Can 18 years old practice calorie restriction long term?

[Korsow]

Hi! I got interested in calorie restriction diet for health benefits and I'm wondering can I do it long term, even if I'm only 18 years old? Can it effect my growth in any way? Should I wait until I turn 25 because by then I'm fully grown? Thanks in advance!

[Gordo]

One could certainly argue that restricting growth is the goal, not something to avoid. But CR may not be the best way to achieve that goal.

[mccoy]

At 18 years the best part of growth should have been completed, yet I wouldn't think about starting something so radical as CR.

 

Why don't you start with a super-healthy, mostly plant-based diet (but including some subordinate animal food probably won't hurt), of which there are many examples. 

The above paired with physical exercise, adequate sleep, avoidance of all actions which increase your mortality ratio.

Not being too reckless as young men usually are would decrease your mortality odds more than being a dietary perfectionist, I presume.

This is a possible laundry list which will ensure you to rise the longevity odds (longer expected healthy lifespan):

• No junk food
• No smoke
• No drugs
• No being stupid while driving
• No hazardous sports and activities
• Adequate sleep and regular life
• Meditation
• Stress management (probably less significant in your case)
• Healthy diet (many veggies and fruit, few animal foods) 

[Korsow]

Thanks for the great answers :) I eat whole food plant-based diet and almost everything from the "laundry" list are checked, but I still need to improve on optimal sleeping though. Maybe I will keep doing intermittent fasting (16/8) and wait a few years until I will try calorie restriction!

[AIL]

I always wonder how others found crsociety.com. Could you tell me?

[AIL]

including some subordinate animal food probably won't hurt

Except for the animals, of course. :o

[mccoy]

 

including some subordinate animal food probably won't hurt

Except for the animals, of course. :o

 

 

Of course there is an ethical concern, which opens up another whole realm of possible discussions.

 

One exception though, would be eggs from home-farmed chickens. Maybe there are more.

[drewab]

 

 

including some subordinate animal food probably won't hurt

Except for the animals, of course. :o

 

 

Of course there is an ethical concern, which opens up another whole realm of possible discussions.

 

One exception though, would be eggs from home-farmed chickens. Maybe there are more.

 

 

Some people feel oysters are an exception since they don't have a central nervous system, and supposedly do not feel pain.  Interestingly, they provide an extraordinary amount of B-12, zinc, and long chain omega 3, everything that is thought to be 'low' on a plant-based diet. I personally experimented with eating them for a little while (probably ate them ten times in total) but am somewhat concerned about contamination. Moluskatarian anyone?

 

Korsow - we need to know more about your personal situation. What is your current BMI? What do you do for work? At your age you might be a student. What are your long term goals? What are your current health practices?

 

Personally, I started at about 26 (am now 32) and err on the milder side of CR. My BMI is 20.7 and I check off all of the habits Mccoy listed above. His list is very important, especially for someone your age who can square up the mortality curve nicely. You may want to check out Matthew Lake's CR blog. I believe he started CR at around your age. His blog is here: http://www.crvitality.com

 

I wish I would have started at closer to 18 but that's just me. 

[mccoy]

One problem I can envisage starting at 18: according to Michael Rae's guidelines,  one method to start designing a CR regimen is to take your bodyweight at about your mid twenties, when it has stabilized. Then decrease it by at least 15%, possibly more.

So, in Korsow's case, there wouldn't be a starting setpoint.

[Korsow]

I always wonder how others found crsociety.com. Could you tell me?

Well for me I were googling around about calorie restriction and came across crsociety.org at one point if i remember correctly or it was from some youtube video.

[Korsow]

 

 

 

including some subordinate animal food probably won't hurt

Except for the animals, of course. :o

 

 

Of course there is an ethical concern, which opens up another whole realm of possible discussions.

 

One exception though, would be eggs from home-farmed chickens. Maybe there are more.

 

 

Korsow - we need to know more about your personal situation. What is your current BMI? What do you do for work? At your age you might be a student. What are your long term goals? What are your current health practices?

 

Personally, I started at about 26 (am now 32) and err on the milder side of CR. My BMI is 20.7 and I check off all of the habits Mccoy listed above. His list is very important, especially for someone your age who can square up the mortality curve nicely. You may want to check out Matthew Lake's CR blog. I believe he started CR at around your age. His blog is here: http://www.crvitality.com

 

I wish I would have started at closer to 18 but that's just me. 

 

 

My BMI is 20 and for work I'm doing activist/volunteer type of work, where I work with group of people on different kind of projects to have an positive impact on the world, so that is little bit stressful sometimes. My long term goal is to be healthy as possible. My current health practices are whole food plant-based diet, strength training 3x a week, mobility work/stretching, plus in the future 3-4 times a week jump roping/jogging but I currently have hamstring injury, so I unfortunately can't do that. And I do intermittent fasting, where I everyday fast for 16 hours and for the rest 8 hours gap I eat, but I might try fasting 21-22 hours a day and eat in 2-3 hours gap.                                          

 

I will definitely check that blog, thanks!

 

Could there be any negative effects if I would try calorie restriction, even though I would make sure that I get all the needed nutrients?

Could the lower IGF-1 levels affect my growth?

[Sibiriak]

Posted recently by Al Pater  (whose work is much appreciated!):

-----------------------------

 

"Opposing effects on cardiac function by calorie restriction in different-aged mice"

https://www.crsociety.org/topic/11800-als-cr-updates/page-12?do=findComment&comment=23275

PMID: 28799249

 

Abstract

Calorie restriction (CR) increases average and maximum lifespan and exhibits an apparent beneficial impact on age-related diseases. Several studies have shown that CR initiated either in middle or old age could improve ischemic tolerance and rejuvenate the aging heart; however, the data are not uniform when initiated in young. The accurate time to initiate CR providing maximum benefits for cardiac remodeling and function during aging remains unclear. Thus, whether a similar degree of CR initiated in mice of different ages could exert a similar effect on myocardial protection was investigated in this study. C57BL/6 mice were subjected to a calorically restricted diet (40% less than the ad libitum diet) for 3 months initiated in 3, 12, and 19 months.

 

It was found that CR significantly reversed the aging phenotypes of middle-aged and old mice including cardiac remodeling (cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis), inflammation, mitochondrial damage, telomere shortening, as well as senescence-associated markers but accelerated in young mice.

 

Furthermore, whole-genome microarray demonstrated that the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-Forkhead box subgroup 'O' (FOXO) pathway might be a major contributor to contrasting regulation by CR initiated in different ages; thus, increased autophagy was seen in middle-aged and old mice but decreased in young mice. Together, the findings demonstrated promising myocardial protection by 40% CR should be initiated in middle or old age that may have vital implications for the practical nutritional regimen.

 

[....],we investigated the effect of CR initiated in different ages on cardiac contractile function. In response to CR, EF and FS that
decreased with aging were significantly improved in both middle-aged and old mice (FS in old mice, P = 0.06, Table 1, Fig. S1, Supporting information). Conversely, EF and FS significantly decreased after CR in young mice, suggesting that in healthy young mice, CR induced cardiac systolic dysfunction...

 

The present results suggested that CR accelerated autophagy in middle-aged and old mice, but suppressed autophagy in young mice.

 

The most significant finding of our study was that the age-associated cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis were attenuated by CR in middle-aged and old mice, whereas both were exacerbated in young healthy mice.

 

Another novel finding was that telomere shortening was observed during normal aging. Moreover, age-related telomere shortening was retarded by CR in old mice but accelerated in young mice.

 

...we confirmed that AMPK was phosphorylated and activated by CR in both middle-aged and old mice, but the phosphorylation was suppressed by CR in young mice.

 

To specifically study whether the effect of CR on heart function is suitable for three specific life phases of mice: mature adult (past development but not yet affected by senescence.), middle age (senescent changes can be detected in some biomarkers of aging), and old (a period when senescent changes can be detected in almost all biomarkers), we performed CR in different-aged mice. Therefore, according to our research, if no senescence, there is detrimental rather than beneficial effects on young mice with CR by antiaging.

 

Together, our findings highlight the significance of the initiation time of CR. Considering that 3 to 6 months of mice are equivalent to 20 to 30 years old of human, it was speculated that CR may have a detrimental effect on heart function of healthy men before 30 years old.

 

From a translational therapeutic perspective, caloric restriction in the healthy, younger population who are robust healthy, vigorous vital, more fertile should be cautious. This result may propose an effective nutritional intervention for cardiac protection during aging.