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Comment by djohnston | Hacker News Reader

Obviously this is anecdotal, but I've been fasting for about a month, and I've noticed a significant difference between the days I fast and the days I don't (FRIDAYS!!!). After about 16-18 hours of not eating I feel quite sharp. There seems to be preliminary clinical evidence to support this, but I'll leave the googling to you.

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I’ve had the same experience, but feeling sharper doesn’t mean actually being sharper. If you look at traffic accident rates in Muslim majority countries, there’s a sharp rise in incidents during the fasting months of Ramadan.

Ramadan involves a number of societal changes beyond just not eating during daylight hours, from fasting to abstinence to busier public squares and restaurants. I'd want to see something control for the differences in movement patterns, passenger miles driven, meals eaten outside the home vs. at home, and so on. Public squares and restaurants are typically packed during Ramadan at night.

Here's one (theoretically) similar example:

https://www.datagraver.com/case/relation-terrorism-attacks-a...

Fasting during Ramadan is not the same as IF at all. During Ramadan you can't have even a sip of water, whereas in IF you are encouraged to drink water and even add a bit of salt if needed. That alone makes them too different to compare effects.

That’s a very good point and not something I had considered. Still, I am curious as to how the feeling of sharpness translates to actual performance.

The most obvious culprit is the lack of sleep, since feeding can only be done at night.

I've experienced similar effects with intermittent fasting. I started cutting out the breakfast and after a while my mind was super clear in the morning. Eating lunch caused that to flip around drastically, though.

I'm glad you mentioned IF. It's one of the easier ways to get many of the keto benefits without having to do keto.

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