Low-carb healthy fat living. Intermittent fasting. What’s your why?

My problem with food is mostly emotional. I’ve been single 20 years and don’t like living alone. My 5 kids are busy with their own lives. I try to live my own life but have limited energy and stamina so I spend a lot of time alone and eat to compensate for the loneliness

After a sleeve gastrectomy in 2010, I went from 216 lbs. to 146 lbs. I slowly put 31 pounds back on, going up and down in weight, and I reached 177 lbs. in October of 2024. The only solution that has worked was going on a very low carb, and no-sugar food plan. My partner lost 50 lbs. and I've lost 20 lbs., and am currently 157 pounds. Our weight loss has slowed, as we're now eating keto bread (1 gm of carbohydrate in each slice, vs 15 carbs in regular bread) and fruit, but we still do not bring anything into the house that has sugar in it, and no snack foods, except for (measured) nuts. We have dessert every night, of zero calorie jello and sugar-free Redi Whip in the aerosols can, which is our only "treat". If it isn't in our house, we don't eat it!! We have huge salads with many different veggies just about every day; we used to eat a lot of deviled eggs in the beginning, but we grew sick of them. I cook from scratch and make use of no-sugar barbecue sauce for my crockpot, and Splenda in my tea and coffee. We enjoy our meats such as steak, and low-cal cooked veggies, and have almost no cravings now. Eating sugar and carbs makes you crave more and more of it! I don't eat until I'm hungry now, and usually eat in late afternoon or dinner time. We have been on this for 10 months...it's actually doable!
汤
...

I'm just beginning to explore IF, although for several weeks now I've been finishing dinner by 6pm and not eating again until 9am. I'm a 68 year old female; I've been putting on weight since I turned 66 and if I don't change something I'm going to weigh a ton before I know it! (It's really just belly fat that needs to go.) What I need to explore is what to eat when I do eat. Do I need to do keto? That's not attractive to me. Is just cutting out that one meal, perhaps sometimes two, enough? My big concern is getting enough fiber (I spent years getting my gut healthy) and getting enough nutrition.

@trishdub I shared my intermittent fasting journey earlier in this discussion here - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/336050/. I'm pretty much maintaining my current weight between 205 and 208 after I got it below 210 lbs. I can eat pretty much whatever I want but do try and limit the carbs and sugar along with regularly using a daily 16/8 or 18/6 hour fasting window. I use the Zero app on my phone which makes it easy to track. When I am trying to lose the weight, I used a 20/4 hour fast for 3 or 4 days in a row and the 18/6 fasting a day or two between the 20 hour fasting days.

Keto wasn't very attractive for me either 🙃 but I do try to eliminate as much sugar as my inner cookie monster allows and purposely look at or think about the number of carbs when I'm planning my meals. You might find it helpful to keep a log of your eating schedule and weight to see if you can spot trends faster to help with the weight.

@johnbishop Thank you for this, John. I read the link you included as well. It is very inspiring for me. I think I can do this! The great thing is that my husband needs to lose about 100 pounds and he's on board with me. I have an appointment with my doc in November and I know he is a fan of IF.

I once again find myself with a creeping weight gain. It’s like I can see it happening, driven by eating cheap carbs and sugar that just makes me crave more. I eat a low carb mediterranean diet, except when I don’t. I know it takes about 3 days of clean eating to reduce cravings, and a couple of weeks to get back into naturally making good food choices. I know this. Sigh.

For myself, I think a 5/2 type fasting schedule will work for me. I struggle with 18/6 or 16/8. But finding foods I like for 300-400 cal meals/snack isn’t difficult for just two days a week, but it does come with prior food prep and planning ahead. Probably carving out the time to do this because its important to me, is the mindset I need to be at.

I've been intermittent fasting for about one year and although I haven't achieved all my weight and diabetes related goals I can say that dipping into a ketone (rather than glucose only) energy source has done some unusual things- things I've really taken note of. First of all I have more energy and rarely get fatigued now, additionally my usual 71 year old aches and pains have subsided quite a bit and finally my thinking and cognition is quite sharp now relative to a year or two ago- I'm really surprising family and friends with that. I think it is the fasting but also coupled to a low carb diet is what's doing all this. I do eat a little fruit and berries but not to excess so probably not on a true Keto diet. I occasionally fast for 24 hours but haven't gone longer.