I heard a co-worker say to someone “I am fasting today” and I wanted to know more. I had heard nothing about IF before this. I got on Reddit, researched and that was 8 pounds and 6 weeks ago. I have stuck to 22:2 and today I accidentally did 25:1. I didn’t feel hungry today either, basically forgot that my 22:2 was approaching my eating time. I had checked out Keto before IF, and threw up my hands at Keto not wanting to eat things like eggs (I hate eggs). Not eating anything is much easier than following Keto (for me). I plan to keep this up forever. Glad for all of the positive encouragement everyone has for one another on Reddit.
I started out with 16:8 back in April and did that schedule for a week and in the eating window I only ate 2 meals with no snacking. Next week I went to 18:6 same eating, third week was 20:4 or anywhere between that and 23:1 with a single meal. Now I continually switch it up with ADF, omad, 2mad and multi-day fasts of different lengths.
About six years ago, I was on Weight Watchers. Some time before I had seen some YouTube videos of a couple of brothers who were weight lifters who talked about eating within a five-hour window every day. I decided to give it a try and just ate my WW points within that window. I started out eating breakfast around 7 every morning before work and then ate through about noon. Based upon how work was going on any given day, sometimes I wasn’t able to get to all of the food until about 1 or 2. It helped accelerate my weight loss. I discovered that eating fruit, which was really the only sugar-laden thing I ate, slowed my weight loss. So I cut that out, which meant I was basically eating keto. So I quit WW and ate keto plus counted calories. Eventually I went to a four-hour window and then down to one meal a day.
I started slowly. First week in April 16:8. Second 18:6. 3rd 20:4 or something similar. Over the next few weeks ive slowly done longer fasts. Mixed it up with 24,48,72. Etc. did my first 4 and 5 days fasts this month.
I started with 16:8 as that’s not too far off the very traditional ‘3 meals a day’ anyway.
Then I found that 18:6 with two cooked meals (personally 1200 & 1800 tends to be about the time I eat.)
I find it easy to wait until 1200 to eat and if I’ve eaten around 1800 I’m not hungry when I go to bed. Seems a simple way to fast/lose fat while still getting what your body needs. I tend to eat chicken veg rice, scrambled eggs, fruit. Etc. I try not to snack in between those meals.
This is good for you teeth too as there’s only twice a day when they are subject to sugars acids etc.