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jsonmez

I fast until 5:00 PM every day and then only eat one meal. I've been doing this for about 1.5 years.

I have been able to maintain a large degree of muscle and I am pretty ripped.

Easy to adopt your lifestyle to and then you don't really have to count calories anymore.

Plus, I never have to waste time eating or cooking breakfast or lunch.

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Cool, my own anecdata matches yours. I also tend to have a daily fast until well into sundown, consuming only fresh ginger tea with lemon during the sunlit hours. Albeit sometimes if I'm truly famished I will eat something light (banana, baby carrots, etc) but it doesn't happen often. Been basically doing this pattern for 2+ years, and I definitely notice my mind staying clearer during the fast, and I am in the best physical condition of my life, running faster times and lifting heavier weights than ever. Those interested should check out "the warrior diet", which seems to suggest following a similar feeding routine.

Interesting seeing this, I recently was at a life balance seminar for work where they tried to encourage people to eat more often through the day. They discouraged going without food for a while and cited that sumo-wrestlers would use a technique of only eating at night in order to gain their massive amounts of weight.

Different strokes for different blokes. What may work for some may not work others. I never thought about getting into sumo wrestling (although, never ruled it out either). Rather than heeding the advice of 'eat-more!' Or 'eat-less!' I'd recommend just do trial and error and evaluate what works best for you individually over time. I didn't always follow this lifestyle, just gradually iterated into it after a great deal of introspection to see what works for me at the current moment. To that end, I have found regular fasting to be an important part of the balance.

>sumo-wrestlers would use a technique of only eating at night in order to gain their massive amounts of weight.

It's worth pointing out that the typical 'gains' diet for a sumo-wrestler contains dishes that are optimized to pack absurd amounts of calories into a meal. This is stuff that nobody outside that particular culture would generally eat.

I'd ask you the same question I asked jsonmez2--what does a typical meal look like? Do you find you're able to get everything you need in one meal? Any other tips?

What time of day do you work out?

Usually afternoon or evening, once I feel warmed up.

I find it interesting that this is the traditional Buddhist monk meal plan, eat once a day, although it's lunch rather than dinner. There are several reasons for it that are all aimed at keeping monks' minds focused on their job which is practicing the Dhamma. One of those reasons is to limit energy intake so that monks don't have a lot of physical energy to get them into trouble thinking about things monks shouldn't be thinking about. So it's curious how you can maintain high energy levels and keep yourself ripped eating that way.

There are some cultural adaptations of the monk meal plan. Monks in some countries even eat three full meals per day due to the diet they follow. I'm referring to the traditional meal plan of one meal per day at lunch.

I really don't understand the mentality that eating and/or cooking is a "waste of time". Not picking on you specifically it is a common idea and part of the idea behind products like Soylent. I prefer to enjoy the moments of preparing my food and eating it.

> I really don't understand the mentality that eating and/or cooking is a "waste of time". Not picking on you specifically it is a common idea and part of the idea behind products like Soylent. I prefer to enjoy the moments of preparing my food and eating it.

I think it's best summed up as "people enjoy different things."

An example for you: I'm a cyclist. I love to assemble and work on my bikes, because I derive enjoyment from the process of working on the things I will use. This is incredibly similar conceptually to a cook who enjoys cooking their meals; it's not a "waste" of time for either of us, because in each case we derive satisfaction from the act of working on the thing we will eventually enjoy.

I also really enjoy eating (good) food. And so you might think that I would share the same interest in food preparation that I have in bicycle maintenance, but I absolutely do not. I cannot stand cooking, for reasons that I could not really articulate. It simply does not quite manage to tickle the right parts of my brain.

Left to my own devices I'd probably subsist mostly on "good enough" food that requires little or no preparation (such as nuts and fruit). I understand Soylent from this perspective, and the intermittent fasting / one meal a day thing makes a great deal of sense to me as well.

I think it just comes down to frequency, "necessity" of an activity, and context.

Someone might like driving, but are they going to enjoy driving to and from a work environment every day of the week? Perhaps. They might enjoy it so much that they love it. And the work might make it worthwhile. But making that thing a requirement seems like an easy way to transform it into something that's just not as fun as go-where-you-want-when-you-want free drive.

I think it just comes down to whether or not you you're forced into doing something as a means to an end. Cooking for subsistence rather than for pleasure, for example.

I cook my dinner, but I rather not cook multiple meals a day.

If dishes cleaned themselves I would cook more. I don't mind cooking but I hate having to clean dishes so I avoid cooking anything that dirties more than two dishes.

Cooking leaves me with two options:

1) Clean immediately after preparing my meal. Food is now cold and unenjoyable, but dishes are done!

2) Put off cleaning dishes until after my meal and food has settled so I can actually enjoy my food and the result of my labor. Food is now stuck to the pots/pans and things need to be scrubbed rather than rinsed. God help me if it was oatmeal I had forgotten about for 30~ minutes. That stuff turns into glue!

So I buy Soylent. I prepare it when I get home. I give the blender a quick rinse and I'm done. Since it is better cold than warm I can put it in the fridge and forget about it until I'm hungry.

Put water into every cooking vessel immediately; leave and clean at your leisure. Its simple.

If you're going to bother filling each cooking utensil with water you're better off giving them a quick rinse with a spray faucet. As it's faster to spray each utensil than to fill each container. Your "simple" method is a worse version of method 1 and doesn't actually solve the problem.

Oh chill. Just put a little water in, drop it in the sink. 2 seconds max. And for a guy that doesn't cook, you sure are an expert.

I handwashed dishes for 9 years. I also cooked dinner for the family (my mother and three sisters, stepfather was usually still at work) daily. I was also left with the dishes (as we did not have a mechanical dishwasher).

Not liking to cook has fuck all to do with not knowing how to cook. People who make that assumption and then are judgmental about people who dislike to cook piss me off. My issue is not that I've never cooked in my life or that I don't cook.

Sure, I could solve this by getting frozen lasagna and baking it for an hour ten. Absolutely no cleaning involved there! But that isn't cooking so much as preparing a pre-made meal.

What's something you don't like doing so I can judge and belittle you for it?

I understand that some folks don't like dishwashing. Just countering the hyperbole that gets thrown around. I too washed dishes for a decade. I didn't end up resentful and angry.

i'm a food guy, but i only really "enjoy" cooking on the weekends when i can take hours to do it, or try totally new things without having worked all day (more energy and mental horsepower to dedicated to it).

for example 80% of my weekdays are: 2 eggs s.s.u. in the morning for breakfast. chicken leg and vegetable seared and roasted for 30 mins. in cast iron and a basic salad for dinner. lunch is the same 5 or 6 restaurants that i know are cheap fast and healthy around my office, or i skip if i'm too busy.

i do fast occasionally when i've overeaten as part of my weight management strategy. i think the main reason i couldn't fast at lunch is social/habitual. also, friday team lunches are more elaborate.

Don't forget the cultural aspects. Cultures like the French or Italian enjoy more their food moments. In their ultra efficient society, the Americans — generalization warning! — don't think is really an important social moment. No mystery that Soylent is an American thing.

Same here. During the week at work, I drink water and/or tea or coffee with the occasional blob of coconut oil during the day (not technically fasting). I work out in the mornings and have a plentiful meal around 18:00 in the evening.

On weekends I tend to eat a big breakfast and small dinner instead.

I prefer to eat at home in a relaxing environment, where I can enjoy the food. Eating at work just isn't something I can enjoy.

This has been working for me for well over a year. YMMV, of course.

I agree that with one meal a day you likely don't need to count calories. Then again, I can easily consume 5000 calories of more if left unchecked. So I built my own IF-specific tracker (shameless plug).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10540352

It even supports leangains style dieting.

I have tried this, but get splitting headaches around noon time. Anyone have advice on eliminating headaches when fasting?

Were you adequately hydrated?

(Also, I accidentally fatfingered my reply. If you got downvoted, that's probably my fault. Not intentional. Sorry.)

What does a general meal look like for you? I want to get into this kind of eating schedule--it really fits my lifestyle and routine--but I'm concerned about being able to get the calories and nutrients I need from just a single meal. Any other tips?

How long did it take to get comfortable with that? Do you feel completely fine all day? No hunger, low energy?

Took me about 2 weeks. Then it became easy. A little hunger, but you get used to it. Helps that you can look forward to a bigger dinner meal.

Taking in 1800+ calories in one meal would make me lethargic. Does your food baby ever make you crash?

Nope. Not when I'm fasted all day before the meal.

What is your weight and height if you don't mind me asking? How many calories per day are you ingesting?

I'm 6"3' and 210 lbs, about 9% bodyfat. Probably about 1,500 calories when I am cutting on this routine, otherwise 2-3k cal.

Any downsides you can see? Does it hinder muscle building if you work out before 5?

I take a few BCAAs before working out and the key it that you get protein and carbs after the work out. I've seen muscle increase during the period.

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