[astura]

I think you're confusing fasting (simply abstaining from food) with some sort of religious or spiritual practice.

My first fast was 4 days when I was a teenager and it started as a joke "let's fast for the whole week then go to a buffet to see how much we can eat." That lead me to fast Monday-Thursday and we went to the buffet on Friday. Guess how much "clarity" that brought me? None.

[bonestamp2]

No, "simply abstaining from food" is not what I do. In fact, I eat quite a lot of food. But, it's the types of food that matter, which is what this thread is about. Being on a nutritious but very low (net) carb diet puts your body in ketosis -- it changes the way your body metabolizes food and stored body fat for energy. This is very different from fasting and/or abstaining from food and also very different from religion. The clarity is real and widely reported by others who achieve ketosis.

[Dove]

I would be careful not to overgeneralize from your personal experience, particularly not from a badly prepared / unguided experience.

A sense of clarity after three or four days is something a lot of people report -- certainly enough to say it is a real phenomenon. I don't know if the experience is universal, but it does seem to be quite common.

[astura]

Once again, you're confusing a personal religious/spiritual practice with the physical act of abstaining from food. They aren't the same. I never said it wasn't real, I certainly believe you feel it - If you're looking for a spiritual experience you'll certainly get one. I never said other people won't have similar experiences, in fact, cleansing rituals are a part of most of the world's religions.

It's just that you are not speaking of fasting itself, you are speaking of a spiritual practice that incorporates fasting.

Besides, I have a ton of experience fasting, I fast very frequently, short fasts every week (1 to 2 days), long fasts every once in a while, when I feel like it. I enjoy the physical feeling of fasting. I was merely speaking about the very first time I fasted.

[lotharbot]

> "you're confusing a personal religious/spiritual practice with the physical act of abstaining from food"

No, she is not (being married to her, I can speak with some authority regarding her intent.)

She does not fast as a part of a religious practice, but as part of a dietary one. And has likewise been reading dietary, not religious, guides to fasting. And it is a commonly reported experience for people to have a degree of increased focus/clarity on about day 4 of an extended fast. It can come in a religious/spiritual form, but can also simply be "man, I'm really on top of things today" -- as if the biochemistry of the body after 80-90 hours of deliberate fasting puts the brain into a mode of hyperfocus.