I wish that more people were aware of this metabolic effect and mechanism. When we're young and physically active, we require more energy to act, and eat more. I also reckon that we should be more active, and that people aren't is why they are obese.

However, I noted that my habit of eating immense and frequent meals that I required when I was logging, fishing, and other physically demanding occupations was dramatically counterproductive when I hit my mid-30s, and no matter how hard I worked, I just couldn't burn that food off.

So, I fasted. Rather than eat paltry meals that left me feeling unsatisfied, and yearning for more food in that meal, prompting negative feelings about dieting and cheating, I just stayed hungry, or not eating, until I had a full meal. I found one full meal a day left me plenty of energy for working construction, and each meal was very satisfying, rather than frustrating.

It's hard to convey what a difference my feeling about food and eating has made on my ability to maintain my regimen and weight. I do gain weight in winter, and get back in shape in the summer, because construction work is seasonal, but I reckon that's also a natural cycle, as humans evolved in a seasonal world.

Long story short, it is as different as night and day between fasting and dieting. The latter leaves you struggling and dissatisfied with every meal, while the former does the opposite. Given the very common failure of dieting to deliver satisfactory results, I am confident that the mental discipline necessary to maintaining a regimen in the terrible negative mental state that meals too small to satisfy produces is perhaps the dominant factor.

It's a lot easier to simply refrain from eating, even for days at a time, than it is to eat only unsatisfying meals. When one does eat a fully satisfying meal, but only once a day, eating is a joy, and maintaining a regimen becomes highly positively reinforced by that satisfaction, which is a primal biological feature of being alive.

Fasting works with our natural processes, and dieting against them. This research indicates many more reasons to support that conclusion, as our bodies have many different mechanisms that show positive responses to temporal caloric restriction (fasting).

Thanks!