Very simply, you either eat or you don’t eat

Since I’ve been fasting, food’s attractiveness has changed.  So I guess you could say my relationship to food has changed.

For example, when I fast for more than 24 hours,  I will start to get really hungry at times.  And as I’ve heard from others, the hunger comes in waves.  At or around the 48 hour mark, food isn’t even interesting.  I can take it or leave it.

We eat for many different reasons, though.  Most women I know eat more when they’re stressed.  This leads me to wonder whether the cortisol-makes-you-fat actually has more to do with eating more often–possibly with eating more calories, as well–than anything else.

Case in point: I was in the midst of a 48-hour fast when I learned a close family member got some bad news about her health.  A scary test result.  I was so distraught I couldn’t stand for my stomach to be empty.  I had to eat.  And so I did eat, and I didn’t fast at all for the rest of the week.  Fortunately when I break a fast I don’t have an urge to binge, so I didn’t gain weight, and the next week I was back to fasting(my rule is two 24-hour fasts or on longer fast from 40-72 hours).

But you know that feeling you get in your gut when you’re worried, or stressed, or scared? It seems to be stronger without food in your belly.  However, and I don’t know the answer to this yet since I haven’t experienced it, once one has fasted for more than 48 hours, what happens?  Is everything calmer? And what is the association between the uncomfortable belly and true hunger?  For that matter, what IS true hunger?

My other question is the whole mechanism of cortisol.  Some research I’ve read implies that it revs up your metabolism.  Generally, however, one author after another link it to weight gain, specifically abdominal fat.  What, exactly, gives here?

I’m heading into the archives to see what I can find.  Stay tuned, folks.