FIT&FAB: The countless benefits of fasting

Religious young African woman praying. We were not only expected to deny ourselves food and stay hungry, but also stay joyously so. It was not as difficult as we feared it would be. PHOTOSEARCH

What you need to know:

  • We were not only expected to deny ourselves food and stay hungry, but also stay joyously so.
  • It was not as difficult as we feared it would be. 

Have you ever fasted? 

When our pastor beseeched us to fast in 2017 just a day to the General Election, I was surprised at the enthusiasm with which the youthful congregation responded.

This is how it would work: We were to take an entire day praying for our country without taking a single bite of food.

There were two options; a full day fast for 24 hours or a half day first of 12hours. The pastor was quick to bring to our attention the fasting scripture in the bible from: Matthew 6:16-18.

JOYOUS FASTING

We were not only expected to deny ourselves food and stay hungry, but also stay joyously so. It was not as difficult as we feared it would be.

First of all, it being a Sunday, my family spent half the day in church singing and praising as the hours whiled away.

Later, we all went straight home where we sat in the living room chatting about the sermon. We then took turns praying starting from my mother who occasionally broke into worship choruses amid the prayers.

At around 8 pm, we retired to bed. That day, I drank close to four litres of water to keep the hunger pangs at bay.

The prayers also occupied our minds and kept us from thinking about food and we felt the spiritual breakthrough knowing that God would watch over our country.

SUPER ENERGY

When I woke up the following morning, I felt super energised. I skipped from my bed feeling light as a feather and headed to the kitchen where porridge was bubbling in a pot as its delicious aroma feeling the entire house.

Porridge is one of the best meals to break a fast. I noticed that all my family members looked refreshed, not at all hunger stricken as I had expected. Even my younger sister

who was a first-timer at the time seemed very energetic. As we dug eagerly to our simmering bowl of fermented porridge, I made a mental note to research about the physical benefits of fasting.

I studied intermittent fasting, which is basically an eating pattern whereby one cycles between a period of eating and fasting like. For instance, you may decide to fast for 16 hours daily or for 24 hours twice per week.

This should however not be a hall pass to over-eat after the fast as this would defeat the purpose of intermittent fasting.

I discovered that during the period of fasting hormonal changes such as lower insulin levels, higher levels of human growth hormone and increased production of noradrenaline hormone occurred and in turn made stored body fat more accessible to be broken down and used for energy.

The belly is a prime fat storage place for both women and women and this explained my flatter belly the morning after fasting.

REDUCES AMOUNT OF FOOD

While boosting metabolism rate, intermittent fasting reduces the amount of food one eats because of the reduced frequency of eating, unless of course one overcompensates for the skipped meals.

When we had porridge the next morning, I was quite satiated despite it being much less than the usual breakfast buffet my mother made each morning.  I remember my mother jokingly pointing out that our tummies had shrunk and “forgotten” food during the previous day’s fast.

In addition to hormonal changes, important cellular repair processes as well increased growth of new nerve cell occurs.

This coupled up with the hormonal changes show to be of great benefit to vital body organs such as the body and the heart.

While a lot of the medical jargon whizzed by as I did my brief research, I could tell with no shadow of doubt that indeed intermittent or periodical fasting had a ton of physical benefits to the body.

I also stumbled upon an informative beginner’s guide to intermittent fasting which I put to trial about two days ago by experimenting with myself. I will be sure to keep you posted on how it went and if successful, share the same with all you fitness enthusiasts.

In the midst of my experiment, I have learnt that it is extremely important to keep busy during the fast.

Since this time it is not for spiritual purposes, I am spending a lot of time reading interesting and fun books, taking brisk walks, listening to music, skipping intensive work out so an not to burn out and of course taking a lot of water.

Maybe while am at it, I will also add some more prayers to my usual devotions.

The next time your spiritual authority calls for prayer and fasting, you might want to give it a shot. It will be great not only for your spiritual growth but also your physical wellbeing. I look at it as fitness, inside out.

 

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Fit&Fab is a blog series by Marion Maina who lost 30kg during her weight loss journey that started two years ago and is now in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. Do you have feedback on this story? E-mail: [email protected]