Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

stedavies.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#41

Post by e59d134d »

jdmichal wrote: post #30
Kiro wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> allows me to fast from Noon to breakfast the next day with minimal hunger. Do you eat your breakfast at 4 AM?

You can train hunger response. I used to fast for a full 24 hours, water only. It was difficult at the beginning, but a few months in and I wouldn't even feel all that hungry. The bouts of hunger that would come only lasted an hour or so, then I would be fine. This benefit has continued, even though I haven't purposefully fasted for years. Not eating just generally doesn't bother me anymore. If I'm in a rush to get t…

I am one of those people who never get hungry. I don't fast, but don't eat breakfast, skip lunches once in a while. Usually have a large dinner. I am not skinny but slightly overweight, according to BMI (25.1).

But when I purposefully eat as much as possible on vacations (trying out all of the famous places, you know), then for next week or two I get hungry all the time. It takes a lot of time before I could get back to my normal eating schedule. I really don't care one way or other but my busy schedule just get in the way of regular lunches.

Also I have been going to same doctor for last decade and he says my health is as great as of someone 15 years younger than me.

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#42

Post by 13of40 »

trevor-e wrote: post #31
jamesrom wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smaller creatures live longer. Citation needed. Elephants live for 60 years. Mice live for 3. Life expectancy is clearly not a function of size alone, so you probably need to back up that claim that they lived longer because they were stunted.

I'm pretty sure OP was referring to smaller creatures of the same species.

The question is whether smaller humans live longer, and we should have plenty of data on that. Here's a study published in the Western Journal of Medicine that cites "FINDINGS SUGGESTING THAT SHORT STATURE IS HEALTHIER": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071721/

e.g. "The researchers, Willcox etal, did not attribute this superior health to genetics because when younger Okinawans migrate to mainland Japan, Hawaii, or the United States, they soon acquire the chronic diseases of the host population. The Okinawans are shorter and weigh less than mainland Japanese, and men aged 87 to 104 years average 145.4 cm (4ft 9 in) and 42.8 kg (94lb)."

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#43

Post by logicalmike »

thrownblown wrote: post #40
logicalmike wrote: post #39

I've cycled through many methods of eating, trying to find an optimal diet to pair with heavy weight training for 6-7 days a week.. while at the same time keeping my weight more or less the same (with only slight fluctuations). Intermittent fasting (or more specifically, following a loose version of the Renegade Diet) is where I landed.. and have been able to keep my weight steady while still making strength gains. I…

I've been playing with IF and high activity too, and have been struggling to find a good balance. My sport (track cycling) is very power intensive and has both strength and endurance components. I have two eating periods on active days and one on my rest days. That seems to do me ok, but endurance has still been an issue.

It's hard to know without seeing what you eat, but are you sure it's enough? Have you tried tracking a few days to see if you're hitting high enough calories? I'm really stuffing myself at night.. and from others I've talked to, it's very easy for them to under-eat.

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#44

Post by e59d134d »

gricardo99 wrote: post #17

Could any one point me to advice/guidance, or can answer from experience, what you would do differently when doing IF with regular exercise? It seems to me you'd want to make some adjustments to types and amounts of calories to account for exercise, especially anything very taxing, like endurance training. But I haven't found any advice on this specific topic.

I don't have advice but my personal experience is that lifting weights is easy but cardio is almost impossible.

I don't really fast on purpose but I mostly eat one large meal a day (dinner). I workout in evenings before dinner.

I do snack if I get hungry maybe around 4PM. My snacks are usually Lay's chips. Sometimes, I get a Gatorade for gym.

I can lift about as heavy as if I had a big lunch but cardio is different story. If push myself as hard as one days when I had lunch or a lot snacks, I will start to see stars. I go a lot slower with cardio then. (Seeing stars or vision going white is sign of sudden drop in blood sugar level).

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#45

Post by snvzz »

liamcardenas wrote: post #18

I do intermittent fasting (16/8) every day and have found immense benefits. More specifically, I do what's called "time-restricted feeding" in which I only eat between 7am and 2pm (so if I start eating at 10am then I can only eat for 5 more hours). I also strategically eat in the morning because I that is when people are most glucose sensitive. So far I have almost lost 20lb without changing anything in my diet (I cu…

Been doing this for ages without intending to.

I generally eat 13-14 and again 18-19. and that's it.

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#46

Post by adrianmonk »

siliconc0w wrote: post #33

I find IF helpful to regulate calories. Basically I skip breakfast, eat a light lunch around 1, and a large protein/veg heavy dinner. This is effective if I stick to it (and I generally have for quite some time now). You can't do IF, eat crap, and expect results. You still need a disciplined diet. For me I found I basically need to severely restrict carbs. I will overeat carbs but not protein/less starchy veg. Try ea…

"Basically I skip breakfast, eat a light lunch around 1, and a large protein/veg heavy dinner."

Apparently you are my dietary twin. I came to this exact formula accidentally, though, as a result of calorie counting. I skipped breakfast because I could do that most easily. Then I decided lunch would be really light because that gave me the leeway to have a more satisfying dinner and feel completely full once a day. And I didn't want to take the risk of having a light dinner, being hungry, and being unable to get to sleep.

I ended up with the mix of protein- and vegetable-heavy dinner because I started reading the nutrition labels of absolutely everything. Then without seeking out a particular type of food, I tried to remember which foods seemed like a good combination of filling and low calorie. And protein and vegetables is what it ended up being.

Overall it has worked great. The types and amounts of food I eat feel normal now, and I feel good, and my ability to control my weight has surpassed all expectations.

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#47

Post by throwawayxyz709 »

bmcusick wrote: post #5

"Calorie restriction is proven to help you live a longer life." This is essentially false for anyone reading the article. The studies that showed mice living longer lives from calorie restriction were restricted from birth , and thus their growth was stunted, and smaller creatures live longer (think about dogs; big ones die earlier). Studies of animals where the calories restriction was started mid-life all show incr…

Great. So I'm hungry and miserable but it's fine because I get to experience it for several extra years!

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#49

Post by munchbunny »

nicolashahn wrote: post #16
ktRolster wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found there is one very real benefit of fasting: it makes food taste better.

If it tastes better because of your appetite, then that's basically just sacrificing some pleasure of not being hungry for the pleasure of the taste of food, like hitting your head against a wall because it feels so good when you stop. (disclaimer: I practice IF but take issue with this one claim, at least without the stipulation of hunger)

I occasionally fast. Maybe 3-4 times a year for 2-3 days. I find that it's very useful for controlling your snacking impulse, because it makes you aware of the impulse.

It also makes me more mindful of the process of eating. I don't think it ever really made the food itself taste better, but it was a good reset for the hedonistic treadmill.

Re: A Guide to Intermittent Fasting

#50

Post by vacri »

jamesrom wrote: post #34
trevor-e wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure OP was referring to smaller creatures of the same species.

Again, OP is claiming that the property of 'smallness' is a causative factor to increased life expectancy. This is a way more dubious claim than calories being a causative factor. For example, birds are the opposite: larger birds generally live longer than smaller birds. Actually, the more I think about it, it's the same with lizards. And primates and most mammals. And pretty much every species besides a small subset…

Similarly, humans are getting more long-lived and taller at the same time.
Post reply on HN