Hacker News Reader

Comment by bluehorseray | Hacker News Reader

At the very least timed-restricted eating has helped my relationship with food. When I was eating three evenly-spaced meals a day, I was constantly in this pseudo state of kind of hungry, kind of full, but never really very hungry or very full, and always thinking about eating but not eating too much. After doing a pretty easy variation of time restricted eating I literally never think about food other than when I'm eating. I really like the feeling of actual hunger, and then eating when I'm actually hungry. And how much I eat or want to eat just kind of never seems to be a problem.

But beyond that I'm skeptical of the claim there's no benefit, I've felt healthier and my bloodwork has improved, but maybe something else caused that (I wouldn't know what).

View on HN

I'd imagine any plan that forced you to think about what and when you eat would make you feel better and have your bloodwork improve. If you meal prepped all food you ate on the original schedule every Sunday, that probably would also have helped. Anything that got you out of grazing on snacks all day and making eating decisions with your non-lizard brain.

Same here, it’s also helped with overall calories because the time I eat is restricted. No breakfast, eat a good lunch, eat a good dinner. All eating done within 7-8 hours, I am used to no morning calories so I don’t feel hungry until lunch, and I don’t get the 350-500 calories breakfast brings.

I can heartily second that it's helped my relationship with food.

For years I've recognized that I had an undesirable relationship with food. I really enjoy eating, both for the pleasure, and for the social interactions that come around meals. But, I felt like I was almost always "hungry" or feeling too full from over eating. I had really strong cravings for things like sour candy and ice cream, especially when relaxing at night. I'm 40 years old, 5' 8", and was pushing 230lbs. My belt which used to have four holes, and then a fifth that I made, no longer fit. I was definitely trending in the wrong direction.

The concern for me was not that I had gained a bit of weight but that my relationship with food looked more like an addiction than something I was actually enjoying and benefiting from. I was driven by my cravings and could tell I had some type of eat/crash/eat/crash cycle going on, but I felt somewhat powerless to do anything about it. The cravings were really strong.

I had tried intermittent fasting (one day 500 calories, 2nd day eat normal) a couple years ago and that worked pretty well initially. But over time, the 500 calorie day was just too hard and I'd eat way too much on the "normal" day to compensate for it. Again, a mental/physical cycle that was not healthy.

A month or two ago I came across a comment here on HN where someone shared that they did intermittent fasting by having a six hour window of eating and a 18 hour window of fasting. I decided to give it a try. Their eat window was 2pm - 8pm, but after some experimentation I've found that a 4pm - 10pm window works better for me.

I knew the window between when I woke up and 4pm would be the hardest, so I did some research and it looks like[1] a coffee or two with heavy whipping cream doesn't have an adverse affect on fat burning or glucose levels. Since that's what I was drinking anyway and like it, a coffee soon after I get up and another at 1:00 if needed gets me through the day without hunger being distracting.

I've been pleasantly surprised by how well this has worked and I think I've broken the eat/crash cycle that I had going. The most noticeable difference is that the hunger sensation is different. The sensation of actually being hungry b/c I've not eaten recently is very different from the "I just want to eat" hungry. It's tolerable and, if I can say it this way, even somewhat enjoyable in an "I have control over this now" way. When the hunger does get distracting, which usually doesn't happen until after noon, I know that I can eat in a few hours and I also know I can wait that long and it will be ok.

During my eating window, I eat whatever I want to. But, interestingly, I've found that my desire to eat is also changed. I get full faster and when I'm planning to eat I try to avoid overeating b/c I don't like how it makes me feel and I don't like going to bed stuffed. I still have ice cream and candy at night sometimes and sometimes I don't. If it's in my window, it's ok.

My weight is now trending in a different direction and I'm glad about that. But I'm not approaching this as a diet. I'm approaching it with the perspective that I need to hack my body's normal operating mechanisms to fix a unhealthy trend of compulsive behavior. That also has made a difference.

1. https://drbeckyfitness.com/coffee-and-intermittent-fasting/

Yep, this is the way I've always seen it too. You need to avoid the eat/crash/eat/crash cycle. For me the best fit is to eat breakfast, then don't eat anything until dinner. For others it's skipping a day. For others it's only eating in a 6 hour window.

It really does look like an addiction and it is helpful to frame it that way. The key element in all of these is that you need to force your body off of blood-sugar, and the only way to do so is to be off of it for a long enough time that half-life diminishes to nothing. This needs to be normal and your body needs to be used to this.

What was your routine?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com