As a teenager and twenty-something I just ate everything, all the time, and often far too much. I was thin so there was no issue. But one day I started to put the weight on, not much but it was there. Then I need some medication for something unrelated and the weight really went on.
Changing my eating habits was hard. I was so used to eating all the time that not eating for just two hours and I felt hungry when clearly I wasn't I was just used to it.
I spoke to my doctor who referred me to a specialist who instructed me to do time restricted eating for two months. It changed my relationship with food totally. I've never been one to sit and enjoy some fancy meal at a posh restaurant. I am a very basic person when it comes to food. But I ate too much and often very shitty food.
Restricting when I could eat was very hard for the first two-ish weeks but after that it was like flipping a switch. I didn't feel hungry anymore and when I sat to eat I ate normal amounts, not going back for a third or forth helping.
I am now down to a healthy weight, I almost never feel hungry (even after not eating for 20 hours I don't feel hungry I just know I should eat something) and I have more mental and physical energy than I have had for at least a decade. I am in my late 30s now and honestly wish I had started doing this years ago.
I don't know nor really care about the science behind it, sometimes ignorance is bliss and I actively avoid reading about "intermittent fasting" and such because there is a little industry popped up around it in recent years wanting to make money of it selling "exceptions" and such. As my doctor put it "you just don't eat between this time and this time, it isn't rocket science".
If you do try it I suggest you ignore all of the "science" online when you research it. You can have water, tea, and coffee (without milk) during your restricted eating window. You don't even need a fancy app just have a fixed start and end time and you're good to go, although you may find one helpful for the first month or so. After a while it became automatic for me so I don't bother with timers anymore.
It works for some and not for others like many things in life. If you need to lose weight I suggest you try it after having some blood work done to ensure you can do it safely. If it works awesome, if not then seek further guidance.
Don't start trying to find exceptions like diet soda (honestly that shit ain't good for you, cut it out of your life anyway with the exception of a glass of coke/pepsi when you go out for some fast food) or "bullet coffee". Just give it two weeks of water/tea/coffee and see how you get on.
I have settled on a 17h non-eating window so I generally eat between 1pm and 8pm each day. What I mean is that I have lunch around 1pm, usually something small to "break the fast". Maybe a little snack around 4 or 5pm and then dinner around 7:30-8pm then I start fasting after dinner until 1pm the next day.
I usually do this every day but if I am going out for a meal one evening I just give myself a day off, it isn't a big deal. I can make it up the next day if I wish or just forget about it that one day. I don't go out for meals late very often so it isn't something I worry about.
So often I hear people say "oh I couldn't do that, it would wreck my social life!". Honestly it has never been an issue for me. Just the other week I went out for a nice meal with some friends until around 3am so just decided not to bother fasting that (next) day. It isn't like "falling off the wagon". You just start again the next day and continue.
I don't calorie count per day but over a week. If I do go out and consume a bigger than normal meal I automatically adjust what I eat the rest of the week to keep my weekly calorie consumption roughly the same.
Like I said it isn't rocket science and I feel people really over think time restricted eating mostly because of all the crap in the media about it in recent years.
As a teenager and twenty-something I just ate everything, all the time, and often far too much. I was thin so there was no issue. But one day I started to put the weight on, not much but it was there. Then I need some medication for something unrelated and the weight really went on.
Changing my eating habits was hard. I was so used to eating all the time that not eating for just two hours and I felt hungry when clearly I wasn't I was just used to it.
I spoke to my doctor who referred me to a specialist who instructed me to do time restricted eating for two months. It changed my relationship with food totally. I've never been one to sit and enjoy some fancy meal at a posh restaurant. I am a very basic person when it comes to food. But I ate too much and often very shitty food.
Restricting when I could eat was very hard for the first two-ish weeks but after that it was like flipping a switch. I didn't feel hungry anymore and when I sat to eat I ate normal amounts, not going back for a third or forth helping.
I am now down to a healthy weight, I almost never feel hungry (even after not eating for 20 hours I don't feel hungry I just know I should eat something) and I have more mental and physical energy than I have had for at least a decade. I am in my late 30s now and honestly wish I had started doing this years ago.
I don't know nor really care about the science behind it, sometimes ignorance is bliss and I actively avoid reading about "intermittent fasting" and such because there is a little industry popped up around it in recent years wanting to make money of it selling "exceptions" and such. As my doctor put it "you just don't eat between this time and this time, it isn't rocket science".
If you do try it I suggest you ignore all of the "science" online when you research it. You can have water, tea, and coffee (without milk) during your restricted eating window. You don't even need a fancy app just have a fixed start and end time and you're good to go, although you may find one helpful for the first month or so. After a while it became automatic for me so I don't bother with timers anymore.
It works for some and not for others like many things in life. If you need to lose weight I suggest you try it after having some blood work done to ensure you can do it safely. If it works awesome, if not then seek further guidance.
Don't start trying to find exceptions like diet soda (honestly that shit ain't good for you, cut it out of your life anyway with the exception of a glass of coke/pepsi when you go out for some fast food) or "bullet coffee". Just give it two weeks of water/tea/coffee and see how you get on.
But don't feel bad if it isn't for you.