Why is intermittent fasting beneficial?

bearly63 · October 2019

kimny72 wrote: »

bearly63 wrote: »

So I have read 2 books recently that touch on IF, and various forms of fasting, including the Mimicing Fasting Diet. Both are written by PHDs who study longevity and aging at the cellular level. Heavy biochemistry based science. I find it all fascinating but my takeaway is that it’s less about losing weight and more about what it does to your body, blood chemistry, glucose, etc. I’m not an expert just enjoy learning about the science behind it. The books are:
Life Span by Dr. David Sinclair
The Longevity Diet by Dr. Valter Longo

I haven't read either of those books, but yes the science is fascinating. Having said that, it's in its infancy and I am highly skeptical of well-educated people who jump on nascent science and proclaim it as confirmed. Dr. Longo in particular sells an expensive diet based on his theories.

So many of these theories are based on mouse studies, and it will be years before enough human studies have been completed to get anything close to consensus. So it's fascinating, but no one should be putting themselves out to try to eat this way. If it comes easily to you, and you are cautiously optimistic that there will be health benefits though, go for it

Hey cool.....we agree. Just mentioned these books as they talk about fasting in its various forms. Both of these guys have studied cell gerontology for 20 plus years at USC and Harvard Medical School. They are worth a read as they cover lots of other things besides fasting if your into science. I do IF (16:8) simply because it fits with my schedule. I still just track my calories and exercise with MFP but don't eat from 8pm-noon, when it works for me.

steveko89 · October 2019

Chris_2013 wrote: »

Love all the people just clicking disagree since they don't practice IF and have no knowledge of it. Please people just go back to clicking on threads about "would you date the person above you".

Ok now you can all click disagree on my comment please.

@Chris_2013, the problem that I have with IF are the assertions that it should be used to achieve weight loss and "numerous other health benefits" independent of validating that it's causing a caloric deficit and that there's any degree of correctness to doing IF or not; a fundamental lack of nuance in most conversations it starts. I have tried IF, a few times. It works fine as a tool for caloric adherence but I found I lost weight as expected given the caloric deficit I achieved over that time span.

Additionally, when the sources cited and documentaries and books instead of actual scientific studies I immediately question the validity of the material. The studies that do exist on IF (at least the one's of which I'm aware) are fairly limited at this point. Though there is some promise in the correlations to longevity and health risk indicators, those aren't necessarily primary goals for everyone. The primary reason I've eschewed IF in favor of standard caloric restriction/tracking is due to muscle growth. Optimal MPS isn't achieved by time-restricting protein intake as IF requires so for me IF doesn't mesh with that particular goal and I find I'm perfectly competent to manage my weight without it.

mhmotes · October 2019

Look up Dr. Fung, Obesity Code. He has worked with hundreds of patients and reversed diabetes and reset insulin using IF.

cwolfman13 · October 2019

mhmotes wrote: »

Look up Dr. Fung, Obesity Code. He has worked with hundreds of patients and reversed diabetes and reset insulin using IF.

You can't reverse diabetes...you can only put it in remission, and there are many ways to do that.

raven56706 · October 2019

mhmotes wrote: »

Look up Dr. Fung, Obesity Code. He has worked with hundreds of patients and reversed diabetes and reset insulin using IF.

he is a fraud. he was even kicked out of many IF facebook groups for his bullcrap

CalgaryMac · October 2019

Doesn't fasting put your body into starvation response? I am diabetic so fasting is not an option and frankly don't feel that I am missing anything. However I do find that needing to eat regularly gets tedious without lots of variety.

Bradleys8299 · October 2019

CalgaryMac wrote: »

Doesn't fasting put your body into starvation response? I am diabetic so fasting is not an option and frankly don't feel that I am missing anything. However I do find that needing to eat regularly gets tedious without lots of variety.

Starvation mode is a myth. It's not a thing.

Bradleys8299 · October 2019

I do what people call "intermittent fasting". There is absolutely no benefit to this other than saving my calories for a nice big meal. I used to be a binge eater and I would always binge later in the evening. Now I save most of my calories for dinner and dessert. It's helped me a lot but it's definitely not for everyone. Eat when you want, it doesn't make a difference. Just stay within your calories if you're trying to lose weight.

Why is intermittent fasting beneficial?

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