Some were hoping for a joke, but this instead is real.
Anyone struggling to lose weight, the solution is fairly easy, does not cost any money, takes no extra effort, no exercise needed, and does not change your diet.
I know it is going to sound like a trick or hoax or a lie or a scam. Nope, none of those. It is just pure truth that you may not have heard of, or may not have known actually works. That is why I am here, right now, telling YOU about it. If you are overweight or obese, this will change your life!
I only found out about this, myself, this year. I've tried different things before, reducing calories, exercising, and have lost weight before only to regain it. So while there may be other ways to get weight down for a while, the other methods are extremely difficult to do, and even more difficult to stay with, and the weight tends to come back with them. But in this very next paragraph, I'm going to tell you the solution!
Intermittent Fasting (IF). Sometimes just called fasting. Or can be called time restricted eating (TRE). A version of it, which I have worked up to, is called one meal a day (OMAD). They are all the same thing, but versions vary in length of the fast (how many hours you don't eat), and in the length of the eating window (how many hours you do eat). When you fast, your window is said to be closed. When you eat, your window is said to be open. Many people start with 18 hours fasting, followed by 6 hours eating. That is called 18:6. Or also written as 18/6. There are many common lengths, such as 16/8, 20/4, and 23/1.
What is the whole point of this and why does it matter WHEN you eat? The point is only to lengthen the time that you DON'T eat. That is the important part of the equation, and is called the "fast".
There is something special about the fast. Actual physiological things that can happen in your body while fasting, that cannot happen (or are less likely to happen) when you eat. In fact the difference between fasting and eating is so important that even a tiny bit of eating can "break the fast." The fast has to be clean, without food, for it to work. Food, whether solid or liquid, calorie or no calorie, can break the fast. Water is ok. Arguments start over what is ok and what isn't, as far as not breaking the fast. It may vary based on how your body reacts to a tiny bit of food or taste. Generally agreed that water is ok, but no flavoring at all. Plain back coffee, no flavoring, is ok. Plain tea, no flavors, no flavoring at all, is ok. Salt is ok. End of list.
When your eating window is open, anything is ok. ANYTHING. When you are not in the fast, then you can eat or drink whatever you want.
What is so special about the fast? When you fast, your insulin stays low. That means you are not storing fat. If you are overweight or obese, it is highly likely that your body finds it very difficult to get access to your stored fat for use as fuel. Insulin helps the processes that store fat, but inhibit the processes that access stored fat to use as fuel for energy.
The common theme with fat people, old and young, is high insulin. Eating activates the insulin, keeps it high. For people who are not obese, that may not be a problem. Insulin is not bad, it is needed. But eating too often, and eating too much, and eating too much high sugar foods have all combined to create the problem of insulin resistance in many people, most obese people. Their bodies keep sending more and more insulin to try and store more fat. Even as the individual feels hungry and weak, the body is fat and still trying to store more fat.
The solution is fasting.
But won't you get hungry? At first, yes. But the hunger does not keep increasing. The hunger you feel when dinner is late and you are "starving," is already about the max of that feeling. And, what you will find hard to believe, your hunger actually decreases when you fast. The more you fast, the more the hunger decreases. I fast daily with no hunger at all anymore.
At first, the idea of going 18 hours a day without food seems impossible. But what will happen is after a week you will start to get used to it. After two weeks, your body will have reduced dependence upon glucose and glycogen stores, and will begin to use ketosis. This part is very similar to the keto diet, but does not need a specific diet. Fasting gives you the same results (plus more) as the keto diet, but without having to be on a diet. Fasting is not dependent upon what you eat, but rather when you eat. Fasting not only lowers insulin, but allows other healing inside the body, with what is called autophagy. So it has benefits beyond the keto diet, and allows you to eat whatever you want.
Can you really eat whatever you want? Yes. But doesn't weight loss depend on eating fewer calories, as expressed by calories in vs calories out? Yes, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn or crap, that is true. But you aren't eating any calories at all during the fast. At the same time, if your body needs energy, it takes calories from your stored fat.
Won't you just overeat during your eating window? That is possible, esecially at first. But after you've been fasting for a few weeks, and your body has gotten used to switching to ketosis to burn stored fat, your hunger will decrease and you will get full quick. Overall, by adjusting the length of your eating window, you will not be eating as much as you are now.
Won't my metabolism drop if I don't eat? No, this is not starvation. You are eating every day until you feel full. But by fasting for 18 to 23 hours each day, you are allowing your body to access stored fat. Those fat calories are being used by your metabolism, as well as the calories you eat.
I fast 23 hours every day. It is easy. I don't get hungry. I eat whatever I want. I don't have to exercise. I do things I like to do, for the fun of it. As a result, I have lost 50 pounds in 6 months. 50 pounds by doing nothing!
During the fast, I do not get weak. My energy actually increases. The body in ketosis is breaking down stored fat and using it as fuel. The energy is virtually unlimited (as long as you have fat to burn). After eating a meal, the ketosis stops immediately and the body burns fuel from the meal, using glucose like normal. But then about 15 hours later, because of fasting, the body switches back to ketosis and fat burning.
This is sustainable and natural. We evolved for times of feast or famine. Food, when available, allows storing fat. When food is not available, then the stored fat is used for energy. The problem we have in modern times, is all the free time to eat, all the high sugar foods, and having a grocery store or restaurant on every corner. There isn't much down time. One has to purposely decide to fast.
How about just reducing the size of meals, but still eating 3 a day? That might work for some. But once someone has insulin resistance and is overweight or obese, it is likely that reducing calories, but still eating frequent meals, ends up increasing hunger because the body has a difficult time accessing stored fat until the insulin is reduced. The whole point of fasting is to reduce the insulin for much of the day. That is why it works, and why hunger is reduced and energy is increased. Eating 3 times a day messes that up, even if low calorie, even if no calorie artificial flavor, even if no calorie natural flavor. What can work, as I already mentioned, is a keto diet (because it keeps insulin low). But then you have to stay on the keto diet (to keep insulin low). Where as with fasting, you can eat anything.
Exercise can work, too. Go ahead and do that if you want. But if you can't exercise enough to compensate for your eating, it may be difficult to keep the weight off. Age or injuries can make that difficult. But otherwise, yes, exercise is a fine way to keep fat off.
Fasting can be done by itself. Or it can be combined with anything. Fast and be keto if you want. Or fast and be vegan. Or fast and exercise. Or fast and just be low carb. Or fast and be high carb. All of those will give slightly different results as desired. But fasting, by itself, absent any other strategy, will work, too.
One note, if you are on medicine and decide to start fasting, your medicine may need to be adjusted by your doctor. Some people report that their medicine got reduced eventually (depending on what it is).
