4 ms·

Semi-related study from the 60s. Guy lived on water and multi-vitamins while his fat stores did their thing: provide energy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/a

Semi-related study from the 60s. Guy lived on water and multi-vitamins while his fat stores did their thing: provide energy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/postmedj00315-0056.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/pdf/pos...

electrograv 8y ago
I'm so confused why people are posting this. I agree fasting is viable until you run out of fat reserves (that's what this study is showing). My point was that the type of food your calories consist of does matter. If you do nothing but drink olive oil and multivitamins, you will lose a lot of weight and eventually starve to death, no matter how many calories you consume. The point is that the type of food you eat does matter to weight gain/loss (not only the calorie count), because the type of food affects how many of those calories you actually retain. As far as I can see, this study provides no evidence (nor attempts to) that a diet consisting of nothing but olive oil can sustain your weight. I think it's quite well accepted that different kinds of food will be retained to differing degrees in your body (or put another way, different types of food will end up being passed through your system in differing percentages -- as well as with differing degrees of nutritional satisfaction per calorie ingested).
wang_li 8y ago
Human fat is substantially more complex than olive oil. Also he survived on more than his fat. He also survived on his skin, some muscle tissue, organ tissues, etc. Research shows increased autophagy during fasts like the one described at your link. During a fast whole organ systems shrink as old senescent cells are destroyed and their nutrients recycled. The oddest thing about reading the comments here is that people are dismissing the words of someone who has spent the better part of a decade in formal education in medicine, and a large part of his professional career focusing on weight management.

electrograv 8y ago

I'm so confused why people are posting this. I agree fasting is viable until you run out of fat reserves (that's what this study is showing). My point was that the type of food your calories consist of does matter. If you do nothing but drink olive oil and multivitamins, you will lose a lot of weight and eventually starve to death, no matter how many calories you consume. The point is that the type of food you eat does matter to weight gain/loss (not only the calorie count), because the type of food affects how many of those calories you actually retain. As far as I can see, this study provides no evidence (nor attempts to) that a diet consisting of nothing but olive oil can sustain your weight. I think it's quite well accepted that different kinds of food will be retained to differing degrees in your body (or put another way, different types of food will end up being passed through your system in differing percentages -- as well as with differing degrees of nutritional satisfaction per calorie ingested).

wang_li 8y ago

Human fat is substantially more complex than olive oil. Also he survived on more than his fat. He also survived on his skin, some muscle tissue, organ tissues, etc. Research shows increased autophagy during fasts like the one described at your link. During a fast whole organ systems shrink as old senescent cells are destroyed and their nutrients recycled. The oddest thing about reading the comments here is that people are dismissing the words of someone who has spent the better part of a decade in formal education in medicine, and a large part of his professional career focusing on weight management.