It’s Not That Hard: Calorie Restriction (CR) –

Why & How

Brian M. DelaneyPresident

CR Society International

(tinyurl.com/crtalk1)

Luigi Cornaro (~1465 – ~1566)

(Image: http://www.bildindex.de.)

SURVIVAL OF NORMALLY FED MICE AND MICE ON VARYING DEGREES OF CR

(From Beyond the 120-Year Diet.)

POSSIBLE SURVIVAL OF NORMALLYFED HUMANS AND HUMANS

ON VARYING DEGREES OF CR?

(Adapted from Beyond the 120-Year Diet.)

SURVIVAL OF NORMALLY FED MICE AND MICE ON VARYING DEGREES OF VITAMIN C

(From Gerontology. 1984;30(6):371-5.)

Some of the disease conditions affected by CR

• Cancer incidence reduced greatly.• Type 2 diabetes essentially abolished.• Blood pressure reduced.• Heart disease greatly reduced.• Increased maintenance of DNA.• Osteoporosis reduced? (* more on this

below.)• Auto-immune disorders reduced.• Age-associated neurological decline reduced.• (Lots more!)

Early food-reduction studies in humans

• Reduced mortality during low food-availability in Europe after WWII.

• Short- and long-term fasting studies showing improved health.

• Increased longevity in Okinawa, where the population eats, on average, 10-20% less than other Japanese.

It’s Not That Hard: Calorie Restriction (CR) –

Why & How

Why not CR?

- “It won’t work.”

- “It’s too hard.”

What is Calorie Restriction (CR)?

• Reduce energy-intake of diet.• Keep intake of everything else in diet at

healthy levels.

Simple! (More or less.)

“Fewer calories, more life.”

Are CR’d animals actually eating normally, and control

animals are pigging out?The argument:

• CR’d animals are actually eating normally; control animals are grossly over-eating.

• So CR experiments are just showing that over-eating shortens lifespan.

This is clearly false!• CR’d animals are not all that far from

starvation.• CR’d females (in many species) become

infertile.

“It’s too hard.”

• a) Difficulties of implementation.(Selecting amount and types of food, etc.)

• b) Possible downsides to the diet.

“It’s too hard”: implementation.

Question: “Will I have to measure all my food before every meal and enter the data into a computer program?”

Answer: No! (But doing so at the beginning would be a very good idea – and note that the risks of not doing this are probably the same for most people!)

Dietary analysis software

• http://cronometer.com(Free. Web-based, or stand-alone program. Designed for CRers.)

• http://nutritiondata.com/(Free. Web-based. Search for foods that contain particular nutrients.)

• http://nutribase.com/(Not free – though some versions cheap. Has great “find food with nutrients I’m short on” function.)

Only major theoretical difficulty in the implementation

of CR:

How measure level of restriction?

Judging degree of CR

Conventional measures of health:1. Normal biomarkers of health and disease risk.

(Blood lipids, fasting glucose, BP, etc.)2. Aiming for an “low-ideal” BMI.

(19? 18.5?)

Indicators of a specifically CR’d state:3. Possible biomarkers of a state of CR.

(Body temperature, IGF1?)4. Body fat percentage.

(A. Aim for slow 50% reduction. B. Be somewhat cautious if going below ~4-5% for men, ~8-10% for women.)

5. Percentage drop from set-point.(Losing 10–15% of your non-CR weight is probably a good, safe target. More if you’re overweight, or more fervently desire the eternal.)

“It’s too hard”: possible downsides to CR

• Feeling cold.• Looking (in some cases) too scrawny, not

“virile”/“fertile”.• Muscle loss.• Bone loss?• Cessation of menses?• Low testosterone.• Social challenges.• Hunger.

Possible benefits of CR

• Mind-blowing health and longevity benefits unmatched by any other well-researched protocol currently available.

• Weight loss.• Better sleep.• Enjoy food more.• Enjoy life more.• Enjoy more life!

False “Decision Monumentalism”

The choice is not :

1. 3000+ calories of junk food, never have to think about what I’m eating.

vs.

2. 1600 calories of boring rabbit food for the rest of my life, have to sit down with a computer program every time I want to eat anything.

SURVIVAL OF NORMALLY FED BRIANSAND BRIANS ON VARYING DEGREES OF CR