Ask HN: Have you experimented with diet/food? what was the result? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Have you experimented with diet/food? what was the result?

1 pointakudha9 comments

I've been reading about mono diets, especially Johanna Brandt's book on how she cured her cancer on grape diet. A lot of the book makes perfect logical sense (for example, eating less variety of food at a time puts less stress on digestion and makes it easier, and so on).

But it would be nice to hear this community's take on this topic. What did you try? what worked for you? What didn't?

This is the book I am reading : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570672792/

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Fasting. I started out with the 16:8 IF protocol and worked my way up over time to 1 day fasts , 3 day, 5 day, 7 day and my longest was a 12 day. I have also done eating every other day or every two days (in a 4 hour window) for 3-4 months.

My diet is basically Meat, Eggs, Coniferous Vegetables, Salads when I do eat. I never eat anything processed, I have only had a handful of Berries every few weeks as a treat otherwise I avoid all fruit, bread, pasta, rice, sugar, dairy and drink water, coffee and tea.

I have lost over 100 pounds, and completely eliminated every ache, pain, sleep problem and some other health issues. I feel like I'm in my early 20's again.

If you are interested in Cancer and diet, this book came highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Starve-Cancer-Jane-McLelland/dp/0...

12 day fast - that is 16:8? or something extreme like water fast?

Also, you mentioned you avoid all fruit (but you eat meat) - I am curious about the rationale behind this, could you please elaborate? Thank you for the book recommendation!

All my fasting (1-12 days) is just water/black coffee/green tea.

My 16:8 time delayed eating (some folks like to call it Intermittent fasting)is exactly that, two meals a day within 8 hours of each other.

Reasons I don't eat fruit are that fructose can only be processed by the liver. I find Fruit to high in energy and to low in nutrients, vegetables are way more nutrient dense. It's easy to gain a lot of weight eating lots of fruit and it's just not necessary for a healthy diet. Like I said, once a month I have a handful of blueberries or raspberries as a treat. My body can produce all the sugar I need from fat and protein.

I eat Steak, Ground Beef, Liver (Beef/Chicken), Wild Caught Sockeye Salmon along with Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Avocado, Salads (Lettuce, Onions, Tomato) with a vinegar dressing. I also eat up to 3 eggs a day.

A simple diet rich in nutrients but low in energy density. All my carbs are complex. I don't know what your trying to accomplish so what I'm doing might not be something you should do. I did it because it was simple, I was never hungry, lost a lot of weight and kept it off without really trying. It's not really a diet but a change in lifestyle where healthy eating just comes naturally. If I can't eat healthy I don't eat and that's totally easy since I can fast for as long as it takes until I get healthy food (ex: Traveling)

Here is a great book you might enjoy.

https://www.thepediet.com/

Those long fasts - is it supervised? I am sure I can fast 2-3 days at least just on water, but I live alone and I am worried if something happens, I would be toast.

I don't recommend anything more than 3-5 days max.

Without knowing what your goal is just try the 16:8 and eat a nutrient rich diet that is low energy. You should be able to fit 2 meals in (lunch and dinner) in a window from 12 - 8 pm. Nothing but water/coffee/tea before or after that window.

If your healthy and don't suffer from any issues, move on to one meal a day. After you master that then try a 1 or 2 day fast.

Look up Jason Fung on youtube. Great stuff....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nJgHBbEgsE

Check out Dr Berg on youtube also. He does "Healthy Keto" which is a very balanced and healthy diet.

https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123

Lots of great resources out there....

A while ago I switched to a habit of eating only one big meal a day to get the bulk of my nutrition. The timing doesn't matter that much, just whatever is convenient and what feels good for me any given day. It is flexible though. It might be one big meal and a second smaller meal. Or one big meal and small healthy, nutritious snacks throughout the day to make up for whatever the big meal lacked. This works a lot better for me as I do not have to plan for 3-4 meals every single day. Being human, I might not want to eat the same dish more than once, so I have to figure out different things for each meal which really stresses me out. 3-4 meals a day might work for me if I was always eating prepared food though. With one meal a day, I simply cook 3-4 servings of whatever I felt like eating and eat all or most of it in one sitting until I feel satisfied. My intuition also tells me that digesting one meal only at a regular time every day is better than digesting 3-4 different meals spread across the day. The concept of fasting is to give your body a break from digesting and stuff right, giving it time to naturally release any bad stuff through the natural processes. If one day I've eaten too much junk and feel bloated, I give myself the next day a break from eating at all. Like a 24 hour fast. Or you could just do a 16 hour fast and only eat a small healthy dinner. What's valuable to me is this flexibility. I've read that before farming, food was harder to come by, so humans back then didn't really get to eat 3-4 meals every single day. They might catch something or whatever and eat all of it that day like a feast, and then it might be another 1 or 2 days before they can eat that much again.

The number one benefit of one meal a day perhaps for me, is that you can organize/plan your digestion, if you know what I mean. Imagine being able to control and plan for when you need to poop. I can do that with this diet. I basically never have to use public restrooms except for urination. It's a blessing really.

I did the potato hack for a while, which is a mono diet that uses potatoes. I definitely lost weight, but lost muscle too. I might try it again as a 1-2 day "plateau buster" for some excess fat I'm trying to lose.

I also did IF (16:8) as a way to curb snacking. I think both approaches are a really good way to reacquaint yourself with eating to sate hunger rather than eating for stimulation/pleasure.

Ultimately the "experiment" that has played out the best for me has been this old saw: 3 meals a day, 0-2 snacks. No ultra-processed foods and very few processed foods (based on the NOVA classification system). 5+ servings of veggies a day. 1-3 servings of fruit. Keep added/refined sugar intake under 15 grams a day and no sweets, period. I'm very slowly but steadily losing fat, while maintaining plenty of energy for my exercise regimen.

Yes, I believe strongly in the gut biome and I take probiotics daily and have been doing IF for about 6 months. I lost weight for a while, but it seems to have rebounded in quarantine :). The main effect was actually on my mood - I feel happier subjectively and seem to have more energy. YMMV.

could you please elaborate? what do you mean by "take probiotics"? And, IF - do you just eat once a day, or is it something different?

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