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

washingtonpost.com

81–90 of 214 posts

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

#81
post #64

> How do you start? Agatston told me to start by skipping one meal a day, usually breakfast. This sounds especially odd to me, as skipping breakfast has long been one of those well-known ways to accidentally gain weight... (explanation typically being that you end up hungrier at lunch/dinner and eat more over the whole day)

Are we sure about this? I mean, wasn't "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" an advertising slogan to sell more?

Additionally: I think this probably has more to do with the person. My mother is outright miserable without breakfast, which makes sense. She is hungriest early in the day. She doesn't have much issue completely skipping dinner or eating very little the rest of the day. I'm the opposite. Eating too early means I simply eat more food that day - and I'm not even hungry the first hour or two that I'm awake. I don't see a point in eating when I'm not hungry, so I generally don't. It is much easier to simply skip food early in the day, snack on something small for lunch (cheese and bread, fruit, etc), and have a nice dinner.

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

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done keto for a long time I can only recommend two options besides Tea. 1. Become a weird coffee person and put some nerd energy into it so black coffee doesn't taste disgusting on it's own. James Hoffman on YouTube is a great way into this. 2. Eschew the coffee and take a teaspoon of MCT Oil before your can of zero-calorie Energy Drink (Coke Zero Energy is my favorite atm). It may be dirty and people are goin…

If your black coffee tastes disgusting on its own, you need to buy better coffee.

It’s addictive, so your taste will adapt to what you regularly have. It’s entirely possible to train your body to love instant, you just need to stick with it.

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

#83
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Vague hints to "get the whole picture" or to "educate yourself" without pointing to approved sources are always bad moves in Internet discussions. But here especially: Skimming the top 10 DuckDuckGo results for "ketosis fat-burning", I'm getting the impression that you would not approve of most of them.

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

#84

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.

> I eat about 1200 calories Do you have a medical condition? that's a lot of calories to take on for Breakfast, that's almost half my daily quota.

A typical cereal serving is 45g, which is a very small volume, the box I have in front of me tight now tells me it’s 250kcal. It’s super easy to eat muuuuch more than that because carbs are so satisfying they’re downright addictive.

Two bowls of cereals can fly very quickly into one’s belly, pour in some milk and the tally easily crosses the 1000kcal mark.

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

#85
post #38

I don't understand the 16:8 idea. I would still eat 3 meals, just with dinner a little earlier. 8 hours window feels too big to be called fasting.

Even a "normal" 3 meal pattern involves fasting overnight. That's why we call the first meal breakfast. This is just extending that overnight fast to 16 hours. I think if you tried to eat 3 meals in 8 hours you'd eat smaller meals. Otherwise you'd be stuffing yourself full.

Not necessarily. IIRC, food leaves your stomach within 2-5 hours, and it varies depending on person and what the food is. I'm gonna guess you could fit in a light breakfast and a fairly decently sized lunch and dinner in that 8-hour window.

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

#86
> Although it sounds counterintuitive, long periods without eating actually decrease your levels of the “eat now” hormone ghrelin.

I could not tell you if this is psychology or hormonal, but it seems to me after having done it, that the benefit of intermittent fasting is not just "fewer calories on average due to fast days" but also shifting the point at which the body starts to sound the alarms about hunger. You "get used" to not being sated, and it feels less like a problem that needs fixing, at least for a few hours longer. This happens at some level well below conscious thought.

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

#87
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm doing exactly the same since almost 1year, but still I'm not seeing much benefit from it. Like I still have belly fat, I wonder how do you eat when you break the fast and how do you avoid binging? I'm not gonna lie, after 15-16h I start to feel hungry and as soon as the fast finish I tend to eat something pretty caloric & fatty (ie: cheese or nuts)

I've been doing IF for the past five years or so (after "discovering" it by myself) and lost about 30 kg in the process. I am a bulk eater and I still "binge" periodically. The kinds of food that I binge on have changed greatly though, and that's what worked for me. I switched to simpler food: non-starchy grains like buckwheat, kidney beans, vegetables and fruit, and this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(d…

> I can't even eat sugar and candies anymore, they overflow my senses and taste like crap.

A slight life hack. A few days of fasting (3-5 should do it) will probably get you to this state.

So once deciding on a new healthy composition of food. Start of a with a few days of fasting and it will be easier to stick to it.

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

#88
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Can you elaborate?

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

#89
>Intermittent fasting took off in the United States in part due to a 2014 TEDx Talk (“Why fasting bolsters brain power”) by Mark Mattson

The link points to Michael Mosley's 2012 BBC documentary. Mark Mattson's TEDx talk from 2014 is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UkZAwKoCP8

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

#90

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.

Well, it has to be in the blood first to get metabolized by the liver, so the unborn gets some. But as you say, a little wont probably matter. I was shocked how big an effect licoriice has (finnish study), before I read the stud, I thought they found something signific but not relevant. Reading the study changed my perspective and i am wondering why there are no warning labels
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