askchapo

what appeals to me is that it is very much a self-directed thing that one can adjust for their own goals and situation. lose weight/insulin sensitivity recovery/cholesterol control/general maintenance has been my main one and the lecture keyed me into what would be recommended, timing wise. if i ever hit some nebulous goal weight and everything on my tests looks perfect and maybe i'm even more active, i would probably try adjusting the time restriction again.

honestly, check out that lecture i linked. it's long and he digresses a little here and there, but he is an amusing lecturer on what is typically a brutal topic. i still remember memorizing functional groups in biology and, as a systems guy, i was like FML.

anyway, he talks about how IF/time restricted feeding gives metabolic processes, especially those related to insulin regulation, a recovery period. and because there's this pause of 16-20 hours, it gives the hormone receptors that have downregulated from the consistent influx / overabundance of insulin a chance to recover a more typical sensitivity. that means, when you do eat again, your pancreas doesn't have to flood you with a high level of insulin to control blood sugar. there's a lot of other stuff going on that insulin cascades into, but when he talks about how much energy it takes for the body to simply convert the food we intake into some energy for later, it was pretty eye instructive as to why we feel run down after eating. and if we are eating frequently, we are staying in that state. digesting food is very energy intensive. we are putting a bunch of foreign matter into us and forcing our body to, as quick as it can, make it safe, break it down physically, chemically, and microbially at various stages to strip it of usable materials to convert into short, medium, and long term energy storage as well as a whole suite of vital nutrients, and keep it moving along the way like a reverse assembly line taking apart a car and creating a pile of whatever it couldn't figure out in time mixed with whatever could be toxic if it stuck around. while also filtering out out water for ourselves. think about how conditioned we are to intake caffeine with / shortly after meals to mentally overcome this massive energetic effort going on inside us.

for me, it's been the most significant lifestyle change i've engaged with where i'm like, "shit this is easy. i could do this forever." i can just eat my meal at a meal time i chose and be full, and then spend the rest of my waking time doing whatever i actually want to do, not worrying about what i'm going to figure out that's healthy and reasonable and satisfying 5 hours from then. my biggest obstacle are family members who have no background whatsoever in biological sciences, are total snacky treat addicts, and have had to resort to major medical intervention (with frightening side effects) to basically not die from their lifestyles. i was the last one in my family to develop syndrome x symptoms, because i was always just more active, worked physical labor jobs for my 20s-30s and have generally been less snacky. but it caught up to me in my 40s. until i found this, i was basically slowly, steadily heading down the same road. and when i started it, they were all like "you're going to die. that's impossible. you have to eat 5 times a day to keep your metabolism up. join us in our constant snacking and treat chasing. you're hurting your body." now that i'm not dead and my doctor is like, "wow, whatever you're doing is working" they aren't sure what to do. they still try to sabotage me by pushing food and snacks at me (with "concern") whenever they want to chase their own dopamine hit. "try this powder, try this supplement, try this diet meal plan subscription." just all the same "common sense" pack of bs that have been pedaled for years to sell shit to unhappy people with all the diseases of modern civilization. the hilarious thing about IF that the lecturer addresses is he gets zero industry support for anything his foundation does, because he's not selling anything. that lecture's audience are other healthcare professionals because he wants to reduce the damage being done by pushing old narratives the science has grown beyond. and there is nothing to sell, so industry turns up its nose. he's literally just telling people to consider eating less frequently, to try--with the knowledge of their physician re: medication and situation--fasting for a day, and there is no money to be made with that. there's no specially formulated macronutrient kibble or water flavoring powder or magic cookbook or subscription meal plan or pharmaceutical to patent.

the really fascinating stuff though is when he gets into the timetable of what the body starts doing after insulin levels have dropped (2 hours, 5 hours 16 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours etc), what typically "off" genes start expressing to keep us rolling, alert, energetic, and mentally capable. the autophagy thing is legit crazy, how it was misunderstood for a long time until recently. he points out that any cellular action leaves behind some trash components over time, weird little proteins and fragments that are just sitting there in cells and as they build up, they mechanistically interfere with normal cellular processes. when autophagy is signaled, it starts a recycling process to cannibalize components from junked up/underperforming cells, which then signal they need to be reconstituted as soon as nutrition is available again. it was assumed this was only a starvation prevention mechanism, but it turns out this is a key recycling/regenerative process for preventing cells from becoming cancerous and has implications for neurodegeneration and immune disorders. and if you're eating every 4-5 hours during waking periods, this process almost never activates. it legitimately only starts around 16 or so hours after food intake has ceased.

anyway, i'm "new" to it and had great results at 6 months in, so i'm obviously excited about it. because my family is unsupportive, i can't really talk to them about it so i took this opportunity to gush. maybe if i have perfect blood work/BP, am physically active, and look 35 when i'm 50, they'll respect my lifestyle choices but i doubt it. guess i'll just have to do it for my own enrichment.