Definitely stay hydrated throughout the fasting time. When its your eating window consume adequate protein.
What worked for me is the Myfitnesspal website and cellphone app, what I like to do is build my meals on there at night for the day ahead so I’ll have a plan on what I’ll be eating and also will be able to increase or decrease the amount of food and see what I could be eating.
It helps me track the calories and macronutrients in my foods so I could keep it under control, Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats, its shows it in the food log and I still use the free version.
For the fasting I started skipping the traditional morning breakfast and just eating later in the day like at 10am I’d start eating and then I’d stop eating at 6pm so thats an 8 hour eating window, and then I would fast from 6pm until 10am the next day and thats 16 hours fasting.
I chose to eat from 12pm to 6pm to keep it closer to my work lunch schedule but for a while ate from 2pm to 8pm to really match things up with my work but found out after some weeks that eating close to 8pm left me feeling too full by bedtime that it was uncomfortable so I changed my eating window to be 12pm to 6pm eating and then 6pm to 12pm the next day fasting.
As far as diet, I was eating maintenance calories at the start but have since dropped the calories a little bit but not that much. Just gotta give it time.
Try lowering your eating window gradually by 4 hours each day.
Eat as little simple carbs as you can - they spike insulin.
Start drinking a glass of water after your meals with 2tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar, this will help reduce insulin response by about 30%. This will help deal with cravings.
Get your calorie free electrolytes ready. I use Hi Lyte, potassium citrate and magnesium glycinate. Do not get magnesium citrate - it will give you crazy runs.
My personal trick in lowering my appetite when I am trying to get back into fasting is taking a few saffron extract pills the first few days instead of meals. Saffron is a food stuff so it’s not anything synthetic but it lowers appetite really well.
After 3-4 fast days your hunger hormones will lower and you will be able to handle fast much easier.
Break fasts with broth or a sunny side up egg, vitamin B1 and digestive enzymes, as well as electrolytes. Do not eat heavy meals, carbs or sugars when breaking the fast. After an hour you can eat normally.
The first few days you will be tired, go to bed early.
If you are dizzy or shaky that means you are low on end trolleys.
After a few fasting days you will get crazy energy and you may want to exercise to get that expended. For you lifting some good weights if you can might do the trick.
But generally speaking you do not need to exercise to lose weight with IF, magical genetic fat burning processes will activate in your body once insulin is low enough for long enough periods. Obesity is a hormonal disease. Insulin is a hormone.
Good luck!