Can Fasting Be Done Only on Food

It depends on why you are fasting.

When married couples fasted [1 Corinthians 7:5], it was food & sex. (The subject of TV didn't come up. )

It's not wrong. But check Isaiah 58 for what fasting in the OT was supposed to do, vs what the sinful people were doing while they were fasting.

Msb23 said:

I'm fasting for 1 month from watching my favorite show. Is this wrong and can fasting only be done on food? I thought it was pertaining to giving up something you like for a certain period of time.

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How can it be wrong. I think its easier to fast from food than from what you are addicted to or what you idolize over. You can fast from tv, internet, worldly music or anything that you know in your heart that is not right but you still do it anyway.

Most prayer-type fasting is not about fasting from any kind of wrongdoing as much as it is fasting from distractions (that are otherwise okay).

I'd say that its important to ensure that whatever you're fasting from, that you do it for the benefit of your relationship with God. Too many books, guides, and advice these days on fasting focus on the personal physical or individual benefits of the practice instead of its true, original purpose: humbling ourselves to strengthen our relationship with the Lord. Best of luck!

More important is what Jesus said about fasting, for it to be done in secret. That is the only way that fasting has a reward. Mathew 6:18

Msb23 said:

I'm fasting for 1 month from watching my favorite show. Is this wrong and can fasting only be done on food? I thought it was pertaining to giving up something you like for a certain period of time.

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Basically I think your doing literal abstinence from something that gives you pleasure. People enjoy food as a pleasure too but they're not the same thing. Fasting with food and water have serious health warnings, not watching a show, not so much. Do you think that would make you hallucinate and die eventually?

Msb23 said:

I'm fasting for 1 month from watching my favorite show. Is this wrong and can fasting only be done on food? I thought it was pertaining to giving up something you like for a certain period of time.

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the chosen fast is not to eat of your own reasoning by way of two fruits of a tree ...

In it's basic application fasting is associated with complete rest, which promotes rejuvenation of both body and spirit. The Sabbath day is a great time to abstain from food (a little water is ok).

We are to love our neighbor as (we love) ourselves. True self-love is the proper 'care and feeding' of ourselves first. Periodic fasting for complete rest is possibly the best expression of self-love in the physical sense.

Fasting is giving up something we find pleasant, Daniel as an example gave up pleasant food, he still ate, but nothing that was desirable.

Dan 10:3 I had no pleasing food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, and I put no oil on my body till three full weeks were ended.

This type of fast would have been done because He still had to work, and needed some energy.

There is nothing wrong with fasting TV, or shows etc, it is still giving up something we find as pleasant.

The LORD would also have us to act with compassion on the needy, which is as important too, and should go hand in hand with fasting.

Isa 58:5-9 Do you think the LORD wants you to give up eating and to act as humble as a bent-over bush? Or to dress in sackcloth and sit in ashes? Is this really what he wants on a day of worship? I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives. Then your light will shine like the dawning sun, and you will quickly be healed. Your honesty will protect you as you advance, and the glory of the LORD will defend you from behind. When you beg the LORD for help, he will answer, "Here I am!" Don't mistreat others or falsely accuse them or say something cruel.

The term "fasting" usually refers to food, however it is certainly equally valid to give up other things as a means of spiritual sacrifice. Learning how to say "no" to ourselves enables and strengthens us to say no when we are tempted to sin.