You may live longer by severely restricting calories...

[WebMistress]

I just read this: npr.org/sections/thesalt/20...

[andyswarbs]

I worry abou the use the word "severely" in context of restricting calories. So I checked the source paper and it used the term "sustained" which makes more sense to me.

[Fran182716 Prediabetic]

The link is interesting, and it confirms what I thought before I read it that severe calorie restriction over a long period would have negative effects like muscle wasting and decreased immunity which would counter the positives of slowing the ageing process. However the suggestion that some of the benefits can be had without the negatives by restricting to 900 calories 5 days of the month is very interesting. I’ve not tried fasting as it’s not recommended for people with Gilbert Syndrome as we could end up hypoglycaemic and jaundiced, but 900 calories for 5 days out of a month I could probably do if I chose my foods carefully and something I might try once I’m settled at my maintenance weight.

[Cooper27 Administrator]

You have to be careful with this. Calorie restriction has a far worse effect on women than on men. They have done studies to determine how much impact calorie restriction has on women specifically, and found that on 1200 calories a day, a woman's T3 levels will drop by 40%:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/234...

T3 is a hormone affected when when we have an underactive thyroid, and we have a lot of data showing that most people feel rubbish when it's low.

[S11m]

As an "IF star", I am sure that you appreciate that eating fewer hours in the day rather than eating fewer calories would be more likely to be beneficial, and, I think, the advice is decades out of date - and almost assumes that we could all benefit from losing some weight... but Low-Carbohydrate, High-Fat (LCHF) and Intermittent Fasting (IF) are more effective ways to lose weight, and have many other health benefits, including especially improved life expectancy.

Big Farmer wants us to eat too much carbohydrate, get metabolic syndrome and then pay Big Pharmer for drugs that will not help. See:

healthunlocked.com/fasting-...

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to S11m]

This post is 8 months old now, so I don't know if webmistress will see it. Her post possibly pre-dated the badge too.

[S11m in reply to Cooper27]

I thought that the system should notify posters of any replies?

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to S11m]

It will, but I don't know of webmistress still visits health unlocked