A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#21

Post by 300bps » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 12:55 PM UTC

random_upvoter wrote: post #9

For decades of my adult life I skipped breakfast, going against all conventional dietary wisdom. Having 3 meals a day just felt like turning my body into a conveyor belt that produces faeces. Now I feel kinda vindicated. A few times I traveled with a friends who did the breakfast - lunch - dinner thing and after two or three days I had to opt out of either breakfast or dinner. I remember asking "how do you even manag…

You and I are about the same age and I also have an almost identical body to when I was 20.

But I’ve eaten three+ meals per day my entire life.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#22

Post by 300bps » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 12:59 PM UTC

civilized wrote: post #8

I want to put in a good word for old-school calorie counting. If you don't have good "gut intuition" for how much you're eating, you may find that IF just causes you to eat more in the time you are allowed to eat. CC tells you how much you're taking in, so the numbers tell you when you've eaten enough. I often find that, when I stop at my calorie target (1500), I'm actually not that hungry... but I still have an urge…

Calorie counting is the one true answer.

Everything else is an approximation.

I used MyFitnessPal to count calories - makes it pretty easy.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#23

Post by jstx1 » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 12:59 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #14

Since James Clear's blog is getting shared because it's old (2012), I will share the OG post that kicked off the intermittent fasting trend: Leangains (2010). Leangains didn't invent IF, but it did inspire more people in the last decade than anything else, including James Clear (it's the first reference he cites in this article). https://leangains.com/the-leangains-guide/

> the OG post that kicked off the intermittent fasting trend ... 2010

The Warrior Diet book came out in 2001 and it had quite a following in the 2000s. It wasn't exactly IF but it was still focused on eating most of your food once a day in the evening.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#24

Post by layer8 » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:01 PM UTC

civilized wrote: post #8

I want to put in a good word for old-school calorie counting. If you don't have good "gut intuition" for how much you're eating, you may find that IF just causes you to eat more in the time you are allowed to eat. CC tells you how much you're taking in, so the numbers tell you when you've eaten enough. I often find that, when I stop at my calorie target (1500), I'm actually not that hungry... but I still have an urge…

I found CC the only thing that works for me for losing weight. Combining it with IF just makes it easier to stick with the caloric restriction. IF also does make it easier to maintain weight later on without CC. Of course, everyone is different.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#25

Post by marttt » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:03 PM UTC

Has anybody here experienced more impulsive behaviour as a result of intermittent fasting? More internal anger, being rude or impatient with your peers or children much more often, etc. I was on IF for 2-3 years, and while I gained a lot from the mental clarity, I also admit turning into an uneasy person within.

A quick google provided a 2020 paper that tackles this same question: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7381251/

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#26

Post by virtuallynathan » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:03 PM UTC

300bps wrote: post #22

civilized wrote: post #8

I want to put in a good word for old-school calorie counting. If you don't have good "gut intuition" for how much you're eating, you may find that IF just causes you to eat more in the time you are allowed to eat. CC tells you how much you're taking in, so the numbers tell you when you've eaten enough. I often find that, when I stop at my calorie target (1500), I'm actually not that hungry... but I still have an urge…

Calorie counting is the one true answer. Everything else is an approximation. I used MyFitnessPal to count calories - makes it pretty easy.

Do you know how many calories you burn? Do you actually know how many calories are in your food?

I have a metabolic cart, and the answer surprises me sometimes on the former - just standing at my desk all day I burn >3300kcal. I actually went to talk to the guy in the Casey Neistat video about food labels, and almost bought a bomb calorimeter. Calorie counting, while not useless, is not very helpful.

https://youtu.be/hE2lna5Wxuo

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#27

Post by civilized » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

layer8 wrote: post #24

civilized wrote: post #8

I want to put in a good word for old-school calorie counting. If you don't have good "gut intuition" for how much you're eating, you may find that IF just causes you to eat more in the time you are allowed to eat. CC tells you how much you're taking in, so the numbers tell you when you've eaten enough. I often find that, when I stop at my calorie target (1500), I'm actually not that hungry... but I still have an urge…

I found CC the only thing that works for me for losing weight. Combining it with IF just makes it easier to stick with the caloric restriction. IF also does make it easier to maintain weight later on without CC. Of course, everyone is different.

I would prefer not to have to do CC forever so maybe this will be the way to go once I reach maintenance phase.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#28

Post by IG_Semmelweiss » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:08 PM UTC

The HN crowd should be perfect candidates for IF

Get yourself a very plain coworking space office, a big water container, and work on your passion projects or your startup.

Load up on water during the day. You should be going to the bathroom at least once every 2 hours.

If you are busy and not surrounded by coworkers asking for lunchtime it will be 6'o clock before long.

No coffee. Dont need it

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#29

Post by fouc » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:08 PM UTC

random_upvoter wrote: post #9

For decades of my adult life I skipped breakfast, going against all conventional dietary wisdom. Having 3 meals a day just felt like turning my body into a conveyor belt that produces faeces. Now I feel kinda vindicated. A few times I traveled with a friends who did the breakfast - lunch - dinner thing and after two or three days I had to opt out of either breakfast or dinner. I remember asking "how do you even manag…

People that maintain a low weight throughout life and eat 3 meals a day probably eat smaller meals than your 2 meals.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#30

Post by brodouevencode » Thu, Mar 10, 2022, 1:09 PM UTC

marttt wrote: post #25

Has anybody here experienced more impulsive behaviour as a result of intermittent fasting? More internal anger, being rude or impatient with your peers or children much more often, etc. I was on IF for 2-3 years, and while I gained a lot from the mental clarity, I also admit turning into an uneasy person within. A quick google provided a 2020 paper that tackles this same question: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art…

Not just with IF, but also low/no carbohydrate diets because the lack of free glucose results in the release of cortisol and adrenaline, so it makes sense. I did low carb for a few months - at first it caused some issues but eventually I seemed to have adapted.