I think it's probably a combination of the knowledge that extreme fasting is dangerous and the myth that your metabolism plummets as soon as you skip a meal. W

I think it's probably a combination of the knowledge that extreme fasting is dangerous and the myth that your metabolism plummets as soon as you skip a meal. When I was in middle school, I remember my friend's older sister being on some kind of snack diet that was supposed to keep metabolism high by never going more than an hour or so without food when not sleeping. I seem to remember Brad Pilon in "Eat Stop Eat" briefly mentioning the origin of the myth that your metabolism tanks rapidly if you skip a meal, but I could be wrong. I do intermittent fasting myself, and it drives me a little crazy when my wife tries to convince me that it's bad for my health to skip dinner once in a while on one of my non-fast days.