I see these posts all the time in this sub, and I’ve been victim to it myself:
“I stopped IF and gained back some/all of the weight”
For many of us, IF is easier than changing food habits we’ve had for a long time.
These habits are ingrained and may have started when we were kids, influenced by any number of factors. These kind of habits can be incredibly hard to break. IF allows for weight loss without having to change your relationship with food - you can get loss just by changing your eating windows.
The issue with this is that if you stop IF, you may gain back the weight because you never addressed the underlying issue - your relationship with food. To make weight loss stick, your behaviors need to change too.
Weight gain can be purely medical, but for the vast majority it’s due to the decisions we make. IF is not going to alter those decision making pathways in your brain - you have to figure out how to address them healthily as part of IF.
Edit: I posted this below as a response, but figured it worth using to illustrate my point of IF is a tool:
An analogy:
IF is like ibuprofen. Let’s say you have knee pain and taking ibuprofen allows you to run, which in turn, has a lot of health benefits. Ibuprofen is allowing you to counteract the knee pain, but it is not solving the underlying cause of the knee pain.
IF has actually helped me deal with some of these issues.
It’s encouraged me to learn ways to self-soothe other than emotional eating. Just having that thought of “I’m still in my fasting period; don’t want to break it early” slows me down enough to break that automatic habit of “stressed = get snack.”
And OMAD (with its longer fasting period) has also taught me a lot about what kind of foods make me feel good vs. bad the next day. Eating a ton of starch and sugar leaves me feeling much hungrier while fasting the next day. More than one alcoholic drink also leaves me feeling hungover the next day. But if I eat a good balance of protein, fat, and vegetables, I feel well-fueled and not-hungry through the whole next day. I’m learning to connect healthy food with feeling good, and unhealthy food with feeling bad.
Isnt the goal of IF is to integrate it as part of your life for the long term? That is the great thing about it is that if you just have it part of your life, you solve a lot of the behaviour problems. At the end of the day if it can be part of a healthy long term lifestyle it is a good option and if it is short term it will be a waste of time like any other short term diet solution. Just like working out, saving money, or any other positive change: you need to keep at it
Fully agree as I am currently struggling with the same issue. Once you ‘take a break’ or leave IF for a period of time, you will gain back some or all the weight you’ve lost if the reasons for eating aren’t addressed.For me, it’s the lack of restraint or self control that got me back to my starting point.
Thanks for this. I started IF a little while ago, and while I love it, ideally I don’t want to do this forever. I’d like to learn healthy habits as I get to my goal weight, and try to maintain what I’ve learned and change my relationship with food. People don’t talk about this enough!
This is really good advice if you plan to stop IF. I hope I can keep doing it. Right now I do IF about 3 days a week (the rest of the time my work schedule makes it impossible). It is much easier for me to resist certain foods after cut off time than any strategy I’ve used. I don’t eat after 4 pm, but if I’m not fasting all I want to do is snack after work, probably to release stress & anxiety. Nothing works better than following the clock for some reason. I wonder why! I’m also less inclined to crave sugars and other junk when I’m eating so much in a small window. I will say my general psychological cravings have really dissipated! That’s one miracle of IF.
Perfect statement. If your relationship to food doesn’t change no diet will help. For me comfort snacking at night when watching TV was my catalyst for weight gain. Once I cut that out and realized I didn’t need it everything changed. I cycle in and out of keto and generally keep carbs low.
For me, IF has helped to completely eliminate any cravings for sugary snacks outside AND inside of my eating window. I’m not sure if this is because of better blood sugar control as a result of time restricted eating or what but i feel like i do have a better relationship with food, and understand hunger cues better.
Its the only thing that has worked for me to stop uncontrollable snacking.
To me IF has helped change some of those underlying issues. I only do 16:8 and have lost 15 pounds so far. I used to often starve and forget to eat only to do late evening massive binges. With IF I’ve naturally fallen into less snacking and my apetite gradually changed on its own too. I stay full throughout the day and my digestive system gets a nice rest at night without hunger pains. I can see myself doing this for a lifetime. I don’t know how other versions of IF might affect ppl though.
Oof. yes. can confirm. fell off the IF wagon after an event I’d been fasting for came and went and then it was the holidays. It’s very hard to start back up and super discouraging that I let all my progress go in a matter of weeks. Fortunately, this feels like a good time of year to redouble my efforts and get back into gear. I also have to cut out the crappy diet sodas that feel like they are sort of a treat, but aren’t and all they do is jack up your insulin and stain your teeth. Sigh…
Yeah, I’ve decided I’m never going to stop IF.
It truly is a lifestyle change and part of fixing my relationship with food. It helps me control snacking because I’m not eating all day. It helps me eat healthier foods because I’m more intentional about the food I eat to break my fast, and if I’ve fasted, fatty, greasy, carb-heavy foods are not appealing. It does not help me at all with portion sizes. I eat until I feel full; being sated is not enough. But that’s why I have IF. Going back to eating all the time just seems like a step in the wrong direction.