[HN Gopher] Intermittent fasting prompts anti-inflammatory response
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Intermittent fasting prompts anti-inflammatory response
Author : geox
Score : 174 points
Date : 2021-11-13 15:22 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (academic.oup.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (academic.oup.com)
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| I accidentally did intermittent fasting as a teenager for years.
| I just didn't have breakfast, had lunch and dinner and oddly
| enough it matched the requirements to be considered IF.
|
| One day I got interested in IF, looked up the rules and found out
| I was already on it.
|
| I can't say whether it did anything but it definitely made it
| hard to consume enough calories, so despite training a lot and
| despite eating a lot at lunch and dinner, I've always been
| skinny.
|
| I assume IF could be a good choice for someone who's overweight
| and barely training or not training at all.
|
| I was training bodyweight and gymnastic at the time, making
| significant progress in terms of strength - despite that, I saw
| very little muscle building. I suppose being that lean lowered my
| testosterone production resulting in little gains.
|
| I had the brilliant idea of even trying going vegetarian, vegan
| for a while, shifting to a source of proteins which is not as
| complete and not as well absorbed as proteins coming from animal
| sources.
|
| After 20 years of reading on the subject and looking at what
| studies are saying nowadays, if I could go back through my
| teenage years I would eat close to paleo, 6 times per day and
| lift weights.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| I accidentally started IF after being annoyed at my lack of
| mental alertness after lunch and breakfast.
|
| I found that one coffee for breakfast, lots of water/herbal tea
| throughout the day, and then eating a huge dinner and whatever I
| want between 5-9 works for me. It seems I can consume over 2k
| calories in those 4 hours.
| oDot wrote:
| For a personal anecdote, IF was the most impactful change I did
| nutrition wise, and I am currently midway testing diets from
| carnivore to vegan.
| wpietri wrote:
| Could you say more about your IF regimen? And what sort of
| impacts did you notice?
| oDot wrote:
| Improved skin, clearer mind, less fatigue. I was doing 14:10
| after years of irregular eating, then settled on 16:8 which
| also improved the above.
|
| I tried 23:1 for a week but I could not eat enough in that
| one hour.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > I tried 23:1 for a week but I could not eat enough in
| that one hour.
|
| That gives me a stomach ache just thinking about it. 2000C
| in a sitting is a _lot_ , even with relatively high calorie
| food choices.
| drodil wrote:
| I have done IF for almost 2 years now. Some personal
| experiences from my blog if interested:
| https://link.medium.com/ju1cOdlG9kb
| scruple wrote:
| How long have you been on an IF style diet? I "ran" it for
| about 3 and a half years before moving on.
|
| I'm curious to know what long term success looks like for
| people on an IF diet. I did get my weight under control on IF
| but when it came time to bulk or cut, in accordance with my
| strength and conditioning training, it simply wasn't working.
| oDot wrote:
| Since mid-2017. I agree it is not enough to gain muscle, but
| it also doesn't seem to hinder that for me.
| 1024core wrote:
| For those who are upbeat about IF: some simple questions:
|
| 1. Does coffee/tea count as a "meal"? I can't get through the day
| without a couple of cups of coffee and tea.
|
| 2. This study mentioned a 24-hour water-only fast, not the IF
| that most commenters are talking about in this post. Thoughts on
| that?
|
| 3. I've been thinking of going on the "Phil Mickelson" diet:
| https://golf.com/instruction/fitness/phil-mickelson-age-defy...
| Any thoughts on that?
| theodorewiles wrote:
| I SLAMMED coffee the first few weeks and would also drink like
| a gallon of water a day. Helped a lot. I think the key is to
| choose the schedule that works for you.
| kilroy123 wrote:
| I regularly do IF and I drink black coffee in the morning while
| I'm fasting. I try to time it so even that is at the tail-end
| of an 18 hours fast.
| tomp wrote:
| 1. no. a "meal" could be sugar or cream in the coffee though.
| zero-calorie drinks don't count as a meal
|
| some people "cheat" by considering cream-only coffee acceptable
| as well (it's keto/zero-carb so might not raise blood sugar
| levels) - see e.g. "bulletproof coffee" by Dave Asprey (NOT
| ENDORSING ANYTHING ELSE BY THIS SCAM ARTIST)
| wpietri wrote:
| Ooh, interesting. This particular study is with full-day fasts
| 1-2 times per week. I see that insulin resistance improvement was
| also seen with eTRF (early time-restricted feeding, where one
| doesn't eat after, say, 2 pm).
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6627766/
| sneak wrote:
| It was a very weird transition, as a well-off American, from
| going to never, ever actually feeling _real hunger_ at any point
| in any of my normal days (our workplaces, transit hubs, homes,
| lifestyles, and app landscape are all designed to deliver/provide
| high caloric density food, in extreme abundance, at all times and
| places, from snacks to full meals), to regularly/often being
| _actually hungry_ for some /all of most days.
|
| It's done wonders for my well-being - anecdotally, of course.
|
| It turns out we don't actually _need_ to never be hungry; our
| society just pushes us to assume that even the tiniest pang of
| hunger is a negative health issue that is to be instantly
| eradicated. It 's actually fine as long as you're not skinny or
| otherwise malnourished.
|
| It's ok to fast, and to hear your body demanding sustenance and
| just say "no, maybe tomorrow" - doubly so if you're 10kg+
| overweight like I have been (in my case, 20-40kg) my entire adult
| life.
| novok wrote:
| How do you deal with distracting hunger? I try ignoring it and
| then find myself subconciously going to the fridge every 10
| minutes. And I'm not doing somewhat abnormal things like not
| eating for 20+ hours.
| vishnugupta wrote:
| I keep a glass of water on my desk and keep slowly sipping
| it, and refill when it runs out. It's helped me significantly
| to reduce cravings.
| johnyzee wrote:
| > society just pushes us to assume that even the tiniest pang
| of hunger is a negative health issue
|
| This is the mistake. In fact, the hunger pangs and light
| headedness, nausea, etc. are the result of low blood sugar.
| This can be a dangerous condition, but our body is equipped to
| deal with that situation - it can create sufficient energy from
| stored energy (fat and glycogen) - and will do so if we let it.
| But most people have conditioned their bodies for a steady
| supply of easy energy, and this makes the body increasingly
| less willing to go to the stores for energy (we are at a
| hormonal imbalance with excessive insulin prevalence which
| works to lock up fat stores and crave quick increases in blood
| sugar).
|
| This condition can be gradually fixed with intermittent
| fasting, which gives the body time to burn off the blood sugar
| spike, and concomitant insulin, and allow the process of fat
| burning to pick up, before you start feeding again.
|
| The effect of the fasting can be enhanced by eating fewer
| carbohydrates (which are the main trigger for blood sugar and
| insulin), which is the principle behind the keto diet.
| freediver wrote:
| You may be onto something here. I never thought about this
| effect of IF. The self-control aspect of overcoming hunger, or
| not just eating when you needn't to.
| scruple wrote:
| This self-control aspect also works in other diets, too, of
| course. It's why I prefer cheat days over cheat meals in my
| diet. I've found that keeping myself consistent with my
| eating, and make deliberate decisions, for 6 days straight
| leads to much better results than letting my diet slip
| occasionally through out the week and excusing it by
| convincing myself it's a "cheat meal."
| nicoburns wrote:
| > It turns out we don't actually need to never be hungry; our
| society just pushes us to assume that even the tiniest pang of
| hunger is a negative health issue that is to be instantly
| eradicated.
|
| Huh, is that really something you feel like your society
| teaches you? In my upbringing (UK), snacking was very much
| discouraged (you won't eat your dinner) and although eating
| meals was encouraged, going without one was never seen as a
| health issue and would be seen as preferable to giving me other
| food if I didn't like what had been cooked for me.
| [deleted]
| sneak wrote:
| Yes, that's what I got. Fast food everywhere, snacks
| constantly available, cookies and cakes in break rooms,
| vending machines, junk food, snack bars in offices, coffee
| milkshakes, kiosks in airports... everywhere you look in the
| USA there are people trying to sell you stuff to spike your
| blood sugar between meals. As opposed to Europe, there are
| entire aisles in the grocery stores here that are stocked
| solely with non-meal foods. This extends even to drugstores!
| CVS and Walgreens have a seasonal candy aisle!
|
| I eat very low carb (I target <10g per day, with 20-30g as a
| hard limit) and it's sort of freaky how prevalent it is,
| because despite a million food options in some circumstances,
| precisely 0 of them are without carbs. I've been in airports
| when I haven't eaten for 18-24h with multiple places vending
| food and there has been approximately nothing available that
| would fit my diet.
| johnyzee wrote:
| Definitely. Just go look for the official line on how to eat
| for losing weight. They actually recommend lots of small
| meals as often as possible. It's ridiculuous.
| nailer wrote:
| There's also a 500% spike in HGH after 48h according to Dr Ekberg
| DrammBA wrote:
| Could you provide a source? I tried googling it but I'm getting
| a lot of obviously click bait and misleading articles/videos.
| johnyzee wrote:
| It is well established that fasting increases the level of
| growth hormone, quite significantly too. It's the leptin
| trigger. Just google effect of fasting on growth hormone.
|
| I think the OP is talking about Steen Ekberg the keto
| youtuber. His stuff is legit and well sourced, but
| unfortunately marketed to look like facebook meme videos.
| jasonhansel wrote:
| That...isn't what the study says, I think. In fact, it says that
| the level of hsCRP--a marker of inflammation--actually
| _increased_ in the subjects who undertook intermittent fasting,
| though the difference from the control group (1.02 +- 2.73 vs.
| -0.25 +- 5.66) was far from statistically significant (p = 0.23,
| see Table 3). That 's the only part of the study that even
| mentions inflammation.
| ByThyGrace wrote:
| Also, this isn't IF as popularly understood. IF usually means
| uninterrupted water-only fast for a certain part of the day,
| e.g. 18:00-10:00.
|
| The paper is about "low frequency" IF, which in this case means
| a 24h water only fast, twice a week for a full month, then only
| once a week for the rest of the trial.
| phonypc wrote:
| FWIW, this isn't atypical. IF in a scientific study pretty
| much always means some form of 24h+ fast. The more common
| practice of eating in a time window is usually "time-
| restricted eating/feeding."
| jasonhansel wrote:
| Also worth noting that the sample (as a whole) was 96% white,
| 91% non-Hispanic, and 33% male.
|
| Granted, the study was performed in SLC, but these numbers
| suggest that this is not even a particularly representative
| sample of SLC, much less of the nation as a whole.
| nabla9 wrote:
| Can somebody comment the effects size of improvements
|
| HOMA-IR (-0.75 +- 0.79 vs. -0.10 +- 1.06; P = 0.004) and
|
| MSS (-0.34 +- 4.72 vs. 0.31 +- 1.98, P = 0.006).
|
| Without knowing the normal range it's impossible to say how big
| change 0.75 (HOMA-IR) or -0.34 (MSS) are. The article says
| significant, but how much that is.
| hartator wrote:
| Does that mean a 24h fast but frequent is enough to trigger DNA
| repair mechanism? My understanding so far was you needed at least
| a 72h fast.
| dvt wrote:
| > needed at least a 72h fast
|
| I think you're thinking of ketosis, which is ~72hrs. You can
| also verify entering ketosis by the smell & color of your
| urine. We're not 100% sure how ketosis relates to cellular
| autophagy.
| kilroy123 wrote:
| Autophagy? It's still unknown but many believe that happens
| around 48 - 72 hour mark.
| anonuser123456 wrote:
| I haven't read enough on the subject, but Peter Attia has
| discussed this on a few podcasts. His general view is that no
| one knows; we simply don't have the biomarkers or lab tests to
| even run good experiments yet.
| boplicity wrote:
| If you want to have an "anti-inflammatory" response, then try to
| maximize your fiber intake from a wide variety of plants.
|
| This will increase the quality of your microbiome -- which in
| turn, will produce substances that are anti-inflammatory.
| johnyzee wrote:
| _" All disease begins in the gut"_ -- Hippocrates
|
| It seems we just keep discovering more effects of the
| microbiome on health. I heard about this anti-inflammation
| effect just yesterday. I think it was explained as gram
| negative bacteria overgrowth in the gut (due to a bad bacterial
| balance). Those bacteria have a hard 'shell' that triggers a
| potent immune response (with inflammation) when present in the
| blood stream, which they enter from the small intestine.
|
| So I think your advice to maximize fiber intake is sound. This
| feeds gut bacteria (unlike most other food which is broken down
| before reaching the small intestine). Another intervention
| would be fermented foods.
| rewgs wrote:
| Wondering if anyone is in a situation similar to mine (probably
| not but it's worth a try):
|
| Earlier this year I developed about 30 food allergies (IgE-
| mediated; I'm using the term "allergy" accurately, not in the
| fuzzy way we colloquially use it to refer to intolerances, etc,
| which are entirely different, mechanism- and prognosis-wise).
| This has absolutely decimated my ability to eat out at
| restaurants (I literally can't eat anything I don't prepare
| myself). Logistically it just sucks. It'll be evening after work
| and someone on the other side of town says "come hang out." I'd
| love to, but I'll have to drive home one direction, eat, then
| drive twice as far the other direction. With traffic it'll be 9pm
| before I can leave, so...yeah, not happening. It's destroyed my
| social life. My allergies have also affected things that are
| "quick" or "travel" foods, so basically I always need to heat
| stuff up. God it sucks.
|
| Naturally, I've arrived at the thought of training myself to
| "officially" work IF into my life. Unofficially, I do it all the
| time by way of just...having to go somewhere unexpectedly or
| staying somewhere longer than I thought, and I don't have any
| food. About 50% of the time I feel fine and can power through,
| the other 50% I feel faint and hangry. Can't figure out why.
|
| The other side of this coin, though, is that I'm trying to build
| muscle mass. Nuff said.
|
| Anyone find a way to satisfy all these competing interests
| successfully?
| shoto_io wrote:
| I am a big IF fan. Specifically, I try to do it 3-4x a week. I
| skip dinner and start at 5pm and hold it until 9am. I tried
| skipping breakfast before, that didn't work well for me.
|
| Two things have been difficult for me lately:
|
| A) sudden extreme cravings before I start at 5pm
|
| B) a sore throat starting at around 9-10pm. I have no clue why it
| happens.
|
| Do you guys experience something similar and how do you deal with
| it?
|
| EDIT: Sorry for the confusion. I meant heartburn.
| nobrains wrote:
| Why don't you have a filling meal at 4.30 or 4.45 ?
| dazc wrote:
| Cravings and weird side-effects suggest you're lacking some
| basic nutrient/s. Have you tried varying the types of foods you
| eat to counter this?
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Sore throat might be heartburn, have you changed your diet?
| Perhaps you're eating too quickly? Are you drinking enough
| water?
|
| Might be an idea to consult a registered dietician or a GP
| (general practitioner, a generalist doctor, sometimes called a
| 'family doctor').
| vegai_ wrote:
| I fast about once a week or once every two weeks.
|
| >A) sudden extreme cravings before I start at 5pm
|
| Have you tried apple cider vinegar? That seems to work for me.
|
| >B) a sore throat starting at around 9-10pm. I have no clue why
| it happens.
|
| I don't get that specifically, but I do get lowered body
| temperature. Could sore throat be a symptom of that? Have you
| tried hot water, perhaps with lemon and/or tea?
| dqv wrote:
| >Have you tried apple cider vinegar? That seems to work for
| me.
|
| No comment on effectiveness, but for anyone who is going to
| do this, make sure to dilute the vinegar with some water.
| primaryobjects wrote:
| 1 tsp apple cider vinegar mixed in a full glass of water.
|
| It also helps to drink with a straw to avoid residual acid
| on the teeth (although the water already diluted it
| enough).
| sneak wrote:
| I can't speak to the sore throat but I do keto and on days I
| skip most/all food, I get crazy food cravings that can usually
| be addressed (provided I'm not recently re-entering keto but am
| a week+ fat-adjusted) by drinking a bottle of water with a
| squirt of electrolyte replacement concentrate (K+Mg) along with
| 3-5g of salt.
|
| I normally eat a pretty high-salt diet (7-10g per day depending
| on if I eat out or not), keto or no, and replacing a day's salt
| with just 1-2g is insufficient to keep my body from cravings. I
| find that having 3-5g with my other misc electrolyte
| replacement generally makes it much, much easier for me to skip
| the day's meals.
|
| Cravings are almost always your body asking for something; the
| trick is to learn what it's asking for that doesn't involve
| calories.
| shironandon wrote:
| have had similar and suggest:
|
| - swap coffee for green tea
|
| - supplement phosphatidylcholine daily
|
| - drink hot water with a spoonful of apple cider vinegar and
| honey at night
|
| - measure humidity in your home and make sure it isn't too dry
|
| For me this reduced inflammation and GERD issue presenting sore
| throat at night. May take over a week to start noticing
| results.
| nuclearnice1 wrote:
| I have moderate success solving A) by drinking a glass of
| water.
|
| Also ignore it and it will go away helps.
| nemacol wrote:
| >ignore it and it will go away helps.
|
| When I was young I would hurt myself somehow and go to my
| mother saying
|
| Me - My arm hurts when I do THIS (bend arm at elbow, back and
| forth)
|
| Mom- Don't do that and it won't hurt.
|
| Me - (Pikachu meme face)
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > start at 5pm and hold it until 9am
|
| Isn't that basically normal? We call it breakfast for a reason,
| and 5pm to 9pm is extremely close to what many people do
| habitually. Maybe a slightly early dinner and a slightly late
| breakfast, but not by much.
| pelasaco wrote:
| interesting. I do IF since 2018, but because I normally do
| heavy sports at night, I cannot sleep if I don't eat. So I
| eat well after training and then go until 14:00 without food
| other than coffee and water.
| shoto_io wrote:
| Well, it was never normal for me. I used to eat until 10pm or
| so and then start eating right after getting up at 7am. So
| 5pm-9am adds 7h of fasting for me.
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| I find that many times I'm just thirsty not hungry. If I chug a
| big glass of water, maybe two, I can easily skip a meal or
| more. This routinely makes 16 hours of fasting possible.
| op00to wrote:
| Sore throat sounds like acid reflux. Can you take an antacid?
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Or, address the cause of the reflux?
| op00to wrote:
| I assume it's from fasting.
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| The cult of IF among tech nerds is one of those bizarre
| subcultures I'll never get used to. Here we are, modern human
| beings who live twice as long as their forebears, and yet a small
| fraction of them feel they need to regularly and intentionally
| starve themselves in order to be healthy. Humans are goddamn
| _weird_.
| redisman wrote:
| You could phrase most healthy behaviors as bizarre in todays
| world tbf.
|
| Look at these idiots spending an hour preparing green leaves
| and lean cuts of chicken when I, a intellectual just buy a box
| of Twinkies and get my calories in a fraction of the time and
| effort. I am obviously the superior Hunter gatherer
| goboronshka wrote:
| Many of us are insecure from being bullied as kids and being in
| a profession where we are often surrounded by people who are
| smarter than us. Also the extremely high pay creates an
| imposter syndrome, where we feel like society has "selected" us
| to be the most intelligent and we can only live up to that
| standard by having contrarian views on a wide range of topics.
|
| The sad thing is most of us would be better off lifting weights
| or making money or going to social events than developing
| eating disorders.
| silverpepsi wrote:
| So let me get this straight...
|
| I and at least one other friend (coincidentally who is a
| hardcore athlete and in accounting not tech) both noticed it
| really is the food that clouds our minds and makes us
| unproductive at work and fall asleep in meetings. And the
| improvement onLy got better going from low carb to IF eating
| daily or per 48hrs, so we are weird for having common sense? Or
| basic logic skills? If brains only work correctly when in
| "starvation" perhaps it is you who needs to work on rewriting
| some definitions of words. !!! Astounded.
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| I'm sure it's different for everyone.
|
| I never experienced a "food coma".
|
| If I'm starving I can't think straight.
| ensiferum wrote:
| Fasting isn't starving. It's living off of the food and energy
| you ate before. I.e. done properly you're tapping i to your
| bodyfat for energy and there's absolutely no hunger.
| zajio1am wrote:
| I guess that for short-length fasting like IF it is more your
| glykogen reserves than your bodyfat,
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I don't know if it's limited to tech nerds, though, I find that
| pretty much _everyone_ loves to give diet advice complete with
| mounds of anecdotes about how it improved their life in
| immeasurable ways, and IF is popular with them too. Hell, my 80
| year old mother lectures me occasionally on how much skipping
| breakfast has improved her life.
|
| I do find it interesting that a group of people I would
| otherwise suspect of being more pro-science would be so
| enthusiastic about bro-science.
| dvt wrote:
| > a small fraction of them
|
| Fasting isn't really that weird at all, people have been doing
| it for literally thousands of years. Christians do it, Muslims
| do it, Jews do it, Buddhists do it, and so on. A small
| fraction?
|
| I do IF just because it makes me feel better and more healthy,
| but sometimes I fast for religious reasons.
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| They're pretty different things. Isn't the whole point of
| religious fasting that it is a different regime, and that the
| hunger felt is used as a reminder to focus the mind/spirit on
| higher things than bodily needs. Religious fasts are
| purposeful privations.
|
| Whilst with IF it's about adopting a habit that stays
| constant and that negates the potential feelings of hunger by
| teaching your body that there's no point in complaining food
| comes in this time-period no matter how hungry it pretends to
| be. IF is about creating a norm that is no longer experienced
| as a privation.
| crazybLanKeT wrote:
| IF is great. IF + low(ish) carb is even better. IF + low(ish)
| carb + eating calorie amounts matching your healthy weight is
| amazing.
|
| There is more than one way to lose weight just like there is for
| gaining weight. Minimize as many of the offending behaviors as
| possible. Consistency is key. Don't pick something you cannot
| consistently repeat unless that limited time run is all you're
| after.
|
| Of the different IF schedules people pick -OMAD, 20:4, 16:8, 5:2,
| etc-, start with anything that you can do initially without
| getting frustrated and giving up. You will be able to increase
| the fasting window over time. It just really works.
|
| Don't get discouraged by words from people that tried and failed
| (or gave up too quickly), or not even tried but talk out of
| prejudice. Listen to the encouragement from so many that
| successfully do it.
|
| Best of luck!!
| phonypc wrote:
| Odd title. Study doesn't mention any anti-inflammatory response.
| The change in hsCRP in Table 3 actually seems to show a (non-
| significant) pro-inflammatory measure.
| programmarchy wrote:
| I came here to say the same thing. The improvements are to
| insulin resistance and metabolism. Are those factors well-known
| to be related to inflammation?
| GDC7 wrote:
| Ferritin is a marker of inflammation of the liver and anecdotally
| it rises when fasting.
| LightG wrote:
| Colitis - I haven't read the article but will soon. But here is a
| data point for anyone with Colitis, if it helps.
|
| I started IF in July as a means to lose a bit of lockdown weight.
|
| No breakfast, no lunch, only a substantial dinner. 4-5 Drinks
| taken throughout the day. No real restriction. Lots of walking to
| keep busy.
|
| I've noticed a significant improvement in management of Colitis.
| No flares. Enabling me to get back to normal life without
| worrying about the condition throughout the day. Just (sorry
| TMI), emptying bowels first thing in the morning (2-3) times.
| Then don't have to worry all day.
|
| Considering colitis is a primarily inflammatory response (I
| believe), then this article rings true. YMMV
|
| Once I reach target weight, not sure what I'll do. Maybe just add
| some more protein or good fats to evening meal. It's been too
| helpful to give up the routine.
| boplicity wrote:
| What does your diet look like otherwise?
|
| I have Crohn's, and mostly manage it through diet, and am
| always curious what other people are doing for their IBD.
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| The study seems to say the opposite of the title.
|
| A marker for inflammation (hsCRP) increased. Weight and waist
| circumference decreased. Risk of diabetes (HOMA-IR) decreased.
| Risk of cardiovascular issues (MSS) decreased.
|
| Nothing extraordinary, I think the caloric deficit reduced the
| weight and weight loss brought down risk of diabetes and
| cardiovascular issues.
|
| I don't think it says much about IF.
| Swizec wrote:
| I've long considered my Sunday runs (26km usually) as a form of
| sped up intermittent fasting. There's something fascinating about
| burning a day's worth of calories in 2 hours.
|
| Took a few years of practice to get my metabolism to the point
| where it can burn ~2000 calories in 2 hours and munge through
| enough food to feel fully operational the same day. I wonder if
| the overall effects are similar to intermittent fasting.
|
| Anecdotally I've noticed that training for long distance running
| has made me a lot less sensitive to energy-from-food
| fluctuations. If you can run for 2+ hours while eating 100cal of
| running gels, what's a little missed lunch while sitting at a
| desk?
| DerekBickerton wrote:
| I'm a big fan of Intermittent Feasting.
|
| Joking aside, I've tried intermittent fasting and had more
| balance / homeostasis as a result. They say `the first element of
| discipline starts with your diet`. Control diet, and you control
| many other things.
| spfzero wrote:
| I've been doing time-restricted eating for maybe 5 years, only
| eating between 12 and 7-ish. It's not what this experiment
| studied but is supposed to have similar effects. One thing I can
| say is you get used to it quickly and no longer feel hunger in
| the same urgent way as before. Hunger is more of a vague "yeah, I
| could eat now" feeling in the back of the mind, which can be
| easily ignored for several hours. Mood never changes, either.
|
| On the few occasions I've gone 24 hours+, the hunger feeling is a
| little stronger, but still pretty easy to ignore. For one
| example, there is no difficulty going to sleep.
|
| None of this applies when you are first starting out though :-)
| kaminar wrote:
| Intermittent fasting is NOT waiting 8 or 16 hrs to eat. IF
| requires minimum 48 hrs of fasting. 1 meal per day is not
| fasting, it's eating.
|
| For IF to work, your body must focus on something other than
| digestion. For most of us, digestion in one form or another
| occurs 24 hrs per day...it's constant.
|
| Once the body competes all digestion, it can focus on healing and
| building. Don't take my word for it. Dry fasting is also great.
|
| IF creates insane amounts of free time...so much you'll be hard
| pressed to fill it.
| gnarcoregrizz wrote:
| It seemed to have helped my epilepsy. It's mentioned in the bible
| as a treatment for the disease, and diet based treatments are
| experiencing a resurgence in use. Keto is sometimes prescribed in
| kids with difficult cases, and low GI (the south beach diet) is
| similarly being prescribed to adults since keto is too difficult
| for most. I haven't heard of IF being prescribed but my doctor
| said it may be effective when I brought it up.
|
| I did low carb/cal AM (1 egg) and didn't eat til 3 PM. I did this
| most days of the week. There are other confounding variables so
| don't take it as medical advice, since the diet can also
| exacerbate seizures.
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| Could you give that Bible reference please, thanks.
| gnarcoregrizz wrote:
| Mark 9:14-29, depending on the translation. The translation
| of biblical fasting is suspected to be one meal a day type
| thing, like Ramadan.
|
| More about the history of fasting and epilepsy here (which
| also cites the Bible verse, god forbid):
|
| https://www.medlink.com/articles/ketogenic-diet-in-the-
| treat...
|
| Of course I'm being downvoted because I mentioned a religious
| text. It's in other secular ancient texts as well. My point
| was more about how fasting and the ketogenic diet has been
| recognized as a treatment for mental diseases for a long
| time. As it relates to the title, a lot of them are suspected
| to have roots in inflammation and metabolism.
| victorvosk wrote:
| This study seems a little weird (crap) in that they started with
| a hardcore twice a week fast for a month then dialed it back to
| once a week. Unless I missed it, I don't see an explanation of
| why this approach was taken in the paper.
|
| Given the subjects were high cholesterol and/or diabetic, it
| makes me think their life styles sucked already. I couldn't
| imagine living like then suddenly being told to stop eating for
| entire days. I would not be shocked if people didn't really
| adhere to the guidelines. It seems a food diary was the only
| thing keeping them "honest". Also a staggering 40% of all
| participants refused to answer how much alcohol they consumed on
| average.
|
| If you are going crazy with food or lack of exercise for 6 out of
| 7 days, I don't think taking a break for one day a week is going
| to make much of a difference.
| skerit wrote:
| The worst thing I ever did was start eating breakfast. Turns out
| I was doing IF for over 20 years, because only after I started
| eating (even a healthy) breakfast did I start to gain weight.
| koonsolo wrote:
| Yeah, they never should have started the "breakfast is the most
| important meal" when there was no evidence to back this up.
|
| For me also breakfast doesn't come natural to me, unless my
| kids bake croissants in the morning ;).
| pmarreck wrote:
| So does nutritional ketosis... which is probably why this result
| was found... because when you fast, you go into slight keto
|
| if you don't like CR or fasting (or being hungry), consider keto
| as an alternative, just realize that you'll have to do your
| homework
|
| I've definitely seen the same anti-inflammatory results that this
| has.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IEuhp8RFMU
| encoderer wrote:
| I've been doing IF with some interruptions for about 10 years.
| It's absolutely changed my life because before that I was
| steadily gaining about 5-20lbs per year and it had really added
| up over my 20s. Now I'm 39 in the best shape of my life.
|
| So I'm invested in this technique, but I really believe the
| primary and possibly exclusive benefit is simply calorie
| restriction.
|
| In a typical "diet" you attempt to restrict calories by remove
| foods from your diet. The problem is, cravings are real,
| abstinence doesn't work, and there are always new foods and new
| temptations.
|
| On an IF regimen, you restrict calories by removing eating hours
| from your day. You don't have to abstain from anything.
| Temptation is managed by just having a little patience until your
| next meal.
|
| Possibly there is a deeper truth to why this lifestyle works but
| I personally like the simplicity of it.
|
| It's like a rate limiter, for daily food intake.
| thhyjjoiffd wrote:
| Your intuition is pretty close to the science:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaDmSEVPZiM
| theodorewiles wrote:
| I've lost 20 lbs on IF and this is spot on. It's just a lot
| easier (for me) to eat way less. I just only eat after 5pm
| every day. Much much less for me to think about vs any other
| diet. Its tough at first but mind and body adapted after a few
| weeks.
| halfmatthalfcat wrote:
| You still have to abide by Calories In, Calories Out though. If
| you're eating 3000+ kcals but doing IF, you're still going to
| gain weight.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| > cravings are real, abstinence doesn't work, and there are
| always new foods and new temptations
|
| If IF worked for you that's great, but you shouldn't imply
| every other diet doesn't work. In my case all I did was track
| calories of everything I ate (Lose It app, highly recommended)
| while maintaining a normal eating schedule. Down 105lbs so far.
| For me I feel like if I just ate whatever I wanted in specific
| timeframes it'd still be too easy to eat 3000-4000 calories.
| claaams wrote:
| I was like that too but eventually after doing one meal a day
| Ive been feeling full on anywhere from 1200-2200 calories.
| Really depends on the food where I'm at and what's around.
| But you're absolutely right, there's not one BEST method for
| everyone. I personally cannot stand the minutiae of calorie
| counting and measuring portions so it's not good for me. I
| will measure portions to learn to eyeball things but yeah,
| can't do it every time I put food on a plate.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| For me it feels uncomfortable eating something I can't
| track accurately, like it's going to actually have 5 times
| the calories I think it would, since that's the story for
| so much food. Like once I was hungry after a dinner and
| there was stuffing left, so I had some assuming it was a
| lighter food, then I looked it up and it's actually
| extremely calorie dense.
| freediver wrote:
| I think what the OP meant is that IF has all the benefits in
| one, simple to use format.
|
| You do not need any apps, you do not need to count calories
| and you do not need remove food you love from the menu.
|
| And while it may sound that you would try to overcompensate
| for not eating during specific timeframes, what happens in
| reality is that your body responds by wanting less food, not
| more.
| encoderer wrote:
| That's fair, in my head I was singling out food-restrictive
| options like no-carb fad diets. Navigating this world of
| abundance with our ancient brains is hard so however you do
| it, congratulations
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| I think what the comment you are replying to is saying, and
| which I agree with after trying IF, is that IF works simply
| by making it _easier_ to restrict calories for the average
| person, not that other methods are impossible or can 't work.
|
| I mean, just take your example. Counting calories for
| everything you eat is a significant amount of work, and it's
| really easy to cheat if you're feeling hungry ("Oh, look, my
| app says that an 'average' blueberry muffin is only 250 cals,
| so that's what I'll put in, despite this muffin being the
| size of my head").
|
| With IF, all you have to think about is whether you're in
| your feeding window. You can still cheat, but there is no
| ambiguity about it, so for many people (or, fine, at least
| for me) it's easier to keep with it. I found myself getting
| super hungry during my fasting period, but I knew I just had
| to wait until my feeding period, and I actually found it
| difficult to overeat during my feeding period because I would
| just eat until I was full and then would "run out of time" to
| overeat.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| It doesn't feel like work to me after I'm used to it, just
| a part of life. I'd only be cheating myself if I cheated on
| it, so I always err on overestimating.
|
| I also track protein to make sure I get at least 170g, so
| that's an additional benefit.
| aksss wrote:
| 170g of protein?? Are you also doing a carnivore diet or
| keto?
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| "gram of protein per pound of bodyweight" is a fairly
| standard macro ratio in the fitness community.
|
| 170g of protein is only 680 cals, so plenty of room left
| over for carbs and fat.
| aksss wrote:
| I think the formula is .8g per _kg_ of bodyweight, not
| per pound. That's a significant difference.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| Right, and in my case I was only going for .8 grams per
| pound. It's hard to do without going over on calories
| without a lot of meals being skinless chicken breast.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > Lose It app, highly recommended
|
| It has become such an annoying nag though. If they offered a
| reasonable one-time payment -- not even for premium features,
| just to make it stop nagging -- I'd pay it. But no, they want
| me to subscribe. No thanks.
| aksss wrote:
| I have same reaction to payment plans. I fully understand
| the business goal of recurring revenue, but several times
| in last few months I've opted for workarounds/alternates
| rather than paying a subscription for a product where I
| would have just paid a flat fee if available.
| jswzz wrote:
| my folks lost a ton of weight using Noom. I'd try that if
| Lose It annoys you.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I'll take a look at that. I have occasionally considered
| writing my own simple logger that fit my needs (I don't
| need a really fancy database of nutrients, my diet is
| somewhat repetitive, so the basic FDA stuff would be
| fine) and then releasing it for free. That's a lot more
| work than just paying Lose It, but I really don't care
| much for software subscriptions for every little app.
| logosmonkey wrote:
| I used to use lose it but swapped to fat secret. Its
| database isn't as good as lose it but it's getting better
| and it doesn't nag. I found Noom infuriatingly naggy and
| when I went to cancel there were multiple guilt trip
| prompts I had to OK through before they would cancel my
| free trial which turned me 100% against them.
| hh3k0 wrote:
| > You don't have to abstain from anything.
|
| I mean, you _do_ abstain from eating. But I always found it
| easier to abstain from something entirely rather than to do it
| in moderation.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| > But I always found it easier to abstain from something
| entirely rather than to do it in moderation.
|
| Not a knock or being troll-y but that sound like a religion.
| As in, funny how patterns established in religion are just as
| effective outside that context.
| hh3k0 wrote:
| I hope I am not oversharing but I definitely need my
| patterns to cope, I have ADHD so perhaps it is related to
| that. Maybe something along the lines of lessening the
| impact my poor impulse control has on my life by avoiding
| situations in which I could act impulsively. For example, I
| do not buy sweets and pretty much never have any at home
| because ignoring them in the store is easier than ignoring
| them at home. For me, it is an Herculean task to start a
| bag of sweets _without_ also finishing it in one sitting...
| but buying no sweets in the store? That is easy peasy lemon
| squeezy.
| encoderer wrote:
| Ok I am not a philosopher but is it really "abstinence" if
| you only have to wait 8 hours?
| jnwatson wrote:
| For a lot of people, waiting 8 hours to eat is a long time.
| If you've ever been around snackers, you know what I mean.
| chubot wrote:
| Yeah but this can extremely plastic. Snacking is
| something you do, not who you are :)
|
| I ate 5 or 6 times a day for 15-20 years. I would eat 3
| meals, a snack in the afternoon, and then something
| before bed. And probably more than that to be honest. I
| was as much of a snacker as anybody.
|
| In April I switched to eating 2 meals a day. I was very
| hungry for literally 1 or 2 days, and then I just got
| used to it, and started to like it!
|
| Before that I was on a pretty strict diet for ~4 years.
| But I _relaxed_ the diet after changing the schedule, and
| lost about 5 lbs. So the heuristic of just eating twice a
| day turns out to be easier to maintain than a diet.
|
| Go figure! It was kinda shocking. I do think "3 meals a
| day" is a relatively recent thing. Millions of people
| lived for thousands of years without eating 3 meals a
| day.
|
| Some downsides: I eat bigger meals, and I notice a bigger
| "tired" crash after dinner. But I think that's better
| than feely slightly groggy multiple times a day. I
| definitely am more aware of the fact that eating "slows
| you down". I do think there is something to the "alert,
| fasted" state, and I would call that pleasant.
|
| Also I might have slowly gained back the 5 pounds but I'm
| still under my target weight ("normal" BMI which is like
| 20th percentile). I think after 6 months your body
| probably gets used to it, and maybe I relaxed the diet a
| bit too much. I'll continue to tweak it in the future.
|
| An upside not to be discounted is that I spend less time
| and money on food, and traveling is a lot easier as a
| result!
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Reminds me of the joke about celibacy. Most people are
| celibate 99.99% of their total hours lived. But if you
| intentionally add 0.01% to that, people lose their mind.
| jonahrd wrote:
| Just for fun I did the math. An 80 year lifespan is
| 700,800 hours. 0.01% of that is only 70 hours. I think
| most people have sex for more than 70 hours in the course
| of a life time!
|
| The point still stands though.
| aksss wrote:
| Differences in efficiency.
| vadfa wrote:
| For some fat people, yes. That's why they are fat: they
| can't stop snacking.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| I never snacked when I weighed 100lbs more, there are
| just too many damn calories in everything.
| vadfa wrote:
| Which is why I said "some". I know it's not the same set
| of problems for all of us ;)
| encoderer wrote:
| Jim you're totally right. Our brains were wired for
| scarcity. We are not evolved to pass up sugars or deal
| with lookalike chemicals like opiates. The modern world
| asks a lot of our psychology to manage that.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| I think with IF it exploits the fact that your stomach can
| only take so much food at a time. If you restrict your eating
| to a small window, you can't eat a whole day of calories in
| that window just because your stomach can't take that much
| food. It's like exploiting the fact that your stomach is a
| buffer and you fill it only at certain times of the day.
| phonypc wrote:
| IME, most people find it rather easy to take in a days
| worth of calories in a single sitting, with the right
| (wrong?) kinds of food.
|
| Like... a largish portion of very cheesy mac 'n' cheese
| will do it.
| hsn915 wrote:
| I used to be way overweight. A few years ago I lost a lot of
| weight by basically walking a lot and doing intemittent
| fasting.
|
| Then I stopped it and started to slowly gain more weight. Now
| I'm on an IF regiment again.
|
| Now, I really doubt it's the calorie restriction that's at work
| here.
|
| The human body is not a simple physical machine. It's a complex
| system.
|
| A simple machine would be some like like a car that has a set
| amount of energy needed and simple mechanism to switch energy
| source when one of them is almost depleted.
|
| A complex machine is one that responds to the environment and
| changes its internal behavior. For example, it can decide to
| activate or shutdown internal systems that use energy in order
| to conserve energy. It can decide to let go of conserving
| energy and just make sure the body has a lot of energy for
| performing the current activity.
|
| Common wisdom says that the body goes in hunger mode if you
| restrict calories. But I don't think that's what's going on.
| Because you also restrict calories on IF. Instead I think that
| when you consistently eat low calorie meals, it activates some
| mechanism in your body that's meant to conserve energy when you
| are living through some sort of a famine, or something like
| that. (another possibility: instead of a famine, it thinks you
| became a low status individual within your tribe). But when you
| do IF you typically eat normal size, filling meals, so this
| mechanism never gets triggered. Further more, there's probably
| no mechanism in your brain that thinks that going for many
| hours without food is a bad thing. Quite the opposite: it's
| just the normal expected thing.
|
| So if you do some exercise while in a fasted state, even though
| you are technically low on calories, your brain probably thinks
| you might be hunting for food so it will make sure you can
| utilize all the energy you need and some more.
|
| > The problem is, cravings are real, abstinence doesn't work,
|
| I'm not sure what you mean here? Surely fasting is abstinence,
| is it not?
|
| You can at any time decide to open the fridge and eat
| something. You can decide at any time to go to the nearby
| convenience store and buy something to eat.
| fjabre wrote:
| Yes I agree with you. Body does not go into starvation mode
| during IF. One meal a day is ideal.
|
| My eating window is around 4-8pm most days the last 6 months.
| Usually just one meal of literally anything I want and Im
| still finding I have to eat more to stop losing weight.
| throwaway803453 wrote:
| I'll never understand OMAD from a minimum calorie
| requirement standpoint. I watched a lean muscular YouTuber
| prepare his one meal which was mostly cauliflower mash and
| totaled 600 calories, in which case I call BS since he
| probably needs about 3500cal/day given his size.
|
| For those of us that aren't burning off excess fat and are
| active what would a 2700-ish calorie meal look like. Can
| you learn to eat 2 lbs of steak in one sitting for example
| and do that every day ? Because it is unlikely there is
| room in a typical stomach for 20lbs of cauliflower mash or
| 4.5lbs of pasta eaten all at once.
|
| Also from a time management standpoint spiking your
| serotonin levels with that massive meal seems
| counterproductive. Are you really saving time if you are a
| drowsy for an hour or two after that massive meal ? I
| realize the parent poster was just contemplating, but if
| someone has actual experience I would be grateful for a
| helpful link or comment.
| phonypc wrote:
| Presumably most people doing it have losing weight as a
| goal, not maintaining?
|
| Anyway, fat heavy foods make cramming calories pretty
| easy. You can hide _a lot_ of butter in mashed potatoes
| or a pasta sauce.
| vb6sp6 wrote:
| I think he is saying you can have ice cream or pizza or
| whatever. Just not right now. So you get the benefits of
| calorie deficit now and can satisfy the craving later
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| There are studies on this and, from what I can remember, meal
| frequency didn't seem to have an impact on weight loss or
| muscle gain.
|
| You don't need to eat 6 meals or 1 per day to lose weight,
| just do whatever makes it easy for you to consume the amount
| of calories you want.
|
| I agree that doing 1-2 big meal makes it easier to eat little
| calories because you can stuff yourself up to a point.
| hsn915 wrote:
| > There are studies on this
|
| Studies on this are generally poor quality, and you can
| easily tell by looking at the study content.
|
| Remember when early 2020 all the official organizations
| (WHO, CDC) were telling people to NOT wear masks because
| studies showed they didn't work? Yea. Turned out all the
| studies were really bad quality.
|
| "Scientific" publishing is broken and you simply can't rely
| on it for useful information. Many studies don't even
| replicate, but they still get published and cited.
|
| For another example, see:
| https://twitter.com/cmuratori/status/1459275924059217920
|
| Basically, whenever I hear "studies have shown ..." I just
| don't care. Let the studies show whatever they want. I will
| go with my own experience and with personal anecdotes I
| hear from people. They are way more consistent and
| reliable.
| glofish wrote:
| The problem is that the studies that shows masks work are
| just as broken,
|
| it is simply a matter of whose broken opininon is the
| "acceptable"
|
| read below how bonkers the stats are in the mask-study
| that the CDC uses to "prove" that masks work:
|
| http://www.argmin.net/2021/09/13/effect-size/
| aksss wrote:
| > "Scientific" publishing is broken and you simply can't
| rely on it for useful information. Many studies don't
| even replicate, but they still get published and cited.
|
| I may take issue with some of your other statements but
| fully agree with this observation.
|
| A critical thinker needs to be highly skeptical of the
| appeal to authority used by invoking the phrases "the
| science says", or "studies have shown".
| refurb wrote:
| _Temptation is managed by just having a little patience until
| your next meal._
|
| My hypothesis is this is the key.
|
| I do something similar to IF. I'll eat two meals before 10am
| then won't eat until 7pm or so.
|
| It's not that I don't get hungry it's that I kind of don't
| care? It's not a big deal and I can wait until the next meal.
|
| Overcoming the psychological "need" to eat is a big part of it.
| nick_ wrote:
| I like this approach. My understanding of my metabolism (and
| I suspect most others') is that if I eat a fair amount all
| morning, my body is fueled up and can therefore spend energy
| without worry of conservation to survive starvation.
|
| If I skip breakfast, my body and especially my mind seem
| slower and weaker for the entire day. I feel like I have to
| drag myself through the day rather than be pushed. And, when
| I do get hungry later in the day it's very difficult to
| ignore. I suspect this is because my body is worried about
| food.
|
| Is metabolic economics a thing?
| fpoling wrote:
| There is unexplained difference regarding body energy usage
| if one eats most calories before noon or in the evening.
| With the former body spends like 100-200 more calories than
| with the latter. This is independent of sleeping patterns,
| what one eats and what one is doing. Even if one works
| night shifts, the same pattern persists. And it is not
| clear where exactly the extra energy is spent.
| aksss wrote:
| Wait, so about that night shift.. you mean "before noon"
| isn't a relative reference to a period of time after
| waking, it's an absolute reference to time of day
| regardless of when sleep takes place? That's
| interesting.. irrespective of latitude (sunlight hours)?
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. Does that mean if I do IF I can still
| consume the same calories I consume right now, just in a
| shorter period?
|
| BTW what does your IF plan look like? I'm thinking about
| between 4pm (needs a coffee around 2 or 3) and 8am but not sure
| if it actually is IF.
| pbhjpbhj wrote:
| The idea is you _can_ eat whatever, but when you come to it
| there 's a natural limit for most people then you feel full
| and don't want to eat more.
|
| If you imagine it to extremes, if you put all your food for
| the day on a plate and gave yourself 1 hour how much could
| you eat if you weren't trying to make yourself sick?
|
| For most people of you only eat between noon-8pm, say
| ("18-6") then you'll reduce your calorie intake naturally.
| Couple it with appropriate exercise and you'll lose weight
| (doesn't mean you'll be healthier necessarily though!).
| [deleted]
| vishnugupta wrote:
| > I'm thinking about between 4pm (needs a coffee around 2 or
| 3) and 8am
|
| This is (called 16-8, 16hr fast and 8hr eating window) is
| actually a recommended way to start IF. I've been on it for
| ~4 months and can second the effectiveness of weight loss.
|
| About the calorie intake; a funny side effect is that I'm now
| _naturally_ less hungry even during the 8hr window so the
| calorie intake has automatically reduced.
|
| I was wondering why would that be and then learned about
| insulin resistance and things began to fall in place.
|
| Now I'm doing 16-8 IF _and_ close to zero added sugar diet
| (which is painfully difficult in Indian cuisine, more so
| during this festival season :-|).
| saruken wrote:
| I've been meaning to get into IF forever. Do you mind sharing
| what system/method in particular has worked for you?
| fortran77 wrote:
| > abstinence doesn't work
|
| Well, it does. I don't like to feed the myth believed by
| overweight people that they won't lose weight if they simply
| started eating 2000 kCal/day. It's psychologically hard, sure
| (for some) but it would work.
|
| However, it's often easier to eat "nothing" than a little --
| especially of high-carb products. It's easier to eat no
| tortilla chips than to have "just one".
|
| And getting used to a np-food period of the day similarly helps
| to stop the cravings.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| People have been banging that drum for decades, meanwhile the
| developed world is becoming increasingly obese. It's quite
| clear that telling people they should just eat less doesn't
| work.
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| The problem I noticed with IF or other "diets" which don't
| track calories in some way, is that people may tend to eat a
| lot more once they start doing physical activity, negating the
| weight loss benefit or gaining too much fat.
|
| The method I recommend nowadays is to keep your diet as
| constant as possible, then replace meals or snacks with protein
| rich, lower calories alternatives until you're satisfied with
| your protein intake (depending on your weight) and you hit a
| maintenance diet and , as in your weight doesn't change
| averaged over two weeks, while doing your normal training
| regimen (which should include some incremental resistance
| training for muscle gaining or preservation and some cardio for
| heart health).
|
| Then you have the choice of adding a 200 calories protein rich
| snack if you're trying to build muscle, removing a snack for
| 200 calories (if you can manage that) or adding some daily
| cardio consuming an extra 200 calories (like a 20m cardio
| class, 2x20 minutes walk, a martial arts class, gymnastic
| skill-work). You should always weight your self to keep track
| of things. Eventually you'll weight will stabilise to a new low
| or a new high and you can go through the process again.
|
| In this way, you don't really count calories, you just roughly
| know that you'll have a few eggs for breakfast, some pasta for
| lunch, meat or fish for dinner.
| redisman wrote:
| What meal do you skip? My problem is that I can't skip
| breakfast or I get lightheaded (I've passed out working out
| before breakfast multiple times). And I feel like during the
| work day I need glucose for my brain to function.
| dsizzle wrote:
| I find breakfast the easiest meal to skip, and putting sleep
| in there and skipping late nate snacks makes a 16 hr fast
| fairly easy.
|
| My wife is like you though, so obviously it depends on the
| person.
| amelius wrote:
| I had the same problem, but it gets easier if you train it.
|
| I recently started cycling for 1h in the morning without
| having breakfast, and after a few days it became quite easy.
| Just don't try to convince yourself that it is somehow a bad
| thing to skip breakfast. Breakfast only makes you hungry for
| the rest of the day.
|
| I'm doing 16h/8h intermittent fasting, and I only feel
| slightly hungry on some days in the last 1h before my feeding
| window.
| encoderer wrote:
| I skip breakfast aside from one cup of unsweetened coffee and
| on the other end I brush my teeth for the night with my
| daughter when she goes to bed at 8pm.
| ravar wrote:
| At some point your body starts making modest amounts of
| ketones overnight/until you eat, so you can still be
| productive without eating.
| jswzz wrote:
| If you're gonna work out early in the AM it does make sense
| to have some kind of fruit or light snack right before. Or
| you can drink BCAAs during the workout to keep you energized.
| Just don't let that turn into eating a proper breakfast at
| like 6am otherwise you're going to end up eating an extra
| 500+ calories a day.
| jb1991 wrote:
| Didn't work in my case. I could fast 16 - 18 hours a day
| without difficulty. But I made up for it in what I ate in the
| remaining. Always felt hungry and ate more than I should when
| not fasting. Still gained weight. Tried IF for months without
| losing weight, and actually gained a little.
| ec109685 wrote:
| 36 hours was the key for me because you can't make up for
| that the next day (eat at night and then nothing the next day
| until the following morning). If I stick to that once a week,
| I am good. Otherwise, not.
| tootie wrote:
| Same. I toughed it out for almost 6 months because your body
| is supposed to adjust but mine never did. I was doing 12-8
| and some days I was so hungry I would start getting blurry
| vision by 11am. Didn't lose an ounce either.
| jamesmontalvo3 wrote:
| It's fascinating how different peoples' bodies are. Maybe
| try a slight variation? My father in law has been
| restricting his food intake to 600 calories per day a few
| days a week for years, and it's done wonders for him. The
| exact numbers might not matter; 700 calories twice a week
| may be better for you, for example. I'm just thinking this
| might be good for you if you need some constant (but low)
| calorie intake.
| [deleted]
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