My personal experience with IF suggests that there are pretty major benefits from doing it regularly. I lost 30 pounds (and I had no idea I needed to lose them—but I definitely look and feel much better!), my general levels of inflammation dropped, my energy stabilized, and my various biomarkers went from good to excellent. And I’m no longer trapped by a regular need for food; if it takes an extra three hours or so to get to a meal, it doesn’t really affect me.
But I’ve seen this warning about sudden adult-onset CR shortening lifespan, and I see in this article you link to that it’s apparently an issue with IF too. That concerns me. I switched to IF over the course of about a week. Does anyone know what the mechanism for shortening lifespan with too quick an adaptation to CR is? If there’s some way of checking for that kind of damage or ongoing effect in myself, I’d like to do so.
And is it a matter of “once done, you’ve done the damage and it’s too late,” or is it more that ongoing CR that started too suddenly keeps affecting the organism in negative ways, kind of like getting continually exposed to cold air actually inhibits circulation rather than strengthening it if the initial burst of cold was too strong? That difference would matter a lot to me because if IF isn’t really having any negative longevity effects, I’d still want to keep doing it because the other benefits I’m getting from it are so pragmatically awesome. But if I’m continually cutting months off my life, I’ll stop right away!
I’m afraid I don’t really know. Intermittent fasting, like masturbation, is something I’m still collecting citations and quotes on because no clear picture has emerged for me.
Ah! Thank you. So the short version is:
IF is a riskier method of doing CR
You still have to have the net effect of CR
My personal experience with IF suggests that there are pretty major benefits from doing it regularly. I lost 30 pounds (and I had no idea I needed to lose them—but I definitely look and feel much better!), my general levels of inflammation dropped, my energy stabilized, and my various biomarkers went from good to excellent. And I’m no longer trapped by a regular need for food; if it takes an extra three hours or so to get to a meal, it doesn’t really affect me.
But I’ve seen this warning about sudden adult-onset CR shortening lifespan, and I see in this article you link to that it’s apparently an issue with IF too. That concerns me. I switched to IF over the course of about a week. Does anyone know what the mechanism for shortening lifespan with too quick an adaptation to CR is? If there’s some way of checking for that kind of damage or ongoing effect in myself, I’d like to do so.
And is it a matter of “once done, you’ve done the damage and it’s too late,” or is it more that ongoing CR that started too suddenly keeps affecting the organism in negative ways, kind of like getting continually exposed to cold air actually inhibits circulation rather than strengthening it if the initial burst of cold was too strong? That difference would matter a lot to me because if IF isn’t really having any negative longevity effects, I’d still want to keep doing it because the other benefits I’m getting from it are so pragmatically awesome. But if I’m continually cutting months off my life, I’ll stop right away!
I’m afraid I don’t really know. Intermittent fasting, like masturbation, is something I’m still collecting citations and quotes on because no clear picture has emerged for me.
Drat. Well, do keep me posted, and I’ll keep an eye out for similar info.