When I decided to lose some weight, I just made an effort to eat less than I normally would, but didn't change the food except limiting booze and fizzy/juice to once a week. I slowly reduced the size of meals over time and reduced snacks with no clear framework. That worked for a while, but eventually I settled into a new weight that was still higher than I'd like.

At the time I was reading on reddit about intermittent fasting. There were lots of different structures people followed, and I came up with my own (I have no idea if this still counts).

I eat nothing before 12 noon. No breakfast, no snacks, only water and coffee. After 12 I limit food to what I would have eaten before (i.e. don't eat more because you're hungry from not eating breakfast). I was hungry at first, but my body no longer expects food at that time.

I aim for just 6 days per week, though typically do 7. But won't turn down brunch just because of this. It's a system designed not to punish me for being good.

Overall I lost about 15kg which put me at a weight I was happy with, and that took about a year all up (this was last year). I still don't eat before 12 but I'm not trying to lose any more weight (I am trying to get more excercise though, but that's a seperate thing).

[–] sortofblue 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've made up my own half-assed fasting as well but I'm still getting used to it so I'm sitting at 14 hours (nothing between 8pm and 10am except for coffee, which I can't quite give up). I drink flat whites so it's not 'proper' fasting but I figure it took a lot time to put the weight so it'll take a long time to adjust to losing it too. I'm using the Lose It app too, since it's got a heap of kiwi foods already loaded and it's not drowning in ads and subscriptions like MyFitnessPal.

15kg is a great effort! Did it take you long to stop feeling hungry?

[–] Dave 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My inial plan was to reduce food so I wasn't feeling full or hungry.

After starting to skip food in the mornig I remember a couple of weeks when I felt hungry in the morning, sometimes very. But I had my plan and stuck to it, drinking water or coffee when I felt hungry.

Eventually my body adjusted and now I feel full a lot sooner, and my body doesn't handle junk food quite so well. But I generally don't get hungry in the mornings. Interestingly if I eat in the morning (say, brunch), I'll feel hungry at that time the next day.