Why I don’t eat on Mondays
mariusandra.com
mariusandra.com
Isn't it good enough just to help people?
If we help people lose weight in any way, we're going to save the country a lot of money in healthcare costs that could be spent elsewhere. Put another way, if the US finds a way to lose weight effectively, the results will have a strong positive impact on a variety of other services that the government provides that will be able to help more people with more available funding.
The obesity epidemic has been recognized as a money making opportunity by major industries long before HN existed.
I don't think it's flagworthy but if it lacks quality vote accordingly!
No, its not...intermittent fasting has been a fad in the last few years. There's nothing unusual about it.
> he seems to have done it methodically and observed the outcome...
I'm having trouble crediting something as a methodical study of a diet pattern change that doesn't have any indication of tracking the specific patterns of what is being eaten (or even quantification of total calories) before and after.
Not everyone has heard about it. I found the article very interesting even though I'm not going to try it out.
That's not the same thing as "unusual".
The title isn't the content. The whole article is a lead-in to a call to action in the the last 7 paragraphs which can be summarized as "you should choose one day a week and not eat on that day (it doesn't have to be Monday, though)".
> Also, intermittent fasting I fairly well researched and known for its benefits
[citation needed]
> Whatever your weight loss goals, I can highly recommend giving intermittent fasting a try.
Never does the author say that intermittent fasting should be followed by everyone.
If you're in the UK, you can still watch the programme on iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-201220...
Here's the accompanying article from August 2012: The power of intermittent fasting http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19112549
“I think it is fascinating that the other speakers today have suggested that education is the answer to our country’s obesity problem,” I said. I slowly gestured around the room. “If education is the answer, then why hasn’t it helped more of you?”
Caloric restriction does work, but it is quite difficult to track and maintain. This weekly fasting approach is a new concept, at least to me, and worthy of serious consideration.
Right, exercise is important in weight loss not because it promotes weight loss directly, but because it enables maintaining muscle loss during weight loss, which is critical to healthy weight loss--which is mostly fat loss--and because it promotes cardio-vascular fitness (which is often an important part of the real goal served by weight loss.)
Obviously, free articles offering the same thing are going to be popular. Throw an analytical veneer over it with some charts and references to productivity, to meet the cultural biases of HN, and its popular on HN.
Working out a method to help fat people lose weight would be worth a lot of cash.
No one is telling you to follow this advice. This is one guy saying "Hey, here's something that worked for me when I had this problem. Maybe if you have the same problem, it might work for you."
You are entirely free to ignore it. You should consider using that freedom.
I've been overweight my whole life. I talked to my doctor. One said (yes he literally said this) Follow the SELAP diet. When I asked what he meant he said "Stop Eating Like a Pig". That was his advice. Another doctor said to get surgery.
I finally found another doctor that helped. He put me on a 1,000 calorie a day diet. Tons of people told me it was unhealthy, but I lost weight - 50 lbs. The information out there for dieting is so bad. I had people tell me that if I ate 1,000 calories a day, I would gain weight because of a slow metabolism. These were "professional" people. I've never heard of people who stop eating in food strikes in prisons get to the point where they weighed so much they can't leave their cell!
Unfortunately I couldn't keep that extremely low calorie diet up for the long term and when trying to increase it, I've now gained 25 of it back but it's been a year so I consider it somewhat of a success.
I'm glad to read about something that works for someone. The doctors you mention are pretty clueless in my opinion.
The problem with the diet thing is that everyone is different. If you have found something that works for you, that's great!
What he's describing is congruent with a stoic lifestyle. The core of stoicism is to not be a slave to your feelings and cravings. And this is achieved through mental and spiritual "exercise."
I have fasted for 3 days at a time, allowing myself nothing but water. Try six weeks without a drop of alcohol. And don't cheat. It's not a "detoxifying" process- it's a process of gaining mindfulness. You understand, as the author points out, what your body does and does not need, and that many of your feelings of "hunger" (for food, or more figuratively anything) are triggered by your officemate talking about nutella, or hearing some bad news that makes you anxious, or any number of things that you can control if you become aware of them.
Once you understand the true control you have over your body and your feelings and actions, you can really start to take it to the next level with what you actually want to accomplish, as opposed to what has been programmed by your social environment.
I know that I'd rather eat one less slice of pizza during a meal than to eat NOTHING for a whole day.
As we all know, weight is primarily determined by calories in versus calories out. Since 3500 calories equals 1 lb or .45 kg, you can lose 2 lbs or 1 kg a week by eating 500 calories less each day.
Not eating is binary [ ] yes [ ] no, which for many is easier to control versus picking and choosing and limiting quantity.
I think all this fasting is for self control rather than long term process. You teach your body and mind to say "no" to nasty foods and snacks.
A lot, actually. Some medical conditions may be seriously affected by not eating for an entire day. As with any medical advice, you should consult your physician before attempting fasting.
Also, note that he explicitly mentions that "A normal healthy adult should not have any problems when fasting for 24 hours."
[Merriam-Webster] Health: the condition of being well or free from disease
[wikipedia] Diabetes mellitus (DM) also known as simply diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases
You are not in good health / healthy in the manor meant in this thread and OA. You might eat healthy, exercise, whatever but you still suffer from a disease that healthy people do not.
Neither, in a very significant sense, is someone who is clinically obese.
Several times in both articles (linked post and the post at nerdfitness) they mention the diabetic/other blood sugar regulation issues.
Fasting isn't an issue for me. I generally fast from 8pm to 11-12am every day. My morning glucose is generally better when I do this, but there are sometimes swings caused by digestive issues, such as food being too nutritionally dense or slow to digest.
I once forgot to eat for three days, I was just so busy. I walked up the stairs to my second-floor apartment, and I felt light-headed enough that I noticed myself start to black out. I began going through the "usual debugging", asking myself "what did you eat today?", and it turns out I hadn't... nor the day before... and when I realized I hadn't eaten the day before that either, it became very clear what happened, and I immediately ordered an extra large pizza. I take it this is highly unusual? :(
I don't think I can go 72 hours without food without crashing.
"Current medical opinion is that the benefits of fasting are unproven and until there are more human studies it's better to eat at least 2000 calories a day. "
Similarly, before adopting a super-low calorie diet on the basis of those "long lifespan" studies in mice, look into the part where it induces depression and agoraphobia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiopathic_postprandial_syndrom...
> Unfortunately most people can’t hear themselves.
Does not compute.
Its interesting that I don't notice any discussion of caloric intake on either model -- if he was eating the same except skipping one day of food later, then you are looking at a ~14% reduction in weekly caloric intake, which, without any special effect of fasting, you'd expect to turbocharge weight loss.
"Turbocharge weight loss" means that there is existing weight loss to turbocharge. If you are losing weight, reduce weekly calorie intake by 14% and change nothing else, I think the description is accurate independent of the pre-existing intake level.