Our Longevity Diet

Monday we took the old jalopy (it really is old — old enough to drink in most states) to town (Tecoman) for our weekly shopping trip. Isabel also had a doctor’s appointment.

Halfway there the red battery light came on, though the car kept running OK. Clearly, the battery was no longer charging however, so I pulled it over to the shoulder (the Cerro to Tecoman road is one of the few Mexican roads that actually has a shoulder) and looked under the hood. The belt to the alternator was broken. So we also stopped at a mechanic’s — he could sell us a used belt from a car he had there, or we could wait an hour or two while he sent someone to pick up a new belt at the auto supply — either way it would cost the same, about $10 US. We took the used one.

Our tasks all complete, we headed home. About 3/4 the way home a front tire blew. I pulled over and tried to change it. I had a spare, two 4-way tire wrenches and a jack, so it seemed simple. The car, however, would not cooperate. There were little metal caps on the wheel nuts. They were metric sized, and all the tire wrenches were not. None fit quite right — either it would almost fit, but slip when heavy pressure was applied, or it wouldn’t go over the cap. One cap came off, getting stuck inside the wrench.

I ended up putting Isabel on a bus back home, with instructions to send the local mechanic out to help change the tire. I sat on the curb for an hour, very grateful that our shopping included cold beer. A police truck drove past, but didn’t even stop to help.

Anyhow, it seemed a fairly terrible day — except for that Doctor’s visit part — the doctor confirmed our suspicions, Isabel is pregnant. So, to be fair the title of this post should really say Isabel suspends her participation in the Intermittent Fasting, for the duration of her pregnancy. We don’t recommend this diet for pregnant women or growing children.

Well, it has been almost a year since we began intermittent fasting. Looking over the weight records for the past few months, it looks like we have stabilized in that regard. I’m still about 5% above my ideal weight, and Isabel is closer to her ideal weight (according to the charts) but still slightly above. I guess that is testimony to how well we eat, regardless of the schedule. My weight has been fluctuating between 94 and 95 kilos, while Isabel is consistently between 60 and 62. We have been within that range for the past five months. Isabel’s chart-weight is 60 kilos, mine 90.

So, I see little reason to continue posting our weights here — if we go outside that range for some reason, I’ll mention it — otherwise just assume we are in that area. Of course that means I won’t have a reason for these monthly postings, and need to find some better motivation to keep this blog active. If I can find relevant new research information I’ll post that, otherwise perhaps I’ll stray into other general health and longevity matters.

One recent study claimed that the hundreds (or thousands?) of calorie restriction studies that preceded it were wrong, and calorie restriction does not really lead to longer lifespans. Instead, they claim, the mice used in the studies were fat, because they were allowed to eat all they wanted.

Well either way, the under-fed mice live longer, and we need to under-feed ourselves if we want optimal health and longevity. The study I mentioned was referring to calorie restriction, not intermittent fasting. Other studies have shown intermittent fasting to be equally effective as caloric restriction. So we can indulge in eating as much as we want, so long as we restrict that indulgence to 24 out of every 48 hours (more or less, we eat 25 and fast 23).

If I recall correctly (and I’ll have to go back and make sure, but for now take it as given) the intermittent fasting studies resulted in animals that had higher body weight than the calorie restricted animals, yet they lived just a long. So clearly, there is more at work here than mere body weight.

I’ll have to look into that further, and post a more detailed analysis here in the coming days…

Well, we cheated a bit over the holidays, but neither of us put on any weight. That was a bit surprising considering how we ate. We kept to the diet schedule all month up to Christmas, which worked out to be an eating morning — so we ate all day and resumed the diet the next morning. Doing that is surprisingly difficult, we get more hungry waiting for 2:00 pm when we break our fast than we normally do when we haven’t eaten the evening before.

New Years Eve was the same story, again we ignored the diet that night (which lasted until about 2:00 am the next morning), but resumed the diet when we got up the next day, with a short fast until 2:00 pm. We did the same thing a third time on January 2nd, because my in-laws came to visit — Isabel’s mother and two brothers, their wives and two children. They were still here on the 3rd when we resumed our schedule, which we explained in detail — and now Isabel’s mom is going to try it.

Anyhow, we weighed in on January 1st:

Date - My weight (kilos) - Isabel’s Weight (kilos)

• 5 March 2008 - 99.2 - 65.9
• 1 Dec 2008 - 94.5 - 61.6
• 1 Jan 2009 - 94.1 - 61.4

So we even lost a little bit, though nothing significant. The main thing is we feel great — I have not had an attack of gout since starting the diet, and Isabel has taken up painting again after stopping two years ago in frustration due to arthritis. I joke that we are getting younger, but in fact it almost seems that way.

We have now been living our intermittent fasting lifestyle for nine months, and are more convinced than ever that this is the healthiest way to live. Combine the health benefits with the fact that it is so easy to do, and lets us eat whatever we want AND we lost some weight, and it just doesn’t get much better than this.

When we started, we used to try to schedule more strenuous activities so they would occur during eating times, rather than fasting times. But now that has fallen by the wayside as unnecessary. We can do hard physical labor while fasting just easily as during eating periods — in fact it is easier, if anything — they body seems to react to fasting with a jolt of energy.

That makes sense from a biological-evolutionary perspective. When you haven’t eaten in a while is just when you need more energy, to find and process food. Since our fasts are only 23 hours long, there is no danger of muscle loss or any of the other negative effects seen in long-term fasting.

As for weight loss — it has not been dramatic, but then we really were not obese when we began — just a bit pudgy. We were each about 10% above our ideal weight according to the charts. Isabel is now very near her ideal weight, and I’m about halfway there (i.e. 5% over). The amazing thing is we have made zero effort to lose weight — it has just been a side-effect of our healthier lifestyle.

As I write this I need to pause from time to time because I am eating the last piece of Lemon Meringue pie from Thanksgiving — Isabel made two pies, and there are only the two of us. So, to make sure it doesn’t spoil, I’m foregoing my usual healthy breakfast, and having pie. Oh the sacrifices we are called upon to make!

So here is how our weights are, after nine months fasting, Thanksgiving and all:

Date - My weight (kilos) - Isabel’s Weight (kilos)

• 5 March 2008 - 99.2 - 65.9
• 2 Nov 2008 - 96.1 - 60.7
• 1 Dec 2008 - 94.5 - 61.6

Those of you who have been following along will remember my weight shot up 1.5 kilos in September and October, but all that was lost again this past month, plus another 1/10 kilo. Isabel, meanwhile, continues to fluctuate just above her ideal weight of 60 kilos, having gained 9/10 of a kilo last month.

So we are content and feeling good — now let me finish this pie…

I have heard a lot of people describe feelings of weakness, dizziness or faintness when fasting, and wondered why they have those experiences, but I don’t. Then I made a curious observation.

As I’ve often stated, we are not fanatical about our diet. If circumstances make it more convenient or politic to disregard the diet, we do. Our lifestyle is routine enough that those situations rarely arise, so we only ‘break’ the diet about once per month.

Last week was one of those occasions — we were visiting with some of Isabel’s relatives, people who live in a dirt-floored house and cook over burning wood. The head of house is a fisherman, and quite proud of his ability to bring home good food for his rather large extended family, which includes his wife, several of his adult children, some of their spouses, and half a dozen grand-children. When they offered us fried fish for supper, we thought they might take it as an insult if we refused to eat their food (many Mexican’s have that ‘food=love’ mentality), so we ate a small meal late on an evening we would normally be fasting.

The curious part came the next day — about twelve hours after eating that meal I felt extra-hungry, weak and slightly faint when I exerted myself. I laid down in my hammock and the feeling passed. After about an hour I was back to normal. It seemed very odd to me though, since I normally feel fine on ‘fasting’ mornings, and here I was feeling weak when I’d broken the fast.

It wasn’t anything wrong with the food, which was good, if rather plain. My stomach felt empty, not sickly. But why would eating cause me to be more hungry than when I was fasting?

Then I noted the timing. Those feelings came about 12 hours after we ate. Due to the timing of our fasting schedule, I’m normally sound asleep 12 hours after our last meal during an eating period. I probably get these feeling every-other-day! I just never noticed, because I’m asleep. This is why I have emphasized the importance of timing when considering intermittent fasting.

Of course, everyone is different, these are just my experiences. Isabel did not have the same reaction — she felt less hungry that morning than on mornings when we stick to the normal diet. Her monthly cycle seems more influential on how she reacts to the diet — sometimes she needs to sit down and relax for a while on fasting mornings, but as with my experience, the feeling passes within an hour.

So if you want to try intermittent fasting, be sure to pay close attention to the schedule, and how you feel. The first week or two of this diet seem strange, and are nothing to judge by. Get used to the eating pattern first, then see how minor changes affect you. Adjust the diet to fit your personal metabolism — tweak it to make it fit you. This is a lifestyle, not a short-term fad diet. Make sure you adjust it into something you can happily live with for the rest of your life — anything less is not adequate.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, but we moved from Chapala to a little town in Colima, Mexico. We live a couple miles from the Pacific in a little cottage we are renovating. We hope to have it available for holiday rentals by late in 2010. We call it Casita Chuparosa — I’ll put a link in the blogroll when I get the new blog up.

So, shortly before we moved, on September 30th, we weighed in. Isabel had gained 3/10 kilo, and I gained 6/10 kilo. Then we weighed ourselves again at the beginning of November (the 2nd) and Isabel was down 1.5 kilos, while I gained again — another 9/10 of a kilo.  Different reactions to the stress of moving I guess. Didn’t help me any that we weighed ourselves when stopping to shop, on the way home from an afternoon at the beach, where we had huge fish-fillet dinners, a jug of coconut water. The electronic scale here also has an attachment for blood pressure and body-fat-index measurement. My blood pressure was right-on at 140/89, while Isabel’s was a bit low. That was anomalous for her, she has had frequent doctor visits (fertility specialists) in the past two years, and never had abnormal blood pressure levels. The body-fat measure is by electronic impedance, so not very accurate, it showed very low for both of us: 21.3% for me and 27.9% for her.

• Date - My weight (kilos) - Isabel’s Weight (kilos)
• 5 March 2008 - 99.2 - 65.9
• 1 Sept 2008 - 94.6 - 61.9
• 30 Sept 2008 - 95.2 - 62.2
• 2 Nov 2008 - 96.1 - 60.7

All through this hectic time we have stuck to our fasting schedule, except on the day we actually moved (Oct 2nd) when circumstances did not make it convenient to eat at the usual hour. Of course after eight months, the diet is so routine we barely need to think about it.

Health-wise we are both feeling fit. As I mentioned earlier, Isabel’s arthritis has returned somewhat, but not as severe as it was before beginning the diet. I have not had any attacks of gout, my leg-cramps have not returned, and we each caught a slight cold in October, but symptoms were shorter-lived than usual, and less severe. My only complaint is that I can not connect to the Internet from the beach!

If you are contemplating a fasting diet, or have tried it, we would love to hear from you! Just join this blog and post a comment…

A new report on caloric restriction (CR) came out today. You will remember that CR is a method that has been known to extend lifespan in animals for more than 70 years now, while our intermittent fasting (IF) technique has only been studied for the past 20 years or less. Most studies have shown that IF has all the benefits of CR, without the need to restrict calories, so people often assume CR studies are always relevant to IF — but there are recorded differences between the two methods.

First, let’s look at the the new report, called Differences Between People And Animals On Calorie Restriction. This study seems to rely primarily on the measurement of Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), which is itself rather surprising since IGF-1 seems to be one of those hormones that are beneficial at certain levels, while more or less are detrimental — yet the exact optimal levels don’t seem to be known yet. Animal studies of IGF-1 in CR animals generally shows a reduction, but when researchers conducting this study looked at real people who voluntarily have undertaken CR diets, their IGF-1 levels were indistinguishable from people on normal American diets. When some of these CR dieters were asked to reduce their protein intake, their IGF-1 levels fell substantially, mimicking the results found in CR animal studies. The above report states that:

In the majority of the animal models of longevity, extended lifespan involves pathways related to a growth factor called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), which is produced primarily in the liver. Production is stimulated by growth hormone and can be reduced by fasting or by insensitivity to growth hormone.

The problem is, there is no hard evidence that IGF-1 levels are a major factor in the longevity effect of CR. Certainly, the evidence suggests that the insulin pathways are relevant, but this particular link in the chain has not been shown to be of major significance. In fact, an earlier study: Intermittent fasting dissociates beneficial effects of dietary restriction on glucose metabolism and neuronal resistance to injury from calorie intake — showed that IGF-1 was increased in IF animal experiments, while it was reduced in CR animals. Yet both groups of animals showed the increased longevity that sparked interest in the protocols to begin with.

Another recent study: Hormone May Hold Key To Helping Elderly Men Live Longer showed that, at least for one group (elderly men) increased IGF-1 levels were associated with greater longevity, largely expressed through reduced cardiovascular risk. In that study, where researchers evaluated 376 healthy elderly men between the ages of 73 and 94 years:

Subjects with the lowest IGF-1 function had a significantly higher mortality rate than subjects with the highest IGF-1 bioactivity. These results were especially significant in individuals who have a high risk to die from cardiovascular complications.

The picture is not a simple one, however, because high IGF-1 levels have also been associated with higher risk of cancer. It seems, in short, that IGF-1 can help cells live longer — even if those cells are cancerous. Researchers thought that the lower IGF-1 levels in CR animals was indicative of a lowered cancer risk, but the IF studies suggest something else is at work here.

When animals are given CR diets, they receive their normal diet at reduced levels. With humans trying to emulate these CR benefits, their concern for nutrition leads them to increase the percentage of protein in their diets, and the results in regard to IGF-1 are different than those in the animal studies — but IF dietary results suggest that may not be such a bad thing. More IGF-1, in the absence of cancer, is probably a good thing — within limits.