Post
by Pointedstick » Sun Dec 17, 2023 1:24 pm
I found this thread a while ago and it inspired me to try to lose some weight. I wasn't overweight, but I was heavier than I wanted to be by about 15 pounds. In the past, I'd tried all sorts of diets and exercise regimes and nothing really worked, or I couldn't manage to keep it up. So inspired by the ideas in this thread, I decided to try something new, something nice and simple:
1. Skip breakfast
2. No snacking between meals
3. No sweets anymore
That was it. And the results have been great! Over the past 3 months I've lost 10 pounds and kept it off. #1 basically produces the effect of intermittent fasting, and #2 keeps insulin down to stay in a fat-burning state longer (If I'm understanding and remembering stuff I read earlier in the thread correctly). #3 has been the hard one for me because I really like sweets, and I do cheat a bit. I've noticed that when I don't cheat, I lose weight faster, but when I do, I still lose weight, just not as fast. So do I still let myself have some sweets from time to time.
Other than that, I impose no dietary restrictions; if I'm feeling famished by lunchtime, I eat a giant meal consisting of whatever the hell I want. Often this makes me not feel hungry by dinnertime, and in this case I either skip it or eat a very light dinner. By restricting food to mealtimes, I feel like my body has been sending me much clearer "I'm hungry" and "I'm full" signals now. I do still find myself getting hungry at breakfast time, but it feels easy to ignore since I have a hard-and-fast rule, and since breakfast is only a couple of hours before lunch, I can just look forward to a mouth-wateringly large and tasty lunch. I also don't have to exercise at all. I work from home and have a fairly sedentary lifestyle and am losing weight anyway. I love how easy it feels.
So thanks for the great ideas and discussion, everyone!