I have a good diet, being sober and exercising a lot, perimenopause was starting to cause weight gain. With some levels of change to my diet to cut out the crap, this changed to stability (which would and did cause loss when I was younger). There was one thing though that pushed me into trying something different and that was my HbA1c result which was 5.8%. So despite doing EVERYTHING the NHS tells you to do to be a healthy weight, I was still overweight and very close to prediabetic (other countries would already class this as prediabetic).
I've not had another HbA1c result back since I started once a week 24 hour fasting on top of everything else I've done but what is changing is I'm losing weight. Total weight loss is c. 1-1.5 lbs a week so not huge but consistent and enough that it's really starting to be noticeable.
I have been so fed up since perimenopause hit with things not working. I'm really pleased something is and it kind of makes sense that if there's good evidence that intermittent fasting works to improve insulin resistance, if IR was my problem, that would have been making it harder to lose weight so it is a complete lightbulb moment for me that it's probably been that.
As for "how" as that's what I would have been wanting to know. I "read" an audiobook on the science behind the hormones of weight loss and it advocated one 24 hour fast a week (or possibly two) for insulin resistance and metabolic flexibility as your body has to switch to burning fat. Two sounded terrifying but one sounded possible. They then went onto explain that all you do is finish eating dinner on, say Monday at 6pm then miss breakfast and lunch the next day, eating dinner on Tuesday at c. 6pm or later. Well that sounded less frightening even though that is 24 hours, it's actually only missing 2 meals. I'd originally thought about doing it just once a fortnight but when I tried it, realised that it was easy enough (it only gets a little harder from 4pm onwards) and if anything I now almost look forward to my fasting days. What's more is if I'm busy with work, it's actually easier.
I'd previously tried 5/2 though and didn't lose an ounce. So I wanted to share this with people in case you've tried one form of "IF" type approaches and assumed they all didn't work for you (although I'm not really sure if 5/2 is really IF).
Top tips I have is to have herbal or spice (not fruit) teas so they're calorie free, black coffee and plenty of sparkling water. I don't personally have any sweeteners anyway but I think most people avoid them when fasting. Also if you find you're struggling and exercise a lot like I do, sodium can be depleted by fasting so another tip is to have some electrolytes or even a pinch of salt (e.g. in coffee) if you're struggling.
I genuinely cannot imagine stopping doing this now unless I'm advised to medically. It's far easier than any other method I've used to try and lose weight. I'm a total convert.