Post New

Time-restricted eating reshapes gene expression throughout the body

Summary:
Scientists show in mice how time-restricted eating influences gene expression across more than 22 regions of the body and brain. The findings have implications for a wide range of health conditions where time-restricted eating has shown potential benefits, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and cancer.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/2301...

I am an intermittent faster (OMAD) and my health has benefited greatly because of it. It's not a diet, it is a life style.

my health has benefited greatly because of it.

I'm so interested to know the benefits you've experienced, and how long it took to become aware. I'd think that some benefits emerged more quickly, and others took time.


It's not a diet, it is a life style.

How do you become comfortable with the extended periods of not eating? I can't imagine being comfortable with intermittent fasting. I'm a nibbler. I don't like sitting down for big meals. I like small meals. And I normally don't eat luch'just nibble here and there. I hate being really hungry.

What does OMAD stand for?

=sheila

What does OMAD stand for?

One Meal a Day.


How do you become comfortable with the extended periods of not eating?

When I began this life style change, I didn't just jump in with both feet. I started back in the summer of 2018 by eating just two meals a day. The first being around 11am and the second was around 5pm. I should note that a typical day for me begins around 4:30am and I usually go to bed around 12am. If time permits, I might take a one hour nap around 3pm (but that's actually rare, well if it does happen, it's on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday). Looking back at it, I don't recall having any discomfort from not eating (I'm not a nibbler). By not eating from 5pm till the next day around 11am is where I gained the most value, that was 18 hours of fasting (water only). I then graduated to OMAD in February of 2021 while receiving treatment for a serious health issue that came up (interestingly, I did not loose any more weight, but I do believe it helped in other ways). That's another story for another day.

I'm so interested to know the benefits you've experienced, and how long it took to become aware.

I immediately began to shed weight at a rate of about 1-3 lbs a week until my body's metabolism naturally stabilized on its own (about 10 lbs. more than when I was a teenager, I'm 60 now). Mind you, I wasn't trying to lose any weight, nor was I dieting in any way shape or form, and I don't count calories. I literally ate and continue to eat whatever I want. My weight does not go up or down at this point and it has been a little over 4 years now. I lost just under 60 lbs. and six inches off my waist. I don't even have the extra flab of skin one would expect from losing that much weight. I currently weigh in at 178 lbs with a 32 inch waist. I was 236 lbs. / 38 inch waist.

I am/was a type II diabetic for over 20 years. My AC1 used to be anywhere from 6.9 ' 9 (with the help of two medications). Now it is always under 6 and I am no longer taking any medication. This took about 2 years or so.

I used to take medication for cholesterol and hypertension as well, not anymore. Those numbers are well within the guidelines and are considered normal now. This took about 2 years as well.

My doctors initially did not want me to stop any of my medications. But I pushed back and now they are okay with it. For me, less is more. If I don't need it, I'm not taking it.

It should also be noted that I walk around 2-3 miles every day, have been for well over 30 years.

I can testify to a positive response to modified intermittent fasting.

I have a strong family history of Type 2 diabetes. My dad and his brother both developed it and both had renal failure, with my uncle doing 10+ years of dialysis. So I monitored my A1c and fasting sugars. Had been fine despite stress-related weight issues up until I retired. When I retired, I actually lost 25 pounds and markedly improved my activity levels. Thinking I had just earned years to staving off disease, I was surprised to find elevating fasting sugars and within two years an A1c of 6.2, confirming my diagnosis. Went on meds (just Metformin) with an initial good response. Despite trimming a few more pounds off, after a good initial drop, my A1c slipped up a tenth. While not an immediate threat, it still made me wonder since it developed after a good weight loss. Decided to be more aggressive.

Diabetic education was a waste. But from my education and reading, the key seemed to be more weight loss with a focus on core body fat to reduce insulin resistance. Intermittent fasting seemed the best approach. But most of studies had whole day fasts (36 hours three times a week) or strict time lines for eating. I wanted something to work into my life style as well as not make it hard on my wife or modify her life. I decided that skipping breakfast might be the best, in addition do it when I do my set aerobic exercising on MWF mornings. I simply on those mornings don't eat until after 12 and more commonly 1. That simple change has resulted in another 25 pounds off over the last 3 months, typically 1-3 pounds a week. The holidays and some grandparent duties have generated some hiccups but typically stable weight, not gaining.

It is incredibly easy, without any stress or issues. I am now at a weight that I last saw when I started college 40+ years ago. It has not disrupted our family life and it is part of my life style now. I am excited to see what my A1c is in a month, but can already tell you my fastings are now normal.

My message is that it can have benefits without doing 36 hour fasts, or only one meal a day, or forcing a tight eating schedule. Simply skipping breakfast combined with exercising is simple and easy and is absolutely working for me.

Best of luck to all,

Lakedog

My wife and I also have experience regarding intermittent fasting to share.

As for me, I was on fast- and slow-acting insulin; 2,000mg metformin; Victoza; and carvedilol, and alpha- and beta-blocker to stabilize my heart, which was going wonky. Spoiler: I became free of all of the above.

Fasting sounded, well, nutty, to me. I needed to look around. I read Fung's book -- although not a greater writer, a great thinker. Why shove glucose away, when you could not introduce it in the first place? The house if flooding -- do you start bailing first, or stop the water from getting in? Why would you not keep your blood glucose (BG) from getting higher in the first place?

Also, looking around it didn't take long to find research going back decades that noted that insulin merely pushes glucose into muscles and nerve cells, and is still toxic, just not in the blood, where we are measuring it. No surprise, then, that insulin has not been shown to extend healthspan or lifespan.

I read some other material as well -- Asprey's Fast This Way, which pointed out that intermittent fasting is the eating pattern of most animals most of the time, as it was for all of humanity until the Industrial Revolution. Also, it takes something like 3 months to starve to death -- you're going to make out all right. Five days or more you should talk to your doctor, but less than that, go for it.

This all sort of made intermittent fasting seem normal, and what we normally do seem kind of odd. My thoughts turned to the money made from diabetics -- the last thing you want is to cure diabetes, if you are a member or beneficiary of Big Pharma. I decided not to think about that too much.

We started by stretching our fasting muscle, as Fung says: 16 hours without eating, eating whatever in an 8 hour window (16:8). Then 18:6. Then 24:1 (OMAD). This was tough. Then, we jumped to 36:6. The last 12 hours weren't that hard. 48:6 likewise: the first day was desperately hungry, then the next day was nearly free. Eventually we went 72 hours, by which time we discovered that electrolytes matter. I leaned on LMNT at first (one of the vanishingly few options without sugar), and then made my own formula I could add to ice water and cocktail bitters. It worked! No more dizziness or strange fatigue.

We hit upon eating dinner Sunday, and not eating again until Thursday afternoon/early evenings. I did that some weeks, then most weeks ' three weeks a month is where I topped out. But on the fourth week, I got sick of food before it was time to fast again. It's always something that needs dialing in.

I lost 100 pounds, got off all those meds, and my A1c went from 8.8 to 4.7. I found that I enjoyed fasting, and I enjoyed feasting ' what a joyous celebration food can be when it isn't a daily grind! My wife went on to lose over 250 pounds, and is near her target weight. She still fasts Sunday-Thursday, and she may simply do that from now on.

Not me. I found a three-month plateau, and some limit on my tolerance for so much fasting. As a result, I gained some of that weight back. I decided to improve my strength and conditioning, burning it off instead. Greater muscle mass is important for healthy longevity.

I got a DEXA scan, and VO2Max, and repeated it 2 months later ' 2 months of hard-core training. Well, as hard core as I can manage, anyway. I cut fat, gained muscle, and my body weight is trending the right direction ' but I'm much stronger already, and gaining well. I'm going to keep doing that.

I don't think of myself as intermittent fasting anymore, but as living with time-restricted eating: I don't eat until mid-afternoon most days. And, I take in very few carbs, only good quality protein, fat, veggies as a rule. Very little alcohol. When there are exceptions, I take 100mg of Acarbose to keep my BG from spiking, and my carbs are slow releasing, anyway ' sweet potato, not sweets. Not too much fruit.

Protein still spikes my BG, so I use Fortagen (an amino acid blend) instead. The DEXA scans prove that it's working, at least for me. And, I am limiting my portions, so that if I have a small meal in the mid-afternoon, I keep it less than 1,000 calories. I don't want to, and that was certainly not my habit, but I do it, and it helps.

Some people say that intermittent fasting is just another way of restricting calories. Well, it does do that. But it can also be a radically powerful intervention for losing weight, resolving diabetes symptoms in a way that actually works, and my benefit you via autophagy, if you fast for long enough. The way I'm doing it, portions still matter, exercise matters ' quite a lot. But I would never have more fully understood my relationship with food if I hadn't fasted, and now I decide what is best for me in ways I was not even aware of, before. 20 years of Atkins didn't do for me what fasting did.

Cheers,
Wot

"Some people say that intermittent fasting is just another way of restricting calories."

Wow, Watdanby, quite the story and congrats!! It's wonderful that you and your wife had each other for support and to do this journey with!

I'm no expert, but I thought I might expand slightly on your comment above. Yes, there is caloric reduction in fasting, but the key aspect is a metabolic shift. Your body preferentially will use glucose as fuel. Only when the supply of readily available glucose gets low enough does the body shift metabolism and start burning fat. And technically (as well as not a good thing), it will eventually go to using protein if not enough fat (lipids) are available. Fasting induces that shift. In general, it takes a good 8 and more like 12 hours to reduce your glucose supplies to start that shift. It's that shift to using more fats that makes the difference. That is also the idea behind the Keto diet. Simplistically, with the diet you are trying to make so little sugars available that you trigger lipolysis (fat metabolism). Ketones are a breakdown product of fatty acids, hence the name Keto diet.

The duration is not as critical as just getting to that point of burning fat, although, obviously the longer the greater fat burning your get. You can also enhance it by restricting or eliminating carbohydrates at the last meal or exercising to burn glucose and push towards lipolysis.

I say this to encourage folks to not feel you have to try and do whole day or three day fasts. Try skipping breakfast (and lunch maybe) two or three times a week. Take small steps first to get the feel.

Lakedog

PS Going to get on my soap box. You see ads all the time about keto supplements. I don't understand them. Most state they have ketones in them, but why would that help? Ketones don't drive lipolysis, they are a breakdown product generated by it. You can buy test strips to measure ketones in your blood, but who cares if that goes up because you ingested ketones, it's your own production of them that reflects what you want. Oh well, marketers......

Indeed, Lakedog, it puzzles me why it is common knowledge that we "store energy as fat to use later," yet utilizing the energy stored in the fat by simply not eating is bad. It's a cultural thing, I suppose.

And yes, I should say, if it were not clear already, that I had a crisis: My BG was going ever higher, and I could not "control" it with insulin anymore. Bold measures were called for, and I stepped up as quickly as I could to more prolonged fasts. But my BG came down rapidly, and I felt better and better, almost as soon as I began.

For the non-crisis crowd, going gently is going to make more sense, as you described. I will repeat, however, that, once you've stretched to reach it, a 48-hour fast is easier than a 23:1 fast; all the suffering is on that first day. Once the body realizes the food isn't readily available, it doesn't just give up; it gets ready to get out there and find the food. Mental alertness improves, energy is clean -- these can be empowering feelings if you're coming out of hole, as I surely was.

Just don't snack. A handful of nuts will put your body into some kind of "get by on just this" mode, which is starvation, not fasting. Starvation is where the suffering is, and I don't recommend it.

I should stop typing. There's way too much to say about all this, just thought I'd put in my (and my wife's) two cents.

Cheers,
Wot

Post New

US Policy FAQ

---

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.