tedi k wardhana

hey, it's fasting month again!
it's ramadhan. and I, as other muslims in indonesia, are fasting, one whole month, for approximately 12hours
from sun up, till sundown. not eating, not drinking, not smoking, and no sex during daytime.
and yet, since I have no car, no motorcycle, and dislike public transport (other than the train)
I try to be consistent, and still bike commute.
it's hot, man.
may be I am dehydrating, but I am still okay.
I just keep the pace very leisurely. sweat less.
and start early if possible, to avoid midday heat.
but since I am a freelancer, no fixed working hours, yes, I sometimes have to go when the sun is directly above my head.
It's been 15 days now, I think.
as far as today, I am fine.
hope I can manage the next fifteen days.....

jyossarian

Hakeem Olajuwon used to play NBA games during Ramadan while fasting. He still scored lots, rebounded lots and played 40+ minutes w/o drinking water. You can do it. Just make sure you're hydrated before sun up. Good luck!

jonathan180iq

I lived in Jeddah, KSA for a few months and I was pretty sure that drinking water or juice was allowed during the day. But what do I know? You're obviously a much better authority than myself, being Muslim.

Allah Hafiz,
Jonathan

lil brown bat

Hang in there, Tedi, much respect to you! Take good care of yourself!

CliftonGK1

I didn't realize you couldn't drink any water during fast. I work with a few Muslims, but I guess I never paid that much attention to if they drank anything. I know that they've been working shorter days (usually these guys pull 4 x 12hr shifts for the week) because by the time 8 or 9 hours w/o food goes by, they're running thin on energy, and working in a hazardous environment when you're tired (physically and mentally) is dangerous. These guys are mostly working with high speed cryogenic microtomes (very cold, razor sharp, high speed oscillating blade.) I don't need any of my staff members losing a finger.

Cool thing with my company: The quarterly picnic fell during their fast, so the director of ops invited all the people who are fasting out for lunch after Ramadhan is over.

Hoshnasi

Man that is tough and a true sign of devotion and faith. Good for you!

Treespeed

Super Hardcore.

Photosmith

That doesn't sound healthy. All the folks I have known who fast for religious reasons still drink water during the fasting period, since it is not food, although none are muslim.

ericy

If you ride before the sun comes up, you can drink water, right?

How dark does it need to be before it is no longer daytime?

CliftonGK1

Oooh, good call. Move your training rides (may not help for a commuting schedule, though) to pre-dawn.

I think the "daytime" rule is by the sunrise/sunset that you get from the weather forecast. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.)

Sawtooth

If you count an internet forum contact as someone you know....you now know someone who fasts without water. Although my religion only fast for 24 hours.

DevLaVaca

Good job, OP! Just be thankful you're not in a desert country for the fast.

Like Sawtooth, I do a 24-hour no-food-or-liquid fast each month. When I lived in the Dominican Republic, my only method of transportation was a bicycle, and I regularly rode 40+ miles a day. And it was hot. Still, as long as I was very well hydrated before I began, and didn't ride hard, it was fine.

lil brown bat

Muslims have been doing the Ramadan fast for centuries. Thats a pretty large number of people who fast without water, in some pretty hot countries too.

finnen

I don't admire the muslims that live up north at home (Sweden). If Ramadan occurs during summer, the days are loooong, go far enough north, and the sun is up 24h!

KeatonR

Yes, just keep it leisurely. Leave well ahead of time, take it slow, arrive on time. And know that there's a body of science mounting that show that slowing down, eating less, and exerting less equates to longer to a longer and healthier life.

tedi k wardhana

slightly off topic, yes, this summer thing in the sub tropics is still debatable among muslims.
my interpretation is, because daytime in the middle east, in the arabia, is 12 hours, also similar in indonesia, I would fast approx. 12 hours, if I were in siberia, or in scandinavia.
the fasting month, using the lunar calendar, can also shifts towards the winter.
those who interpret sun up-sundown, would then fast only several hours during winter.
I would still fast for 12 hours.....

anyway, thanks for the support. I am not the only guy doing this bike commuting while fasting.
and yes, riding home sure is more fun.
start pedalling around 5pm, arrive home in one hour, and break my fast, drink and/or eat, at six.....

Photosmith

By the same token, something like 65% of Americans are classified as overweight and some 20% are considered obese. At the same time, Americans are now living longer than ever. It's hard to say that fasting is good for you when at the same time people say that being sedentary and overeating is bad for you, yet at a time when Americans are more sedentary and obese than ever, they are living the longest. Personally, I don't think the human body was made for either extreme - starving or stuffing, but because of its incredibly resilient design, its able to cope with both quite well, even if neither is ideal.

DoB

The biggest gains in human life expectancy in the modern era have come by drastically cutting the infant mortality rate.....every 1 month old who dies knocks down a 100 year old croaker to average only 50. Over the last century we have drastically cut deaths due to infectious disease by use of antibiotics and better treatment in general. These have basically cut the death rate of the young and very young leading to huge gains in life expectancy. Now we mostly all die from old age diseases (cancer, heart disease) and accident/homicide.

Being fat has not increased our life expectancy. If just brings on those old age diseases earlier.

Michel Gagnon

I always thought water was NOT considered a food or a drink and was therefore allowed. Or to be more precise, I have many Muslim friends who drink lots of water during the day.

toucci

It's impossible to isolate life expectancy to singular factors -- a holistic view is necessary. High standards of health care can "mask" other factors that are eating into life expectancy.

Caloric Restriction has been shown to prolong life spans in smaller creatures and while there is anecdotal evidence to the same results in humans, here is an interesting article that tempers the extreme CR viewpoint with one like yours: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/29873.php

Cave

These figures are based on the people that are DYING today, born 80 years ago.

I don't think that there was an obesity epidemic during the 1930s and 40s.

As pointed out, the 40s and 50s are when lifespan started to increase, along with infant mortality again decreasing in the post WWII years.

--edit--
Main contributors to increasing lifespan:
- Clean water/decreasing diarrhoeal illnesses
- Vaccinations
- Avoidance of malnutrition
- Treating infectious diseases
- Treating cardiovascular disease

I think we are going to see an upswing in cardiovascular disease associated with obesity. We may not see as many early deaths, due to medical intervention, but the load on the healthcare system in terms of morbidity is already significant, in Australia at least.

1ply

Easy fix for the future - doctors either refusing to operate or putting those patients at the end of the list who present the largest possibility of regressing into their current status. For example - lung transplants for smokers - what's the point?

A bypass surgery for the morbidly obese 40 something male who's exercise consists of getting in a car followed by walking to his office, from the handicapped parking spot no less.

Situations like these I personally would move to the back of the cue.

About fasting - 12 hours may not be that much if you sit in a cube all day. But be careful if you're out riding your bike in 40° temperatures. I think that a lot of Arabs do very little during the month (during the day anyway with nighttime being a different story).