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Fasting Affects the Brain

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Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#81

Post by coldtea »

mcfunk wrote: post #64
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh. the articles argument appears to be that even though nutritionists, physicists, and dieters all agree that eating fewer calories than you expend causes weight loss, it isn't easy for a variety of factors. No shit. The thing is, it is the simplest expression of what needs to happen, and there is no getting around it. I was once well north of the weight of the subject in the article and have since shed about half o…

There's also good evidence that people don't maintain that weight loss over time despite maintaining their lower calorie consumption. Because base metabolic rate is something that the body can adjust, just like if you had less money to pay for heat, you could just put less heat into the house. The role of hormones (especially insulin) in regulating fat storage and whether stored fat is available to the body as energy…

>There's also good evidence that people don't maintain that weight loss over time despite maintaining their lower calorie consumption. Because base metabolic rate is something that the body can adjust, just like if you had less money to pay for heat, you could just put less heat into the house.

Well, it's not just some fixed calorie amount they need to take for an eternity. It's the amount that corresponds to their current weight and muscle mass. As those change over time (and their base metabolic rate changes), they should change their calorie target too.

>Also "it's nice to believe you don't have to suffer to reach your goals" is a silly and moralistic thing to say. But it typifies the american "scientific understanding" of weight loss. Fat is immoral, suffering is virtue, therefore in order to lose your immoral fat you must suffer.

Actually the 'silver bullet' is more typical of the american "understanding" of weight loss.

There's no silver bullet. No pain, no (weight) loss.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#82

Post by pieter_mj »

ravenstine wrote: post #34

I sometimes intermittently fast for 24 hour periods, but recently I've switched to skipping breakfast, which effectively works out to be a 17 hour fast for me if I eat dinner at 6pm and have lunch at 12pm. Everyone says it's the most important meal of the day, but I haven't found convincing evidence of this(especially that which isn't sponsored by grain and sugar producers), and not having a huge insulin spike at the…

You just need to get a decent intermittent fasting period, whether you achieve that by skipping breakfast or other means doesn't matter much I guess.

Insulin sensitivity is highest in the morning though and decreases throughout the day.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#83

Post by new2626 »

ergothus wrote: post #72
new2626 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm hardly immune to hunger. I wish Why would you wish such a thing? Being hungry and then eating is one of the nicest things in life.

> Why would you wish such a thing? Being hungry and then eating is one of the nicest things in life. "hunger is the best sauce" - yes, I agree. Several years ago, I even made a similar comment to yours when I discovered a coworker disliked eating. But that was 50 pounds ago and I was overweight then. Now I find that a lot of pleasures of the world are less pleasurable because I'm fat. Eating less (and appropriately,…

Thanks for the response! Still, I wonder what we as society get so wrong. People used to eat whatever they wanted (and was available) whenever they wanted and not be fat. I recently watched the original woodstock 69 footage. There are zero fat people there. For all I know it may have nothing to do with eating.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#84

Post by ravenstine »

leesec wrote: post #75
ravenstine wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This symptom I do not share, however. Yeah, it's funny because I eat plenty of eggs and fat, which have constituents used by the body to produce hormones like testosterone. If anything, I'd expect the opposite effect but I haven't read any literature on the effects it can have on libido, so I'm not sure what's typical.

Are you a skinny person? I've read people under a certain body% fat can have lower sex drive as the body is signaling to them that they do not have enough nutrients to spare/procreate. Could be made up but sounds like a plausible theory to me.

People describe me as "skinny" or "slender", but I've got a fair amount of muscle and still some fat left over from when I was overweight.(I dropped over 60 lbs from 2013 to 2015 and have stayed at around 160 lbs) But I don't have calipers and haven't measured my body fat percentage, so I guess that'd be a good thing to figure out.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#85

Post by graeme »

magnamerc wrote: post #29
istjohn wrote: post #9

I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…

If you want to ace your LSAT, you're better off getting a good nights sleep and writing the exam fasted. Sleep is way more important than anything else when it comes to memory recall. Also, you should study with a particular type of perfume, and then write the exam with that same perfume. That'll also help memory recall. Breakfast is probably the worst meal of the day, in terms of metabolic health, which is why I hav…

I agree, except It would recommend people fast regularly before test day so the body is adapted.

I teach the LSAT and I'm astonished how some people try to do it while sleep deprived. In their regular studying too.

(Day before test nerves can impede that night's sleep, which is really unfortunate)

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#86

Post by la_barba »

coldtea wrote: post #15
mcfunk wrote: post #8

Interesting that this is "news" when the medical understanding of fasting and ketosis is pretty far along. Highly recommend the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung. When you think about it, while the "naturalness" argument is always suspect, it's very odd that humans eat as often as we do in the US, and unsurprising that negative health consequences follow (and positive health consequences follow f…

> Highly recommend the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung. Such books and doctors, promoting this or that diet, heavily cherry-pick from research papers, they don't reflect the scientific consensus on the matter.

As far as dieting goes what would a scientific consensus look like? FWICT, it looks like our metabolism differs enough from person to person, to allow for various diets to work.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#87

Post by jrs235 »

ravenstine wrote: post #63
UpperBodyEimi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was an advertising slogan for Kellogg's.

The saddest part of that is that I heard that phrase not through overt advertising but from school . I remember a handful of occasions in elementary school where they had someone come in and teach kids about nutrition, and the one lady told us that breakfast is the most important meal because we need to start off our day with "lots of energy". These lessons included the food pyramid, which is bad science to start wit…

>told us that breakfast is the most important meal because we need to start off our day with "lots of energy"

No wonder elementary kids can't sit still then and are diagnosed with hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)!

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#88

Post by agumonkey »

I found that skipping hunger (not real nutritional needs, the need to satisfy a moment through eating) made me a little hyperactive and in a way if I divert this slightly manic like rush, I can do things in deep, not in flow but almost.

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#89

Post by simonebrunozzi »

ravenstine wrote: post #34

I sometimes intermittently fast for 24 hour periods, but recently I've switched to skipping breakfast, which effectively works out to be a 17 hour fast for me if I eat dinner at 6pm and have lunch at 12pm. Everyone says it's the most important meal of the day, but I haven't found convincing evidence of this(especially that which isn't sponsored by grain and sugar producers), and not having a huge insulin spike at the…

> The only negative effect I'm having is that my sex drive has plummeted to near-zero.

Wondering why this happens. Any idea?

Re: Fasting Affects the Brain

#90

Post by mcfunk »

coldtea wrote: post #81
mcfunk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also good evidence that people don't maintain that weight loss over time despite maintaining their lower calorie consumption. Because base metabolic rate is something that the body can adjust, just like if you had less money to pay for heat, you could just put less heat into the house. The role of hormones (especially insulin) in regulating fat storage and whether stored fat is available to the body as energy…

> There's also good evidence that people don't maintain that weight loss over time despite maintaining their lower calorie consumption. Because base metabolic rate is something that the body can adjust, just like if you had less money to pay for heat, you could just put less heat into the house. Well, it's not just some fixed calorie amount they need to take for an eternity. It's the amount that corresponds to their…

LOL ok, so "eat a diet and time your eating in a way that promotes healthy hormone balance and use of fat as energy" is a silver bullet but "use our magic equations based on state of the art info from 1958 to calculate your daily food needs and all your food and exercise as numbers and if your equation balances you'll lose weight" isn't. Sure.
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