
Is fasting good for you? What we know so far - blondie9x
https://aeon.co/essays/is-fasting-good-for-you-what-we-know-so-far
======
jrgoj
The author went through keto flu, which is a series uncomfortable adjustments
your body makes as it transitions from glucose fuel to ketone fuel (ketosis).
People who begin ketogenic diets know this well. Fasting feels very similar.
The most acute symptom is often "brain fog", which manifests exactly how the
author described.

Ketosis takes several days to begin while the body burns through its reserves
of glycogen, at which point the symptoms begin, then lasts several days while
basic adaptation takes place. Full adaptation to match one's athletic
performance while glycogen fueled can take months.

The author didn't even mention the words ketosis nor ketones, so I have to
imagine she went into this quite blindly. Once you've gone in and out of
ketosis several times, you don't experience flu symptoms nearly as much and
sometimes (me) not at all.

For most people a fast starts to feel magical after about day 5, where keto
adaption has taken place and the mental habit and craving for food starts to
subside. Obviously this will vary from person to person, so maybe the author
didn't quite get far enough along to get out of the woods, so to speak.

~~~
amelius
I've seen some exogenous ketones products, e.g. [1]. Could these help to get
into ketosis without the nasty side-effects?

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/KetoSports-KetoCaNa-Original-
Exogenou...](https://www.amazon.com/KetoSports-KetoCaNa-Original-Exogenous-
Supplement/dp/B00U7R7194)

~~~
binarypaean
The belief is "yes" but research on the topic is new and unfinished. Dr.
D'Agostino specializes in ketogenic nutrition, and discusses exogenous ketones
for exactly that purpose in two podcasts[1][2].

[http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/11/03/dominic-
dagostino/](http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/11/03/dominic-dagostino/)
[http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/07/06/dom-dagostino-
part-2/](http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/07/06/dom-dagostino-part-2/)

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djrogers
This article touches lightly on research in to one type of fasting
(intermittent fasting), then proceeds to detail the authors' personal
experience with a very different and more extreme type of fast (a one time 7
day fast).

I fail to see how this approach provides any value, nor does it even attempt
to answer the question or provide the summary posed in the title.

This is a prime example of editorial incompetence in titling an article.

~~~
emiliobumachar
The title is "One week, no food". I don't see how that contributes to the
problem.

~~~
djrogers
The title (which can be seen in the slug and the HN link) was "Is fasting Good
For You? What We Know So Far."

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CarolineW
This is _not_ "what we know so far" \- this is an anecdote about one person
and his wife fasting for a week. There's a cursory section about the current
buzz around the topic, and then a reasonable account of what happened to them.

That's it. Nice story, no actual data.

~~~
nightski
By we, they probably just meant themselves.

~~~
yodsanklai
In that case, how can they address the question "is fasting good for you"?
They may as well write an article "can you believe your horoscope? what we
know so far" based on their personal experience. This is exactly the type of
topics where I'd like to have scientific data as opposed to personal
experiences.

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SimeVidas
My portion sizes are small and I eat ~8 times during the day. That being said,
I’m still on a mild form of calorie restriction, I think. If I don’t eat for
over 3 hours and then start some physical activity, I sometimes start to feel
weak and sick. I don’t think I could function if I tried to fast for a whole
day.

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Smaug123
There's all this bro science about "if losing fat, you need to do specific
things to avoid losing muscle in the same proportions"; I've heard a lot about
the supposed health benefits of intermittent fasting, but nothing about its
effects on muscle that seems remotely reputable. Does anyone here know
anything about IF in a bodybuilding context?

~~~
mter
Bodybuilders aren't really reflective of how humans work. While cutting
they're usually on test/tren + t3/clen/dnp and may still be using gh/insulin
timed around their meals. And, working out multiple times a day, then playing
with their carb/sodium intakes.

It's probably healthier to be morbidly obese than what a pro bb will put their
body through.

~~~
Smaug123
I didn't really intend to imply bodybuilding-qua-professional; merely
bodybuilding-qua-programmer-who-lifts.

~~~
mter
IF will work fine for the average person for a simple reason-- If you skip a
meal and if you leave your other meals at the same size as before, then you
have removed a few hundred calories from your diet and will lose weight for a
while.

I've been doing IF for a while without trying to since I don't really eat
breakfast and I really only eat lunch with my team because cooking dinner for
1 isn't awesome + delivery is too expensive.

It's okay for maintaining strength/losing weight slowly, but hunger/happiness
on it really depends on the person. Some people don't do well with only eating
1 meal a day.

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jimmaswell
It can be done very long under certain conditions and with medical supervision
[http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.ht...](http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm)

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black_knight
Does anyone have any good references to scientific research about fasting?

As others pointed out, this article is not it.

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brudgers
Original title: One week, no food

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dheerajrav
One person who has done good research on fasting is

Dr Valter Longo.
[http://gero.usc.edu/faculty/longo/](http://gero.usc.edu/faculty/longo/)

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amitbr
the Jain philosphy has been promoting annual 1 week water fasts for thousands
of years.

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jkot
> _We bought some emergency supplies in case one or both of us ended up
> feeling ill or fainting: some energy drinks, a couple of bars of Swiss milk
> chocolate, some fruit, and some bread and cheese, and put them in the
> refrigerator._

> _My wife and I don’t normally eat breakfast (she has a cup of coffee and I
> drink a Coke Zero — yes, yes, I know it’s bad)_

Fasting releases toxins into blood stream. If you eat junk food before
fasting, it will cause headaches and other nasty stuff.

Better is to start slowly, eat vegetables / rice for a month, than start
fasting.

~~~
djrogers
> Fasting releases toxins into blood stream

Nonsense. What 'toxins'? Where are these 'toxins' from? What are there effects
on the body? What scientific papers detail these 'toxins', their chemical
makeup, source, etc?

'Toxin' as a word has become a high-level indicator of pseudoscience and
homeopathy-style unscientific health advice. If you see someone using that
word, always question or ignore their advice. It's the 2000s version of the
Victorian era 'impurities' which were leached or vomited from the body to
return to health.

~~~
yompers888
It's possible that parent is referring to the mild acidosis that can accompany
ketogenic diets or fasting. At some point along the process of using fat,
rather than glycogen, for fuel, your body's compensatory mechanisms
(bicarbonate buffering, renal excretion, and a few others) can't keep up with
the acid in the blood stream, causing a lower pH.

I'm not going to take a guess at 'toxins.' When I hear that terminology, I
think of a blindfolded kid trying to hit a pinata with a bat, or carpet-
bombing: they'll get there eventually if only by the imprecision of their
targeting, but it's not pretty.

~~~
jkot
Yes, fat burning releases 'toxins' which are accumulated there. It is a
problem when fasting for extended periods (week+).

