Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed that he is fasting as he attempts to win a record-breaking eighth World Snooker Championship.
The Rocket has made it through to a 22nd quarter-final at the tournament and is on course to win all three Triple Crown events in the same season for the first time.
O'Sullivan brushed aside Jackson Page in the first round at the Crucible with a dominant 10-1 win last week.
He was given more of a test by Ryan Day in the second round but saw out a 13-7 victory on Monday afternoon.
Ronnie O'Sullivan says he is fasting as he attempts to win an eighth World Snooker Championship
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The world No 1 will now face 2015 champion Stuart Bingham in the last eight after his narrow win over Jack Lisowski late on Monday.
O'Sullivan says he is fasting through much of the day in an attempt to put himself in the best condition to play.
He said: "I’m doing 16 or 17 hours fasting. I try to stop eating at seven at night, but it’s hard here because you’re playing matches, so I stopped at 8:30pm.
"I didn’t eat again until about 12:20pm today, just before my match. It’s great. I feel good. If I eat too much, I get sluggish.
"Animals in the forest go a couple of days without food and they get hungry and get their prey, eat it and digest it for a while.
"They’re not having three meals a day and snacking of a night."
Asked what he eats when breaking his fast, O'Sullivan said: "Cantonese, some dim sum. When I’m breaking my fast I want to make sure it’s something I really like.
"I cheated this morning: I had some milk in my tea! Tomorrow I’m going to try with no milk – a proper fast.
"The fasting started when I was on antibiotics and I needed to stop eating to give my stomach a break."
O'Sullivan says he is playing with more freedom in Sheffield than he was earlier this season.
The seven-time champion is used to the pressure that he will face in the latter stages of the tournament.
He told the BBC: "I've been used to it [expectation] since I was a kid, since I was 10 really - everyone expecting that I would win every tournament that I turned up to play.
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Ronnie O'Sullivan is through to a 22nd World Snooker Championship quarter-final
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"I've grown up with that as I've played so I've been conditioned to dealing with that sort of pressure.
"So that doesn't bother me, it's more the pressure I put on myself, knowing what I'm capable of and when I don't produce it, when I find this game hard, my life gets a bit harder.
"When I find this game easy and it comes good, life becomes a pleasant place again.
Ronnie O'Sullivan says enjoyment is key to his success at the World Snooker Championship
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"I've tried to disassociate myself from it, it's not easy. I just have to try to minimise the bad performances or the bad feeling out there.
"It's all about looking forward to the next one. Enjoyment is number one."