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Nutrition "Jazzy" minimalist intermittent fasting

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Nacho

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Many people I follow and respect, seem to recommend intermittent fasting.
I have grown up around the idea of the importance of breakfast and eating many meals a day, throughout the day, but I have never really felt hungry in the morning. However, I have sort of made my self eat breakfast...
I often eat my dinner quite late, so it would kind of make sense to try intermittent fasting.
Idea of giving the digestive system a break/rest makes sense to me. It seems natural!

However, "life happens" seems to affect achieving the eating window quite a bit.

So my question is, is there any value in having some sort of minimalist "jazzy" attitude to intermittent fasting?
Like, if I skip a breakfast if I don`t need it, but accepting the reality, that I might have a round of golf at 10am some days, and I don`t want to go play with an empty stomach? Or I`m on a business trip and it makes sense to have a nice hotel breakfast, but also need to eat late dinner with customers/colleaques.
And some days the fast might be 12 or 14 hours instead of 16. Is there still value, or is there a risk I wouldn`t achieve "minimum effective dose" so to speak?
 
@Nacho, an interesting question. I think the answer is, "Yes, it's worth it." At the very least, you'll acquire some "metabolic flexibility," which is to say you'll get used to eating on different schedules. And don't forget that the Warrior Diet recommends alternating periods of under- and over-eating, so consider some of that as well, e.g., perhaps have a smaller breakfast than you otherwise might for that 10 am round of golf - rest assured you've got plenty of calories stored and you'll make it through OK, or do something like start out on an empty stomach and carry something small with you, e.g., a piece of fruit or something similar in size, to have half-way through.

-S-
 
So my question is, is there any value in having some sort of minimalist "jazzy" attitude to intermittent fasting?
Like, if I skip a breakfast if I don`t need it, but accepting the reality, that I might have a round of golf at 10am some days, and I don`t want to go play with an empty stomach? Or I`m on a business trip and it makes sense to have a nice hotel breakfast, but also need to eat late dinner with customers/colleaques.
And some days the fast might be 12 or 14 hours instead of 16. Is there still value, or is there a risk I wouldn`t achieve "minimum effective dose" so to speak?
This is how I do it and it works great for me. I dont pay much attention to the "eating windows". I just skip breakfast most days. Some nights I go for a beer and finish eating at 1 am, some nights I eat at 8 pm. Some nights I skip dinner if I had a heavy lunch. I dont even bother thinking about this anymore. Some times I like eating a fruit during the morning, so I eat it.

Give it a try, if you are not hungry in the morning, why eat?
 
And some days the fast might be 12 or 14 hours instead of 16. Is there still value, or is there a risk I wouldn`t achieve "minimum effective dose" so to speak?
I can't find the video, but Dr. Rhonda Patrick references a study (with mice) where the mice did a 12/12 IF five days per week with the expected results of IF.

Based on that I try to have at least a non-eating window of 12 hours 5x/week, but I vary the window everyday.

But a lot of details are unknown at this point. Dr. Patrick, for example, believes it to be best to abstain from everything that has to be processed... so even coffe or herbal tea. Other however believe that this does not matter overall, and that even a certain amount of calories are not a big deal.

If I am not mistaken, Ori Hofmekler allows the consumption of fruits and nuts during the day. And in the "5:2 diet" you eat about 500 kcal per day, two days a week (for example, on the weekend). Fasting days are high-fiber, high-protein.

And then there is the Fast Mimicking Diet (FMD) by Valter Longo which allows you up to 1000 kcal per day (about 50/50 complex carbs and fat) for 3-5 days. Fasting days are low-sugar, low-protein. All you eat are veggies, nuts and healthy oils like olive oil. This week I tried it a bit, by eating 2 veggie soups + some nuts and olives. My body showed similar effects like during a fast: Improved mental clarity, a kind of glow, better skin, more cramps, light headaches on days two... and feeling kind of resetted after breaking the fast. [There is an expensive, commercial version, but you can freestyle yourself.]

Bottom line: I think restraining from all or certain food groups for parts of the day or for extended periods definitely changes something in our metabolism. I think the jazzy version has a lot of potential.
 
So my question is, is there any value in having some sort of minimalist "jazzy" attitude to intermittent fasting?
Yes. There is very likely nothing magical about 12 vs 13 hours. Research is still speculative, I've read everything from 12 hours to 24 being the MED. Probably best to vary it up a bit. As @offwidth mentioned, I like the NNT anti-fragility aspect t that as well Nothing in nature is rigid in schedule
 
In his original essay on evolutionary fitness, Art Devany, sometimes referred to as the grandfather of paleo, recommended skipping meals pretty much at random. Miss breakfast today, don't eat dinner tomorrow, eat three meals the day after that etc. That kind of thing, depending on what your life was like on the day. This was probably before the term "intermittent fasting" was invented and I doubt Art would have endorsed a strict eating window (eg 16:8) because he advocated variety and randomness but the end result, extended periods of fasting to stabilise insulin, encourage autophagy etc, would be the same
 
I've been playing around with IF for a couple of years sometimes adhering to a 18/6 or 20/4 but most of the time just skipping breakfast and not eating after supper. If I feel hungry in the morning or if we have a family breakfast on the weekends I eat and don't think twice about it.

IF shouldn't affect the pleasure you have eating with friends and family, it should enhance your quality of life while making you more adaptable.

My colleagues at work all need to eat when we have a break, they snack all the time, thinking they are hungry. I can work my whole shift while fasted and not even think about it. I think this is one of the many benefits of fasting, knowing when you are really hungry.
 
I've been playing around with IF for a couple of years sometimes adhering to a 18/6 or 20/4 but most of the time just skipping breakfast and not eating after supper. If I feel hungry in the morning or if we have a family breakfast on the weekends I eat and don't think twice about it.

IF shouldn't affect the pleasure you have eating with friends and family, it should enhance your quality of life while making you more adaptable.

My colleagues at work all need to eat when we have a break, they snack all the time, thinking they are hungry. I can work my whole shift while fasted and not even think about it. I think this is one of the many benefits of fasting, knowing when you are really hungry.

That is my exact experience. and pretty much the same benefits I get.

I will say one negative thing though, is that I can get extremely cold toward the end of an IF before I eat. I don't normally get cold, but if I haven't eaten in 15+ hours I start to shiver and find myself wanting to eat sooner rather than later.
 
Wh
Many people I follow and respect, seem to recommend intermittent fasting.
I have grown up around the idea of the importance of breakfast and eating many meals a day, throughout the day, but I have never really felt hungry in the morning. However, I have sort of made my self eat breakfast...
I often eat my dinner quite late, so it would kind of make sense to try intermittent fasting.
Idea of giving the digestive system a break/rest makes sense to me. It seems natural!

However, "life happens" seems to affect achieving the eating window quite a bit.

So my question is, is there any value in having some sort of minimalist "jazzy" attitude to intermittent fasting?
Like, if I skip a breakfast if I don`t need it, but accepting the reality, that I might have a round of golf at 10am some days, and I don`t want to go play with an empty stomach? Or I`m on a business trip and it makes sense to have a nice hotel breakfast, but also need to eat late dinner with customers/colleaques.
And some days the fast might be 12 or 14 hours instead of 16. Is there still value, or is there a risk I wouldn`t achieve "minimum effective dose" so to speak?
What you’re describing is exactly what I do, and I have stable weight and my strength seems to improve as expected, build up, de load, build back up and so on. I would recommend your Jazzy approach.
 
I've been playing around with IF for a couple of years sometimes adhering to a 18/6 or 20/4 but most of the time just skipping breakfast and not eating after supper. If I feel hungry in the morning or if we have a family breakfast on the weekends I eat and don't think twice about it.

IF shouldn't affect the pleasure you have eating with friends and family, it should enhance your quality of life while making you more adaptable.

My colleagues at work all need to eat when we have a break, they snack all the time, thinking they are hungry. I can work my whole shift while fasted and not even think about it. I think this is one of the many benefits of fasting, knowing when you are really hungry.
This resonates deeply with me.

As I've written above, a lot is unknown about the mechanisms of caloric restrictions, so I guess we should just enjoy life and use IF for increasing freedom and enjoyment, not as another burden. If nothing else, it will free us from compulsive eating and constant snacking. And if it improves health, too, that's a nice bonus. The low hanging fruit :)
 
IF shouldn't affect the pleasure you have eating with friends and family, it should enhance your quality of life while making you more adaptable.
I guess we should just enjoy life and use IF for increasing freedom and enjoyment, not as another burden. If nothing else, it will free us from compulsive eating and constant snacking. And if it improves health, too, that's a nice bonus. The low hanging fruit :)

The true takeaways, IMO. Well said
 
Hello,

I think there is nothing wrong skipping breakfast. Human body is made to perform even on an empty stomach (at least up to a certain point).

We usually eat X meals a day as an habit. They did an experiment a while, by measuring blood glucose before midday of 2 groups: Group 1 with a breakfast, Group 2 without breakfast. Group 1 reported feeling very low energy, etc... However, their blood glucose was the same than Group 2 and all the metrics were the same. So it was more a "psychological" thing than anything else.

Randomly skipping a meal will make a specific diet less 'effective' (for instance, you skip one breakfast out of two during an "IF diet") but as long as one does not overcompensate on the next meals, it should be fine.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
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