Intermittent Fasting: How Capitalists Ruined a Good Thing

By this point, everyone has heard of intermittent fasting and knows its an effective and easy way to lose weight. The theory makes intuitive sense (unlike, ironically, intuitive eating) - you time-box your daily eating to eight (or fewer) hours thereby passively limiting your caloric intake. Some people go more extreme with a "OMAD" (one meal a day) or even every other day pattern.

As we've discussed in previous posts, being obese or even overweight is anti-masculine. We assume, therefore, that pursuing and achieving a healthy weight is inherently in the interests of Ultimate Masculinity.

Most people who intermittently fast skip breakfast because it is "easy" [1]. I contend that skipping breakfast is the worst way to intermittently fast and has become popular because of the influence of capitalism on our lives. 

First of all, late night eating is detrimental to our health [2].  Dinner tends to be a large meal already, and if we skip breakfast, we push more caloric "load" later in the day, which will make dinner a larger meal yet. Before industrialization, the largest meal of the day was eaten at midday, to fuel our bodies through the rest of the day. However, with the advent of factory jobs and strict time schedules, the working class experienced increased pressure from the bosses to shorten breaks. [3] We started bringing our lunch to work and eating less more quickly.

With the introduction of industrial processing to our food, a meal that used to give energy - like one full of fruits and vegetables and whole grains would - lunch now saps our energy, because of white bread and processed meat and dairy. Along with the pressures from the clock, workers want to eat less for lunch because our "food" saps our strength!

Additionally, the pressure of a strict schedule makes it "easy" to skip breakfast. Why would you take the time to eat a nourishing meal when you could just not eat and get to work a little bit earlier? Maybe the boss will notice and you'll get that 3% raise!

In fact, there is truth in names. Breakfast is an important meal to eat, especially when we're intermittent fasting. It's the meal that breaks the fast! A breakfast of whole plants will give our bodies the fuel we need to energize and get ready for the day, without sapping our strength the way ultra-processed junk does.

Studies support this reasoning. Breakfast eaters lose more weight than breakfast skippers and "those who consumed a big lunch experienced a [...] significant decrease in BMI [compared to those] those who ate their largest meal at dinner".

In conclusion, it's healthiest to eat breakfast and have a smaller, earlier dinner. Try making lunch your largest meal! And if you're intermittent fasting, experiment with skipping dinner instead of skipping breakfast.

[1] Marks, S. R. (2020, October 2). Intermittent fasting is easy when you call it skipping breakfast. Self Helping Yourself. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://selfhelpingyourself.com/2020/09/30/intermittent-fasting-is-easy-when-you-call-it-skipping-breakfast/