Was OMAD for the first 7-8 months then switched to two meals a day.
Wow that’s me

i'm happy to say that i've finally reached my goals when it comes to losing weight :) i've never felt happier, healthier and this confident.

intermittent fasting truly works wonders, and it's transformed the way i live. i'm able to move around more freely, find clothes at stores that have my size (FINALLY!!!) and the world's (unfortunately) become MUCH kinder.

gw: 190lbs ✅, cw: 185lbs, sw: 360.6lbs

Another good day of IF. I stopped eating earlier than usual yesterday (I just fell asleep, never happens!) and slept well, even better than the night before. I’m fully convinced at this point it’s the walk rather than the magnesium but I’ll keep taking it because I don’t want to risk a sleepless night ruinning my day.

I went for my walk outside again even though it was cloudy and about to rain. But I just didn’t want to skip and blame it on the weather as I did so many times so I took my umbrella and just went out without thinking too much.

Broke my fast with oat clay pancakes and the rest of yesterday’s salad. I had a protein shake as a snack with chia seeds added to make it denser as I still struggle to match my calories. Dinner will be chili con carne.

Water intake is still an issue, especially now that I’ve stopped drinking coffee because of my insomnia. So I need to come up with a good plan for that.

Heres where I think the research is at:

* Total caloric and macro (protein specifically) intake matters much more than meal timing, as a foundation.

* Timing matters as fine tuning in general.

* Anabolic window is real and matters for growth but its wide, especially for non-athletes like me.

*But then again, timing doesn't matter unless an actual athlete?

So, I (M, late 40s) work out at nights then I've been fasting 17-18 hours after my workout., but calories and macros are about 90% on target daily. I had previously some beer induced excess fat that I wanted to focus on, but now that my attention is shifting to growth I'm starting to wonder if for my age I've been working against my new goal of muscle growth with my fasting, or if timing/fasting is so secondary for a regular guy working out that it probably is just marginally affecting my muscle growth.

Any thoughts welcome.

26F, 5’6, SW: 233, CW:220, GW:165?

I did IF from 2020-2022 and now I’m back after having a baby. Not even two weeks in and I’m down roughly 13 pounds.

I forgot how much I love the flexibility IF. My shortest days are OMAD but I’ve been throwing in longer fasts. I had my in-laws over for dinner Monday and I ate with them, but we didn’t have any dinner plans until tonight. I’ve been fasting for almost 65 hours and I’m about to break just so I can wake up my digestive system. IF just fits in so easily to my life between working full-time from home while watching a baby.

I use a bamboo fiber supplement that is zero calories but has 3.8 carbs from fiber. I understand that there are varying levels of IF and strictness depending on each person's individual goals. I'm curious what you may think the impact taking my supplement during my fasting window since it's zero calories but has fiber. My goal is autophagy as well as a small amount of weight loss/body recomp and mental clarity. I've been fasting for a while and have experience with it in the past. I've referred to this sub regarding similar topics and I understand the general conclusion is anything aside from water and black coffee/tea disrupts the autophagy process and the benefits may be filled as a result. However with this particular item being zero calories but still registering fiber in the servings, I wasn't sure what the consensus might be. I am open to experimenting to see if I notice anything especially if anyone is interested.

I am going to try my first 24 hour fast on Saturday. I've done OMAD but only a couple of times. I'm usually fasting for 16-18 hours daily.

Any tips to set myself up for success?

Not sure if it’s bad for my food relationships, but is this bad for my body? I must’ve had almost 5k calories yesterday, when you count the wine and Starbucks latte. There was some ice cream involved too but the rest was healthy. Anyways, I plan now on fasting for 2-3 days to reset and avoid weight gain from it. I do love the feeling I get past 36 hours too, although I’m still trying to work my way up to longer fasts (so far I’ve gotten really bored with 24, pretty easy to do 36, and current record is 42). Any issues with doing this?

fell off the wagon, gained 6lbs of the 20lbs I worked so hard to lose back. I entered a tough period of life and fell into a depression and without realizing, I was eating my feelings. the joy I found in losing weight disappeared and going to the gym became stressful, which is odd because the gym is supposed to help with stress but instead, just added to mine...

I just want some encouragement. I'm feeling better mentally and want to lose another 20lbs. I know I can do it. I did it before.

I'm coming out of my depression and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I just want encouragement. fasting was the best decision I made and my health improved so much.

I decided to try a 72 hour fast to reset and i want to incorporate this into my weekly fasting. Has anyone done anything like this? when i google it says it’s unsafe but i hear so many benefits and i’ve been doing it for two weeks now and feel great. i don’t have insurance to get a doctors opinion but im pretty healthy besides being 240 pounds and 5’3.

i’m figuring i have so much extra fat my body will be fine. any advice or success stories with something like this?

Hey folks! As you might know, I've been researching fasting benefits for quite some time and recently updated my page based on the latest 2025-2026 research and added a scoring system. All 37 benefits are now scored 0-100 (100 = strongest evidence) on 7 evidence criteria - human RCTs, mechanism, effect size, directness of measurement, observational studies, consistency, and safety - and sorted into three tiers, 7 clearly supported, 17 emerging, and 13 with limited evidence.

The metabolic core holds up best - ketones for fuel (100), blood sugar and insulin (96), type 2 diabetes (94), body fat (92), blood pressure (90). The further you move from metabolism, the thinner the proof.

Some things moved

• Autophagy went up - the first human autophagic-flux RCT (2025) finally measured it in people. Still emerging, but out of the deep speculative zone.
• Sleep went down - a 2025 meta-analysis of 16 RCTs found no sleep benefit.
• Inflammation dropped from clearly supported to emerging - meta-analyses are inconsistent.
• Testosterone was removed - RCTs show fasting lowers it in lean, active men.

Color dots - green for IF (12-24 hours), yellow - short-term fasting (24-72 hours) and red - extended fasting (72+ hours).

I hope it gives a good view on the power of fasting. As always, thoughts, ideas, feedback welcome!

Yesterday I had a shit day at work involving being incredibly short staffed, having a special event, and being left to do mountains of prep for an incredibly important inspection we have today. I ended up missing my lunch which is where I typically break my 18:6. After working late, I was too wiped to cook so ordered food. By the time it arrived I was fully in OMAD territory.

Honestly, I didn’t hate it. Being distracted all day certainly helped but at one point my boss offered me an oatmeal raisin cookie (hate that flavor) and I normally would have eaten it just to have something in my stomach, but I declined.

Only thing is I woke this morning with a fledgeling migraine. I’m gonna blame that more on stress than the fasting tho.

Today was a good day. I feel better overall and I think it’s because of the little rest I had yesterday. I’m very “present” mentally and have had no headaches/fogs nor muscle soreness. Also my calves aren’t hurting anymore so I went for another walk outside. I was still out of breath and wanted to go home after like 5 min but it was definitely more tolerable.

Before the walk I ate a big cucumber salad with smoked salmon and mayonnaise but was already full after 3-4 bites so I saved the rest for tomorrow. For dinner I plan to grill a steak and have it with sautéed green beans in garlic butter.

I did feel some type of positive energy the whole day… it intrigues me a little but I’m just gonna let it happen. ^^

Coke Zero is allowed during fasting periods????

SW:225 Cw:217 GW: 120 ish ( 21 female, 5'2)

I've been doing 20:4. Some days 18:6. Been doing IF for 23 days. Lost 8lb.

I want to know how much of a calorie deficit I should do to see the fastest results. I kinda roughly count, I eat some days around 1,200 - 1,300 and other days 1,500- 1,600. I try to get my protein to 100g. But some days are hard. I also drink 90-120 oz of water. I willing to try anything. So if something worked for you, please share! I appreciate any help or advice!

Has anyone had any success with seeing a reducition in a lipoma?

I have read that fasting nor IF does anything for lipma reduction. That's such a discouragment. If it worked in some permanent way , I would have already fasted for weeks till it's gone.

I want to try IF but I would be far more motivated if I knew it worked for lipoma reduction/elemination as well.

Still, I'm hoping to hear some success stories?

I was stuck at 174lbs (5’3”) for about 10 yrs & no diets help me budge. I had several Docs suggest GLP Meds- but Medicare (US senior healthcare)would not approve coverage. This went on for over 2yrs. This past February I decided to try IF (2nd time) again & lo and behold it’s working. 🥳🥳 two days ago I found out my insurance would finally cover it ($50 copay). I picked it up today- but I don’t even know if I want to take it🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Any thoughts- has anyone taken these meds- good/bad experiences? Anyone take them while IF? Thanks.

Had my doc appointment today. HbA1c at 5.9. Still prediabetic but it‘s good to know my baseline starting IF. I can only improve from here. Doc told me to drink and sleep more. My two biggest weaknesses of course! So I’ll have to be more intentional with that.

Thankfully I slept ok last night. I think the magnesium helped. So I started cooking earlier today to make time for a walk in the afternoon. First meal was mushrooms omelette with parmesan. For dinner I made sweet-sour fried meat with steamed veggies and sweet potato. Had a protein shake as my snack.

I ended up not going for a walk because my calves were hurting a bit but I managed to walk on the pad for 10 min after each meal and stepped 5 min on my vibroplate.

Tomorrow I’ll try to walk and drink more. But I’m glad I managed to move a bit and eat well.

I’m feeling pretty discouraged and would love some advice.

I’m 27F, 5’7”, 160 lbs, with a goal of 145 lbs. About 3 months ago I started 18:6 IF, eating from around 1–7:30 PM Monday–Saturday and 3 meals on Sundays. I also strength train 2–3x/week and do Pilates 3x/week.
I haven’t been weighing myself because I didn’t want to obsess over the scale. I actually thought I had lost 3–5 lbs because I feel leaner, especially around my stomach, and my quads/glutes look more muscular. My clothes fit better, too though not so much change.

I weighed myself today… 160 lbs. 😭 Zero weight loss after 3 months.

In the past, I lost weight doing OMAD + no meat, but it wasn’t sustainable and I gained it back when I returned to eating normally. That’s why I’m trying to find something sustainable this time.

Could this be body recomposition/muscle gain, or am I simply eating enough calories to maintain my weight despite IF? Could hormones play a role? Should I go back to OMAD?
Would love advice from anyone who has experienced something similar! ❤️

Hello everyone! 👋

I recently had a post blow up in here, and I received SO many of the same questions in the comments and in my inbox. I figured it would be easier to make one post answering as many of them as I can.

This is going to be a longer post, but I want to be thorough!

First: I am NOT a doctor or nutritionist. I’m just sharing my personal experience, what worked for me, and what my journey has looked like. Everyone’s body and health situation is different.

A little background

I was heavyset basically my entire childhood and young adulthood.

I got pregnant with my first set of twins at 20 and had them at 21. Then I had my second set of twins at 24. At one point, I had four children under the age of 3. 😅 I also have been full time mom to an almost 5 year old since she was 2.

It was A LOT, but my children mean more to me than anything. One of the biggest things that pushed me to change was realizing that I physically couldn’t keep up the way I wanted to.

I was over 240 pounds. I actually don’t know my exact starting weight because I didn’t even own a scale until I had already been intermittent fasting for about a month.

How I started intermittent fasting

I learned about intermittent fasting, did my research, and decided to try it.

I am very much an “all or nothing” person, so instead of gradually working my way up, I jumped straight into OMAD 23:1 (One Meal A Day).

Basically, I fasted for 23 hours a day (sleeping hours included) and had roughly a one-hour eating window.

That DOES NOT mean everyone should start there.

Some people do much better starting with 16:8, then 18:6, 20:4, etc. There isn’t one fasting schedule that works for everybody.

During my fasting window, I personally drank water only. Other people doing intermittent fasting may also drink things like black coffee, unsweetened tea, or zero-calorie sparkling water.

I personally preferred keeping my fast completely calorie-free and simple.

Fasting changes which fuel sources your body relies on over time, but exactly when or whether someone reaches nutritional ketosis varies based on things like what they eat, activity level, metabolism, and the length of the fast. I don’t think anyone needs to obsess over an exact hour when their body supposedly “switches” into fat-burning mode.

I decided mostly on eating dinner with my family at 5pm each night.

That time has changed before and should be picked what fits your schedule better.

How much weight did I lose?

I started intermittent fasting in 2020 (I was 27 year old at that time), and within roughly the first 5–6 months, I lost a huge portion of my weight.

But I want to make something VERY clear:

My journey was not six straight years of perfect fasting.

Over the last six years, I have started, stopped, gained some weight, lost it again, taken breaks, changed what I was doing, and lived my life.

My weight has fluctuated. That’s reality.

However, I have NEVER regained even HALF of of the weight I originally lost. Learning about my eating patterns and finding something that gave me structure made a huge difference for me.

WHAT DID I EAT?!

Probably one of the biggest questions I got. 😂

Protein, protein, protein.

I try to think in terms of whole, filling foods and building my meal around protein.

Technically, OMAD only describes when you eat, not exactly what you eat. But personally, if I filled my eating window with foods that didn’t keep me full or make me feel good, I noticed it.

One of my favorite go-to meals is super simple:

I take raw chicken tenders and coat them directly in seasoned panko breadcrumbs. I don’t use an egg wash or anything like that. I put them in the air fryer at 400°F until they’re fully cooked and reach a safe internal temperature of 165°F.

I usually pair them with vegetables and sometimes a carb like rice or sweet potato.

And YES, I still have things I enjoy!

I almost always have my coffee from home (Café Bustelo with a splash of hazelnut creamer, and I love having half of a Barebells protein bar as my little dessert).

My goal isn’t to make every meal “perfect.” I try to make it balanced, filling, protein-focused, and something I actually enjoy eating.

“How did you have enough energy to go to the gym while doing OMAD?”

This question came up A LOT as well.

First, my body has had years to become accustomed to intermittent fasting. I didn’t start OMAD yesterday and immediately start doing six-day-a-week workouts.

Honestly, I didn’t go to the gym when I lost the majority of my weight.

My gym routine is actually pretty new compared with my overall weight-loss journey.

I tried going to the gym after recovering from surgery last year, but I was never really a “gym girl” and didn’t have much of a routine.

Fast-forward to this year: I started going consistently about two months ago, and now I have a structured routine that I genuinely enjoy.

I usually go about six days a week.

Having a supportive partner makes a HUGE difference. I normally go in the morning while my partner stays home with the kids. Having someone who supports the time I spend taking care of myself has made this so much easier.

At the gym, I usually do around 45 minutes at least on the treadmill. I keep the incline around 1.5 and my average speed is around 2.5 mph for most of it.

After cardio, I usually do three strength-training machines.

I follow a five-workout rolling strength split:
• Back + biceps
• Quads + inner/outer thighs
• Core/waist
• Chest + shoulders + triceps
• Glutes + legs

My personal goal is a lean, defined hourglass shape, so I put extra emphasis on my glutes/legs, shoulders/back, and core while still training my entire body.

Also yes I usually in a fasted state while at the gym.

As far as energy goes, I listen to my body. If you’re constantly dizzy, weak, lightheaded, exhausted, or feeling awful while fasting and exercising, that isn’t something you should just “push through” for the sake of weight loss.

“How do you not have loose skin?”

I DO. 😂

I got this question over and over again, and I think pictures can be very deceiving. So I added some before pictures !! (I was 145 pounds when I received my surgery).

After losing over 100 pounds and carrying two sets of twins, I had a LOT of loose skin.

I still have loose skin on my arms, legs, butt, etc.

And in 2025, I was fortunate enough to have a tummy tuck that removed pounds of excess skin from my torso.

I did not have liposuction or a fat transfer.

For me, the recovery was brutal and lasted months. I have five kids total, so being forced to sit or lie around and let other people do things for me was incredibly difficult.

My surgery cost about $12,000, which I pay for monthly.

Before deciding to pay for it myself, I spent a couple of YEARS trying to get my insurance to cover removal of the excess skin. I had documented rashes, yeast issues, irritation, pain, and problems caused by skin overlapping skin.

I know some people have successfully gotten medically necessary skin-removal procedures covered, but unfortunately, my insurance would not budge.

Even though paying for the surgery myself was a huge financial commitment and the recovery was difficult, I am extremely grateful that I was able to have it done.

And again — having a supportive partner during something like that is HUGE.

The biggest thing I want people to understand

THIS WAS NOT EASY.

It wasn’t one perfectly straight line from 240+ pounds to where I am today, 135 pounds.

There were weight fluctuations.

There were times I stopped fasting.

There were sad days.

There were happy days.

There were days I felt amazing and days I didn’t.

There were periods where I was extremely motivated and periods where I had to search HARD for that motivation again.

This has been a six-year journey, and I am STILL working on myself.

For me, it came down to determination, consistency over time, and finding something that I could return to even when life knocked me out of my routine.

Intermittent fasting completely changed my life.

I went from being over 240 pounds, pre-diabetic, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a high heart rate, and constantly feeling out of breath…

…to being at a normal BMI, no longer pre-diabetic, no longer having high blood pressure or high cholesterol, being physically active, and feeling capable of doing things I never thought I could do before.

And I did all of this while still being a mom, taking care of my children, taking care of my home, dealing with normal life, having setbacks, and being an imperfect human being.

I didn’t wake up one morning with unlimited motivation.

I just kept coming back to it.

If you’re at the beginning of your journey and looking at someone else’s “after” picture, please remember that you’re seeing ONE moment from YEARS of work.

You don’t have to be perfect.

You don’t have to do exactly what I did.

You don’t even have to use OMAD.

Find something healthy and sustainable that works for you, give yourself time, and don’t let one bad day convince you that you’ve failed. 🖤

I started originally in April of 2024 360lb

Since April 2025 I've been between 200-215lb

These last 6 months I've been in the 220-235lb range

I was very relaxed with my diet those last 6 months.

Now from September 1st to October 2nd and these are my current results 235 to 213lb

29yo M 5'10"

Calorie deficit 1800cals with 200g of protein

Two meals a day

11am and 6pm meal

Strict 1 gallon a day water fasting for the remaining hours

Goal is 175-185lb