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Intermittent fasting: Live 'fast,' live longer?:
For many people, the New Year is a time to adopt new habits as a renewed commitment to personal health. Newly enthusiastic fitness buffs pack into gyms and grocery stores are filled with shoppers eager to try out new diets.
But, does scientific evidence support the claims made for these diets? In a review article published in the Dec. 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine neuroscientist Mark Mattson, Ph.D., concludes that intermittent fasting does.
[...] Intermittent fasting diets, he says, fall generally into two categories: daily time-restricted feeding, which narrows eating times to 6-8 hours per day, and so-called 5:2 intermittent fasting, in which people limit themselves to one moderate-sized meal two days each week.
An array of animal and some human studies have shown that alternating between times of fasting and eating supports cellular health, probably by triggering an age-old adaptation to periods of food scarcity called metabolic switching. Such a switch occurs when cells use up their stores of rapidly accessible, sugar-based fuel, and begin converting fat into energy in a slower metabolic process.
Mattson says studies have shown that this switch improves blood sugar regulation, increases resistance to stress and suppresses inflammation. Because most Americans eat three meals plus snacks each day, they do not experience the switch, or the suggested benefits.
Rafael de Cabo, Mark P. Mattson. Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 2019; 381 (26): 2541 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1905136
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by c0lo on Saturday January 04 2020, @05:37AM
That's how life-long education gets to mean long life education
(if you don't get it, read TFAD(ept)L(ine)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 04 2020, @09:31AM
Bubba's got it figured out. He waddles into the buffet, and grabs 3 trays, and starts filling them up. I swear, he may have 20 pounds of food when he reaches the end of the line. But, when he gets to the drinks area, he always fills up his 128 ounce mug with DIET SODA!!
Bubba had to stop going to the buffet in Russelville, when a chair collapsed under him. He sticks to the classier buffets now, with stronger seats.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by choose another one on Saturday January 04 2020, @02:13PM (5 children)
Of all the diet & exercise fads, hypes, fashions, etc. intermittent fasting is about the only one that consistently comes out as better for you with actual, demonstrated, clinical results. It also "makes sense" in the same way as stuff like "paleo" doesn't. We don't actually want to go back to being cavemen, nor were cavemen healthier or longer lived, however, it does appear that our metabolism (or it's regulation) works better if it is regularly exercised at different levels rather than run continuously on "time of plenty".
As with many things in life, however, you need to do it in time. Once you are chronically ill and on medication you may well find that intermittent fasting, for all it's proven benefits, is medically discouraged or banned because whilst our bodies may do better on variable metabolism, the drugs that now keep you alive often do not - with some of them being extremely (read: potentially fatally) sensitive to it.
I regret little in my life, but the days years ago where we wound up a work colleague doing 5:2 by bringing in cakes on his fast day, that I do regret - not because I did it deliberately (I didn't), or because we
wound him up cruelly (we didn't, much), but because I didn't listen to his experience, learn from it, look up 5:2 and do it. If I had, and I think, mentally, it's a diet I could have done, and it might, might, have stopped me getting ill.
Now, now that I really really want, need, those proven health benefits, now 5:2 (and other fasting diets) are behind a door with a sign that says "must ask doctor first", behind a doctor that says "are you f***ing kidding, do you know what that would do to your [drug] levels?" and behind the doctor is research that shows that, yes, the doctor is right, it really will mess me up, clinically proven.
Want to stay healthy - take action while you still _are_ healthy. Once you are told you need a cocktail of drugs, for life, to stay alive, it's too late.
(Score: 4, Informative) by fyngyrz on Saturday January 04 2020, @07:51PM (1 child)
This is incorrect. For instance, Keto diets — 20 carbs or less / day food intake regimes — produce significant results, and generally quite quickly. I have personal experience with this one (80 lbs lost so far in under a year) as well as having had a deep look into the available information on it both before, and during. The supporting data is overwhelming.
There are also many other repeatable, consensually experiential benefits that result from a Keto diet aside from weight loss. In my specific case, my labs have improved in many ways; my physician is delighted with me. Other noticeable benefits are accruing as well. My hands shake less (I'm 63, I was convinced this was irreversible... I can play guitar again, for instance, and the number of typos I make has dropped dramatically); I haven't had a headache since I started, and I had them every bloody day; I had disabling coughing, that's entirely gone; I had scaly skin on my elbows and backs of my thighs — also gone; and finally, I am no longer hungry all the time.
The bottom line is that the efficacy of Keto dieting is well established at this point. Many notable success stories, complete with before and after photos, may be found here. [reddit.com]
Interestingly, IF is often combined with Keto dieting, and it definitely seems to contribute to the positive results when that is the case. I have not engaged in IF myself, so have no personal anecdote to share in that regard. Many others at the above link do.
--
You can't teach someone who refuses to learn.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @08:13PM
i started a keto diet about a year ago and lost ~ 60 pounds in 6 months. i don't do real/full keto anymore, but i get all my carbs from vegetables and i do a 16:8 fasting/eating schedule. if i cheat and eat ice cream or other junk i rise to about 205. if i eat what i'm supposed to eat i get down to about 190. 190 is what i was when i was 17 yrs old and working out with weights and running all the time (football, two a days, etc). I'm in my 40's and work at a desk and work out as much as i can, but much less than high school. the 16:8 schedule makes it much easier to stay around 200lbs as the screw ups get burned off in the morn before i allow myself to eat at noon.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 05 2020, @04:09PM (2 children)
It wouldn't (assuming you wouldn't die of a non-illness first). It might have delayed illness and change what illness you come down with, but you'd still get something, if you live long enough. This is the futility of the health diet. You can live years longer than someone with a poorer diet and worse exercise habits, but you won't avoid illness and death in this way.
Plenty of others can boast that too, if only through p-hacking. I've endured many hours from many people bragging about how good their diets are, often going into how scientific their diet/exercise fad is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06 2020, @07:49AM (1 child)
You say that like he could live forever.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 06 2020, @05:38PM
I think eventually technology will provide the means to live orders of magnitude longer than we do now. A good diet and exercise will help some, but it's not going to deliver that.
And who knows, maybe the people claiming the universe is a simulation are right and we're actually observers who do live forever, but got bored.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @02:51PM
Myself, I need 2 days to adjust to the regime, after which I do not ever feel any hunger in the "off time".
After violating the regime (with a dinner on some festive occasion, or suchlike), it is again 2 evenings of maybe enduring a bit of low-level hunger to readjust. No hardship.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by clue on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:39PM (4 children)
Everyone is unique, fasting will not work for everyone. read and see everything that you can before you start. Jason Yong has a good book called the Obesity Code. there are tons of videos on youtube, be careful on the information you find.
I am 55 years old. I started fasting last year because everything I have tried over the years did not get me where I wanted to be. It seems that after the age of 30 I put on one to two pounds a year. To overcome my weight I have tried eating less (calories in and calories out Ha), I even tried Jenny Craig 10 years ago (while I lost weight it all came back and then some). Very expensive.
Over the last two years I have biked a lot, 2600 km last year and damaged my knees (look up Baker Cysts). This year I could only bike 1000 km. At the end of summer I would have thought that my weight would be better under control. It was not.
In September my weight was up to 267 pounds (123 Kilos). I decided to try intermittent fasting, for me it made sense So far I have lost 13 Kilos doing intermittent fasting. I am down to 242 lbs, health wise I feel better. If it takes 30 years to put it on it wont come off overnight.
My journey is not done yet.
(Score: 2, Informative) by clue on Saturday January 04 2020, @03:47PM
Crp Sorry The author is Dr Jason Fung
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday January 04 2020, @09:32PM (2 children)
While obesity-related health problems do tend to shorten life expectancy, I don't think that's what they're talking about.
As I recall, there are three confirmed ways to slow the aging process: Staying uncomfortably warm most of the time, staying uncomfortably cold most of the time, and staying uncomfortably hungry most of the time (e.g. fasting regularly)
Starting fasting at 55 might help a little in that regard, but you've already done most of your aging, so slowing what's left won't have a dramatic effect on life expectancy (though weight management will)
(Score: 1) by clue on Sunday January 05 2020, @12:05AM (1 child)
You are right, but for me it is a question of the quality of life I want to lead. My MTF is anywhere from now to sometime in the future.
So is everyone's ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06 2020, @07:52AM
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 04 2020, @04:56PM (1 child)
My uncle was sickly as a child, asthma, exczema, psoriasis, etc. When he was ~20 he fasted for nearly two months (I'm not sure if he ate intermittently or not, but I imagine he had to have at some point). He looked like a skeleton when it was done, but after that, with an active lifestyle and sticking to a strict no-grain vegetarian diet with intermittent fasting, he's been healthy ever since. Now he's over 60, buff, athletic, and looks waaay younger.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06 2020, @07:56AM
Maybe this sort of stuff helped:
https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/ [usc.edu]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/12/30/can-a-3-day-fast-reset-your-immune-system/#2b8895493c93 [forbes.com]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 04 2020, @11:16PM
I do this daily, a 17:7 or so off-on ratio. It seems to work; I'm holding steady at just under 150lb at 5'10" despite having gone waaaay over my usual 1800kcal limit several times in the last two weeks because holidays. Am also taking 1000mg magnesium (as oxide), 1000mg vitamin C (as ascorbate), and 200mg CoQ10 (as ubiquinol) as of a few days ago to combat excessive stress and fatigue, which seem to be working well.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by jman on Monday January 06 2020, @03:34PM
Wonder if coffee (and/or the cream added to it) counts as a meal?