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Comment by keymone | Hacker News Reader

Don’t all humans fast overnight pretty much always?

This article discusses 20-hour long fasting periods that include a night, say from 2 PM till 10 AM the following day.

Also note that it did 20 hour fasts for a fruit fly. Fruit flies metabolism acts a bit quicker than humans, that would probably correspond to a multi day fast for a human.

Yes, and you "break" the "fast" every morning.

I see what you did there.

Good use of the period at the end!

> I see what you did there.

It's not a play on words, "breaking the fast" is where the word comes from :).

I know. I was being humorous!

My mistake! Have a pleasant day :)

8 hours between meals isn't fasting by any definition. That is the average you get when you eat the normal 3 times a day.

> 8 hours between meals isn't fasting by any definition.

Funny what we call eating in the morning then, isn't it? (also, not everyone eats only at designated meal times. People snack.)

> Funny what we call eating in the morning then,

Sure, but ostensibly we're not eating right before bed.

If dinner is at 7 or 8 and breakfast is at 7 or 8 that's 50% more time than an equal meal distribution throughout the day.

for 20 hours?

Nope, lots get up in the middle of the night to eat.

Surely that is an eating disorder or beginning of one?

I am not sure. I have a sister who used to do that and she wasn't overweight neither had any obvious eating disorder. Maybe it was because she was an athlete? I know other people with obvious weight problems that wake up in the middle of the night to eat and maybe for those it might be considered a disorder.

> athlete

I've heard of strength training regimens that call for a middle of the night protein shake supplement. But given how crucial rest is, I've always been skeptical of that idea.

These people that want to live in their 80s or beyond boggle me. Who wants to stick around that long when you have so many contemporaneous failures of the body all crashing down on you? Better to just die catastrophically in your early to mid 70s and save yourself a drab decade or two.

Some people are healthier in their 80s than others in their 60s. The point is to be healthy for as long as possible.

If you're not careful, your body will start failing at age 65 and you'll live a drab decade until croaking at 75.

If you want to avoid that, and want to stay healthy and vibrant until 75, you have pretty much the same goals as someone who wants to live to 95.

Not so sure after all: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16964783

Half of the developed world has an eating disorder.

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