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Argonne diet

Hello fellow neurohackers!

Recently I've been suffering from very strong fatigue. I wake up at 1 PM and try to come to my senses until evening. It happens every day.
I suspect that something's wrong with my circadian rythm.

Today I came across "Argonne diet" which is supposed to help with jet lag.

Basically it says to eat only high-protein food for breakfast and high-carb food for supper.
You need to do this for 4 days, fasting every other day: EAT - FAST - EAT - FAST
Then your wake up time will become whatever time you took "breakfast" at.

Full description here: http://www.netlib.org/misc/jet-lag-diet

In one article I read that it utilizes orexin to achieve this: http://www.ericcressey.com/sleep-what-t … ually-says (section "Timing food intake")

I find this interesting and am going to try this, but I'm curious if this is based on some well-known research, and how it actually works.


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Alex
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Re: Argonne diet

Hi dude,
Netlib.org -what a fascinating little site! Bit more info here:
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/jetlag.htm

And some research results here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12099077


Orexin (formerly 'hypocretin') is covered pretty well here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin

Those who are able to eat whenever hungry and sleep whenever tired don't get jet lag (for obvious reasons the body just adjusts over several days until it's back 'in sync'; so it looks like the 'cause' of jet lag is trying to stay awake when your body doesn't want to and/or eat when it's not hungry. The natural adjustment method is probably the most gentle on our system.

Systems do get trained though, so if one already habitually fasted at regular times, and kept to the same timing, I'm guessing the body would not miss 'meal times' or get so disoriented. Likewise if we stayed awake exactly 16 hours and slept for 8, and kept up this habitual regime regardless of 'local time', there would be no jet lag (but we would be awake at inconvenient times and would not adjust).

There's also a big psychosomatic effect in severity of jet lag symptoms -apparently if we expect an awful time we're more likely to get one. Those who don't know about jet lag often never get it! I suppose general system adaptability also plays a role (kids usually do better than adults) but no data on this that I know of.

I'm too fond of my 'sleep when tired, eat when hungry' method to change it, plus I don't fly so often but I'll ask some globe-trotting colleagues about this; maybe they can try out the method.
Best,
AR


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Re: Argonne diet

Hi Alex, thanks for the reply.

I tried this diet for a week and I can say that it definitely works in regard to regular wake and sleep times.

The morning after I first tried to eat carb-only supper I woke up at 5 AM, which never occured before. For the past three days I ate a small protein-less meal just before going to bed and I consistently wake up about 8 hours later.

I also feel a little more energetic on average, but "brain fog" still occurs from time to time.

I'm not going to conduct a "blind" self-study since this method seems to work for me just fine. Anyway, I had hopes for this diet, so it could be placebo.


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Alex
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Re: Argonne diet

Hi dude,
Leftblank Wrote:
I tried this diet for a week and I can say that it definitely works in regard to regular wake and sleep times......

The problem with understanding what's actually going on with nutritional adjustments is there are SO many variables -the type of food eaten, the temperature, the time of eating, what else is ingested, and so on multifarious. Good results for Argonne are a matter of record, but a variety of such methods might reveal an easier approach for those who find it hard to fast. Keep an eye out dudes, for any info on long term changes or correlation of gene function (eg CR- or intermittent fasting- linked).


[L]: Anyway, I had hopes for this diet, so it could be placebo.

...Never knock the placebo -it prejudices its efficacy so  :  )
Best,
AR


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