101–110 of 175 posts
Donating blood has a very similar "boost" effect, and also helps save lives.
Unless the act of donating blood releases some endorphins because you're helping someone else, then this is just bloodletting or phlebotomy, which is considered pseudoscience by the medical community. [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=vH1EAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT293&dq=b...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I regularly fast for 20+ hours (calorie restriction, I do drink water because I am not an idiot) once or twice a week. You get very used to it. While its not something I look forward to, it's purely psychological. A few hours after I miss 'breakfast' my tummy rumbles two or three times and then my body doesn't care anymore. The max time I've fasted is forty hours and I have to say if you can get past the first fours…
How is a 500-600 calorie meal 'very small'? Most normal dinners are 600-800 calories.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a fad, there is quite a wealth of research supporting it's efficacy[1][2][3]. That also doesn't mean you need to fast for 3 days straight to consider your fasting intermittent - you can go 16 hours without eating and still reap the benefits. Skip breakfast and concentrate your calories into lunch and dinner - now you are intermittent fasting. [1] http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/intermittent..…
So it's good for losing weight. But not anything magic compared to simply eating less?
IF is a marginal step in the path of increased health and performance that you should consider, and experiment with, after you've already taken the other, progressively more important steps.
So you're already exercising and maintaining a high level of fitness and athletic output. You're getting good sleep (partly due to the exercise) and meditating. You're eating good, whole foods.
It is in that context that you would then optimize even further - possibly with IF. The question of weight loss strikes me as a bit silly, since by the time you're graduating to IF to eke out marginal increases in health, you're already well past dealing with "weight".
Donating blood has a very similar "boost" effect, and also helps save lives.
Unless the act of donating blood releases some endorphins because you're helping someone else, then this is just bloodletting or phlebotomy, which is considered pseudoscience by the medical community. [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=vH1EAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT293&dq=b...
Iron overload affects many different organs so mild cases might not have any obvious symptoms beyond a vague sense of bad health. There has been some research suggesting health benefits to phlebotomy even in patients without obvious iron overload, eg:
http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7...
Donating blood has a very similar "boost" effect, and also helps save lives.
Are there long term studies of the health effects of blood donation? I wonder if there's a way to have a control group that thinks they donated, but didn't. Fake blood pack maybe?
Would this help with gum disease?
Somewhat off topic, but a few friends now seem to have great success using Oil Pulling to combat gum disease so might be worth looking into (obviously keep brushing/flossing etc). I've started doing it on my drive to work which has the added bonus of stopping me smoking as much.
If I were to fast for that long, should I ingest anything other than water? Some vitamin supplements for example? Or maybe a bit of salt? Or is it really only water?
My understanding is that you are avoiding calories. More specifically, you are avoiding the bodily processes (especially insulin response, etc.) that accompany digestion.
So water, coffee and tea fit into that. Coffee or tea with milk, however, does not.
I am not sure about the vitamin supplements. Even if they are zero calorie, they have to be digested, etc., in a way that goes beyond coffee and tea ...
I would just wait until lunch/dinner, but I only IF for 16-20 hours at a time.
In my own experience day 3 of a water fast had profound effect on my health. I have some health issues so I closely monitor my blood pressure and blood sugar. On the morning of the fourth day my blood pressure and blood sugar would drop tremendously and stay normal for several months. ymmv
Wonder if this will happen this time around :-)
I tried searching for the original article, but this is the closest I could find that had a better writeup than from the telegraph: https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regene... This is the most relevant summary: "In both mice and a Phase 1 human clinical trial involving patients receiving chemotherapy, long periods of not eating significantly lowered white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles…
So intermittent fasting also amounts to calorie restriction if you don't binge later.
Everyone's metabolism is different, though. Intermittent fasting can lead to weight loss and avoiding obesity-related problems later. Most people here, being developers or knowledge workers of some kind, probably work late and skip breakfast often, so they do it naturally.
With a "fad" like this, by the time all the research is in 100 years later, it might be too late to try. This is a life decision.
I tried searching for the original article, but this is the closest I could find that had a better writeup than from the telegraph: https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regene... This is the most relevant summary: "In both mice and a Phase 1 human clinical trial involving patients receiving chemotherapy, long periods of not eating significantly lowered white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles…
> I'll pass on this intermittent fasting "fad" for now! It's amazing how people are prone to experiment with this type of things. They're willing to undergo a very unpleasant experience because it might (unlikely) give them a (slight) health improvement.