4 ms·

Food is the key. People forget this so easily, but for most of our evolution we did not have access to "3-squares a day". Hunger is a remarkable tool for manipu

Food is the key. People forget this so easily, but for most of our evolution we did not have access to "3-squares a day". Hunger is a remarkable tool for manipulating alertness and wakefulness. The most common recommendation I've heard for jet lag is to stop eating 12 hours before breakfast in your destination's time zone. I've found this strategy works for more than just jet lag though. If I'm up against a deadline and need to put in a couple extra hours or pull an all-nighter, I'll skip two or three meals. For the first 30-60 min after "normal" meal time you have to deal with the hunger pangs, but then your body will switch into hunter-gatherer mode and you'd be surprised how long you can maintain alertness. Obviously this isn't a tool you can use frequently (and it's vital to remain hydrated, especially if you're accustomed to drinking when you eat), but in a pinch it's surprisingly effective.

dimitar 11y ago
I do this frequently and it really works - I started to do it when I was working night shifts. For me it is 14 hours before breakfast, thought. Most people can do just fine having a very early dinner I don't know why this method is only rarely mentioned or not mentioned at all. I remember commenting on a similar article that boldly claimed that there is "no cure" or "no cure until now". Edit, here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9850557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9850557 Here is one useful BBC link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7414437.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7414437.stm
javert 11y ago
> stop eating 12 hours before breakfast in your destination's time zone > If I'm up against a deadline and need to put in a couple extra hours or pull an all-nighter, I'll skip two or three meals. What is the underlying model to you that unifies these two cases? I can't tell whether you're saying (a) your body learns to become alert when food is going to become available, and to sleep otherwise, or (b) If you starve yourself, you get really alert for a while, which also enentually tires you out, helping you to go to sleep after that. Or possibly something else.
- modoc 11y ago
  I believe what he's saying is that when your body is hungry, it will stay awake/alert longer (in order to hunt/gather food so you don't starve). I've noticed the same thing for myself.
- frivoal 11y ago
  It's (a). If you get substantial food while you were starving, your body will guess that this time of the day is a good one to be awake at, in case the food source is available every day at the same time. So a solid breakfast after a short period of fast resets the internal clock.
RALaBarge 11y ago
I too find that this helps when on long car rides as well. I only drink water, and maybe have an apple after a while, but I feel like when I am hungry, I am more sharp and alert - something very handy for moving 2.5k lbs @ 75 MPH
Osmium 11y ago
> Food is the key. Agreed with this. I don't find it necessary to skip meals though, I just ensure I get a good, solid breakfast at the appropriate time at my destination (I also change my watch to the destination time early too, I find it helps psychologically). I can't imagine skipping meals during a long journey which is already stressful enough as-is.
james4k 11y ago
Hmm. I used to skip breakfast years ago. I woke and went straight from my bed to my desk in order to work, and remember being quite productive. Perhaps skipping breakfast was the vital part of that routine. That said, my sleep schedule at the time was all over the place.
itchyouch 11y ago
Definitely agree that this is a useful tool. TLDR - Food & Exercise choices affect wakefulness and neurological stamina & performance. I'm not an expert by any means, but have done some research on it for various health reasons and would go deeper into it for those on HackerNews who tend to see food hacking as a pointless endeavor where the simplified modal of energy/wakefulness = calories. When we think of bodily energy, we think of calories as fuel. Yet after certain meals such as Thanksgiving dinner, or a "heavy" lunch, fatigue tends to set in. If we refocus and consider energy consumption as feeding the cellular mitochondria and assisting cellular ATP transport from the mitochondria, then all of a sudden, it becomes obvious that calories as fuel is somewhat of an inadequate model for optimizing biological chemistry. It's intuitively obvious that substances like caffiene, modafinil, amphetamine salts provide a neurological boost by affecting various neurotransmitters & neurons. The question then becomes what do I need to do to achieve the following: optimize neural stamina via neurotransmitters & bodily ATP generation & consumption? * Increase ATP Stores/Mitochondrial Size (Available mechanical energy) * Increase ATP Usage (Usage of said energy) * Optimize availability of wakefulness enhancing neurotransmitters In a nutshell, supporting the aforementioned biological chemistry becomes what is important. The trouble with ATP is that it's like the L1 cache of processor memory. There is a relatively small amount of ATP available for use, and when exercising, ATP is used up within several seconds and muscle glycogen is then converted into ATP. Muscle glycogen (stored away sugar) is kind of like a processors L2 & L3 Cache. The liver also stores some glycogen and is like main memory. Food & fatty acid breakdown is like a harddrive (if we are treating data retrieval like energy availability). It becomes obvious that for optimizing energy (ATP) consumption supporting the citric-acid cycle is more important than pure glucose & fatty acid consumption. Most people have 15+% bodyfat. That's 15lbs of bodyfat per 100lbs of body weight. 5-6lbs of that is essential for hormone production and such, so that leaves around 10 lbs (35,000 calories) of potential energy available for a hypothetical 100lb person. Most of us reading this are probably somewhere around 130-200+ lbs @ ~20%. For the hypothetical 100 lb person with 15% body fat, burning 1800 cals per day, that's enough energy to last for about 20 days without eating and very little physical activity. Of course it's recommended to not stop eating for people looking to diet via starvation as the eventual consumption of all potassium would lead to heart failure. But there is a story of an obese guy who starved for a year or so and survived on yeast & potassium supplements under medical supervision. As far as increasing our ability to store away glycogen, glycogen is stored in muscles and in the liver. Increasing muscles increases our ability to store away glycogen. With weightlifting, the MAX & fastest rates general man can add around 1-2lbs of muscle per month and female can add .5-1 lb of muscle per month for about 1 year for an untrained body. Every year after that, the rates falls about half. A general male/female can add about 50/25 lbs of muscle in their lifetime. Yes, lifetime. For a male, Add 10-20lbs the first year. Add another 5-10 the next year. Add another 2-5 the year afterwards. It tends to be a good idea to maximize muscle production between the ages of 15-30 as the body is growing and generating human growth hormone to stimulate muscle growth. After 30-35, the body stops overproducing and it tends to be about maintenance and steady losses as the body cannibalizes muscle protein with age. Now that L2/L3 is optimized with extra muscle & hopefully larger and more mitochondria per cell, it becomes important to optimize Main Memory (Liver) & Harddrive (fatty acid breakdown) optimization abilities. These all function on biological chemistry, thus the limiting chemical reagent is the most important factor to support. limiting-chemical-reagent meaning obtaining nutrient dense foods. Adding glucose to the diet without the ability to process said glucose is a recipe for fatigue. The citric acid cycle pretty much runs on having enough amino-acids (aka protein), oxygen, and supporting minerals & chemicals (magnesium, potassium, vitamins [ABCD...], etc). The simplest optimization of nutritional intake I've seen is with the Wahl's Protocol developed by Terry Wahls. She has a TED talk explaining her recovery/maintenance from Secondary Progress Multiple Sclerosis. (http://terrywahls.com/minding-your-mitochondria-dr-terry-wahls-at-tedxiowacity/ http://terrywahls.com/minding-your-mitochondria-dr-terry-wah...)

dimitar 11y ago

I do this frequently and it really works - I started to do it when I was working night shifts. For me it is 14 hours before breakfast, thought. Most people can do just fine having a very early dinner I don't know why this method is only rarely mentioned or not mentioned at all. I remember commenting on a similar article that boldly claimed that there is "no cure" or "no cure until now". Edit, here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9850557 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9850557 Here is one useful BBC link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7414437.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7414437.stm

javert 11y ago

> stop eating 12 hours before breakfast in your destination's time zone > If I'm up against a deadline and need to put in a couple extra hours or pull an all-nighter, I'll skip two or three meals. What is the underlying model to you that unifies these two cases? I can't tell whether you're saying (a) your body learns to become alert when food is going to become available, and to sleep otherwise, or (b) If you starve yourself, you get really alert for a while, which also enentually tires you out, helping you to go to sleep after that. Or possibly something else.

modoc 11y ago
I believe what he's saying is that when your body is hungry, it will stay awake/alert longer (in order to hunt/gather food so you don't starve). I've noticed the same thing for myself.
frivoal 11y ago
It's (a). If you get substantial food while you were starving, your body will guess that this time of the day is a good one to be awake at, in case the food source is available every day at the same time. So a solid breakfast after a short period of fast resets the internal clock.

RALaBarge 11y ago

I too find that this helps when on long car rides as well. I only drink water, and maybe have an apple after a while, but I feel like when I am hungry, I am more sharp and alert - something very handy for moving 2.5k lbs @ 75 MPH

Osmium 11y ago

> Food is the key. Agreed with this. I don't find it necessary to skip meals though, I just ensure I get a good, solid breakfast at the appropriate time at my destination (I also change my watch to the destination time early too, I find it helps psychologically). I can't imagine skipping meals during a long journey which is already stressful enough as-is.

james4k 11y ago

Hmm. I used to skip breakfast years ago. I woke and went straight from my bed to my desk in order to work, and remember being quite productive. Perhaps skipping breakfast was the vital part of that routine. That said, my sleep schedule at the time was all over the place.

itchyouch 11y ago

Definitely agree that this is a useful tool. TLDR - Food & Exercise choices affect wakefulness and neurological stamina & performance. I'm not an expert by any means, but have done some research on it for various health reasons and would go deeper into it for those on HackerNews who tend to see food hacking as a pointless endeavor where the simplified modal of energy/wakefulness = calories. When we think of bodily energy, we think of calories as fuel. Yet after certain meals such as Thanksgiving dinner, or a "heavy" lunch, fatigue tends to set in. If we refocus and consider energy consumption as feeding the cellular mitochondria and assisting cellular ATP transport from the mitochondria, then all of a sudden, it becomes obvious that calories as fuel is somewhat of an inadequate model for optimizing biological chemistry. It's intuitively obvious that substances like caffiene, modafinil, amphetamine salts provide a neurological boost by affecting various neurotransmitters & neurons. The question then becomes what do I need to do to achieve the following: optimize neural stamina via neurotransmitters & bodily ATP generation & consumption? * Increase ATP Stores/Mitochondrial Size (Available mechanical energy) * Increase ATP Usage (Usage of said energy) * Optimize availability of wakefulness enhancing neurotransmitters In a nutshell, supporting the aforementioned biological chemistry becomes what is important. The trouble with ATP is that it's like the L1 cache of processor memory. There is a relatively small amount of ATP available for use, and when exercising, ATP is used up within several seconds and muscle glycogen is then converted into ATP. Muscle glycogen (stored away sugar) is kind of like a processors L2 & L3 Cache. The liver also stores some glycogen and is like main memory. Food & fatty acid breakdown is like a harddrive (if we are treating data retrieval like energy availability). It becomes obvious that for optimizing energy (ATP) consumption supporting the citric-acid cycle is more important than pure glucose & fatty acid consumption. Most people have 15+% bodyfat. That's 15lbs of bodyfat per 100lbs of body weight. 5-6lbs of that is essential for hormone production and such, so that leaves around 10 lbs (35,000 calories) of potential energy available for a hypothetical 100lb person. Most of us reading this are probably somewhere around 130-200+ lbs @ ~20%. For the hypothetical 100 lb person with 15% body fat, burning 1800 cals per day, that's enough energy to last for about 20 days without eating and very little physical activity. Of course it's recommended to not stop eating for people looking to diet via starvation as the eventual consumption of all potassium would lead to heart failure. But there is a story of an obese guy who starved for a year or so and survived on yeast & potassium supplements under medical supervision. As far as increasing our ability to store away glycogen, glycogen is stored in muscles and in the liver. Increasing muscles increases our ability to store away glycogen. With weightlifting, the MAX & fastest rates general man can add around 1-2lbs of muscle per month and female can add .5-1 lb of muscle per month for about 1 year for an untrained body. Every year after that, the rates falls about half. A general male/female can add about 50/25 lbs of muscle in their lifetime. Yes, lifetime. For a male, Add 10-20lbs the first year. Add another 5-10 the next year. Add another 2-5 the year afterwards. It tends to be a good idea to maximize muscle production between the ages of 15-30 as the body is growing and generating human growth hormone to stimulate muscle growth. After 30-35, the body stops overproducing and it tends to be about maintenance and steady losses as the body cannibalizes muscle protein with age. Now that L2/L3 is optimized with extra muscle & hopefully larger and more mitochondria per cell, it becomes important to optimize Main Memory (Liver) & Harddrive (fatty acid breakdown) optimization abilities. These all function on biological chemistry, thus the limiting chemical reagent is the most important factor to support. limiting-chemical-reagent meaning obtaining nutrient dense foods. Adding glucose to the diet without the ability to process said glucose is a recipe for fatigue. The citric acid cycle pretty much runs on having enough amino-acids (aka protein), oxygen, and supporting minerals & chemicals (magnesium, potassium, vitamins [ABCD...], etc). The simplest optimization of nutritional intake I've seen is with the Wahl's Protocol developed by Terry Wahls. She has a TED talk explaining her recovery/maintenance from Secondary Progress Multiple Sclerosis. (http://terrywahls.com/minding-your-mitochondria-dr-terry-wahls-at-tedxiowacity/ http://terrywahls.com/minding-your-mitochondria-dr-terry-wah...)