In my company, people bring in food often, and so it is likely to be noticed if I am not eating. I have tried fasting recently and people almost found out. I broke a fast prematurely, and the next morning there was a pancake breakfast which I partook of. Later that day, one of my coworkers asked me conversationally if I ate any of the breakfast. If I had prolonged my fast and not ate the breakfast, he would have found out just by asking me.
There are often carry in meal events, or food ordered in from restaurants. There is also a coworker who often buys a meal at Wendy's that I think may have 5 items, and she usually gives me her chicken nuggets because it is too much for her.
I am kind of struggling with what to tell these people if I decide to go on a fast. If there is food offered and they ask me about it, or the lady wants to give me chicken nuggets, I could just say, “This is a day where I am cutting back”. However if my boss orders a special meal that is delivered to the workplace, if I can't eat it, I may explain that I am fasting in order to not be rude, especially if I have been on the fast for a few days, where my digestive system would be overloaded by a normal meal if I don't break the fast properly.
Jesus instructed people not to share with others that they are fasting. However I don't only want to fast for spiritual purposes, but I am interested in the weight loss benefits. I could just explain to coworkers that I skip meals sometimes to lose weight, so that I avoid exalting myself in their eyes spiritually, and it is possible that some days of my fast may not be all that spiritual in nature, but more for the weight loss. I am still interested in the spiritual benefits too, though.
Something that I am uncomfortable with is that in American culture, where there seems to be a lot of misinformation that everyone has to have three meals a day, if people know that I am fasting or skipping meals, they might think that I have an eating disorder, when that is not necessarily true. I look relatively thin, and wearing a loose T-shirt, people can't easily notice the excess belly fat that has accumulated.
If the lady has extra chicken nuggets to give me from her meal at Wendy's, and I am fasting, I could tell her that I can put the nuggets in the freezer and eat them at a later time. Usually if I am not available to eat them, she will put them in the fridge, and the nuggets last for two or three days. However I am thinking of doing a much longer fast possibly where I can still drink juice.
I also want to mention that I have found it easy to give into temptation to break the fast after just about 2 days. If I can get past three days, than it kind of locks myself out from most food because a fast three days or longer is not healthy to break by eating processed food, bread, or meats, but only by eating some fruit or vegetables.
I could also explain to my coworkers the health benefits of fasting, such as the body removing damaged cellular material during a fast. I could also explain that I am trying to follow the example in nature, where an animal may build up fat reserves for migration or hibernation, and then, when they are not eating, their body consumes the fat reserves.