I’m getting conflicting information on weight loss with intermittent fasting. Some people say it doesn’t matter what you eat and other people say calories in/ calories out is still in effect. I’m curious what the percentages are on these takes?
If you haven’t already, read The Obesity Code and Feast Fast Repeat. They address these issues. This isn’t a binary question. Yes obviously if you stuff your face with thousands of calories in your window you won’t lose weight. But its not as simple as calories in/out, it never was, which is the ‘diets’ of the past always failed. You can fast and lose weight on the calories you didn’t before if you reverse insulin resistance. But really, read the books.
I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the fact you have to count the calories to loose weight, at least not in the beginning. But even those that dont and still lose weight are at the end of the day still in a deficit.Intermittent fasting just makes it easier. Especially in combination with a low carb diet.
Of course it still in effect. I would argue that benefit of intermittent fasting, from a weight loss perspective, is that for a lot of people it makes it a lot easier to cut down on their calories and create a caloric deficit, sometimes even without the person doing any explicit calorie counting. I have a habit of late night snacking, and when I’m being strict about eating windows those calories get cut out without being replaced during the day, regardless of whether I’m “counting calories.”
Calories is the sledgehammer….eat less lose weight
Everything else is a scalpel…in other words, a drop in the bucket…
Exercise helps a bit
Timing of eating may help a bit
Hormones count for a bit
Types of food counts for a bit
But everything not related to calories in, is just fine tuning
If you want to lose weight, eat lessIf you want to maximize health eat whole foods only (cut out all processed foods, all)
In my experience, the whole point of intermittent fasting is that you don’t HAVE to calorie-count. You should, however, choose foods that work for your body, especially if your goal is fat loss. The last few weeks I’ve been eating more ultra-processed foods but continuing to fast every day, usually 16-18 hours. I’ve been maintaining, which is totally fine with me, even though I still have some weight I’d like to lose. But that’s the beauty of fasting! Is it good to eat too much ultra-processed foods? No. But as soon as I can (and want to), I’ll go back to eating mostly whole foods again and will start to lose fat again. YMMV, but just wanted to give you another perspective. The only times I count calories are when I’m doing modified alternate day fasting, during which you should stick to 500-600 calories in a 30-minute or less eating window on your “down day” and then have an unrestricted up day (no need to count calories). It works well for me!
I always get jumped on when I say this but counting calories for weight loss is a flawed approach. You could be eating few calories daily from your panettone or you could be eating quite a lot from avocadoes. Which one do you think will result in weight loss? Counting calories has its place, but not for weight loss. For that, you need to use common sense in what you’re eating.
I mean, sure it matters but it’s not as simple of an equation as you might think. The “calories out” portion is where it gets interesting. Depending on your hormons you can adjust it in your favor to minimize the amount of fat that is accumulated by your body but rather be used as energy in the form of ketones.
That’s where intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet come into play. The longer your body remains in ketosis and doesn’t have any glucose to burn the more fat will be oxidized.