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Deepavali, deepavali. Going to be a challenge. So far it was easy to spurn sweets and chocolates because we weren't keeping anything at home. But now already the first batch of friends has come and deposited sweets. My wife and I are looking but not touching. I'm resisting by going to the mirror, staring at my midriff and shaming myself into compliance. How long will that be possible? Thankfully some other friends with kids are arriving for a few days from tomorrow, they'll finish whatever sweets we have at home! :)

Don't feel deprived, you may end up binging!
A little bit of an exception is fine during this festival time, so have tasting/smaller portions of sweets and give away/gift the rest to family, friends, children around :)

Happy Diwali!

Can someone confirm if SPROUTED MOONG DAL is low carb and their experience with it for weight loss?

Looks like this thread gone to snooze mode for some time.

Let me kick start it again.

I had tried LCHF+IF just before Covid first wave and managed to loose ~10Kg.
But due to WFH, and then changing job which was really hectic, I couldn't maintain a good health. Lost the interest in physical activities and became so lazy and inactive.

All these lead me to gain the weight back and associated physical problems like back pain, neck pain, joint pains etc.

Restarted my Diet back and started morning walk. Hoping to regain my shape back and having a healthy lifestyle

Current Weight : 94Kg
Height : 178cm
Diet : LCHF [trying to stick to 16:8 IF]
Activities : Walking + Body weight exercises at home

Keto/Intermittent fasting won't work long term for most folk.
These are akin to yo-yo diets and can never become part of daily lifestyle.

Eat to stay healthy and follow a sustainable nutrition plan.
Calories in and calories out. This is the only rule that works. We cannot break the rules of thermodynamics. You can yo-yo diet all you want, you'll even see some weight loss, but that would be mainly extra water, some fat and some muscle.
We don't want muscle loss.

Try to include low calorie dense food in your meals and do not cut out any food group. One need not calculate and maintain exact macros either. Just keep track of calories.
Just remember to enjoy what you eat. It's not a punishment! :)

And walk! 4 to 5km a day or more if possible. Steady state cardio doesn't affect joints either. Slowly, one can (and should) incorporate some strength/resistance training as well.

This way, you gain strength and muscle, lose weight and keep it that way! No need to start from scratch every quarter.

Sorry. A correction. If you consider these as diets to lose weight, you will gain all the weight back once you go back to your original lifestyle. After all that was the life style that made you unhealthy.

So, IF or low carb or Keto are all lifestyles that need to be followed for life. I have been doing IF for 4 years now and it has become my lifestyle.

Like I mentioned above, do not consider IF as a diet to lose weight. Instead you should consider it as a lifestyle change for a healthy life forever. All the best with your health and fitness journey.

As I clearly mentioned, IF is not sustained long term by most people.
They gain everything back.

And if we look at the basics, IF incorporates the rule of calorie deficit only, just that you fast for certain amount of time between meals.
I for instance, get killed by Ghrelin if I don't eat for 7-8 hours. So, it's a no no for me.

Good for you to be able to maintain this lifestyle and if the bloodwork shows nothing out of order over these many years! :Cheering:

I find having a calorie deficit while still eating lovely meals the way to go for most people, who otherwise think weight loss is a difficult journey.

I have been doing IF for 2+ years (Not LCHF). The only issue I have faced is convincing the family that it is not ruining my health. Lost 14kg since I started (but yes, have plateaued in the past 1 year) Even if I cannot fast for a few days at a stretch, it's not as if I start gaining weight. It stays steady. I am not on full fledged LCHF but since I don't have 1 meal a day, it helps me pick and choose the best stuff to keep the carb intake low.

This is easier said than done with just portion control. I can't imagine how I would feel not being full after a meal. No wonder people gain their weight back.

It has been easier to just fast for 1 meal and then eat what I want till I am full. Easiest way to be in calorie deficit.

Agree. Many people do not sustain IF. IMHO, the reason is that they start IF with a mind set of using it to loose weight. When they make up their mind that this is a good lifestyle and believe in that lifestyle, they can easily sustain for life.

Even calorie restriction has the same drawback. Unless you have a good control of what you eat and how much you eat (which mostly requires some form of calorie counting), there is a chance of under eating or over eating. And calorie counting is also not sustainable for life as people tend to get bored and drop out. Also, with calorie restriction, as one becomes older and with decreasing metabolism and increasing insulin resistance, one has to constantly adjust the calorie intake which again is not possible for most.

Yes. IF also provides calorie deficit. But it is different from 3 to 5 calorie restricted meals in the way it regulates insulin which triggers hunger. With IF, hunger pangs are in good control.

Ghrelin responds long term stimuli. It takes a couple of weeks (or maybe 4) to deprogram Ghrelin. So give it a try for a couple of weeks and then see. This is from my personal experience and from the experience of many friends who changed to IF as a lifestyle.

With Keto or LCHF, there are lots of restrictions. But with IF, there is no need to sacrifice any food groups. One just needs to follow moderation.

Finally, IF is nothing special. It is in fact the way of life of our ancestors and still many in villages. For example, in villages, most people eat only 2 meals a day. And they are strong and healthy even at 60. During my recent road trip to Meghalaya, I spoke to a few villagers and they too follow the 2 meal a day lifestyle and I could not find one single case of obesity in these villages.

My intent is not to argue with your concept of calorie restriction. Yes. Calorie restriction works. But beyond some point it stops working. As long as it works for you, there is nothing wrong in following this lifestyle.

As long as you are able to maintain your health and fitness, it does not matter what path you choose :thumbs up :)

Calorie deficit doesn't mean you eat whatever you want to. You cannot eat 2000 calories just in fat for instance!

But, you can eat low calorie dense foods, with enough protein and other macros, but fat.

For example, french toasts in just egg whites. Separate the yolk out. Mix few berries or bananas. You can have as many as 6-8 breads with the above and it really fills your stomach. Calorie wise, not much. Fat wise, not much either.

Then again, for lunch, never go chicken-brocoli-rice, as that can't be sustained.
I have up to 2 small cups of rice (uncooked), a mix of all sorts of veggies/non veg (either) with pulses for lunch. Again, not a lot of calories.

If I have extra from the day, I use same foods for dinner (I eat by 8 PM at most), or if in a really good mood, then chicken base pizza it is! At times, protein ice cream before hitting the bed.

I actually never suffer in terms of food. I love everything I eat, just optimized. Also, I don't completely avoid samosas/momos/jalebis either. Just control how many to eat.

I merely reduced oil by say 30% (going by the ration figures), replaced sugar with sugar free powder (not for tea, but kheer, sewai etc) and made the above changes along with strength training.

I have lost 13 kg in 7.5 months (about 1.5 kg per month) while having gained 700g-800g muscle (varies across different machines).

My target is reducing fat and not losing on muscle.

If you really want some recipes on low calorie dense food, you can look at greg Doucette (be warned, he is a bit loud), Simon Miller, Johnny Shreve and Chris Heria (from the world of Kalisthenics).

I managed to get a few diets in full by watching their youtube channels and I have absolutely loved the journey. My HDL/LDL are in super good condition now, my heart is probably in a much better condition because of 5-6 km walks daily and I feel less tired everyday.

This is something I can sustain. Many more can too, as I see around me, who took the journey along with me.

I absolutely agree with the overall theme of discussion here. I tried intermittent fasting, but couldn't sustain it. And yes, I completely blame my own lifestyle for it. It wasn't happening for me and I wasn't liking it.

Also, I don't work as hard as villagers do, on a daily basis, at least physically.

Hence I opted for the longer route, which takes probably a bit longer to reach your desired weight range and then stay there/build from there and hurts way less and something I can happily follow.

My only point is that, we, in the pursuit of health and fitness, forget health (the 1st word) and only try to work on fitness and hurt ourselves by doing things in a way they weren't meant to be done in.
Health is wealth and if IF works in the long term for everyone, so be it. In my (family's) case, IF couldn't be sustained.

In my case, there are no ifs and buts with IF. I am a living example of the effectiveness of this method in losing weight and maintaining it at one's desired level.

The arrow in the below picture points out the number of days since I started tracking my IF and daily activities. I actually began a tad earlier but didn't record the initial period. As can be seen there, I have been on this path for the past 1060 days - almost 3 years; and I plan to stay on the path as long as I can.



IF is accompanied by at least 10,000 steps per day for the entire duration - firm, purposeful, brisk, sweat inducing steps. These, and a controlled sugar intake have helped me stay in shape and health.

I am no graaja in either physical ability or accomplishment, but I can proudly say that inspired by him and many others in this very thread, I have managed not to stray off my intended weight point even once.

I will plainly admit that LCHF and Keto aren't my kind of diets, practically or financially. So, IF is my lifestyle now; hope it will remain so in the future too.

Sure,
I'm considering IF+Keto(16:8) as a starting 'motivator' and to shed some weight.

Past 1-2 years, due to job related stress, I used to eat at night 12/1pm etc and having breakfast again at 8am.

I aim to correct my eating habits by forcing 16:8 and slowly switching to more relaxed eating habits. (Not exact Keto but a low carb diet), with restriction on timings.

Dietary fat does not lead to obesity and health issues, but carbs do. That misinformation about dietary fat being bad for health has been proved wrong.


Note: The left image is from 1984 (overwritten by TBHP watermark)

That french toast with just egg whites and having as many as 6-8 breads is a completely wrong approach to diet. You are cutting out the good stuff which is dietary fat and increasing the bad stuff which is carbs. I am not saying don't have bread. Have the eggs with the yolk and reduce a couple of breads in that place. If you are talking about a balanced diet with all the macros, keep the carbs in moderation.

And this "high carbs, low fat, calorie counting and regular exercise" routine will work when one is young. But once one hits their 40's this method will lose its effectivity. If one is in 40's and is already in bad health, this method will not help at all.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the IF lifestyle. You are a good motivation for others who have doubts about the long term effectivity of this lifestyle. Keep motivating.

Yes. Keto and LCHF are a little difficult to adapt as a lifestyle especially with our standard food habits. That is where IF shines.

I usually suggest Keto and LCHF with IF for advanced cases of obesity and diabetes. If one is already healthy or have reached their goal, IF as a lifestyle is enough to maintain health.

That is a good approach. Use Keto+IF for a few months to shed the initial weight and once you reach your goal, you can switch to maintenance mode with IF + moderate carbs and the occasional cheat meals.

Setbacks are a part of this journey. We fall to rise. I am sure you will be back in track in no time. Good luck.

On the contrary, Intermittent fasting as lifestyle is the only strategy that works for most people without too much of a workout/exercise dependent regime. Weight loss becomes sustainable when intermittent fasting is adopted as a lifestyle and is quite forgiving despite the odd carb based (cheat) meal.

Just read up posts on this thread over the last few years and you will find enough real world, first hand experiences and testimonials overwhelmingly in favour of Intermittent fasting :)

I understand your point of view. Probably you a meant diet based life style is difficult to sustain. And I agree to that. The absence or lack of diet (or for that matter food being more apt) is actually much easier to sustain.