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Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

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Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hunger, like cold exposure, is an uncomfortable but transient signal. In many cases it peaks and subsides without requiring immediate action, especially once the body adapts. Anecdotally, my first 72-hour fast was revealing. Around the 48-hour mark my body aggressively signaled hunger, esp. for sugary foods. By the third day, however, hunger largely subsided, and at break I wasn’t hungry at all. For the following wee…

I have similar findings. I fast regularly and take cold showers. Another thing is one meal days are far easier after you do it couple of times. You don’t even think about food which is harder if you have two to three meals per day. Edit: for those wanting to try this lifestyle, everybody is different. do your own research before jumping into regular fasting or even cold showers. Max time without food I did was 6 days…

I cannot work when I don't eat, I'm unable to think properly. I'm not sure how people manage fasting

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with chronic cold exposure is that it makes one very hungry, a lot hungrier than usual, with the compensatory calorie consumption risking negating the intended benefit.

Hunger, like cold exposure, is an uncomfortable but transient signal. In many cases it peaks and subsides without requiring immediate action, especially once the body adapts. Anecdotally, my first 72-hour fast was revealing. Around the 48-hour mark my body aggressively signaled hunger, esp. for sugary foods. By the third day, however, hunger largely subsided, and at break I wasn’t hungry at all. For the following wee…

After about 24 hours I don't notice anymore. I just finished a 2 week fast on only water, tea and supplements. I hardly notice when I focus on something else (work/hobby). When I stop focusing I get sleepy instead of hungry. Cold I have not managed; I come from a cold country and I really really hate any type of cold; I like 30C+ high humidity as a baseline, under that, I am cold and uncomfortable. I did try to view them the same and tried to meditate through it, but, unlike fasting, I cannot ignore the continues suffering that is cold while fasting is almost pleasant (makes me sharper).

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Another thing is one meal days are far easier after you do it couple of times. It's mind-boggling to me that multiple "one meal" days don't incidentally happen to everyone over the course of a year. I would think most people have those days where they skip breakfast and lunch due to some or other exigency and only get to eat dinner.

I only eat breakfast intentionally, as I am not really hungry in the mornings. But as I understand it, it's better to get your calories earlier in the day than late, so I make myself eat in the morning.

When calory restricting I do this too: I am actually never hungry before 11 am while I get up at 5 am always but I force myself (at 8) and don't need anything else the rest of the day because of it.

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar findings. I fast regularly and take cold showers. Another thing is one meal days are far easier after you do it couple of times. You don’t even think about food which is harder if you have two to three meals per day. Edit: for those wanting to try this lifestyle, everybody is different. do your own research before jumping into regular fasting or even cold showers. Max time without food I did was 6 days…

I cannot work when I don't eat, I'm unable to think properly. I'm not sure how people manage fasting

If you can handle the body's switchover to ketosis, the rest of the fast is relatively easy.

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#35
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot work when I don't eat, I'm unable to think properly. I'm not sure how people manage fasting

If you can handle the body's switchover to ketosis, the rest of the fast is relatively easy.

I did that before, my breath becomes horrible when that happens, but it's way more manageable. Is there a way to activate ketosis before starting the fasting? That seems like it could solve my problem

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#36
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can handle the body's switchover to ketosis, the rest of the fast is relatively easy.

I did that before, my breath becomes horrible when that happens, but it's way more manageable. Is there a way to activate ketosis before starting the fasting? That seems like it could solve my problem

Ketosis is your body using fat as an energy source when glucose isn't readily available. So if you deprive yourself of dietary glucose (carbs, simple sugars, etc), but keep eating fat and protein, you'll enter ketosis while eating as much sustenance as you want. Use ketone strips to tell when it happens.

The breath thing is unavoidable as far as I know.

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar findings. I fast regularly and take cold showers. Another thing is one meal days are far easier after you do it couple of times. You don’t even think about food which is harder if you have two to three meals per day. Edit: for those wanting to try this lifestyle, everybody is different. do your own research before jumping into regular fasting or even cold showers. Max time without food I did was 6 days…

> Another thing is one meal days are far easier after you do it couple of times. It's mind-boggling to me that multiple "one meal" days don't incidentally happen to everyone over the course of a year. I would think most people have those days where they skip breakfast and lunch due to some or other exigency and only get to eat dinner.

You scare me. After life dishing out one of its lessens, I decided to get some fundamentals in order, and for me that includes 3 meals a day, with the family. Things have to get really disastrous to not get breakfast, and I don't think my kid skipped breakfast ever. Each his own, of course, but I wonder what happens in your life that this is semi normal?

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#38
post #3

This is fascinating and sounds really promising. However, this article also seems to imply that frequent cold exposure that converts your own white fat cells into beige fat cells could be effective at both treating and preventing cancer. They state without explanation that cold therapy cannot be done by cancer patients, but I don’t see why not. I take an ice bath every morning as it helps with my mental health, and i…

How do you create/store the ice?

Hold one sec while I vibecode an ice recipe SaaS website, only charging $10/mo for all the ice recipes you can handle!

Re: Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer

#40

For the curious among us, here are articles related to cold exposure in mice and cancer [1, 2, 3]. I briefly skimmed it but seems like a somewhat plausible idea in the realm of: if it doesn’t hurt you, it can perhaps benefit you. Also, I think in some cases you can pair it with the Wim Hof Method to make short extreme cold exposure more bearable. I don’t know what the interaction is with norepinephrine though as doin…

Why would someone do this to themselves? Such a trip doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. Wouldn’t long term sauna have similar effects and be way less straining on the cardiovascular system?
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