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I've done fasting for a while. It's not the panacea that it's touted as. I was a pretty religious (figuratively) 16 hour fast person. I have several years of bl

I've done fasting for a while. It's not the panacea that it's touted as. I was a pretty religious (figuratively) 16 hour fast person. I have several years of bloodwork to show marginal if any changes to baseline. In some cases, for example with blood sugar, there's a small window where insulin actually spikes during a fast. I had several unusual blood sugar readings if I took them around the 15 hour mark along with other numbers that were raised temporarily with no other cause. I've switched over the last 6 months to eating 3 meals and 2 snacks a day of varying size. I climb often (vigorously, 4 times a week if not more) and found that fasting was simply insufficient to provide the energy I needed. IF caused notable performance decreases at the level I work at leading to more injuries due to poorer recovery. Changing my diet in this way fixed most of it. Of course, I try to eat relatively clean (but chips are a weakness). I don't have a 6 pack but I am also not overweight and carry enough muscle for my uses. This isn't to say I am giving a license to eat what you want. But what you do with your fuel is probably just as important as what that fuel is. The "average person" you mention is a couch potato. Of course these people not only benefit from IF but literally any change in exercise! IF works great for people who are not intensely active. Hence why it has become popular in tech. Proper sleep (whatever that means to your body) and relatively hard exercise are even better predictors of all-cause mortality than any of this. To me, after having done it, IF feels mostly like new age woo-woo "science" and it dances around people saying it flat out cures cancer. In some cases, for example prediabetes and chemotherapy, "deloading" the system has evidence of being effective. For the rest of us, it's a wash.

rngname22 4y ago
I don't really agree with the parent's assessment that lack of fasting-induced autophagy is the reason for the increase in cancer, but your anecdote about 16 hour fasts is sorta irrelevant. Autophagy doesn't really kick in until 2-3 days of fasting.
- galangalalgol 4y ago
  There are some military studies that showed autophagy didn't kick in until they dropped below 6% body fat. But that was with 600kcal and no change in duties. So it's not necessarily relevant. I do IF but I'm a couch potato. If I really stick to 20hrs, it seems to work very well. If I slip to even 19 I have to skip food for a day or even two to get back to feeling good (clear head functioning gut etc.). I am overweight still, but not obese. I lose about 2lbs a week when I stick with it. I am nervous about resuming excercise. I hope I can still recover well. I just do strength training 3 days a week for an hour, or two once I'm back to needing more warmup sets.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  I know it's technically true but it's seemed weird to me to lump skipping breakfast in with what I'd consider actual fasting, ever since I first encountered people using it that way in the context of diet fads. Someone tells me they're fasting, I don't expect they mean 8 non-contiguous waking hours without eating (with sleep in the middle). That's, like... pretty close to a normal day. It's easy to have 16 hour "fasts" just by accident. "I only ate two meals yesterday because I was fasting". LOL WUT? Again, I know, technically true, but not a useful way to refer to it, IMO.
lambdaba 4y ago
> I climb often (vigorously, 4 times a week if not more) You're very active! Even so, I wouldn't think the IF itself was the problem, probably you were having trouble eating enough for your level of activity with such a regimen. About bloodwork, I believe you're mistakingly conflating insulin and blood sugar. Blood sugar may vary in such a way, but it's just a proxy because insulin is so hard to measure. But more to the point, I wasn't referring to intermittent fasting solely, I believe even longer fasting periods are required. Regardless, even IF is a far cry from what the average person does. I also disagree that fasting is not a panacea. It's a close to one as we have. I don't think this is a subject I'm likely to convince skeptics in a comment, so I will simply say interested people will find reputable resources on the subject, including striking anecdotes published by fasting clinics (of which, for some reason, Germany has a few that publish material on YouTube).
zeku 4y ago
Are you sure you weren't just under-eating calories when you fasted? Just checking.
SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
Yes. Every time fasting comes up (because it ALWAYS come up) there's a ton of claims made but it almost always reduces down to the same effects that reducing your calories would have. Eat less, eat better, and get active.
Melatonic 4y ago
Fasting and IF are not always the same thing - personally I find a bigger benefit from occasionally totally fasting (for longer than one day). If anything it may be the mental benefits that it brings with regards to how you view your relationship with food and what foods specifically make you feel good or bad.

rngname22 4y ago

I don't really agree with the parent's assessment that lack of fasting-induced autophagy is the reason for the increase in cancer, but your anecdote about 16 hour fasts is sorta irrelevant. Autophagy doesn't really kick in until 2-3 days of fasting.

galangalalgol 4y ago
There are some military studies that showed autophagy didn't kick in until they dropped below 6% body fat. But that was with 600kcal and no change in duties. So it's not necessarily relevant. I do IF but I'm a couch potato. If I really stick to 20hrs, it seems to work very well. If I slip to even 19 I have to skip food for a day or even two to get back to feeling good (clear head functioning gut etc.). I am overweight still, but not obese. I lose about 2lbs a week when I stick with it. I am nervous about resuming excercise. I hope I can still recover well. I just do strength training 3 days a week for an hour, or two once I'm back to needing more warmup sets.
yamtaddle 4y ago
I know it's technically true but it's seemed weird to me to lump skipping breakfast in with what I'd consider actual fasting, ever since I first encountered people using it that way in the context of diet fads. Someone tells me they're fasting, I don't expect they mean 8 non-contiguous waking hours without eating (with sleep in the middle). That's, like... pretty close to a normal day. It's easy to have 16 hour "fasts" just by accident. "I only ate two meals yesterday because I was fasting". LOL WUT? Again, I know, technically true, but not a useful way to refer to it, IMO.

lambdaba 4y ago

> I climb often (vigorously, 4 times a week if not more) You're very active! Even so, I wouldn't think the IF itself was the problem, probably you were having trouble eating enough for your level of activity with such a regimen. About bloodwork, I believe you're mistakingly conflating insulin and blood sugar. Blood sugar may vary in such a way, but it's just a proxy because insulin is so hard to measure. But more to the point, I wasn't referring to intermittent fasting solely, I believe even longer fasting periods are required. Regardless, even IF is a far cry from what the average person does. I also disagree that fasting is not a panacea. It's a close to one as we have. I don't think this is a subject I'm likely to convince skeptics in a comment, so I will simply say interested people will find reputable resources on the subject, including striking anecdotes published by fasting clinics (of which, for some reason, Germany has a few that publish material on YouTube).

zeku 4y ago

Are you sure you weren't just under-eating calories when you fasted? Just checking.

SketchySeaBeast 4y ago

Yes. Every time fasting comes up (because it ALWAYS come up) there's a ton of claims made but it almost always reduces down to the same effects that reducing your calories would have. Eat less, eat better, and get active.

Melatonic 4y ago

Fasting and IF are not always the same thing - personally I find a bigger benefit from occasionally totally fasting (for longer than one day). If anything it may be the mental benefits that it brings with regards to how you view your relationship with food and what foods specifically make you feel good or bad.