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Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

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31–40 of 92 posts

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#31
I 've spent 3.5/4 years eating nothing except on the weekends (my undergrad). So I would go for 2-5 days at a time without food. Not because of fasting fads or anything, I didn't even know what fasting was. I was just from a very poor family and if I wanted to go for vacations with my friends or party in the weekend or buy a computer I had to save every penny I could. (that's how I bought my first laptop etc). I would eat properly during holidays and the summer only at my parent's home.

I was very skinny, but somehow still had fat. Sometimes I bought pants from the women's section or I would take pants to my mom to sew the waist tighter, because I was so thin I couldn't find clothes that fit me (I have some pictures of me wearing my 108lb girlfriend's pants stashed somewhere). I exercised a bit but seeing me without a shirt you could tell I had manboobs and a tiny-lil bit of a potbelly and no abs at all, not even the skinny ones.

At some point I developed fainting on sight of blood. I would brush my teeth, and if I scratched my gum and blood came out -- I had to run to the bed asap before passing out. To this day I don't know if I was just afraid of blood (blood doesn't affect me anymore), or I had gotten so weak I was actually nearing total collapse. Blood tests were surprisingly fine I just had low iron.

Looking at that period back, I 'm trying to see if the advertised benefits applied to me. I didn't get sick much, but I don't get sick in general. Aging... well what can you say to an 18-22 year old about aging. My libido was low which makes sense I guess. Energy, regular levels. I don't know, I was just a very thin dude, fasting or not, no major epiphanies or amazement. I suppose it's amazing that one can survive fine, no suffering, going for so long without food, but it wasn't better than eating.

I am very surprised at how people swear by it. Maybe life is much worse when you eat 3 meals per day? I don't know, nowadays (early 30s) I eat 2 meals and exercise a lot and I 'm pretty content. I think for me, exercise did the trick that elevated both my mood and my energy levels.

Would I do the crazy 5-day 4 year fast again? If I was young and "hungry" sure, but it's definitely miserable. Food can be a great social thing to do with friends, and a cool experience especially when trying new dishes and restaurants. The huge food diversity in SF spoiled me.

Edit: back then I was very ashamed of my fasting and try to hide it from friends etc. A few weeks ago I was shocked when a coworker told me he was doing a 7 day water-only fast. We 've come a long way!

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#32

I've been on an intermittent fasting schedule (I usually do 16/8) for about a year and a half. I lost some weight during the first several months, but have leveled off to a reasonable weight (which is probably 10 pounds heavier than I'd like, but ~25 pounds lighter than when I started intermittent fasting). Overall, I don't see any dramatic changes. Lots of people claim to see a significant difference, usually positi…

Are you doing LCHF (low carb high fat) as well or just IF (intermittent fasting)?

No, I eat mostly how I've eaten for many years, just on an intermittent schedule. But, I've always eaten pretty healthy; I've been vegetarian for 24 years and relatively conscious of what I eat. I tend to a eat a lot, so if I don't eat good stuff, I get fat. I eat probably more fat than average, and I don't avoid fat, but my diet isn't "high fat", I don't think, and it's certainly not low carb, though I do avoid sugars and many kinds of processed foods, and I never eat fast food. I eat bread, rice, and/or tortillas, regularly, at least once a day, and I tend to eat a pretty sizeable serving. Fruit and vegetables probably make up the majority of the volume/mass I'm consuming most days, but a significant portion of calories come from carbs.

My health has always been, thankfully, very good. I'm not doing intermittent fasting to address any specific problem. Losing weight was a goal, because my pants (the same size I've been wearing since college) weren't fitting comfortably anymore...it worked for that, and all my pants fit again. But, I wasn't trying to reboot my eating in some dramatic way. I did try a low carb high fat/protein thing for a while before beginning intermittent fasting, as a way to lose weight, but it didn't work for me. The restrictions just took the fun out of meals. I love food, I love cooking it, love eating it with friends/family, etc. It's pretty hard to have normal meals on a very restrictive diet. I couldn't imagine living out the rest of my days without bread or rice, and any diet change has to be sustainable for decades or it's going to be part of a cycle of weight gain and loss. Intermittent fasting has been sustainable for me. I don't even think about it most days.

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you doing LCHF (low carb high fat) as well or just IF (intermittent fasting)?

No, I eat mostly how I've eaten for many years, just on an intermittent schedule. But, I've always eaten pretty healthy; I've been vegetarian for 24 years and relatively conscious of what I eat. I tend to a eat a lot , so if I don't eat good stuff, I get fat. I eat probably more fat than average, and I don't avoid fat, but my diet isn't "high fat", I don't think, and it's certainly not low carb, though I do avoid sug…

It seems like you’re on a diet very similar to what Valter Longo recommends, which is based on his longevity studies

https://valterlongo.com/daily-longevity-diet/

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#34
I have tried eating with long gaps in between but somehow that leads me to lose a lot of muscle mass as well. Recently I was trying it again with an overall caloric deficit but sufficient amount of protein intake but I lost both fat and muscle in 1:1 ratio even with regularly working out.

I don't know if that was just because of caloric deficit or long gaps in between. I have seen the 5-6 evenly spaced out meals in a day work the best for me if I want to maintain/put on muscle mass.

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A witty quip, and I totally agree with the sentiment, but I'm wondering what other way we have to test hypotheses in vivo . Animal models are pretty key, but my knowledge of the field is incomplete.

"I guess doing strange things to rodents and measuring the outcomes is useful, but going so far as to turn it into health advice for humans is absurd." 16 days ago I said that. This one seems a little more legitimate and a target for further research. Animal models are a start, but you shouldn't use them to give definitive advice or conclusions. The headline is " Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing…

Agreed on that point. Mouse study results shouldn't be taken as human health advice. Need large-scale human studies for that.

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#36

Another major victory in mankind’s long quest to render mice immortal.

You're suggesting that mouse studies are not useful because they do not apply to humans are overly cynical. You're not giving enough credit to the similarities between mice and humans in physiology.

These time restricted feeding studies have been done in humans with effects in the same direction.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155041311...

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#37

Did the mice which had access to food 24/7 eat more overall than the mice with restricted food access? If so, then the study seems useless because the results can entirely be explained as excessive eating leads to health problems. I don't see anything in the article saying how they controlled for quantity of food consumed.

No the article said that's both groups consumed the same number of calories per day.

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#38

Is it possible that with economic affluence of the West, overconsumption is harmful? It used to be that there would be days where our ancestors would not be able to bring home any meat so fasting probably was built in as part of our metabolism process. It was only in the past 100 years that we've seen mass produced sugary food and drinks. Like the diet difference is painfully obvious when you go to Japan's 7-11. Heal…

> our ancestors have been eating the same stuff for millenias so it's probably "right" for my metabolism.

There might be a genetic factor here. The other thing is that the food habits of our ancestors were more thought out than we think. It might be that what they have been eating is not only better because of genetics, but more healthy in general than the terrible foods we can buy everywhere today.

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#39
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I eat mostly how I've eaten for many years, just on an intermittent schedule. But, I've always eaten pretty healthy; I've been vegetarian for 24 years and relatively conscious of what I eat. I tend to a eat a lot , so if I don't eat good stuff, I get fat. I eat probably more fat than average, and I don't avoid fat, but my diet isn't "high fat", I don't think, and it's certainly not low carb, though I do avoid sug…

It seems like you’re on a diet very similar to what Valter Longo recommends, which is based on his longevity studies https://valterlongo.com/daily-longevity-diet/

Yeah, I'm not familiar with Valter Longo, but that diet does pretty well match up with what I'm trying to do. I might be a little high on the protein, when I'm making seitan regularly...it's roughly equivalent to meat in protein content, and as with most things I enjoy I tend to eat a lot of it when I cook it. I'll have to do some more reading about what the science says about vegetable proteins like seitan and tofu.

Re: Eating in 10-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects

#40

I 've spent 3.5/4 years eating nothing except on the weekends (my undergrad). So I would go for 2-5 days at a time without food. Not because of fasting fads or anything, I didn't even know what fasting was. I was just from a very poor family and if I wanted to go for vacations with my friends or party in the weekend or buy a computer I had to save every penny I could. (that's how I bought my first laptop etc). I woul…

It sounds like you were just starving yourself. I'm going to guess that you weren't eating 2-5 days worth of food whenever you chose to eat?

I'm sorry but going that long without eating just doesn't make any sense. Did you/your family only have the ability to buy/acquire one meal at a time or what?

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