Keto, lo carb, intermittent fasting? Both? All? exercise? What do you recommend?

Sorry, I just saw this...wait, was it to me? Anyway, yea I tried in the past and it might help me be accountable and feel too guilty to snack extra, but...sadly i've been too lazy lately, plus i'm tracking like every other thing in my life so one more thing might just drive me crazy. It's a good idea though. I might get there if the fasting doesn't work. So far though I've lost 2lbs in 2 weeks. I need to keep it off now!

Hey @StreetcarBlanche how does intermittent fasting work for you? How do you do it?

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Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche I lost weight last year with intermittent fasting. My doctor told me that it works and it does. No dieting required. Just eat at scheduled times every day and the weight sloughs off over time. I lost 50 pounds doing that.

Hey @StreetcarBlanche I just saw your PDF. Do you break up the 8 hours? Or is it straight 16 hours of fasting and 8 of eating? I am super hungry in the morning but during the day I manage well until dinner time. I am not much of a snacker unless I get into that grazing phase.

Hey sarah!

Intermittent 16/8 fasting goes like the PDF. If you want to eat between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., you do. But you won't eat after 3 p.m. until 7 a.m. the next morning. Because you eat for 8 hours, then stop eating for 16 hours. That's the easiest schedule -- at least it was for me.

You can alter your 8 hour schedule too, depending on when you want to start/stop eating.

For example, you could start eating at 8 a.m. and have your dinner at 5 p.m. and stop eating after that until 8 a.m. the next morning. Or, you could start eating at 10 a.m. and eat your dinner at 6 p.m. and stop eating after that.

I skipped food at breakfast time and drank decaf coffee or herbal tea. Then I started eating lunch at 11 a.m. and eat dinner at 6 or 6:30 pm and stopped eating totally by 7 p.m. then I "fasted" until 11 a.m. the next day.

I did it for a year and it worked. I also didn't just eat 2 meals between 11 and 6. I ate about 4 small mini meals. Sort of like, snacks on steroids, because they were small and spaced out food portions.

It also helped me avoid my typical gastritis (i.e. stomach flu) caused by inflammation from high processed carb foods (bakery items) because I stopped eating those. I've been eating bakery items galore for 7 months now, so now I have gastritis bouts more frequently. (Ah, depression. It sucks.)

I didn't eat bakery items for a year -- that means, no processed cakes, muffins, or bread (for lunch, it was salad w/chicken and strawberries w/italian dressing). I also didn't eat any pasta (it gives me gas so I avoid it at all costs). I ate rice and veggies, humus w/veggies. Sometimes I cheated and snacked on humus w/pretzels (pretzels are processed but hey, I still lost 50 pounds!).

I ate a lot of popcorn (yum), sometimes salmon. Sometimes chicken. Lots of eggs (good source of vitamin B). I avoided the bad stuff (bakery goods, pasta, processed meats like salami, oh god was that difficult because I LOVE DRY SALAMI).

All the foods that inflamed my gut and made me fat and feel bad, I avoided for a year by fasting this way. Having my doctor be my support system kept me going. I could cry about how much I missed my favorite salty salami, or missed eating cereal with milk or a bowl of fruit for breakfast, and be encouraged to keep going.

As long as you choose the 8 hour window when you know you have to eat, but can easily stop eating and "fast" for the 16 remaining hours until your 8 hour window starts up again, then you've got it down.

Intermittent Fasting 101 — The Ultimate Beginner'''s Guide

I fell off the intermittent fasting wagon this summer w/my mother's nursing home transition and everything that's happened since then. So, I need to get back on it and do it again. No excuses. That's the hard part -- the excuses.