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

washingtonpost.com

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

#51

Post by tom_mellior »

downerending wrote: post #7
codernyc16 wrote: post #4

He lost 45 lbs, that’s what probably removed his sleeps apnea. Not because of some other magical ability of intermittent fasting. One of my friends also lost a lot of weight and his apnea went away, he went off of his CPAP machine.

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'…

> work in general

That's far from sure at this point. Yes, HN is a hotbed of intermittent fasting propaganda [1], which may make it seem like there is general agreement. But you'll find other communities pushing other diets as the one true diet, so... more research is needed.

[1] Note, for example, that the submitter subtly but crucially changed the title, which in the original says "works for many" (emphasis mine).

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

#52

Post by gvjddbnvdrbv »

noneeeed wrote: post #44
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…

Likewise. I think it's true for a lot of people. Its why pregnant women are told not to drink alcohol at all. The reality is that the liver is amazing and can remove low levels of it so well that a small amount of drinking is fine. The problem is that it's really hard to a) effectively communicate what the safe level is b) get people to stick to it. It's much easier to avoid it entirely.

I've literally measured a glass of wine for someone who then told me the measure must be wrong rather than admit they had always drunk three glasses rather than one. (Person was not pregnant and is not someone that would be described in any way as having problems with alcohol.)

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

#53

Post by HiddenCanary »

At university I used to intermittent fast as a side-effect of laziness to cook breakfast.

Nowadays I've read the benefits of it and trying to replicate that but I just get severe headaches when trying to do it. Anyone got any tips for avoid thing that?

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

#54

Post by wahern »

HiddenCanary wrote: post #53

At university I used to intermittent fast as a side-effect of laziness to cook breakfast. Nowadays I've read the benefits of it and trying to replicate that but I just get severe headaches when trying to do it. Anyone got any tips for avoid thing that?

Two of the most common culprits to rule out would be 1) caffeine withdrawal and 2) dehydration. People often don't drink as much, or not at all, when they're not eating, and many don't even realize it.

When I work an all-nighter (36+ hours without sleep) I don't have much of an appetite the next day and so tend not to eat anything. Because I'm not eating I'm also not drinking much, which I like because I'm prone to slide into a salt+soda spiral. But if I don't force myself to drink fluids I often end up with a raging headache.

I'm not much of a breakfast eater and during periods when I drink a lot of caffeinated soda I often get headaches from the caffeine withdrawal, especially on the weekends as I tend to only drink soda when working.

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

#55

Post by tinco »

kyle_morris_ wrote: post #15

I’ve been thinking a lot about how humans evolved and how differently we do some things. Is there consensus on the eating patterns of prehistoric humans? My understanding of how humans evolved to eat is pretty limited, but I would guess unintentional intermittent fasting would have been commonplace in humans over the past few hundred thousand years. There seems to be consensus that eating a large variety of foods is…

In general animals exposed to nature live shorter, not longer lives. It might be worth investigating, but I've not seen anything to suggest we might become healthier by restricting our diets to food available to effectively poor people. Besides the obvious not eating food that we already know is unhealthy and eating significantly more calories than we need.

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

#56

Post by tinco »

konradb wrote: post #49
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…

I had acid reflux for a number of years. It got more and more acute until it felt almost like how I imagine a heart attack to feel. In the end after a week in hospital I had my gallbladder removed and subsequent to that any very occasional mild acidity has gone away after a drink of water. Another anecdote that might be worth adding to the collection.

What did they diagnose in your gallbladder? I've been to the hospital a whole bunch of times and they found absolutely nothing.

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

#57

Post by tom_mellior »

AnonC wrote: post #10

> How do you start? Agatston told me to start by skipping one meal a day, usually breakfast. (Yes, you can have black coffee in the morning, into which he adds ghee, a type of clarified butter, and coconut oil to reduce hunger pangs. It’s not your typical cup of coffee.) This may be ok to start with, though black coffee by itself has the ability to kill hunger without these crutches. Adding ghee or coconut oil in bla…

> Adding ghee or coconut oil in black coffee means it’s no longer effectively zero calories, and this is not technically fasting.

I guess it depends on how you choose to define your "technical" terms. For example (https://www.bulletproof.com/diet/bulletproof-diet/bulletproo...): "The technical definition of “fasting” describes not consuming a single calorie. When your body isn’t burdened with the task of digestion all day every day, it has a chance to carry out cleaning and repair processes that make you healthier. This cleanup and repair process is called autophagy. Depending on your diet, intermittent fasting can also put you in a fat-burning state called ketosis.[2] Learn more about the benefits of intermittent fasting.

The good news is that there’s no scientific reason to completely restrict calories to reap the benefits of intermittent fasting. If you only consume fat (no protein or carbs) during your fast, you won’t interrupt autophagy. You’ll also stay in the fat-burning state of ketosis."

(I have no opinion on any of this except that I'm amused by hobby nutritionists.)

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

#58

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#59

Post by lloeki »

downerending wrote: post #7
codernyc16 wrote: post #4

He lost 45 lbs, that’s what probably removed his sleeps apnea. Not because of some other magical ability of intermittent fasting. One of my friends also lost a lot of weight and his apnea went away, he went off of his CPAP machine.

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'…

> (And no, didn't read the article, because paywall.)

If you’re so inclined, Google the exact article URL, then click the first result that matches.

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

#60

Post by xorcist »

tom_mellior wrote: post #57
AnonC wrote: post #10

> How do you start? Agatston told me to start by skipping one meal a day, usually breakfast. (Yes, you can have black coffee in the morning, into which he adds ghee, a type of clarified butter, and coconut oil to reduce hunger pangs. It’s not your typical cup of coffee.) This may be ok to start with, though black coffee by itself has the ability to kill hunger without these crutches. Adding ghee or coconut oil in bla…

> Adding ghee or coconut oil in black coffee means it’s no longer effectively zero calories, and this is not technically fasting. I guess it depends on how you choose to define your "technical" terms. For example ( https://www.bulletproof.com/diet/bulletproof-diet/bulletproo... ): "The technical definition of “fasting” describes not consuming a single calorie. When your body isn’t burdened with the task of digestion…

Please take care when your Internet nutritionist calls ketosis a "fat-burning state".

While true, it's also a lot like calling the Internet a "photon transport mechanism".

If you experiment with such things, make sure you get the whole picture and is otherwise healthy. Ask anyone with diabetes why.

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