Fasting: Physical and Spiritual Benefits

Fasting is a powerful practice that offers both health and spiritual blessings. Over the past month, as I’ve applied this law and principle in my life, I have felt a deep desire to fast more often. I’ve seen that fasting works as a principle—its blessings are received in proportion to my sincerity and intent—and yet it is also a law, a divine commandment that strengthens both body and spirit when honored.

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The Health Benefits of Fasting

Dr. Sten Ekberg teaches that fasting supports the body’s natural healing processes. When we stop eating for a period, insulin levels drop, allowing the body to switch from burning glucose to stored fat. This reduces insulin resistance, supports healthy weight loss, and decreases harmful visceral fat.

Fasting also activates autophagy, the body’s cellular cleanup system, which recycles damaged cells, supports mitochondrial function, and may slow aspects of aging. Many people notice steadier blood sugar, fewer cravings, and improved metabolic flexibility.

Reduced insulin and oxidative stress can decrease inflammation, resulting in clearer thinking, less joint discomfort, and improved vitality. Heart and metabolic markers, including triglycerides and HDL, may also improve.

Because fasting allows ketones to become a primary fuel source, many report sharper mental focus and better mood. Hunger and satiety hormones rebalance, helping the body recognize true hunger. Finally, fasting gives the digestive system a rest, calming the gut, improving digestion, and resetting eating patterns.

What Happens If You Don't Eat For 5 Days? Watch on YouTube.

Safety note: Fasting is not recommended for children under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding women, those with eating disorders, type 1 diabetes, or certain medical conditions.

These physical benefits naturally lead to the deeper mental, emotional, and spiritual clarity that many people experience through fasting.

Spiritual Benefits of Fasting: Receiving the Holy Ghost

While fasting has physical benefits, its spiritual blessings are even greater. The Glossary of Terms on Fasting explains:

“And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the holy ghost (3 Nephi 5:15). This scripture is not about hunger or poverty. It is about fasting and seeking after righteousness. All qualify for this blessing by ‘hungering after righteousness.’ All qualify by ‘thirsting after righteousness.’ In other words, one receives the holy ghost in proportion to the hunger and thirst he or she displays. Fasting is a promised means for increasing the holy ghost in one’s life.”

Wow! Look at this incredible blessing! Fasting is a promised means for increasing the Holy Ghost in one’s life. "The Lord speaks in simple formulas; they work. When tried in sincerity, acting no hypocrisy, with real intent, they work. Half-hearted efforts are not so effective. But when a soul, any soul, hungers and thirsts after righteousness, they are filled with the holy ghost."

Fasting and prayer open the spirit and allow individuals to know matters through the power of the Holy Ghost. As Alma testified:

“And this is not all; do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? Behold, I say unto you, they are made known unto me by the holy spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself” (Alma 3:8).

The sons of Mosiah also illustrate this principle. After their missionary service, they returned to Alma having “given themselves to much prayer and fasting,” and as a result, “they had the spirit of prophecy and the spirit of revelation… and they taught with power and authority” (Alma 12:1).

The Glossary further explains:

“Fasting is the most effective way to slacken the grasp of this telestial world on the mind and to move toward another ambience. To fast is to do without some normal necessities; your everyday considerations must be put aside because you will be doing other things that require a totally different mind-set. To fast is to disengage from the temporal and wasteful activities of the ‘real world.’”

Fasting, when done with sincerity and real intent, promises:

• Greater companionship with the Holy Ghost
  
  

• Clarity of mind and spirit
  
  

• Increased sensitivity to revelation
  
  

• Alignment of the heart with God’s will

Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the pathway to being filled with the Holy Ghost.

Ideas taken from Glossary of Terms on Fasting