GQ_South_Africa_2017

Body HEALTH

108 GQ.CO.ZA OCTOBER 2017

Words by Jeff Vrabel

Illustrations by Rami Niemi

Why is

everybody

suddenly

fasting?

(And how

can I fast

better than

them?)

At fi rst, fasting sounded less like

a health plan and more like

a prison protest, but we kept

hearing that it works, so we

scrutinised two rival approaches

Of all the fad diets

to come down the pike,

the simplest was the one

we never saw coming:

just don’t eat food. Th e

idea of intermittent

fasting (i.e. regimented

periods of eating and

not eating) has gone

mainstream. Fans say it

works by training your

body to burn its fat

reserves, and it’s said to

decrease the risk of

cancer, diabetes and

cardiovascular disease.

Th e main downside is

the gruelling fi rst two

weeks, during which

there’s a good chance

you’ll feel dizzy, act like

a dick and be really

tempted to quit.

If you do manage to

stick it out, you’ll join a

lineage of fasters dating

back to Aristotle and

Plato, who proved that

even humanity’s deepest

philosophers sweat their

beach bodies.

Willpower required

Low to moderate.

Who’s done it

Hugh Jackman followed the

16:8 Diet for the X-Men

movies, because the

world is not ready for

what a 40-something

Wolverine really looks like.

How it works

For eight hours a day, you

eat however you normally

do. For the other 16, you

fast. You can drink water,

black coffee and herbal tea.

That’s it. You’re giving your

body time to digest.

How it feels

Doable. If you time it right,

this essentially means

skipping breakfast and

Willpower required

Advanced to Shaolin monk.

Who’s done it

Jimmy Kimmel did it well

enough that he can no

longer make fat jokes about

himself. Miranda Kerr and

Jennifer Aniston reportedly

like it too, and neither of

them has seen a gram of

body fat since 1996.

How it works

For Ƃ ve days a week, eat

normally. For the other two,

‘fast’ by limiting yourself to

600 calories a day (yes,

booze counts). A typical

breakfast: a slice of ham

and two scrambled eggs.

Dinner is a protein-packed

chicken salad.

How it feels

I won’t lie: by 4pm I was

running purely on black

coffee, which meant I was

both over-caffeinated and

irritable. Plus, 600 calories

(nearly a quarter of my daily

recommended intake) feels

like a handful of peanuts,

which speaks to the insanity

of our usual portion sizes.

Upside

You can pick any two

fasting days your heart

desires and split them up

any way you like.

Biggest catch

The Ƃ rst few days are the

hardest, but your body will

soon start adapting. Ideally,

you’ll begin feeling satiated

and eating less on your

normal days.

Eight is enough

Fast and furious

The 16:8 Diet

The 5:2 Diet

Eat only during an

eight-hour window

every day, which

shouldn’t be too hard

if you sleep.

Take a day off from

food. Better yet, take

two, but prepare to

get hangry.

after-dinner snacks, which

many of us do anyway.

Upside

You’ll be conveniently

unconscious for much of

your fasting time. Also, you

don’t have to do it every

day: the popular how-to

book The 8-Hour Diet says

you’ll see beneƂ ts if you eat

16:8-style as few as three

days a week.

Biggest catch

A militant budgeting of time.

If you raid the fridge after

midnight, wave goodbye to

breakfast. If you feast at

lunch, it’s water for dinner.