Scientist Ray Cronise fasted for 22 days. No food, just water. Yet, when you watch this interview below with him, he doesn’t look starved. He seems cognoscente, capable, and according to the interview, feeling great. How is this possible? Why should you care?

The feeling of hunger

Up until recently, I’ve always had three meals a day. Breakfast first thing in the morning, lunch at noon, and dinner around 6 or 7 PM. When hunger struck, I ate a snack. If I went too long without eating, I became irritable – “hangry” according to my wife (“hungry” and “angry”).

It wasn’t until recently that I learned that feeling of hunger is as much a psychological phenomena as it is a physiological phenomena. After you eat, your body secretes a number of hormones giving you sensations of fullness and satiety. Your insulin levels increase to help process the glucose entering your bloodstream. As the glucose plummets, the brain becomes starved for energy, resulting in the release of other hormones signaling the feelings of hunger.

However, hunger can range from just wanting to eat to cravings for specific types of food. Cravings develop as our mind associates certain foods with the dopamine pleasure responses generated by fatty, sugary goodness in some foods. Its as much psychological as physiological.

Furthermore, feelings of hunger only create a mild discomfort. While it persists, it can be annoying, but ignoring it will not create any lasting harm to the body (other than possible “hangry” feelings). Ignore them long enough and you begin fasting.

Heath benefits from fasting

But why would you want to fast? First, its important to understand that fasting is just going a significant amount of time without eating. It may seem obvious, but the term “break-fast” refers to the meal after we break our fast, usually in the morning because we don’t eat all night. Overnight fasting can be described as intermittent fasting, though the benefits for doing this are largely dependent on how long you regularly take to break-fast.

The science of fasting is still in its infancy. For many years, fasting was associated with starvation, with generally negative connotations. Some religions encouraged fasting during certain religious events, but those were seen as times of sacrifice and pain. The benefits were not discussed.

Recently, however, a growing interest in nutrition and fasting has led to studies on its effect on the body. Fasting has been shown to improve the bodies ability to process sugar and reduce insulin resistance, a problem with many diabetics. Fasting has also shown to reduce inflammation markers, providing potential relief to people with chronic inflammation problems. Although less conclusive, some studies suggest fasting can improve heart health, reducing cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood pressure levels. It may also help improve mental health, improving neurodegenerative disorders. And some people appreciate the weight loss from lower caloric intake and improved human growth hormone levels.

Perhaps one of the more interesting benefits from fasting is psychological. Fasting can give you power of your life and its relationship to food. Ray Cronise (mentioned above) related in a podcast with Alex Epstein how fasting can help you realize that hunger does not have to control your life. You don’t have to keep reacting immediately to hunger. In fact, you learn that you don’t even need to eat everyday to maintain a healthy body. Your body can go many days without food and still thrive. In fact, fasting occasionally may help you thrive better than constantly eating.

My experience with fasting

This is the experience I had two days ago. For the past month, I was slowly pushed back when I had my first meal of the day. 8 AM. 9 AM. 10 AM. A few days I made to 11:30. But two days ago, I was working hard at my desk and realized it was already after 1:30 PM and I hadn’t eaten. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have a bite of food until after noon.

I felt some mild hunger pains, but they were minimal and easy to ignore as I immersed myself in my work. When I realized the time, I know I could keep going, but I made a conscious decision to eat a few calories before I worked out in an hour. I found that I had gained control over hunger.

My next goal is to attempt a 24 hour fast. I’m lucky in that my wife is also on board. She has been intermittent fasting as well and is open to longer fasts. My friends Robert and Amy Nasir have already done the 24 hour fast – and longer. This is something I want to continue exploring and experimenting with. As I do more, I will report my findings here.