[codernyc16]

He lost 45 lbs, that’s what probably removed his sleeps apnea. Not because of some other magical ability of intermittent fasting. One of my friends also lost a lot of weight and his apnea went away, he went off of his CPAP machine.

[downerending]

You're probably correct, in that losing a lot of weight greatly improved his health. That said, losing weight is freaking difficult, and if intermittent fasting is a path towards that, it'd be very useful.

I've done a lot of fasting. The results seem pretty good. Pulling it off is non-trivial.

At this point, we need "magical", because nothing else has really seemed to work in general for losing weight.

(And no, didn't read the article, because paywall.)

[tom_mellior]

> work in general

That's far from sure at this point. Yes, HN is a hotbed of intermittent fasting propaganda [1], which may make it seem like there is general agreement. But you'll find other communities pushing other diets as the one true diet, so... more research is needed.

[1] Note, for example, that the submitter subtly but crucially changed the title, which in the original says "works for many" (emphasis mine).

[downerending]

I'm not particularly claiming that IF works. My main point is that nothing we know of really works generally and reliably.

I've personally lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off continually for more than a decade. But I don't really know how I did that, nor do I have much confidence that whatever I did would work for others.

[tomp]

Weight loss is in theory very simple - just eat less. In practice, however, doing that is extremely hard (for a lot of people), as it goes against our upbringing and evolutionary and social pressures.

The key of any weight-loss diet is that it somehow hacks our brain so that we end up eating less. But everyone’s brain is different, so different hacks work (or not) for different people. That’s why you have so many diets - fasting, intermittent fasting, keto, paleo, zero carb, low fat, food separation diet, ...

Personally, intermittent fasting hasn’t helped me lose weight (might have helped me maintain it though). So far, the only thing that has helped was very strict calorie counting, but that was accompanied with severe emotional/mental discomfort (constant hunger). I’m now experimenting with one-day fasting (turns out not eating, for me, is associated with less hunger than eating too little, go figure ...), we’ll see how t goes.

[dghughes]

Not eating was easy for me even as a teen, 20s, and 30s. I found eating a necessity and that's it. That didn't mean I was eating healthy food but small amounts of anything. For me going a day or two without eating was easy. I didn't do it to lose weight and I never did lose weight I was a consistent 150lbs from early teens to my early 40s.

But then in my 40s my thyroid failed and I have hypothyroidism. I suspect it was failing for a decade maybe a bit less. I should say my thyroid was working less not really failing since that takes a while to notice rather than an outright failure.

Now I consistently weigh 40 pounds more than I did all my life. I was always the slim guy who never gained weight. Now I have to fight the urge to eat food when I am not hungry. It feels like I need something to reset my clock or reboot my programming.

[tarsinge]

I agree that IF is for me the easiest way to lose weight, people should really give it a try. But in regards to the need of something magical because it’s difficult, as someone who has lost a lot of weight and stopped smoking, the latter was orders of magnitude harder. Wanting to smoke a cig was like being tempted by a cookie AFTER a fast. Also controlling my weight is child’s play compared to building muscle with a good muscle/fat ratio.

[mam2]

CICO magically answers your need for losing weight.

The magical part is sticking to it though.

[downerending]

Sure, but you're simply restating the problem. You can also keep from getting seriously burned by carefully following the strategy of keeping your skin cool all of the time. Problem solved. Hooray.

[mam2]

Im confused about your point.

Methods for the "material" part of the problem are here. But the psychological problem will probably not be solvable by any "method". Its up to anyone's own mastery of itself and its a personal development issue.

[lloeki]

> (And no, didn't read the article, because paywall.)

If you’re so inclined, Google the exact article URL, then click the first result that matches.

[t-writescode]

If calorie counting and exercise aren’t working, it’s time to go to the doctor. You may have a hormonal imbalance or something. It affects more people then realize it.

[jmchuster]

Unfortunately, humans are terrible at these two basics. e.g. "it's just a cookie i'm having for a snack, that doesn't count, does it?" or "i walk up three flights of stairs to work every day, that's the same as 30 minutes of exercise a day, right?"

[ryan-allen]

I am overweight and have OSA as a result (and treated with CPAP), I never had OSA when I was at a healthy weight.

[pwdisswordfish2]

Apnea can lead to binge eating, so it may be the apenea was in part responsible for gaining the 45 lbs!

[johnchristopher]

> Apnea can lead to binge eating

How so ?

[pwdisswordfish2]

To be fair, I was assuming the person was still suffering from sleep deprivation even while on the CPAP treatment. (Bias disclosure: I have personal experience in this area.) It is possible this person was sleeping well and not suffering from sleep deprivation.

At this stage, I am not sure anyone, let alone myself, can elucidate the precise mechanism of how OSA/sleep deprivation leads to abnormal eating patterns, however I think even just a cursory review of the literature shows general agreement that there is a link between the two.

Here is an abstract from a review published in 2017:

Obesity and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have a reciprocal relationship. Sleep disruptions characteristic of OSA may promote behavioral, metabolic, and/or hormonal changes favoring weight gain and/or difficulty losing weight. The regulation of energy balance (EB), i.e., the relationship between energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE), is complex and multi-factorial, involving food intake, hormonal regulation of hunger/satiety/appetite, and EE via metabolism and physical activity (PA). The current systematic review describes the literature on how OSA affects EB-related parameters. OSA is associated with a hormonal profile characterized by abnormally high leptin and ghrelin levels, which may encourage excess EI. Data on actual measures of food intake are lacking, and not sufficient to make conclusions. Resting metabolic rate appears elevated in OSA vs.

Controls: Findings on PA are inconsistent, but may indicate a negative relationship with OSA severity that is modulated by daytime sleepiness and body weight. A speculative explanation for the positive EB in OSA is that the increased EE via metabolism induces an overcompensation in the drive for hunger/food intake, which is larger in magnitude than the rise in EI required to re-establish EB. Understanding how OSA affects EB-related parameters can help improve weight loss efforts in these patients.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2016.07.001

[johnchristopher]

> To be fair, I was assuming the person was still suffering from sleep deprivation even while on the CPAP treatment. (Bias disclosure: I have personal experience in this area.)

Yeah, I can say from first hand experience that CPAP doesn't always solve every sleep problems :/.

Thanks for the link, it's shedding some light on things that I suspected.

[neffy]

It's strongly suspected that there's a nasty feedback loop between disrupted sleep (caused by apnea) and weight gain due to interference with appetite regulation.

[pbhjpbhj]

Not OP.

I've an issue with sleep related binge-eating: fullness induces sleepiness, so when I'm awake at night and want to be asleep I'll eat - basically an extra meal. Alcohol too. For me the root issue is other mental health problems.

Sleep problems can readily lead to weight gain.

I can see how apnoea that exhibits as waking up a lot might lead someone attempting to fall into heavier sleep by overeating.

IF, paired with lots of exercise, was working for me before the current crisis.

[johnchristopher]

But sleep apnea doesn't wake you up enough to get out of bed and start eating like pulling all-nighters or insomnia do and going to sleep with a full belly won't prevent flesh/muscle collapsing that causes sleep apnea although I can see how the body burning energy to digest + endorphin from a good meal might help falling asleep faster.

> IF, paired with lots of exercise, was working for me before the current crisis.

You mean the pandemic/lockdown ?

[pbhjpbhj]

I've heard people referring to complex sleep issues as apnoea - I was just suggesting there can be complex causative links. Hopefully the OP can respond an answer the actual question.

Yes, I meant lockdown.

[johnchristopher]

> I've heard people referring to complex sleep issues as apnoea

Ah, it might be a translation issue on my part then. I am inclined to believe there are some complex causative links, hope research will bring new hypotheses and answers about that.