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I've seen more and more research on the benefits of fasting and skipping breakfast. I've actually not eaten breakfast in over 3 years and I have to say, I actua

I've seen more and more research on the benefits of fasting and skipping breakfast. I've actually not eaten breakfast in over 3 years and I have to say, I actually prefer not eating it. It took some time to adapt, but once I did, I actually felt better. I've found it easier to maintain my weight, actually put on muscle (combined with other dietary changes needed to add muscle) and also increased my concentration and focus. What do I do? I have a couple big glasses of water, a cup of coffee or two with heavy cream or butter and that is it until lunch. If I'm not trying to put on muscle I generally eat very low carb and that further gives me more focus and concentration. Basically, my n=1 experience is quite good and I recommend others experiment with it.

oakenshield 14y ago
What you're speaking about seems similar to what most people on the Leangains [1] diet follow. In looking around for healthy diet + exercise patterns for predominantly sedentary lifestyles (such as the HN crowd), there seem to be two main styles: (1) eat 6 small meals a day spaced out over your waking period, and (2) eat only 8 hours a day, and fast for 16, a form of intermittent fasting (IF) as is recommended by Leangains. Having tried both, I find that IF is vastly easier to adhere to, and more importantly, much easier to maintain your weight loss (or muscle gain) goals as you have only so much time in a day to stuff yourself. In both schemes however, most of your calories are supposed to come post exercise. In my case, this is the traditional "dinner" time, but like the article says, for pre-electricity ages, this meal may very well have been around noon. [1] http://examine.com/leangains-faq/#summary2 http://examine.com/leangains-faq/#summary2
- CerealPie 14y ago
  For those interested in leangains, I can't recommend Andy's site [1] enough. Lots of useful and easy to folloew information there. Also, I created a simple macro calculator for leangains[2] just last week. It is not finished yet, but at least for me it is useable. [1] http://rippedbody.jp/ http://rippedbody.jp/ [2] http://sareyko.net/leancalc/ http://sareyko.net/leancalc/
- Swizec 14y ago
  Personally I've discovered that 5 small-ish meals spread out over the day works really well. It's a bit annoying because I have to eat every three hours, but I've dropped fat without dropping (even gaining) weight and feel much better than I used to. And most importantly, I have constant energy levels throughout the day. With normal-sized meals there's no problems of being sleepy after a meel, just energetic, and the next meal comes sooner than an energy crash. Also it's proven to be the only way I can get enough calories every day, especially those days when I have boxing practice ...
ekianjo 14y ago
I know some people skip breakfast altogether and I am unable to say whether this is good or bad for your body, but there is an indication/correlation that people who skip breakfast tend to have a higher incidence of diabetes. I think it is not proven whether it is a causal effect or not, just observational. So it may be caused by other factors.
ekianjo 14y ago
I know some people skip breakfast altogether and I am unable to say whether this is good or bad for your body, but there is an indication/correlation that people who speak breakfast tend to have a higher incidence of diabetes. I think it is not proven whether it is a causal effect or not, just observational. So it may be caused by other factors.
w0utert 14y ago
[quote]I've seen more and more research on the benefits of fasting and skipping breakfast[/quote] Interestingly, even research into eating habits (or at least the way the media picks up and reports on it) appears to be culturally biased, because where I live (Western Europe), there's an almost unrelenting stream of experts telling me how bad skipping breakfeast is. Supposedly it will make you fat, tired, weak and eventually even sick. It's pretty annoying. I haven't been eating breakfast for almost 20 years without any perceived negative health effects, but every time I tell someone about it I get this lecture about how bad it is to not eat breakfast. This point of view is purely based on conjecture repeated from something people have heard before, never out of personal experience. When it comes to food & health, people really are like sheep, nobody really knows anything about it, but everyone has on opinion, and almost all these opinions are the same, based on 'common sense' and lore, not on scientific facts. Only 10 years ago common sense said 5 glasses of milk a day were healthy, or bread and cheese for lunch. 1/5th of your diet should consist of dairy products. Today everybody thinks differently. Now counting calories is all the hype, but slowly research is starting to tell us that not all calories are the same in the sense that the kinds of food that contain them are digested differently. tl;dr: I always get a little frustrated when people start telling me what is or isn't 'healthy' because most people are basically mindlessly repeating what someone else told them. Eating breakfast 'because it's healthy' is one of these things.
- gurkendoktor 14y ago
  > not on scientific facts But yes - all these guesses are the scientific facts as far as we know them. You can complain about nutritional science being absolutely immature and probably highly corrupt, but it's still the best we have, and people who follow it aren't sheep anymore than I am for believing that there are atoms just because I was told so.
  - goldfeld 14y ago
    Except when 'scientific research' is largely based on what an industry (e.g. dairy products) wants to sell you.
  - graeme 14y ago

oakenshield 14y ago

What you're speaking about seems similar to what most people on the Leangains [1] diet follow. In looking around for healthy diet + exercise patterns for predominantly sedentary lifestyles (such as the HN crowd), there seem to be two main styles: (1) eat 6 small meals a day spaced out over your waking period, and (2) eat only 8 hours a day, and fast for 16, a form of intermittent fasting (IF) as is recommended by Leangains. Having tried both, I find that IF is vastly easier to adhere to, and more importantly, much easier to maintain your weight loss (or muscle gain) goals as you have only so much time in a day to stuff yourself. In both schemes however, most of your calories are supposed to come post exercise. In my case, this is the traditional "dinner" time, but like the article says, for pre-electricity ages, this meal may very well have been around noon. [1] http://examine.com/leangains-faq/#summary2 http://examine.com/leangains-faq/#summary2

CerealPie 14y ago
For those interested in leangains, I can't recommend Andy's site [1] enough. Lots of useful and easy to folloew information there. Also, I created a simple macro calculator for leangains[2] just last week. It is not finished yet, but at least for me it is useable. [1] http://rippedbody.jp/ http://rippedbody.jp/ [2] http://sareyko.net/leancalc/ http://sareyko.net/leancalc/
Swizec 14y ago
Personally I've discovered that 5 small-ish meals spread out over the day works really well. It's a bit annoying because I have to eat every three hours, but I've dropped fat without dropping (even gaining) weight and feel much better than I used to. And most importantly, I have constant energy levels throughout the day. With normal-sized meals there's no problems of being sleepy after a meel, just energetic, and the next meal comes sooner than an energy crash. Also it's proven to be the only way I can get enough calories every day, especially those days when I have boxing practice ...

ekianjo 14y ago

I know some people skip breakfast altogether and I am unable to say whether this is good or bad for your body, but there is an indication/correlation that people who skip breakfast tend to have a higher incidence of diabetes. I think it is not proven whether it is a causal effect or not, just observational. So it may be caused by other factors.

ekianjo 14y ago

I know some people skip breakfast altogether and I am unable to say whether this is good or bad for your body, but there is an indication/correlation that people who speak breakfast tend to have a higher incidence of diabetes. I think it is not proven whether it is a causal effect or not, just observational. So it may be caused by other factors.

w0utert 14y ago

[quote]I've seen more and more research on the benefits of fasting and skipping breakfast[/quote] Interestingly, even research into eating habits (or at least the way the media picks up and reports on it) appears to be culturally biased, because where I live (Western Europe), there's an almost unrelenting stream of experts telling me how bad skipping breakfeast is. Supposedly it will make you fat, tired, weak and eventually even sick. It's pretty annoying. I haven't been eating breakfast for almost 20 years without any perceived negative health effects, but every time I tell someone about it I get this lecture about how bad it is to not eat breakfast. This point of view is purely based on conjecture repeated from something people have heard before, never out of personal experience. When it comes to food & health, people really are like sheep, nobody really knows anything about it, but everyone has on opinion, and almost all these opinions are the same, based on 'common sense' and lore, not on scientific facts. Only 10 years ago common sense said 5 glasses of milk a day were healthy, or bread and cheese for lunch. 1/5th of your diet should consist of dairy products. Today everybody thinks differently. Now counting calories is all the hype, but slowly research is starting to tell us that not all calories are the same in the sense that the kinds of food that contain them are digested differently. tl;dr: I always get a little frustrated when people start telling me what is or isn't 'healthy' because most people are basically mindlessly repeating what someone else told them. Eating breakfast 'because it's healthy' is one of these things.

gurkendoktor 14y ago
> not on scientific facts But yes - all these guesses are the scientific facts as far as we know them. You can complain about nutritional science being absolutely immature and probably highly corrupt, but it's still the best we have, and people who follow it aren't sheep anymore than I am for believing that there are atoms just because I was told so.
- goldfeld 14y ago
  Except when 'scientific research' is largely based on what an industry (e.g. dairy products) wants to sell you.
- graeme 14y ago