Intermittent fasting works – not only for weight loss but also for heart health • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by ValentineC » Sun, Jun 14, 2020, 11:44 PM UTC

globular-toast wrote: post #67

1_player wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I disagree. I've had all of the most expensive coffees including Blue Mountain and Kona. I just don't think coffee is nice without some fat and/or sugar. It has a really bitter, astringent aftertaste that just isn't pleasant. I don't know why it's controversial. There are many foods (maybe even most foods) that aren't particularly nice on their own.

Blue Mountain and Kona sound like gimmicks to me. You should try a V60 pourover using a Geisha bean [1], preferably done by a barista who's really into pourovers.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha_(coffee)

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

#202

Post by downerending » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 12:03 AM UTC

mam2 wrote: post #176

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'…

CICO magically answers your need for losing weight. The magical part is sticking to it though.

Sure, but you're simply restating the problem. You can also keep from getting seriously burned by carefully following the strategy of keeping your skin cool all of the time. Problem solved. Hooray.

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

#203

Post by unholiness » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 12:28 AM UTC

Diesel555 wrote: post #179

slothtrop wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This must depend highly on where your calories come from, because for most people it really isn't that easy. Even bodybuilders will switch to liquid diets to try to pack that much away. If you're consuming lean protein, fibrous vegetables, nuts and pulses, 4000 calories in a sitting is far more difficult. Think of how many apples you can eat in a sitting, and consider that a single apple is 52 calories.

Caloric density is not discussed enough

The only significant contributors to calories and mass of any food item are water, proteins, carbs, and fat. They are respectively 0, 4, 4, and 9 calories per gram. So, foods that are waterlogged (fruits and veggies) are very low calories per gram and foods that are fattier will be denser.

Honestly curious: Is there more discussion to be had than that?

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

#204

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 1:23 AM UTC

hliyan wrote: post #144

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…

Yet another data point. Lot easier on will power reserves to fast at a stretch. All it takes is one nibble of something and I find myself returning to the tin for more.

[deleted]

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

#205

Post by abiogenesis » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 3:46 AM UTC

dorkwood wrote: post #181

Roritharr wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

I once fasted for about a week while suffering an illness that wouldn't let me keep any food down. I only drank water during that time. To my surprise, after several days of not eating, my hunger disappeared completely. It was scary, but also eye-opening. The experience taught me that hunger is not the "you require food right now in order to survive" signal that everyone thinks it is.

Same here. It disappeared after the first 24 hours for me and I didn't feel any hunger for the next 2 days, which was really weird. I didn't feel any tiredness or cognitive impairment (this is difficult to prove though, lol) either.

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

#206

Post by bonoboTP » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 7:27 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #107

bonoboTP wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is the standard advice and surely people need to pay attention to their diet, but exercise is not so marginal. For example running or swimming for an hour seems to be around 8-900 kcal based on various websites. Now that's not nothing, but also people won't do it daily for sure. I think nutrition advice is really hard because people already (have to) factor in the likelihood of following the advice by a g…

> But regular exercise all else equal does have a significant effect. Yes, nothing is all else equal... Right, and that's the problem. Even if you do avoid "cheating" and "I ran X miles so I deserve this" type things, your body will still mess with your metabolism to compensate for the added exercise, and that works against the weight loss plan. I went from near-zero exercise to ~10 miles of running per week, and mai…

I find it easier to eat right when I do cardio and weight exercise. Maybe it's about practicing tolerating discomfort in the moment. Or about hormones. But I just don't crave junk when I exercise. Or it's because I don't have time to sit around on the couch and be bored because I fill the time with exercise. Not sure why. But I've never really been more than 5-10 kg overweight, so slow and steady was good for me. My issue was rather body composition, not pure weight. You need to train to gain lean mass. Losing weight at all price is only the very beginning of the journey. Also I rather like to track things like waist circumference rather than weight. Your weight may stay the same, while becoming more lean. Of course if you start as overweight as the average American, your first goal may reasonably be to just lose weight and figure out leanness afterwards.

Still exercise may help so many other aspects like mood, energy,sleep quality etc. (even if not in the moment but with an hour or day or two delay) which are all helpful to keep oneself on track in the kitchen. It can be a concrete motivational goal to be able to lift this or that much, run so and so far, and it's straightforward to see how you will need to pay attention to your food it you want to achieve that.

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

#207

Post by sdan » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 8:48 AM UTC

globular-toast wrote: post #187

nerder92 wrote: post #68

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 eat normal meals. No snacking. Before I started IF I was actually obese. I couldn't walk a mile without breaking into a sweat and being out of breath. I now have a six pack year round and have done for the almost ten years I've been doing this. So I think I'm qualified to offer some further advice: * Limit your meals to two meals a day. Absolutely no snacking between meals. Make sure your last meal is it such a tim…

Found this reply kind of funny but also functional. Good points.

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

#208

Post by mam2 » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 10:13 AM UTC

downerending wrote: post #202

mam2 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CICO magically answers your need for losing weight. The magical part is sticking to it though.

Sure, but you're simply restating the problem. You can also keep from getting seriously burned by carefully following the strategy of keeping your skin cool all of the time . Problem solved. Hooray.

Im confused about your point.

Methods for the "material" part of the problem are here. But the psychological problem will probably not be solvable by any "method". Its up to anyone's own mastery of itself and its a personal development issue.

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

#209

Post by BrandoElFollito » Mon, Jun 15, 2020, 6:52 PM UTC

One day I decided to skip breakfast (I am not really hungry in the morning). I would eat at 20:00 and then at 12:00 the next day. 16 hours of fasting for a year or so (I still continue, recently gave up because of COVID but will be back when normality is back too).

I was not hungry, I did not loose weight, I did not feel better or worse.

I wonder whether some people are just optimized for this eating style, without specific impacts on their health or body.

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

#210

Post by kelnos » Tue, Jun 16, 2020, 2:42 AM UTC

bonoboTP wrote: post #206

kelnos wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But regular exercise all else equal does have a significant effect. Yes, nothing is all else equal... Right, and that's the problem. Even if you do avoid "cheating" and "I ran X miles so I deserve this" type things, your body will still mess with your metabolism to compensate for the added exercise, and that works against the weight loss plan. I went from near-zero exercise to ~10 miles of running per week, and mai…

I find it easier to eat right when I do cardio and weight exercise. Maybe it's about practicing tolerating discomfort in the moment. Or about hormones. But I just don't crave junk when I exercise. Or it's because I don't have time to sit around on the couch and be bored because I fill the time with exercise. Not sure why. But I've never really been more than 5-10 kg overweight, so slow and steady was good for me. My…

As I said, everyone's experience differs. I find that my desire to snack and eat junk food does not change at all depending on how much or how little exercise I get.

> Still exercise may help so many other aspects like mood, energy,sleep quality etc. (even if not in the moment but with an hour or day or two delay) which are all helpful to keep oneself on track in the kitchen.

So, in other words, my initial statement is correct: you're not going to make meaningful progress weight-loss-wise without changing your diet. If exercising makes that easier for you as a second-order effect, that's great. But that's by no means universal.