Isn’t IF basically skipping breakfast/one meal a day?
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You can look at it that way. Or you can still have three meals and snacks, just in a set time window.
ETA: I still eat three meals a day.
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To the best of my knowledge, which ain’t saying much, there’s a benefit to people with Type 2 Diabetes, because IF lowers your insulin. Otherwise, the IF research is very mixed IMO.
Lots of guidelines out there. 
Getting off the couch and moving about is much better than doing nothing for sure. But as a society, we eat lot and we don’t exercise enough.
In terms of strength-based training, we should hit all the major muscle groups at least 1x week. The major muscle groups, IMO, are: chest, arms and shoulders, legs and butt, abdominals and back.
There are zillions of exercises out there, but I’m record here saying that the squat should be one exercise we always do each week. The squat covers core, back, legs, etc. The chest can be a bench, floor press, push-up activities. Overhead press, lat pulldowns, pullups, curls, etc. for arms and shoulders. Abs could be v-ups, hollow rocks, situps, etc. Just a few quick highlights.
What’s funny to me, being a gym goer all my life, and it’s a BIG generalization, is that most people fall into two basic categories: cardio only or strength only, for the most part. Sure, a few people do a little of the other group, but not enough IMO.
Ultimately, whatever you think you can do consistently each week is best for you.
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Intermittent fasting 16/8 works quite well for me. Just had my annual physical and Dr. Commented on my weight loss.
I have battled high LDL for years but with good ratio and good HDL I have been extremely resistant to statins.
Just got my lab work back. All numbers within normal range!!!
Love IF!!!
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My sister eats one meal a day around 6pm. She lost 23 lbs so far, but her BP is not going down from last time. But the fasting does help with weight loss.
I have a good friend who has found that her anxiety is greatly reduced when she follows an IF schedule (she eats between 2 and 6 pm.) She hasn’t lost weight and doesn’t really need to; for her it’s about keeping her blood sugars from spiking and dipping. She finds she is sleeping MUCH better at night and just feels better in general.
I did IF pre-covid and lost 24 pounds slowly, about 1.5 per month over 18 months. The key for me was staying focused on the plan which meant NO nibbling after dinner. And I ate less when I eliminated the morning meal. So few calories, and better about getting my exercise in and better about eating clean. Then covid hit and the plan was totally disrupted. Pandemic anxiety coinciding with some new medical anxiety plus daughter coming home to stay with us for 15 months and my eating habits were all shook up (plus far less exercise because I didn’t want to go to the gym.) Now the weight has come back. Thinking of starting back up, but will be mindful of combining it with muscle-building exercise. The gym membership has been re-opened!
I tried the kind where you eat within a window- mine was 11-5. I did it for around 2-3 months and didn’t lose any weight, even with daily exercise added in (nor did I lose inches or sizes or any of that). I’m fairly overweight, so I had high hopes, but no dice. I was often hungry after 5 too, which sucked. I don’t eat after 7 now, but otherwise gave up the fasting since I didn’t feel I was getting anything out of it.
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I am currently doing one meal a day - mostly low carb. I have struggled with weight loss but this is surprisingly easy. The one meal is standard size with plenty of veggies. I have lost 30 lbs in 10 weeks and feel like I am 17 again.
I was already biking to work daily (15 miles round trip) and do light weights.
For my body chemistry it works far better than anything I have ever tried. But your mileage may vary. And my bloodwork is good too.
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I had a friend (years before this became a fad) that had “fasting Mondays”. Didn’t eat on Monday except for water and ate whatever she wanted the rest of the week. She looked great and it obviously worked for her. Maintained her weight for years. But I think she ate pretty healthy anyways.
My motto is everything in moderation and that’s worked great for me.
I tend to have brunch (protein heavy) and be happy until dinner.
My husband has dropped 40 pounds or so over last several years and is keeping it off. Just a slow weight loss–very gradual. But a pound a month is 12 pounds a year. Moderation–eats everything he likes but just not huge amounts and exercises regularly. I will say our diet is probably healthier these days.
Before this he tried diets that worked great but the weight always came back (sometimes worse) the second it was stopped. Low fat, low carb–forget it. Not sustainable in the long run.
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So are you saying you are only eating one meal a day? It’s all relative of course to body weight but 3 pounds a week for several weeks is pretty fast weight loss…do you think you can maintain that?
To each his/her own I guess, but that sounds like food torture to/for me.
Food is a pleasure (for me). I get having to find a method that works for you. Balancing healthy foods and healthy quantity with room for splurges too.
I favor more intuitive and mindful eating. I don’t want a strict prescription not only for what to eat but HOW to eat.
One meal a day is surprisingly easy for me. I thought it would be so difficult. I enjoy food and do most of the cooking at pur house. I expected to be thinking about food a lot but just the opposite. No thinking about missing anything because I can always have it at dinner if I really want, but I don’t crave much of anything lately. Also I have so much more energy I am doing more and working on my job or on projects through lunch so I am not even thinking about food. I am much more mindful of my food this way than I was before with 3 meals a day.
I promised myself one month of one meal a day low carb then one month of non low carb meals. Well 10 weeks later it is so easy (for me) that have stuck with the low carb version and decided I would do 2 more months of low carb one meal a day with holiday meals off. I realize I could possibly do this for much longer. I will decide after New Years.
What I miss most is chai tea on weekend mornings. In January I might bring that back, at least for Sunday morning reading the paper.
But everyone is different and this is what works best for me.
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Here’s a great summary paper on the subject. It’s not just IF, but all diets and their relationship to longevity. It’s very hard to parse out whether it’s the window, or caloric restriction (CR). Kaeberlein says the evidence points to the most of the benefit being from CR. It’s very hard to do that research though to know for sure. If you want to get deep into the weeds, listen to Attia’s podcast with him. It’s episode #222. Their TL;DR: Exercise is way more important at preventing all cause mortality.
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I don’t know how one can maintain, let alone build, muscle as we age on one meal per day. Muscle loss is a real thing.
I’d think if one were sendentary, maybe 50-60 grams per day is what I would think as a bare minimum. And while you can eat 50-60 grams in one meal, I’d posit that’s not what I’d call a “standard meal.”
All I’ve got to say is to be careful with just one meal a day. Our bodies need various nutrients, vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, etc. every day.
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Episode #224 with Don Layman will answer that. The short answer is that you can’t.
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I was trying to be kind.
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BTW, I was going to mention this on the exercise thread, but I just had a Dexa scan done.
As an FYI, my weight has been VERY consistent for a long time. But over the past couple years I tried adding a little weight, then analyzed my body fat vs lean muscle mass. And more recently I lost a little weight and again analyzed my body fat versus lean muscle mass.
Well, while I reached my long time goal in terms of overall body fat %, yay!, I also lost a little lean muscle mass too. And I’ll tell ya, I’m a gym rat (and runner too) of the 1st kind, as some know here, so losing any lean muscle mass was a real disappointment for me.
Even though, overall, I’m at my lightest that I’ve ever been probably in my entire adult life, I’m disappointed. So, my question is, losing weight is wonderful thing, but how much muscle did you lose?
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That was just the TL;DR 
If you forward just past 1h19m in episode #224 of The Drive, they answer that question specifically. They advocate for 150g of protein a day once over 60. Don Layman, then states that we can only mobilize between 25-60g of protein towards muscle at one sitting. What happens with the single meal approach, especially as we age, is that we can lose weight, but much of it is from loss of lean muscle mass. We lose muscle mass as we age, no matter what we do. We certainly don’t want to accelerate that.
This is all just me parroting Don Layman, a well respected protein biochemist, and Peter Attia.
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If you’ve read my past posts over the years, then I’ve been a big proponent of what Don Layman has to say about protein and lean muscle mass, but without knowing who Don Layman actually is.
But my learning has come from being around the gym and reading about nutrition over the many years. I think most learned people in this area would recommend converting one’s body weight into kilograms and then eating anywhere from 1x-2x your bodyweight of protein (in kilograms).
So, a 150 lb person would eat, rounding, a 70-140 grams of protein. But if you’re 100 lbs, then a person should/could eat and process much less protein than someone at 150 lbs.
Personally, I actually aim for about 2x my bodyweight (in kgs) of protein.
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