”Fasting - The Movie”. Any thoughts?

Has anyone else watched “Fasting - The Movie”? I saw it recommended on Dr Fung’s blog, he’s also one of the people in the movie. Yes, it is a rent or buy movie at this time. Here’s the blog and movie links if you are interested.

https://idmprogram.com/1-rule-fasting/
http://fastingmovie.com/

I was absolutely fascinated by the mice on time restricted vs ad lib diet study. How something as simple as restricting the eating window, aka intermittent fasting, can have such profound, measurable effects. I also loved that the mice could “party” on the weekend without losing the benefits. . I have done intermittent fasting since way before it had a name, but still found the info interesting.

I’m also not sold on the fasting mimicking diet. Why not just fast?
Currently I am in day 2 of what I plan to be a 4 day fast. We’ll see how I feel. Day 3 is usually when I want to eat and stop. The movie is motivation for me to try for a full 4 days. The fasting mimicking diet is 5 days and supposedly gives the benefits of a 4 day actual fast. Go autophagy!

I find the thought of longer, extended, supervised fasting really attractive, since I have multiple injuries with residual inflammatory pain, but more scary than attractive. Too many potential complications. I also don’t think I could put up with the prolonged and gradual refeeding schedules recommended on fasting sites. Most recommend a supervised refeeding that is as long as the fast. Between money and time, it would be too costly for me. Then again, Dr Fung doesn’t mention an actual refeeding protocol on his blog when he talks about supervising extended fasts. It is slightly mentioned in his fasting book, but nothing in depth.

Anyway, I thought the movie was a nice recap of fasting protocols with updated research data. Since I read and research a lot, most of the info was not new ( partying mice, the Donner info, and the effects of starvation on the brain), but I thought it was a good movie. Maybe something to recommend to others who don’t want to wade through all the written information about the benefits of various fasting schedules. What are you’re thoughts?

bulkbiker said:

I think that unless you have done a long multi day fast then the refeeding is less of an issue. I usually start with something small. A couple of eggs maybe then eat a larger meal a bit later. I did once end a 7 day fast with a large keto Sunday lunch... not a great idea. I felt very uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

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Yeah, I was thinking about the long fasts. For shorter fasts, I usually just eat a handful of almonds and an hour or so later I eat a usual meal. When I looked into supervised long fasts, all the sites basically want you to stay for a length of time double the fasting length, so they can supervise the refeed. Very expensive and a very long time off from work. I still find the idea of long fasts intriguing, but doubt I will ever do it. Just lots of shorter fasts.

Incyb said:

I've never understood the "missing breakfast counts as fasting" thing. I've not eaten breakfast since I was at primary school, 40 years ago. Didn't prevent me getting fat AF and developing T2

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Yeah, I still find it funny that skipping breakfast is labeled fasting. I’ve done it most of my life and just considered it skipping breakfast. I must say, however, I usually made up for it by snacking right up to bedtime. I believe the entire point of it is to go a minimum of 12 hrs each day/night without eating. They also say you should stop eating at least 3 hrs before going to bed. That is the hard part for me.