除“饥饿”欺凌的方法只有一个。

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喂！

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饥饿恶霸坚持让我吃大量的不健康食物来满足它，多年来我吃得如此之多以至于填饱肚子所需的量增加了。我甚至做了三次胃部手术来减肥——但仍然没有缓解。饥饿恶霸似乎总是在我不应该分心的时候出现，而应该专注于生活中正在发生的事情，而不是我想放进嘴里的东西。在我的表弟毕业典礼上，在我女儿幼儿园的表演中，在与可能帮助我致富的重要客户的一场大型销售演示会上，我的胃都在大声地咕咕叫。

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饥饿的恶霸每天敲打我的大脑数百次，所以我吃得过多，通常是六到十次，试图让它安静下来。有时它想要糖，所以我会吃足够的糖让我兴奋起来，并让饥饿的恶霸冷静下来。随着年复一年，这种兴奋感变得越来越短，所以我开始过度食用甜食。很快，我因进食过量而产生的痛感取代了我之前对糖分的渴望，以及一种深深的、昏迷般的睡眠，暂时与我的感受分离，在甜蜜中释放出来。

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我并不总是认为饥饿是一种霸凌。小时候，我认为它是生活的一部分。但当我长大后变胖、变饿时，我只是接受了自己在应对饥饿方面比其他人差的事实。我相信我的意志力不存在，我的身心都有缺陷。这似乎很奇怪，因为我可以在生活的其他所有情况下比大多数人做得更好。为什么我在体重和健康问题上如此无力？这根本说不通。

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我的女儿露娜最终给了我答案。在露娜上小学的时候，她是欺凌的目标。一个孩子特别成了一个问题，而且欺凌变得如此严重，以至于学校管理人员不得不介入。但什么都没有改变，欺凌者的行为还在升级。学校采取了新的方法，我们也决定在家里这么做。我开始与露娜一起工作，看看她可以改变哪些行为来减少将来被欺负的机会。

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当我与露娜交谈并仔细思考她的性格时，我意识到她最显著的特点之一就是她想要合群的愿望——以及为了实现这一愿望愿意付出任何代价。被接受的需求使她把霸凌者的嘲笑当作回事。她对他的评论念念不忘，认为他说的关于自己的事都是真的，于是她没有反击，反而在他面前变得无力。她认为只要能满足欺凌者的要求，受苦就会结束。当然不会。霸凌者的目的是通过制造痛苦来获得权力。

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当露娜跟我讨论她对霸凌者的动机和反应时，我意识到我也需要吸取这个教训。我的饥饿是我的霸凌者，只有我的行为和反应才能赋予它力量。我认为只要满足了我身体的需求，我才会感到饱足的想法简直是荒谬的；如果我像对待大多数霸凌者一样无视它，那么它就会消失。

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让我告诉你，饥饿感是暂时的。即使你吃够了，它也不会永远消失。当我改变了饮食习惯后，每天只感受到四到五次饿的感觉，我开始注意到它而不是害怕它。你不一定要屈服于它；只需要认识到这种不健康的、长期的习惯带来的持续性饥饿，并且明白，禁食正是在帮助你改变这些习惯。

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今天，当我禁食时，我会想象我的身体是如何选择燃烧存储的脂肪来产生能量。我甚至会在我身体脂肪较多的地方（比如大腿）贴上创可贴，并提醒自己，当我在禁食的时候，我没有挨饿。即使我感到饥饿，我也不会饿死。我只是在享用储存在我右腿内侧的脂肪，这是我为这一天特意储存起来的！你可以这么做。如果你的身体上有过多的脂肪，那么你就已经拥有了度过一天、三天、一周或更久所需的能量了！不需要食物，正是饥饿感让你误以为你需要食物。

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关于饥饿恶霸，我学到了七件事

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饥饿是一种习惯：当你饿的时候，通常就是你该吃东西的时候。当你减少进食次数时，饥饿感很快就会消失。饥饿是可以调节的：当你开始对自己的饮食做出更好的选择时，随着时间的推移，你会发现自己不再那么想吃了。饿了就吃：如果你在饿的时候不吃东西，最终你的饥饿感会过去的。饿不是挨饿：你可以依靠身体里充足的脂肪储备来维持禁食状态。饿有不同的原因：它可能是来自大脑或身体，或是两者都有。不一定要喂饱它：你不必给“饿”这个恶魔食物。如果你注意到它，你可以用水或其他液体喂饱它，或者干脆置之不理。 “饿”不一定是大事：通过强大的精神练习和新的习惯，你可以把“饿”变成简单的“饿”。

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Jason Fung

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大多数人在开始间歇性禁食之前最关心的一件事可能是他们会不会饿。答案是肯定的，但这并不像大多数人想象的那么糟糕。如果你以不同于以往的方式管理、应对和思考饥饿感，饥饿就不是一个问题。你也无需害怕饥饿。能够理解它可以帮助你克服它。

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饥饿与激素

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我们为什么吃东西？因为我们饿了。什么能阻止饥饿呢？有一些激素会让我们觉得饱，这些被称为饱腹激素，它们非常强大。胃里也有拉伸感受器。如果胃被撑得超过它的容量，它就会发出饱腹信号，让大脑知道我们应该停止进食。

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人们常常想象我们吃东西只是因为食物摆在眼前，就像一些无意识的进食机器。这完全不是事实。想象一下，你刚刚吃过了一块巨大的20盎司牛排。它太美味了，以至于尽管你觉得吃不完，但最后还是吃了下去。现在你已经饱得不行了，光是想想再吃点什么就让你感到恶心。如果有人放下另一块牛排并提出免费给你，你能吃完吗？几乎不能。

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我们的身体会释放一种饱腹激素，告诉我们什么时候该停止进食。一旦这些激素开始起作用，我们很难再吃更多了。这就是为什么有些餐馆如果能一顿饭吃掉一块40盎司的牛排，就可以给你提供免费的一餐。相信我，他们不会轻易地提供免费的食物。

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主要的饱腹激素有肽YY，它对蛋白质的反应最为强烈；还有胆囊收缩素，它对脂肪的反应最为强烈。与饥饿相关的最后一个激素是生长激素释放肽，也就是人们常说的“饥饿激素”。稍后我会详细解释。

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大多数人一直很饿的原因是他们被灌输了一种想法，即在减肥这件事上关键在于摄入热量少于消耗热量。西方世界许多国家都大力推广以碳水化合物为主的饮食—— 正好是容易产生饥饿感的食物。想想吧。想象一下你坐下来吃一顿高碳水、低热量的早餐，两片白面包夹果酱。这顿饭对你的饱腹感有什么影响？当然，它不能提供大量“摄入卡路里”，但它能控制饥饿吗？不。没有蛋白质来激活肽YY。没有脂肪来启动胆囊收缩素。没有足够的体积来刺激胃扩张受体。这顿饭中的淀粉（其实是直肠通向血液的葡萄糖链）会增加胰岛素。我们还是会饿，因为我们体内并没有发出信号让身体停止产生食欲。在10点半时，我们又会寻找一个低碳代餐松饼，然后到了中午，我们就会觉得饥肠辘辘。到了午餐时间，我们再吃一大碗低碳asta意面加面条酱。本来可以只吃三顿大餐的，现在却变成了六七顿小餐。到了下午两点，我们又会饿，因此我们会买一块脱脂谷物能量棒充当午餐，然后再加一份糙米晚餐，再从冰箱里找出点夜宵，因为我们太饿了。

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但是如果你早餐吃培根和鸡蛋——这顿饭含有高脂肪和高蛋白质，你想在十点三十分再吃一顿吗？不。

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如果你吃的是精制碳水化合物，问题会变得更加严重。因为大多数人吃的都是加工过的碳水化合物。当你摄入精制碳水化合物时，你的血糖水平飙升，告诉胰腺释放大量胰岛素。胰岛素的作用就是让身体把食物能量储存为糖（肝脏中的糖原）或脂肪。这会导致胰岛素水平急剧上升，从而把大部分进入体内的食物能量（卡路里）转化为储藏形式（脂肪）。这就使得用于新陈代谢的食物能量所剩无几。此时你的肌肉、肝脏和大脑急需葡萄糖以供能量，你会有饥饿感，尽管刚刚吃过饭。如果你想要减肥或者保持体重，这是最糟糕的情况。

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此外，由于这些加工食品几乎不含纤维，所以它们进入你的胃时不会占据太多空间；因此它们不会激活胃部的拉伸受体。零食时间，你摄入的食物能量中的大部分已经存储在脂肪细胞中了，所以难怪你会很快感到饿！

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饥饿、禁食与生长激素释放肽

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禁食时，饥饿感会发生什么？人们总是认为饥饿会加剧直到无法忍受。事实总是令人吃惊。禁食期间，你的饥饿感往往会减弱。原因有两个，第一个与获取食物能量的两种方式有关。

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在禁食期间，你的身体会切换能量来源。不再依赖血液中的葡萄糖（来自食物）来获取能量，而是开始燃烧体内脂肪（即储存的食物能量）。这种转变就是进入一种叫做酮症的状态。一旦你进入酮症状态，你的身体就可以获得储存在脂肪中数以万计的卡路里。你在喂养它，给它所需要的一切，所以为什么它还需要饥饿呢？

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生长激素释放肽即所谓的饥饿激素，与肠促胰素和胆囊收缩素不同的是，它会增加食欲。因此，如果你想长期减肥，你需要降低生长激素释放肽的水平。怎么做到呢？在一项研究中，受试者禁食33小时，每20分钟测量一次生长激素释放肽水平。

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生长激素释放肽 (ghrelin) 水平在早上九点左右最低，而研究昼夜节律的研究表明，此时饥饿感最低。这也是一天中没有进食的最长时期结束的时间。这再次证明了饥饿不仅仅是由“一段时间没吃东西”引起的。九点钟时，你已经大约14个小时没有吃东西了，但你的饥饿感是最小的。我们醒来的前所未有的抗食欲荷尔蒙的增加也有助于抑制食欲。

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因此，如果饥饿不是仅仅因为胃里没有食物，而是我们体内的激素的作用，那么吃东西并不一定能够让你不饿。

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有三个不同的胃饥饿素峰值，分别对应于午餐、晚餐和第二天早餐，这表明饥饿可能是后天习得的。我们习惯每天吃三顿饭，所以我们开始饿是因为“到了吃饭的时间”。但是如果你在这些时间不吃东西，胃饥饿素就不会持续增加。在最初的饥饿感过去之后，它会消退，在大约两小时不进食后，它会自发减少。因此研究表明，如果你忽视你的饥饿感，它就会消失。

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如果你停下来想一想，你会发现你之前有过这种减少的胃泌素反应。想想看，有没有什么时候你觉得特别忙，然后就一直工作到过了午饭时间？大概到了一点左右你会觉得饿了，但你只喝了些茶，专心工作，到了下午三点，你就不再感到饥饿了。在这两个小时里，你“吃掉”了自己身体里的脂肪。身体依靠食物能量库来帮你度过那一顿饭。这是很自然的。这也许就是我们为什么需要身体脂肪的原因。你在饥饿中挣扎，它过去了，因为你照顾好了自己的身体。

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在禁食 24 小时后，你的胃饥饿素水平会下降，这意味着长时间不吃东西会让你不那么饿。即使是非常长时间的禁食也是如此。最近的一项研究表明，在禁食三天后，胃饥饿素和饥饿感逐渐减少。对，没错。实验对象在三天没吃东西后感觉远没有那么饿了。这与我们对正在进行长期禁食的客户的临床经验完全吻合。

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最后，值得一提的是，在胃饥饿素方面，男性和女性之间存在显著差异。当男性禁食时，饥饿激素只会减少一点，但女性的胃饥饿素会大幅下降。因此，你会期望女性从禁食中获益更多，因为她们的饥饿感降低得更多。我发现这是真的；许多女性告诉我，长时间的禁食似乎完全消除了她们的食欲。

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总之，大多数开始禁食的人惊讶地发现，他们的饥饿感不仅是可以控制的，而且实际上已经减少了。他们通常会说，“我觉得我的胃变小了，”或者“我不能再吃那么多东西了。”这很完美。因为如果你不再那么饿，你现在是在和你的身体合作减肥，而不是不断地与你的身体作斗争。间歇性禁食和长期禁食，不同于卡路里限制饮食，它有助于解决体重增加的主要问题：饥饿。饥饿的主因、主要激素赤面恐惧症在禁食时会减少，使饥饿成为可控的问题。事实上，它可能根本不是一个问题。所以，准备好吧，永远不要害怕；一旦你开始禁食，你就会学会战胜饥饿恶霸。这比你想象的要容易得多。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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你有没有吃过几片大蒜面包、一碗意大利面和一碗冰淇淋，却仍然感到饿？晚餐后，你是不是偷偷吃了一袋爆米花来填饱肚子才上床睡觉？你并不孤单。我每天都会听到这些故事，我自己也有一些这样的经历。你的大脑告诉你已经吃饱了，因为你必须解开皮带上的扣子，但你的胃还在抱怨它还是空的。这些人感到无助和失控，他们暴饮暴食，吃那些他们知道无法填饱肚子的食物。

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然后，还有那些完全相反的人。这些人午餐只吃半个三明治或一份小沙拉，然后宣布自己已经饱了。他们并不是在谦虚！他们确实吃饱了，不会再吃了，因为他们觉得这样不舒服。

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我的许多客户都做过减肥手术。他们的食欲已经失控到需要切开身体来调节的程度。尽管医生们保证这种手术可以帮助病人减肥，改善健康状况，但它几乎总是失败的。最初，大多数人都会减掉一些体重，但几个月后，体重又慢慢回升了。更糟糕的是，他们觉得自己的食欲还是像以前一样无法控制。“这怎么可能呢？”他们绝望地问，“我已经把胃部物理性地缩小了！”

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这说明我们对饥饿的概念有多么误解。你不会因为胃太大吃不饱而感到饿。饥饿也不是自我控制的问题。你无法命令自己不饿。你不能决定自己少吃点。要么饿，要么不饿。胃口是受激素驱动的，所以我们需要解决的是激素问题。而不是通过外科手术改变肠道。不是计算卡路里。如果你在激素水平上没有调节你的食欲，那么无论你的胃多小，你都将永远无法重新获得控制权。减肥的核心不是控制卡路里，而是控制饥饿。

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饥饿是一种习惯。

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当我因为空乘刚刚给她的迷你小面包包没有吃完而差点攻击一名女子时，我知道我有饥饿的问题。我在六十秒内就吃完了自己的一份，但我不明白这个女人怎么可以吃了两块然后把剩下的留在那里。在飞机上剩下的时间里，困惑、愤怒、挫败感——最重要的是，饥饿——充满了我的身体，当飞机着陆并下机后，我开始哭泣。我觉得很可怜。但这还不止于此。我的大脑中临床理性的一部分已经过度运转了。

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发生了什么？我是一名成功的医学研究员，但我却因为免费赠送的一袋椒盐卷饼而崩溃。我在生活的其他方面都受过训练，没有理由不能在食物上做到这一点。一定有什么严重的问题，这不是缺乏意志力或纪律性。这并不是性格上的缺陷。我的饥饿感是一种条件反射。简单地说，这是一个坏习惯。

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如果我们每天早上 7 点吃早餐，中午 12 点吃午餐，下午 6 点吃晚餐，那么我们就会在这些时间感到饿。即使我们在午餐时吃得很多，否则不会在晚餐时感到饿，我们也可能会因为现在是下午 6 点“该吃晚饭了”的缘故而变得“饿”。尚未养成这些习惯的小孩经常会在用餐时间拒绝进食，而较大的儿童则会学习这些习惯，并且即使他们并非真正饥饿也会进食。

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如今，我们已经不再被要求每天只吃三顿饭了。我们大多数人都会在一天中六次或更多次地吃点心或吃饭。例如，在我最近参加的一个会议上，与会者吃了一顿丰盛的早餐。在十点半左右，会提供一份上午茶点，而大部分听众都会吃一些东西。在整个北美地区，人们会在上午或下午茶点时分发松饼或百吉饼。让我们来思考一下这个问题。我们刚刚吃过饭。为什么我们还需要再吃呢？完全没有理由。尽管我们都不是真的饿了，但我们还是养成了持续进食的习惯。

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最后，饥饿也是一种高度易受影响的状态。也就是说，我们可能在一秒钟内不饿，但当我们走过购物中心的美食广场时闻到热腾腾、美味可口的奶酪披萨的味道时，我们可能会变得非常饥饿。这是一种自然刺激。对我来说，听到那个小包迷你椒盐卷饼打开的声音就像敲响了晚餐铃。我当时并不饿，但是一旦我想起了食物，我就无法停止思考它。这是一种本能反应，与自律或性格无关。

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那么，问题在于：如何对抗它？禁食提供了一个独特的解决方案。随机跳餐并改变饮食间隔有助于打破我们每天三到六顿饭的习惯。与其仅仅因为到了吃饭时间就感到饿，不如等到真正饿了才吃。同样地，通过全天不吃东西，我们可以打破食物与刺激物之间的固有联系——看电视、看电影、长途驾车、参加孩子的体育课等等。对我来说，在飞机上是一种刺激——那些小包的盐饼干让我感到饥饿。当空乘人员过来为我服务时，我已经开始流口水了。

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禁食可以打破所有这些条件反射。如果你不习惯每两小时吃一次，那么你就不会像帕夫洛夫的狗那样每隔两小时就流口水。如果我们养成了每两个小时进食的习惯，难怪我们在四处走动时发现越来越难以抗拒所有的快餐店。我们每天都会受到食物图片、食物引用和食品店的轰炸。食物的便利性和可用性的结合与我们根深蒂固的巴甫洛夫反应对我们的健康来说是致命的。

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但戒掉坏习惯最成功的方法不是突然彻底改变。研究和我的临床经验表明，一个更有效的策略是用一个不太有害的习惯来取代不健康的习惯。例如，假设你有在看电视时不停吃薯片或爆米花的习惯。简单地停止会让你觉得少了点什么。相反，你可以用一杯花草茶或绿茶来代替那些高卡路里的零食。没错，一开始会觉得不满意，但是你会觉得少做一些事情要“好受”得多。随着时间的推移，我发现我真的很喜欢茉莉花绿茶，并且最终我用它来满足我吃东西的需求。这也是为什么戒烟者通常嚼口香糖的原因。禁食时，不要完全不吃午餐（或早餐），而是喝杯咖啡。试着用一碗自制的骨汤来代替晚餐。长远来看，改掉坏习惯比完全戒掉更容易。

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社会因素在饮食习惯中也起着重要作用。当我们与朋友聚在一起时，通常是吃饭、喝咖啡或鸡尾酒。这是正常的，自然的，并且是世界各地人类文化的组成部分。显然，与之斗争并不是一个有效的策略。完全避免社交场合和朋友也是不健康的。怎么办？不要试图对抗它。正如我在第20章所展示的，你可以把禁食融入你的日程安排。

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我意识到自己从饥饿中恢复过来，与血液检测结果、身体成分分析或裙子尺码无关。我最好的朋友——更像姐姐而不是妹妹——在分娩期间差点丧命。她正在康复期间，她刚出生的儿子在新生儿重症监护室接受监测时，我去看望了她，感到非常痛苦。当我走进医院时，我强烈地想要茉莉花绿茶，所以我去了医院食堂。

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当我喝茶时，我意识到周围都是我的老舒适食物。pretzels、薯片、百吉饼和炸薯条都在我身边。但我只想要我的茶。我不在乎那些其他的食物，也不在乎在隔壁桌大快朵颐的人。那是一场漫长而艰难的战斗，但我赢了。我把一个破坏性的习惯（吃垃圾食品）改成了一个无害的习惯（喝绿茶）。

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禁食让我重新获得了对身体的控制。我甚至无法描述这对我来说意味着什么。我的一部分人仍然时不时地为不得不首先与之斗争而感到难过。我的一部分人为我们整个食物体系的状态对世界感到愤怒。使我平静下来的是知道我可以做些什么，而且我可以教别人如何做到这一点并取得成功。

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我认识的一位年轻医生多年来一直与肥胖作斗争，但最终通过低碳水化合物饮食成功减重。虽然他没有达到理想的体重，但他感到很满足，因为他正在取得一些成功。不幸的是，尽管如此，他仍然难以避免吃不健康的食物。

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在与我共度一周并看到禁食对我所有客户的好处后，他受到启发决定尝试为期七天的禁食。意味着——你知道的——整整一个星期不吃东西。他毫无困难地开始了禁食，但他知道饥饿是个问题，所以很紧张。“别担心，”我说，“等着瞧。”禁食结束后，我跟进时，他笑着对我说：“这是我一生中第一次因为不想吃而拒绝食物。并不是因为我正在禁食才节食。我只是真的不饿了。我的食欲下降了！梅根，我以前从未这样拒绝过食物。”

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我每天都会见到这样的客户。他们来到我的办公室，哭着说这是多年来第一次觉得自己能控制自己的身体。我能看出他们走路的方式发生了变化。他们站得更高了，胸部更挺拔了。他们的头抬得更高了。甚至他们的眼睛看起来也更清晰了。见证这种改变是我一天中最美好的时刻。

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如何打破饥饿的习惯

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饥饿通常与你习惯进食的时间、地点或场合有关。以下是几种轻松摆脱饥饿条件反射的方法。

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只在餐桌上吃东西。不要在办公桌旁吃东西。不要在车里吃东西。不要坐在沙发上吃东西。不在床上吃东西。不要在课堂上吃东西。不要在电影院或体育赛事中吃东西。如果你想在一天中的某个特定时间吃东西，比如下午3点半，因为你总是在这个时间吃点心，那就设置一个闹钟在这个时间响起。当闹钟响起时，喝一杯水或一杯茶来代替进食。可能的话，你会觉得饱了。在飞机上，当空乘人员经过时戴上耳机并拒绝零食。

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伊芙·迈耶

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我无法告诉你，我听到多少人说过类似的话：“把叉子放下，亲爱的，你会减肥的！”

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如果你像我一样，你已经尝试了无数次少吃，但每次都失败了。我从8岁开始就偶尔尝试节食，当时我第一次担心发胖的问题，几乎所有这些努力都涉及减少卡路里的摄入量。

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“卡路里限制”的其他说法

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卡路里摄入与消耗。吃得少或更频繁地吃少量餐点。能量平衡方程式。分量控制。在科学术语中，热力学定律。

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我第一次真正节食时，可能是你能想象到的最荒谬的卡路里限制法。在我十几岁的时候，我又长胖了十五磅。仔细考虑了一下什么食物能填饱肚子后，我骄傲地设计了一种节食方法。女士们、先生们，我的发明被称为“糖果棒饮食”。

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我跳过了早餐和午餐，每天晚上在餐桌上，我会通过把食物推来推去，然后在不说话的时候吃上一口或两口来骗过我妈。下午在学校，当我肚子真的开始咕咕叫时，我会偷偷溜进楼梯间，那里有自动售货机，我会秘密买一根KitKat巧克力棒。我会剥开KitKat上的纸，通过先咬掉外面的巧克力，然后再逐层分开每一小块来享受美味，让这顿“饭”持续二十分钟。我知道如果我一天能摄入1000卡路里，那我就会减肥。而KitKat巧克力棒只含有218卡路里，所以我很快就能瘦下来！

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KitKat减肥法持续了一个星期，我瘦了六磅。一周之后，我觉得自己像个狗屎一样，而且总是饿着肚子，于是我正式放弃了这种做法，又开始按之前的方式吃东西。接下来的两周里我又胖了九磅。

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对我来说，节食的想法总是从同一个地方开始。我会低头看我的大肚腩或者感受我的大腿摩擦着彼此，然后我会想到一个全新的生活。我会计划一两天，然后全速前进。多年来，我尝试过Slim-Fast、Nutrisystem、Weight Watchers、酸菜汤减肥法，以及各种果汁断食法。我在杂志上看到过节食广告，里面有精美的图片，上面的食物都控制了分量；我买过由水疗中心或健康组织设计的饮食方案，并且按照医生为我制定的饮食计划行事。至少我试过50种限制热量的饮食，我计算过卡路里、脂肪、钠含量、水分和宏量营养素，几乎计算过市面上所有的营养成分。我每天摄入200、600、800、1200或1800卡路里，开始时总是瘦下来，但我总觉得这样做会让身体感到不适：厌恶、疲惫、愤怒、沮丧、心不在焉、痛苦。

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我吃得越少，我就越饿，减肥失败的次数越多，就越认为自己是个失败者。感到绝望时，我会在节食期间吃任何我想吃的东西，不仅体重反弹了，而且为了确保万无一失，还增加了几磅。我把这称为我的“大肥环”，因为我永远无法安全地从中逃脱，而我唯一感到快乐的时候是在开始新饮食前的一两天。

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我几年前还不知道，当我开始禁食之前，卡路里限制是一种谎言。在我多次失败节食的痛苦日子里，我一直很饿，无法摆脱肥胖，但我却不知道为什么。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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为什么？因为卡路里的概念过于简单，而限制卡路里摄入背后的理论完全错误。让我为你解释一下。

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卡路里与新陈代谢

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肥胖著名的“卡路里摄入=卡路里消耗”（CICO）假说——更正式地说，能量平衡方程可以简化为一个简单的公式：脂肪堆积 = 卡路里摄入 - 卡路里消耗。我们大部分时间都只关注卡路里的摄入，而很少考虑卡路里的消耗，除了运动。大多数人不把卡路里的消耗想得更复杂的原因在于，很难理解身体的基础代谢率，即BMR。正如我们之前所讨论的，BMR是你身体为了维持生命而燃烧的能量（卡路里）。BMR不包括运动；它只是器官运作所需的能量。由于很难测量BMR，所以大多数“专家”认为它是不会改变的。

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这完全是错误的。基础代谢率可能会因卡路里摄入量和其他因素（如呼吸和总能量消耗）而增加或减少50%。

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这就是为什么限制卡路里的饮食不再有效。当你减少卡路里摄入时，你的基础代谢率开始下降。你减少了摄入的热量，但作为回应，你的身体也减少了“消耗的热量”。你的器官系统开始在各个领域削减预算能量——一点点来自生殖系统，一点点来自呼吸系统，一点点来自认知功能——很快你就消耗更少的卡路里了。例如，如果你每天少吃500卡路里，但你的身体燃烧的卡路里也少了500，那么你就不会减掉脂肪。这是限制卡路里饮食的秘密。

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我不知道有谁没有尝试过其中一种或多种饮食，而且大多数人，如果不是全部的话，最初都会减肥，然后停滞不前。随着时间的推移，他们像夏娃一样感到越来越饿，因为他们的身体燃烧更少的卡路里，所以他们也会变得冷淡和疲惫。当他们的新陈代谢达到最低点时，这些人会加倍努力，这确实奏效了，但只有一段时间。然后他们会放弃，确信自己的身体出了问题，并回到他们以前的饮食习惯。几周之内，他们的体重就会超过开始时的体重。几个月后甚至一年，他们会开始另一种节食，但这只是另一种形式的热量限制，完全忽略了基础代谢率的概念。

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听起来熟悉吗？

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让我来告诉你一种更好的理解卡路里的方法。

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卡路里差异

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当我遇到新客户时，我首先会问他们：你应该从饮食中剔除哪些非垃圾食品来减肥？他们通常会提到面包、米饭、意大利面、土豆和玉米。然后我会解释说，虽然这些食物确实很油腻，但它们的脂肪和卡路里含量极低。没错，让你发胖的食物热量也很低。

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我的大多数客户最初似乎都很震惊，但我不会马上向他们解释任何事情。相反，我会让他们意识到，多年来听到的大部分营养信息都是完全错误的。然后我再问他们两个问题：

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哪种食物更可能让你发胖：一听汽水还是一把生杏仁？

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我的客户肯定会突然精神起来，因为他们觉得他们可以自信地回答。当然，他们会选“苏打水”。然后我问：

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一把生杏仁对减肥有益还是有害？

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几乎每个人都说答案是“好”。

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这时我该收割了！

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一听苏打汽水含160卡路里，很可能导致体重增加。但一把生杏仁也含有160卡路里，却可能有助于减肥。同一数量的卡路里怎么可能做完全不同的事情？如果热量差异如此之大，它们是如何影响体重增加或减少的呢？如果吃什么并不重要，那么一个人是否可以只喝汽水——如果你是夏娃的话——或者吃Kit Kat巧克力条来减肥呢？

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当然不是。我们身体处理食物的方式比这要复杂得多。

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我们身体对卡路里含量相同的两种食物的激素反应，会根据食物的成分而有所不同。汽水中的糖分会使血糖水平升高，并促使胰腺产生大量胰岛素。杏仁中的营养物质（包括蛋白质和脂肪）则不会。一旦消化完杏仁，你的身体只会经历轻微的血糖上升。

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因此，卡路里就是卡路里，就像狗就是狗，但有许多不同品种的狗。你的身体对苏打水和杏仁的激素和新陈代谢反应截然不同，因此这些食物带来的发胖效果也大不相同。此外，从血糖控制到体温的每一个身体功能都是由一系列激素系统调节的。肥胖的“热量摄入与消耗”假说要求我们假设脂肪细胞是不受控制的。我们的激素是如何控制体内所有东西而不控制脂肪细胞的呢？这种想法没有道理。

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既然卡路里并不重要，那我们怎么增肥呢？对于任何一个给二型糖尿病患者开过胰岛素处方的医生来说，这个问题的答案都不应该令人意外。只要开始注射胰岛素，人们就会发胖，而且每次剂量增加时都会变得越来越胖。不管他们吃得更少还是运动量更大，体重都会增加。

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因此，体重调节的关键在于胰岛素。

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禁食的不同之处

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避免脂肪，少吃多餐以促进新陈代谢的常见饮食建议对控制饥饿感毫无帮助。多年来，人们一直被告知缺乏意志力才导致吃得太多，超重是自己的错。这与事实相去甚远。限制热量摄入才是导致新陈代谢放缓的原因。

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禁食则会起到相反的作用。节食期间产生的应激激素肾上腺素会提高新陈代谢率。随着时间的推移，禁食越来越频繁，新陈代谢率也会升高，从而达到减肥的目的。

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Jason Fung

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正如我在《肥胖密码》一书中所论证的，对卡路里的痴迷是错误的。让我们来想想这个。直到上世纪70年代，肥胖还是很少见的，但人们几乎不知道自己摄入了多少卡路里。他们也没有注意到自己消耗了多少卡路里。运动不是为了好玩而做的事情，但是全世界的人比今天要健康得多，也苗条得多。如果世界上大多数人都能在不计算卡路里的情况下避免肥胖，那么为什么计算卡路里在当今如此重要呢？我们的社会五千多年来都没有严重超重，但自1980年以来，我们就离不开卡路里计数器和步数计数器了吗？这没有道理。

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自上世纪70年代以来，美国饮食发生了两大变化。首先，我们被告知要减少脂肪摄入量，并增加碳水化合物摄入量。多吃面包和意大利面这种吃法其实并没有特别减肥的效果。但还有一个问题一直没有受到关注：用餐频率增加了。

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我们的消费文化

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在20世纪80年代之前，人们通常一天吃三顿饭：早餐、午餐和晚餐。如果你不饿的话，不吃一顿饭完全没有问题。到2004年，每天吃饭的次数已经接近六次——几乎翻了一番。现在，零食不再是一种奢侈享受，而是一种健康行为。不吃正餐的行为受到强烈谴责。这是什么样的奇怪世界？在这个世界里，你需要不停地吃东西才能减肥？

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医生、营养师和杂志都告诉人们，千万不要不吃任何一顿饭，警告说这样会有很严重的后果。但是当你不吃饭的时候会发生什么呢？让我们来看看。如果你不吃东西，你的身体会燃烧储存的脂肪来获取它需要的能量。仅此而已。我们储存脂肪是为了使用它们，如果我们不吃东西，我们会用身体里的脂肪。

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零售业和文化——社会、家庭和商业——已经围绕着过度消费的习惯蓬勃发展。如今，人们在一天内有数十次吃饭的机会，包括早餐、上午的会议点心时间、午餐、下午茶歇、晚餐、饭后饮料（带零食），然后是在电视机前蜷缩着吃更多零食的时间。

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这是相对较新的现象，是由生产廉价、低质量食品的文化所导致。如果仔细想想，难道你不觉得吃是常态，而禁食需要付出努力吗？试想一下过去吃甜甜圈需要做多少事。如果你生活在十九世纪美国的一个农场上，你需要种植一些小麦，饲养一些奶牛来产奶，并且购买一些糖。六个月后，你可以收割小麦，将其磨碎，与牛奶和糖混合在一起，然后花几个小时的时间烹饪才能享受到美味的食物。考虑到所有的工作量，你可能不会费心去做这件事吧？

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现在不是这样。每个高速公路出口都有一个唐恩甜甜圈店。我工作的医院里甚至还有个甜甜圈店。

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在肥胖流行病之前的20世纪70年代，情况如何？人们比19世纪的人更容易吃到甜甜圈，但那仍然不是一种社会认可的行为。如果你想吃点课后零食，妈妈通常会说，“不，你会毁了你的晚餐。”如果你想睡前加餐，她会说：“不行，你应该在晚餐时多吃一点。”如果你把松饼带到工作中的午休会议上，同事们会认为你粗鲁或疯狂。如果你是个淘气的孩子，被送到床上去吃饭，没有人担心错过一顿饭会永远损害你的健康。营养学家、医生和其他营养专业人员都明确表示，我们应该一日三餐。

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所有这些都变了。

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此外，曾经理解和支持禁食的人已经转移到了边缘。在过去，如果你要禁食，你会在一个志同道合的人群中进行。例如，如果你是天主教徒，在四旬斋期间，你的牧师会讨论禁食，教堂里的家人和朋友也会与你一起禁食。会议室的每张桌子上不会有食物，大厅里也不会有零食机，也不需要做饭，因为没有人吃东西。穆斯林、犹太人、佛教徒、印度教徒和其他人在他们各自的禁食期间也是如此。

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在这样的条件下，禁食并不那么困难。当然，你可能会饿，但知道其他人都有同样的感觉是一种安慰。没有食物会诱惑你“作弊”，虽然你会明白禁食很不舒服，但这正是大斋节的目的。那一年中的这个时候，那是你自然而然会做的事。有时你会享受盛宴，有时你会忍饥挨饿。

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跳到今天。吃零食被积极鼓励为健康，即使我们正承受着肥胖危机带来的负担。如果我们不给孩子吃零食，人们实际上认为这是虐待儿童。在车里、办公桌旁、走路时、打电话时或是在电影院里吃饭都是可以接受的。我们在车上安装了杯架以便于进食。医生、营养师和饮食治疗师会告诉你，要确保每天不断进食，否则你会陷入“饥饿模式”，他们会说不吃餐会导致发胖。

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我们常常认为自己可以控制所做的决定，但行为心理学表明，动机在很大程度上来自社会影响。诺贝尔奖得主丹尼尔·卡尼曼和理查德·塞勒在行为经济学方面的研究成果表明，人类的行为是可预测的非理性。

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以器官捐献率为例。

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在丹麦，器官捐献率约为百分之四。而在邻国瑞典，这一比例为百分之八十九。丹麦人和瑞典人在几乎所有方面都非常相似，那么为何存在如此大的差距呢？答案在于默认设置。在丹麦，如果你想要成为器官捐献者，你需要勾选一个选项框。在瑞典，如果你想退出器官捐献计划，你需要勾选一个选项框。差别不在于人民或他们的价值观。

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再举个例子。最近我注册了亚马逊Prime的免费试用版，然后自动订阅了它。虽然对我已经没太大好处了，但我还是它的会员。当然，这种现象众所周知。如果问题太复杂或压倒性，那么惯性就会占上风。当我们不知道该做什么时，我们只是选择了已经为我们做出的选择。

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那么，为什么20世纪70年代减肥是自动的，而21世纪增重却是自动的呢？问题不在于人；问题在于系统或默认设置。最大的问题是，我们把肥胖视为一个人的问题，而不是一个系统的问题。例如，如果今天的人比70年代的人更胖，那是不是意味着现在的人缺乏意志力呢？这有意义吗？这就是导致人们羞辱胖子的原因。

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1970 年代与现在的最大区别在于，如今默认情况下是“吃”，而 1970 年代则是“不吃”。这和器官捐献问题一样，有着压倒性的意义。幸运的是，改变这种行为模式不需要意志力。这只是要修复默认设置的问题。你需要改变环境，这比改变自己容易得多。如果你把默认设置为“不吃”，那么就需要意志力才能去吃东西。

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让我们来看看一个下午茶时间的会议。你感到无聊，也不怎么饿，但开始想吃一块美味的巧克力曲奇。你会突然粗鲁地离开会议室，上车，开车去当地的面包店买饼干吗？或者你穿着衬衣回到会议室，上面沾满了饼干屑，同事们面无表情、惊恐地看着你吗？当然不会这么做。但如果办公室经理已经为会议订了饼干和咖啡呢？也许我们中有百分之九十的人会心安理得地吃掉放在会议室诱惑人的饼干。你吃不吃这个饼干的区别是什么？就像丹麦人和瑞典人的捐款率一样，这是默认状态。你可以随时出去找点吃的，但在开会时坐在你面前的食物却必须吃掉。如果你改变默认设置，减肥就会变得轻而易举。间歇性禁食当然把默认设置更改为“不进食”，帮助人们减肥。“不进食”变成了新的“进食”。

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我相信，改变我们对所吃食物的数量、种类以及进食的时间和频率的看法，在很大程度上会让我们感到舒服。如果我们换个角度看环境，承认经常性地吃东西并不是正常的，这将减少在高压力饮食环境中选择的压力。不需要一直吃的负担消失了。不再为持续购物和停下来吃点心而焦虑。饥饿不再是强制；它是我们身体化学反应的自然部分。禁食一开始可能会让人觉得有挑战性，但最终会让我们的身心和生活方式获得自由。

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伊芙·迈耶

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成功进行禁食最可靠的方法之一就是清楚地了解你的饮食计划。没错，禁食减肥在很大程度上取决于你在吃什么以及不吃什么。

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有趣的是，这个想法似乎与一些研究相矛盾。现在有许多医学研究表明即使一个人不改变饮食，禁食也会起作用。这项研究表明，禁食本身可以帮助降低血糖水平，并有助于减肥——不管吃什么。我见过几个人可以证明这一点，包括一位二十多岁的女性萨莉(Sally)，她使用间歇性禁食来保持体重稳定。她每周还做三次有氧运动和力量训练。萨莉身材很好，一直吃任何她想吃的东西，包括甜甜圈、蛋糕、红薯、牛排和炸鸡。然而，萨莉向我解释说，她吃自己喜欢的食物，但吃得非常谨慎，通常一天只吃一到两顿饭，而且晚上8点以后从不吃东西。

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我还与一位64岁的绅士交谈过，他反复试图减少糖的摄入量——尤其是冰淇淋和饼干——但他发现这不可能。然而，杰克在间歇性禁食时能够对大多数甜点说不，发现完全不吃零食比吃甜点更容易。杰克开始跳早餐，每天两餐，在中午和晚上7点，并且在两个月内减掉了25磅，停用了降压药。

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所以，如果证明了不改变饮食而禁食可以取得成功，那么我们为什么要谈论食物呢？因为我遇到的人大多不像杰克和莎莉。我见过的大多数人都在一生中与糟糕的食物选择作斗争，虽然禁食本身对他们来说是一些成功的，但吃得更好可能会带来更好的健康结果。事实上，结合更健康的饮食和禁食可能会让大多数人获得更长久的成功。

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对我而言情况就是这样。我不再吃没有尽头的杂烩和甜甜圈了。如今我90%的时间都在远离碳水，而以蛋白质或脂肪的形式摄入鳄梨、奶酪、肉类、海鲜，还有绿色蔬菜，偶尔也会吃点浆果。其余的10%时间我会允许自己想吃什么就吃什么，包括蛋糕、炸薯条、巧克力、水果和谷物。当我90%的时间都遵循高脂低碳的饮食方式时，我的体重就会保持不变或者下降。身体也感觉更加强壮，而且我很少会头疼或鼻窦感染，以前我在饮食不良的时候，这些问题可是经常出现的。我每天大概有四五次会觉得饿，这太好了，因为我大部分的人生都是每分钟都在挨饿。增加高脂食物的摄入量也有助于让我保持饱腹感。

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现在是你决定哪些食物可以让你饱腹，并为你的身体创造最佳健康机会的时候了。梅根会给你提供清晰、容易遵循的建议，告诉你低碳水化合物/健康脂肪的选择如何使禁食生活更容易。但你必须自己选择并测试这些食物，注意什么对你最好。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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科学已经很明确：减肥失败，以及可能随之而来的所有健康问题——包括心血管疾病、2型糖尿病、某些癌症、中风、代谢综合征、多囊卵巢综合征等——都表明荷尔蒙不稳定。你选择吃的食物可能会提高血糖和胰岛素水平，抑制脂肪燃烧，并抑制身体发出饱腹信号的能力。禁食可以帮助解决这些问题，但正如夏娃所说，你吃什么和不吃什么同样重要。

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虽然本章不会提供具体的饮食计划或逐步饮食，但杰森、伊芙和我都强烈认为——许多医生和研究人员也这样认为——坚持低碳水化合物、高健康脂肪的饮食有助于保持禁食状态。你需要多久进行一次取决于你自己，每个人都是不同的。伊芙有90%的时间都在坚持这种饮食。我的其他客户永远不能接近未经加工的碳水化合物。在这里，我们只是简单地勾勒出大体轮廓，让你了解低碳水化合物、健康脂肪生活方式的好处，并提供一些食物类别供您选择。

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什么是低碳水化合物？

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碳水化合物是一种由糖、淀粉和纤维组成的复合物。从土豆到面包再到大米，再到苏打水，它们存在于各种食物中，可以为人体提供丰富的能量。然而，与食物金字塔相反，它们并不是必不可少的来源。在没有它们的情况下，我们的身体会将蛋白质转化为葡萄糖，以满足其非常少量的需求。

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碳水化合物有两种：精制和未精制。精制碳水化合物含有两个糖分子，它们去除了麸皮、纤维素和营养物质。这些包括意大利面和纯糖，会导致血糖飙升。当它们进入你的胃时，胰腺会增加胰岛素分泌，这样可以快速转化为葡萄糖。

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未经加工的碳水化合物——存在于全谷物、豆类、土豆等食物中——由更长的糖链组成。它们比精制碳水化合物消化得更慢，但仍然会导致胰腺分泌大量胰岛素。他们还是会升高血糖水平。

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正如我们之前所讨论的，持续高水平的血糖可以导致2型糖尿病，并增加患心脏病、中风等的风险。由于你的身体很快就会燃烧碳水化合物帮助产生的葡萄糖，它进入脂肪燃烧模式的机会就更少了。有碳水化合物时，突然的血糖升高会导致同样突然的下降，所以你会饿。你忍不住要多吃一点。你确实吃得更多了，而且更频繁。你变胖了。

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但低碳到底是什么呢？一个人应该以多少为目标呢？虽然没有明确的定义，而且每个饮食计划都会告诉你不同的东西，但一般认为自由低碳饮食一天含有50到100克碳水化合物。中等低碳饮食一天在21到50克之间，而严格的生酮饮食一天20克或更少。在西方国家，男性通常每天摄入约200至330克碳水化合物，女性则约为180至230克。这些数字真正地展示了我们对碳水化合物消费过剩的文化有多么根深蒂固，并且证明了大多数人需要减少碳水摄入量。

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然而，我们不建议您过于痴迷地计算碳水化合物。这不仅费时，而且会导致您关注食物的数字，而不是其质量。低碳饮食不是指每天吃三块 Milky Way 巧克力（每块 40 克碳水化合物），而且没有其他碳水化合物来源。只要避免以下食物清单上的食物，而是专注于乳制品、鱼和海鲜、家禽、红肉、地上生长的蔬菜和坚果。这些加在一起可以为您提供健康的碳水化合物份额，而不会导致您摄入过多。

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避免这些碳水化合物！

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一般来说，避免

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所有

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精制（白糖）产品。这包括运动饮料、苏打水、蛋糕、饼干、冰淇淋、早餐麦片、松饼等。

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白面包：46克煮熟的意大利面：29克

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避免所有淀粉类食物。这些包括面包、小圆面包、意大利面以及任何含有面粉的食物，包括全麦粉。通常很难确定哪种淀粉类食物含有未经加工的碳水化合物或精制碳水化合物，所以为了安全起见，请全部不吃。此外，“无麸质”并不意味着“不含碳水化合物”，因此请远离这些产品。

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熟米饭：28克

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没错。即使没有漂白、加工和剥离营养成分的大米，也就是糙米，也是高碳水化合物食品。在低碳饮食中完全避免大米。

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马铃薯：15克

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这包括所有种类的土豆、薯片和炸薯条。

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豆类：这对许多人来说都是一个惊喜，但豆子的碳水化合物含量很高，因此除非你是素食主义者或纯素食者，在低碳饮食中最好避免食用它们。水果：浆果如蓝莓、树莓和草莓通常可以每天吃一次左右。避免其他水果。香蕉、芒果和橙子可能富含维生素，但它们的碳水化合物含量很高，会提高血糖水平。

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所有这些测量都是以每份3.5克为准。

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血糖指数与血糖负荷

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为了充分理解碳水化合物对血糖的影响，你需要了解两个饮食术语：升糖指数（GI）和升糖负荷（GL）。GI 是衡量含有碳水化合物的食物中50克碳水化合物被消化吸收并开始影响血糖水平的速度。每种食物在升糖指数上都有一个评分，从1到100，分数越低表示这种食物不会使血糖升高，反之则会使血糖升高。（要确定一种食物的GI值，只需在网上搜索一下。这个数值很少出现在食品标签上。）不出所料，许多高碳水化合物食物在升糖指数上得分很高。

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然而，血糖水平所关注的不仅仅是食物的升糖指数，还有吃进去的食物量。对某些食物来说，50 克远超过了一份典型的份量；而对另一些食物来说，又是远远不够的。总体上说，升糖指数和食物摄入量一起构成了碳水化合物负荷（GL），它反映了你的胰岛素升高了多少以及能维持多久。计算碳水化合物负荷的方法如下：

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GL=（GI×碳水化合物克数）/100。

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例如，一个苹果的GI值为38，含有13克碳水化合物，所以它的GL=（38x13）/100=5。士力架的GI值为55，含有64克碳水化合物，所以它的GL=（55x64）/100=35。我敢肯定，您不需要知道GL值就可以告诉您这一点，但士力架会迅速提高您的血糖水平，然后使其比苹果更快地崩溃。

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保持低碳水化合物饮食也不仅仅是为了减肥。像燕麦和大麦这样的碳水化合物，它们的血糖生成指数低于20，可以降低患糖尿病、心脏病和某些癌症的风险。

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禁食时可享用的低升糖指数食物

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这些食物的血糖负荷在10或更低，非常适合加入你的任何一餐。或者，你可以直接吃它们！

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胡萝卜坚果肉类和海鲜浆果原味酸奶奶酪

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脂肪的重要性

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我成长的过程中，饮食脂肪被妖魔化了。大多数人认为高脂肪食物会让你发胖，因此如果你在乎自己的健康，就不能吃黄油、奶酪、油、鸡蛋、红肉或任何油腻的东西。脂肪变成了头号敌人，这在一定程度上是因为人们误解了脂肪对心血管的作用。人们认为——笼统地说——脂肪会提高胆固醇水平。胆固醇会导致动脉堵塞。动脉堵塞会导致心脏病。心脏病导致死亡。

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这是自上世纪60年代以来一直盛行的观点，但这完全错误。

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有两种脂肪：饱和脂肪和不饱和脂肪。饱和脂肪在室温下呈固态，存在于动物肉、奶酪和黄油中。不饱和脂肪在室温下为液态，包括鳄梨油、菜籽油和橄榄油等。饱和脂肪会提高低密度脂蛋白（LDL）胆固醇水平，人们担心这会导致动脉阻塞，进而引发心脏病。但一项对 235 名患有心病的女性进行长达三年的跟踪研究发现，摄入脂肪量与动脉阻塞程度之间没有关联。实际上，摄入饱和脂肪最多的女性的动脉阻塞程度比摄入较少脂肪的女性要少！

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这项研究并不是唯一一项表明饱和脂肪并不有害的研究。2010 年，日本的一项研究对 58,543 名男性和女性进行了为期 14.1 年的跟踪调查，发现摄入更多饱和脂肪有助于保护测试对象免受心脏病发作和中风的影响。我们多年来一直被错误的信息误导！各种各样的脂肪——包括饱和脂肪——实际上对你有益。

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哪里可以找到最好的脂肪来源？我建议您从以下几个类别中选择多种食物：

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肉类：选择牛肉、猪肉、羊肉、野味或家禽。你可以吃肉上的脂肪，也可以吃鸡皮。尽量选择草饲肉类，因为它含有较少激素。鱼和海鲜：任何种类都可以，但三文鱼、鲭鱼、沙丁鱼和鲱鱼尤其富含ω-3 脂肪酸。鸡蛋：可以随你喜欢的方式烹制。烹饪用油：椰子油、橄榄油、黄油、酥油（用于东南亚、中东和印度菜的澄清黄油）、牛油果油和牛脂都是健康的选择。奶制品：选择全脂奶制品、酸奶和未加工的奶酪。坚果：开心果、胡桃、巴西坚果、核桃和杏仁。避免花生和腰果。水果：橄榄和鳄梨。每天吃浆果不要超过一次。

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酮症和禁食

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饥饿酮症是一种身体停止燃烧葡萄糖，开始燃烧脂肪的状态。它是完全正常的代谢过程，在禁食约24小时后发生。酮通过血脑屏障进入大脑，为大脑提供了大部分运作所需的能量。身体的其他器官或肌肉从不使用酮，但在禁食期间，它们对大脑来说至关重要。

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酮症和脂肪适应之间存在一些混淆，所以让我来澄清一下。脂肪适应是在进入低碳水饮食至少四周后发生的。这是过渡到低碳饮食的最后阶段。在脂肪适应期间，你的身体完全适应了只燃烧脂肪。你不再渴望碳水化合物，而且你会更快地感到饱腹感，并且保持更长时间。当你吃碳水化合物时，它们不会像以前那样使你的血糖升高，而且血糖会更快地恢复到正常水平。你的身体甚至可能在不知不觉中变得“脂肪适应”。

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其他饮食考虑因素

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禁食期间良好的饮食就是均衡。一个人不应该故意在餐中添加脂肪，认为这无关紧要。例如，不要因为知道吃脂肪有益健康就给你的猪排加多一些黄油。是的，猪肉中的脂肪是好的，黄油中的脂肪也是好的，但是你的身体不需要额外的脂肪。仅仅因为它存在，你的身体不会燃烧多余的脂肪。

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蔬菜也应成为你膳食的一部分。多吃各种各样的蔬菜，尤其是那些地上长的蔬菜，包括菜花、西兰花、卷心菜、抱子甘蓝、羽衣甘蓝、大头菜、芥兰、菠菜、芦笋、西葫芦、茄子、蘑菇、黄瓜、洋葱、彩椒和绿叶蔬菜（包括生菜），它们富含身体所需的维生素和矿物质。它们也是低碳水化合物的食物。可以随意吃牛油果和橄榄，因为它们富含健康的脂肪，但当你想吃水果时，一天内只吃一次浆果。

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远离加工糖和加工食品。我再怎么强调这一点都不为过。不要吃糖果、饼干、薯片或苏打水。如果你看一下包装，发现里面有十几种成分，那就不要吃了。尽量选择新鲜的天然食材，并且在口渴的时候多喝水。我们经常会把口渴误认为是饥饿，所以记得随时都备着水，这样就能防止饿过了头。

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伊芙·迈耶

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当我嚼着胡桃碎屑时，一团团温暖的结晶糖如同毯子般覆盖在我的舌头上。我的眼球向后翻去，享受着一种纯粹的乐趣，这种乐趣可以与在圣诞树下发现一堆礼物相媲美。

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我七岁，正舔着妈妈做的杏仁糖锅里的勺子。

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糖霜是路易斯安那州最著名的甜点之一，由糖、炼乳、黄油、胡桃和一些秘密配料制成。你在沉重的锅里搅拌这种卡琼神灵的甜蜜甘露，直到达到精确的温度，并散发出超越你对糖果乐园最疯狂的梦想的香味。我妈妈做的糖霜太好吃了，她开始经营一家糖果公司，许多夜晚，在父母下班回家后，我完成了作业，我们一起坐在桌旁为销售打包、贴标签并包装糖果，准备发货。

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这些夜晚，桌上摆满了碎裂的杏仁糖饼，我吃着那些碎屑——对我而言，那就是家人。食物并不是为了给我的身体提供能量，而是为了与我最爱的人一起享受时光、获得最大的快乐。对我来说，食物充满情感：在美好时刻令人兴奋，在我母亲生病时给予苦乐参半的安慰。这些根深蒂固的信念结合在一起，让我发胖。当我开始禁食时，我不得不放弃它们，所以我决定改变对食物的看法。

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食物是用来提供能量的。

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重新思考食物的第一步就是把它当作一种潜在的能量来源。就这样，结束了。食物可以（而且应该！）味道好极了，虽然没有理由认为，我姑妈罗斯做的腌鸡蛋、黎巴嫩库拜和烤肉不应该成为每个家庭聚会的一部分，但对我来说，把食物当成爱是没有帮助的。每一块美味的杏仁糖饼干都没有让家庭聚餐变得更好，我嘴里的每一口也不能传达我对厨师的感谢。当我开始禁食时，我必须有意识地、故意地把食物当作能量来思考，除此之外什么也不是，这样我就能够摆脱它在我脑海中所代表的所有复杂的地方。

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我也必须反复告诉自己，我已经储存了大量的能量作为脂肪，禁食可以帮助我燃烧它。

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食物对你意味着什么？

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对我们许多人来说，食物是一种奖励。在我的家庭里，每次事情进展顺利——考试得了A、垒球打得漂亮、乐队独奏成功，甚至天气晴朗时——我们都会狼吞虎咽地大吃一顿。食物总是会在那里，成为我的朋友，帮助我庆祝，强调当事情进展顺利时的快乐。

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它也从来不是个反复无常的朋友。当事情进展不顺时，它也会出现，比如我和父亲坐在马里兰州贝塞斯达市国家卫生研究院的时候，他对我微微一笑，拥抱了我，告诉我他们在检查我母亲的身体，想弄清楚她为什么这么病弱。那天我们在自助餐厅吃午饭，我吃了最美味多汁的奶酪汉堡，上面堆满了意大利熏火腿芝士。那个汉堡带走了一个八岁孩子的情绪，保护着我免受最大的恐惧。

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对许多像我一样的人来说，食物是在无聊或孤独时填满心灵空缺或日程表的东西。当我上大学的时候，我意识到我已经厌倦了参加高中时加入的每一个社团，也厌倦了强迫自己做到最好。我只是想偷懒，而食物就是我的朋友。我在独自一人或者与朋友们一起吃饭来让自己忙起来——让双手忙碌、头脑娱乐。在两个学期里，我长胖了五十磅。作为一个225磅重的二十岁的人，我发现约会很难。我的自信跌落谷底，开始约会不适合我的男人，因为我以为他们是我唯一的选择。当事情必然走向失败，食物总是在那里等着我，没有什么是一杯纸杯蛋糕解决不了的。等我长大成人后，我已经膨胀到26码的尺寸，体重达300磅。

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食物当然不是敌人，但也不应该把它当作最好的朋友、慰藉、奖励或消遣。你怎么开始探索食物对你意味着什么？一种方法就是回想一下你曾经极度沉溺于食物的时候。是在你最好的朋友的婚礼上吗？当时你开心得吃了三块蛋糕？还是在你深爱的祖母去世后，在开胃菜桌旁蟹肉蘸酱是你唯一的精神支柱？又或许更简单些，比如你在办公桌前工作时，当你需要休息大脑，从手头紧绷的项目中抽离出来时，你想吃点东西来分散注意力。如果你像我一样，这些依赖食物作为情感支持的时刻多到不胜枚举——或者也许只是太痛苦了。我会帮你简化这个任务：

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在星期日的时候，找个笔记本记下七页纸，并且标注上周一到周日。第二天开始写下这一天吃的所有食物和饮料，包括早餐、午餐、晚餐以及中间吃的所有点心。每餐或零食旁边记录当时的感觉和原因。写下每一个情绪或状态——当然也包括明显的：饿。确保在饭后立刻记录笔记，所以你可以带一个小笔记本，把它放在包里。或者也许你的厨房、汽车或者办公室里有几本笔记本。手机也可以！尽量避免第二天再回头看之前几天的页面。保持诚实——不要编辑！

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在一周结束时，将您感受到的情绪列在一个清单上。如有必要，请编辑内容，因此，“当我在精神疲惫且效率低下时吃了三个奥利奥饼干，感觉很兴奋”，可能变成“思维迟缓。没有活力。瞬间但短暂的能量。”随着您开始禁食，您可以着手识别并处理这些与食物相关的感觉，以便您可以在进食时摆脱情绪。

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找到感觉良好的事情

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斋戒期间选择正确的健康食物很重要，但也要倾听身体的需求，遵循它的信号。那些让你感到饱足、精力充沛的食物，与那些让你变得迟钝或减缓消化的食物要区分开来。我发现把它们记录在手机上很有帮助，我可以随时添加。我有一个清单，上面列出了让我感觉良好的食物，还有一个清单，上面列出了让我感觉不好的食物。你添加得越多，就越容易发现模式，然后你可以创建一份购物清单，里面全是能让你感觉很棒的食物。

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一个月后，我希望你能检查一下这两份清单。把让你感觉不舒服的食物列表保存下来，并重命名为“值得吗？”你可以再次尝试这些食物，看看你的味觉——或者你对它们的反应——是否发生了变化。例如，“值得吗？”清单上就有米饭，但最近我在日本时，我选择吃了一小碗，因为我很好奇它是否像我想象中那样美味。我觉得吃完后感觉不太舒服的可能性是可以接受的风险。幸运的是，米饭非常好吃，我没有感到不适！现在我会偶尔吃一点米饭。另一方面，我最近吃了棉花糖，因为它曾经是我最喜欢的甜点之一。在一年没有吃过棉花糖（事实上也没有摄入多少糖）后，我发现我其实并不喜欢它的味道！我记得有一次我一口气吃了四袋棉花糖，但是现在，我一口都不想吃——这都是因为不再接触它。

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我的食物清单

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让我感觉良好的食物：

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生菜、培根、奶酪、牛排、三文鱼、鳄梨、番茄、草饲碎牛肉、鸡蛋、香肠、鸡肉、西兰花、树莓、甜椒酱、金枪鱼、排骨、卷心菜、甜菊糖巧克力。

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让我感觉不好的食物：

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冰淇淋、棉花糖、土豆、面包、香蕉、面粉、红薯、重奶油、桃子、甜味剂制成的酸橙派。

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如果你的清单上没有太多你喜欢的食物，那么是时候尝试更多种类的食物了。你不是来惩罚自己的。吃东西应该总是件快乐的事。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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食物在世界历史上每一个文化中的每一次庆祝活动中都起着作用。假期需要正午的大餐。生日以蛋糕的形式来庆祝。后院烧烤、汽车尾箱派对、社区便餐……食物被用来创造社区和联系。这完全没问题，好消息是禁食并不意味着你要错过这些特殊的场合。但是如果我们每天都大吃大喝或者吃蛋糕而不是偶尔为之，那么问题就来了，因为那时候我们已经从简单的享受食物变成了上瘾。

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当娱乐变成上瘾

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享乐与上瘾之间存在一条非常微妙的界限。虽然从远古时代起，人们就喜欢吃饭，但食物成瘾几乎完全是现代问题。

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在我们在这个星球上的进化过程中，我们发展出了对食物的品味。这些食物营养丰富、富含能量，并且能够支撑我们度过一天又一天，乃至更长远的时间。我们还学会了什么时候该停止进食。如果我们的穴居人祖先吃得太多而变得肥胖，他们就无法生存。他们抓不到猎物，也无法摆脱狮子、老虎和熊等捕食者。我们的物种一直依赖于吃足够的食物，但不要吃得太多——不是仅仅因为我们有食物就可以吃。

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当到了停止进食的时候，我们的身体会启动自然的饱腹机制。像肋眼牛排这样的整食非常美味，并能为我们提供长期的能量和大量营养物质，以储存脂肪。但是你能一次吃掉一大块 50 盎司重的牛排吗？不可能！一旦你吃饱了，你就不能再吃了。大块牛排中的蛋白质和脂肪会激活这些强大的自然饱腹信号，防止我们吃得过多。即使是水果等天然甜味食物也有特性，可以触发我们体内的饱腹机制，使我们很难对它们上瘾。你上一次听说有人对苹果上瘾是什么时候？或者完全沉迷于胡萝卜？从不。

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我们中很少有人再为躲避捕食者或狩猎而生存。相反，我们在杂货店扫描冷冻食品区，或者坐在电视机前，面前放着一碗薯片。像含糖饮料、糖果、薯片、饼干和白面包等加工食品无处不在，它们是我们作为现代社会所上瘾的东西。

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当食物在工厂里加工时，它们会失去许多天然营养成分，包括蛋白质、脂肪和纤维。这使得身体无法自然产生饱腹感。没有脂肪和蛋白质，肽YY和胆囊收缩素这两种饱腹激素就不会被激活，所以它们不能告诉我们什么时候我们已经吃饱了。如果没有纤维提供的大量物质，我们的胃扩张受体也不知道如何反应。基本上，留下的只是精制碳水化合物（葡萄糖）和糖，导致胰腺分泌大量的胰岛素并储存这些糖为脂肪。血糖急剧下降，身体渴望更多的糖。这个周期不断重复。

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除了绕过自然饱腹机制外，食物还必须具有极高的奖赏价值才能上瘾。我们的脑部以相似的方式对所有愉悦做出反应，不管这种愉悦来自精神活性药物、金钱奖励、性经历或是一顿美餐。愉悦有一个非常明显的特征：大脑纹状体中多巴胺神经递质的释放，它位于大脑皮层下方的一组神经细胞团内。这个区域被称为大脑的“享乐中枢”。

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像海洛因这样的非法药物会在大脑中引起强烈的多巴胺冲动。糖的作用也是如此。海马体，负责形成新记忆的大脑部分，会储存这种快速满足感，让你梦见糖果、饼干和汽水。

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我们对现代加工食品上瘾并非偶然。食品行业在研究开发中投入了数十亿美元，以确定盐、糖、脂肪和人工香料的最佳组合，从而最大程度地诱使人们上钩，然后他们在实验室里进行烹饪，并将其放在传送带上，完美地包装好并运送到您附近的商店。

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我的客户经常泪流满面地承认，他们宁愿沉溺于酒精或毒品，也不愿沉溺于食物。为什么？因为他们会从朋友和家人那里得到更多的理解和同情。当一个戒酒者庆祝时，你不会给他买啤酒。当一个瘾君子哀悼时，你不会陪他一起打一针海洛因。但是人们告诉糖瘾患者应该做什么？用糖来庆祝。食物是你最好的朋友，因为它让你感觉良好。

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其他客户报告说，他们对食物上瘾比其他任何上瘾都更难戒掉，因为食物无处不在。例如，我曾与一位六十岁的女性合作过，她是一名康复中的吸毒者和酗酒者。在她二十多岁的时候，她两次去戒毒所接受治疗，并成功地通过门诊治疗恢复了健康。她说，在她的整个吸毒历史中，她从未像对糖那样挣扎过。原因是，当她走进一家咖啡店时，收银台旁边没有海洛因，只有松饼和甜甜圈。当她去教堂时，接待处没有可卡因，但有很多饼干和蛋糕。她可以去看望母亲，而不用被迫喝一杯葡萄酒，但她无法让她明白，感恩节时不想要一块南瓜派是因为它会要了她的命。所有这些原因都是她体重增加到 160 磅并患上 2 型糖尿病的原因，后者需要用胰岛素治疗。

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由于她有长期的吸毒史，她明白并承认自己是个糖和食物上瘾者，为了健康、幸福和家人，她决心戒掉毒瘾。她改变了饮食习惯，但在多次复吸暴饮暴食后，她意识到她永远无法再吃一片薯片或一块蛋糕了。如今，她过着没有触发物的生活，并成功逆转了糖尿病，减掉了160磅。

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打破食物上瘾的重要性

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在职业生涯的这个阶段，我已经为数千名希望做出健康改变并减肥的客户提供服务。他们中的许多人告诉我，他们很难做出更好的食物选择，部分原因是家庭、朋友和同事的压力，要求他们吃掉自己正在努力避免的食物，尤其是含糖食物。他们的配偶会在生日庆祝会上说:“我简直不敢相信你竟然不尝一下我费心为你做的蛋糕。”每个人都有一个这样的朋友或亲戚，会说:“哦，现在是圣诞节了，吃几块饼干也没关系！”我能理解这种为了取悦他人而饮食的压力，因为我也有同样的感受。我妈妈认为每次见到我都应该庆祝一番，给我做意大利面、面包、椒盐卷饼和爆米花——所有这些都是我戒瘾时最喜欢吃的东西。

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大多数人并不明白糖瘾有多危险。研究一次又一次地表明，糖与肥胖、心血管疾病、糖尿病、癌症以及许多其他慢性病直接相关。然而，我们的大脑已经习惯了把加工食品与即时快乐、幸福和归属感联系在一起。放弃这些食物的想法——哪怕只是短暂的禁食——都让人觉得难以置信。

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戒糖可能比十年的治疗更能让你了解自己以及人际关系。我自己直到经历了重大转变才意识到这一点。但事实上，我的整个童年都是由我对大脑对食物快乐反应的看法塑造而成的。我父亲通常脸色通红地回家，他一天的压力让他怒目圆睁。他会避开我们几个小时，不想把他的愤怒发泄在我们身上。我妈妈会悄悄地准备一杯巧克力牛奶、一盘意大利面和一袋薯片。她给了爸爸之后，他就静静地坐着吃东西。

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当我爸吃完他那一大盘安慰性碳水化合物后，他会很渴望听我们讲述一天的事情。作为一个小孩，我看得清清楚楚：美味的食物让爸爸好起来。精致加工过的食物是我们家的朋友。

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十大上瘾食物

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在2015年，一组研究人员开始寻找并列出最令人上瘾的食物。他们采访了500名不同年龄的受试者，并要求他们列出引起类似上瘾的生物和行为反应的食物。不出所料，这十种食物几乎全部都是加工食品！

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披萨巧克力片饼干冰淇淋薯条奶酪汉堡非减肥汽水蛋糕奶酪

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打破食物上瘾和不健康的习惯

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习惯由三件事构成：提示、常规和具体的回报。一个提示，比如压力，会触发一种导致奖赏的行为模式——放松或快乐的感觉。例如，如果你讨厌拜访你的姻亲，每次不得不去看他们时，你就会在厨房里转悠，吃着含糖和咸味的小吃。这些高度加工的食物会让你的大脑兴奋不已，大脑中的愉悦中枢被激活，你会感到一种巨大的幸福感，足以克服待在一个你本想逃离的地方的压力。在这种情况下，这种惯例（即进食）就是连接信号和奖励的重要纽带。如果你不遵循这个惯例——或者做点别的事情——你可以避免得到预期的回报。

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有各种各样的线索。比如结婚、度过了美好的假期，或者找到了理想的工作等等积极因素；也有工作压力、悲伤、孤独和疾病等消极因素。但不管是什么线索，常规总是不变的：高度加工和精致化的碳水化合物。让我们用冰淇淋来庆祝吧！我感到很伤心——我们去买些冰淇淋吧！为了改变我们的习惯，我们必须改变我们的常规。奖励——感觉良好——并不需要使用高度加工的碳水化合物或甜食。

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我大部分时间都在指导客户以其他方式体验放松和快乐——也就是说，感受真正的奖励—— 而不必依赖食物。我们使用两种策略来帮助他们打破这个循环。首先，每次我们有想吃甜食的冲动时，我们都用脂肪来替代糖分。脂肪会向我们的大脑发出信号，让我们感觉饱足，并抑制食欲。其次，就是禁食。禁食同样可以帮助调节荷尔蒙水平，让我们重新控制住食欲，同时也可以给我们自由。这也是客户向我反馈的禁食的最大好处之一。

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我曾经与一位名叫彼得的 52 岁高管共事。彼得在一个意大利家庭长大，大部分时间都住在家里的教育。如果他有一天过得不好，他的妈妈会给他做他最喜欢的千层面和蛋糕。如果他过得很愉快，她也会这样做来庆祝。这种情况与我的大多数客户以及他们的家人类似。彼得对食物的依恋并不是一种上瘾，而是一种根深蒂固的习惯。我们一起努力寻找其他方式来庆祝他的成功，从艰难的时刻中恢复过来，经过大约三个月的规划、试验和错误，他养成了良好的习惯。他会用美味的肋眼牛排或培根煎蛋来奖励自己，而不是蛋糕和面食。他尝试去打高尔夫球、参加拳击课、冥想和太极，直到找到了几件能让他平静下来的事情。他不再狼吞虎咽，而是为了庆祝成功给自己买了一套新的高尔夫球杆，或者抽出时间和女儿通电话分享好消息。

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如果我工作压力很大，正在禁食，我不需要吃午饭。相反，我可以在午餐时间散散步。散步有助于减轻我的压力，改善心情和精力。它还让我有机会从阳光中获取维生素D，而如果我在办公室的餐厅里，我是得不到这种营养的。午餐后，我会头脑清醒地回去工作，感觉休息过、精力充沛，因为我花时间为自己的身心健康做了一些有益的事情。禁食给了我为自己做事的自由，并与他人重新建立联系。

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其他值得尝试的方法

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按摩洗一个有薰衣草精油的泡沫浴锻炼美甲或修脚看电影与朋友喝咖啡给朋友打电话听新的播客阅读一本书外出散步或骑自行车解决一直拖延的问题冥想写一份感恩清单

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你不需要通过吃饭来拉近与配偶或家人的距离，也不需要吃零食来应对讨厌的任务。我和我丈夫会一起远足、玩棋盘游戏或者做拼图而不是边吃东西边尝试建立联系。你可以制定自己的常规活动以取代吃垃圾食品。

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准备是成功的关键。我要求所有客户写下他们的提示和期望的奖励，然后列出他们可以做的与食物无关的例程清单。例如，一个人可能会说，他/她的线索是在一天紧张的工作后回家，而他/她想要的食物奖励是吃东西。与其吃东西，我建议他/她出去散散步。这种重新定向的奖励是通向成功的地图上的第一站。想出你自己的例程清单，并把它放在你的钱包、手袋或公文包里。把它贴在冰箱上。只要记住：成功不是偶然的。如果你有一个计划，你可以实现它。

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所以，既然您已经了解了禁食背后的科学原理、应该吃什么食物以及避免什么食物，以及如何以不同的方式思考与食物的关系，那么让我们调整心态并开始制定计划。现在是进入禁食模式的时候了！

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伊芙·迈耶

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你现在正处于一个令人兴奋的旅程的开始。你可能感到紧张，渴望着枪声响起，这样你就可以向挑战进发了。或者如果你像我们大多数人一样，多年来一直在与体重和健康问题作斗争，那么你可能会对未来的不确定性感到焦虑。

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绝望和自我怀疑是我最熟悉的伙伴。他们坐在我旁边，对世界来说是看不见的，在我耳边低声说些沮丧的话。他们提醒我在大半辈子中，我一直没有吃得更好、保持健康。他们嘲笑我的希望，笑我对这次可能不一样的想法。自我怀疑折磨着我，问：如果几十年来我都无法停止把大量食物塞进嘴里，我为什么还会认为自己能禁食呢？

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现在是时候停止这样思考了。不管你过去尝试过多少种减肥食谱……是的，你可以做到这一点。

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记住：你不是问题。你只是多年来被错误的信息喂养了。但是有了正确的知识，你的身体可以自我治愈。事实上，这可能比你想象的更容易，因为你的身心可能没有你想的那么糟糕。像我一样，你会发现，在额外的体重之下，你比自己想象的更健康。这就是为什么许多人能快速治愈二型糖尿病、解决高血压或迅速停药的原因。我的父亲就是一个例子。

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当我爸爸看到我和我丈夫禁食取得的成功时，他也决定试一试。他减少了糖的摄入（虽然我妈妈告诉我他仍然每周至少吃一次冰淇淋或饼干），并减少了面包、意大利面和土豆的摄入量。他遵循了一个简单的节食计划，在大多数日子里不吃早餐，并减少零食的摄入量，第一个月就减掉了15磅。

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大约三周后，爸爸感到头晕得厉害，不得不停止开车。他去看医生，报告了自己头晕的症状，并表示他一直在禁食。然后他对医生解释说，他已经减肥了，虽然他的血压有所改善，但他仍在服用医生开的降压药。

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医生让他立刻停止禁食，但继续吃健康的食物，减少摄入量。医生还认为他很可能患有眩晕症，所以他开了另一种药，并建议我父亲去看专科医生来帮助解决这个问题。

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我妈妈担心我爸，但她怀疑医生对眩晕症的诊断。她觉得她丈夫突然得了生平第一场眩晕症很可疑。她认为更有可能是因为禁食和改变饮食导致他头晕。结果证明她是对的。由于禁食和低碳水化合物饮食，我父亲的血压在三周内急剧下降。这意味着他现在吃的药比需要的多，而且因此而头晕。我爸把降压药的剂量减半，继续他的新节食法和禁食。一周后，他的头晕消失了，于是他决定取消与眩晕症专科医生的预约。他还把眩晕症的药留在了柜子里，没有吃。

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几周后，经过每天仔细监测血压三次并减掉几磅体重，他终于能够完全取消了降压药处方，并且在二十年来首次降到229磅。

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他是怎么完成这项巨大而改变人生的壮举的？因为他从一开始就设定好了强大的目标。我爸爸最喜欢滑雪了，但因为他的高血压和超重，他已经很多年没有滑过雪了。他告诉自己，如果他的体重能降到 220 磅以内，他就去滑雪。现在他正在计划这次旅行！

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关于禁食，我们听说过的谎言

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禁食会让你生病。恰恰相反！禁食可以降低患心脏病、癌症、2型糖尿病和高血压的风险。禁食会导致你的血糖崩溃。你的身体在调节血糖水平方面做得很好，所以它几乎不会对低血糖产生不良反应。禁食会减慢你的新陈代谢。没有研究表明禁食——甚至长达三天的禁食——会抑制新陈代谢。你会饿死。这是我最喜欢的！你有没有错过一顿饭？看看发生了什么！你没死。我知道这个是因为你现在正在读这本书。

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目标从我开始

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如果你已经养成了设定目标的习惯，那么现在就是回归正轨的时候了。

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许多人觉得在设定目标时，把别人放在首位是很舒服的事。他们设定了一个目标：让六年级的孩子在这个学期取得荣誉榜上的成绩，或者让配偶到年底加薪。我们什么时候变得如此忙于帮助他人，以至于忘记了花点时间思考自己真正想要什么？

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现在轮到你了。你在阅读这本书是为了发现禁食如何改变你的身体、思想和生活。开始决定你想通过禁食获得什么。答案可以是任何东西。

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当我开始这段旅程时，我只有一个目标。我想再火一次！

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在我四十多岁开始禁食之前，我最后一次对自己的身体感到满意是在十八岁时。我又可以穿两件套泳衣了。我是不是在炫耀？谁在乎？我为自己做这件事，我的虚荣心驱使着我走向目标。几个月后，我减到了195磅（减掉了30磅），并穿上了那件两件套泳衣。我比二十多年以来任何时候都更喜欢自己。

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你的目标是为了满足自己的愿望和需求——它对你的成功至关重要。实现目标可能不会很快，也不会没有压力，但没有什么值得拥有的东西是轻而易举就能得到的。想象一下，把你的禁食技巧当作是你必须锻炼、休息和成长的肌肉。有些日子你会毫不费力地锻炼肌肉。其他的日子会更具挑战性。在那些时候，专注于你的目标变得很重要。当你连续几天遇到困难时，发现自己在想，这一切是否值得？正是你的目标会让你想起为什么你要走上这条路——并且你是值得拥有它的。

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目标变更

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在我旅途中，我的目标发生了变化。随着我禁食信心增强、学到新技巧并减去更多体重，我开始意识到跟上丈夫和11岁女儿的步伐是多么容易。多年来我一直患有过敏症、反复发作的呼吸道感染和支气管炎，但现在我不再生病了。我不再需要不断服用治疗呼吸问题的药物。每隔一天就头痛的日子也结束了。我的牙齿也变得更健康——这让我的牙医感到震惊。

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我感觉好多了，看到秤上的数字，那是我十几岁以来从未见过的——而且比以前减肥时花的功夫少多了——这让我感到困惑。但我意识到自己找到了门道，所以我设定了一个更具挑战性的目标。我知道身体成分（与肌肉相比，身体脂肪的百分比）对健康同样重要，所以我决定将我的身体脂肪百分比降低5%。

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这条路有时会变得颠簸，所以我希望你能设定一个非常具体的目标——或者如果你必须的话，不超过两个——来帮助你保持动力。我相信你想实现很多目标，但是把你的注意力集中在一到两个最重要的目标上可以帮助你专注于最终目标，并减少感到不知所措的可能性。神奇的是，一旦你完成了其中的一些小目标，你会发现其他一些愿望也开始实现了。例如，也许你的目标是从糖尿病患者的A1C水平7%（糖尿病）降低到6%（前驱糖尿病）。意想不到的好处之一可能是你脚趾麻木的问题终于解决了。或者突然之间，你可以不喘气地走楼梯了。

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你的目标应该清晰、具体、可衡量。例如，一个不明确的目标可能是“我想变得更活跃”（更活跃的方式？何时？），而一个明确的目标可能是“我要跑完五公里”。

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人们在我禁食前分享给我的目标

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戒掉二型糖尿病药物穿上新裙子去我的高中同学聚会完成铁人三项减少身体脂肪百分比购买不带弹力的裤子怀孕少生病戒掉高血压药穿不带宽脚背的高跟鞋能够带着狗走一英里不再偏头痛在工作中有更好的专注力和孙子们一起玩耍减掉几磅

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一旦你明确了你的目标，我希望你在三个地方写下它们。你可以把目标放在工作台抽屉里的一张纸上，在家里的镜子上涂鸦，或者在手机里打字，也可以把它们设置为电脑屏幕保护程序。每次遇到这个列表时，大声读出三遍，并在每个目标前加上“我会”。你也可以在心里默默地念出来。

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我们常常把事情拖到“明天再做”，直到“明天”变成好几个月甚至好几年。把目标记在心里，每天提醒自己，可以帮助巩固它。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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你不能只设立目标，你还得制定一个计划来实现它们，并坚持你的计划。那么是什么让我们站起来采取行动，让梦想变为现实呢？动力。它是驱使我们从停滞不前或停滞不前到积极行动的力量。作为一名健康教育者，我在这里解释如何做到这一点。

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什么让你有动力？

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有两种动机：内在动机和外在动机。内在动机是指一个人的驱动力来自内心，他们执行某项任务的愿望与他们的信念系统相一致。伊芙想要“变热”和“感觉热”的愿望是内在动机的一个例子。其他例子包括感觉更好、拥有更多的精力以及降低患二型糖尿病的风险。

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在外部动机中，个体的刺激来自外部，尽管结果仍然会使个人受益。金钱就是一个典型的外部动机的例子。在这种情况下，这可能意味着减少医疗费用或通过工作更专注、更有效率来获得晋升。目标及其背后的动机与设定这些目标的人一样相对和动态，所以你的目标是内在还是外在并不重要。重要的是这个目标对你来说是有力量的。

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作为一名教育者，我对每个客户的首要意图之一就是找出他们的动力是什么。他们厌倦了感到疲惫吗？他们难以支付药费吗？还是他们只是想感觉良好？我花时间了解我所辅导的每一个人，并找出什么能激励他们。一旦我明白了这一点，我就把它作为杠杆来帮助激发他们在旅途中前进。

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有时我会遇到客户，他们的动机与生活方式不一致。例如，一位女士告诉我她想减肥，这样可以有更多的时间陪伴家人。不幸的是，她说自己唯一能与家人共度时光的机会是在用餐时间——而且她还打算不吃饭！我帮助她寻找其他与家人共度时光的机会，几个月后，她的禁食习惯就养成了。

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克服坏习惯与坏时机

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我们减肥成功的动力往往会被坏习惯或生活中的意外情况所阻挠。当一切稳定时，我们可以成功地禁食并注意我们的糖摄入量。当生活混乱时，我们往往会回到深深根植于旧饮食习惯的老路上。

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这就是为什么对我来说了解是什么激励着客户做出改变如此重要。例如，如果有人试图改善自己的健康状况以便能活到看到他们的孙子孙女长大成人，那么这种动机是我帮助他们保持动力或重新找回正轨的好方法。如果客户报告说，在照看他们的孙子孙女时精力充沛，我会提醒他们当初的动力，并帮助他们把禁食与目标联系起来。

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我用两个工具来激励自己。第一个激励工具是我 21 岁生日时在迈阿密海滩与朋友聚会的照片，照片中我穿着比基尼。我会随身携带这张照片，因为尽管我说我的目标是快乐健康，像夏娃一样，我也想看起来很好。我很羞愧吗？一点也不！我还随身带着一张诊断我患有 2 型糖尿病的血液检测结果纸。这张纸让我感到恐惧，过去九年里，它在我度过了糟糕的一天后防止我自己吃掉整个大号披萨的次数有几十次之多。

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激励自己的简单方法

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上网阅读那些通过禁食达到减肥和健康目标的人的故事。听一些相关的播客，当你需要额外的动力时，把最能激发你的保存起来，以供日后参考。阅读有关禁食的书籍，并记下激励你的篇章，以备将来参考。随身携带一张纸条，提醒自己为什么这么做，以便在压力大的时候提醒自己不要打破禁食。保存旧的血液检测结果，以激励自己坚持下去。

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当你迷失了目标

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多年前，我被诊断出患有宫颈癌的早期阶段。幸运的是，我只需要很少的干预，并且三个月后就像一场噩梦一样过去了。但是，在当时，这非常真实并且令人极度恐惧。当我陷入无法通过通常的目标提供足够动力的情况时，我会回想起我在生命中黑暗时期的感受，并考虑肥胖与癌症之间的联系有多少。

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当我开始向客户分享这个策略时，我惊讶地发现他们中有多少人也是出于恐惧。也许他们不担心癌症诊断，但他们可能会因为轻微的胸痛、糖尿病前期或遗传性疾病而担心去医院。例如，一位名叫罗斯的客户在髋关节出现严重医疗问题后找到我们。罗斯 49 岁，身高 5 英尺 3 英寸，体重 180 磅。她接受了全髋关节置换手术，在漫长痛苦的康复过程中体重增加，最重时达到 201 磅。手术四个月后，罗斯在做拉伸运动时，她的髋关节从臀骨中脱离出来。一位专家设法修复了它，但他说这非常困难。“为什么？”她问道。他直言不讳地说：“嗯，因为你个子矮。还因为你的体重。”

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罗斯再也不想让自己的髋关节出问题了，所以她现在正在遵循生酮饮食，并在可能的情况下进行 36 小时的禁食。她的体重已经减到了 160 磅，她还想再减掉 20 到 25 磅。最棒的是，她说自己再也没有出现过髋关节问题，她的骨科医生对此感到非常高兴！

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我为失去目标的客户提供的另一个工具是想象。你可以想象积极的事情，比如你的目标在现实生活中会是什么样子（例如，花更多时间和家人在一起或穿着两件套泳衣躺在沙滩上）。你也可以想象消极的结果，比如医生告诉你患上了 2 型糖尿病。无论你是想象快乐还是悲伤的经历，想象都能以一种有力的方式激发你的感官和情绪，帮助你专注于自己的目标。

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当我回顾我之前的血液检测结果时，我不仅仅是为了激励自己而去看那些数字。我会试着回想起当我收到这些结果时的感受。当我的医生给我带来坏消息时，她的脸上是什么表情？听到她声音中的失望是什么感觉？我的身体还记得脊柱发冷的感觉，眼泪在我眼中形成。这就足够让我在想吃一袋椒盐卷饼的时候坚持节食了。

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优先考虑

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我与客户打交道时遇到的最大挑战之一是，他们经常有太多的目标。正因为如此，在有机会准备之前，他们就想跳入节食计划。例如，他们可能想减掉150磅，停止服药，逆转 2 型糖尿病，并避免家族遗传的阿尔茨海默氏症诊断。这些目标都很棒，但无论你多么努力，都不可能同时实现所有目标。

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我通过问两个问题来帮助客户优先考虑他们的目标：“什么会首先杀死你？”以及“你的禁食肌肉有多强？”。大多数人都知道，他们需要减肥才能逆转2型糖尿病，这会导致他们每天服用的药物数量减少。如果他们没有击败它，那么他们面临着患上与代谢有关的癌症和阿尔茨海默病的巨大风险。因此，糖尿病可能是第一种杀死他们的疾病，也是他们最需要关注的第一件事。

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但是这些渴望尝试的客户不能也不应该直接进行强度如此之大的禁食。他们中的许多人之前最长只禁食过12小时，所以刚开始就连续禁食24小时并不容易。有了优先事项，你可以集中注意力，这可能有助于不耐烦的人慢慢开始禁食。例如，你可以选择每周有两天不吃早餐，然后逐渐增加频率。

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正如夏娃所说，我鼓励你们写下自己的目标，并进行排序。最成功的人一次只专注于一件事，他们知道试图同时做太多事情最终会导致失败。你不应该拿健康去冒险，所以要有耐心和坚持。如果你这样做了，你会实现你的目标。

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伊芙·迈耶

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你的目标已经非常明确，你已经决定了哪些食物能让你充满活力，哪些食物会让你分心。如何才能给自己最好的成功机会呢？答案就在你家里。

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打扫房子

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现在是时候检查一下你的居住空间，彻底清理一下了。检查你的冰箱、橱柜，以及汽车或办公桌抽屉——每周花超过一个小时的地方。你想摆脱那些你决定不再吃的含糖和加工食品——这些诱人的、恼人的小东西很容易就能吃到嘴边，在你意识到之前就已经到了嘴里。

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从你的厨房开始。列出所有你决定不吃的食物，然后在 24 小时内处理掉它们。把食物银行可以接受的食物捐给慈善机构，把其他食物分给家人或朋友。我知道这可能会让你对美食的热爱大打折扣，但如果你不能在 24 小时内捐赠食物，我希望你能把它扔掉。为什么？因为决定不吃的食物在你家里放得越久，它最终进入你嘴里的可能性就越大，而你会因此推迟实现目标的时间——是一天、一周还是一整个月。

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清理完厨房和食品储藏室后，你需要在家中其他房间重复这个过程。看到那个糖果碗了吗？把它扔掉。用鲜花或你喜欢的纪念品来代替它。接下来，是时候检查一下你的钱包、背包、储物柜、汽车和车库里的东西了。把所有那些为了某个雨天而存着的东西都拿出来吧。也许你会想，我虽然不常吃冰淇淋，但还是打算偶尔吃的。如果它离我很远，在车库里冰柜里深处，为什么我要把它扔掉呢？你的目标是让那些你只偶尔想要的食物变得更难获得。从车库拿出一个五分钟后就吃完的一加仑冰淇淋比驱车15分钟到杂货店买一个勺子要容易得多。额外的努力迫使你审视自己是否真的需要那份冰淇淋。

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与他人生活和工作

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如果你和别人住在一起，他们不吃和你一样的食物，那么你很可能无法摆脱他们的食物。然而，有一些方法可以让你自己轻松一点。把你的食物从他们的食物中分开——在冰箱里、食品储藏室里或其他地方——明确表明这些食物是谁的。如果有机会用锡箔纸盖上他们的食物或将它们放在零食盒里，那就这么做吧。眼不见为净！

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你想把你的食物放在最显眼的地方。在冰箱里，把蔬菜放在一个装饰性的碗里或者盘子里，这些盘子看起来很赏心悦目。在食品储藏室里，整齐地摆放你的食物，用玻璃容器装好所有健康的食物选择。在装有你食物的包装上贴上标签，并写上你的名字，如果你是一个非常优秀的人，可以在厨房里放一块白板，或者用手机创建未来几天或一周的菜单计划。

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接下来，让我们看看你的工作场所。如果你在家工作，那么你知道该怎么做。打开你的办公桌抽屉，扔掉那些薯片、燕麦棒和糖果条。事实上，在办公室里清理所有食物。如果你在外面工作，去公共冰箱，把还没有带回家的旧食物扔掉。在任何可能存放零食的地方做同样的事情。你在上厕所的路上是不是总抓起饼干？试着换个路线。在下一节中，我将解释跳过零食的重要性，并向您展示如何做到这一点，但就目前而言，请知道为新的习惯铺平道路对禁食的成功至关重要。

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让你的家人成为你的队友

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如果你单身或独自生活，没有室友、孩子或伴侣：恭喜你，你可以跳过这一步！

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我仍然记得那些无忧无虑、没有孩子的生活，可以舒舒服服地躺在床上，周末可以睡到十点，而且电视遥控器也是我的！但后来事情发生了。结婚了，有了女儿，离婚了，恋爱了，又结婚了，然后是一只小狗。我们中的许多人与室友、配偶、朋友、父母、孩子或任何其他组合的人共同生活，每天都在分享我们的生活。

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与之同住的人通常影响着生活的方方面面，甚至可能影响到你的饮食习惯。既然决定对饮食做一些改变，那么向他们说明你的计划、征求他们的支持就变得非常重要了——在某些情况下，还要鼓励他们一起加入这场改变之中。

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你的伴侣可能已经具备了一些你想采取的行为。也许他们吃健康的食物，不零食，甚至自己进行间歇性断食。如果是这样，当你分享改变饮食习惯的计划时，很可能会得到他们的支持。

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有些家庭住在一起，但由于不同的生活、学校或其他日程安排，很少一起吃饭。如果这是您的情况，那么您就没有必要得到他们的同意。但是如果您每天至少与同住的人吃一顿饭，那么他们就需要参与决策。虽然禁食是你的个人决定——你完全有权做出这个决定——但可能会出现问题或不同意见，最好做好准备。

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你的关系基石通常是伴侣，所以最好先与他或她讨论新的饮食计划。只要记住，这并不一定非得是一件大事。当你开始时，这只是在尝试禁食，所以没有必要向你的伴侣宣告你会在余生中每隔一天就禁食一次。相反，慢慢来，温柔地开始，就像你会对待禁食一样。告诉你的伴侣你的目标、你打算如何实现它以及你需要他/她的哪些具体支持。这里有两个例子：

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弗兰克，我想把我的血糖降低到更健康的水平，所以我打算在两餐之间少吃点零食。我计划在商店少买一些零食。如果你有什么特别想吃的零食，请告诉我。

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苏西，我在减肥呢，所以工作日我不吃早饭了。我依然很愿意在早上跟你一起喝咖啡，但是之后我就得准备去上班了。能不能请你原谅我工作日不吃早饭啊？

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有些伴侣会乐于为你的新饮食习惯加油打气。其他人可能会有反馈，或者想要了解更多信息。倾听伴侣的担忧，认真对待，并完全回答他们的问题。如果他们问了关于食物或禁食方面的问题，而你无法回答，告诉他们你现在不确定，但很快就会把信息发给他们。然后做些研究，并与伴侣分享你的发现。我们的网站 FastingLane.com 是一个有用的、富有教育意义的地方，你可以从这里开始，里面有博客文章和播客。你可能需要反复研究！我已经过上了新的生活方式将近两年，但我仍然每隔几天就能学到一些新的东西。

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关心你的伴侣会担心是可以理解的。我无法想象如果几年前我的伴侣告诉我他打算不吃饭，我会作何反应。我会担心他的心态和他的健康，并警告他新陈代谢会变慢（其实不会！）。如果你的伴侣质疑、探究——就像我本来会做的那样——试着不要生气。倾听他们的问题，并为有人关心你而感到高兴。把它当作一个学习的机会来寻找你还没有探索过的答案。

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接下来，考虑这些变化会如何影响你的伴侣，并解决这些问题。也许你负责为家人做饭，但你想在某些晚上跳过晚餐。你的伴侣担心这会对其他家庭成员产生什么影响是可以理解的。试着预见这种情况并提前处理它，然后提出对双方都有帮助的创造性解决方案。举个例子：

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我接下来一段时间的周二会跳过晚餐。周一我会做足够的食物，留到周二晚上当晚餐吃。你能帮我照看下孩子吗？周二的晚餐时间我和狗狗出去散步。

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我希望你的伴侣会问问题，表示关心，不同意你的一些方法，好奇，甚至有时会对你要做出的改变持异议。有时你会很幸运，你的伴侣决定加入你。这肯定会让生活变得轻松一些，但如果没有的话，请邀请他们品尝一下你打算准备的新、更健康的菜肴。邀请他们一起去健身房，或者甚至是不吃早餐一次。你的伴侣有权拒绝你的提议，尊重他们的决定是很重要的。我明白如果你和一个超重或有与体重相关的健康状况的人住在一起，这可能会令人沮丧。你可能在想，解决方案就在眼前！但我们不能强迫任何人，包括我们的伴侣，去做他们自己没有选择的事情。

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你也应该得到伴侣在改变过程中给予你的善意。他们质疑你是可以的，但不应该干涉你的进步。如果你的伴侣在这段过程里不支持你，我建议你明确地表达你的需求。你可以这样说：“我正在做出这些改变来改善我的健康。” 你的爱意和善意会对你大有帮助。

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在任何过渡时期，我们都需要耐心对待身边的人。是我们做出了改变的决定，而不是他们。我们都很容易对伴侣挑剔，我常常发现这是因为我们习惯性地对自己挑剔。把同样的苛刻语气用在伴侣身上是如此容易，就像我们对自己的所想一样。所以，要善待爱人，也许你会发现自己更容易对自己好一点。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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许多夫妇决定一起禁食，如果双方都坚持自己的计划、不偷吃食物并保持情感上的支持，这对他们来说是有益的。然而，如果你处于男女伴侣关系，并决定共同开始禁食的生活方式，你需要意识到你们减肥的方式可能大相径庭。

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我见过的大多数女性都尝试过各种各样的饮食。无论是詹妮克雷格，还是体重观察者，或者任何果汁排毒法，几乎所有这些减肥计划都有一个共同点：都专注于减少热量摄入并增加能量消耗。这些女士们不仅因为持续失败而感到沮丧，而且她们的基础代谢率也降到了最低。不断地节食毁坏了她们的新陈代谢。

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我第一次见到的男性情况恰恰相反。这些人可能有二十、五十或一百磅的额外体重，但他们并没有尝试过很多节食方法。他们要么忽视自己的体重增加，要么对此表示否认，所以与女友或妻子不同的是，他们没有痴迷于试图减肥。正因为如此，他们的新陈代谢仍然很高。

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女性激素比男性更复杂，这使得平衡激素——禁食可以启动这个过程——有点棘手。再加上大不相同的新陈代谢水平，那些试图一起禁食的男人和女人可能会发现自己以不同的速度减肥。

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杰森和我观察到以下模式，当男性和女性开始禁食时：

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禁食第一周：男性在最初的 36 小时禁食中预计可以减掉半磅脂肪。女性则会减掉约四分之一磅。禁食第 2-4 周：男性每禁食一天（即 36 小时）预计可减掉大约一磅脂肪。第 4-6 周：女性的新陈代谢达到与男性相同的速度，她们开始每天减掉大约一磅脂肪。男性已经达到稳定状态，他们每天减掉的脂肪量约为半磅。第 6 周之后：男性和女性每天减掉的脂肪量均保持在半磅左右。

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通常，男性通过24小时禁食减掉更多的体重，而女性可能需要进行36小时的禁食才能达到相同的减重程度。这可能会让女性感到沮丧，但如果你作为一对夫妇来管理你的期望，并知道你们每个人都可以并且将会以不同的方式实现目标，那么你可以避免生气。尽管男女减肥的方式不同，但夫妻双方经常发现一起节食和禁食比分开更容易。只要记住教育自己，并始终沟通。

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Jason Fung

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禁食期间，还会发生其他几种激素变化，其中一种通常会对女性的影响大于男性。我指的是人体生长激素或HGH的增长。

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在禁食状态下，身体会产生更高水平的人体生长激素、去甲肾上腺素和皮质醇。这三种激素被称为对抗性激素，有助于在无法从食物中获取时提高血糖水平。由垂体分泌并在睡眠期间释放的人体生长激素对儿童的健康成长至关重要，但它也有助于成人保持肌肉和骨骼质量。如果成年人体内缺乏人体生长激素，他们可能会增加脂肪并失去骨骼和肌肉。

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禁食时生长激素分泌会飙升。事实上，根据一项 1988 年的研究，两天的断食可以让你的生长激素产量增加五倍！这对男性和女性都非常有益，因为强壮、健壮的身体比瘦弱的肌肉和骨骼更有益于健康。然而，一磅肌肉比一磅脂肪更密集，所以许多女性在节食后称体重时会感到震惊，发现虽然她们的裤子更好穿了，但她们并没有减掉任何重量。

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我发现男性对这个问题的关注较少。他们往往不经常称体重，所以对体重没有那么在意。然而，他们的配偶却更关心这个问题，她们往往会感到更大的失望。

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在这里阅读这本书的女性：你们不需要担心。正如梅根解释的，随着时间的推移，女性往往与她们生活中的男性以同样的速度减肥。谢谢生长激素，更强壮、更结实的肌肉和骨骼是你健康的体现，而不仅仅是苗条。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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如果消化、体重增加、脂肪储存、脂肪燃烧、肌肉生长和骨密度在一定程度上是由激素控制的，那么这些激素呢？你知道我在说什么：当你与你喜欢的人在一起时，你会感觉到激素在你的血管中流动，然后驱使你成功地繁殖。当开始禁食的生活方式时，你应该准备好暂停性生活或推迟怀孕的梦想吗？根本不。事实上，你应该为精力充沛的性欲做好准备。虽然我们不建议孕妇禁食，但它可以帮助你顺利怀孕。

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禁食与性激素

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有些女性担心禁食会耗尽她们的能量，从而导致性欲下降。事实恰恰相反。因为禁食有助于调节激素水平，所以女性发现禁食实际上增加了她们的性欲。禁食还可以增加阴道湿润度，这使得许多女性比以前更享受性爱。

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然而，不要期望这些变化会一夜之间发生。积极的性副作用通常会在持续禁食三个月内出现——无论是每天不吃早餐还是每周两次进行 36 小时的禁食。坚持是关键：定期禁食有助于保持激素水平稳定，而停止禁食可能会导致其波动。

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有些女性由于禁食而性欲下降，但这种情况很少见，通常可以归因于在禁食日摄入不足的脂肪（来自鳄梨、橄榄油、椰子油和富含脂肪的鱼等天然脂肪来源）或钠导致营养不良。通常，在钠水平恢复后，性欲会恢复或增加，但这可能需要四到六周的时间，具体取决于顺从性和女性独特的生理状况。

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钠的摄入量因人而异，所以我建议你在饮食日根据口味来调味。在禁食日，你可以喝糖无腌菜汁，或者在水中加盐，或者在舌头上蘸一点盐，然后再喝水。任何方法都可以。平均而言，每天需要摄取 1 到 3 茶匙的盐，但如果你有某种疾病，比如高血压，你可能需要完全避免吃盐。一定要咨询医生。如果你发现你的盐摄入量对你的性欲没有任何影响，那么显然你正在为自己摄入正确的盐！

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Jason Fung

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关于性激素与禁食之间关系的研究几乎不存在，因此梅根、伊芙和我只能根据我们的个人经验以及多年来与客户合作的经验来发表看法。

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禁食的一个潜在的好处可能是多囊卵巢综合征等状况之前不可能怀孕现在可以了。高胰岛素水平会增加睾酮的产生，最终导致多个囊肿的异常生长。胰岛素减少可能会逆转这种情况。

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詹妮弗——你在本书前言中遇到的多囊卵巢综合征患者——证明了禁食有助于缓解多囊卵巢综合征，也可以导致成功的怀孕。所以当客户问我，“我想怀孕。我还能禁食吗？”我的回答总是坚定的“可以”。

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禁食不仅可以帮助减肥，还有助于预防一些可能发生在怀孕期间的不想要的并发症，如妊娠糖尿病和高血压。话虽如此，出于生育目的而禁食的女性仍需要密切关注自己的月经周期，并在知道自己怀孕后立即停止禁食。怀孕是一段成长的时间，禁食会限制生长所需的营养。禁食也可能对母乳质量产生负面影响，因此我们建议哺乳期妇女不要禁食。然而，在此期间专注于限时进食完全是可以的——也就是说，在8小时的窗口期内吃饭，不吃零食。

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伊芙·迈耶

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你可能会想，一本禁食书为什么要有一章讲性？我知道这对每个人来说可能都不太相关，但事实是，这是 fung 博士和梅根的客户经常提出的问题，也是我最好的朋友在考虑禁食时提出的。她们想知道，她们如何才能获得足够的精力来进行性生活。她们好奇是否会头痛得无法产生兴趣——或者感觉太糟糕而没有心情。她们还想知道禁食是否会让她们的激素水平飙升，让她们变得情绪化或与伴侣争吵。

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我觉得很幸运，因为我跟一个我认为很帅的男人有着稳定的关系。我以为禁食会让我变得暴躁、易怒，而且心情不好。天哪！我错了！禁食给了我更多的能量。事实上，当我刚开始连续几天禁食时，我的精力非常充沛，以至于我经常无法入睡。嗯，当你凌晨一点半躺在床上醒着的时候，你会怎么做呢？我想你可以在这里填空。

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怀孕，女友对女友

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如果我当时知道我现在所知的话，我绝对会在我决定尝试怀孕的时候禁食。十五年前，我体重三百磅，有糖尿病前期，每个月都会生病，并且患有多囊卵巢综合征。我知道我必须让我的身体变得更健康才能安全地怀孩子，所以我去看医生，试图解决我的肥胖问题。我已经试过节食、运动和各种疗法了，但都以失败告终；我只是越来越胖，也越来越不健康。

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主要是因为我想要孩子，所以我听从医生的建议去探索减肥手术。我选择了腹带，它确实帮助我减掉了很多体重。尽管如此，即使减掉了80磅，我还是有糖尿病前期的症状，经常生病，并且仍然患有多囊卵巢综合征，这让我不得不寻求生育专家的帮助来怀孕。

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根据我的经验，我可以毫不怀疑地说，如果我早知道并理解禁食的好处，我会选择禁食而不是手术。因为禁食，我在 45 岁时不再处于糖尿病前期，也不再患有多囊卵巢综合征。45岁的我现在比30岁时健康得多，那时我一天吃九顿饭。

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每周，我都会在网上阅读关于女性通过禁食改善健康状况的故事，包括她们的生育能力。当然，这不是什么灵丹妙药，不孕不育的情况很复杂，每个女性的原因都不尽相同。但这是一种策略，不是所有人都会讨论，但我见过它帮助了很多女性。

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伊芙·迈耶

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过去二十多年里，我一直听从医生的建议来解决我的体重问题。他们告诉我该吃什么不该吃什么。我如此顺从地遵照医嘱，尝试过催眠疗法、治疗暴饮暴食的心理辅导、在医生监督下的减肥计划、限制热量摄入的饮食、每天散步、注射生长激素、服用减肥药以及做了三次减肥手术。刚开始的时候，我确实瘦了下来。但我总是感到饥饿、不知所措、不满足。我总会胖回来，而且常常会反弹更多。

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几十年来，我每两三个月就会患上呼吸道疾病。我经常得支气管炎，偶尔会得肺炎。我患有糖尿病前期，因此需要用药控制病情。我患有多囊卵巢综合征，如果没有进行减肥手术并接受生育专家的帮助，我就无法怀孕。我经常服用抗生素和类固醇药物。我每隔几天就会头痛。即使我定期去看牙医，并且保持良好的口腔卫生习惯，我的牙医还是不能理解为什么我的牙齿看起来像是在腐烂。通过这些事情，我接受了这样一个事实：我只是个免疫系统受损的病人。

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然后我病好了。而我之所以能康复，是因为我不再听从医生的建议。

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让我退后一步，澄清一下我刚刚写的内容。我知道要想改善你的健康状况，你需要他人的支持。你的医生可能是其中之一，尤其是如果你有需要服药或定期接受护理的健康问题的话。但是质疑医生关于饮食方面的建议是可以的。相信自己的直觉更是如此。

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事实是，许多医生在营养方面给出了糟糕的建议。在医学院及其后的培训期间，他们只接受了几个小时的营养教育——正如杰森·方格 (Jason Fung) 所证实的那样。为什么要把你的食物选择完全交给一个在这方面比你接受过更多指导的人呢？

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想想看。吃劣质食品时，你没有征求医生的意见或寻求他的建议。当你吃了两块蛋糕时，你会打电话给你的医生吗？每次你在饭后、在工作时又拿了一个甜甜圈，在快餐店对着麦克风点餐，把东西加量，或者一天内吃了第四顿饭时，你是否先征求了医生的意见？

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不。你绝对没有。

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如果你没有得到医生的许可就额外吃了一顿饭，为什么你要问他或她是否可以不吃？

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除非医生嘱咐不能禁食，否则你真的不必。

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如果你决定和你的医生谈谈，准备好被告知禁食是一种时尚。对此我的回答是：如果禁食是一种时尚，那它肯定有一定的持久力，因为它已经被人类实践了几千年。你还应该做好准备，让医生坚持让你停止禁食，并建议你限制摄入的热量。到目前为止，这种方法对你很有效，不是吗？不。所以为什么不先戒掉吃零食的习惯，看看感觉如何呢？然后跳过一顿饭，看看这是不是你想追求的东西？如果你觉得有道理，并且想要得到医生的建议，那就安排一个预约。但是，我建议只有在你需要他们提供与健康相关的特定重要信息或服务时，才去看医生。

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当

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应该

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我去看医生了吗？

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当你开始改变饮食习惯，并将禁食纳入生活时，有几个合理的理由去看医生。它们包括：

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您需要一份您信任的医疗专业人员记录的体重和负责制表。您患有糖尿病、高血压或其他疾病，这些疾病在禁食期间需要管理。您正在服用一种药物，因为您与食物一起服用而需要调整剂量，或者您已经减重并且需要不同的剂量。

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在您就诊时，清楚地说明您预约的原因，然后说明您采取了什么行动、结果如何以及您的问题是什么。例如：

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"加佐医生，我已经两周没吃五顿饭了。我瘦了四磅，血糖也接近正常水平了。我什么时候该调整二甲双胍？"

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看吧，很简单！

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我不是医生。我是一个失败了二十年的人，然后成功了，在追随自己内心和自己的建议后结束了痛苦。我不确定禁食是否对你有效，因为只有你能找到正确的道路。我相信如果你尝试过的其他方法都失败了，你应该试一试禁食。我认为你成功的几率非常大。

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Jason Fung

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医生擅长做某些事。开药方？对。动手术？对。营养学和减肥？正如夏娃所写，答案是否定的。你可能会惊讶于从像我这样的医学专家那里听到这一点。但这完全取决于医生的训练以及他们认为自己胜任的范围。

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医学训练超过十年，几乎没有人关注营养或同样棘手的问题：如何减肥。医学院的标准课程包括规定的小时数来学习营养学，这取决于你在哪接受培训。一般来说，在四年的医学院期间，你会得到10到20个小时的减肥指导，这和你最近一期的《Cosmopolitan 杂志》差不多。少吃点。多运动。每天减少500卡路里的摄入量，每周就能减掉大约1磅脂肪。研究表明，这是陈词滥调，根本不起作用。

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当我在多伦多大学和加州大学洛杉矶分校接受医学培训时，营养学讲座主要集中在维生素K 的代谢途径，或者学习肾脏和皮肤中维生素D 激活的途径。是的，也许你会认为这是一堂营养课，但这更接近于生物化学。我们还学习了坏血病（维生素C 缺乏症）等疾病，这种疾病在几个世纪前的水手中很常见，以及糙皮病（烟酸缺乏）。对坏血病的认识当然在考试中很有用，但我诊断出的最后一例坏血病患者，嗯，其实并没有人。那可能是因为我是个现代医生，而不是加勒比海盗。

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作为一名医生，我的大多数客户想知道的事情通常是：我应该多吃碳水化合物吗？少吃点？多摄入脂肪？少摄入？糖有害吗？我多久吃一次？我该如何减肥？与大多数健身房或健身中心相比，大多数医学院在这些现实营养问题上的培训较少。当然，每个医学生都知道肥胖在 2 型糖尿病和代谢综合征等代谢疾病中起主导作用，反过来，这些代谢疾病会增加患心脏病、中风、癌症、肾病、失明和截肢的风险。但这些都是疾病，医生接受的是用药物和手术治疗疾病的训练，而不是提供解决根源问题的方法。

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医学院毕业后会改变吗？会，而且情况更糟。医生的专业培训、实习、住院医实习和专科实习在医学院之后还要再持续五年，在此期间没有正规的营养教育课程。又过去了五年，医生们仍然认为减肥与他们无关。就交给体重观察者、詹妮·克雷格（Jenny Craig）减肥公司以及杂志吧。这不是真正的医学。

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所以，你应该向你的医生咨询减肥吗？你会让你的水管工给你拔智齿吗？你会让你的咖啡师帮你检查视力吗？不。可能你的医生是个营养学专家和减肥专家，但更有可能不是。除非你现在正接受着医生治疗某种疾病，否则请相信你自己在吃的东西上做出明智的选择。毕竟，这是关于你的健康。

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伊芙·迈耶

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我第一次把身体塞进塑身衣是在巴黎。

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巴黎对于一个大码女性来说是个奇怪的地方。我去那里是为了在一个会议上发言，观众里的女士们都很年轻、有教养，最重要的是她们都瘦得跟竹竿一样。这些美丽的生物看起来健康美丽，而我...嗯...我没有。当我把我的240磅的身体塞进塑身衣里时，我觉得自己像是一个巨大的香肠在一个紧绷的口袋里。

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我听说过世界各地的女性都称赞Spanx，说它们可以抚平你的多余曲线，同时消除你的身体形象问题。我不禁佩服这家公司的创始人兼首席执行官，他有勇气创办一家帮助女性感觉和看起来最好的公司。但是，在商店的试衣间里穿我的Spanx太尴尬了，所以我第一次穿是在演讲前在我的酒店房间里，整个过程花了整整八分钟。事实证明，我买的尺码太小了。

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我试图不去理会那条高腰腰带不断滑落的事实，尽管我在拉扯着我的裙子时告诉自己我可以呼吸（实际上我不能）。但我知道我真正的感受是什么。我就要站在一群性感的法国人面前了——他们似乎无论吃多少长棍面包、奶酪盘还是马卡龙都不会发胖——虽然我是一位成功的作家和企业家，但我内心深处却感到羞愧。

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自尊的问题

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自尊心是很微妙的东西。一方面，你可以拥有全世界所有的成功和自信，但肥胖带来的羞耻感会摧毁你的每一寸自尊。我就是一个例子。

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我成长过程中，父母每天都告诉我，我是了不起的、特别的、有才华的，我可以实现任何我想做的事情。我接受了良好的教育，在学校赢得了演讲比赛、科学项目、写作和商业比赛。我是乐队的指挥，帮助电台工作，并在高中最后一年被评为“最具革命性的学生”。

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大学毕业后，我有过许多很棒的工作——我很享受自己付账单、有钱剩的日子。这个小镇女孩去过洛杉矶、纳什维尔、纽约、新加坡和日本。在此期间，我自己开了公司，写了三本书，在社交媒体领域被《福布斯》评为最具影响力的女性第五名，并与财富 500 强高管共事。我生了一个孩子，经历了离婚，后来遇到了我的梦中情人。在大多数人眼里，我是成功的、幸运的、有福气的，但总有一件事让别人羡慕不起来。

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我大部分的成年人生都胖过，也病过。

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你们中的许多人就像我一样。我花了二十多年的时间来克服我的体重问题和慢性健康状况，但在这段时间里，我的内心深处总是在告诉我，我只是需要接受自己是个失败者。我的人生中极端失败与极端成功的两极分化对我来说毫无意义。如果我和我认识的人一样聪明、勤奋，并且能够克服困难，在我的事业和个人生活中取得成功，为什么我还是房间里最胖的人之一？我找不到答案，这让我自我怀疑、暴饮暴食、感到羞愧和厌恶自己。这剥夺了我的一些快乐，迫使我成为了情绪分类专家。一定是我有什么地方有问题，对吧？

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不，我没什么问题——都是节食建议的问题。肥胖不是我的错。当你开始新生活时——一个会被禁食改变的生活——现在是时候放下你的羞耻了。

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踢掉羞耻心

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摆脱羞耻感不是一夜之间就能完成的过程，你的特殊感受和经历可能如此深刻，以至于你必须付出很大的努力才能克服它们。但是你可以做一些日常仪式来帮助自己朝着自我感觉更好的方向前进。试着每天练习其中的一个或全部。

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告诉自己，过去的就是过去了。每次当你开始因为不健康的习惯或行为而惩罚自己的时候，就重复对自己说这句话。写下关于自己的五个优点。这些可以是你美丽的头发、敏锐的幽默感或者是你的善良与聪明才智。把这份清单放在手边，每天都看一遍，随着时间的推移，不断添加进去。每天早晨起床的时候，大声地告诉自己一件今天要做的事情。无论是完成工作上的一个任务，还是做一个最好的妈妈，都可以。当你在做的时候，要专心致志。每天为他人或者世界做一件好事。去拜访一下邻居，为身后的人买一杯咖啡，给一个慈善机构捐款十美元。每天给一个人打电话。不需要长篇大论，只需要打个招呼或者说声谢谢。如果你犯了错误，不要自责。反而应该去笑。睡觉前，在脑海里回想：“我为自己骄傲。”

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Jason Fung

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肥胖与羞耻感有着不可分割的关系，因为太多人认为肥胖体现了一个人的意志力和性格。肥胖几乎完全不同于其他疾病，因为它总是伴随着一种潜台词——是你自己造成的，并且如果你不是一个没有毅力的人，你是可以阻止它的发生的。许多医生也参与到对肥胖者的羞辱中来，他们认为这会给病人减肥提供额外的动力。我一直很困惑于这种策略——就好像全世界每天都在折磨他们还不够似的，肥胖者最不需要的就是来自值得信赖的医疗专业人员的羞辱。

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谁应该为肥胖症的增长负责？我之前说过，现在再说一遍：减肥的“卡路里摄入=卡路里消耗”模型。这个学派可能会说，“一切都是卡路里的错”，但其隐藏的信息是，“你的体重都是你自己的错”。

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但如果你患上了乳腺癌，没有人会偷偷认为你本可以做得更多来预防它。如果你中风了，没有人会居高临下地告诉你“跟上进度”。由于“卡路里摄入=卡路里消耗”，肥胖成为了一种耻辱感特别强的疾病。但是，医学界、政府以及许多饮食专家只是试图转移责任，毕竟他们推销了几十年糟糕的饮食建议。

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目前主流的思维方式——限制卡路里摄入，但增加用餐频率——导致了大约40%的美国成年人口被归类为肥胖（BMI>30），70%的人超重或肥胖（BMI>25）。但是由于摄入消耗平衡是医生和大多数社会中的主导范式，肥胖危机现在被认为是一种缺乏意志力的流行病。这就是如今胖人所感受到的巨大羞耻感的由来。

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现在是时候让这件事过去了。超重或肥胖不是你的错。你只是多年来一直接受错误的信息。然而，很快，你将开始一种新的饮食、思考和生活方式，这将改变你的生活。我迫不及待地想告诉你如何做到这一点。

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伊芙·迈耶

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当我开始禁食时，我做错了所有事情。当然，这个计划奏效了。但是我承受的情感和身体上的痛苦都是不必要的。我读得太多了，以至于被太多的选择压垮了，我希望有个仙女教母能解决我的所有问题。当然，这并没有发生，我花了整整一年的时间阅读、研究、尝试和失败，最终才弄清楚什么对我最有效。

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我实话告诉你。我喜欢做最少的工作，获得最高的回报。我希望有人能像我现在为你做的那样简化如何快速禁食的方法。我不是仙女教母，但你可以把我当作直言不讳的好朋友，我会告诉你如何轻松进入禁食状态，并找到自己的节奏。

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简单禁食

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听着，我懂。你只是想知道禁食是否适合你，并且想避免花费大量的金钱、时间、痛苦和折磨来获得你应得的健康和身体。我明白你的意思！这些愿望以及我们人类对付出最少努力获得最大回报的需求正是你应该考虑并尝试禁食的原因。

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为什么？

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禁食只是对时间的一种操控。它看起来像是件小事，不可能是你这些年来一直在寻找的答案。但事实上，这就是禁食的本质：你需要在吃之间隔多长时间才能获得你想要的健康。

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也许你有五磅需要减，也许你有五百磅需要减。但我仍然相信选择控制自己的饮食是一个伟大的开始。所以现在就去制定一个不花一分钱也不占用时间的计划，看看禁食是否能在最低限度上帮助到你。可以偷懒，但不能忽视自己内心的需求、欲望和梦想。你值得拥有心中所想。而钥匙就在你自己手上。

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开始禁食最无压力的方式是采用我所谓的简单禁食法—— 或者因为几乎不需要努力，所以可以说是懒人禁食法。简单禁食就是慢慢开始，制定一个可以管理的禁食计划，然后按照自己的喜好进行调整。但是如果你觉得永远只做一点点事情是最适合你的，那也没问题。

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到目前为止，你应该已经清楚地确定了你的目标，这是这个过程中的关键。如果你还没有，花点时间决定在这个过程中真正想要什么。只有这样，你才能开始新的生活方式，简单禁食作为引导。

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很多人在选择正确的禁食时间表并做出关于跳过哪些餐点以及何时进食的正确决定时感到压力很大。他们想遵循严格的规则，并确切地知道该怎么做。也许他们一直在阅读推荐不同禁食时间表的文章和博客文章，因此感到不知所措。我曾经也经历过这样的事情。但我在这里并不打算这么做。相反，我想通过简单的禁食提供一个简单的入门方式。

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归根结底，禁食其实就是意味着你要少吃。禁食是可以定制的，每个人都有不同的需求。这就是为什么你要找到适合自己的方法。当我开始禁食时，我一天吃八顿，但你可能比我吃得更少。这就是为什么接下来章节里的各种计划适用于任何想要为自己的禁食找到正确道路的人。

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我不喜欢人们用来描述各种禁食的方法，比如 16:8（意味着你在 8 小时内进食，在 16 小时内禁食）、36（完全禁食）或 EF（超过 32 小时的长期禁食）。我更喜欢简短、朴素、易于理解的词，因为当你刚开始接触某个主题时，经验丰富的人都会使用一些让你感觉像听外语的行话。所以，请记住刚才读到的内容。禁食其实就是少吃点。别担心。在这本书的最后，我们会定义您在旅途中可能会遇到的各种禁食术语。

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我会看到独角兽吗？

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有些人禁食时会体验到狂喜、彩虹、平静、幻象，甚至独角兽。如果你也是这样的人，恭喜你！我羡慕你。

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说笑归说笑，许多人真的会在禁食几小时后经历头脑更清晰、注意力更集中、睡眠更好以及精力更充沛。其他人则不会——或者只有在禁食几天或几周后才会感到如此。人们对于禁食的反应因人而异，这就是为什么没有人能告诉你理想的计划。你必须尝试这个过程，并为自己找到它。如果你遵循这本书中任何一个较简单的计划都能达到你自己设定的目标，那么你可能永远不需要进行更严格的禁食。

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我不再接受为了减肥而需要忍受痛苦和剥夺的观点。我不会再这么做了。我会少吃，尽量少做运动来达到并保持我的目标。就是这样。我敦促你们对自己好一点，进入这个过程，通过感受什么对你来说是对的，找到你的解决方案。想象一下？我现在有一个健康的身体，我对自己的态度也很好。说真的，我是我自己心目中的独角兽！

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梅根·拉莫斯

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我记得我和我丈夫想保持身材的时候，我找到了一家完美的健身房，我们可以举重。当我告诉我丈夫时，他回答说：“梅根，我们已经两年没锻炼了。我想如果我们弯腰去碰脚趾，我们的背部都会受伤。让我们明天早上起床试试伸展吧。”

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他说得对。第二天早上，我开始做拉伸运动，接下来的三天我都感到身体酸痛。但是通过循序渐进——在家做自重训练，几个月后加入健身房——我终于准备好跟大个子们一起举重了。

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我建议以类似的方式开始禁食。这就像锻炼肌肉一样，有些人天生就有更强的禁食能力。有些肌肉没有得到充分锻炼，而另一些则能迅速恢复。要训练你的禁食肌肉，你需要有一定的灵活性，这就是为什么这本书中的计划从最简单到最难的原因。选择最适合自己的，但我推荐从一开始而不是直接跳入多日断食。

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决定我们禁食肌肉强度的因素有很多。高水平的胰岛素会引起持续的饥饿感，这常常难以忍受；有时药物和健康问题（如糖尿病）会限制几天的禁食。我们的习惯也起到了作用。有些人一天中某些时间必须进食(这可能会限制全天禁食)，而其他人则有他们不想放弃的可爱传统。没关系。有一个适合你的计划。

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你可以通过记住两件事来增强你的禁食肌肉。首先，通过简单的禁食逐渐达到目标。慢慢开始，每周做出改变。采取这种渐进的方法可以减少潜在的副作用。其次，坚持禁食，因为你不会定期使用它就不可能增强你的禁食肌肉。如果你一年只去四次健身房，当你的肌肉没有增长时你就不能抱怨了。

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压力对我们的身体有好处也有坏处。适度的压力可以帮助我们长肌肉，但过度的压力是有害的。这也正是夏娃和其他很多人在禁食时所采取的做法，尤其是当他们担心将其纳入生活方式时。

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许多人开始的目标是每周禁食三十六小时。有些人做得很好，但他们只是例外。大多数其他人必须从每天只吃三顿饭的基础开始，不加点心，就像我们的祖父母一样。一开始，这甚至可能看起来像是一个挑战，因为我们都是吃草者，我们倾向于吃更多的零食而不是正餐。但是最终，坚持吃饭并避免吃零食变得非常容易。我有一个 26 岁的男客户通过这种方式取得了他所需要的所有成功。他在研究生院体重增加了30磅，虽然他没有患上任何疾病，但他讨厌携带额外的重量。他戒掉了吃零食的习惯，并开始不吃早餐。三个月后，他减掉了所有的多余体重。

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减少一顿饭可能感觉很困难，但随着时间的推移，这会变得越来越容易。当不再有挑战时，就像在健身房增加壶铃的重量一样，是时候增加禁食时间了。随着时间的推移，禁食变得更加容易处理，因为你的身体适应了用身体脂肪而不是食物来为自身提供能量。事实上，有时候你甚至不会注意到自己正在禁食，因为你并不感到饿。

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禁食训练轮

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盐对于防止脱水至关重要，因为当你禁食时，你的胰岛素水平会下降。这会向肾脏发出信号，使其排出水分和电解质。钠是电解质的门户，因此补充它至关重要。简而言之，保持水分不仅需要水分，还需要电解质。摄入钠会使身体保持其他电解质的健康水平。

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把下面的产品当作你的辅助工具。在刚开始禁食时，你可以喝它们，但你不想永远使用它们。随着禁食变得越来越容易，你会发现随着时间的推移，你会越来越少地需要这些物品。如果你刚开始禁食并感到紧张，那就慢慢来，每周挑战自己一点，保持一致，并在不再需要它们之前使用你的禁食辅助轮。

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骨头汤。骨汤富含维他命、矿物质和电解质，非常适合减肥、长寿和预防疾病。自制低碳水化合物蔬菜汤。泡菜汁，不含糖。在水中加入三汤匙柠檬或青柠汁。苹果醋。这是一种很好的食欲抑制剂，因为它能轻微降低你的血糖水平。用吸管喝几汤匙，以保护牙釉质。泡菜汁。茶和咖啡（冷热均可），加一到两汤匙脂肪，包括重奶油、半奶油、全脂牛奶、未加糖椰奶、杏仁奶、黄油或酥油，或椰子油或中链甘油三酯油。避免糖和人造甜味剂。

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关于禁食的一些常见问题

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当你开始禁食时，你可能会有很多问题。我们将在本书第四部分讨论许多这些问题，但在这里我们想回答一些我们从客户和读者那里收到的一些最常见的问题。

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我需要长期禁食才能取得成功吗？

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这取决于你的禁食目标。

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禁食时我将会瘦多少？

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禁食和饿肚子有什么区别？

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饥饿不是自愿的，禁食才是。大多数禁食者并不是营养不良的人。他们往往超重、营养过剩。

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我需要多久才能进入燃脂模式？

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它开始于连续禁食16小时之后。如果你只是不吃午餐就禁食，那么你在锻炼你的禁食肌肉，但你还没有进入燃烧脂肪的区域。

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什么是自噬？什么时候开始自噬？

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自噬这个词来源于希腊语 auto（自己）和 phagein（吃）。字面意思是“吃掉自己”。这是身体摆脱所有无法为身体提供服务的破碎旧细胞部分的方式。每个人的情况都不尽相同，但一般在禁食二十四到三十六小时后开始，三十六小时达到峰值，七十二小时停止增加。人们对自噬的研究相对较新，因此对其了解不足。因此，如果是为了自噬而禁食，建议只喝水和盐。

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我听说禁食会消耗肌肉。这是真的吗？

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在禁食期间，身体大约可以使用 24 小时左右的能量。从燃烧葡萄糖到燃烧脂肪的过程中，有一个很短的时间段，身体会利用蛋白质来产生新的葡萄糖以供能量。这段时间被称为糖异生。许多人认为这段消耗蛋白质的时间对健康有害，但其实可能恰恰相反。蛋白质不同于肌肉组织，所以消耗蛋白质并不一定意味着你在消耗肌肉。此外，你还拥有大量的皮肤和结缔组织。在更长时间的禁食中，身体主要依靠脂肪而非蛋白质产生能量，因此蛋白质代谢过程停止了。

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我可以在禁食期间运动吗？

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是的！禁食时可以运动，我们将在第十五章详细讨论这一点。当你在禁食期间感到疲惫时，你能做的最糟糕的事情就是什么都不做。走路挺好的。垂直运动有助于减肥，因为它们会消耗淋巴系统。有些人喜欢在空腹状态下锻炼，职业运动员有时也会在空腹状态下训练。

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我担心如果我禁食，我会在以后吃得更多，体重会增加。这种情况会发生吗？

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不，大多数人食欲显著下降。在精神上，他们可能会感到饥饿，但一旦开始进食，就会很快饱腹。

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禁食会导致我掉发吗？

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脱发是人们最大的恐惧之一，因为他们认为如果他们的头发脱落了，他们一定营养不良，但事实并非如此。脱发与禁食无关；它与快速减肥有关。那些间歇性禁食并逐渐减肥的人——而不是快速减肥——不会有问题，因为他们的身体已经做好了减肥的准备。那些进行长时间禁食或经历身体成分急剧变化的人无论吃什么样的饮食都会出现脱发。通过减缓减肥速度可以停止脱发，或者在快速减肥结束后等待它结束。

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减肥后我会不会多出一层皮？

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这取决于个人。自我们2012年推出以来，我们的程序尚未要求任何客户进行皮肤切除手术。

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我每天应该喝多少水？

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你需要多少水取决于个人，所以当你感到口渴时就喝水。口渴也经常被误认为是饥饿，所以当你饿的时候也要喝水。

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我每天应该摄取多少盐？

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这完全因人而异。在你的水里先加1/4茶匙，然后继续添加直到你不再感到头痛或疲劳为止。

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斋戒期间可以喝酒吗？

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我们不建议这么做。酒精会增加脱水的风险，还会提高你的胰岛素水平——而你在禁食时正试图降低胰岛素水平。我们甚至建议在禁食后第一顿饭时尽量不要喝酒——如果你实在想喝的话，一杯葡萄酒是可以的。如果你选择喝酒，我推荐无糖的干酒（红酒或白酒），以及利口酒，只要它们不包含糖或者甜味剂就行。举个例子，一杯青柠伏特加不会像玛格丽塔酒那样提高你的胰岛素水平。另外，我们也鼓励人们每天只喝一杯。如果你喝了超过一杯的含酒精饮料，那就用水来稀释（比如，在你吃饭的时候交替喝水和酒）。最后，最好在吃饭的时候喝酒，而不是在饭前或饭后立即喝。

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我禁食时可以吃糖或甜菊吗？

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这是个明确拒绝。甜菜糖和甜菊精都会刺激胰岛素的产生，而你在禁食中努力减少的就是它。

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我可以在禁食期间服用维生素或日常补充剂吗？

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补充剂可能会阻碍自噬。当出于代谢原因禁食（意味着与胰岛素抵抗相关的状况，如 2 型糖尿病、肥胖症、多囊卵巢综合征和非酒精性脂肪肝病）时，补充剂的有效性令人怀疑。大多数维生素都是脂溶性的，但如果你不摄入脂肪，它们的效果就不那么好了。在禁食期间继续服用益生菌是可以的。

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我通常需要饭后服药，怎么办？

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跟你的医生谈谈。

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伊芙·迈耶

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禁食的第一步就是停止吃零食。如果你像我一样，这可能是禁食最令人畏惧的部分。相信我，如果我能做到，你也一定可以！

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当我饿的时候，我会吃零食。我吃得很多。你认为自己一天平均吃几次？三四次？你可能会惊讶于事实真相。认真地，停下来数一数昨天你吃了多少顿，再试着回想一下前一天的情况。

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是的，从糖果碗里拿出的两块糖算一次。是的，咖啡配饼干也算。是的，你晚上想吃点甜食时吃的半块巧克力也会计入其中。我敢打赌，当你把这些都加起来时，你会发现自己至少吃了六七次微不足道、天真无邪且毫无意识的小吃。

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我们中的许多人被告知，为了保持新陈代谢引擎运转，我们需要在一天中吃少量的小餐和零食。好吧，猜怎么着？我就是个小吃货。我竭尽全力，用更少的食物量来维持这台引擎。但令人震惊的是，我的希望这些小餐能让我燃烧脂肪的愿望没有实现。我变胖了。我试过节食，我还是很胖。我做了减肥手术，但我还是（只是）有点胖。我的减肥手术让我的胃变小了，所以我吃得更少了。然而，我从来没有吃饱过超过一个小时。这种永无止境的饥饿、食物选择、食物准备、吃饭、清理、再重复的过程占用了我生活的大部分时间。

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当我第一次听说禁食时，我觉得这是个荒谬的想法。我决心证明方医生的理论是错误的，所以我头也不回地开始了为期36小时的禁食。显然，随着时间的推移，我意识到方医生是对的，禁食帮助我发现了一个全新的、美好的、健康的生活方式。如果我当时更聪明的话，我会按照梅根的建议以一个更加合理的方式进行：把禁食当作举重，逐渐增强我的禁食肌肉。

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开始很容易。你们准备好了吗？别吃零食了。现在就停止。

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第一步：如何不吃零食

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规则很简单。一天吃三顿饭，吃到饱为止。每餐不超过一个小时，并且你可以选择用餐时间。你可以选择在餐中吃什么食物。如果你要喝苏打水或任何类型的饮料，甚至包括低热量饮料，那么就把它们限制到用餐时间。如果你必须嚼口香糖的话，那就饭后一小时内嚼吧。

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但是，不能吃零食——也就是说，不能嚼口香糖、糖果、薄荷糖、含糖饮料、甜味果汁、肉汤、冰沙或运动饮料，除非是在用餐时间。

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如果你觉得这很容易，那我完全佩服你。并且，打个比方说，我敢打赌禁食对你来说可能就像吃蛋糕一样简单。如果你年纪大一点，比如我和我的父母一样，不加点心听起来也许很熟悉。我记得有人告诉我，如果我在放学后吃点心，晚餐会受影响。最终，这种普遍看法发生了变化，包括我的父母在内的家长开始在放学后给孩子加餐。

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小步慢走也许有必要的

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你们中的一些人可能已经意识到，你们每天吃八到十顿饭。如果是这样的话，就不要突然戒掉零食。如果你这样做的话，你只会吃到你现在吃的三分之一。这就像一个人一天抽一包烟，然后变成只抽几支烟一样。你会很快失败，而我不想看到这种情况发生。

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相反，你可以把一周中的一顿零食时间省掉，就像这样：

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第一周：每天从吃八顿饭减少到七顿。第二周：每天从吃七顿饭减少到六顿。第三周：每天从吃六顿饭减少到五顿。

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懂了吗？

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当我停止吃零食时，感觉很不舒服，但不痛苦或无法忍受。只是因为习惯了在一天中的特定时间吃饭，我的身体和大脑已经知道了这一点。一开始，在我通常会吃的那段时间里我会感到饿。但是我的身体开始适应了，并且不再期待那个时间段给它提供的食物。当我跳过平时的零食后，我在下一个进食时间也比平常更饿，然后我会多吃一点。但是随着时间的推移，我的身体也适应了这一点。

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现在我基本上90%的时间都不会吃零食，这也是我能保持一生中第一次健康体重的原因之一。有时候我会忍不住吃点特别好吃的东西，或者如果我的饥饿感持续好几个小时，我可能会吃点东西。但这种情况很少见。幸运的是，既然我已经习惯了，不吃零食并没有我想得那么难。我知道那些身材苗条的人大部分时间都在做正确的事情，而我也一直在努力这样做。

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Jason Fung

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控制饥饿对减肥至关重要，那么如何才能抑制它呢？医生和饮食书籍通常会给大多数人提供一个标准的饮食建议：每天吃六到七顿小餐，因为如果你能阻止饥饿感，那么你也可能做出更好的食物选择并避免暴饮暴食。从表面上看，这个建议似乎很合理。但是深入挖掘一下，你会发现它站不住脚。

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决定你吃多少最重要的因素是你有多饿。是的，你可以故意少吃，但你不能决定自己不那么饿。如果你一直吃，但仍然很饿，这会对你的健康造成损害，日复一日，月复一月，年复一年。你在与自己的身体进行永无止境的斗争。然而，如果你不那么饿，你会吃得更少。你是在和你的身体一起减肥，而不是对抗它。

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有什么科学证据表明，吃零食或不断吃小餐可以防止饥饿吗？那可不行。让我再说一遍。没有科学依据支持不间断地进食会缓解胃部空虚、疼痛、咕咕叫的情况。此外，吃零食也没必要，因为我们的身体会储存食物能量（卡路里），作为脂肪以备不时之需。最后，一直吃东西其实有点烦人。如果你每天要找六七次吃的，什么时候才能完成任务呢？你会一直在想你需要吃什么，什么时候该吃。

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你可能认为吃草或零食可以防止暴饮暴食。如果这是真的，开胃菜有什么用呢？开胃菜是用来让我们吃得更多。吃一小块美味的食物会让我们更饿，因为它会让我们流口水，想到食物。在法语中，这被称为“amuse bouche”，意思是“令人愉快的事物”。为什么？这样我们就可以多吃点。过大的份量会刺激饱腹感激素，降低食欲。但是一小部分则相反。

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现在，想象一下这样一个场景：你不饿，但刚好到了吃早餐的时间。因为人们常说早餐是一天中最重要的一餐，所以你吃了早餐。令你惊讶的是，在你开始吃东西后，你竟然把一整顿饭都吃完了。然而在你拿起餐叉之前，你可以很容易地不吃这顿饭而感觉良好。你有过这样的经历吗？我有过很多次，因为我已经习惯了去想饥饿感。简而言之，当你不饿的时候吃东西并不是减肥的好策略。然而，人们总是被批评，因为他们有勇气不吃一顿饭或不吃点心。这完全不合逻辑。

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如果我们每天吃六七顿小餐，我们会激发我们的食欲，然后在我们感到饱足之前故意停止。这样一天重复多次。这不会减少我们的食欲，反而会增加很多。因为我们饿了但还没吃饱，我们必须有很大的意志力才能阻止自己吃零食。这是令人筋疲力尽的，然而日复一日地继续下去。

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打破这个循环的方法——不断给自己减小胃口——就是减少进食频率，停止吃零食。

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伊芙·迈耶

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我知道你准备好以一种转变的方式继续你的生活。你能戒掉吃零食的习惯（第一步），所以现在是时候开始禁食了。别担心，这并不难！我们会慢慢来，就像我们之前说过的，如果你还没有准备好或不能接受下一个难度更高的步骤，那么就没有必要。坚持最舒服的那一步，并在掌握它之后继续前进。

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第二步：不吃早餐

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对，就是这样。与其每天吃三顿饭，不如一天只吃两顿。记住，不要吃零食。

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你如何在不吃早餐的情况下为前一天晚上做准备？好问题。你的晚餐应该包括健康、营养丰富的食物，让你饱腹并感觉良好。最好是坚持低碳水化合物饮食，就像我们在第 5 章中描述的那样。当你吃含糖的食物或其他决定对你不好的东西时，它们可能会让你第二天早上更饿。我发现，在禁食前一晚大量摄入健康的脂肪很有帮助，比如肉或奶酪，外加一份大沙拉，里面装满了蔬菜。你应该在一小时内吃完这顿饭，这段时间可以让你享受进食的乐趣——以及与谁一起吃饭——并感到饱足。

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当你第二天跳过早餐时，一开始你会饿，因为你的身体已经习惯了早上吃东西。通过补水来分散注意力。喝水、汽水、茶或咖啡。如果可以的话，在你的茶或咖啡里加一小撮重奶油。我每天早上不吃早餐，但是我会喝两杯咖啡，它们让我感觉很好。不要使用任何糖或甜味剂，包括像甜菊叶这样的天然甜味剂。为什么？因为对许多人来说，这种甜味很可能会引发饥饿感，使禁食变得比必要的更难。记住，减肥的关键是控制饥饿，而不是卡路里。午餐时间到了，在你的一小时进餐时间内吃饭，然后在晚餐前等待不超过八个小时，你应该在一小时内再次用餐。

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曾经有一段时间，我一醒来就尽可能快地吃东西，希望我的新陈代谢能运转起来。现在，我很少在早上吃东西，这已经不是什么大不了的事了。事实上，我惊讶地发现一旦习惯了——这花了我大约六个月的时间——我就几乎不再感到饿了。如果我真的饿了，我那杯加了一点重奶油的咖啡就能解决问题。

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你选择不吃早餐的频率完全取决于你自己。如果第一天感觉没什么大不了，第二天就继续不吃吧。如果不吃早餐是一种折磨，那就每周只做一次或两次，直到可以忍受为止。最终提高你的频率（我建议每周增加一天，日复一日）直到达到一个你觉得舒服的地方。

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您可能有一个不寻常的时间表，并想知道是否可以跳过早餐而不是晚餐。当然，您可以！无论您选择不吃哪顿饭都无所谓。这里的目标是让您习惯于每天只吃两顿饭，每餐在 1 小时内食用，并且两餐之间最多相隔 8 小时。

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你还能在禁食那天早上锻炼吗？当然可以。我做，我发现我在禁食时锻炼得更好，而不是在饭后锻炼。不吃早餐对我来说另一个意想不到的好处是我家人现在有更多的时间一起坐在沙发上，喝咖啡，给狗狗额外的肚子抚摸。此外，我们出门前不用洗早饭碗盘，而且我们在杂货上省钱。双赢！

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简而言之，可以尽可能经常不吃早餐，并看看身体和思想会发生什么变化。我知道有很多人每天都这么做，这就是他们禁食的全部程度。我见过这些人减肥、停药并且改善生活。对你来说可能也是如此，或者过了一段时间后你可能会发现你想走得更远。再强调一遍，这取决于你自己。这是你的生活。

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第三步：不吃午餐

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既然你已经不吃零食了，而且经常舒适地跳过早餐，那么你就可以准备一天只吃晚餐了。

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如果你仔细想想，不吃早餐只跳过午餐只会让你再空腹六个小时。对大多数人来说，这也没有想象中那么痛苦。而且，你只需要尝试一天。第二天，你可以回到正常的饮食计划。

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是的，你会在午餐时间感到饿，但保持忙碌、补水、分心并决心实现目标。晚餐时，吃健康、营养丰富的食物至少一个小时，并确保在睡觉前至少两个小时完成。

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如果一天只吃晚餐不那么困难，那就在接下来的一周再试一次。如果这个过程对你来说仍然很容易，那就开始每周两天只吃晚餐，但不是连续的两天。在你觉得舒服的一段时间后，决定是否想要每周三天只吃晚餐，而不是连续的三天。

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你跳过哪顿饭有关系吗？就像第一步一样，没有。你可以选择在任何你想吃的时间吃饭。我建议只在晚餐时进食，因为这是最常见的家庭或社交餐点。如果你有一个非常规的时间表，那就随意地只吃早餐吧，或者你可以选择只吃午餐。唯一的要求是你需要在每顿饭之前禁食23小时。所以，如果你决定只吃午餐，那么前一天的最后一顿饭也应该是午餐。

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作为一个在尝试这种新生活方式之前从未禁食过的人，我从来没有觉得二十四小时的禁食在精神上或身体上太难。我已经通过不吃零食和早餐来适应了这种情况，所以再吃一顿饭似乎也没什么可怕的。我现在还是这么认为，现在大多数时候我都跳过了早餐。

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跟踪你的禁食

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多年来，我见过许多人使用计时器或应用程序来跟踪他们的 24 小时禁食。他们发现这不仅有用，而且看到自己禁食的时间从 14 小时增加到 18 小时、到……时间到了！晚餐准备好了！

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如果这对你有用，那就去吧！就我个人而言，我发现追踪我禁食的时间并没有帮助。我开始专注于我还剩下多少时间，然后纠结于我的肚子是空的这个事实。它让我怀疑我是否能完成禁食，我意识到我越忙，分心越多，我就越享受这个过程。但你们可能不一样！

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第四步：晚餐不吃

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我老实说吧，我认为第四步是最难的。但是如果你已经停止吃零食了，经常不吃早餐，并且每周可以不吃几顿午餐——但仍然没有达到减肥或健康目标——那么现在就是进行 36 小时禁食的时候了。

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我知道，我知道！你可能在想，等等。三十六个小时？我以为我只禁食一天呢？停一下，想一想：这个禁食被称为“36”，是因为你在接下来的三十六小时内不吃东西。假设你在晚上7点吃完晚餐。你过夜了。第二天你不吃东西。你再睡一觉。然后你在早上7点醒来，吃早餐。就这么简单，你就禁食了三十六个小时！

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我第一次禁食36小时时，没有使用上面的日程安排，我发现这非常困难。为什么？因为我清醒的时间太长了，一直想着饥饿感。我吃了早餐，然后开始了为期36小时的禁食，这意味着我只有8个小时在睡觉。如果你能睡16个小时，那么做36小时的禁食就容易多了。这意味着你在清醒的时候只会有20个小时的饥饿感，或者你会有20个小时的饥饿感。

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我建议在你最忙、食物摄入最少的日子里进行清肠。为成功而不是痛苦做好准备，尽最大努力减少与他人共餐、购物和烹饪的时间。因为有些事情无法避免，所以你应该寻求帮助，你可能会惊讶于人们会有多大的帮助。我也发现在禁食一天后我睡得更少，虽然这曾经让我感到困惑和沮丧，但我现在把它当作一个机会，并计划在我睡觉的时候做额外的事情。

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最后，记住，不吃东西一天被称为禁食，而不是饿肚子。选择是关键，虽然睡前没有吃东西可能会让你害怕，但一旦你睡着了，你就不会注意到这一点。而且，在白天你可以练习之前做的所有技巧：保持水分，找一项你喜欢的活动，并提醒自己你在做很棒的事情来实现你的目标。

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你会饿吗？当然！你还不习惯不吃东西，你的身体会根据它已经适应的行为而感到饥饿。但是记住，饿不是坏事；这是你的身体在告诉你燃烧脂肪。而且，你要进入未知领域，每次禁食都是一次独特的体验。当你延长禁食时间超过以往任何时候，你可能会感觉更饿。但你可以处理好这件事，因为你已经做好了准备。

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36 小时禁食的频率完全取决于你自己。如果你发现第一次禁食很痛苦，就等一个月再试一次。如果你觉得这很容易，那就在下个星期再做一次。随着 36 小时禁食变得越来越容易，你可以把它作为一种工具来加速实现你的目标。

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禁食一天后入睡的小贴士

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提醒自己，早睡意味着早上可以吃早餐。确保身体水分充足。有些人发现喝一杯不含咖啡因的热茶（比如甘菊茶）能让自己感觉更饱。如果需要的话，考虑服用褪黑激素补充剂。泡个热水澡很舒服，但至少在睡前几小时内效果最好。如果可能，在睡觉前几个小时避免接触电脑、电视和手机屏幕。尝试冥想、深呼吸、芳香疗法、阅读或任何让你感到放松的事情。决定好早餐吃什么。不要准备食物，因为你可能会在那天晚上不小心把它塞进嘴里（就像我一样！）。知道自己期待早上享受什么美食会让饥饿感变得更容易忍受。

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第五步：把禁食延长到第二天

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看看你现在！你已经成为了一个令人印象深刻的禁食动物。你不吃零食，经常不吃早餐，也可以选择不吃午餐，甚至可以一天都不吃东西。猜猜怎么着？你已经完成了一次长时间的禁食，因为大多数人把超过24小时的禁食定义为长时间的禁食。干得好！

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那么，如何准备长时间不吃东西呢？首先，您必须决定是否真的想这么做。许多人从未进行过长期禁食就成功减肥并达到了健康目标，这完全没问题。例如，在网上关注的一位女士停止吃零食，并且每天早上不吃早餐。按照这个时间表，她一年减掉了60磅，她的医生还因为她的血糖处于健康范围内而停用了她的二型糖尿病药物。我关注的另一位男士在九个月的时间里通过每天不吃早餐并在其中两天不吃午餐减掉了100多磅。他还降低了血压，并停用了他使用了18年的药物。

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然而，这并不适用于所有人，而且您可能想要尝试长期禁食的原因有很多。其中包括：

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你想加快实现目标的过程。你的体重和测量值已经一个月或更长时间没有变化了。你很好奇会是什么样子。除了减肥，你还想获得额外的健康益处。例如，对于 2 型糖尿病患者来说，长时间禁食可以更好地降低胰岛素水平。36 小时后，进入酮症状态，48 小时后，细胞再循环或细胞清洁过程开始启动。长时间禁食也被称为提高思维清晰度。

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为了增强你的禁食肌肉，并看看长时间禁食是否适合你，开始时不要吃东西，睡觉，然后直到第二天午餐时间才进食。如果这感觉舒服的话，几天后尝试42小时。然后再延长到48小时。再后来，试着坚持72小时，然后5天。重要的是要逐步增加禁食的时间。一旦一个禁食计划变得容易，那么就把它提高到下一个禁食水平。

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人们很容易认为禁食时间越长越好。事实并非如此。我做过两次非常长时间的禁食：一次十一天，另一次十天。我的结果令人印象深刻：每次我都减掉了大约12磅体重，而且我的皮肤变得光滑，好像我在一家高档水疗中心做了价值300美元的面部护理。但是精神上，禁食是非常艰难的，而且我失去的重量与我一个月内断断续续地禁食十天是一样的。除此之外，我还进行了大约二十次长时间的禁食，大部分在三十六到四十八小时之间。对我来说这可能很难坚持下去，但只要我把它们安排在我很忙的时候，或者我丈夫可以做饭和购物时，我通常可以完成它们。

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在为期11天的禁食期间，我对我脑海中涌现的所有想法和情绪感到震惊。我记了日记，有时回想起来，我对自己的心理状态感到惊讶。我最强烈的情绪是愤怒。我对我的私人教练很生气——我已经认识她两年了——她告诉我，她在禁食期间的中间阶段不自在，这让我很生气。我生我丈夫的气，因为我几乎每小时都告诉他关于禁食成功的所有新数据，让他筋疲力尽。有些晚上，我睡不好觉——或者凌晨四点醒来——因为我的精力太旺盛了。当我意识到我必须开始过一种不再以食物为中心的新生活时，我很生气，这将需要我培养新的兴趣爱好和技能。最重要的是，我对自己没有早点尝试禁食而感到恼火。我花了好几年的时间努力减肥，试图让自己感觉更好，但在这次长时间的禁食中，我感觉自己比多年来任何时候都要健康、有活力。就像我在过一种全新的生活！我一直在想，为什么没人早告诉我禁食？

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当你决定进行长期禁食时——尤其是超过48小时的禁食——我认为考虑让医生参与是有意义的。在我进行了为期十一天的禁食期间，我是在方荣博士和梅根的照顾下度过的，并且我还通知了我的初级保健医生，他支持我探索新的健康方法。正如我在第10章中所说，当您有健康问题或通常与食物一起服用的药物时，医生的护理变得尤为重要。

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无论您决定做什么，长期禁食对您的体重和整体健康都是一个很好的重启。作为更大范围禁食计划的一部分，它们可以改变任何数量的健康状况，并且甚至可能改变您对健康、幸福和自我价值的看法。

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Jason Fung

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既然你知道了可以开始禁食的方式，以及如何进行下去，那么现在就该学习在禁食结束后应该做什么。

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对于大多数禁食——即不超过五天的禁食——你不需要太过担心。只要慢慢吃，全神贯注地吃。你现在知道，一旦开始进食，你的身体会告诉你一直吃到饱为止。不要超过那个点。你应该吃一顿富含丰富多彩、营养丰富的食物的大餐，让你感觉良好。慢慢而坚定地咀嚼，不要把食物塞进嘴里。第一口可能会觉得奇怪——或者，相反，比你以前尝过的任何东西都好吃。只需坐下来感受这种感觉，不要想太多。计划在一个小时内吃完饭，并记住在整个过程中喝大量的液体。

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在更长时间的禁食，如五天或更久之后，我经常建议人们在主餐前约30分钟计划一个小点心——比如一把坚果或一小份沙拉。小点心是一种重新喂养的形式。当进行长时间的禁食时，有一种被称为再喂养综合征的小风险，即打破禁食后大吃一顿会导致电解质过快地进入细胞。这可能非常危险，而缓慢地重新进食可以降低这种风险。

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重新进食的第二个原因是防止一些人在禁食后暴饮暴食。它给了消化系统一个“热身”的机会，因为几天来没有使用过。对于少于36小时的短期禁食，这没有什么区别。

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伊芙·迈耶

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注意：如果你喜欢你的锻炼，而且你的体重大致是你想要的体重，那么你可以跳过这一章直接进入第十六章。

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但是，如果你对锻炼的想法感到痛苦，在日程安排中很难找到时间，或者从未达到过你所希望的健身效果，那就继续读下去吧！

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我与运动斗争

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多年前，当我体重达到280磅时，我决定为支持乳腺癌防治而参加为期三天、60英里的步行活动。除了为这项有价值的事业筹集资金外，我的准备还包括每周几天每天走3到15英里，持续六个月。

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你有没有过背着重达30、60或100磅的东西锻炼的经历？我有过，而且更多！我在280磅的时候，背着额外的130磅重物，所以你可以想象一个女人背着另一个女人走。走一英里路当然不舒服，但几个月来一直这样走路真是太痛苦了。每件事都让我疼痛难忍，我的脚无法支撑住我的体重。每个周末我都步行十英里，而跑步者和快步行走的人从我身边掠过。我觉得自己迟钝、缓慢、羞愧。然而，我还是坚持了下来，并决心代表那些勇敢地与乳腺癌抗争过的女性完成这次行程。

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虽然我在达拉斯家里进行训练，主要是平坦地形，但我和一群老大学室友报名参加的比赛是从圣何塞到旧金山。我们可以说加利福尼亚比我的训练准备稍微多一点丘陵！当地人说它们只是小山丘，但对我来说它们立刻感觉就像巨大的山脉。

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在接下来的三天里，我站在队伍的最前面，身后有几千名参与者。然而，在一天结束时，我总是成为赛道上最后的人，甚至是最后一个。在步行者人群中有一辆扫尾车，它会接送需要被送往下一个水站的参与者。还有一个骑自行车的好心人跟在最后一个步行者的后面。我和这个骑自行车的人非常熟悉，到了第二天，她“好心地”建议也许我应该利用这辆车休息一下。我“礼貌地”拒绝了，但是随着时间从早上变成了下午，她实际上强迫我上了车。

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为期三天的徒步旅行顶多只能算是屈辱，最糟糕的情况则是丢脸。各种年龄、各种体型的人都超过了我——从身手敏捷的到步履蹒跚的，甚至还有几个比我个头还大的女性。有一天，我抬头看到一个老太太，她看上去大约七十岁，光头上依稀可见癌症化疗后的斑秃，她坚定地大步向前。我不确定我的记忆是否准确，但我肯定我还见过一位老太太坐着轮椅经过，她怜悯地看着我。

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我分享这个故事是为了告诉你，在我肥胖期间，我一直都在锻炼。多年以来，我在举重、舞蹈课、散步、瑜伽、健身房、私人教练、普拉提等等上花费了金钱、时间和希望。然而，运动从来都不是帮助我减肥的有效方法。事实上，在我为为期三天的步行训练做准备的六个月里，我胖了五磅。也许你会问，这是肌肉吗？我不太确定。我的衣服更紧了，所以我想是脂肪。

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为了减肥并恢复健康，除了运动之外，您还需要在生活方式中添加一些东西。这些就是禁食。

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禁食时运动

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许多人惊讶地发现，禁食时锻炼身体不仅被允许，而且被鼓励。自从我两年前开始禁食以来，我已经处于我成年后的最佳状态，肌肉比以往任何时候都要多。我继续以缓慢而稳定的速度减肥并增肌，而且我几乎每天都精力充沛。

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我告诉你一个秘密。我花在锻炼上的时间比以前少了。过去，我每天至少使用3个小时的健身桌，每周还跟私人教练一起锻炼几次。我身体状况更糟了，也变得更胖，而且更饿。如今，大多数时候我都喜欢运动！

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我的日程很简单。大多数日子，我会快步遛狗 20 分钟左右，让心跳加快；每周锻炼两次，每次 45 分钟，使用杠铃或器械进行举重。当我提到举重时，我希望你能想象一些非常基本的小重量或低阻力的机器，在私人教练的监督下或者在健身房与丈夫一起使用健身应用程序。最近，我加入了每周两次的综合交叉训练。虽然我在班上经常是最差的一个，但我觉得用杠铃做深蹲和举重很酷，即使我使用的重量并不大。

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简而言之，我虽然吃得少，但运动量却比以前更大了。

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你应该运动吗？当然！锻炼有益于你的大脑、呼吸、心脏、肺部、肌肉、消化系统、细胞组成、心理健康等等。当我完全不运动时，我发现我的心情和满足感大约十天后开始下降。再说一遍，找到适合自己的运动是一项个人旅程，虽然梅根会给出一些推荐，但没有人能确切地说每周做三小时的任何特定活动对你来说都是必要的。

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最近，我和我丈夫去内华达州度假。我们去了一个叫蓝钻石的小城镇，它坐落在沙漠中，有一个迷人的餐厅、一家自行车店和 150 英里的岩石小径，适合骑自行车、骑马或徒步旅行。我和我丈夫做出了非常不寻常的决定——出去远足，这是我人生中的第一次真正意义上的远足。说实在的，我很紧张！但我强迫自己积极思考并付诸行动。这条两英里长的小径花了我们一个半小时，当我们到达山顶时，我们被红棕色相间的山脉和扑面而来的清新的凉风所震撼。

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突然间，我被情感淹没，开始哭泣。

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我肯定你们都见过朋友们在美丽山峰顶端的照片，他们伸出手臂庆祝。我的许多朋友在网上发布了这些照片，我一直为他们的坚强感到高兴，因为他们能够到达顶峰。但我知道这是我永远无法做到的事。

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当我爬到内华达山脉的顶端时，我突然发现自己错了。你可以做到！

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选择一些你在经济上负担得起的，而且适合你的日程安排。如果你每周只能抽出两小时去跑步，那就不要报名跑马拉松了。不要报那种你负担不起的私教课，因为你的预算不允许。找到你喜欢的东西。如果你现在就想尝试，可以考虑练瑜伽或者普拉提。试着做些耗时更长、运动量更大的运动。当你觉得某个运动已经变得太简单、太平淡的时候，你可以给自己加点料，让运动变得更困难，或者换一种场景。观察自己的情绪变化。一周至少进行一次冥想。找个伴儿。做计划。改变饮食。每周读一本自我提升类书籍。写日记。睡觉。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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我曾经讨厌锻炼的一切：出汗、劳累、“烧灼感”……所有一切。现在，我已经健康又有活力了，也不再反感这些事了。有时候，我甚至觉得自己在健身房也能得心应手。我一直专注于跟随教练的计划，并且每周都有很大的进步。我的肌肉增加了，骨量也增加了——这一点尤其重要，因为我30岁时被诊断出患有骨质疏松症。

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运动也是我减压的好方法。我过去常通过吃很多比萨或意大利面来缓解压力，这让我感觉很糟糕。今天，即使我度过了糟糕的一天，我也知道我会在健身房里恢复活力。很多时候，我在糟糕的日子里哭着走进健身房，然后几乎跳着舞离开，准备好征服世界。

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但是，像夏娃一样，我花了很长时间才达到这一点。在近十年的时间里，我花费了数千美元去健身房，唯一的目的是减肥，但总是以失败告终。今天，我去健身房是为了缓解压力、增强力量，而不是为了减肥。

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让我再说一遍：不要去健身房试图消耗卡路里。不要像我以前那样，骑上健身车，打开卡路里计数器，在消耗了早餐甜甜圈里的250卡路里后就下车。减肥不是关于“摄入的卡路里消耗的卡路里”，所以虽然运动可以消耗卡路里，但它不会减少脂肪。这就是为什么我一直没有减肥成功。我并不是失败者，我只是被误导了。

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我不是唯一一个对此一无所知的人。我遇到的许多人告诉我，他们比以往任何时候都更努力地锻炼，但体重仍在增加。他们可能每天只摄入800卡路里，每天燃烧1500卡路里，但体重仍在增加。这里发生了什么？问题在于，“热量进出”的肥胖模型非常有缺陷。正如我们所讨论的那样，体重变化是由激素调节的，胰岛素在脂肪储存中起着关键作用。

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直到我通过禁食和低碳水化合物饮食减掉60磅后不久去巴黎，我才真正意识到运动与减肥之间的真相。我和朋友们在街上闲逛了好几天，连一个健身房都没有看到。没有。当地人也没有肥胖的。事实上，在巴黎甚至不能正常工作的人都是肥胖的。这里没有自动扶梯。电梯很小。我身高5英尺3英寸，体重120磅，但我在里面还是会感到窒息。地铁上的座位很窄，走廊也很窄。

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我和一个朋友一起旅行，她有点超重。她说：“梅根，我不会回来这里直到我减肥了。”“我没有意识到我有多胖，直到这次旅行。我真的不明白。当地人不吃早餐。他们一天吃两顿饭，而且他们的饮食里有很多高脂肪食物，比如奶酪、黄油和鸡蛋。巴黎人经常走路，但他们不锻炼其他身体部位。然而他们都很瘦！”

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运动不能帮助减肥。肥胖是由激素调节的，所以你在跑步机上花费多少分钟是没有关系的。如果你经常吃错误的食物，不给身体燃烧脂肪的机会，你是不会减肥的。是的，你可以锻炼肌肉。但你无法锻炼激素。

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我的大多数客户都已经被洗脑，认为除非他们锻炼，否则体重不会下降，或者运动以某种方式加速这一过程。这个想法已经失败了很多次，但人们很难放弃它。是的，运动有很多其他健康益处，包括改善肌肉张力、情绪、灵活性和耐力。但它不会提高你的减肥效果。

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出于其他健康原因，我每周四次在凌晨4:30起床举重。我每天至少遛狗一个小时。通过这样做，我很高兴地增加了几磅瘦肉组织，现在我的骨骼强壮而健康。但是运动之前并没有帮助我减肥，而且它现在也没有真正起到很大的作用。

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“卡路里摄入与消耗”的肥胖模型已经完全被推翻，让人们产生了一种错觉，以为自己可以控制体重。我经常会问客户，为什么他们认为锻炼可以帮助减肥，尽管之前从未减过肥。他们的回答总是，因为他们没有足够努力地去锻炼。

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减肥在你的控制之中，但与有氧运动课无关。它完全取决于你吃什么，尤其是什么时候吃。虽然我鼓励我的所有客户尽可能活跃起来，但我们不应该为了减肥而锻炼身体。我们试过一次又一次，只是变得更胖了。所以，请节食并禁食。

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Jason Fung

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我最著名的客户之一是终极格斗冠军赛(UFC) 冠军乔治·圣皮埃尔(Georges St-Pierre)。2017年11月4日，这位综合格斗传奇人物即将在UFC中量级锦标赛上与迈克尔·比斯平(Michael Bisping)对决。乔治四年来首次参加冠军争夺战，因此赌注很高——对他本人、他的粉丝和这项运动来说都是如此。他在称重前需要增重，所以他开始每两小时进食一次。在他的一生中，他一直被灌输这样的想法：要想长肌肉，就必须经常摄入大量卡路里，所以除了严格的锻炼外，他的饮食也达到了前所未有的水平。结果令人担忧。他开始抽筋，无法入睡，早餐呕吐，最令人不安的是，他的大便中有血。乔治找不到病因，只能硬着头皮忍痛。尽管困难重重，他还是设法在第三轮赢得了冠军。

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后来，医生最终诊断乔治患有溃疡性结肠炎，这是一种引起肠道溃疡的炎症性肠病。他被开了一些药，但除了药物治疗，乔治还想找到另一种方法来缓解自己的症状。于是他来找我，我推荐了间歇性断食。几周之内，乔治的症状大大改善。他的睡眠质量提高了，发炎减轻了，也不再抽筋了。他的骨骼和肌肉状况有所改善，体脂率也下降了。对于像乔治这样的精英运动员来说，最重要的是他的精力充沛了，感觉训练效果更好了。如今，乔治每天早上空腹锻炼，并表示自己脚步更轻盈，注意力更集中，精神更加集中。

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事实是，空腹运动比饭后运动更能锻炼身体。试想一下：你是愿意跟一只饥饿的狮子搏斗呢，还是跟一只刚吃过一顿丰盛午餐的狮子搏斗？你当然不会选择前者，因为它会凶猛、迅速并且想要猎杀！

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当你在禁食时训练，你的胰岛素水平会下降，但去甲肾上腺素和生长激素水平会上升。在这种激素状态下，你会有更多的能量（因为去甲肾上腺素和HGH提供），因此你可以更努力地锻炼。而且，当你运动后吃东西时，你的HGH保持高水平。HGH有助于重建肌肉，所以你能更快地恢复。

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锻炼前吃东西没有生理学上的理由。事实上，我经常鼓励人们早上起床后空腹运动，因为他们已经有身体所需的全部燃料了。凌晨四点，你的身体会经历一次激素飙升，使葡萄糖进入血液。当你在早上六七点钟醒来锻炼时——或者任何早晨时间——你的身体仍在燃烧葡萄糖。不需要吃东西。

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在禁食期间锻炼可以让你更苗条、肌肉更强壮、精力更充沛。记住，减肥不仅仅靠运动，而是要禁食。

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伊芙·迈耶

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禁食的行为就是在特定的时间内选择不吃东西。膳食行为应该是选择在特定时间内吃东西。不过，别再沉迷于过去那些大快朵颐的时刻了—— 吃汉堡、披萨、苏打、薯条和冰淇淋的时刻。我要教你们如何在新的节食生活中享受健康的膳食。因为答案就是：当你不节食的时候，你可以享受美食—— 只不过与以前相比，感觉会有所不同。

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盛宴是什么样子？

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当我刚开始学习禁食时，我害怕未知。我会感到饿吗？我会挨饿吗？我真的能做到吗？然而，在完成了几次短暂的禁食后，我开始知道会发生什么。我习惯了轻微的饥饿感，即使没有吃东西，当饥饿停止时也不再感到惊讶。有时在禁食期间，我感觉很棒，禁食帮助我在更高的水平上经历了清晰的思维和快乐。

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不过，我还是很期待吃东西，而且我仍然非常喜欢吃。我喜欢宴会的一切，从食物的味道到它们在我的嘴里留下的口感。在我开始禁食之前，我以为那些不吃饭的人只是不喜欢吃饭，他们是奇怪的人，永远不可能成为美食家。我担心如果我也禁食，我会变成那样的人。

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我错得离谱！

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每顿饭后都应有节食。让我明确一点，节食不是我过去所认为的那样：一直吃到肚子痛才停止吃东西。相反，节食应该是一段时间——理想情况下大约一个小时——在那期间你会愉快地、心无旁骛地吃健康的食物直到饱为止。

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我并不是建议，如果你厌恶西兰花，你就应该控制情绪，以充满欲望的眼神坐下来大吃特吃一碗西兰花。理想情况下，你应该选择低糖、健康脂肪的食物，这些食物是你喜欢吃的，最好是完整的和有机的。的确，随着时间的推移，你的口味会改变，你会开始享受有益于你的所有东西。

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这是一次至关重要的改变。

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但是，大吃特吃并不意味着吃得完美。即使是身体状况良好的人有时也会放纵于不健康的食物。如今，我有 90% 的时间都吃我知道会让我感觉良好的食物，剩下的 10% 时间，我会偶尔吃一些没有营养且不太可能让我感觉良好的食物。天啊，我超爱汉堡包，我希望我能像以前那样经常吃。但我知道，如果我吃了炸薯条、双层培根芝士汉堡和巧克力奶昔，我会觉得浑身懒散，体重增加。我还注意到，当我这样吃的时候，第二天就会有难以抗拒的渴望。相反，我喜欢一大碗沙拉，里面有烤洋葱、鳄梨、培根、切达干酪和墨西哥辣椒，上面还有一块多汁的日本和牛排。我享受这顿饭，细细品味每一口美味。吃完后，我觉得自己很富有，并且不会在第二天再次产生这种欲望！

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你们问怎么用心吃饭？让我来分享一些技巧。

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首先，选择你喜欢的食物并让你觉得饱腹感。如果你不是世界上最好的厨师，找一个家人来做。如果时间允许的话，把食物摆放得漂亮些——使用最精致的餐具，即使它只是好看的纸盘子也无所谓。你摆上的食物应该有各种颜色、质地、气味和温度。尝试各种口味组合和意想不到的搭配，比如脆脆的青苹果配切达奶酪。如果你喜欢与他人一起吃饭，那就和朋友、家人或同事分享一顿饭。关掉电视，收起手机。慢慢地咀嚼食物，专注于味道。嗯~

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目标是让大餐尽可能少地成为一种干扰，华丽的呈现方式，以及高质量的食物。然后吃到饱。不要数卡路里，限制健康脂肪，或者因为你认为别人会认为你吃得太多而停止进食。吃，直到你感到满足、饱满和舒适。

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听起来像是一个永远不会实现的梦想吗？当然，我承认我刚才描述的是理想情况。在现实世界中，有时我们没有时间、金钱或心情为我们的家人准备一顿美味的晚餐，而他们正坐在餐桌旁微笑地看着我们。有时我们会工作11个小时，还没去过杂货店，或者十几岁的孩子很烦人，不愿意和我们一起坐下来吃饭。又或许我们已经禁食了24小时，非常饿，于是把一大块裹着热培根的切达奶酪塞进嘴里，烫到了舌头，滴下来的培根油弄得到处都是。（天哪，希望我不是一个人！）

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情况并不总是理想的，但事实是我们应该禁食和盛宴。两者都不应成为惩罚，这两种活动都可以带来快乐。我们可以在少做菜、少购物、少做饭、多留给自己一些时间的斋戒中找到自由。我们可以在吃我们喜欢的食物、尝试新的食谱、与朋友共享晚餐和喝一杯葡萄酒时找到兴奋。

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事实是我们有权利吃饭，我们有权利享受它。我承认改变自己的饮食习惯很困难，放弃糖分对我来说就像是一段痛苦的过程。但是通过吃我自己选择的食物，我仍然能够保持体重下降，尽管有时候我会偶尔在健康食物清单之外的东西。

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你的朋友和家人也会很高兴，看到你在大吃特吃。虽然他们会习惯你的禁食生活方式，但有时你会抱怨自己饿了或者想念那些对你身体有害的食物（有人想来一包奇多吗？）。当你在禁食时，请记住这是你自己做出的选择，并且你可以随时结束它。这也意味着你偶尔可以抱怨一下——但是永远不要忘记，这可能会让其他人感到烦恼。禁食结束后，亲人们会希望看到你大吃大喝。他们需要知道你没有挨饿，而且对滋养自己的身体有健康的态度。向他们证明这一点的最好方法就是真正享受食物带来的快乐。

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所以，尽情享受吧。吃美味的食物。享受每一口。咀嚼健康、美丽、可口的小块食物，并享受每一刻。人们常说，离别使人心生眷恋，这同样适用于口腔。禁食实际上可以增加对食物的享受！

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吃是人类为了延续生命而必须进行的一种自然过程。吃饭应该是一种快乐的经历。学会享受食物而不感到内疚，是学习禁食的重要一步。

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如何毫无负罪感地享受美食

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控制好自己什么时候吃、在哪里吃以及吃多久。一顿饭花一个小时是最理想的。把分心的东西都移开。例如，把手机收起来，关掉电视，放下书本。提醒自己，你是食物来源的生物，而摄取食物是一种享受。当你觉得饱了就不要再吃了。不要因为害怕之后会饿，而在已经吃饱的情况下继续吃。晚上八九点后就不要进食了，否则身体会自动储存这些热量，而不是消耗它们。不要拿自己的饮食习惯和他人作比较。每个人都是不同的。记住，吃饭是为了活着，而不是活着为了吃饭。不要因为享受了食物就惩罚自己。不管你的身材如何，你都有权利得到营养。厌恶做让自己生存下去的事是很反常的。

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甜食的问题（和其他过于诱人的食物）

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我警告大家在盛宴期间不要吃会让自己暴饮暴食或沉溺于上瘾的食物。除了我在接受减肥手术后住院的那三次，我在开始禁食之前每天都吃甜食。有时候一天吃好几次。是的，我对食物上瘾了，当然也对甜食上瘾了。我会渴望它们，期待它们，享受它们，并从中获得兴奋感。

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在我开始禁食之前，我试图戒掉甜食，但完全失败了。虽然我把我的糖瘾大大降低，但我还是会想吃甜食，于是我会用赤藓糖醇和/或甜菊糖制作低碳水化合物的甜点。一开始我觉得味道很奇怪，但是过了一段时间后，我发现我还是挺喜欢它的。我想，如果我能减肥还能吃到甜食——甚至是“假”的甜食——那我就这样生活下去吧。

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然而，有一个问题。我的体重最终在25磅左右停滞不前。我想减掉更多，我知道我必须把饮食提升到下一个层次才能做到这一点。另一个问题是，我发现像甜菊糖这样的天然甜味剂会影响我的胰岛素水平，尽管它们几乎没有卡路里。我是胰岛素抵抗，所以如果我想让血糖稳定下来，就不能吃甜食了。也许不是永远，但至少在我达到目标身材并确保健康之前是这样。

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2018年初，我第一次斋戒时，放弃了生活中所有的甜食。这让我很痛苦。早上喝咖啡的时候，我会变得暴躁，因为我讨厌加奶油不加糖的咖啡的味道。我担心食物不再那么美味了，因为甜点总是我最享受的部分。我就像一个戒毒的人，不明白为什么在禁食之后——我已经瘦了，感觉比多年来更健康——我还是会想念那些对我的健康有害的东西。

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我作弊了，很多次。比如在十一天的禁食期间，我在每天喝的两杯咖啡里加了四滴甜菊糖。有一次，我独自一人在家，把厨房里的最后一个甜甜圈塞进嘴里，然后扔掉盒子，仿佛有人会调查失踪的甜甜圈一样。还有一次，我吃了一颗嚼碎的褪黑素，虽然当时可能并不需要它的帮助入睡，只是想体验一下舌头上的甜味。

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最后，我决定必须避免更多的诱惑。我把家里所有的糖果都扔掉了，还有我的赤藓糖醇和甜菊叶。当然，我觉得浪费很内疚，但我不能让这些东西在我身边。我想健康。我不想让物质控制我这么多，我知道为了做到这一点，我必须戒掉它。

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所以我这么做了。

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很快，我就开始不那么想吃甜食了。我记得有一天，我打算不吃早餐和午餐，直到下午三点才觉得饿，那时我才坐下来吃饭。当我把第一口食物放进嘴里时，我意识到为什么我不饿：因为我没有渴望甜食。

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今天，我有90%的时间避免吃糖和甜味剂。现在我喜欢喝不加任何甜味剂的咖啡，这在以前我是发誓永远不会发生的。当我偶尔吃到含糖的东西时，通常是在特殊的场合或者是我无法抗拒的欲望。

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我现在头脑更清醒了，而且我第一次保持了一个健康的体重。我很少生病，身体感觉很好。想来想去，我的生活还是很美好的。我是戒糖成功的活证据—— 你可以戒掉任何上瘾的东西。你可能会觉得没有糖果生活会索然无味，但就像其他让人上瘾的东西一样，事实并非如此。糖果只是在蒙蔽你的身心，让你以为没了它你就无法生存。你其实并不需要。

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糖和甜味剂使许多人更难禁食，因为它们会刺激食欲。对许多人来说，它们还会阻碍减肥。在一个月的时间里，每周把你的糖摄入量减半，直到一点不剩，并注意思想、身体和体重的变化。在此之前，你应该决定你想放纵多少。

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暴食不是为了吃

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由健康食物组成的控制饮食与暴饮暴食不是一回事。尽管“暴饮暴食”这个词有时被随便用来描述几乎任何一种过度放纵的行为，但事实是暴饮暴食是一种疾病。事实上，它是美国最常见的一种饮食紊乱症——我也是在36岁的时候才意识到这一点。白天我会正常进食，但是每晚我会坐在电视机前大吃薯片、冰淇淋、肉和糖果——所有东西都是大量进食。整个过程中，我的脑海里充斥着残酷的话语，一方面告诉我又胖又丑，另一方面又说食物会让我感觉好一些。我一直吃到脑海中那些声音消失，生活中的压力也暂时消退，取而代之的是因吃得太多而导致的身体疼痛。

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以这种方式滥用食物让我无法面对现实。食物保护我远离快乐、悲伤和骄傲，使我成为一个毫无感情的僵尸，拖着脚步前进，试图尽自己最大的努力去生活，却从未真正体验过生活。我用炸鸡和蛋糕来掩盖喜悦和痛苦。

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我感到痛苦而绝望，但我意识到我必须为我的小女儿树立一个积极的榜样。如果我教她以这种方式吃东西并虐待食物，我永远无法原谅自己。所以我采取了行动，在一家戒疗中心待了四十天。通过各种治疗方式，我克服了我的暴饮暴食症。

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如果你认为自己可能患有暴饮暴食症，康复可能是适合你的。但也许不是。许多人还从认知行为疗法中受益。但是首先我建议你在吃饭时注意自己的想法。他们包括：

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你不配吃东西。""在这些瘦子面前吃饭，你应该感到羞愧。" "你是房间里最胖的人。" "你很恶心。"

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如果你有这种感觉，想象一下如果有人这样对你的女儿、儿子、最好的朋友或伴侣说话，你会有什么反应。你想保护他们不受虐待，对吧？那你为什么要允许自己被这样对待呢？如果你饱受暴饮暴食之苦，我强烈建议你寻求治疗，在那里你可以学会用爱的方式与自己对话。

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你是暴食者吗？

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美国国家饮食障碍协会定义暴食症（BES）为一种严重的、危及生命的并且是可以治疗的饮食障碍，其特点包括：

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暴饮暴食（经常吃得很快，甚至感到不舒服）。在暴饮暴食期间感觉失去控制。暴饮暴食后感到羞耻、痛苦或内疚。定期使用不健康的补偿措施来抵消暴饮暴食（例如，自我呕吐）。

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如果你认同其中任何一项，我鼓励你寻求治疗师的帮助。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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大多数饮食法教人们吃到饱就会发胖。这种误解如此根深蒂固，以至于当我在感恩节后的周一让我的无数客户（男性和女性）称体重时，他们总是会哭出来。“我发誓我没有吃面包、土豆或甜点，但我吃得太多了，”他们总是这么说。

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但当数字出现在秤盘上时，他们后悔的眼泪变成了欢笑。几乎所有我的客户都成功减肥或保持体重，尽管他们过节时大吃大喝！他们无法理解为什么自己能吃到十磅以上还不发胖！

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盛宴背后的科学

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我的客户在感恩节大餐后不会发胖，因为体重增加与摄入的热量与消耗的热量不成正比。体重增加主要由胰岛素控制。吃大量精制碳水化合物直到饱足感会显著提高你的胰岛素水平，阻止身体自然产生饱腹激素，并导致你增重。但通常你在感恩节并不吃大量的碳水化合物。当然，餐桌上可能会有面包卷、填料和南瓜派（都是高碳水化合物食物），但你通常吃的更多或更多的抱子甘蓝、火鸡和红薯，这些对胰岛素的影响要小得多。

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即使你在感恩节大吃特吃了一顿高碳水化合物的食物，自己把整个苹果派都吃了，你会有麻烦吗？如果你“禁食”了，答案就是不会。我经常这么做。虽然我很想告诉大家我是个不吃碳水化合物的超人，但我不能这么说。偶尔，我喜欢吃披萨，而且通常会吃很多。没关系。我总是在之后安排禁食。禁食通过降低胰岛素水平并燃烧任何来自脂肪的储存食物能量来修复披萨引起的激素波动。它还会消除我在吃披萨时产生的罪恶感。

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许多客户很难满足于吃到饱，或者定期吃碳水化合物。他们只知道吃饱了通常会导致体重增加，而要消除一顿大餐带来的影响可能需要数周甚至数月的时间。

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这对我来说也是一个艰难的教训。

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2012年，我通过禁食和低碳水化合物饮食恢复了健康，并控制了我的体重。我和我最好的两个朋友计划去欧洲旅行一个月。然后，一件事击中了我，我开始哭了。我怎么可以去意大利不吃披萨或面食呢？我想真正享受我们访问过的国家的文化，而食物是每个生活方式的重要组成部分。我不想错过。

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然后我意识到，我的体重、我对食物的想法以及我对盛宴的渴望完全在我自己手中。如果我计划晚餐吃披萨或午餐吃意大利面，那么在我们观光时我可以白天禁食。我也可以在城市之间旅行的日子里禁食，以防看到看起来太好吃而无法拒绝的冰淇淋。

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我在欧洲之旅中执行了我的计划，离开期间我瘦了十磅。在我们旅行结束时，甚至不得不在罗马买一条新短裤，因为我的短裤变得太大了。在这段旅程中，比以往任何时候都更能让我认识到禁食是我控制身体和健康状况的工具。我可以尽情享受并禁食，并且仍然很好。

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我与之共事的人大多对饮食感到恐惧，但又害怕不吃。他们被告知，一段时间不吃饭会导致暴饮暴食和体重增加。我要告诉你的是，狂欢和禁食是一种自然循环，你可以享受这个周期的所有部分。相信吃了正确的东西或在高碳水化合物的放纵后安排几天禁食会让你有一种控制感。最重要的是，在假期期间享受与亲人在一起的时间，不要太担心你的假期饮食习惯会对你的腰围产生什么影响。我们生来就是为了与亲人共享盛宴，并在庆祝活动之间进行斋戒。

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负责任地享受美食的5种方法

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提前计划：如果你即将度假，试着在活动前后禁食几天。根据你的禁食能力，这些可以是短期或长期的禁食。但是请尽量坚持久一点。如果你平时习惯于禁食 24 小时，试着每周禁食 36 小时，分别在假期前一周和假期后一周。合理安排大吃大喝的时间：早一点吃晚餐比较好，因为你在睡觉前有好几个小时可以消耗掉吃的东西。如果你想吃碳水化合物或糖，试着在中午而不是晚上吃。遵守时间表，不要吃零食：尽情享受你的大餐，尝试在饭前或饭后不吃任何零食。遵守进餐时间很重要，因为这会减少身体分泌储存脂肪的激素胰岛素的频率。不喝苏打水：尽量避免饮用含糖饮料，尤其是当你知道在随后的一顿饭中你会吃到更多的碳水化合物或甜点的情况下。选择酒精饮料时也要注意。玛格丽塔酒、朗姆加菠萝汁等许多热带饮料都含有极高的糖分，所以，如果你喜欢鸡尾酒，请用气泡矿泉水、苏打水或青柠汁来搭配你所选的酒。葡萄酒选择：如果喝酒，尽量选择干酒。葡萄酒是没有残余糖分的酒。不像 Moscato 和 Riesling 这样的葡萄酒，它们的含糖量更高，赤霞珠和 brut 香槟的糖分含量通常较低，因此，如果你不确定该点什么，它们是安全的选择。

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健康饮食习惯

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禁食可以并且确实对你的腰围和整体健康产生神奇的效果，但这种新的饮食模式并不是你需要保持生活方式的一切。你需要一套新的健康饮食习惯，这样你就可以享受美食而不会永远偏离正轨。这些技巧会帮助你在新生活中取得进步，并让你享受全新的自己。

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提示# 1：挑起食欲

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在用餐时，重要的不仅是吃什么，而且是你吃东西的顺序可能会让你成功或失败。我在一个家庭聚餐中吃了这个苦头。

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当我刚开始吃低碳水化合物饮食时，我只会在感恩节吃两块妈妈做的美味烤土豆，并且总是在第一时间内把它们吃完。为什么？因为我已经想了好几天了，我想，今天是假期，这些是我的奖励。

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这是一场灾难。土豆导致我的血糖飙升，使胰腺分泌大量胰岛素，使我变得无比饥饿。我会吃得太多，对土豆上瘾，然后在盛宴后三天感到饱胀和恶心。我以为这意味着我再也吃不到妈妈做的土豆了，但事实并非如此。我仍然可以享受它们，但我需要以不同的方式对待我的盘子。

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现在，我吃饭的顺序不一样了。我在盘子里先吃蛋白质、脂肪和非淀粉类蔬菜。这些可能包括沙拉、火鸡胸肉、火鸡肉皮或抱子甘蓝，但不管是什么，我总是先把它们吃完，然后再吃土豆。当我准备好享受“美食”时，我已经吃饱了，几乎看不到了土豆。在饭后，土豆对我有非常不同的影响。其他食物已经满足了我的食欲，所以我没有那么想吃美味的土豆。

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如果你在外面吃饭或参加正式的晚餐，总是先吃一些非淀粉类蔬菜，如叶状绿色蔬菜，或者地上生长的蔬菜，如西兰花或花椰菜。然后吃蛋白质，把碳水化合物和糖留到最后一刻。你已经吃饱了，不能再多吃那些诱惑人的食物了。甚至可以走得更远，在外出前在家吃点东西，故意“抑制”你的食欲。当你感到饱的时候，避免那些可能会破坏饮食计划的食物就容易多了。

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提示 2：不要盲目的吃

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你在站着吃饭吗？你边吃午饭边工作吗？你吃得很快，连咀嚼食物的时间都没有吗？如果你只是在无意识地进食，即使吃了一顿完整的饭，也会感到饿。我们都很忙。每个人都想要额外的六个小时来度过一天，所以我们大多数人都会在路上吃至少一顿饭，这使我们在一个小时之内又会感到饥饿。

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许多客户告诉我，他们有时会在饭后感到饱足，但有时不会，但他们不太确定为什么。我让他们记录他们在吃饭时做了什么。这些日记总是揭示出类似的事情：有时我的客户在办公室吃午餐或晚餐。有时他们急着送孩子去踢足球或者接孙子放学。但是故事总是一样的。当人们边走边吃的时候，他们从不满足。当他们花时间享受一顿饭时，他们会强烈地感受到满足感。

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所以，如果你没有时间吃饭怎么办？很简单。没时间就不要吃。有时间的时候再吃，没时间的时候不吃。不要为了吃而吃。禁食总是个选择。你可以决定什么时候吃东西。即使你不饿而且很忙，也不要强迫自己一天吃好几次。

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当你有时间享受美食时，意味着你可以慢慢咀嚼食物。詹妮弗·洛佩兹 (Jennifer Lopez) 声称她每口食物要咀嚼二十次，那为什么不呢？从我们开始吃东西到感到饱腹之间存在一个延迟的时间差，当我们吃得过快时，我们的身体没有机会意识到我们已经吃饱了。结果就是无法消除的饥饿感！

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小贴士 3：饿着肚子不要购物

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禁食时购物通常意味着第二天会有很多遗憾。如果我们在商店里感到饥饿，我们更有可能被我们竭力抵制的垃圾食品所吸引。

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如果我不赶时间的话，我会尽量在周日早上去农贸市场或商店。这真的改善了我与食物的关系以及购买的食物的质量。我发现如果我很赶时间的话，我更有可能买一些“方便快捷”的加工食品，之后我可能会后悔不已。

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小贴士 4：用小一点的盘子装食物

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当我为婚礼制作购物清单时，我对店员说：“我想要店里最小的餐盘！”她看着我好像我有十只眼睛，并告诉我这是有人第一次问她这个问题。她帮助过的其他顾客都想要尽可能大的盘子。显然，商店也已经发现了这一点，因为他们只有一个普通尺寸的盘子和十二个宽边帽大小的盘子。

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当你使用小盘子时，它会向你的大脑发送一个信号，表明你需要吃得更少。这是因为成年人倾向于根据外部线索来判断何时放下餐具。这与儿童的情况正好相反，他们主要依靠内部感觉来告诉自己该停止进食了。如果我们吃完了小盘子里的食物，我们总是可以再要更多。但是一个小盘子迫使我们仔细考虑是否真的想要更多食物。它帮助我们更加用心地吃饭。我们是因为饿了才吃吗？还是因为我们想把盘子吃完？

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小贴士 5：只在用餐时间吃东西

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即使吃“健康”的食物，零食也是增重最快的方式。这里一把那里一把地吃着杏仁，很快体重就反弹了。杏仁很好，但要确保它们是你正餐的一部分。记住：零食不是你的朋友。

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实施非零食策略的一些实用方法可能是只允许自己在餐桌上吃东西。这将有助于打破我们不应该做的无意识饮食的习惯。我们应该只在饿的时候吃，而不是不饿的时候。你是因为饿了才吃零食，还是因为无聊才吃？

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我曾经有一个漫长的通勤，经常在加油站买一袋坚果。这很难改掉，直到我的车被专业人员清洁，打扫内饰的人说他在车里发现了一杯杏仁。当我在从多伦多到奥兰多的公路旅行前几天拿到新车时，我非常决心保持车内整洁，没有食物，结果整个旅程都禁食了！所以，花点时间整理你的车，给自己一个“干净的画布”，减少你在路上吃零食。

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我向晚上看电视的人推荐的另一个技巧是买一本填字游戏书，放在咖啡桌上。这样，你就可以在广告时间里做点什么来分散注意力——因为广告通常都是垃圾食品。这可以锻炼你的大脑。

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最重要的是，不要害怕。你可以吃一些禁食之间的食物，而且可以适当享受美食。在这些技巧之间使用节食作为必要的工具，您将能够保持新的体重，并在未来几年内保持快乐和健康。

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伊芙·迈耶

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到目前为止，您可能已经完成了几次更长的禁食，并使间歇性禁食成为您的生活方式的一部分。每个人达到目标的速度都不同，所以如果您还没有达到这些目标，没关系。你会做到的！

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跟踪你的成功

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随着禁食的进行，您可能想要衡量自己的成功。跟踪您的进步不仅仅是关于体重减轻。您的成功可以通过您可以做的事情、不需要服用的药物或多年以来由于健康问题而醒来后您现在可以睡多久来衡量。请记住，在开始禁食之前您写下的个人目标？取出您的目标清单并查看它。如果您没有写下这些目标，请快速想一些并将其写下来。现在。没关系，我会等着。

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准备好了吗？

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现在你可以通过创建自己的目标跟踪器来调整这个列表。在一张纸上、在网上或在你的手机上，记下你开始禁食的日期、你现在的位置以及另一个你认为的目标日期。这个“目标日期”可以是你生日、结婚纪念日或任何一天。它也不必是一个结束日期。毕竟，禁食是一种生活方式，而不是比赛，我鼓励你让它成为你生活的一部分。

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这是我用来记录目标的一个跟踪器。我的目标是达到29%的身体脂肪率。我目前身体脂肪率为36%，所以我记下了设定这个目标的那一天，我希望在那一天之前实现这个目标，并且还设定了几个中间目标。如果你精通技术，你可以让自己的追踪器变得很酷炫，比如用电子表格自动绘制图表，或者像我一样偷懒直接画出来就行。不管怎样，你应该使用任何能让你对自己的目标进程产生积极视觉化的东西。

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例如：

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我发现这是追踪我实现目标进展最简单的方法，它能让我专注于整体健康和快乐，而不仅仅是体重。

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适合你的秤？

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称重还是不称重。这是个问题。就像你必须决定吃什么，什么时候禁食一样，你也必须决定是否使用体重秤来帮助或阻碍你。我丈夫喜欢体重秤，他上完厕所后做的第一件事就是站上去。有时它会上升，有时会下降，但无论如何，他会保持头脑清醒，并把数据点记录在应用程序中。他的大脑把体重秤上的数字当作数据，或者是一些可以通过拉动一个杠杆或另一个杠杆而改变的简单信息。他认为体重应该随着时间波动，数据从未影响过他的情绪。他是我所说的科学合理的类型，但他不像我。如果你也有这种理智的感觉，并且发现每天称重可以为你提供有助于饮食和生活方式决策的信息，那就去吧。

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当我称体重时，我的反应与我丈夫截然不同。我很容易受影响（至少），当磅秤上的数字上升时，我会立刻感受到各种情绪：内疚、恐惧、悲伤、遗憾、羞耻、伤心，以及对再次发胖的恐惧。这些情绪的发生与否并不取决于我在一天之内增重了0.3磅还是3磅。当磅秤上出现一个令人不悦的数字时，我想哭——有时我真的会哭，尤其是如果我在之前的几天里所付出的努力并没有体现在秤上显示的数字上。无论发生什么，我对磅秤上出现的不喜欢的数字非常敏感，这很可能会为我带来糟糕的一天。

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然后，有些日子我站上体重秤，数字比前一天要少。我的情绪包括快乐、喜悦、兴奋、对伟大的期待、优越感、幸福、头晕目眩和美妙。如果在享受了生日纸杯蛋糕这样罕见的放纵之后，体重秤上的数字下降了，我会感到胜利。我的思绪会说：哈哈，体重秤。我终于骗过你了。昨天我吃了一个整个的纸杯蛋糕，上面还涂了很多糖霜，你甚至都没有发现。从现在开始，我可能可以随心所欲地吃任何东西，因为即使我在作弊，我也不会发胖。最后，我终于找到了欺骗自己身体的方法！

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相信我，我不为这些想法感到骄傲，我知道它们不是基于任何现实。但我现在理解了我这个对食物痴迷的大脑，所以我选择为了我的心理健康不再每天称体重。

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然而，事实是，有时重量并不总是有意义。当我完成了我的第一个长时间禁食时，我每天都瘦了，直到最后突然开始重新长胖。对。我已经一周多没吃东西了，但我还是长肉了。五年前，我体重也是195磅，如果我想享受呼吸的乐趣的话，我就很难扣紧我的牛仔裤。今年我又一次达到了195磅，同样的牛仔裤却松垮了下来。为什么？因为我增加了更多的肌肉，减少了脂肪。我的身体重量没有变，但有了更健康、更均衡的身材，还有更多肌肉。

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体重秤并不适用于所有人，也无法考虑到其他因素，比如肌肉比脂肪更致密。如果你一直在进行力量训练，你的衣服可能会合身（就像我的牛仔裤一样），但你的体重可能比你在健身房锻炼之前还要重。体重秤也没有办法测量其他非常重要的健康指标，如骨质密度、血压、心率等。

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如果你对是否使用体重秤犹豫不决，这里有一个方法可以衡量你对它的依赖程度，以及你对它的反应：每天同一时间称重一周。记录你的体重和感受。如果体重波动没有让你惊慌失措，那就继续这么做。如果每次只增加一磅都会让你感到恐慌，也许你应该每周、每月或根本不称。选择最适合自己的间隔或时间，如果总是太过于纠结于称重，那就把体重秤捐给朋友或者旧货摊。如果有家人想要保留体重秤，那就让他们把它藏起来。

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跟踪你的测量结果

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与其每天称体重，我更喜欢测量我的身体数据，包括体脂率、减掉或增加的英寸。请记住，这些数据不会像体重那样快速波动，所以每天甚至每周记录它们可能会有问题。它们也可能根据谁在测量以及使用什么工具而有很大的不同。例如，如果是我自己量，或者是我丈夫量，或者是我的教练量，我的数据会完全不同。试着每月记录一次你的测量结果，并让同一个人用同样的工具来完成它。

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我是个很传统的人，用卷尺记录我的体重增加或减少。但是如果你想走高科技路线，并且不介意花钱的话，我发现DEXA 身体成分扫描非常有效。你可以在线搜索一下本地有没有提供这种服务的地方。通常如果你每月或每季度回去一次，他们会提供一些套餐来降低成本，就像我现在做的这样。这些机器速度很快、无痛感，并会给你一份详细的报告，包括你的测量数据、身体脂肪百分比与瘦体重、骨质密度等等。

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DEXA 扫描非常简单——在三维扫描仪分析你的身体时，你可以穿着衣服。几分钟后，结果就会出来，包括图表和数据，如果你稍后再来做一次扫描，你会得到一个比较图表，可以将之前的数据与现在进行比较。

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这些扫描让我看到了我以前从未想过的东西。例如，显然我的骨量很好。为什么？可能是因为我在过去的二十年里一直很胖，我的骨头很强壮，可以承受住所有的重量。它们还显示，我的内脏脂肪（内脏周围的脂肪）正在减少，这是一个好消息，因为内脏脂肪是某些健康问题，如心脏病、代谢综合征或2型糖尿病的倾向指标。

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然而，要记住的是，DEXA 扫描可能会给你展示一些你可能不想看到的东西！在我第一次扫描之前，我被单独留在一个房间里，被告知尽可能多地脱掉衣服。我被要求站在一个圆形平台上，手里拿着两个把手，然后放开并按下几个按钮。我想得到最准确的数据，所以我一丝不挂。技术人员让我把头发扎起来，于是我把它像相扑选手那样梳到了头顶上。双脚分开与臀部同宽，我的裸体暴露在机器前，我抓住手柄，按下按钮，圆形平台开始慢慢地转动我。我现在知道烤鸡是什么感觉了！

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当我穿上衣服离开房间时，工作人员告诉我当天会通过电子邮件给我发送信息。我离开了办公室，回家后打开了我的邮箱。在那里！我很兴奋地收到了有关我的身体的数据、测量结果和信息，我移动鼠标打开它，但被预览栏里的东西震惊了。是什么？我在我的超大号显示器上旋转着的裸体烤鸡一样的身体的动态图像。当然，这是电脑生成的图片，但任何人都能看出那是我。这令人震惊，让我感到毁灭，而且我还没有准备好看到自己身体上的每一个缺陷。我以为我已经对自己的许多缺点非常熟悉了，但我错了！

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震惊过后，我对我的身体旋转模型产生了兴趣，现在我发现这些类型的扫描对于精确测量很有用。但我本可以得到警告，说我赤身裸体的身体会出现在电子邮件中！

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其他跟踪成功的方法

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你可以用任何你觉得有用的方式来衡量你的成功，但这里有一些方法你可以尝试：

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每个月穿同一件衣服，在同一个地方拍全身照。每月在冰箱上贴一张照片，上面标有你的体重和日期。找一条很久没穿的牛仔裤试一下，然后每周都穿上一次。每周在腰围上缠一根绳子或皮尺，做好标记。在绳子或皮尺的一端系一个小重物作为重量单位。每周把绳子或皮尺重新系在原来的位置，并观察绳子或皮尺变短的程度——有时即使秤上显示没有减重，你也能看到变化！监控血糖水平并使用应用程序来追踪它。每周评估进展。每天早晚各量一次血压，用一个自动血压计（在网上可以买到），然后在一个电子表格中记录下来。每周生成一个图表以供参考。走一圈，给自己计时。每个月记录一次时间，与上个月比较。每天做一次平板支撑并记录持续时间。每个月在同一角度给自己拍一张照片，并与之前的自拍照进行比较。记住你现在用哪个洞，看看下次会不会换到下一个洞。爬楼梯时注意自己是否气喘吁吁。去医生那里进行全面血液检测，包括胆固醇、脂蛋白和甘油三酯，通常在年度体检中都会进行这些检查。这些检查经常包含在保险范围内。

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衡量你的成功对于实现它是至关重要的。如果你不知道你在努力完成什么，或者你已经走了多远，你就无法知道你是否成功了。有时你会经历一段艰难时期，感觉好像你很久没有取得胜利了。其他时候，胜利会接踵而至。追踪你的测量结果，享受你的成功。与关心你并支持你目标的人分享它们。我们花了太多时间来打击自己，但该是我们振作起来，并在应得的地方给予自己认可的时候了。

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达到目标后

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你做到了！恭喜，你是摇滚明星！

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现在，您必须做出选择。您可以决定最初的目标就足够了。这意味着您开始时的目标就是您想要停留的地方。或者，您可以决定稍微改变一下目标，并以一个更激进的目标为目标——体重减轻、健康益处更大或生活回报更多。无论您做出什么决定，这取决于您，您可以在任何时候停止。毕竟，女士们先生们总是有权改变主意。

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事实上，你现在对自己所处的位置感到满意是非常好的。如果你发现自己身体状况良好，而且对自己的身体很满意，那就没有必要再继续努力了。相反，你应该注意到这一点，并为自己取得的进步而庆祝，享受它，并学习如何保持这种状态。一定要给自己一些鼓励，并找到一种激励自己的方式来确保自己能够坚持下去。记住，你的目标不一定是要在体重秤上看到一个数字。你的目标可以是提高灵活性、穿上一条旧牛仔裤、达到某个体脂百分比、不再喘不过气来，或者任何你觉得值得付出努力的事情。

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只要记住，有些人发现保持目标与实现目标一样困难。甚至更难。我不是想吓唬你；我只是在说实话。安顿下来，对自己设定的目标感到满意并不意味着放弃，也不意味着在当地的油腻餐馆点一份超大号奶酪汉堡、薯条和苏打汽水，或者决定永远不再禁食。即使你在维持现状，你也必须继续努力。但是，请记住，你偶尔可能会犯错或失败，没关系。在第21章中，我们将讨论你可以让自己重新回到正轨的各种方法。

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设定更大的目标

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一旦你适当地庆祝了达到目标并保持了一段时间，你可以决定你要更进一步。这意味着你需要设定一个全新的目标。例如，我目前保持着我的第一个身体脂肪百分比目标——37% ——但当我决定开始另一个自我挑战时，我会努力将体脂率降低到29.9%。为你第一次设定目标所使用的原则也适用于设定你的新目标。如果你需要复习，请参阅第7章：准备、设定目标！

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决定达到目标就足够了，我不需要继续尝试对我来说是一种奇怪的经历。我是个过度成就者，所以我冲动地一直工作直到筋疲力尽。但是今天，我正在学习为自己的成就感到骄傲，享受我的新身体，尝试新的衣服，第一次徒步旅行，并接受我一直想要的事情终于发生了。我希望你也是这样！

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当（好）事发生时

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只要记住，你改变目标的决定可能是偶然发生的。当我达到最近的减肥目标195磅时，我感到非常高兴。在减了这么多年又胖回来之后，这是我第一次能在一个星期里保持这个体重。然后，通过禁食和生酮饮食，我又开始减轻体重。最后我减到了185磅，在过去的七个月里，我一直保持在181到189磅之间。这对我来说感觉像是一个巨大的成就，至少现在是足够的。我为自己感到骄傲，并且还在适应身处180年代并经常光顾普通商店的事实。说真的，我以前不相信我会有机会过上不用去大码店购物或订大码鞋的生活！而且，我觉得自己状态极佳。今年我只病了一次，这与过去每年都要生病五六次相比，真是令人难以置信的进步。

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前进

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设定第二个或第三个或第四个目标并不会削弱你实现第一个目标。这就像登上月球，然后决定去火星一样。为什么不呢？你可以决定自己想要什么，旅程可以以任何你希望的方式结束或继续。我唯一的建议是在同一时间运行的最大目标不要超过两个。这可以帮助你清楚地集中注意力，并想象你的即将到来的成功。我们人类并不擅长同时追求多个目标。总是有新的目标要达到，所以你永远不必担心耗尽精力，你总能努力成为最好的自己。

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梅根·拉莫斯

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在禁食期间，你会经历一些新的身体变化，这是可以理解的。是的，你需要学会如何应对饥饿，但你也可能会遇到意想不到的问题，比如口渴、头痛或失眠。这些症状并非每个人都会出现，但是确实会发生，而且没什么好担心的。如果您遇到更严重的健康问题，如贫血、肾功能障碍、肝功能障碍或心律失常——这些都是罕见的情况——那么您需要寻求医疗建议。

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在这一章，我们列出了人们开始禁食时最常遇到的一些身体反应。请记住，每个人都是不同的，每个人的身体对禁食的反应也是不同的。同样地，如果你出现更严重的症状，请咨询医生。

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口臭或口中异味

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有些人开始禁食时，有时会感觉到口中有一股金属味。其他人则表示他们的呼吸带有指甲油或水果的味道。这是身体进入酮症的迹象。酮体 -β-羟基丁酸、乙酰乙酸和丙酮通过尿液和呼气排出，它们可能有气味（例如，丙酮是指甲油中的一种成分）。这种气味或味道会随着时间的推移而消失，尽管在最初几周您可能需要更频繁地刷牙。

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胀气

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如果你感到腹胀，那可能是因为摄入了过多的盐分，导致身体保留水分。试着减少食盐的摄入量或喝水，而不是喝骨头汤或其他咸味饮料。

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寒冷

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如果你在禁食期间感到寒冷，这表明你的身体正在进入酮症状态。你的身体只是从燃烧葡萄糖到燃烧足够的脂肪以保持温暖有点困难。不必担心。当你的身体适应了高脂饮食，并完全从燃烧糖类转变为燃烧脂肪时，你应该暖和起来。

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便秘

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禁食会导致你的胰岛素水平下降，这会向肾脏发送信号释放储存的水分。这可能会导致脱水，然后便秘。在你不禁食的日子里，增加叶状蔬菜和纤维摄入量。如果必须的话，在禁食期间用泻盐浸泡，并服用柠檬酸镁（每天一次，从 400 毫克开始）。用盐和水补充水分。

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许多人认为他们在禁食期间会便秘，但事实上，他们的肠道里根本没有任何东西。如果你在长时间禁食期间没有排便，但是你不腹痛，那么你是健康的。

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抑郁症

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正如我们在第一章中所讨论的，人们在禁食时经常报告感到焦虑减轻、情绪改善。抑郁症很少见，所以如果你确实感到抑郁，我们建议寻求治疗师的帮助。

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腹泻

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如果你在禁食期间腹泻，试着将 1 到 2 汤匙奇雅子或洋车前子壳与水混合，等待 10 分钟，然后喝下。奇雅子和洋车前子壳都吸收消化道中的多余水分，使大便中排出的液体减少。

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头晕

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头晕通常是轻微脱水的症状。确保白天多喝水。喝泡菜汁或骨头汤来补充盐分。有些人，比如伊芙的父亲，可能正在经历他们之前过高的血压的稳定。如果你正在服用降压药，开始禁食，并且感到头晕，请务必去看医生。你可能需要降低药物剂量。

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干嘴唇

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这听起来可能有些不合常理，但是嘴唇干燥是你喝水太多、吃盐太少的表现。通过腌菜汁或骨头汤来饮食中摄取更多的盐分。

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疲劳

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当你开始禁食时，刚开始身体会从燃烧糖转变为燃烧脂肪，因此你会感到疲劳。这会在前三四个禁食日里过去，然后你会觉得更有活力。

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头痛

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禁食时头疼是很常见的。我们不知道确切的原因，但有人推测可能是因为缺盐。为了预防和治疗头痛，在骨头汤或泡菜汁中摄入更多的盐。远离布洛芬和其他止痛药。

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胃灼热

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如果你的胃里没有食物来吸收你的胃酸，它可能会逆流到食道，导致胸部发紧、灼热感。如果问题持续，请尝试服用非处方抗酸剂或咨询医生开处方药。

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强烈的情绪

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波动性和强烈的感觉，经常爆炸性的感情并不常见，但当你开始禁食时可能会发生。这是一个全新的生活方式，你的头脑感到不知所措是很正常的。坚持下去！围绕着爱你和理解你的人，并在需要的时候寻求专业治疗。

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恶心

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禁食期间感到恶心不被认为是正常的，这可能是脱水的症状。喝水，如果出现超过短暂恶心的情况，或者恶心达到让你不舒服的程度，请停止禁食。

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失眠

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大多数人在间歇性断食的头两周报告有睡眠问题。这是由于身体适应了禁食期间产生的肾上腺素水平升高所导致的。试着通过建立一个平和、令人放松的睡前仪式来平静下来。你可以调暗灯光，喝一杯热茶，读一本书直到你的身体准备好睡觉。在睡觉前避免接触屏幕——电视、手机、笔记本电脑和平板电脑，因为它们发出的蓝光会干扰睡眠。如果失眠持续，请尝试服用褪黑激素补充剂。

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渴

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禁食期间，口渴是很正常的。因为你的身体在燃烧胃里的燃料时，也会燃烧糖原。糖原与水分子结合在一起。你有没有听说过有人在说，你不是在减肥，而是在减去水分？那就是他们所指的东西。如果你在禁食的时候感到口渴，那就多喝水吧。每天至少喝掉你体重一半的盎司的水。

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胃痛

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胃痛——而不是恶心——很可能只是饥饿引起的，可以通过喝矿泉水来缓解。

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伊芙·迈耶

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当我开始禁食时，我以为我会一直与我的胃斗争，但我完全错了。对我来说，最大的挑战来自我的内心。

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禁食之前，我的生活以食物为中心。我计划膳食、渴望吃东西、购物、吃饭、做饭、研究餐馆、预订、吃饭、拍食物照片、在社交媒体上发布这些照片、吃饭、想出巧妙的食物标签、与朋友讨论食物、洗碗、写食物评论，然后再次进食。

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于是我开始禁食，意识到我必须以某种方式重新定义我的生活重心，而不仅仅是食物。但要做到这一点，我需要训练我的大脑。

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与无聊作斗争

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当我开始间歇性禁食时，我发现我突然有了大量的空闲时间。我有好几个小时无事可做，而且很快就感到无聊了。我需要培养新的爱好和兴趣来转移大脑对零食或正餐的渴望。我开始指导别人、和女儿一起购物、多读书。虽然我用了几个星期的时间才找到自己的节奏，但现在我不敢相信我竟然曾经喜欢坐在电视机前，把食物塞进嘴里！

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也许你已经很久没有养成习惯，开始做任何事情都很难。别担心，尤其是因为焦虑可能会让你想吃点东西。相反，试着记住你喜欢和朋友、家人一起做的事情——除了吃饭之外的事情。如果你记不起来的话，问问他们，或者，更好的是，找出你的亲人喜欢和你一起做的事情（除了吃饭！）。人们常常惊讶地发现，他们的孩子之所以错过了与他们共度时光的机会，是因为那些时间都是在厨房里度过的。首先，你可以和家人一起去散步，或者买音乐会的票。你可能会发现自己爱上了现场音乐或户外活动，这些是你早已忘记的东西。

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在我开始禁食之前，我发现列出我喜欢做的一些事情很有帮助。让我惊讶的是，我记起来我是多么喜欢和我的狗玩飞盘，在我家附近散步，阅读，联系老朋友，以及整理房子。一开始，当我的思绪飘忽不定，想着我很想把情绪淹没在一大桶冰淇淋里时，重温这个列表是有治疗效果的。就像我说的，重新接触我过去的兴趣爱好花了一些时间，但现在我已经无法想象没有它们的生活了。

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40 件可以替换吃饭的事

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当你在禁食又无聊时，不需要做些费力、伤脑筋或耗神的事来消磨时间。你可以从以下活动中选择任何一项，帮助分秒（甚至几小时！）飞逝。

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喝水。听音乐。给妈妈打电话。规划下一次旅行。到户外去。清洁厨房。遛狗。读书。更新简历。打电话给朋友。去图书馆。编织或钩针编织。写日记。看一部之前没看过的电视节目。做10个俯卧撑。泡茶。折叠并放好衣服。参加瑜伽课。购物。清理电子邮件收件箱。拜访邻居。将衣物送去干洗店。祈祷或冥想。整理衣柜。在阳光下坐着。带孩子来一场有趣的探险。整理数码照片。做一个剪贴簿。玩桌游。听有声书。养花。做手工。参观博物馆。写一封感谢信。读杂志或报纸。整理杂乱的抽屉。回顾老电影。清洁浴室。采些鲜花回来插在瓶子里。在外面扫地。

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斋戒期间不能做的事情

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有很多活动可能让你觉得跟食物无关，但其实会很突出地把食物放在中心位置。如果你在禁食期间参加这些活动，我可以向你保证你会开始做关于吃的想法，不知不觉中你的手就会伸进饼干罐里。

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我警告你！从开始禁食到结束，你应该避免以下活动：

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看社交媒体

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猜猜人们在社交媒体上发布什么？看起来很好吃的食物的照片！如果你像我一样，刚开始禁食时，每两秒钟就会出现食物的画面，根本无法抗拒跑到冰箱。然而，比诱惑更糟糕的是，你可能会感到自责。我会对自己说：这个人怎么能吃这么多糖和油炸食品，却依然那么苗条？为什么我是唯一一个不能吃东西的人？

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当然，这些声明都是荒谬的，但它们会在你需要坚强自信的时候消耗你。记住，你是有控制权的人。是你做出了健康的选择。是你决定要禁食，而且你可以在任何时候停止禁食。

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杂货购物

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在我开始禁食之前，我会去杂货店决定买生菜和番茄，但最后却带着可可爆米花和Pop-Tarts回家。我在饿的时候购物，从袋子里拿出零食吃。我很少在去商店时带清单或计划，所以这就变成了一场混战，涉及到我随机拿取食材，希望我能做出足够的饭菜给家人吃。这经常导致每周重复购买食物，浪费我的时间和金钱。我的不规划总是让我扔掉坏掉的食物，这让我感到内疚，因为我太浪费了。

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禁食让我成为了一个更好的杂货购物者，也让我成为一个更好的厨师。如果我要少吃几顿饭，那么我就要确保我准备的食物美味可口。

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但当我禁食时，我不能去杂货店购物。即使我不饿，只要我在杂货店看到免费的食物样品，我就会开始与我的本能作斗争。当我推着购物车在过道里走的时候，我觉得自己被诱惑包围了，有很多东西我都得不到。我变得非常怨恨和克制，通常比我想的更早地打破禁食。有时，我会吃得比我真正需要的多。

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我强烈建议你在禁食前或禁食后仔细计划你的杂货购物，即使你要为全家人准备食物。如果可能的话，请向家人寻求帮助，或者使用快递服务。

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烹饪

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我禁食时，不烹饪。食物的味道、触感和气味对我来说太强烈了，我的感官无法克服。这也不是因为缺乏意志力。当你的感官被食物所包围时，想尝一口是很自然的事。

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我很幸运有一个会做饭的妻子和一个十一岁的女儿。不过，并不是每个人都有这样的条件，所以如果你在禁食期间需要做饭的话，我有几条建议：

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在禁食之前，准备家人的饭菜，这样你只需要加热就行了。向会做饭的家庭成员寻求帮助。买熟食或带家人出去吃饭。做他们喜欢吃的但你不吃的菜。打开风扇或打开窗户以减少食物的味道。

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洗碗

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你可能会感到惊讶，但对我来说，在禁食期间为他人洗碗是一件很困难的事。多年前，我“不小心”把手指伸进剩下的布丁里舔了舔，还有一次在禁食48小时后，一个鸡块从脏盘子上掉到我的嘴里。我有几十年吃零食和偷吃的经历，改掉这个坏习惯需要时间。

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现在，我已经习惯于禁食了，所以我可能会在不吃东西的时候轻松地洗脏盘子。但是，我不会告诉我丈夫这件事，因为我讨厌洗碗，而他总是很亲切地帮我处理这些事情。嘘！

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去商场

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当我刚开始禁食时，去当地的商场购物似乎是个好主意。毕竟，我手里有那么多的时间要怎么打发呢？享受一下零售疗法吧！但当我走进商场时，从pretzel店飘来的香味让我一下子火冒三丈。看到周围的人都在吃肉桂面包和披萨片，我就想：也许我可以尝一小口？

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今天，我能够轻松地斋戒并在购物中心里仍然爱我的同胞——即使他们拿着巨大的椒盐卷饼。但事情一开始并不是这样，所以不要犯我所犯过的错误。

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去看电影

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我喜欢去看电影。它曾经意味着一个酷而安全的地方，在黑暗中，没有别人的评判，可以随便塞爆米花和糖果到嘴里。随着我改变饮食习惯，我把爆米花和可乐换成了一根巨大的莳萝腌黄瓜和水，我觉得很开心。但是，即使在今天，看电影禁食的想法对我来说仍然不那么有趣。我知道我应该适应禁食并在剧院里只为了娱乐，但不幸的是，我无法改掉在电影院吃东西的习惯。你可能也有同感。

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我建议你在享受美食的时候离开现场，计划去电影院看电影。在家你可以看很多电影而不需要吃零食。

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去参加派对

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我根据社交活动安排禁食。有禁食的时候，也有开斋的日子，在我看来，聚会就是开斋日。

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作为一个中年已婚妇女，有一个十几岁的孩子，我意识到我的社交生活并不总是充满华丽、以食物为中心的聚会，所以对我来说这更容易。如果你的生活方式需要经常参加社交活动，并且不能把禁食安排在这些时间之外，试着在与人交往时手里拿着一杯水或一杯青柠汽水。人们会少问一些关于饮食的问题，而且手里拿着一个杯子也能让你有事可做。此外，如果你喝酒并参与社交，服务员也会更少地给你提供食物。你可能会认为人们会关注你的每一点进食行为，但通常情况下，如果去参加派对，喝几杯巧妙伪装的饮料，整晚社交却什么也不吃，他们甚至都不会注意到。如果有人给你提供了食物，最简单的方法就是感谢他们并说你现在不饿。

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度假

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我度假时可以接受间歇性禁食，但如果离家在外，长时间禁食对我来说很困难。我喜欢通过食物体验不同的文化和地方，所以旅行时长时间禁食让我觉得是在错过学习的机会。然而，我在假期间歇性禁食的效果很好，因为我觉得那天的一顿或两顿饭可以吃得很有意义。

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禁食时可以做与不可以做的事情清单可能因人而异。和其他事情一样，禁食真的会随着练习变得越来越容易。刚开始的时候我完全不相信这一点，但事实的确如此。一开始，我在禁食期间不能参加派对、去商场或者任何可能有食物的地方。现在，我已经可以轻易地做这些事了。只要记住：你可以决定什么时候禁食，什么时候停止禁食。你要掌控行动。在这个过程中，你要决定什么是对你的身心最有益的。像我这样的控制狂一旦接受了自己真正掌控着禁食，就会发现禁食其实也是一件享受的事。

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最后，如果你刚开始禁食时需要特殊的情况，请不要对自己如此苛刻。我犯了这个错误，并认为自己很弱。

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我并不是软弱，而是缺乏经验，随着时间的推移，我变得更有经验了。

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现在，我知道我很坚强。我给自己时间去培养禁食的技能。我不是那个我认为的秘密失败者！你应该给自己最好的成功机会。一点一点地，你会看到你的身体和思想开始变成你一直梦想的样子。

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Jason Fung

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我从小就明白，禁食带来的精神挑战远比身体上的挑战更难。身体饥饿会很快过去，幸运的是，我在很多年前就学会了这一点。

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我十二岁时，因为贫血而不得不接受胃镜检查和结肠镜检查。医生最终发现我患有消化性溃疡病，但在诊断结果出来之前，我的症状出乎意料且神秘莫测。在进行胃镜检查时，一个小摄像头被插入口腔并通过食道进入胃部寻找出血迹象。在结肠镜检中，一根管子也被从下向上插入以观察肠道。在手术前的 24 小时内，我不能吃任何东西。除了担心我会患上什么疾病外，我的父母还担心我会饿得要命并且变得虚弱。毕竟，孩子们正在成长，他们需要食物——而且需要很多！

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但我记得比任何一种节食方式都更清楚的是，在我禁食的一天里，我觉得自己是多么正常。我没有感到疲倦、疯狂或饥饿得晕倒。最坏的情况是我有点不舒服。我很震惊，但直到我开始向我的客户推荐禁食，我才意识到这一点。

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为什么我多年来没有想过禁食？因为我们生活在一个推崇不间断进食的文化中。当你在禁食，却撞见善意的人不理解禁食其实是非常健康和自然的事情时，我建议使用一些心理技巧来颠覆这种想法。

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知道禁食很常见

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有些社会，有数百万人定期禁食。许多穆斯林在斋月期间禁食。许多天主教徒在四旬斋期间禁食。许多犹太人在赎罪日禁食。佛教徒、摩门教徒和印度教徒都有各自的禁食传统。关键不在于特定宗教的禁食传统，而在于这些社会中，很多人一生中或多或少都会定期禁食。他们似乎并不费力，也不会被人非议，甚至他们的母亲也不担心他们会晕倒、停止生长或饿死。然而，在我们今天的社会里，我向大多数人提出不吃一顿饭的想法时，他们似乎完全确定自己做不到。他们认为不吃东西是不可能的，或者这很奇怪，或者是文明社会的禁忌。

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当你开始节食并努力对抗这种想法时，即你在做一件奇怪或前所未有的事，不要担心。你并不孤单，并且你没有做错任何事！你的选择完全正常，历史上有数十亿人定期进行你正在做的事。

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伊芙·迈耶

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既然你在禁食，你可能会担心是时候把你的派对衣服收起来了。别担心：禁食并不意味着你必须放弃社交生活、假期、与家人共度的庆祝时光或任何对你重要的事情。这一章会引导你通过围绕你的社交生活的棘手的后勤和个人问题。我保证：一个成功的禁食计划和一个健康的社交生活并不是互相排斥的目标！

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时间表就是一切

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在我们深入研究如何在禁食期间应对社交场合之前，您需要了解一些基础知识。其中之一就是组织起来。虽然禁食可以非常灵活，适用于各种人和各种情况，但任何类型的禁食的关键部分都是坚持预先计划好的时间表。

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到目前为止，我已经禁食了很长时间，以至于有时我会让自己的方法变得太灵活。我可能会想，嗯，最近几天我一直没有按照应该的方式吃东西，所以我就决定明天开始禁食吧。然后我又把明天禁食的日子推迟了一两天，突然之间我一周都没有禁食。这通常会导致我在一周内体重增加1到3磅。而且那不是肌肉的增长。那是脂肪。

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另一方面，我的强迫症会让我陷入困境。我可能会开始一个为期24小时的禁食。禁食顺利进行，我会开始想，嗯，为什么不延长到36个小时呢，或者48个小时，或者也许三天，甚至一周？突然间，我对工作和家庭的所有精心计划都变得毫无意义，我的生活也比以往任何时候都更加混乱。

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这些例子是为了说明禁食是非常灵活的，你可以很容易地过度禁食或不足禁食，以为你可以相应地调整你的生活。如果你像我一样，你不能；生活太忙了，不坚持计划的话。不幸的是，没有人能给你开一个确切的时间表的处方。这取决于你自己去发现。

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当我开始禁食时，我发现这令人难以置信地恼火。我想如果我找到世界上最好的专家，他们可以给我一个神奇的禁食时间表，让我达到目标。但是尽管我在禁食旅程的早期遇到了福医生和梅根·拉莫斯——业内最优秀的人才，但他们也无法提供如此神奇的解决方案。

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禁食需要平衡、责任感和计划。你可以选择自己的时间表，根据你的生活方式进行定制，但你需要努力并坚持下去。如果你喜欢制定时间表，那么这对你来说很容易。一旦你决定在日常生活中多久禁食一次，看看你的生活，把禁食融入其中。

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这里有一些关于如何在精彩的社交生活中进行禁食的小贴士。

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不要做烈士，也不要当混蛋

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当我开始禁食时，我不知道如何根据我的生活计划禁食。我没有策略地选择我应该禁食的时间，也没有考虑禁食时我会感觉如何。因此，当我去上班看到公司每周提供的免费早餐或午餐时，我会瞪着我的同事。当然，我知道免费早餐和免费午餐都在同一天，因为它们每周都是在同一天，但我认为我会没事。我没做到。尽管我的同事们在我禁食期间一直支持我，但我还是一个易怒、怨恨、脾气暴躁的同事。

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你可以从我的错误中学习。

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我现在意识到，在我们周一例会上专门用来分享个人和职业成就的部分中宣布我的体重减轻是可以接受的。我也知道，如果我不告诉任何人我在禁食，那也完全没问题。这是我的事，如果我这么做了，我可以避免很多问题。然而，我不能在公司提供的免费餐点期间禁食，并对同事心怀怨恨。在公共场合抱怨自己吃不了早餐，或者大声宣布因为禁食而无法吃午餐，这对我来说并不友好。把糟糕的情况当作荣誉勋章展示出来，并大肆抱怨我希望我能吃东西，这对我的同事们来说是一种干扰。

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我表现得像个烈士，对此我很后悔。

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幸运的是，我只花了几个月的时间就学会了如何控制自己的行为。但我还是希望有人能告诉我，为什么我会在禁食时变得很糟糕。所以这里是我学到的东西：当你在禁食时，不要把它当作是你的专属待遇。禁食是可以被控制的，你可以选择时间和方式。不要表现得好像你是无辜的、受折磨的，因为你要在感恩节、假期或工作日禁食而感到痛苦。你应该掌握禁食时间表，而不是让它来左右你。

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什么时候禁食

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如果可能的话，计划禁食以避免参加有免费食物、可获得的食物或到处都是食物的群体活动。我本可以轻易地选择在公司提供免费食物的日子里不进行禁食，这样我就可以与他们一起做出健康的食物选择（或者偷偷塞个甜甜圈），而在食物不那么重要的时候禁食。我并不是每天都禁食，所以我可以灵活应对。

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如果你要参加一个团队活动或派对，你知道或者有强烈的怀疑那里的食物并不符合你的健康饮食习惯，那么就带一道你喜欢吃的菜，并与大家分享。如果你不能自带食物，也不想吃聚会上提供的那种食物，那就出门前先吃一顿饭。拿起一杯饮料，在聚会上双手捧着它，专注于社交。或者，干脆去参加聚会，适度地品尝一些开胃菜。你会惊讶于这竟然能缓解你的压力，让你不必追求完美。在几乎不可能坚持禁食的情况下选择禁食，因为那里有很多美味的食物，会让你失败。

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有时，很难记住禁食是一种选择。这不是你必须做的事情，你当然也不必在特定的一天做这件事。你之所以选择禁食是因为你想减肥和改善健康状况。你应该选择在某一天禁食，因为长期的好处大于任何一种食物的短期享受。你掌握着所有的牌，拥有所有的控制权。

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如何应对爱管闲事的朋友、同事和派对参与者

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当我开始禁食时，我对我周围的人们的反应和看法感到惊讶——在办公室、家里、聚会上，或者只是在我选择不吃的时候。许多人没有注意到，但有些人注意到了，并且他们不介意分享他们的观点。这些人已经习惯了我一直吃东西，所以当我不碰糖果罐、生日纸杯蛋糕或下午的薯片时，他们会感到困惑。一开始，有些

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坚持

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我吃点零食。不过，一旦他们习惯了我对零食的反应，他们就减少了提供，我不再那么想吃零食了。

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如果你被提供了一些吃的东西，可以试着说：

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“不，谢谢。我饱了。”“谢谢你，但我现在不想吃东西。”“看起来很好吃，不过我已经吃了。”“我现在还不饿。”“它看起来不错，但我已经吃饱了。”“我之后会尝一下，但是现在我不想吃。”

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尝试

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不

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说：

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“我在禁食。” “我不再吃零食了。” “我不吃零食。”

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如果你这么做了，你就让自己陷入了一场激烈的讨论（或对抗！），而善意的零食携带者可能会觉得他们需要为他们的小口咬食物的选择辩护。除非你是与最亲密的朋友或爱人在一起，否则通常更容易完全避免谈话。

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调整你的优先级

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禁食需要你自己改变一些事情，以及如何度过时间。毕竟，如果你的生活没有任何变化，那么你会发现自己生活在与决定改进相同的身体中。如果你的社交生活包括每周五天的商务午餐、每周五天的开胃酒聚会、周末与朋友一起吃早午餐、周五晚上与配偶共进晚餐，周日与家人一起吃整天，那么是的，你需要对你的社交生活做出重大改变。你必须调整你的优先事项，并选择禁食而不是围绕食物生活的日子。幸运的是，如果你像我一样，你可以看看你的日程安排，意识到你可以做出一些小改动，但会产生很大的效果。

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作为一名商人，我以前在大部分商务会议中都会以食物为中心。我为每个员工提供甜甜圈、不健康的午餐和生日蛋糕，我喜欢每周三到四次与现有或潜在客户出去吃午饭。当我开始禁食时，我减少了这些以食物为中心的活动。因为我知道我的员工仍然喜欢分享零食和饭菜，所以我提供了更健康的选择，而且我们不再为每个员工举办个人聚会，而是改为每月一次大家聚在一起吃蛋糕。当我决定每周几天不吃午饭时，我开始把所有的商务午餐都改成了喝咖啡。没有人似乎介意，事实上，很少有人注意到！

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了解你的极限

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我们中的许多人会把自己置于真正的困境中，试图证明自己足够强大。这是一种荒谬而痛苦的方式来处理事情。如果你对自己好一点，给自己最好的成功机会呢？

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既然我知道我可以成功地禁食，并且第一次保持了我的体重，我就知道禁食对我来说是正确的选择。就我个人而言，我在度假或有大家庭拜访时不会一次禁食超过17个小时，因为我知道周围会有美味的食物等着我享用。我在家里禁食时间更长的时候，通常只是和我的丈夫在一起，而且我能让自己忙起来。这些是我最容易成功的时机。

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你什么时候最有可能成功？这就是你应该安排禁食的时候。禁食不是对你说不。禁食是为了让你自己对自己说：是的！

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一开始，所有这些技巧可能感觉都很奇怪，但随着时间的推移，它们会变得很自然，你就不再注意到自己需要做这些了。要真正改变你的思维和身体，你必须预期对环境做出改变——但这不是坏事。意识到你可以控制多少环境可以增强你的能力。给自己时间去适应新的行为，并对自己保持耐心。很快，你会开始享受在家，在工作场所，在杂货店和餐馆的时间，比你曾经认为可能的还要多，因为那里会有更少的选择和压力。注意自己的成功，即使是小的成功，也要为自己做出的每一个改变而喝彩。这些变化加起来很快，突然之间，镜子里映出一个新的、更快乐的自己！

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梅根·拉莫斯

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我对客户的建议始终如一：把禁食融入你的生活方式，而不是让你的生活方式适应禁食。正如夏娃所说，禁食是有弹性的。因此，通过一点练习，你可以找到一个平衡点，在保持足够的禁食来达到减肥目标的同时还能维持健康的社会生活。错过一天的禁食并不是什么大不了的事，但你也不能全部都错过。

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然而，我们的生活节奏紧张，很难在约会、义务和禁食之间取得平衡。我发现，有时候过于有条理的人往往会对自己禁食的时间安排过于死板。例如，我经常听到这样的场景：

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客户：

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“梅根，我感觉很难过。我错过了周三的大学同学聚会。”

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梅根：

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“为什么？”

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客户：

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“我每周一、三、五禁食24小时。你知道的。”

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梅根：

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“为什么你不可以在周一、周四和周五禁食？或者在周一、周二和周五？”

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客户：

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“哦，我不知道为什么我没有想到。我没想到要灵活处理。”

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另一方面，有些人对待禁食过于随意，仅仅因为他们在某种情况下、某个群体中或一年中的某个时间与狂欢联系在一起。例如，夏天对禁食者来说通常是问题，因为人们渴望社交、烧烤、户外饮酒以及天气好时在泳池边吃点心。这里还有另一个常见的对话：

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客户：

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“我真的很沮丧，因为我没有减肥。事实上，我觉得我已经长胖了。”

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梅根：

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“你在遵循哪种禁食方案？”

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客户：

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“我其实没在禁食。周末都忙于烧烤和家庭出游。”

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梅根：

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“那周二呢？”

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客户：

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“我通常在工作。”

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梅根：

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“那你为什么不能禁食呢？你的所有周末都忙于大吃大喝，并不意味着你在工作日找不到一两天来禁食。”

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客户：

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“哦，我没想到过。”

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事实是，生活总是很忙。我们经常以夏天或周末为借口，但事实上，我们一年到头都是高度社交的动物。假期也分散在一年中的几个月里。太死板、太极端或太懒散都是一败涂地的原因。那些从禁食中获得最好效果的人是那些灵活、一致并能很好地计划和组织的人。以下是一些成功而平衡的禁食方案的例子：

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二十四小时禁食不一定非要在周一、周三或周五进行。你可以连续两天，然后在一周的晚些时候再进行第三天。如果你即将度过一个繁忙的周末，那么你甚至可以在这三天里一起禁食。许多成功人士会在周一、周二和周三禁食，然后在接下来的一周里毫无负罪感地与朋友和家人社交。

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我不建议每周将禁食日安排在一周中的特定三天。提前计划好你的周，如果在你决定要禁食的一天出现了意外情况，那么就在下一个未被社交活动占用的日子进行禁食。

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每周禁食三十六或四十二小时

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36或42小时的禁食可以非常成功，但每周三次禁食而不打乱社交生活是很困难的。我自己使用的一个好策略是在周一和周三禁食42小时，或者在周二和周四禁食42小时。周五和周六是灵活的日子，在社交活动的情况下禁食是可以选择的。我发现周一和周三连续禁食42小时相对容易，但在周五和周末我挣扎过无数次并失败了。最后，我决定我会在周五禁食24小时，并为此感到自豪。否则，我在周五就是在自毁长城，因为大概有80%的时候，社交场合会突然出现，要么我觉得自己错过了什么，要么就是破坏了我的禁食。

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设定一个目标，每周禁食 24 到 42 小时。无论你能做什么，都要为此感到骄傲。保持灵活、积极的态度。不要贪多嚼不烂，因为你只会让自己失败。

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每周一次的 72 小时禁食

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有些人发现，一旦开始禁食，他们更容易坚持下去，而不是做几次短时间的禁食。如果你是这样的人，那么一个 72 小时的禁食可能是你的最佳选择。大多数实行这种禁食计划的人都会在周末大吃一顿后，在周日晚上开始禁食，并在周三晚上结束禁食，然后在接下来的一周里继续进食。对于那些与朋友和家人一起度过繁忙周末的人来说，这非常有效。

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三天禁食听起来很多，但其实只是省略了工作日的两顿晚餐，这对那些视晚餐时间为家庭聚会时间的人来说很有好处。如果你是家里主要的厨师，那么这也对你有利，因为你只需要提前计划一周中的两顿饭。

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计划假期、度假和留宿客人

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一年中总会有几天完全无法禁食。这些场合可能是节假日或团聚，又或者你有来自外地的过夜客人。在这些时候，你还是应该避免吃零食。为什么？因为你已经努力让血糖保持稳定，降低胰岛素水平；吃零食会打乱这一进程，让你再次感到饥饿。

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在假期期间，我最重要的建议就是尽量避免吃零食。我知道这很难，因为食物到处都是，其中很多都以甜食或垃圾食品的形式出现，或者是油腻的小吃—— 一旦你开始吃，就很容易吃过量。但如果你想享受大餐，就必须把注意力放在一顿丰富而又有营养的食物上。不断地少吃多餐是最糟糕的选择。

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许多客户在出国度假前都会经历一场全面的恐慌发作。他们看到圣诞节一周大吃大喝对他们的影响，害怕东京的一周游会更糟糕。放松点！事实上，假期比节日容易多了！为什么？因为在圣诞节、感恩节或许多其他主要的家庭或宗教节日，我们通常会在家里，在餐桌上，并不断受到诱惑。从我们到达庆祝活动到离开的那一刻，我们面前摆满了各种各样的食物。这是几个小时的饮食时间！但是当你旅行时，你会在外面，探索，散步，参观当地的景点。你只是停下来吃饭。就是这样。

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我的一位客户最近从伦敦回来，吓得不敢上秤。

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他说：“梅根，我每顿饭都喝啤酒、吃薯片。”

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猜猜怎么着？他虽然每顿饭都吃薯片喝啤酒，但还是瘦了七磅。因为他离开的时候一天只吃两顿饭。他并没有在酒店房间里每晚坐在沙发上一边看Netflix一边吃零食。所以假期要对自己宽容一点，享受大餐吧。一年中总有一些时候可以多吃点，有些时候则应该少吃点。

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伊芙·迈耶

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没有人是完美的。当你做出任何重大的生活方式改变时——尤其是禁食和戒掉你喜欢的不健康食物——有时你会失败。没关系，我保证。你可以随时回到正轨。

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最近的一个周六，我也从酒坛中跌落。

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我度过了艰难的一天。多年前，我的应对方式是暴饮暴食含糖量高、碳水化合物含量高的食物，以此来转移注意力，摆脱痛苦。我和大多数人一样使用食物——有时与朋友一起，但大多数时候独自在家看电视前。屈服于持续的饥饿感分散了我的注意力，而暴饮暴食成为了一种容易且安慰人心的治疗方法。

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突然，那个星期六，我的痛苦像瀑布一样倾泻在我身上，每一次撞击都让我感到更加剧烈。恐慌笼罩着我，我迫切需要一些东西来安抚自己——任何东西。然后我想到了：我可以暴饮暴食。这一次，就这一次——以后再也不了——我可以利用食物来阻止自己的情绪。我当时一个人，所以没有人会知道。而且我还有现金，所以我丈夫不会看到信用卡账单上显示的即将开始的狂欢节。

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如果你从未对任何物质上瘾，那么很难描述药物、酒精或百吉饼给瘾君子带来的满足感——以及，矛盾的是，绝望。但当我踩下油门，把车开进一家Nothing Bundt Cakes商店的停车场时，我深深地感受到了这种疯狂的冲动。我砰地关上门，然后看着我的车，注意到我把车停歪了。我不在乎。我已经疯了，准备好把所有理性抛在脑后，以便我可以得到我的糖分。

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当我走进去时，看到排队的人有六个，我的心沉了下来。我没有那么多时间等待——甚至不能把那块甜的面包布丁蛋糕送进嘴里。幸运的是，在角落里我注意到一些红色天鹅绒面包布丁蛋糕的小样品，上面还有一小撮白色的糖霜。我跑过去，塞了一块在嘴里，不嚼就吞了下去。然后我背对着大家，又吃了一个样本，祈祷他们没有看见我。擦掉嘴角的碎屑，我回到队伍中等待轮到我，发现前面还有六个人，于是我又回到那个装着红丝绒蛋糕的小碟子旁边，狼吞虎咽地吃了两块。

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然后我匆匆忙忙地离开了商店，希望我能变得神奇地隐形。

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你会以为我会停在那里，然后走向我的车，但我没有。我知道在同一个购物中心里有一个高档杂货店，里面摆满了食物样品。我走进门，开始狼吞虎咽地吃掉他们提供的所有样品——从酸奶到果汁、牛肉干再到葡萄，还有我最喜欢的：面包店新鲜出炉的面包和饼干。

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我知道我暂时精神错乱，是的，我对自己感到非常羞愧。但我无法控制自己，所以我把那些想法压下去，伸手去拿了一块南瓜面包。

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突然，我听到附近有声音。一开始声音很微弱。然后越来越近。

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“伊芙！嗨，伊芙，很高兴见到你！”

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我抬头挥手。令我惊恐的是，那是我认识的人。我没化妆，头发梳成了一个绝对不讨好的发髻顶在头上，再加上我的嘴里塞满了面包，我应该看起来像个怪物。但我有两年没见到这位朋友了，而且我现在比上次见面时轻了50磅。

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“天啊，你看起来棒极了！”我的朋友惊呼。

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“谢谢你，”我说道，真心实意。

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当我回到家时，我告诉了我的丈夫一切，从抢夺面包布丁样品到在杂货店大肆购物。当我告诉他我为背叛了对我帮助如此之大的饮食计划而感到羞愧时，我哭了。当我回想起我是如何被认识的人“抓住”的时候，我又哭了。然而，随着我的眼泪流下脸颊，他开始笑了起来。

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“当你的嘴边还有面包屑的时候，有人告诉你你看起来多好，这不是很棒吗？”他问道。

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这是真的。在如此低谷的时候，收到赞美是很搞笑的事。

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擦干眼泪后，我们又聊了几分钟。我开始反思是什么让我这样暴饮暴食。和丈夫交谈时，我意识到我一直回避处理一些问题。我担心丈夫的新工作，以及从忙碌的企业主转变为顾问和全职作家的过渡。我失去了信心，并质疑自己的目标，这些恐惧让我重新陷入了坏习惯，让食物再次控制了我的生活。我觉得自己像个失败者，直到我深呼吸并意识到：我的暴饮暴食只持续了20分钟。就是这样，20分钟的荒谬愚蠢的行为。

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这就是教训。即使你可能已经走了很远，而且仍然觉得要健康得多还有很长的路要走，但总有几分钟、几天甚至几周的时间你是不那么健康的。你是人，这让你不完美。你很棒，但也容易犯错。不管你改善了多少，付出了多少努力，或者认为自己对健康有多么了解，偶尔还是会倒下！没关系。

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希望你们只会遇到一些小问题，比如我失控的暴饮暴食。但有时，你们的问题会很大。你们可能会生病、受重伤、失业、分手或照顾病重的家庭成员。生活就像是一场持续不断的残酷过山车。在这样一场疯狂的旅程中，你们的工作就是记住：你们值得付出努力。

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这听起来很老套，但当你开始禁食时，你会偏离正轨。我搞砸了，失败了，跌倒了。但现在，与其长时间地自责，不如重新开始。我发现那些瘦子，他们一直是神秘的存在，有时也会狼吞虎咽！瘦而健康的人吃不好的食物，也吃好的食物，但他们遵循一种对他们来说最有效的饮食和/或禁食系统。

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所以，当你跌倒并想知道是否能够重新站起来时，请告诉自己重新开始是可以的。每一段伟大的旅程都始于足下的第一步，不要害怕起身、拍掉身上的尘土，然后重新开始吧！你值得拥有这一切！

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跌倒后如何站起来

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尽快原谅自己。如果你能学会自嘲，你会恢复得快两倍。审视你的生活，想想你可能没有得到你需要的东西。如果可能的话，试着以健康的方式给自己需要的东西。在你检查完自己搞砸的事情后，认识到你是如何成功的。花点时间为自己取得的成绩感到骄傲。坚持下去。试着比昨天做得更好。

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伊芙·迈耶

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我们已经讨论过禁食可能是一个有争议的话题。由于人们往往会强烈反对不吃东西的想法，