Intermittent fasting to lose 5 Lbs.

Have you looked at Every Other Day Diet? Lots of scientific evidence and it seems good for losing 5 pounds and keeping it off. I had no effect with IF, but my husband has - I think that he was eating less.

You said:

Fat loss is primarily governed by energy balance and not by the timing of your meals.

What this basically means is that your options are to increase energy output or decrease energy intake if you want to continue to lose weight.

ok..!
Yeah exactly what i thought.. and well if i try it.. i usually drop water and go back up.. i even tried doing some crazy 2 hour gym thing last year where i was literally spinning for 2 hours a day and doing light weights like crazy for 3 months and ditched the scale and calorie logging... only good food however. nothing crazy.. i ended up gaining like 15 lbs because i was like so hungry and probably was overeating.. so like i went back to calorie counting and dropped that 15 in a month. My friend however lost 15 lbs... same age etc.. same weight.. same issue.. but she did HARD CORE weights... so maybe thats it.. forget the cardio and focus on WEIGHTS???

Think you missed the point about energy balance - if you drop a high calorie burning activity (cardio exercise) and replace it with a relatively low calorie activity like weights you will be adjusting your calorie balance the wrong way to lose weight.

Calorie balance - for weight control
Cardio - fitness, heart
Weights - strength, body composition.

PS
And don't compare yourself to your friend, you don't know her calorie balance.

"What this basically means is that your options are to increase energy output or decrease energy intake if you want to continue to lose weight."

I think you missed his point as well.

"increase energy output" = burn more calories
"decrease energy intake" = eat less calories

How "good" or "healthy" you eat is not relevant *for pure weight loss* though obviously good for your health and you enjoy it. But to lose weight, you have to *eat* (intake) less than you *burn* (output). You can accomplish that by burning more or eating less or a combination.

Since you are in no hurry and want this to be permament, building muscle (ie weightlifting) would give you slower results (burns less that day than cardio) but means you have more muscle and your general energy output overall will become higher - meaning that over time you can eat the same calories and lose weight or eat more calories and maintain. Its the better long term solution than just losing 5 pounds as quickly as possible through high cardio (which you would have to continue) or lower food (again, have to continue).

NOTE there's a few typos still in here so if it reads badly sometimes, sorry.

I love posts like yours - ones that tell us everything we need to know and then have a clear question.

Anyway great job on keeping a good weight all these years. Personally i think you are better off staying right where you are if you don't want to start on the yo you dieting treadmill. However i will respond to the IF window idea and tell you what i would do to get the remaining weight if i were you. That said, i do not think you will be successful at keeping it off, though IF might help you there.

When i say IF it seems there are two types. One is a period of hours you can eat in the day and the other is fasting a couple of days a week only 500 calories. When i say IF, i'm only talking about the eating window. I know its confusing.

I don't think IF will help you lose the weight, unless you deliberately focus on cutting calories as well. The idea of an eating window to help you eat less and control your calorie intake. In itself it will not cause weightloss. In fact as you allude to, it might even slow it down. I think to keep the metabolise going strong throughout the day, you do need breakfast. So if you were to do IF, i'd suggest a big meal first off in the morning (which is hard, and one at the end of your eating window. I've done this for a month at monastery when we had to finish lunch before midday. However i would admit, i gained weight because i was eating a lot of dessert by the end of it. I actually think that a small window like that can lead to rebound eating when you stop doing it. Now i eat normally again but finish by 7pm at night. Its 11pm now and i'm a little hungry but i'm comfortable with this much hunger. Just need to drink some water until i get to bed.

What i am also trying is the weekly 2 day fast. If you keep strict control of your calories on the other days as well not to go up above 1500 you might slowly lose the weight. On the 2 day fasts you are supposed to eat 500 (according to the recommended plan) Im not able to stick with it that low, though i try. I will keep trying to do this and see how it goes for a few more weeks or as long as i can. I've got friends who don't do it lose weight but for other health reasons. And i find to kick start a diet, a short fast is useful.

But i don't know if that will help you get to your goal. It might do. I'm hoping it will help me get down to my goal weight too which is 135 or thereabouts.

What i know does work though is a ton of exercise in combination with a calorie controlled diet. But this is not reasonable for people who work I think. And so far i have never been able to keep it going after the exercise stops - which it always does. And i haven't been able to moderate my eating back to a sustainable level either. But you might find a way. I sometimes go on long cycling journeys with a loaded up bike. I ride all day. About 100km most days. When i do that i.e. eat three meals a day. I don't over eat. I eat LOW go foods and eat as healthy as possible. I got pretty skinny doing that. The main thing again is not to eat all your calories back. I wasn't counting calories when i did it but i couldn't go to shops so i was forced to eat well.

An alternative to cycling 100km a day might be running 1.5-2 hours most days. This will make you really tired, unless you eat more. It made me really tired. I was training for triathlon until i injured my knee and had to stop. I wasn't counting calories at the time but seemed to be able to not eat so much. I only ate healthy and was vegetarian at the time. I was in fitness junky mode. It was great.

This year i've gone off sugar too like you. Its great. I will do this for the rest of my life. So far, its over 7 months. But actually i do eat it some times in special circumstances (6 times this year). And now for the fun of it, i'm experimenting with sugar free desserts - just using fruit and dried fruit for sweetness but they can be high fat, so i still have to be careful there.


Whatever you decide to do, if you want to keep the weight off forever, it has to be a sustainable strategy - one that you can commit to doing forever, like you do when you quit smoking for example. ( i have found that using my quit smoking experience and strategies have helped with my quit sugar strategies). So try to work out some strategies that you can do forever but these will have to be either ways that enable you to eat fewer calories or burn more.

I do IF myself....16/8

But still, calories in vs calories out.....

regardless of when you eat them