Joseph Everett - WIL
5 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2017–2021
12:50 · 13M views · Jun 22, 2017
A short explainer on the physiological differences between fasting and simply eating less. It covers ketosis, ghrelin and hunger waves, and the hormonal effects of fasting.
Shared as an accessible, convincing case for intermittent fasting and its physiology.
5 comments from Hacker News
The following sources provide some compelling arguments for switching to intermittent fasting for many major systemic health benefits. These videos by the channel "What I've Learned" are great: - Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? [1] - Longevity & Why I now eat One Meal a Day [2] The channel [3] also has many other videos on the topic of nutrition, with similar emphasis. Also see the excellent and readable book "The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting" by Dr Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore [4]. [1] this video [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK]
I wouldn't say there's any one good resource. Most people preach intermittent fasting, which I've found is okay for maintenance and health but it's not nearly as beneficial nor will it lose you as much weight as fasting for days on end. But here's some material I went over to educate myself and convinced me that it's perfectly safe: Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (Science of Fasting) this video Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem' [LINK] Beginners Guide to Prolonged Fasting | 24-72 Hour Fasting Instructions [LINK] ^^ Not exactly a fan of Thomas DeLauer but there's some good information there. If you aren't faint of heart, check out some videos on the "Snake Diet" channel on YouTube. Cole is kind of a lunatic, constantly swears, and holds nothing back. He does this to be motivational. He's wrong about a few things(he thinks fasting cures everything and also thinks vaccines are bad), but when it comes to fasting properly he's pretty spot on. I just took from him what I thought made sense and left the rest behind. The best idea I got from him was the "snake juice", which is really just an electrolyte mixture you can make at home. It really makes all the difference. Overall, I wish there was someone who could preach this stuff without the Cole's level of insanity, but there you have it.
What really opened me up to all of the complex biochem when processing different foods was the “what I’ve learned” youtube channel [1]. What you describe was actually tested by the US government with the starvation experiment around ww2 and is consistent with your symptoms. Apparently when people are kept on a carb diet, but not given enough carbs, their live would suck quite a bit, they would loose muscle (but gain fat), not be able to think straight, etc. Its all fascinating stuff. I would suggest trying a full water fast for at least 2 days to see how it goes. For me its much less stressful, and after I get rid of all the carbs (24-48 hours, depending on what I was eating before) I would blissfully operate without any problems, including heavy fitness and programming tasks. And when I get to a point of too little glucose in my brain, because I had to fix a tricky bug, instead of searching for that chocolate treat, I’ll just sit for a but for 5-10 minutes, and let my body break down some of my fat to make more brain juice to operate normally. You are right though that people are different and this is a fricking complex stuff, and might not work for you, just wanted to mention that there might be more you can try. [1] this video
Yeah my man, I seriously don't know what to tell other than fasting works. Your metabolism isn't a something that breaks and is not fixable, and "getting sick of fainting" isn't a fucking excuse. If you're fainting, you're doing something wrong with your diet. You either getting too little from something, or too little. I seriously hope this video can lead you to a better lifestyle. and sorry if I sounded too harsh, lowkey it's targeted to myself as motivation. this video
I saw this video called "Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (Science of Fasting)" just yesterday, and it's good to hear many of the points it raised validated by your experience: this video > hunger comes in waves, you'll get to a point where you feel super hungry, it'll usually pass after some time Matches what the video above talks about "Ghrelin" from 5:03 onwards.