Live data from Hacker News

Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Applying the Health Benefits of Fasting

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

61–70 of 176 posts

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

#61
post #39
post #13

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

Lots of people do Ramadan while bodybuilding, playing international level soccer (football) while fasted including no water.

Sounds like some utter bs to me. The guy I know who fasts loses about 20lbs on his bench max every year during that fast.

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

#62
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a bunch of little stuff. I don't think it was as bad as the flu, but it was somewhat uncomfortable. The initial symptom was wanting to eat all of the time, even if I wasn't hungry. My brain was convinced that I had to spend huge chunks of my time chewing on something flavorful. So I sliced off some very flavorful cheese and nibbled little tiny pieces during the morning. That seemed to work. Note that I avoi…

> Manufacturers sneak carbs into everything. It's insane. You go buy beans, and there's rice flour in it. You buy salmon, and there's sugar in it. It's beyond ridiculous, and explains so much about rising levels of obesity. Anything even vaguely processed has a lot of unnecessary carbs added, for one reason or another.

can't upvote this comment enough times!

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

#63
post #31
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're exactly right. Just skip breakfast and don't eat snacks after dinner and you'll be at 16 hours easy. Try it for a week and see how you feel. I've been IF'ing for 15 months now and it's great. Lost 20 pounds without even trying and have more energy during the day.

Turns out I IF’d all throughout high school without even knowing it!

this was my realization too when I first started hearing about IF several years back.. "I do this already, but on accident" I have never eaten breakfast in my adult life. I eat once at 11:00AM for lunch, then again at either 6:00PM or 9:00PM for dinner depending on if I train that night or not. I don't snack or drink any calories, so this is basically intermittent fasting right? It seems weird but it does make sense, I am relatively lean and don't put much effort into it.

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

#64
post #53

Lol. For years I talk about fasting here on HN and get downvoted to oblivion. Intermittent fasting is what they now say is healthy because it means you're still consuming food so they still make money. A far better alternative and a cure to many many "diseases" (yes, cure, I said it) is a prolonged water fast (10 to 40 days), and/or a dry fast (no food no water) for 2 to 10 days.

Can you back this up with research?

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

#65

What if you have to exercise? Should one exercise while fasting? Or to put it another way, if you only eat between 10am and 6pm (let's say), what is the best time to exercise? Before work or after work?

You adapt pretty quickly to however you want to setup your fast. The typical recommendation is to workout fasted at the end of your fast, so you can eat afterwards. Have something light to start, then your first full meal shortly afterwards.

I do heavy PPL lifting program 6 days a week and have been doing IF for 3 months. The first 2 weeks were mentally tough at the gym, but after that, the gym really helps me finish off the last couple of hours of my fast and I haven't noticed a negative change in energy levels or strength.

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

#66
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.

Do you mean during the fasting period or when you are out of the fasting period? Can you consume sugar when you are out of the fasting period?

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

#67
post #13

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

Basketball Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets is an observant Muslim; a Reddit post [0] says his game performance dropped a bit during Ramadan, but he still managed to lead the team to two consecutive NBA championships. (Apparently Ramadan never occurred during the playoffs during the years in question.)

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/3yvhf2/hakeem_olajuwon...

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

#68
Want to see something crazy? This guy has a huge YouTube following and preaches (through obscene language) long fast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_yUeH8TsG5pxqvkOxBtsFA. He experiments on himself and "coaches" people on dieting.

Along with the posh attitudes of fad diets can also come extremism. Do go too crazy with fasting!

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

#69

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…

Let's not lump keto and IF together... IF from what I understand has more substantial as well as proven health benefits (related to stem cells, celluar autophagy, etc.). Whereas keto cannot make the same kind of claims; if you just keep your carbs relatively low you'll probably achieve a similar effect as keto.

Interestingly enough, in obese individuals, usually their adipose tissue cells are packed full of macrophage - it may be possible that keto and intermittent fasting put together are a good strategy for not only preventing the progression of obesity, but also promoting the autophagy of 'sick' fat cells [0]:

• Macrophages play a significant role in regulating adipose tissue functioning during health and disease

• In addition to conventional functions such as clearing cellular debris and participating in tissue immune surveillance, lipid buffering is an important function of ATMs

• Obesity-induced inflammation, characterised by an elevated number of proinflammatory macrophages in adipose tissue, has been suggested to contribute to systemic insulin resistance

> One might hypothesise that the role of macrophages shifts during the progression of obesity from a predominant role in stimulating adipogenesis at the start of adipose tissue expansion to inhibiting adipogenesis once obesity progresses. The observation that adipogenic clusters containing macrophages appear at an early stage of adipose tissue expansion during obesity, yet decline in number upon the progression of obesity, supports this hypothesis. Reduced adipogenesis at later stages of obesity would promote hypertrophy of adipocytes to allow for storage of the excess amounts of lipids entering the adipose tissue, which is in turn linked to metabolic dysfunction such as adipocyte insulin resistance. Indeed, increased adipocyte size has been found to correlate with macrophage presence in obese adipose tissue

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4826424/

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

#70
post #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

For me it was very similar to the early stages of a bad flu. Tired, headaches, body aches, irritable, and mild nausea for about 5 days. I've heard that MCT oil can ease the transition a bit, but be careful because too much can cause stomach cramps and violent diarrhea. (I've never been able to handle more than one tablespoon at a time.)
Post reply on HN