dafman:

 

Update on above. Around 2024 I gave up intermittent fasting after reading that 8-hour time restricted diet was linked to a 90% increase in risk of cardiovascular disease. It is around this time that I also starting experiencing for the first time regular bouts of irregular heart beats. In my case, the two may not be linked, but it was enough for me to call it quits. So I have introduced plain porridge in the morning with natural yoghurt.

 

My thoughts on diet:

 

• Eat only natural meats and vegetables. Try and keep away from any food that comes out of factory. If the packaging contains numbers or words that your grandmother wouldn't understand, don't buy it. Study up on what ultra processed food is and try to keep away from it. In the short term, it is putting unnecessary weight on you, in the long term it is killing you.
• Eat only natural sugar that comes in fruits. We eat a lot of fruit and my personal rule is if it comes from nature, I don't need to limit it. If I need to add something super sweet - it's honey (it comes from nature). Learn to live without artificial sweetners, it is possible.
• Zero flavoured drinks of juices. Not only are they a significant source of sugar, they are way more expensive than water (which is free). You can put the money saved go much better uses. Fruit juice in particular. You can't eat 8 oranges in row, but you can drink eight oranges in a glass. Nature has a novel way of restricting your sugar intake - it is called fibre.
• Never eat on the run or while you are distracted doing something. Eating should never be relegated to a chore or a fill in.
• And try to keep moving. If you are going up a couple of flights in a building, take the stairs.

Of course there are always occasions when we stray. Beer! Plus, I eat occasional biscuits and cakes, but always homemade (thanks to my partner), not from a factory (because they are putting a whole of preservatives and things you don't need in your body).

 

I saw that study.  I wondered if there is a risk of bias in the data.  People who are intermittent fasting aren't more likely to be overweight.  There is also the risk of compensatory eating, or eating unhealthy foods within the 8-hour window.  If a person was intermittent fasting but not calorie budgeting, I could see issues.  Calorific deficit is where it's really at.  Intermittent fasting is just a relatively easy way of achieving that.

I'm a big fan of porridge as well.  I often have it for lunch.