Intermittent Fasting May Be As Beneficial As Counting Calories (today.com) 71
"A type of intermittent fasting that calls for eating nothing one day, and then whatever a person wants the next, can be done safely for several months and comes with a number of health benefits, a study has found."
An anonymous reader quotes Today.com: Alternate day fasting improved cardiovascular markers, reducing blood pressure and heart rate after four weeks, researchers reported in Cell Metabolism on Tuesday. People who followed the plan for six months also had lower levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides compared to those who ate normally. Overall, they ate about 37% fewer calories, lost weight and had an "improved fat distribution," reducing the fat in their trunk and abdomen by about 14% on average.
Researchers saw no adverse effects from alternate day fasting even after six months, concluding the strategy seems to be as beneficial as daily calorie restriction, but easier to stick with.
Humans can easily tolerate skipping food for an entire day, said Dr. Thomas Pieber, one of the study authors and chair of the department of internal medicine at the Medical University of Graz in Austria. "The truth is that our organism is ready to fast for much longer," Pieber told TODAY. "Ten thousand or 100,000 years ago, we didn't have breakfast, lunch and dinner and some cake in-between with our coffee. You just have to train your organism to get adjusted to that short-term fasting and after a few days, most people can adjust...."
One reason fasting may be so beneficial for the human body is that it can activate autophagy, a mechanism that helps to regenerate cells, Pieber said. The first two weeks can be a challenge, but hunger or the lightheadedness that can come with not eating for an entire day actually wasn't a big issue for the participants after a while, Pieber noted. People often feel "very energetic" on fasting days, he added.
An anonymous reader quotes Today.com: Alternate day fasting improved cardiovascular markers, reducing blood pressure and heart rate after four weeks, researchers reported in Cell Metabolism on Tuesday. People who followed the plan for six months also had lower levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides compared to those who ate normally. Overall, they ate about 37% fewer calories, lost weight and had an "improved fat distribution," reducing the fat in their trunk and abdomen by about 14% on average.
Researchers saw no adverse effects from alternate day fasting even after six months, concluding the strategy seems to be as beneficial as daily calorie restriction, but easier to stick with.
Humans can easily tolerate skipping food for an entire day, said Dr. Thomas Pieber, one of the study authors and chair of the department of internal medicine at the Medical University of Graz in Austria. "The truth is that our organism is ready to fast for much longer," Pieber told TODAY. "Ten thousand or 100,000 years ago, we didn't have breakfast, lunch and dinner and some cake in-between with our coffee. You just have to train your organism to get adjusted to that short-term fasting and after a few days, most people can adjust...."
One reason fasting may be so beneficial for the human body is that it can activate autophagy, a mechanism that helps to regenerate cells, Pieber said. The first two weeks can be a challenge, but hunger or the lightheadedness that can come with not eating for an entire day actually wasn't a big issue for the participants after a while, Pieber noted. People often feel "very energetic" on fasting days, he added.
Take electrolytes (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Take electrolytes (Score:4, Insightful)
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Bananas are great and all, but I think perhaps they might be food.
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Bananas are great and all, but I think perhaps they might be food.
True, but usually articles about this type of fasting mean no more than 200-500 calories/day, not 0 calories. Agreed that doesn't sound like fasting, but that's what they say. Even TFA mentions this under "Tips":
Some people prefer a modified version of alternate day fasting where they stick to 500 calories one day, then still eat anything they want the next. In this version, go for at least 50 grams of protein on fasting days to help keep hunger at bay ...
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Bananas are great and all, but I think perhaps they might be food.
Not if you stick them in your butt!
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Bananas and water or Fig Newton
Can't eat bananas or Fig Newtons during the fasting period that people are complaining about.
But I agree, don't go buy sugar water for this. Just get some sodium and water in you. It isn't fasting when you're slamming 150ish calorie drink with 35ish grams of sugar in it.
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Gatorade Zero. Same artificial fruity taste and electrolytes, zero sugar.
I just wish they sold it in concentrated liquid form like Tang or Kool-Aid.
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Gatorade Zero. Same artificial fruity taste and electrolytes, zero sugar. I just wish they sold it in concentrated liquid form like Tang or Kool-Aid.
That's what I like - G-Zero and Powerade Zero. I've been on a ketogenic diet (mostly) since January, with frequent 16+ hour fasts, and it has done wonders for me. I've lost 40+ pounds and reached a healthy weight, gotten my LDL and triglyceride numbers into the "good" ranges, and I feel good, generally speaking. Getting rid of most of the sugar and pointless carbs has been great, and I no longer feel sleepy or compelled to nap after eating. G-Zero has helped me stay hydrated with zero side effects. Black an
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Bananas and water or Fig Newton and water will do the same thing without contributing to the sports drink industry.
Simpler solution is just to buy potassium salt, regular salt, and magnesium pills.
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It stops the dizzy/empty head feeling. Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium. It also prevents overall crappy feeling if you are still working out heavy while doing it.
It's unlikely that you'd lose significant electrolytes during a one-day fast (or even over several days) or if exercising heavily during a one-day fast -- unless, you're also out in hot/humid weather for an extended period -- and, if you do, it'll primarily be sodium loss. It's more likely that you'll just be dehydrated, which can cause headaches and an overall crappy feeling. I'm not a doctor, but have done many one-day fasts and a few 5-7 day ones, doing 5-mile walks each day.
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It's unlikely that you'd lose significant electrolytes during a one-day fast (or even over several days)
Correct. If your kidneys are functioning properly, they will go into mineral-sparing mode, where you only lose very small amounts of electrolytes.
Think about it. Forced fasting is common in nature. Many animals, including our hunter gatherer ancestors, are struggling to get food in the winter. During those periods they had no gatorade or salt pills to fall back on.
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Salt-licks are a thing lots of animals use... More generally, places where they can find minerals and micronutrients.
(& omg my old /. login still works. i need to see if i can change the displayname...)
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(& omg my old /. login still works. i need to see if i can change the displayname...)
Seems your last post was in 2012; welcome back Grrl ... :-)
BTW, Firefox displays the following warning about the website listed in your profile:
"Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead"
Firefox detected a potential security threat and did not continue to strangenoises.org. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.
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Your body has a hard time absorbing electrolytes unless lactose or glucose is also present. This is the essential science behind Oral Rehydration Therapy and Oral Re-hydration Solution (pedialyte). The electrolytes you need cannot pass through the wall of your gut unless glucose or lactose are also present for co-transport. Normally this is not a big concern if you are eating regularly. But if you are fasting, your gut may really not have any simple sugars present.
The discovery of this phenomenon resulted i
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No need to do that (Score:2)
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They do bugger all for your crops though.
No Cold or Flu after 4 Years of IF (Score:2)
I've been doing the 16:8 intermittent fast and have not gotten a cold or flu since I started for years ago. In the past I would get sick every other. Trick is that after 12 hours of fasting our bodies switch from grow mode to repair mode which is something most of us don't do.
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Explain the "16:8" part? You fast for 16 gours and eat for 8 hours?
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I regularly eat for 16 hours and fast for 8.
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That sounds like 16 hours of wakefulness and 8 hours of sleep, what am I missing?
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The joke.
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you are correct. Choose an 8 hour window to consume calories in, consume nothing but water, black coffee, or white/green/black tea outside that window (hot drinks made just from the base ingredient of coffee or tea, no sugar, milk, cream, or anything like that).
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16 gours? WTF, man? Did you forget to eat or something?
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I'm underweight so will this work for me? I currently have a nasty flu since Wed. It's still weird that I still weight about the same when I lost my appetite and ate very little, but drank a lot of water and juices. :(
Diabetics: be careful (Score:5, Informative)
Please consult a medical professionaland then even more importantly, pay attention to what you're feeling. You might need to adjust your medicine, if you use any, in order to avoid seriously dangerous low blood-sugar levels.
(I used to fast frequently, didn't have to much difficulty doing so, and could do so for up to three days without discomfort, and five before I felt I really had to do something else to maintain health. Now that I'm on metformin and a long-acting insulin analogue, nix to all of those. If I'm going to fast a day, the metformin is out, and the insulin analogue is cut by about half, otherwise I get massive headaches and my blood-sugar levels swing to dangerous levelsbut you mileage will likely vary.)
Re: Diabetics: be careful (Score:2)
Intermittent fasting not same as reduced intake (Score:2)
There was some guy who advocated permanent long term reduced calorific intake, on the basis that people feel more alert. He died of a disorder that is known to be associated with reduced intake.
By contrast, intermittent fasting is what, evolutionarily, our species developed and lived by. Heightened awareness gives us the edge to spot the next thing to bash on the head.
Also I heard that it releases stem cells, which, if you happen to be ill or injured (the times when you are unlikely to be eating), stem cell
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He died of a disorder that is known to be associated with reduced intake.
I believe the ancient technical term is "starve"
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Roy Walford died of ALS and knew very well how to engage in caloric restriction safely. Or maybe it was some other some guy. Some guy owes me tree fiddy.
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Also I heard that it releases stem cells, which, if you happen to be ill or injured (the times when you are unlikely to be eating), stem cell release kinda makes sense.
Yes and no.
Yes, it activates lymphocyte stem cells to produce more lymphocytes.
No... Well... It only works for 72-hour fasts. [nih.gov]
First 24 hours is basically just the body sucking up the remaining glucose still in the blood and pumping the remaining stomach contents down into the small intestine.
Next 24 hours that food is still being digested as it slowly moves through the intestines.
THEN the body starts reclaiming old and spent cells floating around the bloodstream - like used up old lymphocytes.
After that, wi
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You left out the most important part! In the groups of humans/mice getting chemotherapy, the ADF was *as effective* as the chemotherapy, and the effects were *additive*.
Probably not the best wording for the intro..... (Score:2)
intermittent fasting that calls for eating nothing one day, and then whatever a person wants the next, can be done safely for several months and comes with a number of health benefits
Pretty sure someone isn't going to be doing much good eating nothing on Day 1, and then binging candy, cake, and beer all day on Day 2.
Not saying there aren't benefits to intermittent fasting. Just that this wording is a bit much.
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The wording is unfortunate. It seems to actually mean “eating the types of foods you would normally choose to eat”.
My wife has been doing this for a few months and has been seeing positive results in terms of gradual weight loss. She’s diabetic, but she’s on an insulin pump and is generally still able to effectively maintain her blood sugar levels during the fasts.
I probably should join her.
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Things get worst if they take advice from Dr. B. Simpson.
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Exactly. There's also something missing in the writeup (haven't read the article itself). By doing thing this way, wouldn't one be "counting calories" anyway? I mean, the chances that you're going to go from eating every day to skipping alternate days end up eating double the number of calories on your eating days is pretty slim. So, much like Keto or Atkins, etc... what it boils down to is limiting calories.
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It works cause there is a limit on how much you can actually shovel down in a day.
Say if you're eating 2000-2500 calories per day.
That's 20000-25000 calories in 10 days of no fasting.
Replace that with 0 calories on odd days and then binging on up to 3500-4000 calories on even days.
In 10 days you are now eating 17500-20000 calories.
A difference of about 0.5-1 kg of body fat.
Also... shoveling huge amounts of calories on even days quickly stops being pleasant.
Think holiday family dinners where halfway through
It works but (Score:1)
Two practices that lowered by levels by about 40% (Score:5, Interesting)
I was running 180 / 33 for years.
I started *always* starting the day with a glass of water and I started *always* cooking and eating an entire bag of mixed vegetables (even with butter and olive oil on them).
The next blood test and ever test since then, my numbers have been closer to 110-120 / 39-41.
I didn't change my consumption of eggs or cream (in my coffee) during this period.
---
Also...
Lipitor made my legs hurt so bad I couldn't sleep.
Pravastatin made me a crazy procrastinator
And one other (lol) made me forget everything (I laugh but I seriously can't remember the name of it).
Statin drugs are very bad for me. Also- unless things have changed- studies of the time only showed any significant benefit for diabetics and that was only about a 2% reduction in cardiac events.
They finally put me on Zetia/Ezimitide (sp?) which only reduces cholesterol you eat ( not that your body naturally produces) and it had a mild effect and it had no side effects at all. As the doctor said "no side effects but it only works for half of my patients". I was in the lucky 50%.
Later-- I had some kidney issues (just bad numbers) and remembered a coworker went to the hospital after drinking a 2 liter diet soda in one setting. So I cut out most diet coke and went to water and coffee only. I do about 60-72 oz of water a day. And my kidney numbers popped back to normal next appt 6 months later and have remained normal. I drink diet soda slow enough now that a 12 pack went bad before I finished it. It turned bitter because the aspartame decomposed.
Oh yea.. and aspartame is fine if you don't absorb it- but if you are an absorber, it breaks down in your body and gives you headaches. I've been very lucky with all artificial and natural substitute sweeteners taste wise. It was probably aspartame that was hurting my kidneys tho as I have continued to use monk fruit, stevia, and splenda in my coffee with no measurable effects. (But still my artificial sweetener intake is down over 60% because I used to put away a 6 pack of diet soda or more per day.
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My family are aspartame absorbers as well. My father drank Diet Coke for nearly 18 years as an effort to help reduce his calorie intake and manage his diabetes. He and several of my family had odd side effects from drinking it.
If he drank more than a certain amount during a week, he would get thigh pains. I found that if I drank more than half a glass, I would have night terrors (waking, intense nightmares) that night. If my sister drank any, she would get stomach cramps.
They had studies come out that showe
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I cut bread, potatoes, and sugar back about 95% and I found everything tasted much sweeter. Dropped about 35 pounds and stayed there for a decade before losing another 7 pounds.
Many vegetables depend on if you are a "bitter taster". People who are bitter tasters can't eat a lot of vegetables. Besides that tho- people don't cook them right. You want them bright green- not grey. And similarly for other veggies of other colors. But you want them cooked or you can't get the nutrients out (and some even ha
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One extra bit on aspartame (and any artificial sweetener) -- it does look like your pancreas thinks you got sugar so it can be an issue for pancreas diseases. By "no problem", I meant none of the side effects from the breakdown of aspartame-- not those from the fact your body thinks you had something sweet.
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Some people can eat aspartame and most of it passes thru their system. Other people either absorb aspartame or they in significant quantities into their system and break it down. I can't say where I read/saw this as it was over a decade ago. Maybe a minor study somewhere?
It's like bitter tasters.
Aside from study's, here's and easy way to tell it's actually going thru your bloodstream. Taste your pee. It will be sweet if you absorb the artificial sweetener and don't break it all down. It will be salty
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I'm pretty unfamiliar with the idea of aspartame absorbers/non-absorbers.
I know of phenylketonuria, which prevents phenylalanine from being metabolized (phenylalanine being present in aspartame). However, this condition is supposedly rare.
At this point, I remain unconvinced of the existence of an absorbers/non-absorbers model that is evidence supported.
While I don't demonize artificial sweeteners merely for being "chemi
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I don't demonize them either. But some people get headaches or migraines due to aspartame. And many people can taste artificial sweeteners in their pee within two hours after consuming diet soda.
Artificial sweeteners may also still irritate your pancreas just as if you were consuming that much sugar too.
Aspartame also breaks down into formaldehyde which most of us handle fine in those quantities. But some people don't in various ways and for various reasons.
Really the science on a lot of these is far fro
Hang out with me (Score:2)
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Very true, I tried fasting and into the second day afternoon, I became an ASSHOLE. My patience dropped very very much.
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There's a difference between being hangry and not eating. Just like there's a difference between craving food and being hungry. It sounds like you may want to look at your diet if you turn into the Hulk just because your burnt a few calories.
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Control your emotions. Using being hungry as an excuse for being an asshole is just that, an excuse. Much like people using "I have to be true to myself" for saying nasty shit to people. Hungry or not, you can choose to be nice to people.
Not a good idea if you're an athlete (Score:1)
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I'm training 5-6 days a week for an endurance-based sport
So what you're saying is that you're not an overweight man-bear high cholesterol and hypertension? Surprise! This diet is not for you.
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As beneficial? (Score:2)
Because it just leads to kcal reductions? Also
concluding the strategy seems to be as beneficial as daily calorie restriction, but easier to stick with.
Sure, if your sedentary TDEE is 1900 kcal per day then 3800kal in one day may seem like a 'harder' goal to go over but rest assured, plate, bowel and take out meal sizes will definitely accommodate you. At least in the west. Counting kcal is by no means the hardest thing to do, people know it can't fail, they just don't want to stop eating because its not about food energy anymore, its become cheap entertainment.
The governments are also not going to lift a finge
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I spent a lot of time with a friend recently.
In the course of two weeks where we were together basically 24/7, I witnessed one real meal - scrambled egg on toast. 2 toasts. 2 eggs.
Apart from that, I've seen him eat a couple of bananas, a few grapes, a bit of balsamic vinegar and a few cans of diet coke.
I know for a fact that if I ate as little as my friend, I'd die. I'd be passing out. I've never passed out in my life, but I would if I only ate what he does. I would quite literally die on his calorie i
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starve a day, then gorge yourself but because you can't quite manage two days worth of food in one day's stomach, you might end up eating less overall.
That's exactly what this is.
And more.
As someone above pointed out, if you're eating 2000 to 2500 calories a day that's 4k-5k in 2 days. But if you can only eat 3500 max on your binge day, and you nibble on maybe 300 max on your fast day, you end up in a calorie deficit.
It seems that there are also a couple of side effects of the fast day that go beyond this, such as the body suddenly trying to recycle old and dying cells to scavenge more energy, and tapping fat stored in the gut for extra nourishment.
It's far more to do with gut biome, genetics, psychology and all kinds of other factors. Sticking to a fast, I'm going to guess, is almost impossible for those people who are already huge.
But
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As such, calorie counting is really a waste when it ultimately comes down to "eat less than you would until you lose weight".
But suggesting - to a mathematician as I am, and a health expert as my friend is - that all you have to do is calorie count to lose weight/stay healthy is an absolute crock. It's much more honest to just say: "You may have to starve, literally balancing on the edge of passing out, for the rest of your life - or you may have to do almost nothing".
It's far more to do with gut biome, genetics, psychology and all kinds of other factors. Sticking to a fast, I'm going to guess, is almost impossible for those people who are already huge. This is just an alternating fast/binge, which might make it more convenient - starve a day, then gorge yourself but because you can't quite manage two days worth of food in one day's stomach, you might end up eating less overall.
You have a deep misunderstanding of what it means to starve and what it means to be in a temporary caloric deficit. Whine all you like about the 'gut biome, genetics, psychology and all kinds of other factors' - the physics will not be impressed. If you eat more than you need in a day, the excess is stored as fat.
Snake Diet- fatties don't need to eat (Score:1)
I have been on the Snake Diet since August 24th and am down 10 lbs already. I did a 48 hour fast, 83.5, and just came off another 48 hour fast. Electrolyte replenishment is essential and involves drinking water with some added sodium potassium salts, and sodium bicarbonate. The FB group has some 500 lbs+ people following the routine. It is intermittent fasting, but the period is 36 hours and up.
Probably Good (Score:2)
That's weird (Score:2)
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Otherwise, go wild on the Google searches if you're still interested.
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My co-worker had his gall bladder out, and was told by his doctor that his habit of skipping lunch -- in other words, two big meals with long breaks between -- was a contributing factor. How can that be a known issue in one place, but not an issue in another?
there's an intresting book... (Score:1)