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The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

bbc.com

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Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#71

Post by coldtea »

louprado wrote: post #12

My father has had a low calorie diet all of his life. At 78, he is in perfect physical and mental condition. His doctor had only one concern; he is slowly losing weight each year and needs to reverse that. The doctor wanted to prescribe an appetite enhancing drug but my father explained he can not simply gain weight by eating more. It's as if his digestive system is already at a maximum threshold. I wonder if habitua…

>The doctor wanted to prescribe an appetite enhancing drug but my father explained he can not simply gain weight by eating more. It's as if his digestive system is already at a maximum threshold.

Well, actually he can. It's not 100% just calories in/calories out, but it's very much that. If he eats potato chips and fries and lard every day he WILL gain weight.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#72

Post by coldtea »

Vitaly wrote: post #18

I can't find the study right now, but from what I understand it is only really beneficial to animals the size of a mice, as soon as you move to bigger animals the effect is sharply reduced, and experiments with monkeys (or was it even primates? I don't remember) didn't find any real life prolonging effect. So you might be subjecting yourself to not enjoying food for no real benefit after all.

TFA actually talks about possitive experiments with monkeys.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#73

Post by coldtea »

bitwize wrote: post #34
rubicon33 wrote: post #24

Most articles on eating tend to focus on weight, drawing the conclusion that weight (fat) is the problem, not eating. This article provides a refreshing perspective: > But the latest results suggested that significant health benefits can be garnered in an already healthy body – a person who isn’t underweight or obese. The take away here is that the problem with excessive eating isn't just the weight gain. There's som…

> There's something about eating itself which is stressful. Which is more stressful -- eating, or being hangry all the time?

Thing is, we're not "hungry or the time".

Developing world kids are. We just have cravings -- and we eat much more than recommended for our age/height/etc.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#74

Post by JamesBarney »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #42

A few thoughts. It seems that "calorie restriction" is a misleading term. If these funds are correct, CR should be considered the norm/ideal. That means the majority, currently, over-consume. That aside. I wonder if it's also related to modern food, and the production there of. If inflammation is the root of most disease, and CR, I presume, reduces inflammation, then what is it about our foods that trigger so much in…

CR reduces inflammation through the mTor pathway. And a lot(if not all) of the benefits of CR are seen with protein restriction or intermittent fasting(which both don't modify total caloric intake) because they both act on the same receptor.

So CR isn't about eating too much food (though many of us are) it's about certain biological pathways that get activated during famine that prioritize longevity over other things like procreation.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#75

Post by pitaj »

siliconc0w wrote: post #64
stevewillows wrote: post #41

About five years ago I switched to one large meal per day (dinner) with a snack or two. Prior to this I lost nearly 40lbs by shifting my diet toward dominant protein and smaller portions. I also added in a good 30+ minutes of walking per day. Nothing fancy. I also dropped almost all of my sugar intake. I drink about 3L of water per day and have one cup of coffee in the morning. I've been able to maintain a healthy we…

I've settled into a similar pattern and have found it the most sustainable out of all the diets I've tried. I also recommend a few multi day water fasts a year as a sort of 'soft-reset' of your appetite/digestive system. You learn the difference between cravings and hunger and how marvelously tuned your body is for dealing with caloric deficiencies. People get so anxious and scared of hunger when it's no big deal. Yo…

Also, most hunger is really thirst, but your body will output the same sensation.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#76

Post by dpark »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #37

Good overview of the benefits of calorie restriction, but doesn't touch on two of the most important schools of thought of the past couple years. 1. Calorie restriction is almost impossible for most humans to follow long term 2. Many of the same benefits of calorie restriction may be achievable through intermittent fasting, which is much easier for people to follow. I've been experimenting with a daily 16 hour fast (…

> Many of the same benefits of calorie restriction may be achievable through intermittent fasting, which is much easier for people to follow. I've been experimenting with a daily 16 hour fast

Citation? I can't get the NIH study to load, but the other two are wildly different from 16/8 IF. IF proponents like to look at alternate day fasting or periodic weekly fasting and claim evidence for the effectiveness of 16/8 fasting, but going without food for >24 hours is definitely not the same as skipping breakfast, which is all 16/8 really is.

16/8 probably helps with weight loss for many people, because it shortens the eating window, which will make it easier to reduce caloric intake. But I have never seen a study that indicated 16/8 had effects similar to 24/24 or the other IF patterns typically studied.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#77

Post by martin1975 »

louprado wrote: post #12

My father has had a low calorie diet all of his life. At 78, he is in perfect physical and mental condition. His doctor had only one concern; he is slowly losing weight each year and needs to reverse that. The doctor wanted to prescribe an appetite enhancing drug but my father explained he can not simply gain weight by eating more. It's as if his digestive system is already at a maximum threshold. I wonder if habitua…

testosterone production also drops significantly with age. there are natural supplements that can boost it and aid in muscle growth.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#78

Post by listentojohan »

cyrusshepard wrote: post #37

Good overview of the benefits of calorie restriction, but doesn't touch on two of the most important schools of thought of the past couple years. 1. Calorie restriction is almost impossible for most humans to follow long term 2. Many of the same benefits of calorie restriction may be achievable through intermittent fasting, which is much easier for people to follow. I've been experimenting with a daily 16 hour fast (…

Have thought about the fasting as well, but isn't it basically the same as skipping breakfast?

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#79

Post by mcculley »

listentojohan wrote: post #78
cyrusshepard wrote: post #37

Good overview of the benefits of calorie restriction, but doesn't touch on two of the most important schools of thought of the past couple years. 1. Calorie restriction is almost impossible for most humans to follow long term 2. Many of the same benefits of calorie restriction may be achievable through intermittent fasting, which is much easier for people to follow. I've been experimenting with a daily 16 hour fast (…

Have thought about the fasting as well, but isn't it basically the same as skipping breakfast?

There are many schemes people use. I find skipping both breakfast and lunch works well for me.

Re: The secret to a long and healthy life? Eat less

#80

Post by tarsinge »

ericjang wrote: post #9

Does that imply that lifting, building up one's body and consuming excess calories to bulk up is somehow stressful for the body's metabolic aging process?

I read somewhere that physical activities are stressful but then make your body more resistant to oxidative stress, which may explain the paradox of physical activity like lifting improving health and longevity. So maybe caloric restriction compared to slight calorie excess+muscles might end up being relatively equal in terms of longevity
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