I did this for two years, lost a fair bit of weight. But the gorging at dinner time really messed up my cholesterol levels. So just an advice that one's weight isn't the only metric of health, if you do any diet change consult your doctor, and confirm health across multiple dimensions (blood tests etc).

Today, I do a heart healthy diet, and try to fast from 8PM-12PM (eat between 12PM-8PM). This helps me not eat/snack unhealthily in a condensed period of time.

Wasn’t the link between high cholesterol and heart disease debunked in recent years? I had the impression that it was the excess carbs / sugars which are what causes health problems.

And high cholesterol in and off itself is not problematic, if your other stats are in line. E.g. high cholesterol can be a pointer to other problems, but it itself is not considered dangerous.

> Wasn’t the link between high cholesterol and heart disease debunked in recent years? I had the impression that it was the excess carbs / sugars which are what causes health problems.

So did a lot of other people, some of whom were in good shape went on keto, and needed a bypass after not too long.

Total cholesterol isn't necessarily that predictive but non-LDL cholesterol/APOB are strong predictors of CVD

Curious, what was it about gorging at dinner time that messed up your cholesterol levels? Was it because you'd gorge on foods high in cholesterol, or was there another mechanism at play?

I probably implied more causation than I meant. I know nothing about fasting causing my high cholesterol directly. What I do know is I thought my weight not going up liberated me into eating whatever my heart desired in my 4-5 hour feeding window. This feast/famine mentality did me no good given my personality type and I probably ended up eating a lot more food and snacks than I would of otherwise.

My doctor gave me A cursory explanation so I can’t vouch for my limited understanding.

That said, cholesterol is essential for the production of bile which breaks down foods. Late night foods probably equates to excess cholesterol released to break down said foods and higher cholesterol levels.

We probably want to have periods of fasting in order to not produce excess cholesterol.

There are multiple mechanisms as play when we discuss about cholesterol. I will do an article discussing about this in the future.

> cholesterol is essential for the production of bile which breaks down foods

So maybe the person fasting had higher cholesterol levels due to his body needing more bile immediately to breakdown a larger amount of food at once? I am very much not a doctor or at all educated in these topics.

Great. Congratulations on you IF journey.

Worth it to point out that coffee (and anything you ingest really, including water) will activate bits of your metabolism and having it will not be equivalent to a complete fast for certain purposes.

Not that you're wrong having it, just something to realize. Will almost certainly have a negligible or even positive effect on weight loss.

Generally (and certainly most of the recent fasting trends) fasting is referred to as no more than 500 kcal intake, which is of course different to a ‘true’ definition which would be nothing, except maybe water

500 Calories!? That’s so much.

1 large boiled egg is 80 Calories. So like eat 5 or 6 eggs and you haven’t broken your fast??

500 calories is my breakfast most days. that's not a fast!

500 cal doesn't constitute for water only fasts.

Fasting definition keeps changing. There is water only and then there is water only and less than 500 Cal.

I guess that depends. 500 calories is 1/3 of my wife’s maintenance calories.

totally agree!

Just as a word of warning, acidic coffee and late night eating are two habits heavily associated with acid reflux/GERD.

I had similar habits, was relatively healthy, and rarely if ever suffered from heart burn. But about a year ago, seemingly overnight, I came down with severe acid reflux. I am still managing symptoms to this day.

Not saying it will happen to you, but just raising awareness that human health is a fickle thing and it can take a turn for the worse quickly, often with little to no warning.

Good point, I do eat a lot of yogurt and salad and stay away from super greasy foods to prevent reflux :)

I’ve found eating once a day to be quite tough on the finances. We often eat out, so instead of ordering just dinner, I get all my calories from that one meal, which ends up being quite expensive. So at least for me fasting turned out more expensive :-D

On the plus side, I like to try different dishes, as I’m a very curious eater, and now I don’t have to feel guilty when I do.

You should pregame with a pint of greek yogurt!

Am on same one meal a day scheme (espressos in morning, nothing but dinner) for a year and love it. However, it's literally just replacing 2/3 meals out of my day with multiple servings of a highly addictive stimulant. Obviously I'm fine, but I am sure our descendents will look back on coffee as some kind of traditional folk-meth.

Great!

Very interesting, do you know the total calories you generally eat during that window?

Less than 500 - 800 cal and no carbs for 2 days.

Do you not burn up your stomach from the acidity of that diet?

Do you mean because of the coffee? I drink several cups of strong black coffee on an empty stomach every day and I've never had any problems whatsoever.

I know a couple people who had issues with the acidity of coffee generally, who switched to Liberica beans (from the more common Arabica) and no longer have any issue. I personally prefer Liberica in general. The lower acidity comes with a smoother taste that some people like.

Liberica seems hard to buy. And by that I mean I couldn't find any decent options on Amazon. Anyone know how to buy whole beans in the US?

Len’s Coffee![0] They ship all over the US. Based in Medford, MA.

[0] https://lenscoffee.com/

Thanks, but seems like they're all out of stock too?

https://lenscoffee.com/coffee-by-type/liberica/

this is great info for me; thank you

That's awesome, and, yes, that's what i wondered; personally i couldn't, presumably different from person to person.

Thanks.

It varies a ton per person - I know that I often, for example, end up with the opposite of acid reflux (essentially my stomach is too basic). I would have similar symptoms and take an antacid and it would make it immediately WORSE.

Not sure if this is why but I am also one of those people that can eat super acidic foods all day no problem - I can drink black coffee and follow that up with a bunch of citrus and feel great.

Looking it up, citrus is alkaline-forming, not acid-forming, and things that are acidic in their initial form don't necessarily increase system acidity; they may have an alkalizing net impact. Apparently your body's response to food is the important bit.

Interesting - in the past I had read about alkaline vs acid "forming" but assumed it was sort of pseudoscience BS (maybe mainly due to people recommending expensive "alkaline" water). Not sure if Tomatoes are in the same boat as Citrus but I have dated people who could not even think about drinking coffee and tomato in the same day - acid reflux disaster.

oh wow, i'm the opposite: non diluted coffee and i burn, even got scoped and showed gastritis...i evidently am at the acidic end, or just not healed enough, in a vicious burn cycle perhaps...

The HN news hoardes will probably be here soon to chastise me for even remotely giving health advice over the internet but when I had an ulcer I found out that in Japan doctors will actually prescribe powdered Glutamine (its just an amino acid - common building block of protein - so pretty damn safe) for ulcers and many things that involve the lining of the GI tract. Apparently the walls can directly use glutamine to help repair themselves. Seems to help me a lot and I just regularly started taking small amounts of it daily since I sometimes love eating an exorbitant amount of spicy food and that can be pretty harsh on your insides.

super useful info for me to at least look up. thank you!

yes it varies from person to person.

thanks

Interesting, whatever works !