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I Fired Myself
- djrogers 5y ago20 hours / day of fasting and 15 hours/ day without fluids is gonna take a LOT of adjustment for most people.
- ryankrage77 5y agoNo need to stick to this specific plan. Just the idea of planning your meals at the start of the day (and, hopefully, sticking to that plan) is very powerful idea. It removes some of the bias of in-the-moment decision making.
- b3morales 5y agoRight. If you find that you can't trust your present self to make good decisions on behalf of your future self, instead enlist your past self to put present self on a path where the decision has already been made.
- EugeneOZ 5y agoGreat, congrats, but it's better to drink more water than less.
- peteretep 5y agoI sleep much better from limiting water consumption in the evening
- trainsplanes 5y agoYeah, same. I've found that cutting off my water 4 hours before sleep lets me sleep better. Otherwise I'm waking up 1 to 3 times in the middle of the night with a painfully full bladder. I'll still take a couple sips before bed, but it's just enough to keep my mouth from getting dry and no more.
- lnanek2 5y agoYeah, that was kind of strange. The kidneys naturally turn off while sleeping anyway, so you shouldn't need to pee in the middle of the night. I worry he's going to get a slipped disc later limiting his fluids like that.
- omgitsabird 5y agoSleep cycle ADH release doesn't stop your kidneys completely, does it? You still are producing urine? Why a slipped disc?
- lostcolony 5y agoEven without other physical complications (such as, you know, enlarged prostate just from getting older), if you wake up at night anyway (light sleeper, a partner who shifts, whatever), cutting off fluids can help a lot. As if you wake up at any point in the night, the urge to go hits the same as when you wake up at your normal time. And that's the difference between getting up and going, or just rolling over.
- maroonblazer 5y agoYou can drink a lot of water before 4pm - more than enough to reach your daily quota.
- EugeneOZ 5y agoNo, thanks, I prefer to stay hydrated as long as possible. People who advise to don’t drink water for 16 hours will be ignored at least.
- maroonblazer 5y agoWhere are you getting 16 hours from? He doesn't say when he wakes up, presumably around 5-6 a.m., which puts him at around 12 hours.
- sabjut 5y agoI do agree that this sounds like horrible advice to give and one that most doctors would definitely advise against.
- indigodaddy 5y agoFollowing blog post talks more in detail about his meals/daily diet: https://medium.com/future-literacy/one-meal-23-hr-fast-100-nutrition-18187a2f5b https://medium.com/future-literacy/one-meal-23-hr-fast-100-n... See also where he talks about this a little bit with Lex Fridman. I watched the video first then poked around on Google a little and found his webpage. https://youtu.be/xdc05p8SmOI https://youtu.be/xdc05p8SmOI Full podcast which is more about Johnson’s brain monitoring device: https://youtu.be/1YbcB6b4A2U https://youtu.be/1YbcB6b4A2U Note I don’t have any affiliation with Johnson or Kernel, just enjoy Fridman’s podcasts.
- bryanjohnson 5y agothank you for posting
- PragmaticPulp 5y agoI tried to eat one, single, 2500 calorie meal per day for a month. It was nearly impossible to fit that much food in my stomach. I switched to two large meals 3-4 hours apart and I still struggled to get it all down. I wasn’t trying to lose weight at the time, but I can see how this would be an effective weight loss technique. After a few days I wasn’t really hungry in between meals. YMMV, but don’t assume this is as hard as it sounds if your goal is to lose weight.
- Brendinooo 5y agoNote: this is probably a good thing! I have the opposite problem. I dunno if I stretched my stomach or something, but I can put down thousands of calories in a meal if I want. I never fully committed to intermittent fasting, but calorie tracking is how I lose weight because I can trust it more than my appetite. I try to set myself up during the day for a big meal later, so that I can actually feel full once in awhile.
- lumost 5y agoIF works better when your body has weight to lose. When I’m on my heavier side I start falling into IF, but I’m probably eating a thousand calorie deficit. Which isn’t a huge deal for even a couple months when you have 40-50 pounds of body fat to burn off before you’d be considered underweight.
- chihuahua 5y agoI tried this too and had similar results. I restricted myself to one big meal in the evening. Like you, I found that it's difficult to eat too many calories for an entire day in a single meal. Also, it makes it easier to resist snacking throughout the day when the rule is clearly that there will be just one meal.
- robbedpeter 5y agoThe subtle gradient splotches in the background made me think my phone was broken - looks like when magnets wreck a crt display, lol.
- MarkLowenstein 5y agoOne time I encountered a gradient splotch near the top of my screen. It persisted no matter what application was in the foreground there, so I thought for sure my monitor had gone bad. Turned off and on, same thing. But then I thought, there's no low to where software construction can go, so even this might be a bug. Rebooted, and presto! No more gradient, monitor was fine. Must have been some Win 7 compositor bug. As I said, there's never a low.
- dgs_sgd 5y agoI like the metaphor of dividing yourself into multiple selves, each accountable to the others. My “nighttime Bryan” could use some work too.
- mastazi 5y ago> I like the metaphor of dividing yourself into multiple selves when I was running my own business solo, I imagined that multiple selves were doing the various tasks. When the quality of the output was too low, and if there was enough money, that's when I "fired myself" from that task and hired someone else. First thing was hiring an accountant for tax returns (the first year I was doing that alone), then I hired a graphic designer since my own designs were atrocious, etc. It's a good mental model to have, especially for those people who naturally tend to do everything themselves.
- maroonblazer 5y agoIf one wants to go as deep as possible on this concept then check out Part 3 of Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons"[0]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasons_and_Persons#Personal_identity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasons_and_Persons#Personal_i...
- mastazi 5y agoThank you for sharing that link, very interesting and I did not know the author.
- void_mint 5y ago> Discontinue fluids after 4pm to avoid getting up at night. Prob don't do this
- sabjut 5y agoThis has to be an age related thing right? I'm considerably younger than the author but the only times when I actually had to get up in the night for a bathroom visit were when beer was involved.
- void_mint 5y agoWell, I would say, having to urinate more frequently is a part of getting old (it seems like mainly in men), but I think the 4pm cutoff may be a bit drastic depending on what time you go to bed and wake up. Waking up at 7am, without having had water since 4pm, seems like a terrible piece of advice.
- chrsig 5y agoIt can be commonly occurring with various different health conditions
- sghiassy 5y agoI’ve really focused on eating when I’m actually hungry - not just bored or anxious.
- rejectedandsad 5y agoI did IF (16 hours, nothing huge) fairly consistently for about a year and now I do it inconsistently. My biggest problems were hunger keeping me up if I eat too early or being tired and fatigued in the morning if I ate later. It doesn’t help that I feel extremely angry and depressed while hungry which leads me to far too many self destructive behaviors (threatening people with suicide on the street, etc). Now I just try to eat when I’m hungry but I’ve gained back most of the weight I lost so…
- wly_cdgr 5y agoIn my day, this was called multiple personality disorder
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- aj7 5y agoThis isn’t Instagram. I thought for sure, “Oh, a story where a founder realizes in real time he’s not qualified to run his venture.” I got— this.
- charles_f 5y agoMeh, it's on a topic of continuous improvement and some psychological tricks, I find that in line with HN topics.
- charles_f 5y ago> At a recent all-Bryan meeting, all the Bryans shared their experiences with this unconventional new routine I might have missed the point but this is what I'll keep from this article
- _carbyau_ 5y agoIt reminds me of Monty Python Bruce sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ULnwJX2AoA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ULnwJX2AoA First Bruce: Is your name not Bruce? Michael: No, it's Michael. Second Bruce: That's going to cause a little confusion. Third Bruce: Mind if we call you "Bruce" to keep it clear?
- luke2m 5y agoI thought my screen was broken from that background :-) But really, I couldn’t do the no fluids thing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cushychicken 5y agoThat's great that this system is working for this guy but I would like to offer that there are paradigms besides corporate governance structures by which you can structure and organize your personal existence
- simonh 5y agoAll organisational structures have alternatives, so you’re not really saying anything.
- cushychicken 5y agoI suppose that makes two of us
- Sophistifunk 5y agoThis is off-topic, trash besides, and probably dangerous.
- jarnagin 5y agoHere’s a reasonable way to maintain your weight: 1. Limit added sugar to an absolute minimum. Fruit is fine. Go crazy. 2. Avoid processed foods like chips and other things that have lots of preservatives. 3. Limit breads and starches to no more than 35-40% of your diet. 4. No restrictions on fat and protein. Go crazy, you glutton. 5. Stop eating at least five hours before bed. You don’t want to be digesting while sleeping and this is a reasonable amount of time to avoid that. 6. Sleep enough. 7. Try to keep a 12-14 hour stretch where you don’t eat. Do 5 and 6 and this will take care of itself. 8. Walk 3-5 miles per day. 9. Limit drinking to 1-2 days per week. 10. Critical: Avoid snacking too much, and stop eating when you’re full. You know when that last helping is more than you really need. Just don’t eat it. That’s it. The boring diet. It won’t win any awards, but you’ll be healthy enough and that’s what matters.
- andreyk 5y agoGood advice, but if you go crazy with fruit and fats you can easily still gain weight. Here's my boring diet for weight maintenance: consume about the same or fewer calories than you burn. Of course, you want a diet that's not just about weight, but also nutrition.
- jarnagin 5y agoGood point. How could I have forgotten? Added a bullet (11) at the end.
- the_watcher 5y agoYea, the first thing I learned was that nuts are an excellent snack if you stick to the serving size, but the serving size is shockingly small and easy to _blow_ past. I ended up just not buying them anymore, too easy to eat half a bag as a snack.
- commoner 5y agoI agree that monitoring calorie intake is the best way to control weight. Bryan from the article is comfortable with intermittent fasting, and that's one of many valid ways to reduce calorie intake. Some people like low-carbohydrate diets because they are less tempted to overeat fats and proteins. Others prefer low-fat diets since fat intake is a greater factor in their calorie count. And some people look at calories in general instead of focusing on any single macronutrient. Any of these strategies can help a person control their calorie intake, just pick the ones that work for you. However, most whole fruits (and vegetables) have high fiber, high water content, and low calorie density. This means a person would gain less weight by eating whole fruits and vegetables than by eating many other types of food to the same level of satiation. (Fruit juices have little to no fiber, and are not considered whole fruits.) Whole fruits and vegetables are also healthy because they have high nutrient density. From a 2005 study: > As expected, we found that fruits and vegetables were nutrient-dense in relation to their energy content. > Because of their low energy density, the energy cost of vegetables and fruits was higher relative to other foods. > However, the data unambiguously showed that fruits and vegetables were nutrient-rich in relation to the little energy that they provide. Although fruits and vegetables suffer when assessed on the calories/price ratio, they represent extremely good value when assessed using the nutrient density score and the nutrient to price ratio. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7446672_A_Nutrient_Density_Standard_for_Vegetables_and_Fruits_Nutrients_per_Calorie_and_Nutrients_per_Unit_Cost https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7446672_A_Nutrient_...
- andreyk 5y agoWhat a dramatic title for a rather boring 'this is my new IF routine' blog post. The diet plan seems like waaaay overkill IMO.
- nostromo 5y agoHere’s my trick. Be very disciplined at the grocery store. Then you can relax at home. My house is full of healthy foods, no sugar, and no bread. If I’m not hungry enough to eat something healthy, I’m not really hungry at all. I’m just trying to distract myself from boredom or anxiety with food.
- ngngngng 5y agoIt will never stop amazing me that people would rather not eat for twenty hour periods every single day rather than just cut out some comfort foods and portion control. I just listen to my body when it tells me I'm full and work out occasionally and I've never left a healthy BMI, but if I fast for over 12 hours of waking time my body screams at me for food.
- hollerith 5y agoIt is not just about calories per day. Going without food (even if only for overnight) puts the body in ketosis. If ketosis does not happen often enough, some of the body's tissues lose the ability to burn fat, which has deleterious effects (including IIRC insulin resistance). And without fasting, the removal of damaged intracellular proteins ("autophagy") won't happen or will proceed at a suboptimal rate.
- ngngngng 5y agoHow often is generally "often enough"?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- frollo 5y agoI really don't get all this fascination for weird diets, fasting and such. You only live once, enjoy it.