Should You Join The Cult Of Fasting?

The hottest thing to eat for a new kind of energy and a better body is ... Nothing. Should you join the cult of fasting?

- Michael Easter

It was this past autumn, and Jack Dorsey, the tech entrepreneur who co-founded Twitter and Square, was on biohacker Ben Greenfield’s podcast to divulge the newest tool that helped him work the long, demanding, intensely focused hours required to run not one but two billion-dollar companies. “Fasting has been a new dimension,” he said. “For the past two years, I have only had dinner. The other thing I’ve been playing with recently is...I’ll go from Friday till Sunday. I won’t have dinner on Friday. I won’t have dinner or any meal on Saturday. And the first time I’ll eat will be Sunday evening.”

Dorsey is another high-profile face in a swelling movement of self-proclaimed “top-performing” men for whom when to eat is now just as important as what to eat. A-Rod, Jimmy Kimmel, Hugh Jackman and Chris Hemsworth have all fasted. Not to mention average guys – fasting books are ticking up the sales ranks of Amazon and WeFast, an online network of people who connect over their lack of meals, has around 20,000 members.

Going anywhere from 12 to 72-plus hours without a single kilojoule, these guys believe, is the ideal diet strategy for the demands of the modern world. It allows humans to get more shit done in less time (“It’s like time slows down,” Dorsey said of his first long fast) while also helping them live longer or cut weight. For some it’s a lifestyle – short fasts every day – whereas others tackle longer fasts weekly, monthly or annually to capture some magic or to “reset” after a bout of unhealthy eating or drinking.

But not everyone agrees that there’s any magic to be had. Not everyone even agrees on what fasting is. “Intermittent fasting” or “time-restricted eating” means eating all of your daily kilojoules within a specified window. What that window should be, however, is up for grabs.