
Meal timing strategies appear to lower appetite, improve fat burning - prostoalex
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190724103702.htm
======
yurishimo
I’ll add one more anecdote to the mix here. Been doing intermittent fasting
and extended fasting since February and I’m down 75 pounds in that time.

I used to snore like crazy, probably had sleep apnea but was too afraid to go
get tested since my grandmother died from becoming dependent on the machine
and her lungs failed. Now I don’t snore at all. My wife sleeps better, I sleep
better; win win!

I haven’t exercised at all and I don’t count calories. My biggest diet changes
have been cutting out soda entirely and I try to keep my carbs under 100g a
day. Many days I’m under 50.

It’s honestly been amazing and I’m glad that I did it now while I’m still
young and will be able to physically play with my kids in the future.

One of the other big wins has been physiological and my relationship with food
and the feeling of hunger. Living in America, and especially here in the
south, food is a religion. Stopping whatever is going on to eat is never
looked down on. Snacks all the time, large comfort food meals, etc. While the
community aspects around food are a good thing, our dependence on it as a
society has crossed over into causing more harm than help.

After starting to fast, I’ve learned that hunger is just another feeling, like
being too hot or too cold. Sure, it can be uncomfortable, but it won’t kill
you and we can tolerate it a lot longer than we think.

Right now, I’m in the middle of a 7 day fast where I’m only drinking water.
Every week I normally fast 48 hours twice a week and then one meal a day for
the other 5 days in the week. My relationship with food has morphed and now
I’m totally in control of my body. Skipping a meal is no problem and I have no
ill side effects.

I’ll wrap this up by saying that I still enjoy food, a lot! When I do eat for
my one meal a day, I can easily eat a large salad and a burger and a side. My
favorite pastime is going to the movies and eating a meal and a large bucket
of popcorn with my wife. Some days though, I eat a “normal” portion and call
it good. Sometimes I have dessert. The difference is now that I can manage my
love of food in a sustainable way for my body.

Happy to answer any questions. AMA.

~~~
betenoire
> hunger is just another feeling

Exactly! I've done intermittent fasting for many many years, it works for me.
I've told people, "You know how a workout 'hurts so good'? Learn to think that
way about hunger/cravings. Consider it the same way you would consider a
workout pain, as progress not punishment".

~~~
ivanhoe
This can work for people who don't really need a lot of weight loss. Obese
people are too deeply conditioned, their brains are wired differently and
their bodies probably not responding on the hormonal level the same way as
yours. To them it's a bit like suggesting a drug addict to just enjoy the
withdrawal crisis. According to this research: "a substantial fraction of
obese individuals exhibit an imbalance between an enhanced sensitivity of the
reward circuitry to conditioned stimuli linked to energy-dense food and
impaired function of the executive control circuitry that weakens inhibitory
control over appetitive behaviors"
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124340/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124340/)

~~~
tptacek
I guess. I'm a big dude, and I find it _a lot_ easier to fast than to eat
carefully on a more typical schedule. Part of it is definitely just
acclimating to the sensation of food cravings (and also learning to
distinguish that feeling from "hunger"), but also, if I don't eat regularly, I
tend not to crave food in the first place. I can pretty sustainably stay on an
18 hour fast schedule without breaking.

~~~
chillydawg
Given that you're a "big dude" (aka overweight?) I assume you are that way by
choice given your comments about how you can control your appetite?

I'm a bit of a fat bastard myself and I think what I've come to realise is
that for a huge segment of the population eating just works fine and they can
adjust diet to tweak this or that relatively easily. For the rest (like me),
my relationship with food is broken and stuff like IF or keto or whatever are
patches to deal with that underlying brokenness. It always works for a while,
but it always go to shit eventually.

------
catotheyoungest
This is strictly anecdotal, and I would honestly love to see this subjected to
a rigorous study, but I lost twenty pounds without additional exercise or
dietary changes in the last six months just by having a sleep study done,
getting diagnosed with sleep apnea, and being put on a CPAP machine.

How much obesity and depression could be prevented or alleviated just by
making sure people could get a decent night's sleep?

~~~
ikeyany
Are you sure your diet did not change? Even your portions stayed the same
size?

~~~
ellius
Can't speak for OP, but my appetite and then weight have steadily decreased
for six years since beginning CPAP. As a person with apnea I had no idea that
my constant fatigue was causing me to eat so much, or making sustained
exercise so impossible, and I really didn't even understand how tired I was.
Once I was getting something approximating a good night's sleep, I had more
energy, which made me less hungry and more able to sustain exercise. So it was
a virtuous cycle and involved the habits you're describing, but those were
made possible by alleviating the underlying problem.

~~~
eurekin
How did you get diagnosed?

~~~
ellius
Did an overnight study at a sleep clinic. I'd been told for years by friends
that I made very weird gasping, snoring noises. After I'd been out of college
a few years and realized I was fatigued literally every day despite going to
sleep on time, I figured it was time to get checked.

~~~
eurekin
Were you also sleepy during the day? Did you nap for hours as well?

------
namuol
> For the study, researchers enrolled 11 adult men and women who had excess
> weight.

It's amazing how low our standard for news is when it comes to things like
weight loss.

~~~
MRD85
Depending on the size of the effect, 11 participants can be very valid in an
experiment. For example, assume you have 11 participants having a hormone
measured after an experiment. If normal readings are 300 with a SD of 30, and
at the end of the experiment their mean is 520 with a SD of 40, then you've
just shown a strong, significant effect.

~~~
krick
Yeah, except it usually would be (in the best case scenario) more like "520
with a SD of 40" for 10 people and "1 outlier", which you wouldn't really be
able to properly conceptualize let alone explain, since your "outlier" is
freaking 10% of the group.

That is, ignoring the fact that experiments without a control group can be
hardly considered valid at all.

------
noodle
To add my strictly anecdotal experience:

I recently started to diet for the first time ever. Never really needed it,
but getting older, I noticed my weight steadily increasing despite regular
exercise and finally decided to change.

I always skipped breakfast, but I became a bit more strict about timing and
snacking at night in order to align with IF. Switched my diet to a lazy keto
(basically adkins) diet - still don't track calories, just intentionally
reduced carb intake to below ~25g net per day and increased fat intake.
Occasionally I have a cheat meal.

Down 35lbs in ~2.5 months.

Side effects: I feel like my energy levels are much more consistent throughout
the day, but also very discernable. Which is to say, if I'm working out, I can
really feel it when I run out of gas. Related, I can't lift as much weight as
I could, but that is expected while I'm actively trying to lose weight. I feel
like there's a bit more mental clarity, but that could be related to energy
levels.

~~~
ericmcer
Another anecdotal experience: IF really makes you aware of how your appetite
gets going after the first meal. I usually start eating around noon and its
like flipping a switch, before hand you just feel kinda numb but afterwards
your brain cannot stop thinking about eating.

~~~
andrewmutz
How carb-heavy is your diet? That could be the transition from your body using
fat/ketones for fuel to using glucose for energy.

------
sebringj
I would recommend David Sinclair and Jason Fung in terms of resources for this
to understand first why intermittent fasting is good for you but of course
appropriately applied for the individual. If you start to understand the whys
and stop listening to specific people's testimonials or crazy routines in some
cases (from your perspective), you'll tailor it appropriately to your life if
its something you want to do. Personally, I found it quite easy to incorporate
and with great benefit.

------
nikkwong
Interesting read! It's also worth noting that circadian rhythm based eating
habits (i.e. timing meals in the morning, or at least the bulk of one's
caloric intake earlier in the day), are important for more than just weight
loss. They reduce levels of inflammation in the body, improve insulin
response, improve glucose tolerance, the list goes on and on. Humans evolved
to eat when they are at peak-awareness/wakefulness: in the morning/early-day.
If one's trying to optimize for peak performance/health/longevity, they should
in the AM rather than PM.

Personally I only eat one meal a day, stopping all calorie consumption by
11am. I'm in the 2nd day of a 3 day fast; it's definitely an exercise in
discipline, but so worth doing. Fasting's stress on the body invokes a
"survival of the fittest" response on the cellular level; in which under
performing cells are cleaned out. Some news out of USC has stated that a 72
hour fast leads to an "entire reset of your immune system" [0]. Pretty
interesting stuff for health-conscientious folks.

[0] [https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-
regene...](https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-
of-damaged-old-immune-system/)

------
brandonmenc
Since everyone is chiming in with anecdotal weight loss experiences via
faddish diets, I'll chime in with mine following "conventional" diet wisdom.

40 years old, 170 lbs down to 135 lbs, slow and steady just by eating a
conventionally healthy low fat diet and adhering to CICO.

No wacky meal timings. No eating/avoiding an entire macronutrient to excess.
Most calories came from whole grains, whey, and fish, and I made sure my belly
was full most of the time with vegetables.

I drank wine nearly every day, and popped a square of Dove chocolate for
dessert most meals. I even ate fast food a couple times a month.

Hunger pains and exhausting days in the gym? You bet. But it wasn't difficult,
and I still got to eat my favorite foods - just less of them.

CICO works. Studies like this are interesting, but almost certainly just
tweaking the margins for most people.

~~~
naasking
CICO works certainly, but the advantage of IF is that it makes adherence to
CICO easier. You're effectively cutting ingestion opportunities to 1/3 of what
they normally are. It's hard to eat 2/3 of your calories in ouch a short time
frame.

------
jniedrauer
One observation from personal experience with prolonged intermittent fasting:
My metabolism slowed down quite a lot. After nearly 10 years of eating once
per day, my resting metabolic rate was 3-400 calories lower than average.
Whether that's a bad thing or not, I have no idea. My grocery bills were
certainly low. And it saved a ton of time on meal prep.

More recently, I became too physically active to maintain that diet and
returned to eating 3-4x a day. My metabolism has steadily returned to baseline
since then. It took about 6 months but it is now essentially back to normal.

------
jedberg
I tried IF for a while. I lost a couple pounds and then plateaued. What I
realized is that the main thing it was doing was preventing me from snacking
at night. I didn't really eat any more than normal during the eating period, I
just didn't eat my usual outside of it. So exactly in line with the study. It
just didn't do much for me weight-loss-wise.

I was already skipping breakfast most days, so waiting until lunch to eat
wasn't a big deal. But _Stopping_ at 8pm was tough. I'm usually up until
1-2am, so not eating for the last five or six hours of my day was tough.

~~~
jimnotgym
Could you tell me what IF means please?

~~~
busfahrer
From some of the other comments my guess is that it means Intermittent Fasting

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

------
Mikho
Here is very useful data as to food consumption patterns. Nowadays we ruin our
body with unnatural eating cycles.

Basically fasting for around 16 hours a day is good for health. From the
evolutionary perspective--that invested in a human body 200K years--the way we
eat today is broken. And our body can't adapt to a new pattern--evolution is a
slow process that requires many thousands of years. Not to mention like
adapting to changes in a food consumption we see in the last 50 years. A human
body during 200K years of evolution was not prepared to eating a lot.
Viceversa--it was build to eat less. It needs to store energy and to use
stored energy and only after that to store again. That's a natural cycle and
functions that our body needs to execute. Nowadays we just store energy 24/7:

"Emerging findings from studies of animal models and human subjects suggest
that intermittent energy restriction periods of as little as 16 h can improve
health indicators and counteract disease processes. The mechanisms involve a
metabolic shift to fat metabolism and ketone production, and stimulation of
adaptive cellular stress responses that prevent and repair molecular damage."

Article:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250148/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250148/)

Here are also interesting patterns of daily and weekly food consumption from
this research including the common eating pattern of food consumption upon
which the epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and associated chronic diseases has
emerged.

Image:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250148/figure/...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250148/figure/fig03/)

------
jokoon
I've never understood the tradition of eating 3 meals a day. Sounds like it
comes from religion.

If you eat when you're hungry, you will naturally eat less. I always have a
good breakfast, and thus start to feel hungry around 3pm or 4pm. I eat then,
and usually I don't feel hungry until I go to bed, and I never eat late in the
day, simply because digesting at night is a bad idea.

Having lunch around noon is weird because I eat without being hungry.

~~~
arcturus17
I’m assuming you work a desk job. Your energy and appetite fluctuations
wouldn’t be the same if you had a physically strenuous job.

------
fouc
Extended waterfasting is amazing folks. It's the simplest way to A) lose
weight B) improve your metabolism C) increase your longevity D) help with
various problems (like acne, hemorrhoids, etc). Warning: May not be safe for
those with a BMI lower than 20.

Fasting gives the chance for the body to engage in autophagy which is the
breakdown of old or broken cells into their components and reused to repair
the body. Fasting takes you to a state of ketosis, where your body switches to
fat-burning for fuel. Note that it takes 2 weeks for the muscles to fully
adapt to using fuel as the source, so athletic performance will decline for
that period.

Depending on how fat-adapted you are, it can take anywhere from 3 to 5 days to
get past the point of hunger & cravings. It becomes much easier to maintain
the fast after that. That means for most people, day 2 or day 3 are the
hardest days in the transition.

Warning: if you stop at the hard point of the fast after multiple attempts, it
will get progressively harder to stick to it and get through (as that will
train the body's hormone for cravings to peak at that time).

~~~
eridius
Extended waterfasting is dangerous. If you're going to go more than 3 days on
even a sub-1000Cal/day diet, please have medical supervision.

~~~
beagle3
[citation needed]

~~~
eridius
Ingesting nothing but water for days on end being unhealthy really shouldn't
need a citation, but if you really want one, go ask your local doctor.

~~~
beagle3
Having done a >20-day fast myself, multiple times, knowing a few others who
have, researching the medical evidence AND discussing this with more than one
local doctor, I can confidently say:

You have no idea what you are talking about.

~~~
eridius
That's funny, because I've talked with doctors who oversee medically-managed
weight loss programs professionally, and they made it very clear that even
just doing 960Cal/day for 3+ days warranted medical supervision. This is also
why stuff like Optifast requires a prescription, because it's not safe to do
this kind of thing without oversight.

The fact that you've done it really has no bearing on whether it's actually
healthy, and I'm going to go ahead and assume that the doctors you spoke to
said the equivalent of "it won't kill you but I don't recommend it".

~~~
beagle3
Well, the doctors you asked had a vested interest, they are unlikely to say
“we are mostly useless”, so I can just as easily discard that. See how easy it
is to maintain one’s belief without evidence?

There is actually a lot of evidence saying anything up to about 40 days on
water is fine for a healthy person, although beyond 50 days there is rapid and
irreversible damage.

There are whole populations who used to live on 800kcal/days for years.

And for the record, my family doctor’s reply was “just make sure you start
eating if you feel any ill effects, don’t go more than a month” - when I came
to see him after about a week inquiring if my loss of appetite was something I
should be worried about (because thinking and looking at food made me NOT want
it, but I was feeling perfect - even better than perfect).

From your response you are likely uninterested, but reading the work of Valter
Longo on fasting would probably enrich you.

Also, there’s a huge difference between reducing intake (to e.g. 900 of 500
kcal) which leaves most people hungry and irritated, and going down to
essentially zero, which - past the 50 hour mark or so - does not. The doctors
you consulted likely have no experience at all with the latter regime in which
the body functions completely differently, and which seems like a natural
“can’t find food right now” mode.

~~~
eridius
> _Well, the doctors you asked had a vested interest, they are unlikely to say
> “we are mostly useless”, so I can just as easily discard that. See how easy
> it is to maintain one’s belief without evidence?_

No, the doctor does not have a vested interest in lying to me. They're HMO
doctors, this is but one facet of their job, and they're doing it because it
needs medical oversight. Hell, the program itself was offered effectively at
cost (it's in the HMO's interest to have healthy patients, so they charge just
enough for the program to cover their expenses rather than treating it as a
profit center).

In a perfectly healthy person, extended fasting is probably fine. Medical
supervision isn't because it's particularly dangerous for perfectly healthy
people, but because nobody is perfectly healthy and complications can arise
with pre-existing undiagnosed conditions.

------
Slimbo
I've also had weight loss success with IF. I do 16/8 mostly with the
occastional 24 hour fast. I get a lot of pushback that it's 'bro science', and
a lot of claims around improving insulin resistance isn't proven, so it's good
to get some science behind the practice that clearly works.

The reason I have found it effective is that it's simple to follow. I don't
need to count calories, I don't have to learn too much at all, I simply don't
eat outside of my hours. Given I've now found I don't feel hungry most days
until I start eating, it means I eat less.

Now the net result may simply be less calories, that that's not as simple as
'calories in calories out', because I'm consuming less as a consequence of the
timing, not by consciously eating less. This may be an odd distinction for
people who can diet, but for those of us who struggle with weight, it's
crucial to success.

------
mabbo
11 adults in the experiment. No control group (other than against themselves).
Experiment ran 8 days.

I mean, I'm interested, but I want to see further research before I call this
a real result.

~~~
alexpetralia
I always appreciate how the HN crowd evaluates the quality of the evidence,
not just the quality of the headline. Great filtering function.

~~~
weeksie
There's usually one good post. The rest are almost always people sharing their
diet stories. Or if the headline is about exercise, you get reams of
stronglifts or 5x5 or whatever, nobody cares. It's what engineers tend to do
when they're presented with a topic they don't have actual expertise in.

~~~
_raoulcousins
Is this specific to engineers? I noticed this in college classes across
disciplines. A lot of the time that someone raised their hand, it was to share
an anecdote and not a question.

~~~
zmmmmm
I find it honestly surprising that I see it so much on HN. You have a group of
people who largely identify themselves as being rational, objective,
intelligent people - datascientists, engineers, etc. - who stereotypically I
would think to be naturally sceptical and want to examine evidence closely.

But it's absolutely true, the minute some scientific study is posted there are
50 people writing comments that they believe it because yesterday something
similar happened to their aunt etc. It's something I've never quite figured
out.

~~~
qwsxyh
It's because HN users aren't really that intelligent; they just give off that
impression instead. We're all mostly normal people here, and act like normal
people. This isn't some special club of 1000x geniuses.

~~~
benjaminbrodie
Even if this is true, each of us has a moral obligation to believe the very
opposite re: ourselves.

------
jonnycomputer
Just another anecdote, and I haven't done this for too long, but I've found
that adopting the rule that I don't eat past 7pm has helped me sleep better,
and maybe even lose a little weight. I found myself eating more earlier in the
day so that I wouldn't be hungry later, but that didn't seem to change the
benefits.

The hardest bit is that it can be pretty hard to get an evening meal in before
7 (we do try to cook), and if its after, I pack the dinner for the next day's
lunch and sit down with the fam to chat while they eat.

------
bharam
Here's a weight loss tip I've used with some degree of success: exercise
portion control by using smaller dinner plates at home _and_ chew the food on
the plate longer (like 30s). The rationale is that the sensation of feeling
full takes about 20 minutes to kick in and so by practicing the above you end
up eating less over time and as a result lose weight. There is also a
possibility your body will make better use of the food this way as there are
enzymes in your mouth that help with digestion.

------
joantorres
With intermitent fasting 16/8 and weight lifting 3x a week, you can get fit
and look amazing in a just a couple if months. Just try it, it works!

------
astrostl
"OMAD" (one meal a day) here. It's been 5 months. Most days, I eat lunch. And
that's it, no real calorie consumption outside of that window. Not hungry, not
tired, not cranky, not suffering, more free time, actually eating better
(having one meal of pure crap in front of you is a clarifying moment), and
losing weight at a moderate clip. YMMV, IANAD, etc.

------
mrmondo
I’m not necessarily discounting the results however I found it odd that the
primary source didn’t state the sample size (or maybe I missed it)?
[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.22518](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.22518)

~~~
traek
You missed it, right in the abstract :-)

> Methods

> Eleven adults with overweight practiced both early time‐restricted feeding
> (eTRF) (eating from 8 am to 2 pm) and a control schedule (eating from 8 am
> to 8 pm) for 4 days each.

~~~
mrmondo
Oh did I - whoops!

That quote doesn’t give the sample size (number of people studied and in each
group) though?

~~~
belltaco
I think it was a cross over study. Or everyone went control for 4 days and
study protocol for next 4.

~~~
mrmondo
Hmm. Yeah just if it was like 30 (or even like 100) it’s not exactly overly
valuable other than an initial indicator.

------
tcmb
I like this example of explaining a scientific term to the lay people:

"a respiratory chamber -- a room-like device --"

------
newnewpdro
I'll often go 3-5 days where I only eat small quantities of fruits,
vegetables, and nuts, operating in very much a calorie deficit. This has been
a thing for years, and when I'm in this mode I don't really have much craving
for food, it's kind of surprising to me. Energy levels are fine, I'm generally
pretty physically active, it just seems normal and I enjoy the lightness.

It's not a lack of appetite though, if I decide to pursue a large meal in this
condition, my enthusiasm is high and I'll eat enough food to feed a family of
four if I let it happen.

But I've noticed if I instead eat more processed foods, especially refined
carbohydrates, while trying to exist in this calorie deficit state similarly
to my fruits/veggies/nuts mode, I'm miserable, irritable, and constantly
craving more food. And it's not some mild craving, it's like craving an
addictive drug.

I hadn't considered if timing played any significant part in these
experiences, what seems very obviously significant was the types of food.

------
donniefitz2
Some of the best info on this can be found in the book, The Obesity Code by
Dr. Jason Fung.

Also, here's a short video by him: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-
Fk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk)

------
sysbin
I eat one big meal per day, sometimes fasting once or two times a month and I
definitely have a lower appetite with slim body aesthetics. I didn't crave
food once my body adjusted to one daily meal for the timeframe of about a
month passing. Realistically I don't do much activity and I assume a
bodybuilder wouldn't be able to do one meal per day.

I hypothesize the weight of a person, factors from "the mealtime" to the "time
of sleep" and for storage of calories compared to used calories.

Similar, I hypothesize the timeframe from meal to meal factors into the
storage of calories compared to used calories.

Furthermore, I hypothesize the individual metabolism of the person factors
from the development years by the childhood to adulthood corresponding to the
active lifestyle of the individual.

Lastly, I hypothesize the individual metabolism of the person factors from the
composition of the gut bacteria. (Fasting could help reset the gut bacteria to
a healthy state)

------
mnm1
What about 1 to 3 meals starting at 2pm to 5pm for 6 hours? I'd be interested
to know how that compares. It seems without that data, it's not possible to
conclude at all that eating earlier in the day is better than later.

------
Tharkun
Skipping meals is a migraine trigger for me. This makes IF a lot less
viable...

------
100inengyears
We really have figured out health for the majority of people and even people
on the fringes have enough options close enough to them to make it possible.

If you dont live next to a grocery store this is a good thing. Because you get
to exercise and get fresh food every day.

If we could cure lack of discipline and laziness then we would be good. But we
cant (challenge placed) and there will always be people that are looking for a
trick rather than putting in the work to be healthy.

When watching Game of Thrones is more important than your health (exercising)
then health is not something you get to have. Its not a mystery.

Articles like these suggest you can be healthy without being active. This is
false (challenge placed).

------
xvilka
So the vegetarian keto diet with intermittent fasting is the ultimate
solution. But a hard one. Still met a plateu after 6 months, even essentially
living on salads.

------
wetpaws
I've been running on IF for at least a decade. Can only eat twice a day. If i
try to have breakfast, I don't feel hungry for the rest of the day and have to
skip lunch. People in comments mention plateau effect, but this is kind of the
point - my weight is stable for years on easy mode and I only have to correct
and tweak it slightly +/\- a few pounds from time to time.

------
ilaksh
How am I going to prevent myself from eating after 2 or 3 PM?

~~~
EamonnMR
The same way you adhere to any other diet plan-you excercise conscious control
over your behavior. If you can't cross that hurdle, no diet will work. If you
can cross that hurdle, though, you probably don't need a diet plan-calories
are printed on most food packages.

------
tonymet
I've lost 80 lbs from peak and kept it off for > 15 years without trying.
Never gained more than 5 lbs since losing the weight. I've never dieted or
restricted my diet. I eat when I have a desire to eat. I eat so called junk
food and bad food (butter, olive oil, bacon, meat, fatty nuts, whole
milk/half-half) daily. I generally avoid high sugar dishes and rarely drink
soda but that's due to taste.

In my experience the goal is to align your unconscious desire for food with
your bodies daily need.

Any attempt to control your hunger through conscious willpower will fail,
because that approach reinforces the mind's belief that food is the reward.

Instead, first you must get familiar with the feeling of true belly hunger.
Most people don't know what this is. Usually you eat due to mind / heart
hunger which is the "craving for pizza" or "i'm starving" feeling. You are
eating because of habit, reflex or emotional need.

Belly hunger is the cramping and headaches you get when you are truly at
caloric deficit. Once in a while It helps to go running without calories to
push yourself into hypoglycemic sensation. You will get dizzy and fatigued.
Once you eat you will feel like you just did narcotics.

Now that you know that feeling of belly hunger, you should have that feeling
daily (if only mildly). Keep reducing your portions until you hit that feeling
regularly. Avoid seconds or having snacks nearby.

Eventually belly hunger becomes your signal to eat rather than mind hunger .
And when you serve food you will serve portions that will satisfy the belly
hunger and not your emotional needs.

Once you are at this point you'll be on autopilot. The other side effect is
that avoiding eating will become more rewarding since you will enjoy the
belly-hunger feeling (since it's natural), and the bloated feeling will elicit
disgust.

When I was overweight, overeating brought intense relief and pleasure. Now the
sensations are inverted and overeating makes me feel deeply disgusted (like
eating a rotten apple).

tl;dr Align your hunger reflex with your biological need for food by treating
your body as a dog that needs to be trained to associate hunger with positive
emotions and overindulgence with negative ones.

~~~
iamgopal
This is the conclusion I also reached, I'm also eating whatever I want but not
whenever I want, instead when there is a hunger. I'm just couple of months in,
but still consistently loosing about kg in ten days easily.

~~~
tonymet
awesome work. trust me getting control over eating will be one of the most
liberating feelings in the world. and your discipline will spill over into
other aspects of life--it becomes quite empowering.

------
cheesymuffin
I really, really love fasting. It's when you starve yourself. Many people
can't do it but I'm living proof that you can. It raises adrenaline and lowers
cortisol so I feel just peppy through the day. And now because I went for a
week without eating last month and described a mechanism, I have the honor of
being a father figure to all of you in telling you that you, too, may starve,
and one day achieve the health goals that I've achieved as of last month. I'm
a Google engineer btw

Edit: stop PMing me asking for pictures and blood test results. HUGE invasion
of privacy

------
z3t4
One strategy to balance food intake is to _only_ eat when it _taste good_.

------
pcurve
" eTRF schedule where participants ate three meals over a six-hour period with
breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and dinner at 2:00 p.m."

No thanks. There's no way you're enjoying what you're eating if you're
stuffing more food down your throat even before your stomach has a chance to
digest.

------
tom_mellior
As long-term large-scale observational data, consider that the "Mediterranean
diet" is widely touted as especially healthy. People in Mediterranean
countries tend to eat late dinners, like the control group in this study.

No concrete conclusion here, just a general warning about believing in
monocausal silver bullets, I guess.

