Intermittent Fasting

I seem to naturally gravitate towards an IF way of eating.... I prefer to skip breakfast first thing, and don't normally get the opportunity to eat until 1ish. I like eating at night more, so it works for me - I can easily have a big dinner and dessert within my cals.

I've eaten this way to lose, maintain and purposefully gain. It's not a magical way to lose weight, but you may find it helps you stick to your calorie goal more easily.

Was reading up on fasting, because a coworker of mine does it, and it seems best paired with keto diets--i.e., a great way to lose weight short-term, but not necessarily smart long-term. For a keto diet, you effectively clear carbs and sugars from your diet (you consume so few you might as well be clearing them tbh) so your body starts targeting fats. If you eat protein and fat almost exclusively, your body becomes an expert in breaking fats down, the idea being it will target YOUR fat while it operates in a state referred to as ketosis. Cheat days for people on keto diets REALLY set them back, so a day of fasting after a cheat day is a faster way to get the carbs out of your system and get your body back to targeting fats.

Outside of that, you don't need to fast to "detox," there are no amazing health benefits of fasting, the purpose it serves is really, like others say, to cut calories. If anything, fasting--especially for extended periods--slows your metabolism and puts you in starvation mode, making it harder to lose weight as your body clings to any nutrients it gets. I'm a huge fan of "everything in moderation," aka attempting a balanced diet, for this reason. For me, that means eating the 4-6 small meals a day. For some, it means eating between noon and 8:00 pm. For others, it means eating a couple large meals a day. You do you.

Sidenote: the reason I don't promote keto as a long-term diet is because a diet too rich in protein and fat will inevitably lead to some health issues, like gout or high cholesterol.