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Comment by donkeyd | Hacker News Reader

> drinking lots and lots of water, water you should probably be drinking anyway, will mask them more easily than one would expect.

I've recently started intermittent fasting (22:00 - 12:00, still cheat too often, but it's a start) and I've noticed this too. Two cups of coffee and a couple of glasses of water really keeps me alright until lunch. That's when I really start feeling hungry.

I wasn't afraid to start IF either, because I often used to skip breakfast because I couldn't get out of bed on time.

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Is it not normal to not eat between 10pm and noon? I'm not sure it counts as fasting if you are eating on the normal schedule.

It's a 14 hour fast, as was mentioned in the article. Most people i know eat breakfast when they go to work, between 6 and 8am and people often tend to snack late at night. There's even the saying that 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day', so yeah I'd say that not eating until noon is not normal.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a saying too, but it doesn't mean people are eating apples regularly. If anything, it means people are not doing it as much as someone thinks they should. It could easily be the case that we have such a saying because people don't regularly eat breakfast.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away only works if you've got good aim.

The whole breakfast being the most important meal of the day, was merely a marketing stunt by Grape Nuts.

https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/

The history of breakfast cereal preceding that is even more bizarre, being driven largely by John Kellogg’s desire to stamp out masturbation. Also by the Pricenomics guys: https://www.forbes.com/sites/priceonomics/2016/05/17/the-sur...

Or your normal schedule involves a fasting period.

This comes back to the whole "is breakfast the most important meal of the day or damaging our health?" question. A lot of people who skip breakfast are still consuming calories anyway (e.g. that morning coffee with cream/sugar in it).

It counts as fasting and is one of the easiest ways to start doing IF.

No, it is not normal. A large majority of people eat before 9 a.m. on most days.

I'd be interested in a citation to show how large a majority.

I'm one of those "haven't eaten breakfast since I was a kid" types (I have a coffee with semi-skimmed milk, if I eat breakfast I'm ravenous and want a snack before lunch).

I haven't eaten before noon regularly, since I was 10, nor does my wife. I'm not unique among my friends, each who are thin and eat 2 meals a day (sometimes snacks). I'm over 40. My mom, who is losing weight, eats exactly twice a day at 10a and 10p with a snack for lunch. I don't know a person who eats a regular measurable breakfast at work, excepting the occasional company bagels and morning coffees (we don't drink coffee either). I never questioned the normalcy of it, since I know so many others who have the same pattern shrug

If eat == any caloric intake beyond negligible, then yeah, it's abnormal, in American culture at least.

A lot of people who think they don't eat until late are ignoring calorie-loaded and frequently sugar-loaded lattes, cappuccinos or juices that fill them up with calories in liquid format.

How much milk and/or sugar do you put in your coffee. Not doubting, just reminding that this can be a significant source of calories.

If you're truly doing IF, you shouldn't add either to your coffee.

Martin Berkhan, the guy that popularized the 16:8 "Leangains" approach puts milk in his coffee. From [0], "So, it’s a question of a dose-response effect. Can you have some milk in your coffee? Sure, I wouldn’t worry about it and I have it myself. Life would just be too damn boring with only black coffee, especially if you’re used to having some milk with it. How much milk/cream? I would put the limit at 50 kcal total used throughout the fast. That’s about 1 deciliter or 1/2 cup 2% milk."

https://leangains.com/questions-answers-5/

None. I drink a cappuccino after lunch.

Capuccino has milk in it.

Yes, that's why I wrote that drink it after lunch, when I've already had calories and therefore am no longer in the fasting period.

I'm sure they're aware. After lunch is when the fast breaks, so they are free to put whatever they like in their coffee.

From what I've been told you shouldn't have anything other than water during fasting (for IF). That includes coffee & tea.

I read up on this before starting and one or two cups shouldn't matter if there's nothing added to it. Also, the size of the coffee matters slightly, but here in NL we get small cups, not Starbucks size.

Some herbal tea is fine, and even recommended for certain kinds of fasting

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