Fasting & Programming

Re:Fasting & Programming by manmal on Thursday August 02, 2012 @02:17PM (#4330130)

You are mistaken if you think that hunting was the primary source of food in times before agriculture. For many tribes it was (and still is, in some parts of the world) a secondary "luxury" which augmented the gathered food. As you say, hunting can easily fail, or game can become rare because of environmental hiccups. This happens more often than you should think - there are times when deer can't be found for weeks. Blood sugar was mainly kept up with berries, roots, and fruit - nibbling all day long. Fat stores are not so easily accessed - if they were, then all-week-fasting would be the way to go for fat-loss (which mostly leads to muscle wasting and short-term water loss, and a mighty yo-yo effect). Yes, one can use intermittent fasting to lose weight, but weight-loss usually only kicks in after 2-3 weeks.

I agree that Cheerios are a bad idea generally, but I'm not pro fasting or skipping meals for weight loss. Fat is stored as an emergency reaction to high blood sugar levels, and you get exactly that when eating more between the fasts (you have to). You constantly expose your brain to too much and too low sugar levels, resulting in highs and lows in your ability to focus (and also your mood).

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Re:Fasting & Programming by _pius on Thursday August 02, 2012 @02:38PM (#4330252)

Yes, one can use intermittent fasting to lose weight, but weight-loss usually only kicks in after 2-3 weeks.

Citation needed. I personally know people who've lost weight long term with quite brief periods of intermittent fasting.

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Re:Fasting & Programming by pessimizer on Thursday August 02, 2012 @05:43PM (#4331183)

I think he's saying after 2-3 weeks of intermittent fasting, not fasting for 2-3 weeks at a time intermittently.

Anecdote alert, but I started doing alternate day fasting after I read the study, then 22 hour a day fasts after I read that people were having results with that. Went from 235 to 185 in 2 years (6' tall, fairly large build.) I'm not strict, and I go off it whenever I'm bored or severely tempted.

I count any drink other than water as a snack, and watch the bread, potatoes, and cornstuffs when I am eating. Who knew it could be this easy? I hadn't really been an overeater for years, I just had never had time to starve.

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Re:Fasting & Programming by _pius on Thursday August 02, 2012 @08:52PM (#4331910)

I think he's saying after 2-3 weeks of intermittent fasting, not fasting for 2-3 weeks at a time intermittently.

Yup, I got that and I'm challenging it.

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Re:Fasting & Programming by pessimizer on Thursday August 02, 2012 @09:10PM (#4331984)

Just making sure.

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Re:Fasting & Programming by _pius on Thursday August 02, 2012 @10:44PM (#4332269)

Thanks for the anecdote, by the way, very interesting.

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Re:Fasting & Programming by manmal on Thursday August 02, 2012 @03:09PM (#4330419)

I read that somewhere in this ebook on IF, don't recall on which page (great resource btw, one of the few user-friendly books I've seen yet): http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting

I can't say anything about the people you mentioned. I myself had absolutely no progress when IFing for some days, only dizziness and irritability.

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Re:Fasting & Programming by earnon on Thursday August 02, 2012 @05:35PM (#4331145)

Are you sure about that? In the wild plant foods are only availiable in season.

Also, what about tribes that lived in places with cold winters? There are no plants to eat when the ground is covered with snow.

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