In the Daily Check-in thread, why is smoking a type of fasting?
“Type of fast (water, juice, smoking, etc.)”
I’ve been doing IF, and I smoke outside my eating window (tobacco + marijuana). I’m insanely lucky that smoking doesn’t give me the munchies. Sometimes I feel a little hungry but I can ignore it, so smoking never causes me to break my fast. But beyond that I was wondering how smoking effects the biology of fasting? I read somewhere that smoking tobacco breaks your fast, but I really cannot see how that could be true.
PS - Please don’t judge me for smoking. We all have our vices, this is mine. Thanks.
Yes and no, technically no since there’s no calories, however some people have stronger definitions of fasting where I would understand “yes” being an answer. Same as the old tea debate I guess, how “pure” do you want your fasts to be.
But from light research noticing similar wording of “smoking during fasting is ill-advised as It can cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, lead to arterial blood pressure fall…”
This seems to discuss a lot of the effects and debated areas if you want to give that a read: https://intermittentdieter.com/will-smoking-break-a-fast/
I wouldnt worry about it too much just for IF, if It were a longer fast yes but short term I dont think that would be too much stress on the body.
Been fasting for years now and have smoked cigs the whole time. The only problem I’ve encountered personally is if I smoke too much during the day while working it can make me feel shitty and the only way to feel better is too eat something.
I’ve often wondered that myself about “smoking fast” in the daily check-in thread. Is that where you fast from everything except smoking (like a juice fast where you fast from everything except juice), or where you fast from smoking?
It seems like language that might have been borrowed from a more general “fasting-related” subreddit, one that included things like “juice fasts” in the concept of “fasting.” I don’t think it has much to do with intermittent fasting as defined and practiced by most on this sub.
I also don’t know that the biology of tobacco or cannabis smoking and fasting has really been studied. My guess is that nicotine, being a stimulant, probably elevates cortisol in the short term, which can make it harder to burn fat. But it’s also an appetite suppressant, so [shrug]. I take prescribed Adderall for ADHD, and that probably has much the same effect on cortisol and appetite — I still lose weight with IF. (I’ve never smoked tobacco, so I can’t compare the effects from personal experience.) But that’s just a lightly-educated guess. I’m not an expert in the field.
I can’t guess much about smoking cannabis other than the possibility of increasing appetite, which you said isn’t an issue for you. Used in the right way, it might reduce distress from some chronic conditions like anxiety or chronic pain, and thus overall reduce cortisol. Again, a lightly-educated guess.
My understanding is that the main biological effects of IF come from keeping insulin lowered for a longer period. I don’t know if smoking affects insulin at all. I doubt it. Maybe a flavored vape might?
But again, I’m not an expert in the toxicodynamics of tobacco or cannabis smoking. There are scientists out there who study this stuff for a living — though even they have probably not looked specifically at effects on fasting, since IF has not been that common. But there might be some papers out on PubMed about the effects of smoking on hormones or hormone signaling pathways we know are related to fasting, like insulin, cortisol, or ghrelin. It could be an interesting research project for a grad student or postdoc!
You might wonder how smoking affects autophagy. I doubt anyone has a clue. We know so little about autophagy in humans that basically everything we say about it is just a guess.
I smoke during my fast as it suppresses my appetite. I do 18:6 I only smoke weed on my one day a week off because damn I get the munchies…. Seems to be working for me, I’ve been going for two months and losing about 3 pounds a week. SW270 CW246 GW 200 6’4 M
Edit 16:8 to 18:6, I was never good at math….