Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 214 posts

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#21

Post by nmfisher »

dingaling wrote: post #16
wenc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The quirk on this one is that occasionally you skip breakfast, too. I've done intermittent fasting (IF) for the past 5 years. Apart from a black espresso every morning, I skip breakfast all the time (not just occasionally). Skipping breakfast is a psychological trick (that doesn't work on everybody, but works well enough to make a difference). The real goal is to entice oneself to eat less by eating fewer meals in…

> Skipping breakfast is a psychological trick Perhaps, but for some people it's also a physiological risk. I eat about 1200 calories for breakfast as my body otherwise cannot function for the day. Whether fasting is appropriate depends on one's body composition, daily exertion routine and physiological factors. For most people I'd recommend exercise instead of fasting.

> I eat about 1200 calories for breakfast as my body otherwise cannot function for the day.

I used to think this too, until I switched to a low carb diet. The raging fire in my belly, inability to concentrate and overall sluggishness just simply...disappeared.

That’s when I realized that “my body needs X to Y” is unhelpful unless you’ve experimented with lots of different values of X for long enough for your body to adapt.

I’m not saying you haven’t, but I’m just reiterating the importance of tinkering with your approach to diet and exercise. By the time we reach adulthood, our bodies have adapted to years of bad eating habits. Reshaping the hormonal and microbiotic responses may take a few weeks of discomfort/unusual response before seeing results.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#22

Post by jasonlfunk »

My experience with IF has taught me that I’m much better at complete denial, rather than moderation. So if I want to reduce my caloric intake it works better for me to say No to everything for 16 hours and only eat for 8, then to try to just eat less and in moderation all day.

It also applies to carb and other reductions. If I allow myself any bread, sweets, etc, I will eat too much. It’s easier for me to eat 0, then it is to only eat a little.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#23

Post by bsder »

dingaling wrote: post #16
wenc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The quirk on this one is that occasionally you skip breakfast, too. I've done intermittent fasting (IF) for the past 5 years. Apart from a black espresso every morning, I skip breakfast all the time (not just occasionally). Skipping breakfast is a psychological trick (that doesn't work on everybody, but works well enough to make a difference). The real goal is to entice oneself to eat less by eating fewer meals in…

> Skipping breakfast is a psychological trick Perhaps, but for some people it's also a physiological risk. I eat about 1200 calories for breakfast as my body otherwise cannot function for the day. Whether fasting is appropriate depends on one's body composition, daily exertion routine and physiological factors. For most people I'd recommend exercise instead of fasting.

> For most people I'd recommend exercise instead of fasting.

"You can't outrun the fork."

Metabolic studies show that you have to be damn near Olympic calibre in your exercise routine to cause a significant change in caloric consumption by increasing metabolism through exercise. Your body pretty much holds a constant level of metabolism and shunts it around to whichever systems it deems most important right now.

Exercise might give you an extra couple calories of margin (maybe), but you won't lose weight with it alone.

If you want to lose weight, you have to get the caloric intake down. And that's hard because you are fighting biological systems that evolved to store energy really efficiently and to give up that energy only very reluctantly.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#24

Post by humanlion87 »

bmd3991 wrote: post #19
humanlion87 wrote: post #18

I have been following IF on-and-off over the past few years. It has helped me lose weight initially and then maintain it at a good spot. I have not done detailed before and after blood work to know whether it has had other effects. But one problem I have started having recently is acid reflux and acidity. People immediately pounce on this and tell me that skipping breakfast is what is causing increased acidity levels…

Binge eating can cause acid reflux, so I wonder if it’s a similar mechanism. Something about eating so much food in a small window maybe (?) doesn’t give your body time and space to digest it properly

That's an interesting point, never thought about it that way. Need to read more about it! If that is the case, then going back to IF might be a problem for me :). Currently I am back on 3 meals a day (12:12) and have eliminated certain types of foods that could cause acidity. And it's working for now.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#25

Post by doubleunplussed »

humanlion87 wrote: post #24
bmd3991 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binge eating can cause acid reflux, so I wonder if it’s a similar mechanism. Something about eating so much food in a small window maybe (?) doesn’t give your body time and space to digest it properly

That's an interesting point, never thought about it that way. Need to read more about it! If that is the case, then going back to IF might be a problem for me :). Currently I am back on 3 meals a day (12:12) and have eliminated certain types of foods that could cause acidity. And it's working for now.

Why not have breakfast but skip dinner?

Eating close to bedtime can cause reflux and FWIW I had less reflux when I fasted after 4pm.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#26

Post by doubleunplussed »

bsder wrote: post #23
dingaling wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Skipping breakfast is a psychological trick Perhaps, but for some people it's also a physiological risk. I eat about 1200 calories for breakfast as my body otherwise cannot function for the day. Whether fasting is appropriate depends on one's body composition, daily exertion routine and physiological factors. For most people I'd recommend exercise instead of fasting.

> For most people I'd recommend exercise instead of fasting. "You can't outrun the fork." Metabolic studies show that you have to be damn near Olympic calibre in your exercise routine to cause a significant change in caloric consumption by increasing metabolism through exercise. Your body pretty much holds a constant level of metabolism and shunts it around to whichever systems it deems most important right now . Exe…

It's thought that aerobic exercise can help resolve hormonal issues that lead to overeating, which if true would mean exercise would help you eat fewer calories.

Anecdotally, my appetite became more reasonable after I took up running. Fat seemed to keep me full longer.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#27

Post by jmchuster »

t-writescode wrote: post #12
downerending wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably correct, in that losing a lot of weight greatly improved his health. That said, losing weight is freaking difficult, and if intermittent fasting is a path towards that, it'd be very useful. I've done a lot of fasting. The results seem pretty good. Pulling it off is non-trivial. At this point, we need "magical", because nothing else has really seemed to work in general for losing weight. (And no, didn'…

If calorie counting and exercise aren’t working, it’s time to go to the doctor. You may have a hormonal imbalance or something. It affects more people then realize it.

Unfortunately, humans are terrible at these two basics. e.g. "it's just a cookie i'm having for a snack, that doesn't count, does it?" or "i walk up three flights of stairs to work every day, that's the same as 30 minutes of exercise a day, right?"

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#28

Post by elric »

doubleunplussed wrote: post #25
humanlion87 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting point, never thought about it that way. Need to read more about it! If that is the case, then going back to IF might be a problem for me :). Currently I am back on 3 meals a day (12:12) and have eliminated certain types of foods that could cause acidity. And it's working for now.

Why not have breakfast but skip dinner? Eating close to bedtime can cause reflux and FWIW I had less reflux when I fasted after 4pm.

I suspect the reason why it's common to skip breakfast in 16:8 and not dinner, is because of social pressure. It's much more common to have dinner with friends than breakfast. Skipping breakfast is way easiet for many people.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#29

Post by elric »

For anyone interested in weight loss and heart health, please remember that both are impaired by not getting enough sleep. Studies have shown that you're way more likely to over eat if you get less than 7 hours of sleep a night.

Source: "Why we sleep" by Matthew Walker.

Re: Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health

#30

Post by Roritharr »

jasonlfunk wrote: post #22

My experience with IF has taught me that I’m much better at complete denial, rather than moderation. So if I want to reduce my caloric intake it works better for me to say No to everything for 16 hours and only eat for 8, then to try to just eat less and in moderation all day. It also applies to carb and other reductions. If I allow myself any bread, sweets, etc, I will eat too much. It’s easier for me to eat 0, then…

Same here, years of people telling me drastic diets are "unhealthy" etc. kept me from playing to my strengths of just doing the extremes for long periods of time instead of fighting constant urges while balancing them with a moderate calorie intake.

I think most (healthy) people should try fasting for 5 days to see how your body responds. It won't kill you, but many people are terrified of the thought of not eating for 12 hours.

Post reply on HN