Fasting Affects the Brain • Hacker News Board

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#51

Post by RobertoG » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:37 PM UTC

istjohn wrote: post #9

I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…

>"how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast"

Research, sometimes, is not what it should be.

"It was a combination of fear of indigestion, religious moralization and advertising that helped push the idea of breakfast as the most important meal of the day – but it was a campaign to sell more bacon that really solidified the idea. [..] Edward Bernays [..] exploited all the moralization and health fears around breakfast to help the company push its bacon."

From: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfa...

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#52

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

qntty wrote: post #31

wyldfire wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> especially given the monumental failure of the "calories in calories out" model. Can you explain this in more detail? CICO seems like it might oversimplify things but it always seemed like a really sane basis for helping shape your diet. If you need to lose weight, you should plan meals to create a calorie deficit. But yes, I would not be surprised to learn that fasting on day X and consuming double your normal cal…

This article makes a case against a calorie-centric approach to dieting. It boils down to something like Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." A guy (who has since become an expert in public health) wasn't able to control his weight using standard calorie-counting techniques and had a lot of success changing his diet to "high quality" (as opposed to "highly processed") food. The article isn't supe…

Eh. the articles argument appears to be that even though nutritionists, physicists, and dieters all agree that eating fewer calories than you expend causes weight loss, it isn't easy for a variety of factors. No shit. The thing is, it is the simplest expression of what needs to happen, and there is no getting around it.

I was once well north of the weight of the subject in the article and have since shed about half of it and kept it off for years. I've been through all the games your brain and body play to try and get you to eat more, and all the fad diets out there sound to me exactly like those games. It's nice to believe you don't have to suffer to reach your goals, but it isn't true and anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#53

Post by virtuexru » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:39 PM UTC

Intermittent fasting changed my life. I've quit coffee, eat way healthier and generally feel better & have a uplifted outlook on life. I'd definitely recommend the Zero app. I do the 13 hour fast but sometimes will go up to 15-16-17 hours whenever possible. Also don't forget to take a cheat day every now and then!

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#54

Post by godshatter » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:39 PM UTC

sepisoad wrote: post #19

yes fasting can have benefits, but the way most Muslims do it (in summer specifically) actually hurts. your body needs a minimum amount of water and salt to work properly throughout the day.

If you're fasting, you learn to keep yourself well hydrated. I put a little lite salt in whatever I'm drinking in the morning. If you're not well hydrated and your electrolytes are low, you get fatigued during the day (or at least I do).

I fast for 23 hours every day, eating one larger than normal meal in the evenings.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#55

Post by Bartweiss » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

UpperBodyEimi wrote: post #38

ravenstine wrote: post #34

I sometimes intermittently fast for 24 hour periods, but recently I've switched to skipping breakfast, which effectively works out to be a 17 hour fast for me if I eat dinner at 6pm and have lunch at 12pm. Everyone says it's the most important meal of the day, but I haven't found convincing evidence of this(especially that which isn't sponsored by grain and sugar producers), and not having a huge insulin spike at the…

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was an advertising slogan for Kellogg's.

My favorite trick in this vein, now I believe defunct, is "doctors recommend starting your morning with a bowl of cereal".

The trick to that, of course, is the ambiguity of recommend'. You can ask a dozen doctors if a bowl of cereal with fresh fruit is healthier than nothing at all, or a bowl of plain oatmeal; if they say yes then they "recommend cereal". The same trick still works great for things like toothpaste, where a brand might be dentist-recommended not relative to the competition but to baking soda or plain water.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#56

Post by jesperlang » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

UpperBodyEimi wrote: post #38

ravenstine wrote: post #34

I sometimes intermittently fast for 24 hour periods, but recently I've switched to skipping breakfast, which effectively works out to be a 17 hour fast for me if I eat dinner at 6pm and have lunch at 12pm. Everyone says it's the most important meal of the day, but I haven't found convincing evidence of this(especially that which isn't sponsored by grain and sugar producers), and not having a huge insulin spike at the…

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was an advertising slogan for Kellogg's.

Some interesting story surrounding that!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfa...

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#57

Post by new2626 » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:43 PM UTC

ergothus wrote: post #42

ravenstine wrote: post #34

I sometimes intermittently fast for 24 hour periods, but recently I've switched to skipping breakfast, which effectively works out to be a 17 hour fast for me if I eat dinner at 6pm and have lunch at 12pm. Everyone says it's the most important meal of the day, but I haven't found convincing evidence of this(especially that which isn't sponsored by grain and sugar producers), and not having a huge insulin spike at the…

> Pro-breakfast proponents say that eating breakfast results in eating less throughout the day, but I can't say this has been true at all for myself. Another sample size of 1, but I had the same experience. Eating or not eating breakfast has no apparent impact on my hunger at lunchtime. (Not eating dinner the night before, however, does, so I'm hardly immune to hunger. I wish) > The only negative effect I'm having is…

> I'm hardly immune to hunger. I wish

Why would you wish such a thing? Being hungry and then eating is one of the nicest things in life.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#58

Post by jhawk28 » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:44 PM UTC

istjohn wrote: post #9

I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…

I think the breakfast only shows improvement for school children if they are malnourished.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#59

Post by Goronmon » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:44 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #37

rossenberg79 wrote: post #30

I stopped doing fasts because even though I did notice a boost to my productivity, most of it was due to not having to stop in the middle of the day to eat or waste time thinking about eating. In terms of cognitive benefits, going for a run for 30 minutes in the morning still seemed far superior.

>> going for a run for 30 minutes in the morning still seemed far superior Why not both?

Fasting combined with exercise sounds like a recipe for overeating after the fact.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#60

Post by ravenstine » Wed, May 08, 2019, 3:45 PM UTC

drekembemutombo wrote: post #47

ravenstine wrote: post #34

I sometimes intermittently fast for 24 hour periods, but recently I've switched to skipping breakfast, which effectively works out to be a 17 hour fast for me if I eat dinner at 6pm and have lunch at 12pm. Everyone says it's the most important meal of the day, but I haven't found convincing evidence of this(especially that which isn't sponsored by grain and sugar producers), and not having a huge insulin spike at the…

If it works for you, sure. Interesting, I often eat a big but healthy breakfast and then eat nothing for the rest of the day, and that works really well for me.

Everyone's a bit different and have their own preferences. I just think that the idea that everyone must eat breakfast(or any meal), and eat it promptly, is bogus.

A better general rule, I think, is that people should only eat when they're actually hungry. That could be in the morning or any time. I have an empty stomach in the morning(waking up around 6pm), but I don't usually feel hunger until between 10:30a and 12pm.

Even better, people should avoid the usual breakfast foods that are high in sugar and low in beneficial fats. I would only discourage people from eating breakfast if they're going to regularly eat foods that spike insulin and not exercise enough to compensate, in which case I believe they're setting themselves up for failure in the long term. A healthy breakfast, on the other hand, isn't harmful by any stretch of the imagination.