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

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

#101

Post by chiefalchemist »

lloeki wrote: post #89
chiefalchemist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I haven't done 36, 24 is relatively easy. The idea that your body needs constant food intake is a modern myth. It's mostly your mind that's been programmed to want to eat that often. Also, once you eat the insulin spike triggers the next wave of craving, and so on. Fasting is not the same because you're well, um, fasting.

> The idea that your body needs constant food intake is a modern myth. Modern food intake also trains the digestive tract (most notably stomach) to never be empty, and we end up confusing signals of hunger with an empty stomach. I heard that Japanese (or was it China? Korea?) people have this rule of thumb of eating only up to ~80% of stomach volume; no idea if it’s factually true but having this rule of thumb of not…

In the West we've turned food into a source of pleasure. We no longer see it as a source of nourishment, and the foundation of our health, but as an entitlement to tongue orgasms.

Fasting helps to change our relationship with food. It's about proactive control and not succoming to the minor inconvenience of feeling a bit hungry.

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

#102

Post by chiefalchemist »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #15
chiefalchemist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I haven't done 36, 24 is relatively easy. The idea that your body needs constant food intake is a modern myth. It's mostly your mind that's been programmed to want to eat that often. Also, once you eat the insulin spike triggers the next wave of craving, and so on. Fasting is not the same because you're well, um, fasting.

Also, if you avoid sugar for a week before fasting that helps a lot, or rather, I should say that it helps me. Eating sugar messes up my ability to know if I am really hungry or if it is just too many Candida bacteria in my system messing with my brain chemistry. Anyway, if you like, try avoiding sugar leading up to avoiding fasting.

I would say that avoiding sugar as much as possible in general is a positive. Avoiding unnecessary insulin spikes is a positive.

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

#103

Post by CuriousSkeptic »

beagle3 wrote: post #60
hhjinks wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done a couple 36 hour fasts. What broke me was hunger, not low energy. Didn't feel any less energized than usual, really. But resisting the urge to eat after you've been hungry all day and someone puts a meal in front of you is hard.

in many people’s experience (mine included) there’s phase change sometime in the 48-72 hour mark in which hunger/appetite essentially disappears (some describe it is gone, some as easily ignored background noise) Personally, I’ve gone more than 14 days several times, I usually start when not feeling very well (and lacking appetite) which makes even the first couple of days trivial. If you do want to go farther than 3…

To underline this. People have died starting eating after a long fast. While the risks are probably manageable, and other people have successfully been fasting a full year, do educate yourself on Refeeding syndrome before doing any extended fasts.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refeeding_syndrome

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

#104

Post by matwood »

everdev wrote: post #47
joelrunyon wrote: post #2

If people are interested in learning more about fasting, I put together a few visual guides on it here - http://impossiblehq.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting I also highly recommend the zero fasting app for tracking. Super simple and really clean app that makes tracking fasts simple. Start small and see how it goes. I find the 16/8 routine tends to work best for me personally with 36 hour fasts sprinkled in every c…

Do you find that you're able to do cognitively demanding tasks while fasting? Even small fasts seem to sap my concentration and critical thinking. Once I eat again I feel like I think better.

> Do you find that you're able to do cognitively demanding tasks while fasting?

I'm only speaking of IF, but yes. Multi-day fasts may be different, but I actually think best right after my workout during my IF window.

The effects are so pronounced I'm considering just eating a single meal each day right before bed.

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

#105

Post by Gatsky »

agumonkey wrote: post #100
Gatsky wrote: post #83

Intermittent fasting has a nice advantage - nobody can make any money off of it. This gives it an inherent legitimacy. Contrast all other fad diets, and essentially every supplement ever sold.

Surely people can make money around it. You cannot sell a void [0] but you can very effectively sell void consulting and magazines. [0] even this is debatable

I was brainstorming with a friend about creating an alternative social environment to replace restaurants for fasters, but couldn't come up with any good ideas.

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

#106

Post by agumonkey »

Gatsky wrote: post #105
agumonkey wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely people can make money around it. You cannot sell a void [0] but you can very effectively sell void consulting and magazines. [0] even this is debatable

I was brainstorming with a friend about creating an alternative social environment to replace restaurants for fasters, but couldn't come up with any good ideas.

restingrants, a place to sit quietly and vent

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

#107

Post by Robotbeat »

Gatsky wrote: post #105
agumonkey wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely people can make money around it. You cannot sell a void [0] but you can very effectively sell void consulting and magazines. [0] even this is debatable

I was brainstorming with a friend about creating an alternative social environment to replace restaurants for fasters, but couldn't come up with any good ideas.

La Croix bar?

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

#108

Post by agumonkey »

fouc wrote: post #19
monkmartinez wrote: post #14

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.

I'm curious how you feel when you skip the usual meal time. When I start feeling ~hungry and willingly avoid eating, I naturally feel "stressed" but I can sometimes channel the void into another activity. It's as if going full head on this other topic 'feeds' my brain chemically.

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

#109

Post by matwood »

troydavis wrote: post #11

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 started IF with the plan of simply trying to be healthier. I'm big into fitness and read that even at the same calorie levels, there was a study where people who IF got leaner while staying around the same weight. So with those two items in mind I decided to give it a try a couple of years ago.

For me, skipping breakfast ended up meaning less calories overall. I did lose some weight, but in a good way. My lifting/cycling/jiu-jitsu training were all positively impacted mainly because I was leaner.

I used to be a person who woke up hungry and would immediately eat breakfast. Now hunger isn't really something I notice. Sometimes it will be early afternoon before I think about eating.

I learned a lot about my personal nutrition. If I eat poorly the day before, I notice more hunger the next day during IF. Experiencing this feedback loop helps to re-enforce to not eat poorly even during an eating window.

So, I hit my two initial goals and will continue to use IF for the ongoing health benefits (anti-inflammation). My weight stabilized ~10 pounds less from where I started, but I did not lose much if any muscle.

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

#110

Post by coldtea »

Gatsky wrote: post #105
agumonkey wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely people can make money around it. You cannot sell a void [0] but you can very effectively sell void consulting and magazines. [0] even this is debatable

I was brainstorming with a friend about creating an alternative social environment to replace restaurants for fasters, but couldn't come up with any good ideas.

We call the cafes. They can serve coffee, tea, etc, have people talk, listen to music, etc.
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