A gut-derived hormone suppresses sugar appetite/regulates food choice Drosophila

To get the benefits of keto, you have to get the body adapted to burning fat. Depending on the body, this can take a week or so. All those cravings are the body crying out for a fix of easy sugar, because it really doesn't want to have to switch over and burn fat for fuel as its harder for it to do.

If you just had sugar every 3rd day, you're body would never adjust.

That too is a half truth. It's not just that the stomach's available volume decreases that a feeling of appetite is satiated. Smaller portions of rich foods can do this, sometimes. Eating slower can but only if the right foods are consumed to help trigger the biochemical response (not vanishing calories). There is actually a feedback mechanism and it's not as cut and dry as fill the space = I'm done.

I recognize I've only given a high level talking point and I apologize that I can't recant the physiology and chemical pathways that perform this function. Maybe someone in the medical field can chime and and fill the gaps we're both creating? I happen to be the skinny one in a very obese family and have probably spent too much time time to figure this out.

All of these are valid approaches and can work! But you have to first know that CICO is what matters, in order to appreciate your (very correct) statement that "Successful dieting is about managing the sensation of hunger."

If someone thinks that IF works regardless of CICO, they're going to get it wrong. I know, I was there many years ago before starting to count calories and losing a lot of weight. (Though counting calories works for me, I don't necessarily advocate it for everyone!)

One other small point: While managing the sensation of hunger is a big part of it, other people "overeat" for other reasons. E.g. I have far less issues with hunger, than I have with just liking novelty in foods - I like to try a lot of different things, and lately I've started to cook a lot. That is a bigger source of problems for my dieting goals than feeling hungry, personally. Other people eat for stress, or to stay awake, etc. Hunger is a big part of the equation, but not the only part.

So here's my current summary of the evidence:

1. Obviously, everything depends on what your goals are.

2. Since you're lifting weights, I assume your goal is better body composition, which in most cases means losing fat and gaining muscle.

3. The main thing you need to do to lose fat is be on a caloric deficit. In order to lose mostly fat and not much muscle, you should be on the smallest caloric deficit you can reasonably manage, -300 calories per day is perfect. (Less than that and you can't really measure it accurately enough to see that you're actually losing fat.)

4. The other thing you need to do to not lose muscle is eat enough protein. Around 0.8 grams for each pound of body weight is probably good enough, though going up to 1 gram per pound is totally safe and makes sure you aren't getting too little protein.

5. How to achieve a caloric deficit mostly depends on what's easiest/funnest/best for you. Intermittent Fasting is very popular, because it makes it easy for many people to get a caloric deficit.

6. I personally don't love IF because it doesn't fit in with my life schedule, and personally prefer counting calories explicitly cause it's the most accurate and gives me the feeling of the most control, which I like. That said, it's a lot of work and isn't for everyone.

7. IF is not a panacea by any means. If you are doing IF but not actually getting a caloric deficit, it won't help you lose weight.

8. As far as I can tell, there are no known benefits to IF, health-wise. There's a lot of claimed benefits, but nothing actually proven. (And people claim health benefits for a lot of other things as well.) The only thing it's known to be good for is that a lot of people really like it as a way of managing calories/hunger. And there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it actually helps for that - a lot of people really do find it easier to be on IF when they're dieting. If you're curious, totally worth just giving it a shot.

9. In terms of IF and weightlifting - technically speaking, a lot of studies have shown that it's best to get 4-5 protein feedings in a day, relatively spread out. So it's better to have 4 meals a day of protein than 2. As far as I can tell, this is a real effect, but it's not an enormous one. You're "leaving some gains on the table" if you do IF, but if it helps you reach a desired bodyweight, that's probably worth it. Especially since, after dieting down, you can start a bulking round of having a caloric surplus in order to actually gain weight and muscle.