I'm not sure intermittent fasting is really for me, but I am curious about it and some of the claims of energy levels. However, it's one of those health practices where there's a ton of discussion around the benefits, and then on closer look I realize 90% of them are talking about weight loss, which is not something I need or that interests me at all.

I find I run into this all the time. In nearly every online discussion weight loss is synonymous with health improvement - true for many people, but it makes navigating these topics in larger public spaces a minefield for someone on the lower end of what is traditionally considered a healthy range.

At the moment I just have to avoid any specific practices and stick to the basics: staying active, eating whole foods (:im-vegan:), getting enough sleep, breaks from sitting, refraining from too much alcohol, stretching, etc. Also the psychosocial side: maintaining community around me, getting enough nature, work-life balance, yada yada yada.

How do you parse this out? Can anyone speak to benefits from a practice like intermittent fasting (or anything else touted) if you're not trying to shed pounds? Does anyone else resonate with my position?

Not trying to whine as being thin comes with a lot of fucking privilege.

EDIT: I wasn't intended this post to be exclusively about intermittent fasting. I'm curious about it in particular, but I also wanted to speak to the general phenomenon that so much of the general health advice I see around is actually just weight loss advice. This is pervasive outside of discussions too - books and articles outside of strict academic work seem to conflate the two all the time because for a large portion of the audience that's really what they're after.

  • CptKrkIsClmbngThMntn [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Good advice, I like that you mentioned the windows. Thank god I have dental benefits for the first time in my life.

    I'm a bit skeptical of elimination diets though, mostly because I think the gut biome complicates the picture and makes the connection between a particular food and how it effects you much less static, not to mention other factors like the interplay between different foods you eat and how they might make each other easier or harder to process. If I started eating dairy again, it would be a long, slow, transition to get myself back to the point of being able to process it properly again and a large number of other factors could change in that time.