The FastDay Forum

One of my FB friends posted this article about IER and meal frequency

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250148/

Good reading

Thanks. There are many familiar names in the author list of that study. You sometimes have to wonder about the wordsmithing they use:

"Although the circadian clock is cell-autonomous and is present in the majority of tissue types, the circadian system is organized in a hierarchical manner in which the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) functions as the master circadian clock that uses both diffusible and synaptic mechanisms to orchestrate circadian rhythms in the peripheral organs at appropriate phase."

Which says:

Although each of your body's cells act independently in their local environment, your brain controls timing over a wide area with hormones, and very specifically with nerves (neurons), to ensure that everything works at the proper time in its daily cycle.

Every specialty has its own terminology to master, but if I hadn't read what I've read over the three years, there be no hope of translation.

Important take-away phrases for the study:

"little is known about the effects of the timing of meals"

"three meals plus snack every day, is abnormal"

"findings from studies of ... human subjects suggest that intermittent energy restriction periods of as little as 16 h can improve health indicators and counteract disease"

There's one of the reasons behind 16:8.

"The surprising effectiveness of [time restricted feeding] without altering caloric intake or source of calories suggests a potentially effective meal-timing intervention for humans... with improved effectiveness of weight-loss"

Same calorie count with different meal times yield better weight loss!

"data suggest that beneficial effects of [intermittent calorie restriction] involve the general biological phenomenon of “hormesis” or “preconditioning,” in which exposure of cells and organisms to a mild stress results in adaptive responses that protect against more severe stress"

Variation and a certain amount of stress are critically important to get a useful adaptation.

"A metabolic shift to ketogenesis that occurs with fasting bolsters neuronal bioenergetics. Liver glycogen stores are typically depleted within 10–12 h of fasting, which is followed by liberation of fatty acids from adipose tissue cells"

With IF and meal timing, you are finally using your fat, not just continuing to store more and more of it.

and what may be the best news:

"Recent findings suggest that it may be possible for many people to adopt a long-term change in their lifestyle from eating three meals plus snacks every day to an [intermittent energy restricted] diet if they are able to keep on the new eating pattern during a transition period of approximately 1 month"

Keep going, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Is this a new study or just a review? I'm having trouble looking at it on my iPad.

Is this a new study or just a review? I'm having trouble looking at it on my iPad.

2014 study

Another friend has just joined me on 5:2 wagon so that makes 4 of us where I live - so useful to have an article like this to pass on to them (2 of them are not stalking the forum yet)....and great to have it in deconstructed form for easier digestion, thanks ADFnFuel.

I've looked on a proper computer now. It's not a study, but a review/perspective. Still, a nice collection of references and ideas from the key players in IF. Thanks for the link, @Juliana.Rivers.