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Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

bbc.co.uk

51–60 of 151 posts

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#52

A lot of the diets mentioned on this thread are a long way from the diet used in this article. Note it is not mentioned in the article, however it is mostly vegetables with some fish. That is a long way from 'chipotle'!!! It is worth bearing in mind that a lot of things we consider to be food really does not want to be food. Grains want to be carried away by the wind to plant themselves somewhere else. Their ancestor…

> It is worth bearing in mind that a lot of things we consider to be food really does not want to be food.

What they want is irrelevant. As they evolved to avoid being eaten, so we evolved to be able to obtains, eat and digest it. It's not a one-sided process of providing us with a ready made menu.

> At this stage the cult of eating dead animals was borne

Why do you assume we did not eat animals "in the trees"? Is there any evidence to support that? Chimps eat meat on occasion, for example, and when they do the pack literally tears the victim apart.

And describing it as a "cult" is ridiculous. It became important because it is an immense source of nutrients, and available in many places where surviving on available plants/fruits was near impossible prior to the development of extensive trade. The ability to eat and digest meat provided us with yet another evolutionary advantage over many other animals.

> We (as in primates) only pick the ripe fruit, the stuff that is still green is identifiably no good to us

There's plenty of fruit that's green when it is ripe, and plenty that is a different colour than green for a long time before it is ripe.

> we still have hands for nabbling fruit rather than vicious claws to rip apart stray wildebeest

Which have proved superior in providing means for killing animals? Our hands can hold and wield weapons. Which approach to eating meat is better: Tearing apart raw meat, or cooking it? You seem to assume that we are not well adapted to handling our new menu entries and/or that these features somehow means we're better adapted to fruit just because we haven't taken on the characteristics of animals that are terribly limited in their abilities.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#53
Been doing IF every day since July 1, 2013. Before that I was eating slow-carb diet and had lost about 50lbs.

When I started doing IF, I was lifting pretty heavy and after the first week I had gained weight. I was pissed because I was hungry all the time it seemed, but I gained weight this week? Huh? Well, fast forward to now, and I put about 20 pounds since July 1, and yet I am not fatter. I am muscular. It's weird, and yes I was lifting, but fasting helped my body get from that chubby kid phase to, 'oh wow, I think I am almost ripped'. There are definitely some real benefits to fasting and no one will tell you that because they can't sell it to you in a pill.

Something really intriguing to me about fasting for 24hrs+ and then having to eat. For me, I crave healthy foods at that point and I also have the instinct to stuff my face and thus one meal/day works for that. It's tough to eat a bunch of crap when you are only eating once/day.

Finally, if you are interested in IF, I recommend reading up on Ori Hofmekler. He is the type of guy who's ideas are so crazy at first they are brushed off. Then science proves him right.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Warrior-Diet-Biological-Powerhouse...

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#54
post #38

I am really interested in intermittent fasting for the health benefits, having watched BBC's Horizon on it. The thing is I am fairly skinny, and struggle to put on weight. Does anyone know if I am likely to loose weight? And are there any good site to learn about it in a fairly scientific way? I see lots of blogs, but never sure how much is worth reading.

I have for a time put on weight during intermittent fasting (daily 16-19h fast) easily, simply by ingesting excess calories in the "feeding window" for days/weeks on end. If you need 2000 a day and eat 2500-3000 a day or more (averaged over a longer time span), fasting isn't going to reverse that fact. Sometimes it is as simple as calories-in-calories-out.. I did this on purpose to grow some muscle, but some of the "gains" in that approach will always be bodyfat.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#55
post #51

Here's the thing I don't like about fasting - how are you supposed to work out while you're fasting? I can't imagine going to the gym eating 500 calories a day without passing out.

Intermittent fasting does not imply anything about calorie amount on a daily basis. I do IF now and again, and what makes me take periods off is that I get absolutely sick and tired of food on IF because I always feel stuffed.

My calorie intake on exercise days on IF is about 2800kcal (as a 6'1 male with a current weight of 108kg/238lbs and a substantially above average muscle volume), which usually meant a lunch consisting of 1800+ calories of protein heavy food.

I'd usually exercise fasted (I do power lifting) apart from a low quantity of bcaa's, and have my first meal at noon.

But in fact, you adjust to going to the gym on low calorie diets too. Intensity may suffer, but it's certainly possible.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apex predators are hard to kill for humans (or other animals) and as they usually don't taste as good as slower, fatter animals.

What is taste other than a way to get us to eat things that are healthy for us? For example, I would think we like sweets because fruit are sweet, not because there is inherent value in things tasting sweet. > Apex predators are hard to kill for humans No longer true, and we still don't eat them a whole lot.

> What is taste other than a way to get us to eat things that are healthy for us? For example, I would think we like sweets because fruit are sweet, not because there is inherent value in things tasting sweet.

Your body likes sugar because there's lots of energy in sugar. Humans evolved to crave it.

> No longer true, and we still don't eat them a whole lot.

The ones that taste good, we do. Shark, whale, alligator for example.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#57
post #51

Here's the thing I don't like about fasting - how are you supposed to work out while you're fasting? I can't imagine going to the gym eating 500 calories a day without passing out.

A variation of intermittent fasting that is geared towards those that workout/weightlift is called leangains which you can learn about at leangains.com and r/leangains. I have been doing it for over 2 years and I lift fasted. You may feel light headed the first few times you do it (so go lighter on weights) but you get used to it. I do squats and deadlifts fasted no problem.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#58
post #42
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fulmato, you were hellbanned after your first comment saying "this is bs". Not a great comment, but hellbanning for a single comment is quite extreme. Posting your useful comment here: On top of /r/keto Dr. Peter Attia has a great blog on this topic http://eatingacademy.com/ It's a great resource for a more scientific explanation of what happens to the metabolism when keto-adapted and on the effects of carbohydrates…

People like Attia live in a parallel universe where there are healthy populations on Earth that eat no carbs and East Asia doesn't exist. My Japanese is good enough now to explain to my wife's active octogenarian grandparents why rice is going to give them heart disease and diabetes. In all seriousness, the world of online nutrition is a nasty and insane place. There's a lot of dogma and cognitive dissonance in somet…

There's a lot of scientific evidence supporting a ketogenic lifestyle, distinguishing this movement from fad diets and Attia from a Guru status. If you're interested I would recommend the following book: http://amzn.com/0983490708

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#59
post #14
post #13

This sounds awfully like regular crash dieting.

"Crash dieting", as commonly practiced, is to eat less until your weight goals have been reached, and then go back to "normal". IF is hardly that; instead, it's a controlled pattern of regularly , and for specific durations , reducing your caloric intake. Some IF practitioners use a 6:1 cycle, where they have one fast day a week, some 5:2, and yet others 25:5, as in TFA. Some just take a random fast day whenever they…

And some just reduce the window of food intake within the day. E.g. leangains is 16 hours fasted, 8 hours or less eating window.

> IF is much less about weight than it is the other, generally scientifically demonstrated benefits of reduced caloric intake

That depends on the type of IF. Again Leangains is not specifically about calorie reduction, but about obtaining some of the benefit of being in a fasted state part of the day coupled with avoiding adding body fat, which for many who uses Leangains still means consciously adding weight.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#60
post #51

Here's the thing I don't like about fasting - how are you supposed to work out while you're fasting? I can't imagine going to the gym eating 500 calories a day without passing out.

I started a Lean Gains style fasting approach in Oct 2012. My version has me stop eating by 8PM and not eat again for about 15 to 18 hours. I work out right before the end of my fast. I lift weights 3 days a week and run 2 days a week. These are vigorous workouts lasting 35 to 50 minutes.

My body has adapted! Initially I couldn't lift as much nor run quite as quickly while working out on empty, but the fat melted off nicely at about a pound a week for the first 6 months. My weight then stabilized for about 3 months.

In the last few months I have been trying a very slow bulk while still keeping to the schedule. Trying to eat above maintenance level and add muscle. It seems to be working I have put back on about 7 pounds and I estimate that about 4 of those are muscle. And, my personal bests in weight lifting have just recently been matched.

I have to say that overall I am very pleased with the results of this style of intermittent fasting and the ability to keep working out.

Having said all that, I am thinking that this year I would like to experiment with some longer fasts of 24 to 36 hours. I anticipate that I will need to significantly reduce the intensity of my workout during that kind of fast.

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