[pengaru]

> When I was in a mild emergency one thing the experts did that stood out to me was forcing us all to take a break and cook a warm meal. It made a significant difference to perceived energy level and judgement, even if it wasn't strictly necessary.

It does wonders for morale, otherwise it's really not that necessary unless you're running exceptionally low in the adipose department to begin with.

[iudqnolq]

I'm absolutely not an expert in this. I personally perceived a benefit to focus, concentration, and problem solving in addition to morale/group enthusiasm.

My belief, however, (without experience) is that after a few days of no food the physical feeling of hunger will start being very distracting, and you'll start feeling lethargic. I believed that was the case even if you were well nourished before. Not because you run out of fat to burn but because your body starts minimizing usage. Is that totally wrong?

[pengaru]

> I personally perceived a benefit to focus, concentration, and problem solving

People often describe the same things about ketogenic diets and fasting, which are both fat burning modes.

The issue is if you only get into the flux state where you're in between modes. That's where you're hangry, irritable, and can't focus because all you can think about is your hunger. In that condition feeding restores normal operation, and can seem like the only path to recovery.

But it actually passes eventually, and what happens afterwards seems kind of remarkable if you've never done it before.

Water is a different story, but food is really quite optional until the fat buffers start experiencing underruns and your muscles start getting cannibalized, then you're starting to get into trouble.

We've evolved to not just struggle through periods of food scarcity, we actually perform well and can be surprisingly athletic without food. It makes sense to me, since when we're without food we need to be on our game and go find some or eventually we'd die.

When fasting, for me anyways, it really feels like a keyed-up high-alert almost stimulated mode of operating. I've gone on long hikes and runs after not eating for multiple days, it's kind of preferable now so I don't have to carry any food and it's more pleasant to do physical activities with an empty abdomen.

Edit:

Above where I wrote "feeding restores normal operation", I'm assuming that "normal operation" isn't a ketogenic diet, and feeding includes carbs.

People already in ketosis don't go through this suffering phase when starting a fast, because it already happened when they ceased consuming carbs.

[lerchmo]

I've gone 7 days without food, multiple times in a row and 3 days without water. I felt great towards the end of the food fasts. I felt pretty lethargic on the dry fast. Body fat stores a significant amount of energy. I burned about 45 lbs of it this way.

[jacobjuul]

I have done 10-day fasts pretty easily. However, the difference is that when you are doing a voluntary fast, it is just that - voluntary. I imagine not knowing when your fast will end (if ever), will change your attitude and behavior a great deal.

[thaumasiotes]

You may have less energy, but after a few days of no food, the feeling of hunger doesn't get worse -- it goes away.