303abuser Anything with lower calories is effective. There was a guy who ate McDonald’s every day in a calorie deficit and got lean. Obviously not healthy. Carbs and fats don’t have anything to do with it bar some considerations with thermogenesis, but the overriding factor is calories in/out.
Mental and Physical health hacks, resources and advice
Intermittent fasting is amazing if you don’t look at it as some quick fix diet hack, but approach it as a permanent lifestyle change. I find 16:8 easy, it’s mostly about skipping a meal (breakfast for me), getting your exercise in towards the end of the fast, avoiding late night snacking, and not binge eating in the 8 hour eating window. The changes were instant for me. I’ve pushed to 22 hours a couple of times, but that’s been a bit intense.
I’d also eat a dessert a day, after dinner or lunch. It was a shitty craving I had for years, this need to end every meal with something sweet. My friend got me on to these natural protein/energy bars: https://thewholetruthfoods.com/ And I’ve become huge a convert. For years I hated protein bars, they’re chalky af, taste ridiculously artificial, and generally aren’t very easy on teeth. Hated it. But these are different, they’re delicious and healthy. Sometimes I’ll have one for a meal replacement because they keep me so full. If you can find the equivalent in your country, it’s worth adding it to your diet. I’ll do a dessert once a week now, but now some of my favourites (Magnolia’s banana pudding & their apple crumble bars) are starting to feel “too sweet”.
Over the last year I’ve discovered the magic of Isabgol (psyllium husk) and that’s also something that has changed my life. It helps cut out hunger pangs because it expands in your stomach and it helps digest everything you eat with absolute ease. One glass of water with a couple of tea spoons just before you start your fasting works wonders. If you’re a heavy meat eater without too much vegetable or fruit in your diet, you should definitely start this. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/food-news/what-is-isabgol-and-why-you-must-start-adding-it-in-your-food-now/photostory/68186496.cms?picid=68186513
Hardly the right person for this kind of stuff, being overweight most of my life, prone to minor bouts of anxiety & unnecessary work stress over the small things. Also a daily pot smoker. But I’ve been 115+ kgs plus twice in my life and I’ve managed to knock out 10+ kgs within three months of intermittent fasting+daily exercise+cutting out refined sugar.
One more thing that has been immensely helpful is the Apple Watch. I guess it could be any fitness tracker tbf. But those fucking rings on the Apple Watch and all the gamification around fitness on the app has really helped keep me consistently active (of course playing two sports I enjoy has also played a huge role in this). Set yourself a calorie burn goal, an exercise goal, and that pesky stand goal too, and just make sure you close those rings daily and you will definitely feel a difference.
A 10K daily step goal also goes a long way. India there is no walking culture because a walk in a metro means avoiding shitty pot holes everywhere, getting run over by some sort of vehicle, and breathing a shit load of dust and pollution. In places like Europe, Canada, US - I feel like you have no excuse… it’s a pleasure taking daily strolls in those countries. I’m fairly lucky to live in a gated community with stellar garden, landscaping maintenance, love my daily 4K walks with a solid podcast.
Essentially what you need is a 7-day cycle of:
Friday: KITCHEN SINKING
Saturday: WRECKING BALL PROG
Sunday: BROCCOLI
Monday: A MARATHON
Tuesday: OFF THE CHAIN BANTS
Wednesday: 5-A-SIDE USING A SWEET LEFT PEG
Thursday: PIZZA SANS CHEESE
rhouses yeah I have a Fitbit - monitoring steps, heart rate and sleep is something I find really useful and helps keep me motivated. One other thing I’ll do when stressed is meditate - the Fitbit enables me to see my heart rate coming by down and, again, I find that motivating.
I do 20k plus steps a day… walk from Waterloo to the City along Southbank - a great walk… and those large number of steps keep me very fit.. pretty sure that’s great for mental health too.
This thread has become ever so slightly competitive
Some very active people on here, that’s the way to do it 
And everyday: SUAVING THE DORISES
Millsy I train fasted all the time. Keeps the weight down for definite and really helps longer endurance stuff as you’ve already adapted to using fat as an energy source
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I found that as I got older, the normal calorie restricted diet and exercise didn’t work for me.
I started doing keto about 2-3 yrs ago with IF (because the two diets worked so well together). I stuck to keto pretty well and ramped up the IF quite rapidly. I probably lost about 2 stone initially, but had a setback and seemed to plateau after that and couldn’t shift any more weight. I originally started doing 16:8 but that didn’t produce any results and settled on one meal a day (OMAD) for a long time but the weight just didn’t shift after the initial weight loss. I did a few 3 day fasts in the early stages but found that I couldn’t do them regularly as they were difficult to do as I cook all the food in our house. It also seemed to affect doing exercise on a regular basis because of the fasting and lacking energy (although I was doing some running and HIIT sessions). Overall though, I got to the point where I felt like nothing I was doing was producing results.
I’m still on a low carb diet (trying to veer towards clean keto to keep the calories down), but have pretty much ditched IF and have tried to focus more on resistance training and walking regularly.
There seems to have been a shift in thinking from HIIT sessions being the in vogue thing to do where it is now back to steady state cardio. I’ve seen lots of YT videos on the benefits of walking. Personally, when I did a HIIT session, I might need 2-3 days to recover (or I would get ill from it which was even worse), which then limits the amount of exercise I can accomplish in a week, so I’m now trying to do little and often - either weights (to build lean muscle) or walking most days but not to excess so I can do it on a consistent basis.
I wonder if part of the problem with the keto/IF diet for me personally is whether my body reacted by slowing down my metabolism to counter the quite drastic changes that I made or other mechanisms that the body employs. It might have been that gradually building up to it would have been a better option. The problem with keto and IF as I see it as they are quite binary – you are either in ketosis or you aren’t and you are either fasting or you aren’t which doesn’t give you much latitude.
BlainSA that’s partially true, but with keto (n=1), i can eat more calories than on a high carb diet and lose more weight. calories in-calories out is a good guide, but it’s not the entire picture
and when it comes to fasting, it’s unquestionably easier for me when my carbs are low, i just don’t get hungry and my blood sugar is significantly more stable. it also depends on how your body processes carbs. i did blood sugar testing for several months (baseline, 1 hr post meal, and 3 hours post meal) and i discovered that i can handle bread significantly better than potatoes, as one example. my wife is the opposite, so it’s never a one size fits all solution or strategy.
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303abuser None of what I’ve said is wrong. The caloric in and out is the overriding factor whether you’re in fat burning mode or not.
whatever Yes, metabolic changes as a result of fasting do happen. That’s why it’s good to measure your caloric intake to make sure the deficit is not too much and you avoid starvation mode.
whatever The problem with keto and IF as I see it as they are quite binary – you are either in ketosis or you aren’t and you are either fasting or you aren’t which doesn’t give you much latitude.
that’s only true at the beginning. it took me a couple of years, but i’m pretty much completely metabolically flexible now. i can get all the energy i need from either carbs or fat, while maintaining my weight. i feel a lot better when i’m keeping carbs under 30 grams/day, but there’s something to be said for enjoying eating and not burning out on a certain diet too. now it’s 5-6 days a week keto and 1-2 where i just don’t worry about it too much and that works because of the volume of exercise i normally do.
BlainSA for sure. i always try to make sure people understand i’m only talking about my own experience and that everyone can react differently to the same diet/routine. i’ve done a lot of reading and my wife is always on top of this stuff (she’s got a wholistic nutrient certificate along with being a pharmacist), but i’m not an expert.