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Seems like there’s numerous conflicting studies regarding intermittent fasting especially when different fasting periods are taken into account. Is there any co
by moneywoes 5y ago
Seems like there’s numerous conflicting studies regarding intermittent fasting especially when different fasting periods are taken into account. Is there any conclusive research regarding just having 2 meals a day? That seems to be the easiest to integrate in day to day life.
- sebow 5y agoI think there's a balance and there's definitely more nuance here.People should listen to their bodies, not go into extremes.Though the other extreme of over-eating through impulsive behavior is way harder to be aware of.Regardless of where someone starts on this 'diet', they should be aware of how they feel, but not be afraid of breaking the conditioning.
- scoot 5y agoPlease define conflicting (largely positive but under different conditions, or something else?), and list the studies in question. > having 2 meals a day Intermittent fasting isn't about reducing the number of meals, or in theory the total calorific intake, but rather the window in which food is consumed. That said, it's entirely possible that one influences the pother.
- JamesBarney 5y agoThe intermittent fasting in this study was every other day feeding by the way.
- swader999 5y agoI find that to be one of the hardest regimens.
- TimSchumann 5y agoAgree. I'd rather do One Meal A Day, or 5 days Fasting 2 days fed, or basically anything but every other day. Of course, I'm not locked in a cage in a lab with no choice.
- nsxwolf 5y agoI did one meal a day for a few years and lost an OK amount of weight and felt pretty good. But then I fell off the wagon and it wasn’t easy to start up again. So now I’m trying a 48 hour fast once a week, and not changing much else. Starting week 5 tomorrow, and it’s looking promising so far.
- TimSchumann 5y ago> But then I fell off the wagon and it wasn’t easy to start up again. Just wanted to say, based on my extensive experience with fasting, this is normal. There seems to be a psychological barrier about how easy it 'should' be or 'used to' be, and you beat yourself up about it which makes things even worse. Every time I've made a habit of extended fasting, or prolonged intermittent fasting, and taken a break longer than 6 to 9 weeks, restarting is very... very hard.
- ahefner 5y agoI'm curious if you considered a 4 day fast every other week instead. The first two days are the hardest days of an extended fast (hungry, lethargic), so you might find this approach easier and more beneficial.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoI’ve found coffee and the occasional 200mg caffeine pill with 400mg of L-Theanine helpful to push through the first day of a multi day fast, when your body is complaining about burning up its glucose reserves.
- Grimm1 5y agoI’d love to give this a try, do you not workout during these or?
- toomuchtodo 5y agoYes, I work out daily, 30 minutes on a row machine, 30 minutes strength training. Strength training has been found to protect muscle tissue from wasting during fasts, and the cardio is because I enjoy it.
- SoylentYellow 5y agoFor me it involved skipping breakfast. It was an easy transition, because normally I'm not hungry in the morning anyways. I would eat breakfast mostly out of force of habit.
- SomeBoolshit 5y agoSame for me. In addition to that, having breakfast actually caused me to get hungry again pretty quickly and generally start feeling terrible if I then didn't eat again, whereas without it, I could pretty much go all day, no problem.
- ianai 5y agoThis opinion gets repeated a lot. I’m the complete opposite. I wake up wanting food and have made dinner my skip meal. Seems to work well for me.
- calny 5y agoNot an expert, but from reading studies I suspect that the specifics like which meal to skip can vary by person. Which makes sense since we all have unique physiology. Eg, some people are natural night owls vs morning people. There’s plenty about the body we don’t fully understand, but executing discipline to follow a generally-healthy eating regiment likely has both direct physical benefits and benefits from a sense of control and well-being.
- hanniabu 5y agoEveryone is different, do what feels right for you
- hnick 5y agoBreakfast actually made me feel physically ill for a while when I was in my early 20s, so I skipped it out of necessity. I think it had something to do with insomnia. Keeping down half an apple was a struggle. So I basically starting skipping entirely. These days a single coffee with some milk is enough until lunch, whenever that is. I can eat breakfast (or at least brunch) decently well now, but like you say I just get hungry again anyway. And if I'm going to the gym any time before 1pm I try to eat nothing beforehand or I just feel worse.
- throwawaycities 5y agoThe autophagy research that won the 2017 Nobel Peace prize lead to the explosive interest in fasting for cellular health/longevity. There are now thousands of studies published per year related to fasting and autophagy. IF is a byproduct of this interest. Autophagy isn’t generally reached with most IF schedules (generally around the 24 hour mark and peaking around the 36 hour mark), but a lot of these studies are measuring other possible benefits and bio markers of IF. The answer to your question depends on your goals, but if you are fasting because of the hype around longevity I would suggest focusing on 2-3 day fasting periods rather than IF.
- kk6mrp 5y agoI came to a conclusion two meals a day after finding out where the three meals a day concept originated.
- Max_aaa 5y agoStudies also seem to show that the trigger mechanism for many of the benefits is caloric restriction and not the fast. As when fasting we do need to eat at some point.
- makeitdouble 5y agoIs it even possible we ever end with conclusive research that could be applied at large scale ? I think you won't have much choice than try and see if it works for you specifically. We could have more lab mice studies, but it wouldn't account for actual humans' different metabolism, include lifestyle (work, daily rhythm, mental state), actual food intake, genetics etc. Looking at other human related health subject, for instance we haven't hit any conclusive point on any specific food that is widespread today. Everything regarding fat, proteins, sugar etc. is still small scale, extremely biased, often politicized and producing contradictory results. All we know for sure is that "too much" is not good, and that's after decades and decades of research.
- chalst 5y agoI think it's hard but absolutely posssible, but the quality of statistics in nutrition research depresses me. Good work exists, but the publication incentives do not lead it to rise to the top, meaning the correlation between study quality and study size isn't good. AFAIK, and I am not up-to-date, there are no large studies that (i) are constructed to gather data on enough variables and (ii) do the data gathering well-enough that the data won't be too noisy. I'd love to learn that I am wrong.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gremloni 5y agoI’ve had one meal a day for years. We just eat around 7p and I have a milky, unsweetened coffee in the mornings. After a while you don’t even feel the urge to eat lunch anymore so there’s no chance of “falling of the wagon” as another GP has mentioned.
- abandonliberty 5y agoYou have to have enough of a food shortage to get your body to shift into more autophagy/catabolism. It doesn't really matter how often you eat as long as you can generate that shortage. The initial studies had long/significant calorie restriction, and all the fasting schedules are ways to make them more tolerable.