
The Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Human and Animal Health - joubert
http://www.lift-heavy.com/intermittent-fasting/
======
torgoguys
I'm not hostile to the concept, of intermittent fasting (IF), quite the
opposite, but I don't think there is much useful information (as the public)
we can get from this paper. Granted, I've only skimmed, but there are
problems. The paper isn't peer-reviewed and the author indicates he doesn't
feel inclined to attempt to get the paper reviewed/published. Red flag.

But that doesn't matter anyway because he reaches only weak conclusions,
indicating the data in humans is murky. The author clearly believes IF is
beneficial anyway and writes as if he is an advocate for it in the intro at
the top of the web page, before the paper appears. Even more damning, portions
of the paper itself read like they were written by an advocate. He just
couldn't help himself. His job there is to attempt to be neutral and discover
and summarize what the data shows (with conclusions) for his systematic
review.

However, this paper can serves as a handy compilation of references on the
subject which could help other researchers. Given the author's advocacy of the
subject, if used as such care should be taken to ensure the references are
thorough and nothing is omitted.

~~~
spuz
What part made you believe the author was an advocate for IF? I didn't get
that at all.

~~~
mattlutze
It is, quite simply, the tagline of his website[1] that the OP linked from:
"Strength Training & Intermittent Fasting At Its Best"

[1]: [http://www.lift-heavy.com/](http://www.lift-heavy.com/)

------
sfjailbird
Besides the proposed health benefits, it is worth also considering the effects
on mental/emotional state. It is probably no coincidence that fasting is an
element of practically every traditional religious and spiritual practice. As
an example, in Islam the recommended practice is to fast two times a week
(consistent with the regimen the OP discusses).

Things that work well for the physical body usually has a corollary beneficial
effect on mental state, which is no less of an upside than the health
benefits.

~~~
4ydx
Whether or not it is a coincidence mentioning religion adds nothing to the
conversation.

~~~
pennaMan
I disagree. It's worth mentioning simply because the practice has survived a
long time trough many cultures. Time is a really good curator - if something
survives a really long time (thousand of years scale) it is very likely to be
of use.

~~~
dylanjermiah
>Time is a really good curator - if something survives a really long time
(thousand of years scale) it is very likely to be of use.

Do you have any evidence to support this theory? I very much doubt this holds
any truth. Time is not an indication of truth, empirical evidence is.

~~~
mfringel
How is "a practice that has been sustained across multiple cultures over
thousands of years" _not_ empirical evidence?

~~~
dylanjermiah
The fact that people have being doing the same thing over a certain period of
time makes no indication to the effectiveness of the activity.

People have being praying for thousands of years, yet I have seen no
conclusive evidence of its effectiveness.

~~~
pennaMan
Consider an ailment like a mild flu. What's more beneficial? Going to the
temple and asking a man in the sky to heal you or going to someone who calls
himself a doctor who performs something way more harmful than the mild
sickness like bloodletting or prescribing antibiotics? In that sense,
"praying" or, more accurately described, "letting nature take its course" has
ample evidence of effectiveness.

~~~
dylanjermiah
It has less detrimental effects as opposed to an inferior alternative, yes.

The question I was asking, and which your response does not address, is
whether or not a certain activity that claims to be beneficial becomes
beneficial purely on the basis that it is practiced over 'x' period of time.
Which I do not believe to be true. If you have evidence to the contrary,
please post it.

~~~
pennaMan
Surviving the test of time is the ultimate empirical evidence. In fact I'd go
so far to say it's the ONLY way we can test the truth of anything at all. This
goes for anything, from biological systems (evolution), technical design - the
wheel, to research papers. Look in your fridge: most of the food there has
been consumed for thousands of years using basically the same cooking method
and is for the most part considered healthy. The recent synthetic foods like
margarine and recent cooking methods like deep frying are detrimental to
health.

Keep in mind, practiced over 'x' amount of time where x > 2000 years.

~~~
dylanjermiah
You have misinterpreted the point of my post. The initial post was:

>"if something survives a really long time (thousand of years scale) it is
very likely to be of use."

Whereby time was the factor by which something is considered 'of use'. The
things you've mentioned evolution, the wheel, research papers etc. Have more
concrete evidence than just time to back them up.

Although on the topic of food, do you have any evidence to support that?

~~~
tcfunk
But I think you've misinterpreted the original comment in the first place.
Saying something "is likely to be of use" is not the same as "is empirically
true".

~~~
dylanjermiah
Very true, my mistake. I was pushing my interpretation 'of use'. That can have
many more meanings.

------
ilitirit
I haven't had breakfast since about 2007. Well, of course there are days where
I do have it when I'm staying over at a hotel, or I'm at an early work
function. But I don't make breakfast for myself at home. My first meal is
between 12h30 and 13h30. I don't feel any worse (or better) than when I used
to eat breakfast in the past, but it's been so long that I really can't tell.
I suppose this can be considered a type of fasting because of the length of
time between lunch and supper the previous night.

I've never really understood the idea that breakfast is the most important
meal of the day because I've never suffered from any ailments because not
eating breakfast. Or maybe I have and I just don't know it? But then I could
apply that same logic to times when I got inexplicably ill or just was not
performing at my peak and I _did_ have breakfast. My point is that I don't
notice any significant changes in my health and or behaviour.

Of course I don't advise anyone doing this (or NOT doing - check with your
physician first), but I still firmly believe that there is a lot of about diet
and fitness that has to do with the physiology of the individual.

(BTW, if anyone else thought the linked article sounded familiar it might be
because you've read it already. It was published 1 year ago)

~~~
morganvachon
> I've never really understood the idea that breakfast is the most important
> meal of the day...

I've always heard that you should have the most calories and greatest
diversity of food at the first meal of the day, slightly less so at the midday
meal, and a very light/low calorie dinner. This is supposedly because you need
that huge energy and mental boost to get your day started, and as the day goes
on your caloric intake should taper off as you won't need it as much by the
time you get home from work, and a light dinner because within a few hours
you'll be sleeping and won't need it either.

Now that being said, it wouldn't work for me. I am up around 6-6:30am, I have
breakfast (when I do eat it) at 7:15-7:30am, and my morning at work is
decidedly not busy nor does it require critical thinking (I'm basically stuck
answering the sales lines in the morning as the rest of the team doesn't roll
into work until nearly lunchtime). This is off-season, so I might get ten
calls before lunch, and about half of those are non-productive. I take an
early lunch, around 11:30am, so I'm available for the larger part of the
afternoon. So, the time between breakfast and lunch is usually four hours.
That's not enough time to fully digest a large breakfast and be hungry again,
so I usually either eat a light breakfast or none at all.

What I've found is that if I eat small meals for breakfast and lunch, with a
snack available should I need it in the mid afternoon, I tend to focus better
and get more done. The only downside is that by the time I get home and finish
cooking dinner, I'm ravenous and I end up eating way too much for that meal.
That's the part I'm trying to focus on now and cut down to about half. This
will put my overall caloric intake at less than the "maintain" level for my
build and age, which will hopefully help me to slowly lose weight.

~~~
firethief
> I've always heard that you should have the most calories and greatest
> diversity of food at the first meal of the day, slightly less so at the
> midday meal, and a very light/low calorie dinner.

This theory seems to ignore how effectively we can run on glycogen reserves,
and sounds like it assumes a full night of sleeping takes less energy than a
few hours awake. Also, most nutrients don't need to be consumed just before
you're most active; the body can figure out when to use what, and a lot of
resources go more to "repair/maintenance" than "fuel".

------
buserror
I rather often fast for a lot longer than 16h; I think the 'day fast' is a
pretty rough deal, as the hunger (ie, the down side of fasting) is strongest
on the first day. So really a small fast isnt too interesting, as you get all
the disadvantage without much in terms of advantages.

By the second day, you are no longer hungry anyway, so, for me, a 3 day fast
is next to ideal. But I can do rather easily 5 days.

I mostly start on the monday morning and finish on friday, or saturday if I
feel brave and there's nothing too exciting in the fridge!

As to _why_ do do it? Well I like cooking, and eating, and drinking, and I
rather hate counting calories and such, I'm much more of a 'on/off' sort of
guy, and I rather like a bit of a challenge. That also helps me control my
weight, without having to spend stupid amount of time in the gym.

Also, there /is/ a 'high' to a fast, I feel like on the third and fourth day
you feel particularly sharper; it then decline a bit and you can feel a bit
woozy. But the high is pretty cool...

~~~
0624213997
Day 1 was always the easiest for me, but I had an eating disorder, I was not
going about this in a healthy way.

After 3 days, I could easily do a week, and I managed to do a 30 day fast one
year.

I don't recall feeling high, I just remember a lot of laying down, dreaming
and thinking about food, baking, and not doing much of anything else.

I really rather prefer being able to eat everything I want, and spend 2-3
hours a week at the gym. But my weight has gone up by 10-15 lbs (and I have
also aged from 17 years old to 29).

I can't say I'm the same size as when I was fasting, but I have a defined
shape, whereas before I was bone and skinny fat.

~~~
nathan_f77
A 30 day fast sounds pretty insane to me, and quite dangerous without medical
supervision. I would like to ask if you were overweight, and the goal was to
lose weight?

~~~
0624213997
I had ED-NOS (eating disorder not otherwise specificed) which mostly means it
was a combination of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (which just means
binge-purge cycle - fasting counts as purging).

I dropped from 140 lbs to 110 lbs in a month. I'm 5'4 female, and a 'skinny'
weight for me is about 130 lbs as I am fairly muscular.

I used to want to look like a skeleton, I had no medical supervision and this
was probably one of my worst eating disorder periods, the other being at
college where I ate a microwaved apple or orange and 2 cups of broccoli /
carrots only every day, for most of my freshman/sophmore year.

When I was ill, I knew I what I was doing with a disorder in mind, but I
didn't admit it to anyone outside of me. I think most people who have an
eating disorder know they have it inside, it's just something kept carefully
secret.

I've been in recovery for about 2 years now, with healthy thoughts and no food
restriction, excess exercising, starvation or purging. When I was sick I
really didn't care if I died, as I have major depressive disorder comorbid,
which I continue to have more difficulty beating than I did the eating
disorder. I've fainted from fasting and I've been hospitalized from
starvation. It's hell, pretty much.

I think it's important to take a step back from whatever the goal of these
diets are, and look at the bigger picture. My weight only varied between 30
lbs over 15 or so years, and it controlled me entirely. It made me have to put
a lot of my life on hold, when I had to focus what little energy I had towards
getting better. I would really recommend anyone take a more careful,
therapeutic look at their life if the above sounds tempting, and they find
themselves going into cycles of fasting and 'losing' control over how they
manage their diet.

------
alexchilcott
It's a shame that by self publishing this, the work has not had any kind of
peer review. As a relative layman, I have no idea how much I can trust the
method or conclusions presented.

~~~
kiba
I trust replications more than peer reviews.

With replication, somebody has to actually try and duplicate experiments.

~~~
_Wintermute
Replication without proper controls is just confirming a poorly designed
experiment.

~~~
simonh
That's true to a point, but replicability really is the cornerstone of
science. A replicable result, even if it's ridiculously implausible, at least
needs to be properly investigated to see where the mistake lies. There's
something there that is investigable (is that a word?). Conversely you can
have all the controls and peer review you like, but if the result isn't
replicable it's garbage. Just nicely presented, plausible garbage which
frankly is the most insidious and dangerous kind.

There have been some interesting studies into replicating results from
published research that have found that only a very small fraction of peer
reviewed papers present actually replicable results. That's shocking.

------
krautsourced
Just from completely personal experience I can confirm the positive effects -
if paired with good food and exercise. I've been doing IF for roughly 3 months
now (16 hours fast per day, which is pretty easy to do by skipping breakfast)
and combined it with leaving out all the crappy food I ate. You know, the
usual gaming/coding/convenience stuff like chips. That and regular sports
(rowing) not only resulted in weigh loss (which most likely was just from
reduced calorie count, not IF per se) and strongly improved blood pressure
(from high to normal). So, at least in my case, the combination of the three
factors made a massive difference.

At the same time, I doubt IF by itself would do much if during the rest of the
time you ate 3000 calories from chocolate and chips.

~~~
hoers
Just out of curiosity: do you substitute your breakfast with something? I'm on
a stinging nettle + mate tea combination but slowly need something new for my
taste buds

~~~
xerula
There's a whole world of fine and unusual teas to discover and enjoy. When I
fast, I want a tea that provides more meaty aromas and a more complex taste
experience – a food substitute that also gives a 'cleansing' sensation. (It's
hard to be precise about what I mean by 'cleansing', but something like the
opposite of the typical cloying English breakfast black tea). A fine kabusecha
or gyokuro with their intense umami flavors can provide that. At the moment I
have some Japanese 'bancha goishicha', a wildly different style from the green
teas made from the same plants, a strange and strangely delicious double-
fermented tea with tangy seaweed and mushroomy notes that is like a meal in
itself.

------
roebk
The BBC produced a documentary on the fasting titled Eat, Fast and Live
Longer, it's well worth a watch -
[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-
longer...](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-
hd_shortfilms)

------
doublerebel
Besides the science, IF is great as a 'lifestyle' diet. It's a simple way to
balance food and exercise through awareness and knowledge rather than fads or
short-term programs. I think that's why it's caught on well with lifehackers.

~~~
ak1394
This. It removes so much of cognitive load compared to other diets.

You don't have to care about choosing your food according to the diet or to
count calories.

You don't have to figure out if you are withing the limits of the diet, or
feel bad if you've eaten something extra.

On the days you're not fasting, you can eat whatever you want.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
The cognitive load is really the hard part of dieting and weight loss. In one
sense, weight loss is simple physics - calories in vs calories out. In
another, food is fundamentally connected to our motivation centers, and
dieting is a ridiculously complicated affair to align your long-term goals
with the emotional effects of eating.

------
jmnicolas
I tried fasting last year after reading a book that promised health
"miracles".

At first I fasted every Monday for 3 months (no food at all just water), then
I fasted for 14 days without interruption.

This is much easier than I was thinking. After 3 days I was not hungry anymore
BUT I wanted to eat. What I mean is that I had no pain in my stomach but my
mind wanted the comfort of eating something. It grew more and more, at the end
I was watching Youtube cooking videos every evening and planning all the great
meals I would cook once I restarted to eat ;-)

Physically I could have lasted at least 2 weeks more, but mentally I was tired
of it. I'm a software dev I so of course I had it easy compared to someone who
has an active lifestyle.

Now for the bad part : no health miracle at all, and all the weight I lost has
been regained and then some. And since then I was unable to gather enough
willpower to fast again, even for just one day.

~~~
cfeduke
> no health miracle at all, and all the weight I lost has been regained and
> then some

Lifestyle changes that impact health require that one habitual adopt the
change to realize their benefits long term. Of course if you followed a
fasting program just once and then returned to the same habits you had prior
to fasting you should expect to gain weight back.

Really it just means that if you want some health change you need to find
something that is appealing so you can form a habit. (I don't find fasting
appealing either.)

------
wooger
FWIW, I've done a ~20 hour fast for the last few months.

Eating in a 4 hour window from 6pm to 10pm approx.

This diet isn't practical if you're doing any serious exercise, either in the
morning, or late evening (during after the eating window), so I often have to
cheat and eat lunch, or otherwise extend the window on days when I'm
exercising.

Otherwise it's surprising easy to stick to with a coffee or two for comfort,
and I've lost a significant amount of weight:

* It's hard to eat enough calories to gain / maintain my (over)weight in 4 hours, at least if I stick to whole, fresh, real food. Some days I can hit a ~1000 calory deficit according to my calculations.

* I find it easy to go to sleep on a full-ish stomach, which helps a great deal compared to other diets.

~~~
swalsh
I maintained a 1500 calorie diet for a year a few years ago. I'd pretty much
just skip lunch every other day, and on the days I ate i'd go to chipotle and
get hardshell tacos with just the fajita peppers, lettuce, and the mild salsa.
By skipping the cheese, meat, and beans the calorie count is VERY low.

Eventually I lost 30 pounds. It's not the crazy amounts some people lost, but
it was significant for me. Today though, 1500 seems to be my normal. If I go
much above it, I start to gain. I think that's the risk of doing it this way.
Your body seems to get used to the reduced count for some reason.

~~~
klue07
> Your body seems to get used to the reduced count for some reason.

It's called "starvation response." Being at a caloric deficit for a long
period of time makes your body think that it is going to starve to death.
Therefore it reduces your metabolism in response to the lack of calories you
intake.

This is why having a cheat day every once in a while is actually physically
good for your body not just psychologically.

~~~
capisce
Maybe this reduced metabolism is good for longevity?

------
subpixel
A really interesting BBC show on the subject of intermittent fasting:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-201220...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-
fast-and-live-longer)

I've been experimenting with alternate-day fasting for a while now. I allow
myself whatever I want for breakfast (usually cereal with fruit, or oatmeal)
and then I eat _basically_ nothing until breakfast the next day. If I really
want one, I'll eat a banana or a grapefruit after a run.

An interesting observation is that I have absolutely no problem exercising on
fast days. In fact a 5m run feels great.

------
annasaru
I am 5.8, 135 lbs. I'm convinced I can be lose another 10lbs if I cut down
slightly, and keep running twice a week. Down to my college or high-school
weight if I drop another 10 lbs.

It would reduce my cardiovascular risk, improve my running (easier on knees).

Am not a Muslim, but this month of Ramzan (or Ramadan) does inspire me to try
some light fasting.

Nothing severe, no extremes for me. Happy with incremental, over a period of
time, changes.

~~~
bkmartin
I'm wondering why you feel the need to lose 10 more lbs? It feels like an
arbitrary number. Besides 135 lbs for someone who is 5.8 is a very healthy
weight. You are exercising regularly which is great, so you are probably not
likely to reduce cardiovascular risk much more, if that can even be quantified
realistically at this point. Running is hard on your knees, period. If you
want to go easier on your knees maybe take up biking or swimming.

------
Kurtz79
I have done IF as part of a weight loss program (basically I save 90%+ of my
allowed calories for a single daily meal).

I also went through more traditional programs, where calories are spread more
evenly over different meals throughout the day.

In my experience both methods work very well, especially if paired with
exercise, and I couldn't really see any difference in terms of health
benefits.

Personally though, I found that the IF works better from a psychological
standpoint, and I'm more likely to stick to it longer: the single meal I have
tends to be much more satisfying and allows for appetizing foods and
quantities that I could not afford if spreading the daily allowance on more
meals.

------
arjn
I wonder if anyone has done a study of the health positive/negative effects of
fasting on observant Copts and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Respectively
their fasting days are approx. 220 and 250 days per year :-

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_and_abstinence_of_the_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_and_abstinence_of_the_Coptic_Orthodox_Church_of_Alexandria#General_dietary_rules)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Orthodox_Tewahedo_Ch...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Orthodox_Tewahedo_Church#Practices)
and beliefs

------
rickdale
July 2 marked 2 years straight only eating from 6pm-10pm with bullet-proof
coffee sometimes during the day. I grew up always needing food and I can
attest that my body adapted to eating this way and totally changed when I
started eating this way in the sense of strength and lean muscle. Generally I
eat pretty clean, lots vegetables meat beans and lentils, with a cheat day
once per week, but always within my eating window.

I try to drink a lot of water during the day too. I am conscious that the
water is reverse osmosis and then I'll add a pinch of celtic sea salt, some
apple cider vinegar, and lemon. I also use active h2 tablets which I highly
recommend.

~~~
stephengillie
Have you had the same work hours for 2 years straight? That seems somewhat
uncommon, unless you've worked at the same place in the same position for that
long.

My current schedule, I would be asleep for most of your eating window. In the
past 6 years, my working schedule has rotated around the entire 24 hour clock
- early morning shifts, midday shifts, swing shift, early overnight shift,
late overnight shift. My eating rotates around with my work shift, eating a
small meal before work, a small one during (whenever during the day or night
the shift is, there's a "lunch" break almost in the exact center) and a large
meal after work.

~~~
sprkyco
4.6 years was the average tenure of an employee in 2014. 2+ years straight is
within the parameters of common.

[http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.nr0.htm)

------
nness
I wonder if a 12-36 hour period is consistent with the frequency in which
predators hunt. I can't imagine a lion eating every few hours. Anyone
knowledgable on things like that?

------
bonestamp2
My grandma has been doing IF (without knowing it's IF) for the last 50 years.
She's 94 now and apart from her mind, she's in very good health for her age. I
know it's completely anecdotal, but I do believe IF is part of her success.

~~~
wozniacki
Could you perhaps add more detail to this?

Did she drink? smoke? Was she a pescatarian? or her diet consist of lots of
leafy greens? Lived in conditions closesly resembling a blue zone[1]?

Anything else besides the IF that was out of the ordinary in her regimen?

[1] Blue Zone

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Zone)

------
Brotkrumen
[https://news.osu.edu/news/2015/05/19/skipping-
meals/](https://news.osu.edu/news/2015/05/19/skipping-meals/)

That study suggests (i think) that mice on the 24h fast developed insulin
resistance in the liver, a sign of prediabetes.

Since I actually like the one-meal-a-day lifestyle, I wonder which study is
more applicable to humans...

------
zw123456
The biggest problem with these types of theories (e.g. Paleo diet, grazing,
micro-eating etc.) is that there is no way to test against a placebo, for
obvious reasons. So it is really impossible to completely test the theory
scientifically.

~~~
aroberge
> it is really impossible to completely test the theory scientifically.

This shows a misunderstanding of what science is about. You can set up control
groups, that use different eating methods, but consuming the same amount of
calories (and micro nutrients, etc.) over a given period of time. In some
settings, double-blind experiments (with placebos) are indeed "better"; but it
is not required to get scientifically valid results.

~~~
zw123456
True, I may have over stated my point. A double blind with placebos test is
the gold standard, and difficult to implement with humans when it comes to
diets. Which is why I think there are so many different kinds of fad diets
that come and go, which is sort of the point I was driving at. It is just
really difficult to conclusively prove.

~~~
palmer_eldritch
I think the main problem is that people are looking for some kind of silver
bullet diet that will make them healthy and live long. So, since there's
demand, there are other people providing them with it.

Of course it's just air, there's no such thing as a silver bullet diet. Health
and longevity depends on so much more than just diet that there will never be
such a thing.

But still, since there's money to be made by selling dummies miracle diets,
there are some to sell. And since they can't sell the real thing because it
can't be made, they do what they can to convince the customers that it is.
Among other marketing tricks, pervert science so it looks like their snake oil
is based on something more than just the will to make money from gullible
people.

There might be some good science in the nutrition field. Sadly, it's drowned
in a sea of wishful thinking, bad science and plain charlatanry...

------
empressplay
i havent regulariy eaten breakfast since i was a child. glad to find out what
i thought was a bad habit might have been a good one!

------
PhilWright
TL;DR

There might be something in it but nobody really knows because no one has
studied it properly.

~~~
spuz
That's a very poor TL;DR. There have been many studies involving animal
responses to fasting. There have been fewer human studies due to the
difficulty of performing controled studies on humans but reading this report
will give you an idea of where the data is lacking. Saying 'no one has studied
it properly' comes across as a little unfair.

~~~
PhilWright
Fair point, maybe I was a little harsh. But I think people reading the
headline just want to know if it works. Is there something to it? The answer
is, come back in a few years and maybe we will have an answer.

------
icemelt8
Its the month of Ramadan, fasting for 30 days

~~~
dylanjermiah
An important difference for Ramadan is that it does not allow the consumption
of water.

------
hiou
When is HN going to get a penalty filter for all these health fad/craze links?
They just bring out all the crazies and the articles are typically
inconclusive at best and opinionated and divisive at worst.

~~~
TheCapn
I agree with you man. For a site that's geared towards technology blogs
there's a huge amount of health articles on here. Not only that, but like you
said it attracts a lot of fervent personality types who portray a lot of the
cult-like attitudes towards a certain diet or program (Keto is especially
bad). Way too much speculation from programmers who think they're outsmarting
an entire industry of health professionals.

I have a particular hatred for Soylent but thankfully its quick rise to
popularity has drawn upon it a lot of scrutiny and with that has alleviated a
lot of the bad that it was originally representing. I still think there are
superior alternatives on the market that have pre-dated Soylent but the fact
that its been iterated and improved by health professionals and not a Software
Engineer says a lot for it.

------
ponytech
tl;dr ?

~~~
phloxicon
Abstract

An increasing number of animal studies have shown altered markers for health
in subjects exposed to intermittent fasting, i.e. regularly and repeatedly
abstaining from eating during 12-36 hours per period. It has been hypothesized
that the reported beneficial health effects from caloric restriction on excess
body weight, cardiovascular risk factors, glucose metabolism, tumor
physiology, neurodegenerative pathology and life span can be mimicked by
alternating periods of short term fasting with periods of refeeding, without
deliberately altering the total caloric intake. Therefore, a systematic review
of available intervention studies on intermittent fasting and animal and human
health was performed. In rodents, intermittent fasting exhibits beneficial
effects including decreased body weight, improved cardiovascular health and
glucose regulation, enhanced neuronal health, decreased cancer risk and
increased life span – some of the effects independent of the effects
attributed to calorie restriction alone. The human studies performed to date
are generally of low-quality design. Beneficial effects such as weight loss,
reduced risk for cardiovascular disease and improved insulin sensitivity have
been observed, but conflicting data exists. The potential health promoting
effects of intermittent fasting in humans and applicability to modern
lifestyle are discussed. \- See more at: [http://www.lift-
heavy.com/intermittent-fasting/#sthash.HPQDE...](http://www.lift-
heavy.com/intermittent-fasting/#sthash.HPQDELwJ.dpuf)

