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Agreed. I'm a big fan of intermittent and water fasting. Have seen things in my blood work that doctors would require me on meds to reverse. Outside of that, I

Agreed. I'm a big fan of intermittent and water fasting. Have seen things in my blood work that doctors would require me on meds to reverse. Outside of that, I can't speak to the positive impacts on my mood, and general ability to focus. The simplest solution to a lot of problems is consuming less with the assumption that, most of us (maybe not you), have a lot of spare energy sitting around. A lie that we don't unlearn as we grow up is we "require" three meals a day. This is true for children who need obscene amounts of energy to grow, but, not for us desk-bound adults. In the end, giving the body a break to heal by fasting or just consuming significantly less is going to leave more resources for the body energy to deal with other things.

trallnag 1y ago
Awesome insight. It's not the disability I have, it's that I have never tried healing by fasting. Of course. Because my body was always busy trying to eat food instead of fixing and regrowing all the malformed tissue. Because that's how it works. When a person without legs starts to fast, the legs will suddenly develop.
- amenhotep 1y ago
  It would be sensible for you to examine and interrogate why reading a general and fairly anodyne opinion about what might be a solution to a problem some people have led you to interpret it as a prescriptive and judgemental suggestion about the specific problem you specifically have.
  - cyrusradfar 1y ago
    Appreciate the thoughtful retort. Have a good one.
  - trallnag 1y ago
    In my mind it is a slippery slope that leads to a sickly Steve Jobs eating kilograms of raw carrots. Obviously a healthy lifestyle is good. And this includes not eating over your requirements. But sometimes there is actually something wrong. And in these cases, first trying out to just eat healthy can worsen the situation by delaying proper treatment. And proper treatment does equal a bunch of pharmaceutical drugs.
  - mock-possum 1y ago
    I disagree, I think it’s fairly easy to read this passage in particular > The simplest solution to a lot of problems is consuming less with the assumption that, most of us (maybe not you), have a lot of spare energy sitting around. as energy-woo / thanks-I’m-cured material. You can weasel your way around criticism by calling it “a general and fairly anodyne opinion about what might be a solution to a problem some people have,” but consider - It does make sense that someone who’s struggled with a chronic condition would be tired and embittered by the endless snake oil evangelizing they’ve had to endure, on top of already struggling with their health. (Not that fasting doesn’t work for some people, as you say! it’s more the grandiose claim that it’s “The simplest solution to a lot of problems” coupled with some vague anecdote about blood work and knowing better than doctors that waves a red flag)
itchyouch 1y ago
An interesting FYI is a comment made by Peter Attia on his podcast. He had a patient with metabolic markers that were not improving and they had exhausted all the typical avenues. Presumably they were things like weight loss. They put the patient on GLP-1 but injected into the thighs (or butt, I don't recall) for the metabolic benefits without the hunger blunting effects. It seems like GLP1, even in skinny patients (implied by Attia in this particular case), has metabolic benefits. The longevity community seems to be hinting that there may be geroprotective aspects of GLp1 as well, so we may be looking at the benefits beyond weight loss for metabolism.
- _cenw 1y ago
  (Outer) Thigh, upper arms and stomach are the on-label injection sites for these drugs.
- ifwinterco 1y ago
  It shouldn't make any difference where you pin it, it's systemic it just has to be administered subcutaneously because it's a peptide and it isn't orally active. Don't listen to these YouTubers about health and fitness, most of them are clueless
  - avgDev 1y ago
    Pseudoscience scares me. There are so many people that believe this nonsense and basic understanding of medicine disproves many of those claims.
  - op00to 1y ago
    It shouldn't, and yet for me it seems to make a difference! I don't think it's placebo, because I am really losing weight. My anecdata: When I start with a particular dose of GLP-1, I inject in thigh. I get strong appetite suppression, heart rate increase, digestion slow down etc. After some time, the effect decreases as my body adjusts. I then move injection to abdomen, and I get a huge bump in suppression, systemic effects, etc. No idea why this happens, but I've seen it with Zepbound and 5, 7.5, and 10mg. It's allowed me to stay on each dose for far longer than my doctor expected.
l5870uoo9y 1y ago
There is no such thing as water fasting. I would characterize it as an eating disorder.
- cyrusradfar 1y ago
  Umm. Sources? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting - https://zerolongevity.com/blog/the-history-of-fasting/
- InMice 1y ago
  Of course. That's why the nobel prize in medicine in 2016 was awarded to a cell biolgoist studying cellular autophagy for over a decade. It must be why glucose is not an essential dietary macronutrient and our liver can synthesizie it endogenously from fats and proteins (it just felt like doing that one day and stored all those chemical pathways in our genes I guess). That must also be why ketones produced from our fat stores burn so cleanly with less reactive inflammatory byproducts. In fact the cells in our brain actually prefer ketones to glucose. There's no such as water fasting. It's just random chance that when the body is in a state of ketosis it suppresses ghrelen and other hunger hormones or that countless other chemical pathways (de)activate or change. That's right the body has absolutely no design or adaptation for scarcity of food. Water fasting is totally foreign to the human body, that's why whenever we study ancient cultures...we find they practiced purposeful fasting. There's just no such thing as water fasting, it must be a modern eating disorder. There's no chance it has anything to do with the last few million years of our evolution. It has no benefit or relevance now.
  - l5870uoo9y 1y ago
    Took "water fasting" to mean fasting even without water, apparently it is the opposite.
    - InMice 1y ago
      LOL total misunderstanding then. No problem.
Cthulhu_ 1y ago
I for one don't "require" three meals a day, but I'm hungry in the morning, ergo, I like breakfast. It's not so much about how often you eat but what and how much. Generally speaking, of course, I can't speak for any benefits of intermittent fasting (assuming equal daily calorie / macronutrient intake) because I'm uneducated in that regard. But TL;DR, I will agree that desk jockeys will need less calories than people with a more active job or lifestyle, and people need to adjust their lifestyle accordingly else they'll gain weight.
- foobarian 1y ago
  Maybe this goes away after a while, but when I tried this in the past I get so hungry I can't think or work. So clearly it's a non-starter for me on work days.
  - codr7 1y ago
    It takes time to get used to the feeling, to accept that it's not dangerous, quite the opposite. Also the body gets used to not being full all the time, it will stop signalling so hard. Try it in the weekends first? Once you start enjoying the feeling, and you will, it will happen by itself.
  - dredmorbius 1y ago
    One approach is to first reduce carbs (and particularly highly-processed carbs), then begin intermittent fasting. An initial lower-carb diet for 2--4 weeks may help with compliance on the IF diet.
- codr7 1y ago
  Yeah, the problem with mornings is that it's probably the worst time of day to eat. Because the body flushes all stored up energy when you wake up, likely an evolutionary adaptation as breakfast was rarely served on a silver plate.
InMice 1y ago
ALmost everyone who shares their positive, any length fasting experience here gets downvoted. I will always upvote them. Ive done two 48 hour fasts and they were so relaxing and felt so natural. It just feels great to occasionally go about your day and not eat anything. Your gut tries to heal itself in between meals. The fact that almost all of HN just cant stand anyone mention they fast with positive benefits (and mounting evidence) is kidna sad. I guess every community has to be exceptionally closed minded about something.
- lazyasciiart 1y ago
  If you include as much meta-commentary every time, you’re certainly going to get downvoted.
- dredmorbius 1y ago
  <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9562917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9562917> Just make your point, as clearly and persuasively as possible.
codr7 1y ago
Yeah, it's been a gradual process for me, feeling comfortable with being hungry. But the less I eat, the better my health gets; I'm down to one normal sized meal per day, have been doing that for months.

trallnag 1y ago

Awesome insight. It's not the disability I have, it's that I have never tried healing by fasting. Of course. Because my body was always busy trying to eat food instead of fixing and regrowing all the malformed tissue. Because that's how it works. When a person without legs starts to fast, the legs will suddenly develop.

amenhotep 1y ago
It would be sensible for you to examine and interrogate why reading a general and fairly anodyne opinion about what might be a solution to a problem some people have led you to interpret it as a prescriptive and judgemental suggestion about the specific problem you specifically have.
- cyrusradfar 1y ago
  Appreciate the thoughtful retort. Have a good one.
- trallnag 1y ago
  In my mind it is a slippery slope that leads to a sickly Steve Jobs eating kilograms of raw carrots. Obviously a healthy lifestyle is good. And this includes not eating over your requirements. But sometimes there is actually something wrong. And in these cases, first trying out to just eat healthy can worsen the situation by delaying proper treatment. And proper treatment does equal a bunch of pharmaceutical drugs.
- mock-possum 1y ago
  I disagree, I think it’s fairly easy to read this passage in particular > The simplest solution to a lot of problems is consuming less with the assumption that, most of us (maybe not you), have a lot of spare energy sitting around. as energy-woo / thanks-I’m-cured material. You can weasel your way around criticism by calling it “a general and fairly anodyne opinion about what might be a solution to a problem some people have,” but consider - It does make sense that someone who’s struggled with a chronic condition would be tired and embittered by the endless snake oil evangelizing they’ve had to endure, on top of already struggling with their health. (Not that fasting doesn’t work for some people, as you say! it’s more the grandiose claim that it’s “The simplest solution to a lot of problems” coupled with some vague anecdote about blood work and knowing better than doctors that waves a red flag)

itchyouch 1y ago

An interesting FYI is a comment made by Peter Attia on his podcast. He had a patient with metabolic markers that were not improving and they had exhausted all the typical avenues. Presumably they were things like weight loss. They put the patient on GLP-1 but injected into the thighs (or butt, I don't recall) for the metabolic benefits without the hunger blunting effects. It seems like GLP1, even in skinny patients (implied by Attia in this particular case), has metabolic benefits. The longevity community seems to be hinting that there may be geroprotective aspects of GLp1 as well, so we may be looking at the benefits beyond weight loss for metabolism.

_cenw 1y ago
(Outer) Thigh, upper arms and stomach are the on-label injection sites for these drugs.
ifwinterco 1y ago
It shouldn't make any difference where you pin it, it's systemic it just has to be administered subcutaneously because it's a peptide and it isn't orally active. Don't listen to these YouTubers about health and fitness, most of them are clueless
- avgDev 1y ago
  Pseudoscience scares me. There are so many people that believe this nonsense and basic understanding of medicine disproves many of those claims.
- op00to 1y ago
  It shouldn't, and yet for me it seems to make a difference! I don't think it's placebo, because I am really losing weight. My anecdata: When I start with a particular dose of GLP-1, I inject in thigh. I get strong appetite suppression, heart rate increase, digestion slow down etc. After some time, the effect decreases as my body adjusts. I then move injection to abdomen, and I get a huge bump in suppression, systemic effects, etc. No idea why this happens, but I've seen it with Zepbound and 5, 7.5, and 10mg. It's allowed me to stay on each dose for far longer than my doctor expected.

l5870uoo9y 1y ago

There is no such thing as water fasting. I would characterize it as an eating disorder.

cyrusradfar 1y ago
Umm. Sources? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting - https://zerolongevity.com/blog/the-history-of-fasting/
InMice 1y ago
Of course. That's why the nobel prize in medicine in 2016 was awarded to a cell biolgoist studying cellular autophagy for over a decade. It must be why glucose is not an essential dietary macronutrient and our liver can synthesizie it endogenously from fats and proteins (it just felt like doing that one day and stored all those chemical pathways in our genes I guess). That must also be why ketones produced from our fat stores burn so cleanly with less reactive inflammatory byproducts. In fact the cells in our brain actually prefer ketones to glucose. There's no such as water fasting. It's just random chance that when the body is in a state of ketosis it suppresses ghrelen and other hunger hormones or that countless other chemical pathways (de)activate or change. That's right the body has absolutely no design or adaptation for scarcity of food. Water fasting is totally foreign to the human body, that's why whenever we study ancient cultures...we find they practiced purposeful fasting. There's just no such thing as water fasting, it must be a modern eating disorder. There's no chance it has anything to do with the last few million years of our evolution. It has no benefit or relevance now.
- l5870uoo9y 1y ago
  Took "water fasting" to mean fasting even without water, apparently it is the opposite.
  - InMice 1y ago
    LOL total misunderstanding then. No problem.

Cthulhu_ 1y ago

I for one don't "require" three meals a day, but I'm hungry in the morning, ergo, I like breakfast. It's not so much about how often you eat but what and how much. Generally speaking, of course, I can't speak for any benefits of intermittent fasting (assuming equal daily calorie / macronutrient intake) because I'm uneducated in that regard. But TL;DR, I will agree that desk jockeys will need less calories than people with a more active job or lifestyle, and people need to adjust their lifestyle accordingly else they'll gain weight.

foobarian 1y ago
Maybe this goes away after a while, but when I tried this in the past I get so hungry I can't think or work. So clearly it's a non-starter for me on work days.
- codr7 1y ago
  It takes time to get used to the feeling, to accept that it's not dangerous, quite the opposite. Also the body gets used to not being full all the time, it will stop signalling so hard. Try it in the weekends first? Once you start enjoying the feeling, and you will, it will happen by itself.
- dredmorbius 1y ago
  One approach is to first reduce carbs (and particularly highly-processed carbs), then begin intermittent fasting. An initial lower-carb diet for 2--4 weeks may help with compliance on the IF diet.
codr7 1y ago
Yeah, the problem with mornings is that it's probably the worst time of day to eat. Because the body flushes all stored up energy when you wake up, likely an evolutionary adaptation as breakfast was rarely served on a silver plate.

InMice 1y ago

ALmost everyone who shares their positive, any length fasting experience here gets downvoted. I will always upvote them. Ive done two 48 hour fasts and they were so relaxing and felt so natural. It just feels great to occasionally go about your day and not eat anything. Your gut tries to heal itself in between meals. The fact that almost all of HN just cant stand anyone mention they fast with positive benefits (and mounting evidence) is kidna sad. I guess every community has to be exceptionally closed minded about something.

lazyasciiart 1y ago
If you include as much meta-commentary every time, you’re certainly going to get downvoted.
dredmorbius 1y ago
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9562917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9562917> Just make your point, as clearly and persuasively as possible.

codr7 1y ago

Yeah, it's been a gradual process for me, feeling comfortable with being hungry. But the less I eat, the better my health gets; I'm down to one normal sized meal per day, have been doing that for months.