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Comment by stickfigure | Hacker News Reader

Your idea of 'fun' and my idea of 'fun' are wildly different.

The idea of fasting and the reality of fasting are different. The idea is more painful than a committed effort. Once you accept and embrace the fast, it’s freeing. Like running every day.... once you know you’re going to do it, the resistance withers.

I run and I fast.

I enjoy the benefit.

The actual act of doing these things are antithetical of fun for me.

I do them because they work. If I lose motivation in life, it's the first thing I stop and the hardest to start up again (been many years that I've worked on self improvement)

Good on you that it feels that way to you. No, I will never feel that way. People are different.

As someone who's gone multiple days in a row without eating non-voluntarily, you're never going to convince me that fasting for extended periods is fun.

That is like judging sex after only having experienced rape, consent matters a lot in how enjoyable things are.

I've done both alternate day fasting and longer fasts (voluntarily) and I'm also in the same boat. It's not fun. If it didn't provide a health value to me, I wouldn't do it.

After doing intermittant fasting for half a year I think you shouldn't generalize too much from your own experience. Yes, it gets easier but it stays painful and requires a lot of willpower ime.

I’ve been doing it for about a year and a half, just skipping breakfast each day and lunch one or two workdays a week.

At this point, most days it’s not even hard. When I’m hungry I just realize that the hunger is temporary, and it’s honestly unrelated to the degree to which I need food. And tbh nowadays I can tell when my body actually feels weak and needs food, and when it’s just whining.

I think of it like getting sleepy. Just because I feel sleepy doesn’t mean I should just take a nap right there and then.

> I’ve been doing it for about a year and a half, just skipping breakfast each day and lunch one or two workdays a week.

You call that a fast? As someone who's lost and kept off about half their body weight, I feel qualified to tell you that skipping a meal here and there is not fasting. In fact, if you're eating every day you're not fasting. Fuck, I mean, I only eat about 1.5 meals a day as a requirement of merely maintaining my current weight (and even that doesn't always work).

this is just different definition of what fasting is. What he's doing is time-restricted eating but it is a form of fasting. You are just doing longer fasts. No need to gatekeep

So is it a fast just whenever you're not eating?

technicly fast is defined as not eating.

"Intermittent fasting means different things to different people, even among the research community. This lack of specificity has been a source of consternation for experts in the field of fasting, with some advocating that the phrase be retired. Often, when someone uses this phrase they may actually mean one of the following:

Time-restricted eating Alternate-day fasting Periodic or prolonged fasting (multi-day) - less frequently referred to as intermittent"

The person I replied to was talking about intermittent fasting, usually eating within a 6- or 8-hour window. Don't be a dick.

I guess since I never let myself go as much as you did, I'm not allowed to share my experiences?

I IF but I can workout before my 11 to 5 eat window. It eliminates hunger. I time it when I am done exercising i drink a 64 ounce smoothie that i concoct with targeted nutrients.

Fasting increases vasointestinal peptide VIP which boost growth hormone.

There was a time I wouldn't wake up early. I enjoyed sleeping till late morning. At that time I was kind of unable to feel why people who wake up early insist that it is more enjoyable than sleeping till 9 AM.

Then I develop this habit of waking up early. Initially I wasn't very comfortable but now I too can say it is more enjoyable.

I guess you get the point.

Damn, I had to do a double take on this. 9 AM is super early for me, noon is normal and 2-3 PM is sleeping late. What is appealing and tolerable will not be the same for everyone and sometimes it's not just a matter of getting used to something. It's hard to say in advance.

Exactly the same hours for me. Parent confused me!

When does that kick in? I've been waking up at 6:00am every morning for the past decade and still hate it.

You may not be able to force it.

For years, I slept as late as possible, and hated waking up early. Something changed this summer, wherein I suddenly began waking up super early of my own accord, and then going to bed early to compensate. And I enjoy waking up early now.

I'm still unsure if this will be the new normal, or if it's a phase that will go away as suddenly as it began...

There are facets.

Yes, you feel hungry. But, once you're there you are also laser focused (at least I am). My morning productivity and ability to sink into problems lasts all day, instead.

I haven't got the other part, the ketogenic diet, yet.

Oh man you have to feel that fasting euphoria hitting you in waves before you say that

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