Hello,
After a series of fasting this year, including a 9 day water fast and several 24-48h dryfasts, I no longer feel a need, nor lust, for eating. Same goes for drinking but not to its full extend.
I still do eat and drink but mostly fruit, water and juices, but otherwise I only eat for social events (lunch with colleagues, dinner with friends). After these events I have felt the craving returning slightly but still low, which shows that cravings (not real hunger) is born from filling your stomach.
Eating almost feels uncomfortable and I feel a greater lust for avoiding it.
Anyone else feel a slow transitioning into Liquidarianism? hah.
fasting influences your sensitivities to the hunger hormone ghrelin, satiety hormone leptin, and leptins antagonist insulin which also serves to move blood sugar from the blood into the cells for use.
The longer you fast the less sensitive you get to ghrelin. You’ve noticed this happen in waves as you get hungry during a fast and then after a while it goes away.
The longer you fast the more sensitive you get to leptin. Leptin levels plummet while fasting. There is also almost none of its antagonist insulin swirling around in your blood.
The longer you fast the more sensitive you get to insulin. Less food = less need to regulate blood sugar with insulin.
The longer you eat with fat on the body the less sensitive you get to leptin. Meaning less of a satiety feeling in daily life. Since the leptin that causes satiety is made by fat cells this satiety goes away slowly as your fat goes away during a fast.
The longer you eat carbohydrates regulalry the less sensitive you get to insulin. Meaning more insulin is created to get rid of the blood sugar. Meaning more insulin to counteract the satiety from leptin.
There are also habits around food that are reshaped when you dont partake in them for long periods of time. This is why I think extremely long water fasting is better at dealing with behavioural problems around food like binge eating.
However, I do dry fasting because there are other benefits to dry fasting that water fasting simply does not provide.
I’ve had the same experience around food that you mentioned. A complete change in palete, way higher satiety levels, and an easier time changing the diet wholesale without feeling like I’m missing some of the old foods.
Vegetables, fish and meats have become way tastier. Even though I still largely use the same recipies.
The same thing happened to me after completing a 26-day water fast, a 9-day dry fast and a 10-day dry fast. Occasionally I feel the extreme need to eat (usually if I’m having a really good time with close friends in a social setting), but on a daily basis, I’m rarely hungry.
It just means that I leave more time in between each feeding window. So now I often do 24 hour water fasts, sometimes by accident just because I’m not all that hungry.