Fountain of Youth: Cutting Calories and Eating at the Right Time of Day Leads to a Longer Life

[Vince]

Takahashi hopes that learning how calorie restriction affects the body’s internal clocks as we age will help scientists find new ways to extend the healthy lifespan of humans. That could come through calorie-restricted diets, or through drugs that mimic those diets’ effects.

In the meantime, Takahashi is taking a lesson from his mice – he restricts his own eating to a 12-hour period. But, he says, “if we find a drug that can boost your clock, we can then test that in the laboratory and see if that extends lifespan.”

Fountain of Youth: Cutting Calories and Eating at the Right Time of Day Leads to a Longer Life

 

[sammmy]

It's not only about reducing calories but also how these calories are utilized, which depends on time of day. The diabetes 2 drug acarbose, which slows down glucose absorption, increases lifespan by 17% for male mice, and by 5% for female mice:

Acarbose improves health and lifespan in aging HET3 mice

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

Takahashi hopes that learning how calorie restriction affects the body’s internal clocks as we age will help scientists find new ways to extend the healthy lifespan of humans. That could come through calorie-restricted diets, or through drugs that mimic those diets’ effects.

In the meantime, Takahashi is taking a lesson from his mice – he restricts his own eating to a 12-hour period. But, he says, “if we find a drug that can boost your clock, we can then test that in the laboratory and see if that extends lifespan.”

Fountain of Youth: Cutting Calories and Eating at the Right Time of Day Leads to a Longer Life

12 hour windows, exercise- both strength and cardiovascular, sleep, sunlight, family, social bonding, heat and cold, meditation, nose breathing, can anyone list anything else?

 

[andrepohlann]

Takahashi hopes that learning how calorie restriction affects the body’s internal clocks as we age will help scientists find new ways to extend the healthy lifespan of humans. That could come through calorie-restricted diets, or through drugs that mimic those diets’ effects.

In the meantime, Takahashi is taking a lesson from his mice – he restricts his own eating to a 12-hour period. But, he says, “if we find a drug that can boost your clock, we can then test that in the laboratory and see if that extends lifespan.”

Fountain of Youth: Cutting Calories and Eating at the Right Time of Day Leads to a Longer Life

The problem is translating a eating window from mice to human. Metabolism of mice is way faster. 14 hours of fasting for a mice might mean 72 hours for humans.

 

[bixt]

12 hour windows, exercise- both strength and cardiovascular, sleep, sunlight, family, social bonding, heat and cold, meditation, nose breathing, can anyone list anything else?

No high GI foods, so that glucose absorption is slowed (using the mechanism from the post of @sammmy above, but without the drug)

 

[sammmy]

Slowing down glucose absorption theoretically can be also achieved by consuming the available digestive fibers with the meal. Examples are Citrucel (cellulose), Guar gum, uncooked cornstarch etc.

This can also block drug and nutrient absorption.

Beans are well known food for diabetics that blunt the glucose peak after meal, probably because of their fiber content.

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

nice input here fellas!

 

[Ozzieville]

Great list, Fernando. I’d also add managing stress - although if someone is doing all the other stuff you list, including meditation, stress is probably being handled well.

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

Great list, Fernando. I’d also add managing stress - although if someone is doing all the other stuff you list, including meditation, stress is probably being handled well.

thank you Ozzieville

 

[Deleted member 43589]

Some of us just can't do this fasting. I have always been a guy who has problems gaining weight. Even as a 65 year old I have to eat 5000cal/d just to maintain weight. I can drop 5-10 pounds just missing 1 meal a day. I eat every 3 hours and when I miss a meal I start getting hypoglycemic. Not very much fun to be around then. My wife was the opposite and gained weight just smelling food. She has no problem doing a 16/8 fast or even 24 hours. To make it worse, I don't even like to eat but I can't keep my lean tissue on if I don't eat. The disadvantage of having a very high metabolism. When I competed I ate over 10,000 calories/d just to keep the weight on. Fast for me is eating at 10pm and starving until 6am.

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

Some of us just can't do this fasting. I have always been a guy who has problems gaining weight. Even as a 65 year old I have to eat 5000cal/d just to maintain weight. I can drop 5-10 pounds just missing 1 meal a day. I eat every 3 hours and when I miss a meal I start getting hypoglycemic. Not very much fun to be around then. My wife was the opposite and gained weight just smelling food. She has no problem doing a 16/8 fast or even 24 hours. To make it worse, I don't even like to eat but I can't keep my lean tissue on if I don't eat. The disadvantage of having a very high metabolism. When I competed I ate over 10,000 calories/d just to keep the weight on. Fast for me is eating at 10pm and starving until 6am.

From my longevity research your age group it is highly recommended to increase protein intake to keep muscle. So I wouldn't worry too much about fasting, maybe just think about not overeating.

 

[Vince]

Some of us just can't do this fasting. I have always been a guy who has problems gaining weight. Even as a 65 year old I have to eat 5000cal/d just to maintain weight. I can drop 5-10 pounds just missing 1 meal a day. I eat every 3 hours and when I miss a meal I start getting hypoglycemic. Not very much fun to be around then. My wife was the opposite and gained weight just smelling food. She has no problem doing a 16/8 fast or even 24 hours. To make it worse, I don't even like to eat but I can't keep my lean tissue on if I don't eat. The disadvantage of having a very high metabolism. When I competed I ate over 10,000 calories/d just to keep the weight on. Fast for me is eating at 10pm and starving until 6am.

I have a friend like that he can eat a dozen donuts and drink a liter of Pepsi and never gain a pound. He's been like that his whole life. I guess he has a lot of brown fat and no white fat. He has naturally high testosterone levels over a thousand at age 70. But he is type 2 diabetic and takes high blood pressure meds.

 

[Deleted member 43589]

From my longevity research your age group it is highly recommended to increase protein intake to keep muscle. So I wouldn't worry too much about fasting, maybe just think about not overeating.

Did that years ago. I already eat about 260g of protein. Hard to over eat when you need a huge amount of calories just to keep what you have. I would love to not have to eat so much, it gets expensive.

Vince, trust me when I competed the dozen donuts was on my breakfast menu. Never liked sodas though. I started in 1980 in the 181 weight class. It took me quite a few years to add enough mass to go 220, 242, 275 and finally 308. Now I am back down to 245. By blood sugar fasted is in the low 80's.