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Biohacking Lite

karpathy.github.io

291–300 of 370 posts

Re: Biohacking Lite

#291

Reading through the post makes me thinks that are we eating unnecessarily? 3 meals a day have become the basic necessity for most. Our ancestors used to eat as much as they could because there's no guarantee that they will have enough food until the next hunt. So, the body will go into a state we call "hungry", which reminds us to eat. However with such plentiful of food available (know it didn't came easily, at leas…

> I am able to reduce my daily meals to 2 by having a bulletproof coffee in the morning.

For whatever it's worth, two tablespoons of butter on your coffee is 204 kcal according to Wolfram Alpha. Even Bulletproof says things like "Bulletproof Coffee is breakfast" and "curbing your hunger with food that keeps you full for hours. Bulletproof Coffee checks those boxes." which I read as saying that they think of it as (liquid) food. https://www.bulletproof.com/recipes/bulletproof-diet-recipes...

You're replacing a potentially less structured breakfast (I eat different breakfasts every day) with a single standardised one. If you buy Bulletproof's analysis, you might be doing something ketogenic which might be beneficial in some way. But you're not skipping a meal. Though there is a blurb on that page that says something like "you're having a meal without breaking your fast because [arbitrary definition we made up on the spot]".

For whatever it's worth, I wouldn't take health advice from a product sold with an origin story of "the founder was dangerously overweight and at acute risk of stroke or heart attack at the age of 30, so the biohacker in them decided it would be smart to go on a difficult mountain trek in Nepal".

Re: Biohacking Lite

#293
post #256
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can move larger distances (i.e. rent a car and the like) you'll find wonderful and cheap restaurants pretty much anywhere. Even in otherwise expensive places like SF or NY. After doing a trip in America, I interpret "eat normally" for a French as not eating in the restaurants, but the food available in the supermarket that you cook at home. Finding vegetables, fruits is hard, if not impossible. You don't fin…

I think you did not end up at an actual supermarket. I’ve never been to one that doesn’t have eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, or red peppers. Neighborhood bodegas, which can look like small shops selling food, are a very different type of establishment, and sound like what you’re describing. Perhaps you are ending up in those? (They’re rife in tourist areas!)

It was 5 year ago, I don't really remember...

Re: Biohacking Lite

#294
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

> standard meat-with-vegetable

"Standard" in the countries I've lived in would include a starch. Part of your reaction may just be to cultural differences in what's considered a standard meal.

Your "2 cents" is nothing more than an expression of the food culture you grew up with. There are many other amazing food cultures around the world - even in parts of the US, although you don't find them in the chain stores and chain supermarkets.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#295
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We did not evolved to eat processed sugar, which is not easily found naturally in the environment The flour you make French bread with is not found any more or less naturally in the environment than the sugar you get from cane or beet. This whole thing about evolution and nutrition is entirely pseudoscientific woo. If humans had to eat the same way as our ancestors (ie actual paleo, not some hipster fad diet) human…

I respectfully disagree. Flour is basically crushed wheat. Refined sugar is not crushed beet, and you would have to eat a lot of beet to eat the same amount of sugar that you eat in a typical "industrial food" diet. I would not take paleo food as a reference, but rather look toward what our grandparents had for lunch when they were kids. I don't think they were doing so badly. And I don't cook like Bocuse everyday, t…

> rather look toward what our grandparents had for lunch when they were kids. I don't think they were doing so badly.

This is baseless nostalgia, not something to base health advice on.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#296
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

Spot on Gdebel

Food in USA has extra bacon sugar oil corn crap

If you get a chance before SHTF or 2030

Visit Japan Food is cheap and healthy

When you goto japan , be sure to buy a JR pass 2-4 weeks before you leave

Re: Biohacking Lite

#297
post #98
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

As a Chinese person born in America, you're absolutely right. If you don't cook, it's difficult to eat reasonably / "normally" in this country, even if you have money. You kind of have to pick your poison: salt, sugar, unnatural fats, etc. At least I grew up on the east coast and my parents cooked. Anecdotally, I'm shocked by what my acquaintances from the midwest eat, and the consequences really start to show up whe…

Good to see an ethnic chinese person admitting they are Chinese and not "American"

White person born in Japan, isnt Japanese, he is still white

Same applys to asians born in white nations

Re: Biohacking Lite

#298
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" That very much depends on your location. High tourism locations will often have lots of junk food places. If you can move larger distances (i.e. rent a car and the like) you'll find wonderful and cheap restaurants pretty much anywhere. Even in otherwise expensive places like SF or NY. Here's the problem though: portion sizes are _enormous_ . It took quite a bit o…

> If you can move larger distances (i.e. rent a car and the like) you'll find wonderful and cheap restaurants pretty much anywhere. Even in otherwise expensive places like SF or NY. After doing a trip in America, I interpret "eat normally" for a French as not eating in the restaurants, but the food available in the supermarket that you cook at home. Finding vegetables, fruits is hard, if not impossible. You don't fin…

> Finding vegetables, fruits is hard, if not impossible. You don't find it in every supermarket.

I live in the US currently, and can't think of a single supermarket that doesn't have a large fresh fruits and vegetables section, and all of the vegetables you mention are commonly available.

I suspect you were in a big city and going to the equivalent of corner stores (as someone else mentioned, what they call bodegas in NYC at least.

I think you fell into the common traveler's trap of thinking that your lifetime of knowledge of your home country would easily translate to a different country. When you don't know what's available or what to look for, it can indeed be difficult to find things.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#299
post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to be nitpicky but urine sticks are notoriously unreliable: False-positive when you are first starting because you are not well adapted to utilizing ketones and urinate out most of the BHB. False-negative when you are well adapted because usable fuel will not be wasted in urine. It is generally accepted that the only foolproof way to truly know if you are in ketosis is to do a blood BHB measurement. Other…

I agree with most of what you said. Yes sticks are unreliable, but I know my way around food and know how to keep my daily intake of carbs to be And yes, food research is very problematic. Some reasons are valid, for example we will probably never have randomized double blind placebo control study on various food intake patterns which lasts years or decades because it would cost too much and is very hard to do. But w…

The carnivore diet is definitely at the nearly pure anecdote stage right now haha

Let's not forget most diet trends start at that point until someone decides to the take the anecdotes seriously and start researching it more.

I agree with your conclusions about interpreting research and find that weighing the evidence combined with some well defined n=1 trials on yourself can do wonders.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#300

I've lost about 60lbs over the last few years in 2 stages. (210lbs->150lbs) In the first stage, I lost about 30lbs. I did not modify my terrible diet, and mostly did cardio (running ~4-5 miles every other day). My health markers (heart rate, blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol) improved, but not a lot. I plateaued at 180 for a few years. Last year, I made some changes and cleaned up my diet. I avoided deserts an…

I'd love rowing machines plugged into an alternator so my health powers my laptop ~_~
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