Emily Yoffe has a fascinating piece in Slate about going on a “CRON” (calorie-restricted optimal nutrition) plan. She eats 1500 calories/day. I was struck by three things: 1. Roy Wolford, apparently the first person to try something like this for a long time, did not live to be unusually old. He was 79 when he died. This is very helpful self-experimentation: CRON didn’t work, at least for life expectancy. One data point is much better than none. 2. Hunger is a huge problem. 3. In spite of the hunger, Yoffe is continuing the plan after the allotted 2 months have finished. Her sleep is still poor, etc., but she likes being thinner.
Yoffe mentions the UpDayDownDay regime studied by NIH researcher Mark Mattson. There is now a website for an associated book and diet. (My earlier comments.) A few weeks ago I asked Donald Laub, a Stanford professor of medicine who is doing this regime, if he was still taking olive oil to make the low-calorie days easier to endure. He said he was.
according to Wikipedia, Dr. Walford died of Lou Gehrig’s disease; does being thin cause or contribute to this disease? your comment suggests that CR contributed to his death and that’s not clear.
I’m not saying CR contributed to his death; I’m saying that in his particular case, the main supposed benefit of CR — longer life — failed to happen.