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

Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

news.usc.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 305 posts

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#91

Post by swsieber »

Rainymood wrote: post #38

I currently intermittent fast by skipping breakfast + lunch, partially because I'm lazy, partially because it allows me to easily eat 'all my calories' in the end of the day. I really like this as it provides a 'buffer' for unexpected food, such as random cake, or random lunches with colleagues etc. Has anyone here actually ever TRIED fasting a full 24h day? I have. I HATED it. Well, the fasting itself wasn't that ba…

Yes. My religion teaches it (along with some other healthy things). It was actually reiterated very recently (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/is-not-this-t...). The emphasis is much less on the health benefits but they are none-the-less talked about from time to time.

I think part of it that doing it a couple of times help reduce the extreme biological need. Also, when did you finish your fast? Dinner (5pm - 5pm) seems to be a good way to do it. Break it by drinking a lot of water to start.

Edit: I also find myself eating (snacking) less the next couple of days because I'm used to holding back.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#92

Post by dogma1138 »

ams6110 wrote: post #50

Anecdotally, when I was a kid I had goldfish at one point. I noticed that if they were fed daily they didn't live very long. If they were fed once or twice a week they seemed to live forever.

You are not supposed to feed the fish everyday, they died because you've poison their water, especially if this was in a small tank without an integral water filtration system.

When you saturate the water with fish food (and also well fish poop) you pretty much give bacteria a free reign in the water which causes the water to be extremely anaerobic, so yep you've caused your fish to drown :)

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#93

Post by akamaka »

usaphp wrote: post #81

I don't know every time I skip a meal for 8+ hours since waking up in the morning I get a terrible headache and become mad at everybody around me, not sure if it's just me or everybody who fastens have those symptoms. But when I eat breakfast and lunch I can go on without food till 4-5 am with no issues at all

I'm sure it's different for everyone, because I sometimes just don't feel like eating much for a couple days.

It makes sense to me, because some of our ancestors might have had only an itermittant supply of food, while others might have been accustomed to eating several times a day.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#94

Post by justinpaulson »

aviv wrote: post #84
rlucas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got to get past about 36 hours before your body / brain stop acting so "berserk." After that, you stop being hungry and you can look at food with relative equanimity.

I agree. Earlier this year I fasted for 23 days (consuming only water) and the hunger and desire to eat went away after the third or forth day. The need to eat was replaced by a burst of energy that lasted for the remainder of the fast and several weeks after.

Did you find that you got light-headed when you stood up too fast after 14 or so days? I fasted for 25 days (water) and found that I would get a little bit light-headed if I stood up from a seated position too fast. I also found that I would have these weird nightmares where i was eating a ton of food and would wake up thinking I had ruined my fast...very bizarre. I have never talked personally to anyone that had also fasted longer than a week, so I was interested if your experiences mirrored mine and if you found any way to reduce that light-headed seeing stars kind of feeling when you stood up. Other than that, I'd say I didn't notice many other issues except for maybe a quicker onset of fatigue if I was climbing a flight of stairs or something.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#95

Post by marchelzo »

aviv wrote: post #84
rlucas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got to get past about 36 hours before your body / brain stop acting so "berserk." After that, you stop being hungry and you can look at food with relative equanimity.

I agree. Earlier this year I fasted for 23 days (consuming only water) and the hunger and desire to eat went away after the third or forth day. The need to eat was replaced by a burst of energy that lasted for the remainder of the fast and several weeks after.

Sorry- but you mean that you didn't eat anything at all for 23 days? And you felt energized?

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#96

Post by aviv »

justinpaulson wrote: post #94
aviv wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Earlier this year I fasted for 23 days (consuming only water) and the hunger and desire to eat went away after the third or forth day. The need to eat was replaced by a burst of energy that lasted for the remainder of the fast and several weeks after.

Did you find that you got light-headed when you stood up too fast after 14 or so days? I fasted for 25 days (water) and found that I would get a little bit light-headed if I stood up from a seated position too fast. I also found that I would have these weird nightmares where i was eating a ton of food and would wake up thinking I had ruined my fast...very bizarre. I have never talked personally to anyone that had als…

Not so much, no. I did attempt to paint a wall around day 16 I think and didn't feel comfortable looking up while standing on the ladder so decided to put it off until I ended the fast. Other than that I felt as normal as can be during the entire fast, although I couldn't get myself to stay up very late and so my evenings would end around 9pm.

I didn't have nightmares but I do remember that my dreams during the fast were incredibly vivid. I never imagined such dreams were possible and it's one of the things I miss most since ending the fast.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#97

Post by krmmalik »

Avshalom wrote: post #90
krmmalik wrote: post #39

Appropriate article since I just completed a fast of 19hrs. No water and no food. Muslims do this every year. Last year, on average our fast was just over 18hrs. We fast each day from sunrise to sunset for 30days. Of course, we as a group of people have been doing it for over a thousand years. Cant say we started it due to science, but cant say we noticed the lack of aging either. ;)

I have never met a Muslim that didn't put on 5 kilos during ramadan from ridiculous iftars and judicious day light napping. I suspect that may cancel out any benefit fasting might have.

Hehe. Yes that does happen a lot. Usually with people that fast more due to societal pressure or for cultural reasons rather than for religious reasons. To be honest fasting never was or is for health reasons and though it may seem that way it's not just about food. It's about abstaining from as many evils/ills as possible; not backbiting, no wasting time on trivial things, not being lazy, not being arrogant or egotistical. Etc etc. Call it a personality detox if you will. Unfortunately for outside observers that interact with casual fasters, the discussion tends to revolve around the abstinence from food only.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#98

Post by shard »

lsniddy wrote: post #54
kristopolous wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there's some consensus that eating closer to the time you wake is more advisable then closer to the time you sleep - all other things being equal.

check out the warrior diet, similar to an ironman sleep cycle in its extremity. One massive meal a day at night. http://www.warriordiet.com/

So to the first order the warrior diet is the Ultra Slim Fast diet? "Have a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and a sensible dinner"

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#99

Post by primroot »

Avshalom wrote: post #89
hathawsh wrote: post #19

The authors disclosed they have equity in a company called L-Nutra, which intends to sell diet food packs: http://www.l-nutra.com/index.php/products/prolon Nothing for sale yet, but hopefully the price will be competitive with do-it-yourselfers. I am cautiously optimistic about this direction.

it is going to be very hard to be price-competitive with "not eating"

just sell the test kits for all the supposed markers of longevity.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#100

Post by mkempe »

Fiahil wrote: post #71
Rainymood wrote: post #38

I currently intermittent fast by skipping breakfast + lunch, partially because I'm lazy, partially because it allows me to easily eat 'all my calories' in the end of the day. I really like this as it provides a 'buffer' for unexpected food, such as random cake, or random lunches with colleagues etc. Has anyone here actually ever TRIED fasting a full 24h day? I have. I HATED it. Well, the fasting itself wasn't that ba…

It happened to me several times in the past, when I was so focused on what I was coding/debugging, that I forgot to eat multiple times in a row. Now, when I don't want to be disturbed by a growling stomach, I usually give him an apple just to keep him busy.

During my v.early coding years I would often go, esily, through a couple of days without eating, and little sleep. Decades later, I'm married with kids -- they complain if I don't join them to eat.
Post reply on HN