As everyone knows, when googling about intermittent fasting, you get a lot of ads and a lot of biased opinions so I would really love to know if intermittent fasting really is good for you, and if it slows down the metabolism, I would also love to hear if anybody was doing the same thing every day and then change to intermittent fasting and dropped a bunch of weight just because of that!
Back in 2020, I had reached 100 kg and hated the guy in the mirror. Set myself a weight loss target… I wanted to drop to 85. Got down to 95 over a period of several months with calorie restriction alone… but hit a plateau. Looked into IF, gave it a shot, and lost the 10 kg in a period of 3 - 4 months, maintaining the same calorie restriction but eating in a shorter window (20:4, with the occasional 36 hour fast). After reaching my goal, I did the stupid thing. Stopped counting calories, stopped fasting… assumed I could guess well enough and keep myself in shape.
Spoiler alert - I failed dismally and put all that weight back on with a little bit of interest by 2022. 103 kg this time. Hating the man in the mirror. Starting calorie cutting again. Got down to 100 between July and November… hit a plateau. Remembered that fasting had been the game changer last time and started fasting at the start of December (same calories, just 20:4, occasional longer fast).
Here we are at the end of January, and I’m down to 93.7. So yeah… it works 🙂 I think when I reach my goal weight this time, I’ll continue with fasting for the rest of my life so I don’t get so fat again.
I mean, we all have biased opinions too? The short answer is no, TRE alone doesn’t lead to weight loss for me. What it does is naturally reduce snacking and hunger, which makes it easier to stay within my calorie budget. TRE was great for maintenance over the holidays, but to lose I need to track.