Intermittent Fasting (Alternate Day Fasting) in Healthy, Non-Obese Adults | Hacker News Reader

Intermittent Fasting (Alternate Day Fasting) in Healthy, Non-Obese Adults

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

43 pointssolarmist25 comments

Followers of Jainism have been doing this for hundreds of years. There are multiple variations of intermittent fasting. For example, you can fast one day, feed once the next day or fast one day and feed twice the next day.

During the fasting days, people only consume boiled water between sunrise and sunset. No foods or drinks of any other kind are consumed. On feeding days, there are restrictions on the types of foods you can consume as well.

As a Jain, it's interesting to see research and studies being done around religious practices we've been following for years and more importantly, what the data and outcome shows.

For a bit more info, I recommend taking a look at this study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5240069/

> Followers of Jainism have been doing this for hundreds of years.

Then we should have conclusive evidence?

> Due to the pilot nature of the study, no formal power calculation was performed.

Only 60 participants. Take results from this with a grain of salt - it isn't a systematic review - which aggregates the results of multiple trials such as this one.

Here is a systematic review:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6128599/

> Potential disadvantage of ADF is that it is not appropriate for individuals who are required to eat meals at regular intervals such as type 1 diabetes, pregnant and breastfeeding women, elderly, individuals with eating disorders and those in need of regular food intake to take medications. Weight loss generally plateau in six months, thus focus on weight maintenance after the initial period of weight loss is important by adherence to low-calorie diet and regular physical activity for a longer period of time

From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6128599/

This is really important for people to recognize. As we're all looking for a magic pill, or that one simple rule to follow that will make you healthy, lean and strong, it is easy to forget life is complex, and you need to be aware of those complexities if you want true results.

>Alternate day fasting (ADF) is a subtype of intermittent fasting and is defined as a continuous sequence of a fast day (100% energy restriction, zero calories) and a feed day (ad libitum food consumption), resulting in roughly 36-h fasting periods.

I'm interested. So on fasting days you consume water and absolutely nothing else? Or maybe tea or black coffee? I suppose there are some other zero calorie things that can be consumed, but I am betting that zero calorie sugar substitutes could be problematic because they can still cause an insulin response.

[Edit] here it is, I guessed right about the diet drinks.

>ADF group: Subjects are asked to refrain from eating on the fast days and to eat ad libitum on the days between the fast days. On fasting days, subjects are only allowed to consume water, flavoured carbonated water, unsweetened tea or coffee. Furthermore, diet sodas or so called “calorie-free” meals or beverages are restricted.

No calories. I like coffee (black) because it helps me through the day.

Don't do diet drinks, they seem to be doing more harm than sugar.

Avoid artificial sweeteners during fasting. The incretin effect from tasting something sweet will cause you to produce insulin, reduce your fat metabolism, decrease gluconeogenesis, and cause your blood sugar to drop.

Usually it's recommended sticking to water, coffee, tea, and sometimes bone broth for longer fasts to supplement a little protein and electrolytes.

For more information, Dr. Jason Fung wrote two books on this: "The Obesity Code" and "The Diabetes Code". Both are VERY much worth reading.

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Jason-Fung/e/B01BT8K6FK?ref=sr_ntt...

I don’t want to give up Splenda in my coffee or Coke Zero, so I take metformin in conjunction with intermittent fasting to game my blood sugar.

If you're just getting started with this, I would highly recommend starting with simply restricting the hours of the day when you eat. When you wake up in the morning, your body is already in sort of a fasting state. Most people find it's not that hard to extend that period of time a few more hours... particularly with the help of caffeine. If that goes well, you can try to eat dinner earlier, fight off the urge for late-night snacks and continue to push breakfast later and perhaps even skip it altogether.

> Most people find it's not that hard to extend that period of time a few more hours

This is what I do.

Breakfast (technically lunch) around 2pm. Dinner around 8-9pm.

Around 8 hours feeding state, 16 hours fasted.

My body doesn't get hungry until 2pm - and the hunger is just the signal that it's my normal meal time rather than actually being hungry.

Water, coffee, tea is good - mulberry leaf tea is even better.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4281624/

Ya'll should go to https://reddit.com/r/intermittentfasting to see why this works and the success stories

Trial Status

The first patient was included on 8 April 2015. The study is ongoing; close out is scheduled for April 2019. Participants are no longer being recruited.

Here's a fact sheet on it. https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdfExtended/S1550-4131(...

I wasn’t able to find the results or summary, did I miss it in my skim? Somehow one day a week fasting sounds more manageable than daily intermittent fasting to me. Could be an interesting way to kick off the week on Monday :)

How does one possibly get near enough calories by only eating every other day?

Start by throwing out everything you learned about nutrition from the government.

explain...

The suggested food pyramid suggests mostly grains and carbs, which spike insulin and trigger the satiety response. It's much easier to eat two thousand calories of protein and fat, than two thousand calories if carbs. Also fat is more than twice as dense in calories than carbs.

Combining this with the human body's capacity for adaptation (it becomes gradually easier to eat bigger meals), eating two days worth of calories in even one sitting is not that difficult.

You don't get enough calories to maintain a stable weight. The only reason I can think of why a 21st century human would deliberately starve themselves is weightloss.

I'm literally stunned that you couldn't think of religion.

Oh snap, good point. I guess I havent met anybody who fasts for say, Ramadan. I meet plenty of people fasting as part of a diet.

If you were literally stunned you wouldn’t be able to type.

Of course you can get enough calories to maintain a stable weight. Some people maintain a morbidly obese weight with no effort.

You just eat twice as much as you normally would on the feeding days. It's easy and exactly what obese people do except they do it every day.

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