Live data from Hacker News

Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

gwern.net

21–30 of 216 posts

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#21
post #9

Too bad, there is no abstract in the paper.

>Animal models show that intermittent fasting improves health throughout the life span, whereas clinical studies have mainly involved relatively short- term interventions, over a period of months.

> It remains to be determined whether people can maintain intermittent fasting for years and potentially accrue the benefits seen in animal models. Furthermore, clinical studies have focused mainly on overweight young and middle-age adults, and we cannot generalize to other age groups the benefits and safety of intermittent fasting that have been observed in these studies.

Conclusion is always a good type of abstract.

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#22
post #16

Anecdote: I tried intermittent fasting for 11 months with very, very little to show for it. I did the 18 hours off and 6 hours of eating plan. I have also tried a strict vegetarian diet for 6 months with no real changes in blood work. My Cholesterol didn't move to the dismay of my PCP and myself quite frankly. Biology: I am a professional Firefighter that ran 1000 miles and bicycled 250 miles during this time frame.…

Assuming this is accurate, your lifestyle is not typical. Others trying intermittent fasting and/or vegetarian diet will surely see benefits in blood work.

You don't know this and you can't claim this.

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#23

Anecdote: I tried intermittent fasting for 11 months with very, very little to show for it. I did the 18 hours off and 6 hours of eating plan. I have also tried a strict vegetarian diet for 6 months with no real changes in blood work. My Cholesterol didn't move to the dismay of my PCP and myself quite frankly. Biology: I am a professional Firefighter that ran 1000 miles and bicycled 250 miles during this time frame.…

in my experience, sleep is the first problem to be solved. If a person can't get good quality and quantity of sleep nothing else helps. First sleep then meditation to tame the chronic stress response. nothing else - fasting, diet, exercise etc helps before sleep. btw alcohol and caffeine screws the quality of sleep.

Can poor sleep interfere with weight loss?

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#24
post #12

I’ve been doing small fasts: typically in the morning, I don’t eat anything until after I work out. So, these usually end up being twelve to 16 hour fasts. I would actually like to try to fast for 24 hours, starting after an evening meal. My problem is I do a lot of cycling. If I don’t eat, I bonk hard and lose energy. So, I would need to time this after a day of resting after a ride.

How long are your rides? For rides around an hour to an hour and a half I can ride while fasting, even at the end of an 18 hour fast. The trick is to just work up to it.

Up to 50k there’s no problems. But, above 50k I’m gonna end up emptying my glycogen storage.

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#25
post #19

Anecdote: I tried intermittent fasting for 11 months with very, very little to show for it. I did the 18 hours off and 6 hours of eating plan. I have also tried a strict vegetarian diet for 6 months with no real changes in blood work. My Cholesterol didn't move to the dismay of my PCP and myself quite frankly. Biology: I am a professional Firefighter that ran 1000 miles and bicycled 250 miles during this time frame.…

Have you also tried going a whole day without eating, say 8pm as your last meal and then no eating until 2 days later at 8am, basically 36 hours. Doing that once a week or so is pretty effective. There's a whole host of benefits to longer fasts as well. Helps so much with appetite control, resets your hormones, plus autophagy, etc.

Not sure why this has been downvoted. This is absolutely correct and verified by dozens of studies.

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in my experience, sleep is the first problem to be solved. If a person can't get good quality and quantity of sleep nothing else helps. First sleep then meditation to tame the chronic stress response. nothing else - fasting, diet, exercise etc helps before sleep. btw alcohol and caffeine screws the quality of sleep.

Can poor sleep interfere with weight loss?

Yes, one is you will ha e less will power to resist sugar

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#28

If anyone has done this without trying or wanting to lose weight (ie, for some other purpose), could you share more? What was your goal? Did you reach it? For 24+ hour fasts, did you deliberately compensate by eating more before and after?

I do - partially for experimental treatment of autoimmune conditions, but mostly just a way of life (no goal).

18h regularly, 24h maybe weekly, 36h occasionally. Nothing planned in advance. It's really not that complicated - remember the last time you delayed eating because it wasn't convenient? I just do that with less tolerance for what constititues "inconvenience" and greater tolerance of hunger.

Breakfast by eating to satiation, same as any other meal.

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in my experience, sleep is the first problem to be solved. If a person can't get good quality and quantity of sleep nothing else helps. First sleep then meditation to tame the chronic stress response. nothing else - fasting, diet, exercise etc helps before sleep. btw alcohol and caffeine screws the quality of sleep.

Can poor sleep interfere with weight loss?

Lack of sleep increases insulin resistance[1]. Insulin resistance can negatively influence weight loss AFAIK.

[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505091632.h...

Re: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease [pdf]

#30

I’d like to fast until lunch time but I haven’t found any substitute for milk in coffee and I fear that breaks any fasting benefits.

Same problem here. I'm also confused because some sources say coffee (black) is OK during fasting, but I've also heard that even black coffee "wakes up" the metabolism enough to lose the benefits.

Could someone who knows about this comment or post links to info: is black coffee during fasting periods OK?

Post reply on HN