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Dave Asprey is the author of Fast This Way.

Health & Nutrition

Fast This Way Book Summary - Fast This Way Book explained in key points

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Fast This Way summary

Name: Fast This Way
Rating: 4.5 (555 reviews)
Author: Dave Asprey

Dave Asprey

Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be

4.5 (555 ratings)

20 mins

Brief summary

Fast This Way by Dave Asprey provides a comprehensive guide on fasting which includes the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. The book offers practical tips on how to incorporate fasting into your life to improve your overall health and well-being.

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Weight Loss Healthy Living Diet

Table of Contents

Fast This Way
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Find out how to turn fasting into a state of mind.

You’ve probably heard that fasting is good for you. Promoted by lifestyle gurus and backed up by countless studies, fasting really is a great way to clean up your insides, lose weight, and help your body run more efficiently. Sounds great – except for the part where you have to be starving all the time!

But this assumption is wrong. That’s because fasting isn’t about deprivation, but rather learning how to give your body what it needs at the right time.

In these blinks, you’ll learn how to break the deep-rooted anxiety that tells you it’s dangerous to skip a meal. And as you get better at going without, you’ll discover what it is you truly need.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

a beginner’s ideal fasting strategy;
how to clean up your sleep hygiene; and
how fasting principles apply to everything.

Fasting is about knowing what you need and taking control of it.

All of us, at one point or another, have found ourselves hungry and craving french fries. But did you know that hunger and cravings are different things? Hunger is a biological message, while cravings are a psychological need – and the junk food industry, peddling highly processed food, has put a lot of effort into convincing you they’ve got just the thing to satisfy your craving.

So if you have a problem controlling unhealthy cravings, fasting might be a solution. But fasting is neither a diet nor a lifestyle. Rather, fasting is a mindset – it means going without. It’s learning how to gain strength by saying no.

The key message here is: Fasting is about knowing what you need and taking control of it.

By going without, you actually break the cycle of consumption and, in that space, give yourself time to reflect. Do I really need that burger? That fifth cup of coffee? That tenth scroll through Instagram?

Yes, even Instagram. It may seem unrelated, but in taking a break from the instant gratification of social media (or whatever else you use to feel a momentary escape), you’d be practicing what Cameron Sepah, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, calls “dopamine fasting.” Imagine how much stronger and calmer you’d feel if you could resist the pull of phone alerts and endless scrolls to focus on a task that requires all your concentration.

You wouldn’t be giving up social media entirely, of course, because fasting isn’t about quitting something forever. Rather, it’s about self-control. A great example of this is oxygen fasting. Sounds crazy, right? But athletes do it all the time – they train in low-oxygen environments to build up lung capacity. Many forms of yoga, too, extol the benefits of breath control.

It’s important to note that although fasting can be uncomfortable, it’s not about suffering. With the right mindset, fasting can be a joyous experience because you achieve a sense of power and control. Then, as you continue to practice fasting, it just becomes . . . well, normal.

Use intermittent fasting to help ease into “going without."

At this point, fasting might sound a bit scary. The thought of giving up food and social media does sound anxiety-inducing. But that’s the interesting thing about fasting – by going without the things that give a momentary sense of comfort or familiarity, you actually end up feeling stronger and more in control.

That’s because you’re not, in reality, giving something up. Rather, you’re putting it on hold while you create new habits. So even though you might experience discomfort at first, remind yourself that it won’t last forever.

To help your body thrive, develop an inconsistent fasting routine.

While insulin regulation, inflammation reduction, and autophagy all sound great on paper, they’re also molecular-level concepts. They aren’t quite as tangible as promises of a slimmer waistline – one of the easiest ways to gain self-esteem and a big reason people turn to fasting in the first place.

But again, fasting isn’t dieting. Many weight-loss diets rely on calorie reduction, as if every calorie from food is the same. But 100 calories of salad is clearly healthier than the same serving of potato chips. And dieting frequently doesn’t address the underlying issue: the fact that your body can’t effectively convert food into energy.

Healthy sleep supports your fasting – and healthy fasting supports your sleep.

Isn’t it funny that most people would rather skip a few hours of sleep than miss a meal? While fasting for a few days won’t kill you, going without sleep could.

But while everyone has felt the regenerative benefits of a good night’s sleep, did you know that getting six and a half to eight hours of sleep per night literally protects and heals you? It reduces the risk of cancer and heart attacks, aids in cellular repair, and reduces inflammation in the brain as the glymphatic system flushes out cellular waste.

Metabolic flexibility helps you power through gym sessions on fasting days.

As we’ve seen, fasting not only helps you confront your fears of not having all the things you swore you couldn’t live without – it actually helps you thrive. And the more your mind and body obey you, the stronger you become.

Next, it’s time to hit the gym. Maybe that sounds impossible on an empty stomach – especially if you rely on sugary sports drinks to get through a gym session or practice carb-loading the night before a workout. But it’s actually harder to lose weight when your body is still relying on glucose for energy.

Women need to develop a fasting plan tailored to their needs.

While fasting has many benefits, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution; you’ll probably need to experiment a little as you hone your process. This is especially true for women. Since an astonishing amount of fasting plans and medical studies still use men as their baseline, what works best for women’s bodies is, unfortunately, not often talked about.

Obviously, men and women are different – and nothing underscores this difference more than women’s reproductive ability. This is precisely what makes them more sensitive to fasting. That’s because when a woman’s amygdala thinks her reproductive capabilities are threatened, it causes a stress response that restricts hormones to maintain her body’s resources.

Fasting allows you to discover yourself beyond flesh and blood.

Soon after you start fasting, you’ll start to notice some differences.

Perhaps you’ll become more aware of your unconscious thinking around food, like the cravings triggered by stress. And with this awareness, maybe you’ll realize that hunger is just a feeling – and not always a rational one.

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What is Fast This Way about?

Fast This Way (2021) is not just another book touting the benefits of fasting. Instead, it uses the most up-to-date science and the author’s years of experience to outline exactly how to sustainably fast for a long and healthy life.

Fast This Way Review

Fast This Way (2021) by Dave Asprey explores the benefits of intermittent fasting and provides practical tips on how to incorporate it into our daily lives. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It offers scientifically-backed information on the health benefits of fasting and how it can optimize our physical and mental performance.
With its holistic approach, the book covers not only the physical aspects but also the emotional and spiritual dimensions of fasting.
By sharing personal stories and experiences, Asprey makes the topic relatable, engaging, and definitely not boring.

Best quote from Fast This Way

Fasting is only in your head.

—Dave Asprey

Who should read Fast This Way?

People struggling with diet-related health problems
Aspiring biohackers
Anyone looking to up their self-discipline game

About the Author

Dave Asprey is a former tech entrepreneur, world-famous biohacker, and the founder of Bulletproof Coffee. He has published multiple New York Times best sellers, including The Bulletproof Diet and Headstrong.

Categories with Fast This Way

Health & Nutrition

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