Hi all. New on here, so please be kind.
When I was younger and got busy, I used to kind of accidentally skip breakfast and often lunch. I'd then eat a big dinner and often a second dinner sized meal late at night. Now that I'm older and have fallen into a more regular schedule, I've tried to embrace that tendency as a diet technique. The last two springs I've skipped eating until 7pm, and let myself eat as much healthy food as I want until bedtime, at around 11pm. Both years I've lost around twenty pounds, but then I've plateaued. As long as I've kept my motivation up, it's been sustainable.
I'm starting to diet again for this year, and was just wondering if anyone had any advice. This is the approach that has worked best for me and felt most organic, but if there is a serious error in there let me know. I would love to push past the 20 lb mark, but I'm 45 and wondering if my metabolism just won't let me get down any lower than that at this point.
Answer
You are natural IFer! You probably doing it right. The 7pm to 11pm eating window is ok if you finish eating at least 2 hours before going to sleep. 3 would be better. The question is, are you eating or drinking calories during the day? Sodas, coffee, or tea with cream, sugar, artificial swittener? Any snacks?If it’s only plain water, black tea, coffee, and no snacks, that’s the ticket! Your fasting window would be 11pm to 7pm, and you will be on 20/4.I’m 46, and I’m doing good on IF. I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t. There is a question about how much kcal you pack in your eating window and how much you should eat to lose some weight. The last one you could check on TDEE calculator. Tell me what you think. Good luck!