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Comment by jaworrom | Hacker News Reader

I'm a practicioner of intermittent fasting, and I've found that an 8 hour window is ideal for eating my meals, with a 16 hour fast. I can eat like shit on occasion and it doesn't do a thing to my physique. It's been pretty sustainable; I've been doing it for a good 4 years now. You might give it a try!

I found out about all of this from http://leangains.com. The guy has some really good reads and he always provides the science/citations from medical journals.

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Something similar seems to have worked for Paul Krugman:

"I have some recent experience along those lines. Yes, I’ve lost a fair bit of weight over the past two years (no special forcing event, just the approach of the big six-oh), and learned a few things about myself along the way. ... But what has worked for me is severe caloric restriction two days a week. In case you’re wondering, it’s actually very unpleasant. But periodic suffering seems to suit my personality."

Of course, he goes on to say he has a fitbit, does daily cardio, and tracks his weight, so I'm not sure how he's teasing out the confounding variables.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/this-dieter-is-d...

i also thought about doing 2 days of calorie restriction based on a bbc show by michael mosley (linked from the article below), who claims it's the optimum for health and weight, but could only sustain it for 2-3 weeks. he also suggests 3 minutes of intense workout is all you need (2nd link), as it's the optimum for the health benefits of exercise.

fasting: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-19112549

exercise: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-17177251

Also do IF, and I'm glad someone repped Martin Berkhan for the work he's done trying to dispel some of the myth associated with extended fasting. For anyone who gives a shit, there are several articles on http://www.leangains.com/ that show that it's not just the fact that it's harder to overeat when you have a limited feeding window -- but that there are hormonal effects elicited from periods of fasting that can be leveraged to enhance not only your physique, but your overall health.

What window times do you use? I want to try this but I can't seem to cut out night eating.

I've done IF as well for extended periods of time (I quit mostly because I wanted to gain weight). The most common schedule is to skip breakfast and eat a late "lunch". I.e. if you wakeup at 8am, have your eating window be between 4pm and midnight. If you have a less flexible schedule, there's really not much harm eating just one really big meal after work, together with some more snacking (preferably high-protein) before bed.

In my experience, it's much easier to fast the first half of the day and do social eating in the evening and go to bed full, than doing the opposite.

As another poster mentioned, fast during the morning hours and you should be fine. There is no problem with night eating, I do it all the time. I fast while I'm at work -- keep moving around, keep yourself oriented on tasks, and the next thing you know it's 2 o'clock. Most days I try to get a 16 hour fast in, but it all depends (Lunch meetings with clients can sometimes throw a wrench in things)

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