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Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

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Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#31

Post by tconfrey »

djyaz1200 wrote: post #12

Anecdotally, I've been skipping breakfast and lunch M-F with first food at 4pm and I've been losing a little bit of weight (.5%/month) and have a lot more energy. I probably eat about the same caloric volume of food, maybe slightly less. Been at it for about 6mo. Not saying this is right for others but I've been encouraged by the results thus far. I started after reading (some of) the book "The Energy Paradox" by SR…

Again anecdotally. I'm mid 50's, always been fit with a healthy diet and BMI range, but the weight had started to build up of late. I tried informally exercising more and eating/drinking less, with no visible results. Six weeks back I switched to a weekday 18 hour fast, 6 hour eating window (lunch ~2pm, finish dinner before 8), no alcohol on weekdays. It was hitting 170 that triggered me to try the change. This morning I was 158 with 2% lower body fat.

For me I think the fasting window just gives me an easy to follow schedule without having to make all those tiny little decisions. Once you get used to it, having your body tell you it's hungry gets easy to ignore (plus a 2pm lunch reduces the temptation for a mid afternoon snack). I don't feel any different TBH! YMMV.

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#33

Post by Engineering-MD »

bityard wrote: post #23
rednerrus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating less calorie will give you the same benefit.

The human body's energy management system is incredibly complicated and rife with subtleties. To the point that the whole "calories in == calories out" meme, while not factually untrue by the standard of Newtonian physics, is just about as useful as saying that gravity is the cause of all airplane crashes.

Yet people seem to forget about that with diets and that is why it’s useful to remind people in some cases. Your diet doesn’t matter if in the end you consume more calories than expended- you will gain weight. I see it more as a first test of reasonability of a diet, a law of weight loss if you will.

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#34

Post by f311a »

sosborn wrote: post #27
rednerrus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating less calorie will give you the same benefit.

You aren't wrong, but keeping things to an 8-hour window makes it easy to stay within the right calorie range, especially if you pay attention to macros.

Low level of blood glucose before sleep is also very important.

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#35

Post by salmonellaeater »

fouc wrote: post #24

> This suggests that fasting might have negatively affected the health of the mice, to cause less benefit than simple calorie restriction at the same body weight did. This doesn't make sense. He's comparing 28% lifespan increase on calorie-restriction vs 11% on fasted, and then wildly jumping to "fasted is NEGATIVELY healthy" Fasting is a helluva lot easier than calorie-restriction, and I'd take a gain of +11% lifesp…

In the mouse study, both groups were on calorie-restriction. The difference was whether they fasted or not. "fasted is NEGATIVELY health" is right.

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#36

Post by HuShifang »

colinb wrote: post #29
taylodl wrote: post #13

My doctor recommended I begin intermittent fasting - no breakfast, light lunch, normal dinner; 8 hour "eating window" per day. I've been at it for about 18 months now. About 8 months ago I started really watching how much sugar and highly processed carbs I eat (not a keto diet, just not going crazy with pasta and sweets). I've lost 50 pounds and no longer have to take my hypertension medication. If this were the olde…

I hope you don't mind my asking, how hard was it to skip breakfast? I feel like I'd miss it, but maybe a new morning ritual can take its place...

Not the parent commenter, but as someone who skips breakfast, it's actually not that difficult, particularly if you drink coffee (which IIRC has recognized appetite-suppressing properties). Just drink it black, and be sure to drink water as well. (Tea might be an option too, but especially in black teas, the tannins in it may make your stomach queasy absent some milk or carbohydrates -- which would defeat the purpose of skipping breakfast.)

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#37

Post by pengaru »

Engineering-MD wrote: post #33
bityard wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human body's energy management system is incredibly complicated and rife with subtleties. To the point that the whole "calories in == calories out" meme, while not factually untrue by the standard of Newtonian physics, is just about as useful as saying that gravity is the cause of all airplane crashes.

Yet people seem to forget about that with diets and that is why it’s useful to remind people in some cases. Your diet doesn’t matter if in the end you consume more calories than expended- you will gain weight. I see it more as a first test of reasonability of a diet, a law of weight loss if you will.

> Your diet doesn’t matter if in the end you consume more calories than expended- you will gain weight.

This isn't true though, it's not the amount of calories you consume but the amount of calories your body actually accesses out of those consumed.

If most of the calories you consume simply pass through or get consumed by the parasites living in your large intestine, calories consumed can exceed calories expended by you while still losing weight.

The researcher who discovered the general role a pancreas plays in weight gain back in the 1800s had dogs living normal lives after removing their pancreases. Except no matter how much food they consumed, they continuously lost weight, and eventually died as if they'd starved to death. He discovered their urine was sweet after seeing flies were more attracted to their urine than the normal; without pancreas-created insulin the fat cells wouldn't store the energy, it was leaving the system in the urine.

This illustrates the role hormones play in energy storage/release. Everyone's hormone levels are different, and how they respond to different foods varies, it's all very subjective, sex, and age-dependent. So even within those calories accessed via the GI tract, there's hormonal variability in what gets stored vs. used vs. excreted.

Calories consumed only sets an upper bound; if you consume less calories than expended, you will lose weight. It's not a symmetric relationship like your statement assumes.

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#38

Post by kibwen »

taylodl wrote: post #13

My doctor recommended I begin intermittent fasting - no breakfast, light lunch, normal dinner; 8 hour "eating window" per day. I've been at it for about 18 months now. About 8 months ago I started really watching how much sugar and highly processed carbs I eat (not a keto diet, just not going crazy with pasta and sweets). I've lost 50 pounds and no longer have to take my hypertension medication. If this were the olde…

> About 8 months ago I started really watching how much sugar and highly processed carbs I eat (not a keto diet, just not going crazy with pasta and sweets).

I would assume that this is the biggest contributor. Being consciously mindful of what you eat and how much you eat is extremely effective. But I say this for the benefit of others, and not to diminish your own efforts; if a regimen is working for you, then don't worry about analyzing and just keep at it! :)

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#39

Post by aresant »

colinb wrote: post #29
taylodl wrote: post #13

My doctor recommended I begin intermittent fasting - no breakfast, light lunch, normal dinner; 8 hour "eating window" per day. I've been at it for about 18 months now. About 8 months ago I started really watching how much sugar and highly processed carbs I eat (not a keto diet, just not going crazy with pasta and sweets). I've lost 50 pounds and no longer have to take my hypertension medication. If this were the olde…

I hope you don't mind my asking, how hard was it to skip breakfast? I feel like I'd miss it, but maybe a new morning ritual can take its place...

I've been doing for years and it took about a month

- Wake up 6 - 6:15am - Espresso shot around 8am - Regular sized but healthy meal at 11:30am with a small pastry walk 12:30pm - Regular sized but healthy meal at 5:30pm - Little dessert 7pm - Sleep at ~11 - 11:30pm

Highly recommend, as OP have had essentially nothing but positives including preliminary weight loss, easy weight management, higher energy, etc

Re: Does “skipping meals make you live longer”?

#40

Post by motohagiography »

It's hard to reconcile this with personal anecdata, although it probably works because of behavioural side effects and not because of direct metabolic ones. I dropped 35lbs in 6 months using IF/OMAD, but I could easily attribute the ~6 lbs/mo weight loss to just applying any discipline at all to eating habits. It's a bit of a magic feather. I compare IF to religious people tithing a percentage of their income, where that exercise itself creates a habit of fiscal discipline that has a higher overall returns as a near term strategy than simply relying on ones already failed discipline for budgeting or saving would. It's like it's subject to the trade off of knowing results, truth, causality, pick two.
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