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Evidence that overnight fasting could extend healthy lifespan [pdf]
- ofou 5y agoEven 16h-8h fast-feed periods are great for long-term health. Skipping breakfast with plain coffee for me have worked perfectly. Now I'll transition to a 8am-16pm feed period schedule, I've heard that it may improve sleep quality going with empty stomach to bed.
- nkozyra 5y agoNot trying to be snarky here but is 16pm supposed to be 6pm? 14 hour fast?
- azinman2 5y agoI’m guessing it’s actually 4pm — 24h number incorrectly written with a pm.
- neutronicus 5y agoUsually the feed window is 8 hours so they probably meant 8am-4pm (and probably messed up converting 0800-1600)
- ofou 5y agohaha yeah. sorry about it. I meant 8:00 - 16:00 hrs.
- itake 5y agoedit: commenter shared [0] which disproves my understanding. Intermittent fasting, when controlled for calorie (and protein) intake, had a healthy outcome than a 'normal' diet, but the sample size was only 14 women per group (IF and control). I wish they would have stricter diets in the study. They control for smokers, but I wonder if participants in one group consume alcohol or deep-fried calories more than the other. Or even one group getting better sleep than the other group. [0] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6735806/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6735806/ ---- My understanding is that Intermittent Fasting (IF) is built on shaky science b/c research doesn't control for calorie reduction (CR). There are papers that suggest CR improves longevity. There are papers that say IF improves longevity, but I haven't found any research that says IF without CR improves longevity. IF studies allow subjects to eat unrestricted during food periods, but don't actually record how many calories are consumed. We don't know if the subjects (unintentionally) also CR during IF. If IF helps people CR, then great, but I think its misleading to say that IF actually has direct health benefits.
- ofou 5y agoYou're understanding is limited. For a nice review check out this one [1]. Although most of 16:8 effects are minor, they build up over time. [1]: https://examine.com/supplements/16-8-intermittent-fasting/ https://examine.com/supplements/16-8-intermittent-fasting/
- ofou 5y agoFor a nice coverage of the effects, here: https://examine.com/supplements/16-8-intermittent-fasting/research/ https://examine.com/supplements/16-8-intermittent-fasting/re...
- itake 5y agooo! thank you for this. I updated my comment.
- itake 5y ago> TRF 2826 ± 412.3 kcal/day, carbohydrates 53.2 ± 1.4 %, fat 24.7 ± 3.1 %, protein 22.1 ± 2.6 % > ND 3007 ± 444.7 kcal/day, carbohydrates 54.7 ± 2.2 %, fat 23.9 ± 3.5 %, protein 21.4 ± 1.8) Any ideas why the TRF group has less calories and more protein than the ND group in the linked study linked in the article [0]? _Maybe_ the TRF group has smaller humans than the ND group, but then why would TRF have a higher protein diet? > Some studies have found that 16:8 can preferentially reduce fat mass while sparing muscle, but further research is still required to confirm this Bro-Science Body Builders know that a high protein diet + calorie restrictions are perfect for cutting abdominal fat. I don't see what value IF provides here. [0] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27737674/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27737674/
- ketanmaheshwari 5y agoWhy do they even need fruit flies to do this kind of study? How difficult would it be to find human subjects for this?
- MattGaiser 5y agoHuman subjects have a lot of rules around their use.
- amelius 5y agoIt takes much longer to test this on humans, because of the greater average lifespan.
- humanlion87 5y agoApart from the other points mentioned, I want to add that funding could be a potential issue for studies based on human subjects. More expensive and time consuming compared to studying flies. The general flow of such research is to test various hypothesis on animals and then move forward to human studies only for the most promising ones.
- hyperbovine 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board
- zerop 5y agoI fast every week once (dinner to dinner). I find the benefits overall
- keymone 5y agoDon’t all humans fast overnight pretty much always?
- cfn 5y agoNope, lots get up in the middle of the night to eat.
- keymone 5y agoSurely that is an eating disorder or beginning of one?
- cfn 5y agoI am not sure. I have a sister who used to do that and she wasn't overweight neither had any obvious eating disorder. Maybe it was because she was an athlete? I know other people with obvious weight problems that wake up in the middle of the night to eat and maybe for those it might be considered a disorder.
- birdyrooster 5y agoThese people that want to live in their 80s or beyond boggle me. Who wants to stick around that long when you have so many contemporaneous failures of the body all crashing down on you? Better to just die catastrophically in your early to mid 70s and save yourself a drab decade or two.
- solveit 5y agoSome people are healthier in their 80s than others in their 60s. The point is to be healthy for as long as possible.
- avalys 5y agoIf you're not careful, your body will start failing at age 65 and you'll live a drab decade until croaking at 75. If you want to avoid that, and want to stay healthy and vibrant until 75, you have pretty much the same goals as someone who wants to live to 95.
- yosito 5y ago> in fruit flies
- orliesaurus 5y agothat's what I also came here to say....
- Jolter 5y agoYeah @dang could we have a title edit please? This headline is grossly misleading.
- Aerroon 5y agoHow can you have a 28 hour feeding cycle? The article states that they alternated a 20 hour fast with a 28 hour feeding cycle. Doesn't the 28 hour feeding cycle also include a fast since the fruit flies will sleep at night?
- moviequotes 5y agowould some IRB clearance be needed for this study? Would fruit flies have any IRB concern?
- zerop 5y agoLittle more data and research on fasting: Fasting is fountain of youth: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/01/health/fasting-longevity-food-drayer/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/01/health/fasting-longevity-food...
- mtgentry 5y agoIt doesn’t mention that autophagy in humans takes several days. Overnight fasting might help us but not for the reasons implied here.
- mrfusion 5y agoI’ve never found good research on autophagy. Has anyone pinpointed when it starts?
- edoceo 5y agohttps://www.medicinenet.com/how_long_do_you_need_to_fast_for_autophagy/article.htm https://www.medicinenet.com/how_long_do_you_need_to_fast_for... Says 2-4 days.
- mikenew 5y agoFrom the article: > There are, however, no conclusive studies on humans that indicate an optimal period of fasting to achieve autophagy
- costcofries 5y agoI've tried a few variations of fasting over the last ~3 years and here's what works best for me. Because I tend to snack, I have time-boxed my eating windows inline with a fasting schedule, so: - No breakfast, just black coffee - First eating window (~11am - 2pm) - Second eating window (~5pm - 8pm) - No eating after 8pm I've played with three eating windows and it also works quite well. I cheat on weekends, Fridays and sometimes in social situations. Most important thing to note: build a routine that works for you, nothing is sustainable if it isn't built around your specific lifestyle. If it doesn't work for your lifestyle, it will never sustain.. think about it as product market fit for your body + health.
- leetrout 5y ago> think about it as product market fit for your body + health Willpower and default behaviors as a currency is how I think about it.
- timbit42 5y agoI found eating at 2pm and 8pm worked for me. In the morning, if you don't eat, your digestive system seems to remain inactive so you're not that hungry until 2pm. By eating at 8pm you're eating late enough that you'll be asleep before you get hungry and want to snack. This gave me 18 hours of fasting, 12 hours digesting the last meal and about 6 hours of my body burning my fat stores for energy. I combined this with reduced carbs so when I did eat, it was a longer time before I felt hungry because reduced carbs means not getting the sugar rush and then the crash a couple of hours later where you feel very hungry.
- mrfusion 5y agoI haven’t read the artical yet but doesn’t everyone fast overnight?
- pmdulaney 5y agoThe subtitle speaks of prolonged overnight fasting.
- z3t4 5y agoNext time someone asks if I've tried fasting - Yeh, I'm doing overnight fasting
- tejohnso 5y agoMany people snack right up until bedtime (sometimes even literally in bed) and then rush to feed again the second they wake up. So technically, there is a fast during sleep, but technically, there is a fast every second you don't have food in your mouth, I suppose. The point is, duration is important. I don't know if there's a standard, but in the intermittent fasting literature, 18/6 is one of the common schedules, so you'd eat from noon to 6pm for example. The other 18 hours would be 0 calorie intake hours. Rather than fixed schedules, what you need is a period of time long enough that your body enters ketosis rather than using energy directly from glucose. The schedules are a rough guideline.
- bitzlab 5y agoIndeed, overnight fasting can really extend healthy lifespan and this is a proved fact. The secret is not to fall asleep starved, but to eat vegetables and fruits. On the morning grab a good / consistent meal, afternoon eat well one more time and this is it! Your body will have time to digest and rest. I hope it helped you! Cheers. https://natrmd.com https://natrmd.com