
Starving to Health: Fasting-Mimicking Diet - tosh
https://artlapinsch.com/2020/06/23/starving-to-health-fasting-mimicking-diet/
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somada141
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve tried every diet under the sun, including the
16-8 IF and I was failing miserably at it. It’s by no means healthy but turns
out I’ve always been an all-or-nothing type (complete lack of discipline) so
I’ve been trying the 5-2 diet for the past couple months and I’m finally
seeing results. It allows you to eat up to 125% of your daily calories on
eating days and up to 25% on the 2 non-eating days. You can ramp it up by
eating absolutely nothing on non-eating days an even alternating between
eating and non-eating every other day which I’ve had some luck with. For me
personally the advantage was simplicity and the ability to eat the things I
tend to eat (within reason) without having to put too much effort into it. On
non-eating days I just keep myself occupied with work, activities, etc and
after a few times it’s surprisingly easy not to eat.

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daneel_w
I've reduced my average weight from 75 kg to 65 kg by daily intermittent
fasting: I eat the same things as always, and I consume the same amount kcal,
but I restrict my intake to a window of 6-8 hours instead of eating throughout
the full 16 hours I'm awake. I don't eat until lunch, and I make sure I have
had my last meal for the day no later than 8 in the evening.

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nradov
I am highly skeptical of claims that people have lost significant weight by
changing _when_ they eat and not what or how much they eat. Most people
significantly underestimate how much they consume and often eat little snacks
at various times without even consciously remembering it. If someone had
followed you around before you started intermittent fasting and recorded
everything you put in your mouth I suspect you would find that you were eating
more than you thought.

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tedmiston
There is a lot of research supporting how much the _when_ of intermittent
fasting matters even when the _what_ and _how much_ are held constant. How the
food is distributed over time matters for insulin which affects weight gain /
loss.

There is widespread misunderstanding that obesity is caused by caloric
imbalance while it is actually caused by hormonal imbalance.

Dr. Jason Fung has written extensively (research, blog posts, books) covering
how IF impacts insulin and insulin sensitivity, and how that downstream leads
to obesity [and how IF helps reverse obesity]. I highly recommend his books
such as _The Obesity Code_.

[https://www.dietdoctor.com/my-single-best-weight-loss-
tip](https://www.dietdoctor.com/my-single-best-weight-loss-tip)

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shyn3
Yeah I have been doing this for decades. I only eat from 5-6 PM daily. I'll
have water in the day time, but I don't think it would be ideal to stop
drinking water.

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hprotagonist
IF is great. Y'ain't getting me to give up my coffee, though. It's got zero
calories, anyway!

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senectus1
over the past 7 months I've lost 12kgs.

All I did was to make some lifestyle changes: "IF" between 8pm and 12 pm
(basically calorie reduction). I dont add sugar to any drink and I dont drink
sugary drinks, this includes fruit juice, 100% or no. I gave myself permission
to suck at exercise. As long as I got out at least 5 days a week (preferably
in the morning before work) then I would class this as mission accomplished.
What ended up happening was it became a habit, so i didn't have to really
think about it or argue with myself about it. I also got a lot better at it.
so instead of a 20 min bike ride I was going for an hour or more. I didn't
feel like I had to do better I just ended up doing better.

The outcome so far has been great, also I find that if bad weather keeps me
from going out and getting exercise I start getting cranky.. i now _need_ it
to be happy its a sort of self re-enforcing feedback habit.

Habits are hard to break, so I actively developed _good_ habits... I think
this is basically the crux of it. no special and difficult to maintain rules
or eating patterns. just eat less in general and do it in a way that is easy
to maintain (no eating after dinner, dont eat breakfast, train my palette to
prefer non-sweet drinks).

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hedora
I’ve had good luck with the Hackers Diet (calorie counting) in the past:
[https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/](https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/)

When counting calories and exercising, my weight loss was linear in the number
of calories I (didn’t) eat, regardless of what they were.

I’m trying intermittent fasting because calorie counting is a pain, and the
less mental energy required the better. Hopefully it’ll work out.

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BrandoElFollito
I lost without too much problems 16kg by reading only between noln and 8pm.

And by not eating processed sugar (industrial cakes)

Not sure which one was more important for the loss :)

