by Rob Hanna
First understand that Intermittent Fasting (meal-skipping) is itself a hack to avoid fasting. So people asking for a hack of intermittent fasting are asking for a hack of a hack.
In essence, the potentially broad, deep and enduring results you would have enjoyed in fasting are going to collapse into a less robust set of possible experiences through intermittent fasting, which additionally will collapse those potential gains even further as you hack at their robustness in hopes of getting down to whatever irreducible gain you're trying to achieve with the least amount of effort and time...
Imagine moving away from reading all great classic literature that has stood the test of centuries to then only reading comic books that have stood the test of years to then only reading Tweets that don't stand the test of anything at all... oh wait, we don't have to imagine this. Let me be more direct...
Our movement away from our investment of time in fasting incurs an equal loss of depth and enduring wellness gains, all in willing exchange for a life of constant, superficial stimulation, which at best can only narrate about health and vitality from the periphery of wellness instead of thriving at the center of a whole life experience.
Regardless all that babbling, here's your hack: the primary benefit of all intermittent fasting is...
- reduction of weekly average and total caloric intake
Some programs try to distract you and/or make you do more work towards accomplishing this simple objective. You can now go to the heart of the process any way you like.
The secondary benefit of all intermittent fasting is:
- continuous, metabolic rest
One can only get this by... wait for it... not eating and resting your metabolism! No matter what hokey named, e-publication program you might choose to follow, it's highly unlikely that you can hack its intermittent fasting approach to achieve this gain by still eating your way around it. Put that muffin down!
So your best possible hack of intermittent fasting is simply to eat less frequently and/or less volume of food throughout your week to the approximate level of total caloric reduction your chosen intermittent fasting program offers. And most of us can do this without missing a single day of eating.
More's the pity...