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by claytongulick 1411 days ago
I agree, I'm going on 50 and working hard on a beach body.

Traditional wisdom says that's nearly impossible at my age without "supplements" like "vitamin T".

I've found that IF is the real key for me.

I do one meal per day, and I can see all my nutrients laid out in front of me.

Aside from the other purported benefits of IF, this level of control I think is the main benefit to me.

I think that a lot of people don't realize how disconnected the feeling of hunger is from your actual (very minimal) caloric requirements.

Hunger is mostly a trained response, a production of ghrelin that's mostly a pavlovian response coupled with incredibly complex gut and psychological factors.

The hunger response can be trained away in about a week. I generally don't start getting hungry until around 6pm, when I've trained my body that it's dinner time.

Snacking, IMHO, is the single biggest weight loss killer.

1 comments

"I think that a lot of people don't realize how disconnected the feeling of hunger is from your actual (very minimal) caloric requirements."

True, this is my observation as well.

"The hunger response can be trained away in about a week."

Unfortunately, it is quite easy to fall off the bandwagon in irregular conditions (holidays, vacations, a visit to an elderly relative who insists on feeding you). The adaptation to IF is, in my case, lost just after a day or two of non-IFing. And once it is gone, I have to undergo the week-long self-training again.

> Hunger is mostly a trained response,

I agree as well.

> ...it is quite easy to fall off the bandwagon in irregular conditions

YES. So, this is where being _committed_ makes the difference.

I have many rules that help me with this one is "feeling hunger is normal" and "being uncomfortable getting back on track is normal". (this rule is less refined, but key to overcoming falling off the wagon) And "admit when you fail, and try again", very key to dealing with getting started, or restarted on a good thing in life.

The self-training you mention was what I signed on for at the beginning, knowing full well this is normal, so it's not so bad when I have to do it.

Likely others have similar experiences.