Sooo I’m a tad confused, all. My understanding is as follows (I’m doing OMAD):
What am I missing here? Why are some folks doing IF and a caloric deficit?
Cheers, thanks in advance.
You have two gas tanks, one small day tank used to drive to work and back, and a reserve tank that carries a week’s worth of fuel in reserve.
To open the reserve fuel line, you must empty the day tank first.
If you drive to work and then fill up your gas tank and then drive home and fill up your tank and so on you will never get to the reserve tank.
If you drive to work and back and then drive to work again on day 2 you just took some reserve out and when you get gas you only fill the day tank.
Now you’re back to normal but have 1/2 day less in the reserve tank.
This is essentially fueling in a deficit.
When you tap into fat reserves, you are tapping into a source of calories.
People who calories restrict but eat all day have trouble tapping into that energy source, and body may respond by decreasing energy expenditure.
But for IFers, from your body’s point of view, it is getting a steady source of energy all day.
That said, studies they have done on very active indigenous people showed they used about the same amount of calories as sedentary westerners. And a recent study looking at low BMI Chinese people versus normal BMI found the low BMI people ate less calories and were slightly less active.
There’s just a lot we don’t know so at the end of the day, you need to find a lifestyle that you can easily maintain while being primarily happy with the results.
Honestly not everybody does intermittent fasting to lose weight. Using it as a diet has become a bit trendy which is fine but the only people using caloric deficit are people trying to lose weight. And even then, the literature is shifting a bit slightly away from the calories in/calories out model. I know, possible controversial topic :-)
Also, remember that once you start losing weight, your TDEE goes down as well. It’s not always a slower metabolism. Keep your body guessing by eating different types of food, different IF timespans etc.
Read dr Fungs books or watch his videos. It’s not calories, it’s all about reducing insulin levels. If you keep insulin low enough to access stored fat, your body makes up the missing calories and you don’t slow your metabolism. If you eat often or too many carbs, it blocks fat burning because insulin rises and since your body can’t make up the difference, the metabolism slows to account for it.
Here is my single cent:
Well you could look at these as being methods of weight loss. Using two or more methods at once can be more effective than just one alone and be easier to stick with long term. If one slips or doesn’t consistently stick, there’s something else as back up to prevent or limit backsliding.
Let’s say someone does calorie counting and IF and goes on holiday to a relative’s house and has no idea what the calories are in anything. IF can help them stay on track.
Losing weight is about lifestyle as a whole and getting the body to use fat stores in the body. The different methods lead to behaviours that help that happen and should help maintain the lower weight, too.