This might be the most controversial topic I get into on here (although I do like the word cunt, and that seems to do the trick too), so here we go! Onto the greatest of all time hack for mental health to ever enter my life.
This is where mindfulness entered the fray and my anger really subsided. This is where I learned that my anxiety could be rooted in more than just past trauma, but in my day to day choices. This is where I learned I am so much stronger than I previously thought (and I already thought I was pretty damn strong).
This is where I learned about extended fasting and its positive effects on the brain.
Yes, you read that right, a self proclaimed binge eater is recommending to not eat at all for mental health gains.
READ this actual mother-fucking disclaimer (please)
DISCLAIMER:
I am not a medical professional (or any type of professional/expert for that matter). I am a regular person who was forced to start working on myself following some shitty shit.
You should always talk to your doctor before making changes to your health plan, and you absolutely should get a form of medical clearance before starting something like fasting. Don’t blindly take advice from an internet stranger when it comes to your health.
Do some research and feel out if extended fasting might be something for you, then talk to your doctor before starting. I mean … I didn’t, but go read that entry on therapy cats again if you think you should take my words at face value in relation to your health.
Finding the GOAT
It was around spring 2025 when I realized I had gained a fuckton of weight. I guess following the death of my brother I just stopped caring and with moving my body less, and poor food/beverage choices the weight really piled on quickly. I also realized if I kept down the path I had started, I increased my risk of joining my brother sooner rather than later.
So my goal was to lose the weight I gained over the course of a year, preferably quickly.
That goal brought me to the internet for motivation – I had been off standard social media since my brother died but I occasionally scrolled a certain popular forum based website on the internet to creep the fitness communities.
That’s when a recommendation for fasting appeared somewhere in a comment from a user. Of course, the majority of other users replying to it bashed it into oblivion (as the echo chamber of that place goes)…but my intrigue had already set in.
I went down a rabbit hole on the information available on fasting from more reputable sources. What I read was that contrary to what I’d been told most my life, even though my body screamed at me if I didn’t eat every three hours, that wasn’t necessarily a sign I needed to eat.
Your body (if you have the extra fat to burn, which I fucking did) is actually very capable of going extended periods without food. When food stops coming in, the body uses the fat on your body for energy instead.
It sounded easy enough.
Fast a little short term, lose the weight, get back into my pre-dead-brother era of fitness, stop fasting. Easy peasy lemon squeezey!
That’s what I thought going in, but the first two weeks trying to do extended fasting were fucking hell.
Alternate Day Fasting
The rules are simple, don’t eat but keep hydrated. On fasting days, the only things I consumed were water, black coffee and black teas (usually green or yerba mate)
I think the correct way to do any type of extended fasting would have been to ease into it slowly with longer daily fasts… However, I am a black and white, all or nothing, discomfort be damned type and I jumped right the fuck in.
It was… really rough initially. Light headedness, fatigue, intense hunger pains, increased irritability…I was a miserable bitch for two weeks.
A smarter person may have stopped to consider if this was actually benefitting me but I pushed through. After the initial shock to my body of having never run on a fuel source other than carbohydrates, fasting became easier. After trying out a few different types of fasting schedules, I settled on Alternate Day Fasting, or “ADF”.
ADF is essentially: eat one day normally, eat nothing the next. Around 36 hours of fasting to include sleep and not eating the second you wake up. I fasted 2-3 times a week and lost the weight that had taken a year to put on, in under two months.
I did longer fasts too (up to 100 hours) but the majority was and is still 36 hours long.
I was initially worried that longer fasting would increase my binge eating but it had the opposite effect. The act of going long periods without any food at all, ironically quieted the food noise when I did eat. My ravenous appetite subsided and food lost its power over me.
The weight loss and rectified binge eating wasn’t even the coolest thing about fasting though.
Fasting and Mental Health
I started to notice that my mind was clearer. My thoughts were less aggressive, I was more patient and my anxiety which had been a constant my whole life, had at some point chilled the fuck out.
The only thing that had changed in my life was fasting, so down the internet rabbit hole I travelled again. It turned out that fasting has more benefits than just weight loss. Fasting also has documented positive effects on mental health.
From lowering inflammation in the body, all the way to increased brain growth proteins and cellular cleanup on steroids – extended fasting has some science-based shit that was interesting to read about. You should probably search it yourself right now, because this isn’t a sourced wellness blog, it’s just a compilation of my personal experiences.
What I can confidently say is this: I still don’t know what the fuck a ketone is, but what I do know and can write about is how I FEEL. How I feel is infinitely better than the way I felt the majority of my life when I was eating frequently.
For today, the important bit is this: If you have struggled with your mental health and find yourself eating for comfort, you might be doing more damage to yourself than just your increasing waistline.
You don’t need to be snacking all hours throughout the day for your health, in fact it might be better for you to skip a meal, or even a days worth of meals. You will survive…probably.
It’s not one thing, it’s everything
I don’t think there’s any one tip or trick to fix your poor mental health. But if I had to suggest my favourite, lesser known thing to aid you on your mental health journey, it would be fasting. If you have tried some of the conventional methods to no avail, then what do you have to lose?
I whole heartedly believe that fasting was and is the biggest positive impact on my mental health – More than therapy, more than antidepressants, more than fitness and certainly more than a therapy cat.
Fasting has become a staple in my life that I feel I need to keep to stay on top of my brain (and body) health. I intend to keep fasting regularly provided I don’t develop any conditions that force me to stop.
These days I’m down to one thirty-six hour fast a week and I’m maintaining my weight while hitting my strength goals. If not for fasting, I wouldn’t have been in such a strong place to survive catalyst three which will be coming up soon.
Anyway, until next week!
Sincerely,
Sammy
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