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Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

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11–20 of 176 posts

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#11
One thing you have to pay attention to while aiming for a 12+ hour gap is that you don't accidentally consume calories in drinks, especially from sugar... so no milk, honey, or sugar in your tea or coffee. A little sugar calories will prevent the switch flip, leaving you in a starvation state where you feel awful and eat your own muscles.

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#12

Like many programmers, especially us older folks, I've struggled with my weight my entire life. Three weeks ago I went on a ketogenic diet. This week I've added intermittent fasting, only eating between noon and six. After the "keto flu" period ended, it's been quite enjoyable. The IF comes quite naturally and is painless. I'm not one to spot diet trends, but my intuition says that keto/IF will be a big thing over th…

I'd be curious to hear more about what you experienced during your keto flu

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#14
post #11

One thing you have to pay attention to while aiming for a 12+ hour gap is that you don't accidentally consume calories in drinks, especially from sugar... so no milk, honey, or sugar in your tea or coffee. A little sugar calories will prevent the switch flip, leaving you in a starvation state where you feel awful and eat your own muscles.

Folks in the keto/fasting space seem to present salted water as a good option here

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#16
For anyone interested to read about fasting, there is an amazing book written by Arnold Ehret, Mucusless Diet Healing System [1], published in 1922. Interesting fact, the book is from Steve Jobs' reading list.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mucusless-Diet-Healing-System-Scienti...

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#17
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, though as your quoted indicate, diet is an inexact science at best. I’d recommend trying interesting diets for yourself, to validate the claimed short run effects.

That's basically the opposite of science.

No, that is LITERALLY science. You come up with hypotheses and test them.

Hypothesis: [Specific diet] will cause no effects on myself, given my unique biochemicalpsycho makeup.

Hypothesis: [Specific diet] will cause [list of benefits/mali] for myself, given my unique biochemicalpsycho makeup.

etc.

Just because it doesn't automatically apply to the population at large does not make it "not science".

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#18
post #13

Sounds great, but is this compatible with: - bodybuilding - 20 miles daily commute by bicycle - intellectually intense work, e.g. hackathons ?

Yes, you just need to account for that in your total caloric intake. Your re-feeds are going to need to be bigger.

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#19
post #13

Sounds great, but is this compatible with: - bodybuilding - 20 miles daily commute by bicycle - intellectually intense work, e.g. hackathons ?

Yes. Your liver glycogen and muscle glycogen will be fine. Your body can convert protein to glucose when it is needed and use ketones for everything else.

Re: Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

#20
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, though as your quoted indicate, diet is an inexact science at best. I’d recommend trying interesting diets for yourself, to validate the claimed short run effects.

That's basically the opposite of science.

That's an interesting point, but I only think it's true under the correct assumptions. If we assume that all bodies are more or less interchangeable, then yes. You'd want to look at large scale, repeatable studies that tie diet into health outcomes, and just follow those.

If, however, there is a large amount of variation among human bodies, large scale objective studies may not hold much value for any particular individual. In that case, the proper bounds of the experiment might be one person, or a small group of similar people. In that case, trying various experimental diets and observing the effects is quite scientific, even if not universal.

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