56/M here, overweight all my life. I started losing weight somewhere around 310 pounds, started IF at 290, and after about 30 days I’m down to 278. However, it’s my other vitals including BP and blood glucose that drove me to change. My IF is mild - 14/10 during the week, 24 hours fast once a week, 72 hours once a month (that’s the plan), and a 7-day fast planned for once in 6 months.
“Eat if you are hungry” is what I was raised on. In between meals, if I’m hungry? Have a snack. (unfortunately, there wasn’t an option not to eat a main meal when I wasn’t hungry). So I lived my life that way, sometimes looking for healthy snacks, sometimes not caring.
By deliberately fasting (e.g. not eating even though I’m hungry) I now think about things entirely differently. I realize that “eat when you are hungry, don’t eat when you aren’t” is a viable way to diet, but I prefer my 3 meals and NO SNACKS. If I want to eat something for the pleasure of it, it goes with a meal as dessert. (My meals are all protein + leafy green right now)
One thing I’ve realized is how inundated we are with ads about snack foods. We are bombarded with them. Most of the media makes it seems that snacks are somehow required because obviously, you have to eat when you are hungry. Then if you want to eat keto snacks - OMG, they cost a fortune! The new internet-only snacks that have all of these substitute keto ingredients come out to like $5 per snack!
So I found that by not spending the money on these snacks, I’m turning around and putting that money into my groceries. I’m buying higher quality cuts of beef, more luxurious seafoods, farmers market eggs that cost twice as much, etc. And now that I am buying more tasty food, I’ve ditched all of the sauces (which are total minefields of unhealthy ingredients), and instead using a little butter, salt, pepper, fresh garlic and maybe herbs. I want to TASTE my steak now.
You know how I feel that I’m doing this right? My fridge is practically empty. There’s the protein I took out last night to defrost, there is the bin of leafy greens, a dozen eggs… and that’s really about it.
I haven’t even mentioned how snacks keep your insulin high, or how most of them don’t really contribute to your nutritional needs. They are really “treats”. After years of abusing my body, I’ll find some other way to treat myself than food.
Could not agree more. And I find myself looking in the fridge or the pantry for all sorts of reasons other than hunger, which I need to take care of in other ways. Eating only when you are hungry might work if you can really tune in to your body. I’m not there yet. One meal a day works because no snacking and I can eat until I am full and then stop.
Congratz so far!
Your enthusiasm is very sweet! It can be dangerous though.
I always worry that people are too optimistic from early weight loss, and then feel defeated and fall off when they realize this requires a lot more effort once you are past the ‘honeymoon’ phase.
Don’t be that person!
Similarly, curb your desire to set expectations about what you will be able to do in the future. For more info why this is bad, check out a google talk ‘the willpower instinct’.