Fasting has been discussed a bit on the Lutheran-Orthodox Dialog. I recently posted there this quote from St. John Cassian from the Philokalia to demonstrate that fasting should not be understood legalistically, though of course it is commanded by God:
"I shall speak first about the control of the stomach, the opposite to
gluttony, and about how to fast and how much to eat. I shall say nothing on
my own account, but only what I have received from the Holy Fathers. They
have not given us only a single rule for fasting or a single standard and
measure for eating, because not everyone has the same strength; age, illness
or delicacy of body create differences. But they have given us all a single
goal: to avoid over-eating and the filling of our bellies. They also found
a day's fast to be more beneficial and a greater help toward purity than one
extending over a period of three, four, or even seven days. Someone who
fasts too long, they say, often ends up by eating too much food. The result
is that at times the body becomes enervated through undue lack of food and
sluggish over its spiritual exercises, while at other times, weighed down by
the mass of food it has eaten, it makes the soul listless and slack... As I
said, the Father have handed down a single basic rule of self-control: 'do
not be deceived by the filling of the belly (Prov. 24:15, LXX)' or be led
astray by the pleasure of the palate." - St. John Cassian, cited in the Philokalia
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