[NPV]

I've been very silent on this thread, but been reading and following it last couple of years. Having tasted some success, wanted to share my journey so far.

Originally Posted by rdst_1

I have lost weight and gained weight at least 5-6 times. Sometimes it was by gymming, one time it was by swimming, another time by following keto and just going for walks. Everytime the weight came back and more.
...
I still haven't started eating clean, but I don't want to rush into losing weight this time by making drastic changes.
...
My meals are all home cooked for now and like I have said, portion size has dropped so I am liking this structure for now.

I can relate with your situation very well!

Having failed numerous times (after the initial promises/trends) trying various "diets", exercise, even combining both I could not see sustained weight & inch loss. Over a period of 2 decades, I actually (slowly and steadily) went up from 74Kg to almost 88Kg and waist from 34" to 37". Few years ago, I'd even stopped having tea and coffee with sugar and reduced intake of sweets and despite that there wasn't too much change (the real culprit was the intake of carbs).

Around 15 months ago, inspired by this thread and after talking to one of the main contributors here, I ventured, albeit not very confidently into a regime slowly with small changes over a period of time (experiment for a few weeks first), then adopting the change as a lifestyle and then experimenting & adopting the next change. I have slowly, but steadily and sustainably lost weight to go down to around 75Kg and waist down to 33" now (better than 2 decades ago)

I first stopped exercise completely to prove to myself that the diet alone can help me lose weight. Did some experimentation with Keto (Vegetarian with alternate dishes different from what I've always had at home) and found it difficult so abandoned it and simply settled with our home made traditional vegetarian fare, just cut down on rice and wheat, reduced bread and other bakery stuff and sweets, cookies, biscuits.

Next, started 16:8, sometimes 18:6 IF, skipping breakfast 5 days a week and moving to low carb lunch (regular south indian veggie fare with very less rice/chappati) and dinner (salad with moderate cheese, olive oil, almonds/peanuts + soup/sauteed vegetables/sometimes light carb like 1 idly/dosa). During weekends, it would be 3 meals a day with reduced portions. Reduced eating out to just one meal a week.

Next, added a 20 minute treadmill routine and then increased it to 30 minutes after 3 months. After another month, just when this whole routine seemed to be the perfect whole 9 yards for me in this journey, the treadmill DC motor gave up and I quickly found a new, cheaper alternative - a brisk walk in the local park for 50 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of light exercises with the "outdoor gym" equipment, mostly calisthenics. Also added 15 minutes of light cardio and weight training exercises at home on alternate days with a pair of adjustable weight dumbbells.

This journey isn't over for me and it continues and I can see a lot of inch loss and stable weight now. Best part is I don't have to stop/start anything more, just need to continue doing what I'm doing.

[FrodoOfTheShire]

Originally Posted by graaja

Got a couple of 32" trousers today. Fitting into a 32" trouser after almost 22 years

That's the best reward of the entire weight loss and get fit journey!

Originally Posted by Sheel

I too ask a question - How do you think one becomes unfit?

Excellent question. I'll keep this in mind next time someone asks me how I got fit!

I do believe most people have some self awareness of how they put on weight and got unfit. Atleast most are aware they're overeating the wrong kind of foods with zero exercise but don't have enough motivation to change their lifestyle.

Originally Posted by graaja

Even if they continue their present workout load, when one gets older and develops insulin resistance, this will not work.

That's scary! So insulin resistance will anyways affect everyone with age even if they lead a proper lifestyle with the correct diet and exercise?

Originally Posted by GTO

Knowledge is very important.

So true! Now whenever someone seriously asks me for weight loss advice, I insist on sitting them down and explaining the science behind why IF and LCHF works, rather than just telling them what to do. Just blindly following some advice without understanding the science behind it would lead to people doing things half heartedly and/or giving up too soon.

Originally Posted by rdst_1

2 weeks ago, I started IF in 16:8. 4 days in, I added cycling on my indoor trainer to the list.

It's been a little more than 2 weeks now. I have progressed to 20:4 now. The thing that really amazes me is that my portion sizes have dropped as well. I don't feel the need to fill myself up to the brim when having the meal.

I still haven't started eating clean, but I don't want to rush into losing weight this time by making drastic changes.

Congratulations on starting the healthy lifestyle journey! Yes, IF does result in drop in portion size and feels lighter after every meal. We realise how much extra we were eating with every meal unnecessarily.

Once you settle into your IF routine, please do think about healthy eating as well. IF focuses on "when to eat". But we also need to focus on "what to eat", else IF wouldn't be fruitful if we eat unhealthy foods during the eating window. All the best for your journey and do share your progress!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by FrodoOfTheShire

That's scary! So insulin resistance will anyways affect everyone with age even if they lead a proper lifestyle with the correct diet and exercise?

Apologies if I conveyed the wrong meaning. If you lead a proper lifestyle, eat clean and keep insulin spikes controlled, you will not get insulin resistance. Insulin resistance develops only if your lifestyle results in constant spiking of insulin in your body.

That is why eating clean cannot be a "short term diet", but has to be a "long term lifestyle".

Hope I put your fear to rest

[FrodoOfTheShire]

Originally Posted by graaja

Apologies if I conveyed the wrong meaning. If you lead a proper lifestyle, eat clean and keep insulin spikes controlled, you will not get insulin resistance. Insulin resistance develops only if your lifestyle results in constant spiking of insulin in your body.

That is why eating clean cannot be a "short term diet", but has to be a "long term lifestyle".

Hope I put your fear to rest

Thanks for the clarification sir!

Absolutely agree about the long-term lifestyle. I have seen people claim they've reduced the amount of carbs, sugar and junk food but still eat them in reduced quantity almost daily. That wouldn't work so well since the carbs and sugar are still spiking insulin in every meal.

[bblost]

Asking for a friend

This Intermittent Fasting thing of say 16-8 or 20-4, should it be done daily or on alternate days?

Does it work if someone does it Monday to Friday and take the weekend easy without binge eating.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by bblost

This Intermittent Fasting thing of say 16-8 or 20-4, should it be done daily or on alternate days?

Does it work if someone does it Monday to Friday and take the weekend easy without binge eating.

There is no fixed formula to IF.

On the day you do IF, you get the benefit of autophagy and also fat burn. On the days you don't do IF, you will not get the benefit of autophagy, but if one still does not binge on junk food, it is not going to totally nullify the effects of the previous days of IF. But at the least, one should cut sugar to get the benefits of IF.

It also depends on the goal. If the person is overweight and wants to reduce a lot of weight, or wants to reverse diabetes, then strict 16:8 IF with no sugar and limiting carbs will be necessary. If the person is already healthy and just wants to take IF for it's health benefits, 5 days a week of 16:8 should be fine.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

Yes, I plan to track calories for the next couple of weeks.

I have been lazy and did not track the calories as planned. However, the weight loss has continued and I am now under 80kg. The weight loss is just enough to keep me interested, but not large enough to get me excited I will keep going until the end of December. I will probably have to track the calories closely over the rest of December as the weather might not permit much running.

[rdst_1]

Originally Posted by FrodoOfTheShire

Once you settle into your IF routine, please do think about healthy eating as well. IF focuses on "when to eat". But we also need to focus on "what to eat", else IF wouldn't be fruitful if we eat unhealthy foods during the eating window. All the best for your journey and do share your progress!

All my food is prepared at home. It's just that I haven't gone down with my carb intake, is what I meant when I said I don't eat clean. The thing is when I used to do keto or low carb, my protein intake used to increase which increased my uric acid levels. Also even IF supposedly puts a strain on uric acid levels as autophagy can increase the uric acid levels.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by bblost

Asking for a friend

This Intermittent Fasting thing of say 16-8 or 20-4, should it be done daily or on alternate days?

Does it work if someone does it Monday to Friday and take the weekend easy without binge eating.

I would put it this way, there will be weight loss, specially if the starting weight is higher than the ideal weight. However important is not to go overboard on cheat days and during the non fasting window.
After the initial rapid weight loss for those people who are way off their ideal weight, the drop will slow down and somewhere near the upper end of ideal weight band it may stop and will get into maintenance mode.
Any further reduction may need new additions like fasting all days or including OMAD or introducing work outs.

One good thing I like about IF other than the ease of following is that cheat days do not have that drastic effect on weight loss as compared to other dieting forms including Keto.

[shipnil]

I guess I'd be the only person going against the popular opinion on this thread related to IF.

I had reached my target weight long back (5'6" / 62kg). But I wanted to go lower to get rid of last layer of fat. Started IF 16/8 since March and continued it till November. The weight hardly moved. In fact I might have gained 1 kg by Diwali in October. Diwali added another kg. So the IF did not work in my case.

I suppose the results would differ from person to person and I think the results are best visible if someone is already overweight by a wide margin and just starting on IF.

I may do IF on few days here and there, but will not focus too much on it.

[FrodoOfTheShire]

Originally Posted by shipnil

I suppose the results would differ from person to person and I think the results are best visible if someone is already overweight by a wide margin and just starting on IF.

Yep, results are definitely unique to the person and we need to recognise what works best for us through some trial and error.

For me, it was a combination of IF, LCHF and mild exercise that worked. In 2 months I lost 10 kgs weight and 6" from the waist as documented in this post -
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...ml#post4690041 (The Weight Loss Thread)

Currently I have completed 3 months of IF LCHF lifestyle and seems like the weight has stabilized at 67-68 kgs with 32" waist. I still have fat to lose, so I have increased weight training a bit since I feel I can't go stricter on IF LCHF. Let's see how it pans out.

[Piyadassi]

Originally Posted by Piyadassi

"I am 49, 5.6 and have very bad genetics, both from paternal and maternal side. For the last three months have been eating a lot in an effort to increase both, the weight on my body and on the bar, and yet scale has barely moved up from 72.5 to 73.5 kg.

Almost three weeks into quasi-vegan diet. Along with one day of 24-hour fast once a week (take tea and coffee in between).

Am eating a lot and have discovered a mouth-relishing world of rotis/parathas/pooris made of a mixture of wheat, bajra and corn flours along with a variety of vegetables recipes. The best part is that our daughters are also loving it.

Weight which was stagnant at 73.5 kg has gone down to 72 (however, weight loss was not my goal). Tummy decreased a bit. And strength perhaps increased (1 rep deadlift increased from 125 to 130).

[graaja]

I believe IF and LCHF are very good tools for both weight loss and healthy living. I have been experimenting with various combinations of IF and LCHF (or Keto) to get into a sustainable lifestyle. Saw this interesting video of such a combination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BYvHgs-oww

This video is based on the book "What the Fast" and the speaker Dr. Caryn is one of the authors. They call this "Super-Fasting". The method they propose is:

1. 2 days a week will be one meal a day. This gives you the advantage of autophagy
2. 5 days a week will be LCHF. This keeps insulin levels in check and provides the health benefits of LCHF like keeping diabetes away and reducing the risk of lifestyle diseases like cardiovascular diseases, cancer (yes, there is lot of research there that show cancer is a lifestyle disease) and brain related diseases like Alzheimers, Demntia etc.
3. 3 meals a week can be cheat meals. This makes it sustainable as a lifestyle as you no longer need to be an outcast from society. You can enjoy those occasional slice of cake, bowl of ice-cream or that paratha.

Finished reading the book in one day

What the Fast



Image source: Amazon website.

[Piyadassi]

Originally Posted by graaja

I believe IF and LCHF are very good tools for both weight loss and healthy living.

I really look forward to reading your posts and congratulations on your journey towards transformation.

Went to the above doctor's website and found that her definition of LCHF is not how it conventionally understood. I even went to Google Baba in case I had misunderstood what LCHF and Keto stands for. Attaching the screenshot. It's there even on the book cover.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Piyadassi

I really look forward to reading your posts and congratulations on your journey towards transformation.

Went to the above doctor's website and found that her definition of LCHF is not how it conventionally understood. I even went to Google Baba in case I had misunderstood what LCHF and Keto stands for. Attaching the screenshot. It's there even on the book cover.

Thank you for the kind words

This is not a typo. This is how it LCHF is defined throughout the book as well. When I started reading the book, even I was surprised at the definition of LCHF as Low Carb Healthy Fat, whereas the commonly used definition is Low Carb High Fat.

But all the recipes and macro suggestions given in the book are in line with Low Carb High Fat (less than 100 grams of carbs and no grains). So, my guess is that this is to make it more healthy sounding, as high fat is still not accepted by most of the general population. They may get alarmed just by the name and may shy away from trying this.