Not planning or condoning this, but curious from a biological perspective. If one had a way of speeding up one’s metabolism (eg exogenous thyroid hormone) and applied it at the point where metabolism would theoretically slow down, could the length of time of effective fasting be extended?
Again, this sounds potentially dangerous so please no one do this. But my interest in physiology has me wondering.
Check out /r/SaturatedFat and FireInABottle.net
There is a theory that an enzyme called SCD1 is responsible for converting saturated fat into unsaturated fat. The more Unsaturated fat your body burns, the less efficient it gets at burning fat, and the more fat it stores.
Fasting increases SCD1 activity. The theory goes that the less food you have to eat, the more your body wants to hang onto what it already has.
Supposedly oil from the Sterculia nut will block the activity of SCD1, so that it can’t de-saturate your existing fat stores. The more Saturated fat you have, the better your body is at burning fat for fuel.
How well your body can burn fat and glucose helps determine your metabolism. If you burn a lot of saturated fat, your body will think you have plenty of energy available, and keep the furnace hot. But once you run out of glucose, and struggle to burn unsaturated fat, your metabolism throttles back.
I’m trying it now. Haven’t started any fasting yet, but plan to soon.