Live data from Hacker News

Fasting & Programming

mahdiyusuf.com

71–80 of 180 posts

Re: Fasting & Programming

#71
post #22
post #15

> Let’s just say fasting isn’t one of them. All of my co-workers; I have worked with past and present have been extremely understanding and respectful of the [month-long] fast. Also as a by-product of this kindness they have coined the term: "Ramadan code". If I were an employer, after reading this...

> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…

"What does it take to start a new religion?"

Well if you are in the US, the religion has to be recognized by the government. If it isn't recognized then you would have no protection.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#72
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was probably very common in the human experience prior to the development of agriculture. People didn't eat regular meals. Hunting opportunities would not have come along every day, and sometimes hunts would fail. I don't think humans would become too weak to throw spears because they didn't have their Cheerios in the morning. When I hear people who have skipped a meal complain "my blood sugar is low", I worry f…

Too weak to throw spears, maybe not. Too weak to churn out top quality code may be another matter, however.

You are severely underestimating the mental difficulty of spear hunting in relation to writing a couple of lines of code.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"When I hear people who have skipped a meal complain "my blood sugar is low", I worry for their health. We have fat stores for a reason. Skipping a meal should not be a big deal." That is such a great point. People have been programmed around the 3 meal regime. I have found it fun to experiment with fewer meals and generally it works fine if I have an primarily protein breakfast I sail through to an early dinner.

It's gotten even worse now with many fitness gurus strongly advocating 6 small meals a day.

It's what works best for fat-loss, because that way you keep down the blood sugar spikes after every meal. I don't do it though because it's too much of a hassle - instead, you can also keep to foods which don't spike sugar levels much in general.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#74
post #65

There is quite a lot of science and study behind fasting, and it can actually be good for your health. I say this as someone who does a caloric fast (read: no caloric intake at all, fluids allowed) 6-7 times a week for intervals of 16-20 hours, in addition to my 3x weekly heavy weightlifting programme and my full-time job as a programmer/devops. As of right now I'm the healthiest I've ever been in my life (physical s…

Could you detail your diet and exercise routine? I'm new to intermittent fasting and could use a little bit of advise.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#76
post #70
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was probably very common in the human experience prior to the development of agriculture. People didn't eat regular meals. Hunting opportunities would not have come along every day, and sometimes hunts would fail. I don't think humans would become too weak to throw spears because they didn't have their Cheerios in the morning. When I hear people who have skipped a meal complain "my blood sugar is low", I worry f…

You are mistaken if you think that hunting was the primary source of food in times before agriculture. For many tribes it was (and still is, in some parts of the world) a secondary "luxury" which augmented the gathered food. As you say, hunting can easily fail, or game can become rare because of environmental hiccups. This happens more often than you should think - there are times when deer can't be found for weeks.…

Yes, one can use intermittent fasting to lose weight, but weight-loss usually only kicks in after 2-3 weeks.

Citation needed. I personally know people who've lost weight long term with quite brief periods of intermittent fasting.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#77
For those of you who feel clear-headed after fasting for a day or two: you might have a delayed food allergy (google "IgG food intolerance"). The most common such allergies are to gluten (not just coeliac sufferers are sensitive to gluten) and dairy products. I believe these delayed-onset allergies are fairly common in western societies, and are due to a "leaky gut", or permeable intestinal lining, that results in an immune system response when those foods get absorbed. Because IgG allergies can manifest themselves up to three days after you eat the offending food, some people may never figure out the cause of their fatigue or foggy-headedness. IgG allergies might be worth looking into if you have those symptoms.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#78
post #71
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…

"What does it take to start a new religion?" Well if you are in the US, the religion has to be recognized by the government. If it isn't recognized then you would have no protection.

a) you're entirely correct

b) I always laugh at this because our Constitution doesn't talk at all about "freedom of religion" but it does explicitly mention "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".

...which is exactly what the current practice is.

Re: Fasting & Programming

#79
post #33

As (a non-religious) someone who tried fasting while holding down a similar job, my advice is simple: don't break your fast every night. It only takes 24-48 hours for your body to adjust, your fat to start melting and your blood-sugar levels to stabilise. You also stop feeling hungry. I found that while I was generally a little 'light-headed' my powers of concentration were fine and I returned to full productivity. A…

Another con is 'seriously bad breath' (acetone breath) which is clearly not good if your job involves dealing with people face to face

Re: Fasting & Programming

#80
post #65

There is quite a lot of science and study behind fasting, and it can actually be good for your health. I say this as someone who does a caloric fast (read: no caloric intake at all, fluids allowed) 6-7 times a week for intervals of 16-20 hours, in addition to my 3x weekly heavy weightlifting programme and my full-time job as a programmer/devops. As of right now I'm the healthiest I've ever been in my life (physical s…

Could you detail your diet and exercise routine? I'm new to intermittent fasting and could use a little bit of advise.

Sure. It's incredibly simple, even if there are a lot of concepts to grasp.

Diet:

The macro-nutrient decomposition I tend to follow can be calculated for your bodyweight, height and level of physical activity here: http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ . Note that your level of physical activity is most likely sedentary, even if you plan on exercising. The higher levels are for people who have physically demanding day jobs. The rest/workout split toggle in the top left of the "Macro Calculator" tab will give you different total caloric requirements based on if you want to gain/lose/maintain weight. Remember: a ~500kcal/day deficit from your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) translates to losing 1 lb/week, and vice versa for a caloric surplus. You can play around with the 4th tab to see what goes on.

The tl;dr version of this calculator is basically: eat more carbohydrates on workout days, and eat more fats on rest days. Eat 1g of protein per lb of body-mass on all days, and try to hit your daily caloric goals on all days.

Meal Timing:

Here's a typical day for me:

    * 6:30am. Wake up. Do morning things.
    * 7:15am. Take 10g of BCAAs with water, 4000IU of Vitamin D, and 10ml of concentrated (high levels of EPA/DHA) fish oil.
    * 7:30am. Take public transport to gym.
    * 8:00am. Double-shot of espresso. Sometimes I skip this - I purposely cycle on/off of caffeine every few weeks.
    * 8:15am. Start exercise routine. Lift heavy things. Lasts about an hour.
    * 9:15am. Finish workout. Ingest 10g of BCAAs.
    * 9:30am to 2:00pm. Work.
    * 2:00pm. First meal of the day. No significant calories (
For rest days, I skip the BCAAs and the gym (obviously).

Of course the above isn't written in stone, and sometimes I break my own rules by going out with friends, having a drink or two past 9pm, and so on. But you get the general idea.

Exercise:

Lift heavy things, and perform compound movements. My exercise regime consists of heavy squats, bench press, standing overhead press, Pendlay rows and deadlifts. Any other exercises are incidental, and I try to avoid muscle-isolating exercises in general.

I would highly recommend reading Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe (even though some disagree on his precise methodologies, it's still the best introductory book out there), and perusing the http://stronglifts.com site as well. Once you've gotten past the point where those programmes are effective (which will take months, if not a year), there are many intermediate to advanced compound-lift based programmes that you can switch over to.

Sorry for the long post. I could go on for ages about this stuff; it's incredibly interesting, and is actually quite formulaic. If you eat what you're supposed to eat and do the exercises you're supposed to do, your desired results just... happen. Makes the scientist in me very happy ;-).

[Edit: formatting]

Post reply on HN