Last year I dropped from 118Kg down to 92Kg over a 6 month period by doing 18:6 roughly 5 days a week and a very low carb (almost keto) diet, it was the first time I’d ever been able to stick to any form of diet and actually lose weight.
I had surgery late last year and had to have a mostly liquid diet that had plenty of carbs in it, since then I haven’t been able to stick to either IF or keto, I’m craving carbs and sweet things all the time which when combined with poor self control I’ve been putting weight back on.
I know if I could get through maybe 5 days of IF with very low carbs I would probably be able to keep it up.
If I could drink coffee all day it would help - but it affects my sleep too much unfortunately.
Any tips for a) How to get back into IF (especially with a low carb diet) and b) self control / craving management for carbs / sugar during the first week?
Thanks, M/33
Maybe try OMAD?
I’m only 2 weeks into OMAD but I’m really surprised by how my cravings for sugar and carbs have completely gone away. On my first week I allowed myself to eat sweets after dinner, but since I didn’t really crave it anymore, I only ate 90% dark chocolate or fruits on the second week. I’m hoping to cut out added sugar completely through reducing it little by little.
I recommend a book called The Craving Mind by Judson Brewer. It’s a really good read to understand the science behind cravings and how to break the reward-based loop that causes them. The short answer is meditation. When you’re in a meditative state the part of your brain that is associated with operant conditioning (reward-based learning) actually shuts down.
I think the beginning is the hardest. You just need to go over that big hurdle. I recommend getting an audiobook or two, start listening, and you may find the motivation you need. Audiobooks work like pep talks to me 😄.
I love carbs and had cravings, so it was definitely a change for me, too, but it’s doable. You’ve done it before!
I personally don’t pay attention to carbs and just fast. 18:6 for five days a week. Fasting helped me naturally become full faster so I eat less in general. I have a sweet tooth so I still have candy just in smaller portion sizes. I buy skinny pop kettle corn in small bags, mini Hershey chocolate (6 equals like one candy bar), hard candy like jolly rancher’s. It tricks my mind into thinking I ate more than I did. I don’t feel deprived and I still eat less than before.
How is your fasting insulin levels? I developed metabolic syndrome with fatty liver & craved carbs, sugar & gained fat on calorie restriction even fasting until I got the insulin levels down. I have been seeing studies showing that even children in the West are now coming down with fatty liver, insulin resistance & metabolic syndrome at early age. Set us up for CoVid complications & early death.