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A comment on Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock?. Parent comment

Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by GordonS on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @12:43PM (#14696857)
I recently fasted for 5 days, and it was much easier than I expected. When I started, I didn't think I'd last 1 day, never mind 5 - but actually I could easily have gone longer!

I agree about hunger coming in waves; I'd go 12 hours without even thinking about food, then it's all I could think about for an hour. Probably didn't help that I was still cooking for the family!

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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by StavrosK on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @01:51PM (#14697251)
Err, I don't think that not eating for five days straight is any kind of healthy, though.
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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by GordonS on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @02:57PM (#14697616)
What is this conjecture based on?

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that fasting, and even intermittent fasting, is a good thing (actually, I seem to recall some papers/articles have ended up on HN). Fasting has also been shown to regenerate the immune system[1]

Besides, I have enough body fat to supply calories for a good bit longer than 5 days :)

[1] https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regene...

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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by cabinguy on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @02:10PM (#14697380)
Depends who you ask. I did a 12 day fast once, nothing but water. I intended to do a 10 day fast, but I felt so wonderful, so healthy, so clear, that I decided to add 2 extra days.

For those interested, most of the benefits (for me) happened after the 5th day. Thats when the hunger and caffeine withdrawal ended.

I don't know all of the science behind it, but I can honestly say that I never felt better/healthier in my life.

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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by chiefalchemist on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @02:34PM (#14697493)
3 days and your immune system "reboots." Not sure if anything after that helps but an extra day or two hardly sounds troubling.
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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by rjett on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @02:05PM (#14697350)
Depends on the person. Angus Barbieri completed a 382 day medically supervised fast in 1966. Depending on body composition and physiology, one might reap a lot of benefit from simple intermittent fasting while another person might continue fasting for longer stretches to help reset their body to more normalized hormone levels.
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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by thoughtexprmnt on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @05:15PM (#14698340)
As is often the case, it depends on the context. For someone obese and/or diabetic, extended fasts of 3-7 days as recommended by Dr. Fung can be very beneficial.
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Re:Can a Diet That Mimics Fasting Turn Back the Clock? by metafunctor on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @02:06PM (#14697359)
Why do you think that?
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