Randomly decided to start eating one meal a day (for autistic reasons, not losing weight) and couldn’t find any guides that don’t devolve into “it cures cancer”.

I’m doing mostly fine, but I don’t want to learn that I accidentally screwed my health by doing something very wrong way after the fact.

  • sevenapples
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    9 months ago

    Humans are foragers

    I disagree with this line of reasoning. Humans are also hunters, which means less frequent meals. However, even if prehistoric humans ate more frequently, this doesn’t translate 1:1 with what is optimal for humans now.

    A lot of people eat one meal a day or in an intermittent fasting style, and while I’m no expert at those topics I haven’t heard anyone mentioning the negative effects you list. I can also chip in my own personal experience, when I was mostly eating one meal a day for a couple of months without those things happening to me.

    starvation with extra steps

    That’s meaningless sensationalism. Every caloric deficit can be called “starvation with extra steps”.

    • ghost_of_faso2
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      9 months ago

      They would still eat snacks inbetween hunting via foraging, I watched a african tribe talk about how they ID what is safe to eat while out hunting and they said ‘watch what a monkey eats’

    • multitotal
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      9 months ago

      A lot of people eat one meal a day or in an intermittent fasting style

      In intermittent fasting when you eat one meal a day you only do it for two days out of the week, and the rest of the week you eat normally. Even when you split your day 18/6, not eating/eating, the 6h hours allows you to eat two meals a long time apart. Enough time for your body to process the food and absorb the nutrients, and ready to get started on the next batch when you eat before the 6h is up.

      when I was mostly eating one meal a day for a couple of months without those things happening to me.

      I guess it depends how much you have in reserve. OP said he’s not doing it for weightloss. If someone who maintains normal weight by eating normally, cutting that down drastically and suddenly might negatively affect them.

      Every caloric deficit can be called “starvation with extra steps”.

      I was mostly talking about how it might make one feel.