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Comment by torgian | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been doing small fasts: typically in the morning, I don’t eat anything until after I work out. So, these usually end up being twelve to 16 hour fasts.

I would actually like to try to fast for 24 hours, starting after an evening meal.

My problem is I do a lot of cycling. If I don’t eat, I bonk hard and lose energy. So, I would need to time this after a day of resting after a ride.

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How long are your rides? For rides around an hour to an hour and a half I can ride while fasting, even at the end of an 18 hour fast. The trick is to just work up to it.

Up to 50k there’s no problems. But, above 50k I’m gonna end up emptying my glycogen storage.

You might enjoy Attia on distance cycling while in nutritional ketosis: https://peterattiamd.com/ketones-carbohydrates-can-co-exist/

(like you, he eats carbs when riding long distances--even with the aim of staying in ketosis)

This was a very interesting read. I’ve never gotten this in depth with my nutrition before. I’m beginning to think I might want to look more into a keto style diet.

I eat a lot of carbs ( mostly clean, veges and fruits ) and cook most of my food at home. I’ve been maintaining weight but haven’t really lost much fat.

I know my diet is the reason, so the answer is probably to reduce carbs and increase the proteins. Perhaps try for a longer intermittent fast.

Listen to the latest Peter Attia podcast. Short answer for weight loss is to stay in zone 2, eat small amounts of carbs only during zone 2+ exercise, only enough for non-insulin-dependent GLUT4 transport. You can roughly double your fatty acid metabolism in a few months like this.

Apparently fasted training can help teach your body to stretch the glycogen stores. You won't set any PR's doing so, but it could help you down the road.

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