Hacker News Reader

Comment by p1necone | Hacker News Reader

So as someone who doesn't like eating breakfast I've been fasting 16:8 all along anyway?

Technically yes, but to call it "intermittent fasting" you have to both pay attention at the clock and follow a certain low carb, high fat diet to avoid crashing when you are in a fasted state. Also mind that the 16:8 window is the minimum you can do. Advancing the fasting window yields different benefits as more as it goes on.

If they don't snack after 8pm and eat lunch at noon, yes.

Anecdotally it at least partly explains to me why all the folks that I knew that skipped breakfast seemed skinny despite what I was hearing about breakfast being essential for 'kickstarting' the metabolism.

Just another 'L' in dietary advice for folks that grew up in the 80's/90's

It's just calories in/calories out. Skipping a meal is likely to result in eating less calories, unless you make up for it later.

No, simple caloric restriction does not trigger autophagy, insulin sensitivity and other fasting related benefits.

I was just referring to weight loss.

The breakfast kickstarting myth came from research tainted by funding from the breakfast cereal industry. It’s fake, and completely not true. Historically breakfast came from breaking the fast of the day before, which would be around modern lunch time. Eating so early isn’t natural at all, and for people that prefer it, it really is likely only a habit more than anything related to physiology.

I used to skip breakfasts and my weight kept going up. After I started eating a very small breakfast every day (a single croissant, or a cup of porridge) I lost over 10kg in a few months.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com