Fasting

Living like a caveman brings up the question of fasting. There are some "caveman inspired" diets out there that advocate periods of intense consumption, followed by those of complete fasting, simulating what they think a caveman might have eaten like.

While it is true that cavemen may have had some days where they were not able to get food, I do not recommend fasting as part of a modern diet. This is for several reasons:

1. Fasting slows your metabolism- When you don't eat, your body thinks it is starving. Remember, we are designed to live in a low calorie environment. The body quickly goes into metabolic shutdown, then fails to burn off the food that you do eat.

2. Fasting leads to overconsumption- Even if cavemen did not get foods on a given day, they had the same whole food, low calorie choices that were available to them the day before. They could not binge on twinkies when they were allowed to eat. Nor could they "cheat" on their fast, and eat convenience foods.

3. Fasting decreases performance- fasting can lead to fatigue, decreased stamina, dehydration, and decreased mental and athletic performance. Not exactly what you want if you have to do a job, or are trying to train your body to be fit and lose weight.

In addition, I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that cavemen fasted far less frequently than these diets suggest. I'll bet they had lower and higher calorie days, but most days they probably at least got some calories, enough to keep their metabolism going. Let's also remember that many cavemen probably starved to death due to lack of food. This is probably not the outcome you are looking for.

I do recommend a meat fast, however. It is very likely that cavemen did not get meat every day. Thus, our systems are probably not meant to get meat every single day. If you want to cut something out of the diet, start with animal products.

A final note: I know that many people around the globe fast due to religious beliefs. If you are doing it for those reasons, and understand the potential consequences, then fine. I just don't think it is a good weight loss strategy.