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Programming and Dieting?

Posted by Cliff on from the it's-all-about-the-brain-fuel dept.

duncan bayne asks: "I've been using the Hacker's Diet to lose weight. What's interesting to me is how hard it is to focus on a complicated task when my body is busy running out of energy. I'm having to pay careful attention to snacking - eating enough that I don't 'fade out' in the afternoon, yet not so much that I exceed my daily kilojoule allowance. This got me to thinking about energy levels of those who aren't dieting. Do you find yourself correcting 'fade' by snacking (careful or otherwise) as you work?"

2 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Snacking isn't actually that bad by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Informative

    if you eat the right stuff. Some diets recommend you eat 5 small meals a day instead of 3 bigger meals. Why? There is a significant "fixed cost" to digesting food, ie the amount of calories you burn to digest any amount of food, however after you pay the fixed cost the incremental cost is quite small. So you are actually doing yourself a favor if you snack on stuff like carrots and apples during the day. Esp. since your body has to do more work to break down carrots and apples than it does a Snickers bar.....

    --
    Monstar L
  2. Re:Bleh, more phewie! by Cyberblah · · Score: 2, Informative

    Congratulations on contradicting TFHD and then restating its basic premise.

    The point it's making is that eating fewer calories than you burn isn't "magic," it's physics.