AIBU to think Intermittent Fasting is a gimmick?

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I know a few people who swear by Intermittent Fasting and make a big deal of only eating between 12 noon and 8pm

To me, this just sounds like (1) skip breakfast and (2) no snacks after dinner

AIBU?

No you don’t, as long as you’re in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. You can eat 5000 calories of healthy food and you’d gain weight, eat 14/1500 calories of shit food and (Depending on your deficit) you’ll lose weight

It does work if you’re trying to lose weight though. I was almost 18 stone about 8 years ago, BMI was 38 so close to morbid obesity. I started the 5:2 diet as well as exercising daily and I lost 7 stone in 12 months, healthy weight and BMI within a year. I dropped the weight so quickly doing it. May seem unhealthily quick but have kept it off.

It’s no gimmick, it’s been proven that fasting can add 10 years to your life. We burden our bodies with too much food and for the majority of the population it’s not even food that they’re eating, it’s toxic garbage.

I think rather than the fasting, it's the adoption of healthier eating and being a healthy weight BY ANY MEANS that gives you a longer life span rather than fasting per se. If fasting is what enables someone to have a healthier body then good, but I imagine eating a good, balanced diet (at any time of day) and exercising is probably better overall.

I remember years ago when I was trying to diet, my mum saying that if I was on a thousand calorie limit, I could just eat 3 mars bars and a multivitamin if I wanted!
God, I miss those days

My mum has since done a complete about face and has learned about insulin spikes and effects of upf and now I can't move without her chucking a vitamin at me!

Yes, you could lose weight on 3 mars bars a day if you were in calorie deficit but you wouldn't be healthy.

I think this is true. And we have to remember we are all different.

Don’t forget most of the research on fasting was done on sedentary (therefore not particularly healthy) middle aged men.

That doesn’t mean that those results translate to an active perimenopausal woman (or a woman at any lifestage really).

Also yes you could eat 1,000 calories of rubbish and maybe lose weight but would you be healthy?

So, the body's only way of dealing with a kcal deficit is to burn fat? What about when it lowers the metabolism? Where does that come into the equation? Or does metabolism stay exactly the same for everybody all the time, regardless of what/when they eat?

It can lower the metabolism for some people and affect thyroid function in women especially. Then that has an impact on hormones such as cortisol. It’s very individual as to whether it works for you and dependent on lots of factors.