Breakfast on Wednesday morning is engineer Paul Benigeri's favorite meal of the week. Why? "I haven't eaten in 60 hours," Benigeri says in a sunlit café in San Francisco, after clearing through a frittata with no spinach and extra goat cheese.
Benigeri and his coworkers at Nootrobox, a subscription service for "smart drugs," or cognition-enhancing supplements, are part of a Bay Area group of biohacking enthusiasts called WeFast. The club believes that intermittent fasting promotes longevity, increases focus and productivity, and leads to a healthier diet.
The first rule of WeFast is, you eat as soon as your food hits the table.
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The group meets every Wednesday morning at an Italian counter-service restaurant. By the time they sit down to break the fast, most members of the group, which formed in 2015, haven't eaten in about 36 hours.
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Intermittent fasting is a nascent Silicon Valley fad in which people go without food for anywhere from 14 hours to several days. It's increasingly popular among start-up workers.
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While it may sound like torture, these young entrepreneurs may actually be onto something with intermittent fasting
Photo: Melia Robinson/Business Insider
Studies in mice suggest that temporarily abstaining from food may increase life span.
