Others have said this too: My personal experience says quite the opposite as well. 224->205 over fall to spring timeline.
That being said, it is an extraordinarily difficult way losing weight and probably is not sustainable long term.
Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
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Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#12I am sure it's personal, but when I fast 24 hours (once per week), the next two days I look for less food, to the point that I can skip lunch without noticing.
The big deal for me is not eating stuff with flour (starch?) or sugar.
I already eat healthy, although I switched from chicken to a full protein tofu that's low on calories and that has been a blessing for protein intake (along with egg white). I can eat 60g of protein at lunch in about 350 calories.
That gives me everything I need for the gym.
My snack is apple with a teaspoon of pure pistachio butter, which calms down my desire for sweets (I love pistachio)
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#13> restricting eating to a short window - often about eight hours 8 hours is not a short window. I'm pretty sure Golden Corral will kick you out somewhere around hour #3.
Ya these studies that cut down intermittent fasting always have an 8 hour eating window which is not intermittent fasting. Junk science probably sponsored by the food industry
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#14I've lost over 100lbs in the past year. * I only eat one meal a day (supper). It's usually a very large meal, very high in lean protein. * I avoid sugars and starches of all kinds and minimize other carbs (fruit, root veg, grains). * After eating, I do 30 minutes on the treadmill. For a middle-aged woman (a category which finds it particularly hard to lose weight) this has worked rather well. I can eat as much meat,…
How do you know that spreading that one meal out throughout the day wouldn't have the same effect? I bet you'd have more energy as well. Unless you have tested this, I find it hard to believe that this isn't really just a caloric deficit compared to whatever you were doing before losing weight, assuming the same activity level.
It probably would have the same effect, but the point is that a lot of people find it easier to stick to one meal a day (or similar) than multiple smaller meals.
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#15My understanding of intermittent fasting is that it can encourage "garbage collection" of the body pruning the dead/sickly cells. Weight loss/gain is still driven by calories in/out.
It's always calories in and calories out. The idea is that intermittent fasting makes you less hungry over time and thus you take in less calories.
If they had their test subjects eat the same amount to see if intermittent fasting metabolized food better then it seems obvious that there would be little to no difference.
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#16What made the most difference for me was strength training a few times per week. I do circuit training classes where you spend 6 minutes per station. I didn't change my diet that much, and I really didn't lose much weight. But the muscle displaced the fat and I'm slimmer and look better.
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#17I've lost over 100lbs in the past year. * I only eat one meal a day (supper). It's usually a very large meal, very high in lean protein. * I avoid sugars and starches of all kinds and minimize other carbs (fruit, root veg, grains). * After eating, I do 30 minutes on the treadmill. For a middle-aged woman (a category which finds it particularly hard to lose weight) this has worked rather well. I can eat as much meat,…
How do you know that spreading that one meal out throughout the day wouldn't have the same effect? I bet you'd have more energy as well. Unless you have tested this, I find it hard to believe that this isn't really just a caloric deficit compared to whatever you were doing before losing weight, assuming the same activity level.
> spreading that one meal out throughout the day
Probably yes. But you're minimizing the difficulty of staying in caloric deficit.
IF you can stick to one meal per day AND eat mostly protein (vs. mostly sugar / carbs) THEN it's very hard to overeat i.e. be in caloric surplus.
If you snack many times a day, mostly sugar / carbs, and slosh it down with coke or red bull (non-diet, sugary version) it's very hard to keep eating under calorie limit. Sugar / carbs stimulate your hunger, leading to more eating. It's the opposite of Ozempic.
And your glucose levels are chronically elevated which is bad for our bodies. It's basically chronic inflammation.
Now, if you eat a steak once a day, you'll find it very hard to overeat. Like physically, you won't be able to eat too much.
It's still not easy to stick to that but it's simpler and easier than calorie count everything you eat throughout the day.
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#18I am sure it's personal, but when I fast 24 hours (once per week), the next two days I look for less food, to the point that I can skip lunch without noticing. The big deal for me is not eating stuff with flour (starch?) or sugar. I already eat healthy, although I switched from chicken to a full protein tofu that's low on calories and that has been a blessing for protein intake (along with egg white). I can eat 60g o…
Which means that fasting helps you reduce the global calory intake, which is the only way to loose weight.
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#19It's hilarious that people describe their anecdotal experience of being in a calorie deficit as a proof that "intermittent fasting works".
This was never the question, but whether intermittent fasting brings additional weight loss benefits as compared to calorie deficit with frequent meals.
My anecdotal experience from 20y of bodybuilding and doing ~3 cuts a year: for cutting, I tried IF, 6 meals a day, low fat, low carb, high fat true keto, balanced... everything works. And works equally well - this is backed by numerous studies. The only difference is the impact on health parameters (different will get worse on low fat vs high fat), satiety, and how easy it is for someone to sustain the diet and stay in a deficit. This will depend on the lifestyle and personal preferences. So my preferred way to cut is high protein, low carb, essential fats, a ton of fiber. When building muscle I go high everything but balanced.
Anything else and more is sectarianism and people bragging about their choices not having verified their true claimed efficacy or benefits.
Re: Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss, review finds
#20In a couple of days ~2 billion people world-wide will begin intermittent fasting, done from dawn to sunset, for a month, which is one of the components of the month of Ramadan. Nobody does this to lose weight, or even changes their diet, yet everyone loses some weight. 5lb is typical. Most people who fast Ramadan also gain it back afterward because they didn't make any changes to their diet, which points to the effectiveness of intermittent fasting to lose weight.
There is one difference between Ramadan fasting and modern intermittent fasting: Ramadan fasts are 'dry' fasts no water is imbibed and the alimentary canal stays completely unstimulated for long periods of time.