Live data from Hacker News

Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

sciencedaily.com

101–110 of 204 posts

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#101
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love (and I mean LOOOOOOVEEEEE ) food, eating and feeling full or even overfed. So doing straight multi-day fasting is extremely hard for me, psychologically / motivationally. However, I'm quite lucky in that I don't really get hungry very soon, if I don't eat. It's quite a weird effect; if I eat in the morning, I'll be hungry throughout the day, but if I skip breakfast (or even lunch), I'll only get hungry towards…

I'm exactly like you (except I hate the feeling of being overfed). I don't need to eat for 4-5 hours after I wake up, but if I do eat something when I wake up, I'll be hungry very soon afterwards. I've actually had fights with my dietician who insisted I eat breakfast as soon as I wake up, and wouldn't hear any of my links to published research, or even arguments of "if I'm not hungry, why eat extra calories that wil…

I'm never hungry when I wake up, but I think that's mostly just a habit thing. Your body adjusts to expect food on a schedule, if you normally eat on a schedule.

I only eat lunch (at noon) and dinner (at 8pm), pretty much like clockwork. It's very rare that I eat outside of these times during the work week. I don't snack through the work day, and I very seldom snack at home on work evenings. But I still end up eating too much; lunch + dinner is more than I need. I'm thinking about paring it back to just dinner (perhaps 2 days a week starting out), since that's the most important, socially.

I didn't have any problem sticking with my normal 60kg weight until I got over 35 or so, now I'm up to 70kg or so and I can feel my body fat jiggle as I run up or down stairs - an alien feeling to me.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm exactly like you (except I hate the feeling of being overfed). I don't need to eat for 4-5 hours after I wake up, but if I do eat something when I wake up, I'll be hungry very soon afterwards. I've actually had fights with my dietician who insisted I eat breakfast as soon as I wake up, and wouldn't hear any of my links to published research, or even arguments of "if I'm not hungry, why eat extra calories that wil…

I'm never hungry when I wake up, but I think that's mostly just a habit thing. Your body adjusts to expect food on a schedule, if you normally eat on a schedule. I only eat lunch (at noon) and dinner (at 8pm), pretty much like clockwork. It's very rare that I eat outside of these times during the work week. I don't snack through the work day, and I very seldom snack at home on work evenings. But I still end up eating…

> I didn't have any problem sticking with my normal 60kg weight until I got over 35 or so, now I'm up to 70kg

Yeah, I put on 10 kg as well once I hit 33. I don't know what happened, everything I've read said your metabolism doesn't slow down until much later, but I exercise more and eat less than I used to, yet I put on a bunch of weight that I can't easily lose.

I'd love to figure out why that is, but I can't find anything.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#103
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you ingesting anything besides water during your 7 day fast? Coffee? Tea? Vitamins? I'm interested in doing something like this.

With fasting you generally want to take to take some salt. Any time you feel dizzy or nauseous that's basically an indicator that you're lacking some electrolytes. I usually take a bit of table salt or sea salt on the edge of a spoon and then wash it down with water. Warning: Don't take too much salt all at once, because that can trigger a regurgitation..

> Any time you feel dizzy or nauseous that's basically an indicator that you're lacking some electrolytes.

If that were true (it's not), there are all sorts of important "electrolytes" that are not in table salt (Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, etc).

The reason your technique resolves your dizziness is likely a combination of placebo and hydration.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#104
Extended waterfasting is amazing folks. It's the simplest way to A) lose weight B) improve your metabolism C) increase your longevity D) help with various problems (like acne, hemorrhoids, etc). Warning: May not be safe for those with a BMI lower than 20.

Fasting gives the chance for the body to engage in autophagy which is the breakdown of old or broken cells into their components and reused to repair the body. Fasting takes you to a state of ketosis, where your body switches to fat-burning for fuel. Note that it takes 2 weeks for the muscles to fully adapt to using fuel as the source, so athletic performance will decline for that period.

Depending on how fat-adapted you are, it can take anywhere from 3 to 5 days to get past the point of hunger & cravings. It becomes much easier to maintain the fast after that. That means for most people, day 2 or day 3 are the hardest days in the transition.

Warning: if you stop at the hard point of the fast after multiple attempts, it will get progressively harder to stick to it and get through (as that will train the body's hormone for cravings to peak at that time).

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#105
" eTRF schedule where participants ate three meals over a six-hour period with breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and dinner at 2:00 p.m."

No thanks. There's no way you're enjoying what you're eating if you're stuffing more food down your throat even before your stomach has a chance to digest.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#106
post #104

Extended waterfasting is amazing folks. It's the simplest way to A) lose weight B) improve your metabolism C) increase your longevity D) help with various problems (like acne, hemorrhoids, etc). Warning: May not be safe for those with a BMI lower than 20. Fasting gives the chance for the body to engage in autophagy which is the breakdown of old or broken cells into their components and reused to repair the body. Fast…

What is extended waterfasting? What do you do?

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#107
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With fasting you generally want to take to take some salt. Any time you feel dizzy or nauseous that's basically an indicator that you're lacking some electrolytes. I usually take a bit of table salt or sea salt on the edge of a spoon and then wash it down with water. Warning: Don't take too much salt all at once, because that can trigger a regurgitation..

> Any time you feel dizzy or nauseous that's basically an indicator that you're lacking some electrolytes. If that were true (it's not), there are all sorts of important "electrolytes" that are not in table salt (Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, etc). The reason your technique resolves your dizziness is likely a combination of placebo and hydration.

Yeah I could've mentioned those, for a short fast it's not so important. For a longer fast, gotta supplement with those or sip on some bone broth.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hunger is just another feeling Exactly! I've done intermittent fasting for many many years, it works for me. I've told people, "You know how a workout 'hurts so good'? Learn to think that way about hunger/cravings. Consider it the same way you would consider a workout pain, as progress not punishment".

This can work for people who don't really need a lot of weight loss. Obese people are too deeply conditioned, their brains are wired differently and their bodies probably not responding on the hormonal level the same way as yours. To them it's a bit like suggesting a drug addict to just enjoy the withdrawal crisis. According to this research: "a substantial fraction of obese individuals exhibit an imbalance between a…

I've never been obese, so that may be a good point to bring up. At my biggest, I was 187 at 5'10". So not that big, but I lost 35 pounds and have kept it off for 11 years now, using my own style of intermittent fasting.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#109
post #104

Extended waterfasting is amazing folks. It's the simplest way to A) lose weight B) improve your metabolism C) increase your longevity D) help with various problems (like acne, hemorrhoids, etc). Warning: May not be safe for those with a BMI lower than 20. Fasting gives the chance for the body to engage in autophagy which is the breakdown of old or broken cells into their components and reused to repair the body. Fast…

What is extended waterfasting? What do you do?

Basically don't consume any food or calories at all, for more than 3 days.

Mostly just drink water. Tea or coffee is allowed but no sugar or milk.

And take the water with some electrolytes. Can be a bit of table salt, or get more complicated by adding other salts like magnesium, potassium, etc.

For a fast longer than a week, it is also good to have bone broth which brings in some extra nutrients like phosphorous.

Re: Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hunger is just another feeling Exactly! I've done intermittent fasting for many many years, it works for me. I've told people, "You know how a workout 'hurts so good'? Learn to think that way about hunger/cravings. Consider it the same way you would consider a workout pain, as progress not punishment".

This can work for people who don't really need a lot of weight loss. Obese people are too deeply conditioned, their brains are wired differently and their bodies probably not responding on the hormonal level the same way as yours. To them it's a bit like suggesting a drug addict to just enjoy the withdrawal crisis. According to this research: "a substantial fraction of obese individuals exhibit an imbalance between a…

I guess. I'm a big dude, and I find it a lot easier to fast than to eat carefully on a more typical schedule. Part of it is definitely just acclimating to the sensation of food cravings (and also learning to distinguish that feeling from "hunger"), but also, if I don't eat regularly, I tend not to crave food in the first place. I can pretty sustainably stay on an 18 hour fast schedule without breaking.
Post reply on HN