Break the Cycle

Last Thursday, I talked about a study that said, in so many words, the more you eat, the more you gain. It’s not just about the excess calories building up around your body, but the fact that the act of overeating actually makes you want to eat even more. This obviously leads to a vicious cycle which can be difficult to break. However, they did have a suggestion and I decided to try it.

Conceptually, it’s pretty simple: Don’t eat. With your body’s blood sugars, insulin levels, and everything all crazy bonkers, about the only way you can reboot this system is to just leave it alone for twenty four hours. It sounded kind of crazy. I’d never tried a fast before. But after a couple weeks of the holidays and another week still filled with visions of sugar plums twenty-four seven, I decided to not wait any longer.

Around eight o’clock Sunday evening, I had my last meal. Spaghettio’s. Yum. I went to bed and woke up hungry. Then there was this strange gap in my Monday morning where I usually pulled together whatever breakfast, lunch, and snacks I was going to take with me. Instead, I walked around like a student after finals week not knowing what to do with all this extra time. I hopped in the car and went off to work, thinking, “Hmmm, I’m really not going to eat today. Very strange.”

How’d the day go? Pretty well, actually. Aside from being offered cookies, candy, and snacks all day, I didn’t touch anything. Nor did I tell anyone what I was doing. I wanted this experiment to be as real as possible. I sure got hungry a few times during the day. A couple times just gnawingly hungry, but I made it.

Until Monday night. I’d thought about just going without food until the next morning. But by ten o’clock that evening I started feeling a bit … odd. I had a headache, but still felt a bit strange. I decided to take a blood sugar reading. It was 70. That’s about my lower bound for safety, and decided sleeping another seven hours or so probably wasn’t the best idea.

I fixed a bowl of Honeycomb cereal (with banana and milk). Just one serving, but it was wonderful. Best meal I’d had in a long time.

And did the experiment work? Well, like all good experiments, a little bit of yes and a little bit of no. For the rest of the week I stayed under calories every single day. I didn’t get overly hungry and I didn’t dream about potato chips all day. I ate a bit too much Saturday evening. Then again Sunday evening. But I can hardly blame that on a failed experiment. I’ve been doing that forever.

So mostly, I’d say “yes.” I feel like I got that clean break from the holidays I so desperately needed, both mentally and physically. My overnight weight drop between Monday and Tuesday was about five pounds. Granted, I don’t recommend fasting as an actual diet solution. Please be mindful of that disclaimer I have over on the right. And I can’t rule out a placebo effect too. But mostly I think the insulin speaks for itself.

I’ll know more next week. Meet me here then for the charts and the final verdict. I’ll be the guy eating the Honeycomb cereal…