Earlier this week, the “Father of Biohacking” Dave Asprey joined Uncut with Jay Cutler to talk about his various teaching and businesses that are aimed at improving people’s everyday lives through his healthy-living methods and products. One of the key aspects of his teachings revolves around intermittent fasting. While speaking about the diet regimen, Asprey opened up about a crazy experience where he took fasting to the extreme.
Asprey is a huge proponent of intermittent fasting, and he considers it an important part of his daily life. Most people who utilize the eating pattern fast for around 16-18 hours per day. In some cases, they may choose to go without eating for an entire day or two each week. Yet Asprey pushed the limits of fasting during one excursion to test his eating habits and get them under control.
The 49-year-old used to weigh much more, and eating was a problem for him, especially when he felt lonely. Asprey admits he began intermittent fasting as a means to control his eating. In fact, his first of several best-selling books from 2011 was based on the diet regimen.
“That was my first big book, in 2011 I think, saying you’ve got to intermittent fast. But you can do it with coffee, that’s fine,” Asprey said on Uncut with Jay Cutler. “And my most recent book, Fast This Way, man, I fasted in a cave for four [days]. Because I knew that if I didn’t eat eight times a day, my body would go into starvation mode. And then I’d get fat, and I was afraid of getting fat again. I was actually afraid of being lonely, I’d always eat when I was lonely.”
Dave Asprey Opens Up About Taking Fasting to the Extreme on ‘Uncut with Jay Cutler’
That’s right. Dave Asprey spent four full days in a cave with no food resources in the area at all. It may have been an extreme way to go about things, but it took all eating temptations away and kept the focus on his fasting goal.
“So I had a shaman drop me in a cave for four days. I can get hangry at the walls. You know, there’s no one to yell at and there’s no food to eat. So I knew I would fast for four days,” Asprey explained on Uncut with Jay Cutler. “And at the end of it, I had so much energy I ended up walking for 10 miles in the desert. Just cause I felt good, and to try to find the truck that was supposed to pick me up. I got lost and climbed the wrong mountain, but I just didn’t care.”
Asprey was shocked that he had so much energy after four days in a cave without food. It may have been a crazy route to take, but after those four days, his experience led to a revelation on how he thinks about food.
“It just showed me if I can feel like that after four days with no food, what I believed was that I’d be dead or disabled. I realized the truth is you can go a month without food and you’re not going to die,” he continued. “But it was that feeling that you’re going to die. So that was the fastest way. Just that and going to bed a little earlier. Getting a little bit less light at night, that’s all it takes.”
Dave Asprey talks about that and much more during this week’s new episode of the podcast. Make sure to check out his full conversation with host Jay Cutler in the video above, or tune in and listen to Uncut with Jay Cutler on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you listen to your favorite podcasts.
