Don’t fall for some of the fake posts here

I noticed a few people here recently who were not so honest about their progress. The problem is that this creates more frustration, saddness and self-disgust for the people who actually try to get inspired by those people. I’ve seen few of people who shared their progress here, claiming they only fasted and ‘ate low calorie’ and losing 100+ lbs in less than 6 months. Others in comments felt so sad about themselves for not being able to achieve the same results That’s because, the posters had weight loss surgery and they were hiding this aspect. WLS makes you eat less, especially for the first half a year. You often eat under 800-1000 calories, you don’t feel huge hunger as before and you can go many hours without eating. This is simply dishonest to not mention it, but to say you could ‘fast’ 20 hours a day or to fast for few days. I have a WLS surgery. And I see the differences. I can easly fast a week if I want now. We are given supplements and vitamins. Life is hard with WLS too, you can develop serious deficiencies and we ‘survive’ on strict supplements especially the first few months. Mentally speaking, it’s the same hard struggle with food. But physically speaking, the stomach isn’t killing you if you don’t eat huge amounts, every minute of your life. So please, be careful what people you admire on this subredit. Some are honest and they do such a great job. Some hide their WLS and want to inspire normal people to have a lifestyle similar to them. But this lifestyle identical to theirs is not sustainable for a person who didn’t have surgery. Everyone has their own progress. Take it easy!! Good luck everyone!

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Thank you for pointing this out, I guess I’m a little naive sometimes so have believed every post.

Mods: If info is deceiving, pictures are photoshopped or stolen from someone else, would it be possible to mark these posts with a warning or do something about it?

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With some posts you can see the surgery scars and they make no mention of the surgery at all. Some of the After photos clearly show breast implants and a tummy tuck. Tummy tucks are always super obvious because of the belly button.

You need to trust your own process and focus on what’s going on on your side of the street. Those photos are fun to look at but people leave a lot of details out.

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I can’t wait to post a progress pic. I’m 7 lbs away from a 40 lbs drop. But I started in July 2020. So a very slow progress. It would have been faster, but I had a 10 lbs set back. But I want to show it can be done.

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Almost every post on this sub isn’t about people who only did intermittent fasting. It’s almost always “I did 16/8 and worked out 7 days a week and cut my calorie intake way down”. Well yeah. IF primarily helps you cut your calorie intake down by shrinking the eating window. Fasting has its benefits (I’m not a doctor or nutritionist), but also working out every day and cutting calories will make you lose weight, regardless of whether or not you are fasting.

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There were a few people at work who had weight loss surgery around the time I started doing IF. I think people assumed I had surgery too; one person directly asked me. My loss was consistent and gradual with no loose skin and I eat whatever I want in my fasting window. I’m so glad I didn’t go the surgical route.

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Thank you for this. I really like IF but it hasn’t been magical to me. It has helped (and a lot!) to regulate my hunger and eating-when-feeling-the-feels compulsion, but since I started on August I’ve only dropped a kilo per month - and that’s IF and a moderate calorie deficit working together!

So I’ll just stay on my slow but sure path towards weight loss. I wish you all great success no matter your goal.

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>This is simply dishonest to not mention it, but to say you could ‘fast’ 20 hours a day or to fast for few days.

Yep. If people choose for whatever reason not to mention that they had weight loss surgery: stop bragging about your success on here. Or do that on the WLS sub.

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Completely honest here: Started 5/24/21 with 16:8, quickly went to 18:6, up to 22 hours my first week.

Started incorporating 24+ hour fasts in the following weeks and 42+ hour fasts in the following months. Now incorporating 64+ hour fasts most weeks, with 80 hours being my longest.

Standard diet, no restrictions, drink alcohol on weekends. Down 35 pounds. Most weekends I stick to 18:6. No surgery, no supplements and basically no exercise! Weigh myself every morning.

Could I have lost more in those six months? Sure, but I want this to be sustainable.

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The more you have to lose the more you’ll lose faster is what I’ve seen. I started at 345 and am down to 308 in just over 100 days of simple 16:8, with no general diet change other than only drinking “diet” sodas during my eating period.

So while my weight has dropped quite a bit, I’m still technically morbidly obese for example (6’2”). The larger change has been in my blood work; a large reduction in cholesterol, blood sugar and my blood pressure has dropped 15 points. It’s still high, but my doctor was amazed how well I’ve been doing simply by fasting, and relatively a pretty entry level method to boot.