Fasting

I was listening to Relevant Radio today on the way home from work (its on 1040 AM in New York).  The guest on the Drew Mariani show was Dr. Jay Richards and they discussed Fasting.  His website The Stream has a 13 part series about fasting here.  I have heard a lot about intermittent fasting after seeing several Catholic bloggers on Facebook talking about losing a lot of weight.  I think it all started with Jimmy Akin who had an incredible transformation.  The discussion was interesting and covered the physical improvements possible with different types of fasting.  Dr. Richards mentioned that the fasting that is done in the Eastern part of the Church is the type done by Christians throughout history, basically saying our Western fasting has been wimpy for the past several decades.  He talked about doing a 48 hour fast which is pretty extreme.  I tried the 18/8 hour fast for a few weeks even though I am skinny and don't have any weight to lose.  I did notice that I was able to go without breakfast without a problem and thought more about whether I really needed to eat or was just bored.  The discussion on the show did not discuss the spiritual benefits of fasting or why Christians fast which I was waiting to hear.  So, I found this article that discusses Christian fasting on The Catholic Gentleman.