# From Self-Optimization to Minimalism and Back. The Promises and Practices of Fasting in France

Tristan Fournier, Sébastien Dalgalarrondo

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Tristan Fournier, Sébastien Dalgalarrondo. From Self-Optimization to Minimalism and Back. The Promises and Practices of Fasting in France. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, 2024, 49 (3), pp.102-122. 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.26. hal-04797519

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From Self-Optimization to Minimalism and Back. The Promises and Practices of Fasting in France

Author(s): Tristan Fournier and Sébastien Dalgalarrondo

Source: *Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung*, 2024, Vol. 49, No. 3,

Special Issue: Debating Self-Optimisation: Practices, Paradoxes, and Power (2024), pp. 102-122

Published by: GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27331437

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From Self-Optimization to Minimalism and Back.
The Promises and Practices of
Fasting in France

Tristan Fournier & Sébastien Dalgalarrondo *

**Abstract:** »Von der Selbstoptimierung zum Minimalismus - und zurück. Die Versprechen und Praktiken des Fastens in Frankreich«. This article is based on a research project about fasting, an ancient practice that is gaining popularity in France due to its potential benefits for well-being, health, and weight loss. This quest for less seems therefore to meet the neoliberal logic of performance. As such, we consider it to be an original form of self-optimization that would consist in doing more with less. Our paper shows that fasting is not only about maximizing the use of the body but also a means of self-management that can promote greater food reflexivity and even lead to life-style changes. The material collected combines an analysis of claims made in favor of fasting on the internet, as well as on smartphone apps, and a qualitative study conducted on people who engage in the practice (intermittent or periodic fasting). Two main findings emerged from this research. Firstly, the trajectories that led the interviewees to fasting show that engagement into this “dietary minimalism” requires to distance oneself from dietary norms and, for some, implies a phenomenon of social distinction. Next, the analysis of both purported benefits and concrete practices reveals the importance of the processual dimension: fasting seems to trigger a de-construction of the everyday through the experience of less. Finally, food and eating appears to be a particular focal point for self-optimization that then could spill over into other areas. As an initial trial, it can open up other methods of optimization and other forms of simplification: “fasting begets fasting.”

**Keywords:** Fasting, self-optimization, diet, minimalism, process, promise, France.

<footnote>* Tristan Fournier, CNRS-Iris, EHESS, Campus Condorcet, 5 cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers cedex, France; tristan.fournier@ehess.fr. ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5632-028X.
Sébastien Dalgalarrondo, CNRS-Iris, EHESS, Campus Condorcet, 5 cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers cedex, France; dalgala@ehess.fr. ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2117-2082.</footnote>
# 1. Introduction and Theoretical Perspectives<fnref n="1" />

While self-optimization practices appear to be part of a neoliberal context dominated by the ideology of achievement, self-control, and individual responsibility, recent social science research has stressed on the necessity to document the ways in which individuals concretely appropriate the normative injunctions to maximize the use of themselves, and thus to consider the possibilities of emancipation in this process (Dalgalarrondo and Fourier 2019a; Nehring and Röcke 2023). Set within the context of a critical reading of this neoliberal logic of performance, our concern here is also to reveal the “other side” of self-optimization.

This article derives from a research project on fasting, an age-old practice that seems to be attracting a new audience in France, eager to do “more with less.” It postulates that the contemporary practice of fasting, in all its forms, is connected to the world’s unreadability, a phenomenon for which diet appears to be paradigmatic: “the simplest and most ‘natural’ of processes, like having children and quenching hunger, are now confusingly debated [...] Even in the provinces of everyday life, the world has become unreadable” (Rosa 2019, 112). Eating is no longer self-evident once the contemporary individual becomes aware of the issues surrounding this banal activity. As Scrinis (2013) demonstrates, the field of food is saturated with injunctions to optimize the self (health and well-being), and the modern eater must navigate and make decisions amidst a state of “nutritional confusion.” At first glance, fasting can thus appear to be a way to escape this confusion, to make the world more understandable, to simplify it to gain a better handle on it. Thus, this article aims to analyze the contemporary fasting promises and practices in France from the perspective of a self-optimization process.

To which fasting practices are we referring? Fasting, as a voluntary restriction of food intake, is central in many religions. It is therefore analyzed by specialists as a practice of self-control and self-transformation, and the expression of a frugal way of life (Hervieu-Léger 2017). Although religion is the ultimate domain of this technique of the body, fasting has taken on very different forms in recent history. An obvious example is political fasting, with the figure of Gandhi and hunger strikes. Moreover, fasting as a health practice was promoted throughout the 20th century by many schools of thought, from natural hygiene to naturopathy (Cohen, Bellenchombre, and Féliu 2019). In Europe, these different promoters of fasting managed to institutionalize the practice, for example in Sweden, Germany, and Russia. Clinics, which still operate today and are enjoying greatly renewed interest,

<footnote n="1">¹ Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the respondents for their kind participation to our research and the two anonymous reviewers as well as the editors of this special issue for their helpful comments and recommendations.</footnote>
offer therapeutic or preventive breaks. In Germany, for example, therapeutic fasting, practiced at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin hospital in Berlin, has been part of the normal array of treatments used by doctors for decades. Its use to treat certain illnesses is therefore publicly funded.

In this article, we would like to focus on the promises and practices of another type of fasting, which could be called “wellness fasting.” This has been spreading in France for around 20 years, in close connection with the growth of the alternative medicine and naturopathy market. It also exists in a specific dietary context, characterized by a process of *nutritionalization* (Poulain 2017), a growing distrust of industrial food (Lepiller and Yount-André 2020), and an intensification of what is known as dietary reflexivity, meaning the growing recognition and consideration of the impact diet can have on health, the body, and the environment (Fournier 2014; see Zillien 2024, in this special issue). “Wellness fasting” takes place in both commercial and private settings. In the former case, it takes the standardized form of week-long “fasting and hiking” retreats in the countryside, supervised and led by various professionals (naturopaths, dieticians, yoga teachers, hiking guides, etc.). This practice was introduced in France in the 1990s by a German couple, Gisbert and Gertrud Bölling, who then founded the French “fasting and hiking” federation. Other distribution networks have since emerged, but the practice offered is always of the same type.<fnref n="2" /> Today, around 10,000 people in France attempt this adventure every year, at an average cost of 680€ per person per week (Dalgalarrondo and Fournier 2022). Outside of this commercial framework, new fasting practices have emerged in recent years and take place on a more daily basis in a private setting. They are called intermittent or periodic fasting. Different systems exist, but the two most popular are “16:8,” a daily fast where all food intake is concentrated into eight hours, leaving the body with at least sixteen hours of respite, and “5:2,” which consists of alternating two days of fasting and five days of eating normally. These practices stem from the widespread media coverage of scientific studies extolling the benefits of calorie restriction.<fnref n="3" /> Smartphone applications have also begun to appear (currently there are around 15). All

<footnote n="2">² This is the Buchinger fasting method, named after the German doctor considered to be the pioneer of therapeutic fasting and who showed that a small daily calorie intake (two to three hundred calories, corresponding to a glass of fresh fruit juice and a portion of clear vegetable broth) could alleviate the unpleasant effects of the first days of fasting (nausea, migraines, etc.). Fasting and hiking retreats also combined fasting with daily physical activity (walking), claiming that this supports or even accelerates the body's “self-restoration” process. For a description of a typical day, as well as a detailed analysis of the history of “fasting and hiking” retreats in France, see Dalgalarrondo and Fournier (2022).</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ We are thinking in particular of the work of Valter Longo's team (see, for instance, Longo and Mattson 2014; Longo et al. 2021) published in highly legitimizing journals and widely reported in the media.</footnote>
available free of charge, their purpose is to help individuals in their practice
of fasting, especially with the aim of losing weight.<fnref n="4" />

1.1 Dietary Minimalism as Resonance

We propose to consider this practice of optimizing one's well-being and health in the form of a minimalist practice (Zalewska and Cobel-Tokarska 2016; Uggla 2019; Rodriguez 2018). Fasting is assumed to allow individuals to reorganize their eating habits, desires, and more generally to build a new relationship with food consumption. Indeed, this practice relates to a desire to do “more with less.” By creating an emptiness inside themselves, by briefly removing the ceremony of mealtimes, and by reducing nutrition in the extreme, people who fast practice what we propose to call “dietary minimalism.” They pare themselves down in order to discover more about themselves and improve themselves. Thus, fasting could be a way of measuring one's capacity to go beyond the primordial sensation of hunger and temporarily put one's faith in the body providing for itself, a remarkable act in a society characterized by abundance. This minimalism relates to what Rosa (2019) conceptualizes as “resonance.” On these lines, fasting can be understood as a practical method of constructing an “oasis” that allows an escape from the noise of the everyday and of routine in order to question abundance and one's conditioned reflexes of consumption. A “resonance” that is drawn in this case from the creation of emptiness. Therefore, we hypothesize that this production of emptiness becomes a way to reconnect with the most fundamental bodily experiences, such as eating. We assume that dietary minimalism, the ultimate test of “real” hunger, can thus allow people to go beyond the mirage of dietary desires to rediscover their true physiological needs. The practice of fasting, therefore, offers an original form of self-optimization that consists in doing more with less, and that is supposed to operate through withdrawal and/or detachment (Goulet and Vinck 2012), and to establish a new relationship with food consumption.

1.2 Fasting as a Technology of the Self

The exhortation to optimize the self is omnipresent in our contemporary societies, hence the particular attention it is now receiving from sociologists. Such research shows how the normality of the everyday experience of a “healthy” body is constructed through a collection of self-surveilling, self-controlling, and self-improving activities (Achatz, Selke, and Wulf 2021; Lupton 1996; see Cabanas 2024, in this special issue). In our own work, we have emphasized the necessity of examining the processual dimension of

<footnote n="4">⁴ Upon opening an account, users are systematically prompted to enter their weight and are often asked about their weight loss goals.</footnote>
this approach and individuals' capacities to resist and to take on strategies
(Dalgalarrondo and Fournier 2019a). We have also underscored the specific
role played by transhumanist thought in the attractiveness of the purported
benefits of fasting. With its hyperbolic claims about the necessity of going
beyond human nature, this movement appears to be one of the main en-
gines of development and diffusion of an ethic of optimization (Rose 2007).
King, Gerisch, and Rosa (2018) hypothesize that the exhortation to improve
one's performance and to become ever more efficient, whether this be in
the domain of education, personal life, or parenting, is a response to the
phenomenon of acceleration and widespread competition between individ-
uals in our societies (see also King et al. 2024, in this special issue). This
ambition of self-maximization sometimes takes on an aesthetic form, blur-
ring into an endless quest for perfection. Nehring and Röcke (2023), taking a
genealogical approach, identify the links between the exhortation of self-
optimization and the parallel rise of a therapeutic culture (see also Brandt
and Straub 2024, in this special issue). They convincingly argue that the
analysis of this contemporary ethic and the practices it creates opens new
ways of understanding identity construction through self-transformation
(see also Nehring, Esnard, and Kerrigan 2024, in this special issue).

In this article we use the example of fasting to delve deeper into the pro-
cessual dimension of this quest for optimization, offering a close-up exami-
nation of practices and bodily sensations. Because working on the self along
these transformative lines implies a stepping outside, an act of reflexivity,
we think it is important to analyze the “non-linear” dimension of this ongo-
ing construction. The “rational” appearance of the purported advantages of
fasting should not lead us to forget the central role of “bricolage” (tinkering)
in this process of improvement when it comes up against the rocky, recalci-
trant terrain of habits, routines, and social norms. Lévi-Strauss ([1962] 1966)
described this type of construction perfectly in his introduction to *The Sav-
age Mind*: “in our own time the ‘bricoleur’ is still someone who works with
his hands and uses devious means [...] the rules of his game are always to
make do with ‘whatever is at hand’” (Lévi-Strauss [1962] 1966, 16-7). Brico-
lage thus has a creative dimension, as it involves taking circuitous routes,
accepting that one will drift off course while still being limited by the mate-
rials available, the situation, temporality, and so on. Bricolage has idiosyn-
cratic results: it produces a compromise. This means the process involves
the possibility of a shift, of a fortuitous discovery, of entering into a new
relationship with society and its ideologies, with one’s own body and sensa-
tions. Seeing it as a process (Abbott 2016) implies the existence of feedback
loops that, when the situation or method employed is radical, are liable to
make and unmake experiences and to leave individuals profoundly trans-
formed. Limit-experiences are transformative transgressions where the
ordinary suddenly ceases to provide a framework, making space for other
possibilities. It is in this uncertain margin, right up against the limit, that practices of freedom develop, and technologies of the self (Foucault 1988) are established, when individuals take a critical approach, seeking "not to discover what we are but to refuse what we are" (Foucault 1982, 785). Does the practice of fasting represent a limit experience, and does it enable individuals to act beyond the self? Do proponents of dietary minimalism manage to achieve "more with less"? What social and political effects do they seek to produce, and what are the social conditions facilitating the embrace of this technology of the self?

After first outlining the methodology of our research, we will give serious consideration to the maxim “less is more,” around which the promotion of fasting is built on the internet, and analyze the three types of fasting trajectory that involve different configurations of the notions of “less” and “more.” Finally, in the last section, we will examine to what extent fasting, as a form of dietary minimalism, might constitute a form of physical, moral, and social optimality.

## 2. Methodology

This article is based on a research project begun in 2018, the stages and methods of which are summarized in Figure 1. The first phase of this exploration consisted of an analysis of pro-fasting claims. After conducting a literature review, which included both grey and scientific literature, as well as specialist magazines (e.g., “Jeûne et bien-être”), we led an analysis of the websites offering “fasting and hiking” retreats in France. We focused on each website’s front page (marketing pitch) and practical sections (rates, duration, staff, center features). Where available, we also analyzed the courses of justification (philosophical approach, filiation links: authors, scientists, etc.) as well as participants’ testimonials, a true incarnation of the promise (Hauray and Dalgalarrondo 2019). Over a hundred centers with an online presence were identified (“fasting retreat” on the Google search engine), but we concentrated our analysis on the first 60 websites, the point at which the data collected became saturated. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the heads of the three networks organizing “fasting and hiking” retreats in France: “Fédération française de jeûne et Randonnée,” “Jeûne et bien-être,” and “VitaDetox.” The aim was to invite these individuals to explain not only how their center concretely operates (creation, equipment, prices, attendance) but also their own history of fasting.

The second phase of our research consisted in studying fasting practices, and therefore meeting fasters to understand their motivations, expectations, and objectives and to situate the adoption of this practice within their biographical trajectories. We concentrated on individuals who fast outside of
any commercial or religious framework so as to grasp the ways in which they make their practice their own. Sampling was initially based on networks of acquaintances, then expanded and diversified through a classical “snowball effect.” The aim was to meet people practicing different types of fasting (intermittent or alternative) and with different socio-demographic characteristics. In the end, the sample was made up of 20 individuals (data saturation point): 10 men and 10 women, aged between 33 and 69, living in different types of households (single, couple, family, flat-share) and in contrasting environments (large urban centers, medium-sized towns, villages, and the countryside). The socio-professional categories to which they belonged were as diverse as possible: researcher, executive assistant, self-employed tradesman, doctor, nursery assistant, PhD student, retired secondary school teacher, etc. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed, then allowing a thematic analysis. At the same time, we analyzed two discussion forums dedicated to intermittent fasting on the internet, so as to understand the ways in which fasters “publicly” present their practice and comment on its effects, the recommendations they make to people interested in this practice, and any points of debate. We also downloaded three fasting applications for smartphones and registered under different profiles, with the aim of identifying the rhetoric at work as well as the modalities of personalized support.

<table><caption>**Figure 1** Studies</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Method</th><th>Content</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">Purported benefits of fasting</td><td>Literature review</td><td>Gray and scientific literature, specialist magazines</td></tr><tr><td>Content analysis</td><td>“Fasting and hiking” retreat websites (n=60)</td></tr><tr><td>Semi-structured interviews</td><td>Heads of networks organizing “fasting and hiking” retreats (n=3)</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Fasting practices</td><td>Content analysis</td><td>Internet forums (n=2) and apps (n=3) focused on intermittent fasting</td></tr><tr><td>Semi-structured interviews</td><td>Individuals who fast outside of any commercial or religious framework (n=20)</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 3. “Less is more”: From Purported Benefits to Practice

The promotion of fasting is structured around the maxim “less is more.” This oxymoron acts as a striking sound bite: to have more, one simply needs to do less. But “less” of what and “more” of what are we talking about, exactly? We wanted to give this maxim serious consideration in order to better understand what is concealed behind these words. The “fasting and hiking” retreat websites that we have studied make frequent use of this maxim, in
particular to emphasize the body's performance: "After a few days of fasting you feel light and full of energy, all of your senses are sharper and your brain functions better" (Jeûner pour sa santé website). This is a form of self-optimization by having less, without action or artifice, hence why we previously called it "transhumanism with bare hands" (Dalgalarrondo and Fourier 2019b). Other websites use this maxim in a more subtle way, for example to avoid attracting potential customers who would only be coming for reasons of weight loss: "It is not about what you have to lose, but what you have to gain" (Formation alsacienne naturopathie website). Turning to the fasting apps now available for smartphones, these are generally directed toward weight loss, with the "less" seemingly becoming an end in itself. In a society obsessed with weight (Saint Pol 2010) and where the obesity epidemic goes hand in hand with the "dieting epidemic" (Germov and Williams 1996), fasting seems to hold a great deal of promise, with benefits that are backed by science.<fnref n="5" /> Most individuals may thus begin the practice out of a desire to lose weight. For those organizing retreats, this feels much too reductive and does not acknowledge the depth of the practice. Some sites therefore draw attention to the epicurean dimension of fasting: "Fasting also means reconnecting with your senses, for heightened enjoyment" (Osez jeûner website). Others focus on the political dimension: "For the mind and also for the body, fasting is a momentary escape from the 'system,' a way of regaining a little autonomy and free will" (Jeûne et bien-être en Vercors website). We can see here how "less" seems to be able to produce a myriad of "mores": more health, more energy, more sensations, more freedom, more autonomy, more meaning, the list goes on. Meanwhile, some sites make use of other arguments where "less" seems to also be able to produce "less": "A day of fasting enables us to rediscover the natural capacity of the human body to go without food for a certain amount of time, using it to detox and to rid itself of excess" (Jeûne et détox website); "People who undertake a fast generally do it as a big clear-out, this also creates a feeling of mental clarity and an uncluttered mind" (Jeûne et sens website). In this way, fasting can be understood as a minimalist practice, a stage in a process of simplification, dietary change very often being the first step when embarking on a lifestyle transformation (Stroude 2021, see also Hampel 2024, in this special issue).

To try to unravel this apparent complexity, we reconstructed the trajectories that led our interviewees to fasting, with the dual aims of identifying the context that triggered their interest and observing the results of the practice of fasting in the longer term. Our main hypothesis was that individuals

<footnote n="5">⁵ Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of fasting, intermittent fasting in particular, on weight loss. The majority of these have found a significant reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) but maintain that these effects need to be studied in the longer term. See, for example, the meta-analyses from Welton et al. (2020) and Varady et al. (2022).</footnote>
might enter into the practice for a single reason (the desire to lose weight, for example) and then continue with it for other reasons that they discovered along the way: fasting as a process. In our sample, the question of weight was never spontaneously mentioned, but was very often among the reasons that led individuals to give fasting a try. It was generally mentioned after the interview had got underway and trust had been established, and most of all when a question was finally asked on the topic. Interviewees mentioned other reasons first, most likely because they considered these to be more appropriate and probably more worthy: fasting to recharge their batteries, improve their health, resist the trend of overindulgence, and so on. They deprioritized the motivation of weight loss, having discovered other aspects of the practice that then seemed to form their justification for engaging in it: feeling fitter or rediscovering the sensation of hunger, for instance. This was a first indication corroborating our hypothesis of fasting as a process: all interviewees acknowledged having discovered “something else” during their practice. We were able to identify three types of trajectory that combined these ideas of “less” and “more” in different ways. Let us now take a look at each of them in turn.

## 3.1 “Less but no more”: Fasting as a Trial

Having discovered the unexpected benefits of fasting is not the same as having enjoyed the practice or continued with it. This first trajectory groups people who tried fasting as part of a search for self-optimization, but later stopped due to incompatibility with their lifestyle or the benefits falling short of expectations.

This scenario was experienced by Maly,<fnref n="6" /> aged 46, an executive assistant in a private company who lives on the outskirts of Paris. Drawn in by the idea of losing weight quickly and easily – she was slightly overweight and her doctor had recommended slimming down a little to help heal her ankle, which she had broken two years before and was still fragile – she began intermittent fasting on a 16:8 pattern, dispensing with breakfast: she lost 4 kg during the first few weeks and describes the pleasant sensation of “feeling alive because you’re hungry.” But this feeling, positive as it was in the beginning, later became more and more obsessional: “From ten in the morning, it was hard, sometimes I’d look at my watch every ten minutes, and at one o’clock on the dot it was crazy, it was like a scene in an anime with rice flying all round my mouth!” Her lunches then became larger and larger. Moreover, seeing fasting as a “miracle solution,” she allowed herself to once more eat foods that she had previously removed from her diet (in particular products containing gluten). She quickly became disillusioned and broke off her fasting experiment, since she was not only regaining

<footnote n="6">⁶ All names have been changed to protect privacy.</footnote>
weight, but was also once again experiencing the unpleasant effects that she
associates with the consumption of certain foods: "I'd started eating bread
again at lunchtime and every time my stomach bloated like this [gestures
with two hands as if heavily pregnant]."

Abandoning fasting was not always a matter of disillusionment but instead
sometimes incompatibility with lifestyle. This was the case for Catherine,
aged 69, a retired secondary school teacher who lives with her husband in a
small mountain town. During her last few years of work, Wednesday was
her day for self-care: when she left work at noon, she went to the swimming
pool and got into the habit of not eating beforehand because "I only swam
well if I hadn't eaten, I was more responsive, I found it easier to get moving,
swimming on an empty stomach feels great." Having seen a documentary
on Arte<fnref n="7" /> and read articles lauding the benefits of fasting, she then decided to
prolong this intermittent fast to the whole of Wednesday, only eating again
the next day, meaning a fast of 24 hours each week. It was retirement that
threw a spanner in her well-oiled routine – on the one hand because she
signed up for various group activities and wanted to keep a day in the mid-
dle of the week for rest; on the other hand because she was now sharing all
of her meals with her husband, who was also retired:

> In the beginning he wanted to fast just like me. We did it once or twice to-
> gether, I can't remember exactly, and then he stopped because he said it
> gave him a migraine. I kept going for a while but it's not easy when some-
> one is eating next to you, it's unpleasant really. Also, I'm the one who
> cooks, so I found it too hard to cook for him and not to eat anything my-
> self. I would have preferred a different setup where I didn't have to be
> constantly coming into contact with food, to not to have to think about it.

That said, even within this first group of people who later abandoned fast-
ing, the practice retained a positive connotation, as if it were an objectively
beneficial habit to which one might eventually return.

## 3.2 “Less is more”: Fasting as a Form of Balance

For others in our sample, fasting was presented as an effective tool, a prac-
tice that was accessible and that they had therefore adopted, and a real
technique of self-optimization that was articulated in a number of different
ways.

The first of these was that of performance and efficiency. Tiphanie, aged
33, a doctor who lives with her partner in a provincial town, was looking for
a solution to quell her morning hunger pangs, which were affecting her
concentration at work. After a long period of “bricolage” during which she
tried, without success, different dietary approaches (big breakfasts, a small

<footnote n="7">⁷ *Le jeûne, une nouvelle thérapie ?* (Fasting: A New Therapy?), directed by Sylvie Gilman and Thierry de Lestrade's and firstly broadcast in 2011 on the French television channel *Arte*.</footnote>
sandwich in the middle of the morning, etc.), she decided, in an odd twist
perhaps, to forgo food in the morning all together, "just to see what would
happen": she noticed that she was no longer hungry at all until lunch and
that her energy levels remained high all morning long. After looking into
the topic and discovering that she was unwittingly practicing intermittent
fasting, she embraced the technique, which enabled her to "no longer have
[her] stomach constantly making itself known during consultations" and,
additionally, to "sleep for an extra quarter of an hour in the morning!"

It was also for reasons of extra sleep that Fiona, aged 40, a project manag-
er in the banking sector who lives with her family in a city in the south of
France, stopped eating breakfast years ago. Since then, she sometimes even
skips dinner to compensate for an overindulgent weekend or simply to "take
a break" from eating, as Fiona goes on to explain: "In fact it's my partner
who cooks and he always makes such lovely things to eat, and lots of it. It's
hard to say no once everything is on the table, so sometimes I say 'I'm not
eating tonight,' and that way I'm not tempted." For her, fasting is a tool she
can wield to regulate her dietary intake and its effect on her body, "to avoid
stomach bulging and bloating," since "in general the fact of skipping dinner
and breakfast is enough to offset things." Fiona reels off the benefits:

I feel slimmer, I'm much more comfortable sitting down, I love that feel-
ing of lightness and having a flat stomach. When your belt digs in too
much, it's horrible, so it's a way to balance things out, and it means I can
really enjoy my food the rest of the time.

Staying slim is also what convinced Jérémie, aged 44, a yoga teacher in a French city, to fast. He stopped eating breakfast over ten years ago in a bid to improve his yoga practice: “It’s hard to do the poses with a full stomach.” He remembers feeling “sharper and like I was performing better physically.” But intermittent fasting is also a way for him to get back on track. The day of the interview (a Tuesday), he spoke about his decadent weekend, during which he went out several times with friends: “We ate so much junk, we drank loads, and there was a moment when I said to myself: ‘Bring on Monday morning, when I’ll be fasting again!’”

Finally, while for several of our interviewees fasting is a tool that allows them to compensate for lapses and balance their lifestyle, for others it signi-fies creating the option, or even permission, to indulge themselves. Martin, aged 47, a researcher in a government agency who lives in central Paris, talked about the pleasure of hunger, which makes him feel allowed to treat himself: “When I come back home in the evening and it’s almost twenty-four hours since I last ate, I’m totally allowed to whip out the Brillat-Savarin [cheese]. I’m only limited to what I’ve got in the cupboard, what I can buy, or can be bothered to cook, but not at all by the idea that it’s too unhealthy, too fatty, too much, or whatever. Straight away it’s a no-limits situation, because now calorie counting is out the window.” He believes he has found
a “way of life,” of keeping his health in check: “I really don’t want to look like some middle-aged guy with a big belly, and because my eating habits are a bit out-there and I drink too much alcohol, this is what saves me.” Within this second trajectory, fasting seems to contribute something to everyday life, whether this is compensating after the fact for dietary lapses or creating prior permission to let loose.

### 3.3 “Less is more, and less”: Fasting as a Springboard

It is in this third trajectory that serendipity is most clearly apparent. Individuals did not only discover certain benefits of fasting that they had not expected, and which allowed them to then embrace the practice, but this foundational experience prompted deeper reflection, leading them further along a process of dietary change and of simplifying their lifestyles more broadly.

First and foremost, fasting begets fasting: three men in our sample who practiced intermittent fasting had since stopped or greatly reduced their alcohol consumption. Violaine stopped taking sugar with her coffee when she did her first long fast five years ago. Since then, for each annual fast, this 40-year-old chief legal officer, who lives in Paris and shares custody of her daughter, sets herself the goal of eliminating “something unnecessary.” Fasting has become a mechanism to manage her addictions: “There’s a good deal of letting go in fasting. There’s discipline involved, but there’s a lot of letting go as well. Now every time I fast, I tell myself that I’ll get rid of something. That’s how I stopped smoking for example [she smoked 30 cigarettes a day for years]. Next time around, I’d like to give up Netflix.”

In interviews, many of our subjects invoked the idea that fasting allowed them to focus on what was really important. This possibility first focuses on the dietary sphere. “It simplifies things considerably, after that I told myself I would never be hungry again, at any rate that I would be able to properly separate hunger as a desire from hunger as a need,” explained Jonathan, aged 45, a self-employed carpenter who lives as part of a collective in the countryside, and who recently tried a five-day fast guided by a fellow collective member. The way in which fasting goes on to generate a wider desire to reduce and slow down was particularly well described by Chloé, aged 44, a pharmacist and naturopath who lives in a village in the south of France with her son and who undergoes a five-day annual fast:

> I feel... aligned, yes that's the word, I can concentrate much better because I feel like I'm on an even keel, I'm calmer, I'm more focused on myself, and at the same time what's funny is that the gears turn faster in my head, but not in a tiring way, like when you're overwhelmed by your thoughts, this is more like my mind is bursting with ideas. If I were a novelist, I think I could write a book per fast!
For her, fasting is one of a number of tools for action and self-awareness in her arsenal, but by far the most effective and most powerful. She has now put in place other kinds of periodic fasts, in particular from alcohol, coffee, and sugar, and talks about a different way of living:

> For me, fasting is actually a form of activism, for everything really, for health, for the environment, it shows you that you can do things differently, that you can eat less because we eat much too much, we all overconsume, and this shows you that you can cut down, you can slow down.

Sometimes, this search for less spills over from the dietary realm and becomes a rule of living. Yasmine, aged 50, a researcher in a government agency working abroad in Berlin, is well-versed in the art of cutting back: she never has breakfast and so has been following an intermittent fasting regime “for as long as she can remember”; she was a fan of juice cleanses and then a few years ago she went on an organized “fasting and hiking” retreat; since then she fasts several times a year at home, completely independently, sometimes for two or three days, sometimes for an entire week. This is how she describes her journey of transformation:

> I believe I've reached a higher state of consciousness and I decode the signals of my body better. I love feeling hunger arrive, real hunger I mean, it sets my stomach rumbling, a bit like an animal. And then every time I can eat and experience flavors again, it's incredible, but I imagine that's quite a common feeling. On the other hand, I would say that in the longer term I've gained a lot of autonomy. That's important for us as women, with the heavy mental loads we have to bear, it helps you to learn to let go.

It is this sensation of “letting go” triggered by fasting that seems to characterize this third trajectory and to enable those who practice fasting to envisage other ways of being.

# 4. Making Do with Less, a Form of Physiological, Ethical, and Social Optimization

## 4.1 Fasting as a Point of Pride

The “less” that is expressed in the practice of fasting, in the desire to lose weight, or in the search for a simpler life, seems to be highly valued. One of the surprises within the study was discovering the extent to which all of the individuals expressed themselves with such ease, despite fasting appearing at face value to be a delicate subject, involving talking about one's body and weight, potentially discussing eating disorders, health problems, or addictions, and putting into words feelings and emotions that belong firmly to the realm of the unsaid. On the contrary, interviewees were very comfortable when trying to find the right words to convey their experience, even taking
pleasure in it. In their accounts – including those who had ceased fasting – fasting was presented as a positive practice, as a journey considered all the more worthwhile and beneficial for fitting the neoliberal narrative of performance, self-control, and individual responsibility that characterizes contemporary Western societies (Rose 2007). Making public one’s fasting is thus making visible the attention one pays to the duty of health and the capacity one has to put to rights a body that is starting to show the first signs of aging and weakness (Diasio and Fidolini 2019). Martin’s words encapsulate this idea perfectly:

> Fasting is a form of stress for the body, and putting the body under stress means cleaning it up. When you’re hungry you feel your body is taut, as in your core feels rock solid. Having an empty stomach feels amazing. Mentally you have the idea that you are running on empty, you’re purified, that idea of cleanliness, purification, is quite powerful I’d say, and even in the long-term. I’ve been fasting for four years, and yeah, every day I get the same feeling.

## 4.2 Heroicizing the Self, Denigrating Others

Although fasting as a practice can align with moral imperatives, it is nonetheless a relatively atypical technology of the self, allowing those who use it to take pride in their uniqueness, their capacity to break free of norms – the ideal being to eat when one is hungry and not when it just happens to be a mealtime – and thus to liberate themselves from conventions. This phenomenon is seen in a dual tendency to heroicize their own capacity to “hold out” and to denigrate others who lack it as prisoners of the institution of meals and the norm of French commensality (Fischler 2011).

Martin, who we saw above explaining the powerful and enduring effects of fasting, has made a habit of joining his colleagues for lunch every day, but not ordering anything once they get to the restaurant. He says he embraces this refusal to join in, going so far as to take advantage of their astonishment to showcase his individuality, to explain his fondness for good food and reluctance to “eat shit,” his love of cooking (he’s always snapping photos of his culinary creations, and likes showing them to his friends and family) and so his choice to save himself for a hearty, home-cooked meal. The norm of commensality and the rule of three meals a day profoundly repels him, and so his intermittent fast allows him to demonstrate his uniqueness: “There are all these chumps who eat three times a day and then there’s me, who’s held off for almost twenty-four hours, it’s kind of an achievement!” The radical eschewal of normality relates here to the first stage of the “hero’s journey” described by Aurianne Stroude (2021) in relation to the route along which individuals in her study traveled, attracted by the promise of a simple life.
Heroicizing one's own abilities in this way, which seems to be more apparent among the men in our sample, thus involves the creation of countermodels: those that one either does not want to come to resemble or wishes to stop resembling. Mehdi, aged 58, a self-employed tradesman who lives alone in a house tucked away in the mountains, criticizes the overabundance of food in our society and condescendingly judges obese people "who don't know how to control themselves" and those who don't cook, "you know, who eat when the microwave pings or only eat stuff than comes in a can." He fasted for the first time during a trip to India when he was around 20 years old, a radical and foundational experience that from then on led him to favor dietary frugality, enabling him to have a positive self-image and to set himself apart: "I'm not a cow that gets force-fed, I'm a free man, not like all those sheep who overeat!" Here we can see a dual mechanism of promoting his own abilities and distancing himself from an antithetical model.

## 4.3 A Form of Social Distinction?

While the practice of fasting does indeed appear to be a point of pride, we would like to round off this analysis by asking whether it is also a form of social distinction. Presenting oneself as someone who voluntarily deprives oneself of food in an era of dietary abundance does indeed seem at first sight to relate to the phenomenon of distinction as explained by Pierre Bourdieu (1984). First, we should make clear that fasting attracts devotees from a particular subsection of society. In the analysis of the promotion of "fasting and hiking" retreats that we undertook online, the average fee was €680 per person per week: a cost that in practice excludes a good proportion of the population. As for intermittent or periodic fasting, conducted independently and at no cost at home, this practice stems from a highly reflexive attitude to diet and seems therefore to attract people already engaged in some form of attention toward themselves, their body, and their diet: attitudes that are most commonly found among the educated middle classes (Boltanski 1971; Lupton 1996; Plessz et al. 2014). Our research allows us to add a little nuance, in particular by grouping the profiles of our subjects: the different trajectories identified allow us to observe a level of heterogeneity in their attitudes and social dispositions.

Within the trajectory we have called "less is more," fasting appears as a tool within a personal quest for improvement, and clearly is akin to a practice of distinction. Here we find people who are highly reflective about their diet and motivated by the objective of success in a "body project" (Shilling 1993) requiring constant improvement. Martin, mentioned above, is a prime example of this profile, seeking to optimize his physical and cognitive capacities, try new sensations, and demonstrate his uniqueness, a key charac-
teristic of the hyper-urbanity to which Simmel drew attention (Simmel 1950). We could also use the example of Emmanuelle, aged 50, a journalist who lives with her family in central Paris: after an organized “fasting and hiking” retreat, she developed a very strong focus on the impact of diet on her health. She related a recent experience of a trip abroad, where “there were only street food stands where the food didn’t seem very healthy,” so she “preferred not to eat anything at all.” Self-optimization here comes down to the principle of cost-benefit analysis.

The final trajectory that we identified, labeled “less is more, and less,” shows the processual dimension of fasting to a greater extent. We find here the principle of self-optimization in the form we have previously described (Dalgalarrondo and Fournier 2019a): the reflexive effects of fasting open up new fields of exploration, new horizons, diversions, and potentially decisive alternatives. The radical experience of several days of fasting, most commonly found in this trajectory, seems to be especially suited to going beyond the framework of self-maximization, leading to the discovery of other dimensions and other ways of life. Here we find people for whom fasting is not simply a way to improve themselves. Corinne, aged 54, who teaches and researches in a provincial university, explained it thus:

> It isn't something individualistic because it connects me to others, to the world. Besides, it's always in connection to what's happening to others or in the world that I start a fast – it's a way of protesting, of dealing with an event. That's also why when I fast I'm usually out in the world, I don't retreat into my bubble, that would be more about self-improvement.

The political dimension of fasting is central here and seems to allow Corinne to escape an egotistical vision of the practice. For other interviewees, it is the very experience of a long fast as a radical and universal experience that allows them to decenter their perspective and open up to the world, as Ophélie Bidet (2022) has explored, and as expressed here by our interviewee Jonathan: “Fasting is universal and unifying, it makes you much more empathic.”

## 5. Conclusion and Discussion

A first lesson that can be drawn from this research is that the “more” that is envisaged through the practice of fasting (more health, more autonomy, more performance, etc.) implies not only going through the “less” (what we called dietary minimalism) but also distancing oneself from the coercive norms that still frame the act of eating in France: commensality (Fischler 2011), food synchronism (Saint Pol 2006), and meals frequency (Lhuissier et al. 2013). Our qualitative analysis reveals the plurality of fasting forms and demonstrates that it is a practice that can be fairly easily integrated into the
everyday life. Moreover, this integration provides information about the
respondents' ability to distance themselves from dietary norms, which
seems to be linked to their living situation. Thus, practicing intermittent
fasting on a daily basis by cutting out breakfast – the least socialized food
intake in France (Le Pape and Plessz 2017) – seems to be the preserve of
people living with a partner or family: this allows them to fast, and therefore
to optimize themselves, while respecting dietary norms for the rest of the
day. At the other end of the scale, most of the interviewees who fast for
longer periods and/or make their fasting public, live alone or with their
children in alternating custody: the process of distancing themselves from
dietary norms is facilitated, enabling them to envisage greater freedom in
terms of their eating practices. In the first case, distancing oneself from
norms is discreet and dedicated to a form of self-maximization, i.e., to the
research of performance. In the second case, it is more assertive: this
uniqueness is associated, in our study, with a phenomenon of social distinc-
tion that operates both through heroicizing the self and denigrating counter-
models (e.g., obese people or people who do not cook) or repulsive practices
(e.g., street food abroad). At the end, it is a reminder that experiencing the
“less” through food means coming closer in practice to an old fear of hu-
manity, the fear of lack, which part of the working classes continues to ex-
perience. As such, it seems possible to identify a phenomenon of reappro-
priation by the educated middle classes of a shameful and negatively con-
noted practice (being hungry), in the name of experience, self-optimization,
and politicization of lifestyles.

In her analysis of communities promoting a simple way of life, Stroude
(2021) also sees this withdrawal as an act of “detachment from norms,” in
the sense of individuals questioning the social imperatives to which they are
subject. She sheds great light on the processual and transgressive dimension
of this detachment: as a succession of acts, choices, and practices that call
into question the social order through a process of accumulation. She em-
phasizes the eminently material and bodily dimension of this process of
detachment: individuals on this path often start by unburdening them-
selves, only retaining what is strictly necessary, and diet emerges as the
primary area for simplifying one’s existence with a view to a healthy body.
The contemporary practice of fasting fits perfectly into this dynamic of
detachment from norms, as a practice of radical simplification but also as a
conspicuous social act of rupture, with all that entails in terms of the bitter-
sweet combination of social disconnection and heroism. She uses the image
of cogs: the transformation of one practice leads, sometimes unexpectedly,
to such transformation being extended into other domains. We can see here
the dynamic intrinsic to fasting and undoubtedly to all ascetic practices:
fasting begets fasting and can become an effective tool of resistance and
emancipation, as argued by Illich when he encouraged his audience to do a
“techno-fast”:

Askesis, he notes, is the old word for exercise, training, repetition. I would say that what we need is a word that is difficult to say these days: virtue [...] whatever your intellectual or emotional level, seeing what you are capable of doing without is one of the most effective ways to convince yourself that you are free. (Illich and Cayley 2007, 140)

Here, we encounter the spillover effect proposed by Jon Elster (1993): a
mechanism involving the transfer of new attitudes from one social sphere to
another. From this perspective, food practices emerge as the ideal domain
to cultivate a new relationship with everyday life. This involves introducing
a critical distance and sharpening one's reflexivity.

The analysis of the practice of fasting allows us to understand the ways in
which a quest for self-optimization might lead to what Chayka (2020) calls,
in his critical analysis of the contemporary craze for minimalism, “the long-
ing for less.” We have chosen to speak about dietary minimalism rather than
simplicity or abstemiousness, for the particular reason that this concept is
currently most commonly used to refer to this doubt about materialism, this
side-stepping of over-consumption. Choosing the notion of minimalism also
means pointing out the fact that this concept has also been absorbed into
the market. In an ambiguous way, making do with less can therefore equate
to a way of making oneself stand out while continuing to consume. Some-
times, it may even be a way of preparing to overconsume, having proved
one's capacity for momentary self-control: once more reveling in abun-
dance with a clear conscience. Fasting is in this case only a pause in a more
general state of dietary disarray. It may be a way to restore oneself, to hone
oneself in order to come back stronger in a society saturated with competi-
tion and consumer greed. This ambivalence in the concept of dietary mini-
malism is what most interests us. The contemporary practice of fasting
embodies the capacity of individuals to become more attentive to everyday
life (Lefebvre [1947] 1991), to make themselves autonomous by choosing
what to be dependent on, extricating themselves momentarily from the flow
to identify their own optimality. But the concept of dietary minimalism also
allows us to emphasize its link with the “new spirit of capitalism” (Boltanski
and Chiapello 2006) and the continuous process of endogenization of cri-
tique that defines it. From this perspective, minimalism, as a critique of
consumer society, has already been absorbed by the market and transfig-
ured into a new segment, with its own products and promises. It thus allows
us to simultaneously envisage the processes of emancipation and the risks
of alienation. Adopting this conceptualization of minimalism means we
must remain critically vigilant, and delve beneath the smooth surface of
conceptual analysis, of “what is dietary minimalism?” to look closer at how
it works and what it produces. Its analysis as a self-optimization process
reveals a spectrum of practices and underscores temporal considerations. In its pursuit of performance and self-maximization, the practice of fasting aligns clearly with the classic agenda of neoliberalism. However, the fasting experience also provides an opportunity for some individuals to rediscover a power to act and modify their eating behaviors. Thus, the process of optimization by detachment involved in fasting represents an original emancipatory phenomenon that, through a spillover effect, may result in a more general politicization of daily life.

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<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

All articles published in HSR Special Issue 49 (2024) 3:
# Debating Self-Optimisation: Practices, Paradoxes, and Power.

## Introduction

Anja Röcke, Daniel Nehring & Suvi Salmenniemi
Dynamics of Self-Optimisation: An Introduction.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.22

## Contributions

Edgar Cabanas
CrossFit and Self-Optimization in CrossFit's Popular Literature.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.23

Nicole Zillien
Self-Tracking as a Dietetic Practice.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.24

Agnieszka Krzeminska
Self-Optimisation and the Technologically Mediated Self: Balancing Self-Care and Self-Control.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.25

Tristan Fournier & Sébastien Dalgalarrondo
From Self-Optimization to Minimalism and Back. The Promises and Practices of Fasting in France
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.26

Sam Binkley
Opening Up and Going In: Metaphors of Interiority and the Case of Humanistic Psychology.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.27

Senta Brandt & Jürgen Straub
A Critique of Guided Self-Optimisation: Mental Health, Success, Happiness, and Virtue in Missionary Positive Psychology and Psychotherapy.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.28

Deborah Lupton & Clare Southerton
#ActuallyAutistic: Competing Cultures of Expertise and Knowledge in Relation to Autism and ADHD Self-Diagnosis on TikTok.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.29

Vera King, Benigna Gerisch, Hartmut Rosa, Ramona Franz, Diana Lindner, Benedikt Salfeld, Micha Schlichting, Julia Schreiber & Maike Stenger
Self-Optimization via Figures and Digital Parameters – Psychic Repercussions of Digital Measurement and Comparison.
doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.30
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Amir Hampel

Practical Daydreams: Self-Optimization through Consumer Lifestyles in China.

doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.31

Daniel Nehring, Talia Esnard & Dylan Kerrigan

Re-Thinking Self-Optimisation: Power, Self, and Community in the Global South.

doi: 10.12759/hsr.49.2024.32