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Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

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Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#171

Post by tjradcliffe »

__z wrote: post #147
heimatau wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think clearing out your bowels would be considered de-toxifying. As, much of that stuff just stays inside your intestines unless you do some kind of colon cleanse (men should do this with their doctor at 40-50; depending on how much red meat they eat). Also, with fat being burned and toxins are mostly stored in the fat, I have a difficult time understanding how losing fat isn't detoxing. I meant to say it's painful…

Which specific "toxins" are in your fat? If your colon isn't working properly you are very sick and you need a doctor ASAP not a fast. The fact fasting (perhaps) has benefits has absolutely nothing to do with "toxins."

And what are the LD50's of those "toxins"? This is my first question to people who go on about "toxins" and "detox" and "cleansing".

I don't want an exact number, just a ballpark. Is it micrograms, milligrams or grams per kg body mass? Surely these people who know so very much about "toxins" must know the one fact that distinguishes the things we informally call toxic from the ones we don't.

It would be the hieght of intellectual dishonesty to claim something was "toxic" without having any knowledge of the LD50.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#172

Post by drumdance »

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.

That page has an exceedingly high ratio of TM superscript.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#173

Post by mikekchar »

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.

Gold fish have a typical life span of 20-30 years. However, they are actually very difficult fish to keep. Unless you replace the water very, very frequently (like every day or so), the recommended amount of water is 10 gallons (~40 liters) per fish! Most people put gold fish in ridiculously inappropriate bowls/tanks and think that they live for only a few months or a year.

As someone else pointed out, the reason your fish lived longer when you fed them less is because you were reducing the amount of ammonia (from rotting food, or from fish waste) in the water.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#175

Post by justinpaulson »

austinjp wrote: post #101
justinpaulson wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Can you please explain what you ate or drank over that 25 day period?

Only water. Tap water or bottled water, not distilled for me. Other than that I ate nothing, no vitamins or electrolytes or anything, just water.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#176

Post by justinpaulson »

js2 wrote: post #161
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.

How much weight did you lose over this period? With a TDEE of 2400 cal/day, you'd theoretically lose almost 5 lbs/week, though I imagine your metabolism slows down. Still, I'd guess you lost 10-15 lbs? Did you happen to get measures of your body fat pct before and after?

Not OP, but in 25 days of water fasting I lost 30 pounds. 196 -> 166. I gained about 15 lbs back within a week after I stopped fasting, then settled in the mid 180s. I did not measure body fat percentages, but I could tell I was losing just as much muscle mass as fat by the second week.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#177

Post by nitrogen »

swsieber wrote: post #91
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? Dinne…

Be careful not to assume that all of a group's practices are healthy just because one practice happens to be healthy. Also be careful not to assume that such a practice being healthy means that all of the group's claims are valid.

As a meta note, in general, it's probably bad form to bring up religion on HN in unrelated threads, especially in a subtly proselytizing way.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#178

Post by spydum »

redmaverick wrote: post #164
tptacek wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. For the last year, I've been eating 1-2 meals a day in a 2PM-8PM window, which is something I started doing after accidentally fasting 24+ hours a couple times and realizing that it wasn't that big a deal. I can get a full 24 hour fast simply by holding off until 8PM for dinner, which I do sometimes too. I definitely don't get berzerk-mode hungry after 24 hours.

Did it have any impact on your ability to do a good days work? Were you more focused? I wouldn't mind fasting if it makes me more focused and productive.

I dunno about parent, but I find skipping lunch and maybe just having a very small snack does tons for my productivity.. The swing in blood sugar after lunch makes a noticeable dent in my work output quality and volume. It also usually means I am hungry by 5pm giving me even more incentive to stop working "on time" and be available for my family. Then on top of that, I am not eating so late that my sleep quality is poor.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#179

Post by windlep »

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.

I'd love to see this study replicated, only instead of "proprietary (expensive?) product", it was just 40% of your daily caloric intake.... in soylent.

There's been multiple studies I've seen now indicating that fasting does this, the questions I want to know are:

1. How much of a caloric intake drop is required?

2. How much does it matter what specific types of calories are used for the lower-calorie period? (ie, 500 cals of fast-food vs. soylent vs. prolon vs. ensure)

3. Is there any tell-tale sign we can test for indicating when a sufficient 'period' has occurred for the benefits, thus knowing we can resume normal diet?

I can only imagine if these scientists are associated with a specific product, they probably don't have a huge reason to find out if a cheap existing product (soylent/ensure) works just as well as their most-likely-more-expensive-proprietary one. But it's the first thing I want to know.

Re: Diet that mimics fasting appears to slow aging

#180

Post by codexjourneys »

I've seen this claim several times in connection with different studies. I believe the hugest benefits apply to organisms that eat a restricted number of calories for all or most of their lifespan.

And it's probably not only the number of calories, but also the quality of food that matters. Nutrient-dense, low-calorie diets could be worth a try, but how long could you stick with them?

Giant page of research: http://qualitycounts.com/fpcalorie.html

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