What if you only eat every other day?

Answer 1

There are a lot of people out there who will react to this question like you just asked them for their kidneys. I've tried having intelligent discussions with friends/family about things like this before but their reactions were something like OMG you HAVE to eat every day" or "OMG it's so UNHEALTHY to not EAT for a day!" People with reactions like those are just ignorant about digestive health.

New scientific research says not eating every other day is positive to ones overall health. Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University, says this is no fad way of eating. For more about this research, see the page link, further down this page, listed under Related Links.

Fasting every other day is a great rest for the digestive system. It gives your liver, intestines, pancreas, and pretty much every acessory organ to the digestive system a break for an entire day (around 30 hours, including sleep time) and allows your body to completely process the nutrients and flush the wases from the previous day's meal.

The most difficult things about fasting every other day (or for any length of time) will be the hunger pains and feelings of sluggishness when you first start fasting every other day. Your body will need time to adapt. Just keep in mind that hunger pains don't actually mean that you are hungry. Pangs are just gas in your stomach and/or the stomach shrinking. (at least that's what I've heard). I personally think that pangs happen when there is no more stored food in the fundus and everything has exited into the duodenum.

Oh, and watch out for the blood sugar levels. At first you may feel sluggish after not eating for a day, but that is just because your body has used up the glucose in the blood and is starting ketosis (where body goes to fat cells for fuel instead of sugar in blood). You know what? Nevermind. it usually takes up to 2 days for ketosis to start, so blood sugar levels should be fine if eating is every other day.

You may find yourself eating more on your "eat" days. It is normal to eat a bit more, but don't binge. Eat as many veggies/lower-sugar fruits as you want, but try as HARD as you can to stay away from man-made sweets and fats. Like fast food. Fast food is a no-no. Say no to sodas, especially diet ones, and just drink water. Pretty much everyone in America has a sugar and refined carbohydrate addiction of some degree. The craving for cookie dough is the addiction talking.

Don't tell anyone what you are doing. It freaks most people out because they don't understand how the digestive system works. They think the human body is meant to eat eat eat eat 24-7 with no"rest" time in-between.