Fasting Improves Physiological and Molecular Markers of Aging (2019)

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1550-4131%2819%2930429-2

by Tomte • 5 years ago

131 112 5 years ago

echelon2• 5 years ago

Mechanistically, one could hypothesize "of course".

Cellular respiration and its various reactions take in highly oxidative oxygen and turn it into ATP. The more we run this engine, the more work it does.

Active pathways have some probability of breaking, especially those that generate reactive molecular species. Higher probability of eventual disease state. DNA damage, intracellular buildup, etc.

The more you drive a car, the more wear and tear it receives. Over time, all of those explosions in the combustion chamber will do damage. So too, our cellular physiology and molecular biology.

alecst3• 5 years ago

By that reasoning exercise should age us faster.

echelon2• 5 years ago

In some ways it does!

Exercise increases the presence of reactive species, which can negatively impact DNA and other molecules [1, 2].

We know exercise to be mostly beneficial, but you can't discount that it does damage too. It's just that the benefits exceedingly outweigh the downsides.

Your body is going to die no matter what. Everything you do involves chemistry, and eventually entropy will win over your body's attempts to minimize it. There are behaviors that will optimize for longevity and health, though.

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2016.0024...

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327321/

nabla9• 5 years ago

Exercise is big but limited time oxidative stressor. Body's response to it generates benefits.

Antioxidants, like taking vitamin C supplements with exercise are shown to reduce some benefits of exercise.

xcambar• 5 years ago

I used to skip lunch for years and it always felt great. I like to see studies on fasting but I have to ask: how do you deal with the hunger when fasting with 24h? How does that affect your mood?

alecst3• 5 years ago

Everyone’s different, but I can go a while without food and not have it bother me. It’s not uncommon to go a day without it and not really notice. I hear people talking about getting “hangry” but I don’t personally relate to the that feeling at all. I don’t even know what that’s like, or how common it is to feel that way. If anything, I just get tired.

sul_tasto• 5 years ago

I wonder if feeling hangry is correlated with blood sugar level crashes when eating carb-heavy meals.

chousuke• 5 years ago

I've noticed that I get worse hunger if I eat more often, especially if I just eat bread to postpone the hunger. For some reason, the hunger I feel when on a lower-carb diet is much less pressing, and can be easily ignored for quite a while.

Carbs are also addictive to me: I sometimes notice that I want to eat even when I know I'm not hungry, so I have to make sure I don't make snacks too available.

Most days, I just eat once because it's an easy rule to stick to. I might have a snack if I've taxed my brain and feel like I need the extra fuel, but usually one meal is plenty.

JohnWhigham• 5 years ago

Ideally you need an electrolyte mixture after the first day e.g. potassium/magnesium/sodium or else you start to feel like shit.

chasil• 5 years ago

I fast for 36 hours every week, from Sunday evening until Tuesday morning.

To admit it, sometimes I'm overly tempted and I don't make it.

It has kept my A1C levels very low. My normal blood sugar is in the 120-140 range, but always below 100 on Tuesdays.

I have read elsewhere that fasting can pull A1C down by .5 easily, and that it also triggers a cellular process called "autophagy" that is very helpful.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

I was worried about this too, but I’ve been alternate day fasting ADF (eat dinner at the normal time, go to bed and don’t eat the entire day, eat normally the following day) for two weeks now (and down nearly 6 lbs so far to 215lbs), and it hasn’t actually been a problem. I get a bit hungry by the end of the day, and sometimes I’ll have a protein shake to tide me over.

But mostly I’m just looking forward to my meals the next day. And by the next morning I’ve started to become indifferent to food. I’ll have breakfast, but I don’t feel deprived, food seeking or anything.

Also studies on ADF actually allow participants to eat 25% of their daily calories (or up to 500 Cal) and still be on diet. I’ve taken advantage of this once and had a single McD cheeseburger for dinner. So it was nice having the option as backup if I got really hungry.

can16358p2• 5 years ago

It makes me great if I don't feel eat anything until the evening. I am much more energized, less sleepy, and productive. If I eat through the day, especially if I do breakfast, I feel tired, sleepy, and hard to focus on anything good. Thus, I've never understood the classic "breakfast is important" argument that old ones day, as it has always been the opposite for me.

I sometimes fast 24h and it feels awesome, I literally feel that I'm much more healthier both physically and mentally.

least• 5 years ago

The sleepiness you feel is probably your body's response to large intake of carbohydrates and the subsequent spike in insulin. Increasing the amount of protein and fiber in your meals will decrease this feeling, as will exercising after your meal.

Breakfast is important if you are going to be physically active during the day since it provides the fuel to sustain it. The reason it's become less important is because many of us are extremely sedentary.

blastro3• 5 years ago

IME - hunger and mood start to separate. Hunger fades away into a shadow of its former self. There is less energy to be joyous in a fasted state, but there is also less energy to be upset. I find a certain bliss in that.

theNJR• 5 years ago

I really urge people to do a multi-day fast a few times a year. I wrote a little guide about it that I shared previously [1].

You can wonder about these longterm positive effects, but it's sort of a Pascals wager. You lose absolutely nothing and it could have significant upside. Worst case, it makes you confront your relationship to food and offers a great mental challenge.

One cool thing that you learn is that there is a maximum hungry you get. It doesn't ever go past that point (and you've felt it before without fasting). Even better, it ebbs and flows. You won't be in a state of "OMG I am starving!!" all day long. It hits at normal eating times, and then retreats to the background.

Anyway, just try it.

[1]https://www.nicholasjrobinson.com/blog/general/five-day-fast...

solarmist18• 5 years ago

The more studies pile up, the less it seems to matter the length of a given fast, but more the total time spent in a fasting state relative to a fed state.

So as a taster, you can do multiple 24-hour fasts and get the same experience from a health point of view (everything else is different, though).

That said, at some point, I’m interested in trying a multiple-day fast myself but haven’t taken the plunge yet.

tejohnso• 5 years ago

The more studies pile up, the less it seems to matter the length of a given fast, but more the total time spent in a fasting state relative to a fed state.

Yes, I've noticed this as well. Personally I fast for 17 hours every day and I've noticed I feel the benefits without negative consequences. Once in a while I'll go for a 3 day fast but aside from the personal challenge accomplishment I don't notice a major gain. My experience is all very non scientific. For the more rigorous science, I usually look to Peter Attia[1]

[1] https://peterattiamd.com/

srik• 5 years ago

you can do multiple 24-hour fasts and get the same experience from a health point of view

NO, that's incorrect. The length matters a lot. In fact, a major change occurs after the 2-3 day mark, when body glycogen stores are depleted and your body shifts to ketosis etc. Another major marker has to do with when a much coveted state called autophagy is activated.

anonu• 5 years ago

I find that physically you are fine when you do this: you can walk around, do house work, etc... but mentally you are shot.

I would love to try this - but certainly dont have 5 consecutive days where I can be a mental vegetable.

The brain needs constant fuel. Anyone experience this as well?

pmulard• 5 years ago

I found my experience to be the opposite. I had clear mental focus, but felt physically drained of energy the entire time. I did a 3.5 day water fast, with the majority of my fluids from water/tea with salt for electrolytes.

My sleep was pretty terrible up until the last night, when I got a solid 8 hours without waking up once. I usually wake up 8-10 times a night, so this was a huge breakthrough. I also regained my energy on that last half day and felt incredible.

What type of fasting did you do, and what liquids did you drink?

arcticbull4• 5 years ago

I generally find myself sharper, more alert and with much more energy. This continues the longer your fast lasts, up until day 7ish in my case.

Your noradrenaline levels spike when fasting, and it can make it hard to sleep - too juiced haha.

If you're finding yourself tired, it could be a lack of electrolytes. Try a teaspoon of salt in a pint of water. I tend to drink coffee when water fasting, which has an outsize effect.

mcculley• 5 years ago

(Consider using “I” instead of “you”.)

I have found that once I become fat adapted, I no longer suffer from mental clarity problems. It takes a couple of days without carbs to get there for me.

mrfusion2• 5 years ago

Naps help. Plan your day around one or even two naps.

Also watch your electrolytes. Salt, potassium and magnesium can greatly affect energy levels.

rhinoceraptor3• 5 years ago

The brain needs constant fuel. Anyone experience this as well?

That is true, however that fuel does not need to be glucose. As far as I understand it, people eating 3 meals a day and snacks (all containing carbohydrates), their body is not used to relying solely on fat/ketones for energy, and it takes time to adjust.

Also, it's very important when fasting to ensure you're replacing water and electrolytes since once you've burned through your stored glycogen you will have lost quite a bit of water. If you're feeling light headed or out of it, that is one of the causes, whether you're starting a ketogenic diet or fasting.

When I'm fasting I use an electrolyte mix which has sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. One of the main reasons for refeeding syndrome is that electrolytes are depleted, and when someone eats again, their cells take up what little electrolytes are left in the blood, which leads to dangerously low levels.

dlnovell• 5 years ago

I did a weekly "don't eat anything on Sunday and don't eat until Monday lunch" for about a year. Sunday afternoon/evening I'd be kinda groggy and grumpy. I'd wake up on Monday morning completely locked in - it felt like a high dose of adderol without ANY of the side effects. I'd get 2 days worth of work done in a morning. I'd always be bummed Monday afternoon because as soon as I ate the focus went away.

blastro3• 5 years ago

In my experience, it seems the brain gets addicted to having a constant flow of glucose streaming into it (it's the most expensive organ to run, calorically) and it gets to think a lot more when it has its fuel. This isn't necessarily healthy, especially if left unchecked for a long period of time. Part of the benefit I believe I've gotten from fasting is re-training my brain to work well in a variety of glucose levels (including very low).

These days, I can feel my body switch modes when I enter a low-glucose state. It's a certain type of relaxation that feels like my brain just stops running certain programs. For example, it can't afford to hold on to dramatic, powerful emotions in that low-fuel state, and so it stops running its "replay enraging memories" program, so to speak.

You're correct that the brain needs constant fuel, but we have an unbelievable source of fuel in our bodies called fat. Increasing the metabolism's flexibility, such that it can gracefully tap into that massive fuel source, has had a noticeable impact on my mental and physical health.

IME, it's more like a hump you have to get over, for what that's worth.

forgotmypw17• 5 years ago

It takes about a day for me to break through this.

I do prefer resting physically when fasting, but the mental clarity is unparallelled after 24 hours.

onlyrealcuzzo3• 5 years ago

Wait. Why is it possible fasting has upsides, but it is not possible it has downsides?

arcticbull4• 5 years ago

You could ask the same question about eating 3-4 meals per day.

This is a relatively new phenomenon for humans - starting in the 1700s. Feast/famine is how we used to live. The Romans ate one meal a day and frowned upon breakfast, for instance - their default was what we would now consider OMAD fasting. [1]

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20243692

Diederich3• 5 years ago

From an evolutionary perspective, our bodies were designed for fasting. They were NOT designed for 7-8 decades of plenty.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

Of course, it has downsides—the length of the fast matters a LOT. Too long, and it’s starvation which has considerable downsides as I’m sure you’re already aware.

The biggest takeaway that I’ve gotten recently is that our bodies are literally designed to take fasting into account. Specifically, our vascular system is terrible at doing cleanup and nutrient delivery at the same time. So it needs ample time to do both.

_game_of_life3• 5 years ago

I like to fast for a couple days, simply because I find it helps a lot with mental clarity. However, I think you make a good point.

Fasting absolutely can have downsides. The link in the comment you are replying to, for example, recommends a five day fast which is a lot longer than I've ever seen recommended.

The first obvious downside is that people with health conditions like diabetes, underweight, immunocompromised, etc. need to consult a doctor first. They would probably call a 5 day fast with zero intake of food or electrolytes needlessly reckless with little evidence to support it over a shorter fast.

Medical studies also tend to be of poor quality and don't stand up to meta-analysis by organizations like Cochrane. For example:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD...

https://www.cochrane.org/CD013496/VASC_does-limiting-times-y...

The Mayo clinic also argues theres not enough high quality evidence even on intermittent fasting at this point to recommend for or against it in weight loss (where you think it would be of obvious benefit):

https://healthletter.mayoclinic.com/issues/july-2020/is-inte...

Speculating on in-vitro effects and microbiological mechanisms scaling to result in things like cancer prevention or life extension seems like a fools errand.

People saying "oh but it's natural" are also making a naturalistic fallacy. It was also "natural" for much of human history to be infested with parasites and ravaged by disease. Natural is not necessarily good.

kingcharles• 5 years ago

The biggest downside is that I don't get to eat delicious cakes for hours or days.

commandlinefan• 5 years ago

but it is not possible it has downsides

I remember reading somewhere that anorexia used to be more common in highly religious communities where ritual fasting was encouraged: the devout would fast so long that they would find themselves unable to eat again when the fast was over. If you go too long without eating, you can actually lose the ability to do so. I don't suppose that can happen after just a two-day fast, but it does seem like a "possible" downside to me.

Graziano_M2• 5 years ago

I used to do 16/8 or 18/6 and it's pretty easy. I still usually don't eat breakfast because it makes it easy to get > 12 hours fasted.

A few months ago, though, I started doing a 24 hour fast every week. It takes some planning but it's surprisingly easy. I'm damn hungry by the end, but it's never been an issue. I'll even work out and lift heavy 22+ hours into the fast without a noticeable decline in strength. I have no plan to stop doing this.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

I'm curious what planning you mean? I do it without planning and haven't had an issue.

Gregam3• 5 years ago

I love fasting and typically I have one meal and fast for 22 hours a day, but please be careful with multi day fasting.

I drink a lot of water and on two occasions on 60 hour fasts I passed out cold, falling to the ground and chipping one of my front teeth in the process, but it could have ended much worse.

I eventually figured out I was not consuming enough electrolytes relative to my water consumption, I still recommend long term fasts but please do more research than I did and be careful.

I have kept that chip in my tooth to this day to remind me my naivety and how lucky I was.

gcheong• 5 years ago

The study in the OP is specific to alternate day fasting though, which is generally much more tolerable than straight-up multi-day fasts, and can be done over a much longer term.

vagab0nd• 5 years ago

How do you overcome upset stomach? If I don't eat for half a day my stomach starts to hurt.

jniedrauer2• 5 years ago

When I see studies like this, I always wonder if you might get the exact same benefits and more by just going for a run. When I run for more than 90 minutes without taking in carbs, my body goes into a ketogenic state very similar to a multi-day fast. And exercise has additional benefits that simply fasting doesn't.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

Kinda, but only indirectly as I understand it. The more I read the more it seems to matter the time spent in a fasting state relative to a fed state.

So a run could work if you’re not overeating, but if you’re regularly overeating it wouldn’t work because you might use up your food, but then immediately resupply or have eaten too much prior to it and it takes hours to finish nutrient delivery.

Mostly though they’re complimentary processes neither directly involved with the other.

xriddle2• 5 years ago

The latest science in Rats says no. I don't have the exact article available but it's discussed at length in this podcast recently.

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/mark-mattson

runT1ME• 5 years ago

I don't have time (nor the endurance) for a 90 minute run, so could you combine the two? I often do a 14 hour fast and then go for a 20 minute run combined with some calisthenics on my lunchbreak before eating. How can you tell your body is in a ketogenic state?

I can definitely say the first few times I exerted a ton of energy after not eating for 12+ hours I felt like I had the flu for a few hours, but now I don't really get that.

lottin• 5 years ago

They sell test strips that supposedly detect ketone bodies in urine although I don't know if they're reliable.

antupis• 5 years ago

Personally my breath starts smelling like shit when I enter in ketogenic state.

pvarangot• 5 years ago

When I was reading more about this most of the anti-aging benefits of fasting where explained by your body going into autophagy. I don't think just depleting your glycogen has the same effect and I didn't find any other reliable way of going into autophagy that didn't involve not eating for 36 hours.

Also a 90 minute run can have other side effects on people that just don't have the body for it. Even being fit and in my mid 20s and running with proper gear and on dirt and sometimes with a coach I developed plantar fasciitis in my 30s, I can do 10/15 minute runs and can hike and sky but I wouldn't risk a 90 minute run.

andai2• 5 years ago

Spent a few months reading about this stuff back in 2019 and basically concluded you can get roughly the same benefits from intermittent fasting / time restricted eating, caloric restriction and keto.

Fasting for 24-48 hours however triggers autophagy, which is quite significant; I don't think (but don't know if) you would get that from your runs.

You're definitely right about the many benefits of exercise, though. This is one of my favorite articles, and it only covers the benefits to the brain:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurobiological_effects_of_phy...

It helps with working memory, depression, self esteem, ADHD, alzheimer's, drug addiction, and the list just goes on and on...

phonypc3• 5 years ago

When I run for more than 90 minutes without taking in carbs, my body goes into a ketogenic state very similar to a multi-day fast.

That seems rather implausible. Do you actually test your ketones in both conditions, or is this just some subjective assessment?

solarmist18• 5 years ago

I took this a subjective feeling of the experience, but I agree with you. It is almost literally impossible (some high level athletes can accomplish it, I believe, but not after 90 minutes) to actually enter a ketogenic state from exercise.

jniedrauer2• 5 years ago

That is the normal state of ultra endurance athletes during long runs[0]. A lot of training stimulus is fat adaptation. Coaches will tell you that you begin to exhaust your glycogen stores beyond the 90 minute mark, and I can tell you subjectively that the body switches over around then. I have done fasted runs up to 3 hours before. Runs of that duration are physically impossible without burning fat as fuel.

[0] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2019.17...

ar4420• 5 years ago

I'm a huge proponent of intermittent fasting. After being skeptical at first, I felt I had more energy and was being more mindful about the type of foods I ate. The mindfulness alone may have been the catalyst, but even so, I'll chalk that up as a win.

In case it helps anyone else, I signed up for the Intermittent Fasting guide at www.howtostartfasting.com for the accountability and guidance and thought that was definitely one of the reasons I was able to stick to it and see the benefits.

It's designed for folks who are shift workers and have a changing schedule, but obviously still works and is easier if you have a regular schedule.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

Same here. I’ve done both traditional calorie restriction with exercise and now alternate day fasting ADF. And I was extremely skeptical to begin with especially from an athletic point of view.

But now I’ll say ADF wins hands down for its simiplty and effectiveness. It’s 10% of the work/effort and 90% of the benefits.

xriddle2• 5 years ago

Recent podcast that goes in-depth on this subject:

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/mark-mattson

hourislate• 5 years ago

My experience with AF was different. After years of doing all kinds of Fasts (2-12 day, dry fasts, OMAD, 16-8 etc), I experimented with AF. For approximately 3-4 months I did AF with a 1800 Kcal refeed (1 meal). What I experienced was a lot of muscle loss and a messed up metabolism, always starving and feeling like complete shit. It took me about 8 months to fix.

What I surmised is that with AF you don't enter a true fasted state but a gray zone, so it's more like starvation than fasting where a multi day fast (48 hours or more) seems to get you into a state that is muscle sparing.

xutopia2• 5 years ago

What was the macronutrient breakdown of your meals? I heard evidence that if you reduce carbs you keep more muscle weight.

jobigoud2• 5 years ago

I did AF with a 1800 Kcal refeed

So 900 kcal/day, that's a hell of a deficit. Why not target a more reasonable average?

tibbar2• 5 years ago

A few years ago I realized that eating made me feel bad, or just took a long time to digest. So I started skipping breakfast. A year ago I cut out dinner too, so I just eat once a day - usually late afternoon, and usually a large meal, probably close to two normal meals. Overall I think it's a better lifestyle, but I do feel more tired than I used to.

chrisbrandow• 5 years ago

This was true for me, but not really until I turned ~45. Confounding factors do include some changes to my consistency with working out due to some feet issues I started experiencing, but I just felt "full" all the time as well as foggy. I do ~16-18 fasted most days and feel much clearer/better.

patall2• 5 years ago

People in the control group of this study start with an average BMI of 25.2, the ADF groups with 25.48. Common BMI ranges classify scores greater 25 as overweight. Are there any studies of effect of fasting on normal weight people? Anyone here with a BMI of 20 that has experiences to share?

tibbar2• 5 years ago

My BMI is 21.0 (6'3", 168lb), and I've done OMAD (one meal a day) intermittent fasting for about a year. Mostly I did it for digestion, which has improved significantly. I would say that it's also helped to control my weight, which would bump up about 10lb otherwise. Effects on energy/focus are mixed: there's less of a mid-day slump, but also I think overall energy levels have been somewhat lower.

leetrout• 5 years ago

Whats your waist to height ratio at that weight if you dont mind sharing.

I am 6'3 300lb and .61 W:H and want to get down to .5

patall2• 5 years ago

Thanks for the insight. Losing 10 lb sounds actually like a negative to me since I don't aspire to have a BMI of 18. But I would like to test it for the energy level. Well, maybe I should try it a few Saturdays.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

They’re starting to study the effect in normal BMI people. But the takeaway I’ve had is that it should have similar benefits as long as you avoid going into ketosis (which is admittedly more difficult the further below BMI 20 you are).

https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2...

aerodog• 5 years ago

Another ancient wisdom rediscovered in modernity

mrfusion2• 5 years ago

I’ve researched all over and no one seems to know. I think autophagy isn’t well understood yet:

Does black coffee during a fast break autophagy? Flavored seltzer, tea?

Are vitamins ok during a fast? Fish oil?

rhinoceraptor3• 5 years ago

I don't think autophagy is a binary state. It fluctuates over the day, and increases when fasting.

Many vitamins are fat soluble so taking them while fasting is pointless.

jobigoud2• 5 years ago

I think no one knows because the exact threshold is different from person to person. I've seen it suggested (in relation to 16:8 or 18:6) to do water only for a while and then test each stuff independently to see what triggers a hunger pang half an hour later.

amznbyebyebye• 5 years ago

Shhh why are they telling everyone about my secret weapon.

I am so sharp when I’m fasted.. easily become a force multiplier. Maybe a little more agro.

Also, I burn ~2000kcal without doing anything new? When a heavy workout burns what 500-1000 kcal.

I don’t need to sleep as much either. I wish I had learned more about the connection between my diet, biology, etc and my productivity when I was younger. And yes, I’ve started to look younger too.

Can’t wait to see the research evolve in this area.

ChrisArchitect• 5 years ago

Anything new here?

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812636

headelf• 5 years ago

It's funny to me that the article doesn't mention the word "muscle" anywhere. It seems a diet like this would reduce muscle mass, which may be a large contributor to the decline in body weight mentioned in the study.

xutopia2• 5 years ago

Lots of evidence shows that if you fast you lose fat before you lose muscle. One exception to this is if you have a low caloric intake mostly from carbohydrates. I am not a doctor but what I understood was that when you eat carbs it puts your body in a mode of storing it as fat but if you remove the carbs it tells the body to pull from fat stores.

Zababa5• 5 years ago

I am not a doctor but what I understood was that when you eat carbs it puts your body in a mode of storing it as fat but if you remove the carbs it tells the body to pull from fat stores.

Not a doctor too, but from what I've read it's due to insulin. Carbs usually raise insulin, proteins can raise it too.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

It's not that simple unfortunately. Basically, as I understand it, your body(liver) puts out a call for energy and whatever happens to pick up the signal first will respond. In the same way you can't spot reduce fat (can't choose where you want to lost fat from).

So this means, unfortunately, you will lose muscle while losing fat. Fortunately it is significantly more difficult to extract protein from muscle, so it responds much more slowly than fat.

The minimum seems to be about 40 g (~150 Cal) of protein per day (I don't remember where I got this number, sorry.), but can be as high as 10-30% of Calories supplied by the body.

There are a lot of things you can do to counter and minimize most this though. Working out to signal to your body the muscle mass is still in use and protein shakes (no fat, no carbs) are the most obvious.

rhinoceraptor3• 5 years ago

Without diving too deep into a naturalistic fallacy, it would be a terrible design if the body started tearing down its muscle immediately upon fasting, when it has months of energy in the form of body fat.

adamqureshi• 5 years ago

I have history of diabetes in my family ( south asian) I took the 23andME test and the report said i have a pre-disposition to diabetes at around age 50. I am 50 now. I have been working out running most of my life but started doin less miles and i packed on a few pounds maybe i was like 188-192 and i am 5' 11" About 2 years ago i was diagnosed with pre-diabetes the doctor said you need to get you A1-C down. I was like i have been working out all my life and now this! ok so i started looking into IF ( found some good videos by Dr Jason Fung) so i tried it and started not having breakfast ( I was eating a chocolate croissant from trader joes typically) i went black coffee. Giving up breakfast was damn hard after 6 months i got used to it so the next jump was giving up lunch i got hunger pangs and it was very very painful NOT to eat lunch but to my surprise i got used to NOT eating lunch and fast forward 2 years today i fast all day and my first meal is 5pm and usually a big salad and i feel fantastic all the hunger pangs are gone now i don't know how to explain it but water is sweeter and even black coffee taste sweet to me i am down to like 170 now and have an unusual mental clarity from NOT eating i know it sounds funny but i just do. Headaches go away. IF worked for me and i tell all my friends to at least try it and if you don't feel better than stop. SO I eat around 5pm and last meal and maybe a snack around 9pm. I don't eat after 9pm until the next day 5pm. Next goal is to try a 48 hour fast wish me luck. I feel f-in fantastic! -2cents.

solarmist18• 5 years ago

Water is sweeter.

This is something I've started noticing with IF too. Depending on where I am with my fast a glass of water can come across as very sweet, cloyingly. But not sweet like glucose/fructose (sugar). More like an impression of sweet or maybe like a diet soda.

I hate when it happens because I don't like the flavor at all and need to force myself to finish my water at that point. For some reason it usually happens at the end of the day for me. It's usually gone by morning.

And it can't be something in the water because I switched to reverse osmosis RO filtered water like a year ago because I'm quite sensitive to flavors in water.

blastro3• 5 years ago

Having a remote job was what initially helped me get over the breakfast and lunch humps you mention in this well written post. I'm not sure I would have gotten to my current IF stasis if not enabled by that. Thanks for taking the time to write this post.

arunix• 5 years ago

Are you on a particular type of diet, e.g. low-carb ?

mark_l_watson• 5 years ago

After trying partial fasting periodically for years, I hit in something earlier this year that works for me: eat only two periods each day, from 8am to 9am and from about 4pm to 5:30pm. This supposedly has two benefits: 1) by not eating for about five hours before going to bed I get much more deep sleep which starts soon after I fall asleep 2) avoids snacking between meals which is hard in the digestive system.

I started a full time job last month and with a more busy schedule I have temporarily stopped this eating schedule but plan on getting back to it. A device like the Apple Watch can let you know when you are in deep sleep and the positive effect on sleep with this two big enjoyable meals a day plan are verified, at least for me.

Fasting Improves Physiological and Molecular Markers of Aging (2019)

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