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This can work for people who don't really need a lot of weight loss. Obese people are too deeply conditioned, their brains are wired differently and their bodie

This can work for people who don't really need a lot of weight loss. Obese people are too deeply conditioned, their brains are wired differently and their bodies probably not responding on the hormonal level the same way as yours. To them it's a bit like suggesting a drug addict to just enjoy the withdrawal crisis. According to this research: "a substantial fraction of obese individuals exhibit an imbalance between an enhanced sensitivity of the reward circuitry to conditioned stimuli linked to energy-dense food and impaired function of the executive control circuitry that weakens inhibitory control over appetitive behaviors" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124340/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124340/

betenoire 7y ago
I've never been obese, so that may be a good point to bring up. At my biggest, I was 187 at 5'10". So not that big, but I lost 35 pounds and have kept it off for 11 years now, using my own style of intermittent fasting.
tptacek 7y ago
I guess. I'm a big dude, and I find it a lot easier to fast than to eat carefully on a more typical schedule. Part of it is definitely just acclimating to the sensation of food cravings (and also learning to distinguish that feeling from "hunger"), but also, if I don't eat regularly, I tend not to crave food in the first place. I can pretty sustainably stay on an 18 hour fast schedule without breaking.
- chillydawg 7y ago
  Given that you're a "big dude" (aka overweight?) I assume you are that way by choice given your comments about how you can control your appetite? I'm a bit of a fat bastard myself and I think what I've come to realise is that for a huge segment of the population eating just works fine and they can adjust diet to tweak this or that relatively easily. For the rest (like me), my relationship with food is broken and stuff like IF or keto or whatever are patches to deal with that underlying brokenness. It always works for a while, but it always go to shit eventually.
prostoalex 7y ago
Yeah but they hint at the reason > Certain foods, particularly those rich in sugars and fat, are potent rewards [23] that promote eating (even in the absence of an energetic requirement) If the subjects are used to carb- and sugar-heavy diet, the hormonal spikes will be very stressful on the body. They also mention fat-heavy foods, but I suspect they are referring to foods high on both fat+sugars, not a green salad with copious amounts of olive oil.
- zeta0134 7y ago
  Anecdotal, but one of the things I noticed when I switched to keto for a while was a drastic change in my relationship to sugar. After cutting out sugar entirely, I noticed that water didn't taste bitter anymore, something I'd always attributed to the hard water supply. Coffee is also wildly different now, and I can drink teas without any sugar, which confuses folks when I eat out. (In my part of Texas, iced sweet tea is so popular it's basically the default beverage.) It's so strange. My whole life I hadn't given sodas a second thought, but that reward signal is strong. I don't think I ever want to go back.

betenoire 7y ago

I've never been obese, so that may be a good point to bring up. At my biggest, I was 187 at 5'10". So not that big, but I lost 35 pounds and have kept it off for 11 years now, using my own style of intermittent fasting.

tptacek 7y ago

I guess. I'm a big dude, and I find it a lot easier to fast than to eat carefully on a more typical schedule. Part of it is definitely just acclimating to the sensation of food cravings (and also learning to distinguish that feeling from "hunger"), but also, if I don't eat regularly, I tend not to crave food in the first place. I can pretty sustainably stay on an 18 hour fast schedule without breaking.

chillydawg 7y ago
Given that you're a "big dude" (aka overweight?) I assume you are that way by choice given your comments about how you can control your appetite? I'm a bit of a fat bastard myself and I think what I've come to realise is that for a huge segment of the population eating just works fine and they can adjust diet to tweak this or that relatively easily. For the rest (like me), my relationship with food is broken and stuff like IF or keto or whatever are patches to deal with that underlying brokenness. It always works for a while, but it always go to shit eventually.

prostoalex 7y ago

Yeah but they hint at the reason > Certain foods, particularly those rich in sugars and fat, are potent rewards [23] that promote eating (even in the absence of an energetic requirement) If the subjects are used to carb- and sugar-heavy diet, the hormonal spikes will be very stressful on the body. They also mention fat-heavy foods, but I suspect they are referring to foods high on both fat+sugars, not a green salad with copious amounts of olive oil.

zeta0134 7y ago
Anecdotal, but one of the things I noticed when I switched to keto for a while was a drastic change in my relationship to sugar. After cutting out sugar entirely, I noticed that water didn't taste bitter anymore, something I'd always attributed to the hard water supply. Coffee is also wildly different now, and I can drink teas without any sugar, which confuses folks when I eat out. (In my part of Texas, iced sweet tea is so popular it's basically the default beverage.) It's so strange. My whole life I hadn't given sodas a second thought, but that reward signal is strong. I don't think I ever want to go back.