No. But having followed a few threads it doesn’t appear to address some of the underlying issues with weight management. There are a lot of WLI evangelists but they still seem to have an obsession with food.
I have found that disassociating from food has been the best way to maintain weight. People seem to live from meal to meal and obsess about how much they haven’t eaten suggesting that they are still heavily focussed on food.
I have discovered that if I only eat when I’m hungry and then stop when I feel full my weight drops off steadily. My problem was always comfort eating so have addressed that part of my relationship with food.
I occasionally crave food types but I now focus’s on why and then reason whether it’s necessary.
I naturally fast because I never wake up hungry. But once I’m hungry I then have my first meal of the day. This can be mid morning but sometimes late afternoon. One thing I don’t do is try to squeeze in 3 meals a day. If I’m not hungry until 4.30pm I’ll eat my main meal but then nothing else because it’s unlikely I’ll be hungry again.
I also don’t eat after 8pm because I suffer with reflux and it will wake me up. I can’t eat chocolate because this also results in severe reflux. The same with alcohol.
Not eating continuously through the day means that you can have a decent evening meal that doesn’t have to be low calorie, I try and avoid UPFs because they are often high carb. A balanced meal with a decent fat content helps suppress appetite. Fat is the one thing that helps control the hunger centre of our brain, higher fat meals are more satiating so we eat smaller quantities of the rest of the meal. Things like creamy sauces with pasta reduce the amount we eat. I also use butter rather than oils, apart from olive oil.
Again it seems to satisfy appetite better than vegetable oils which are harder for our bodies to process. Try eating a full fat yoghurt, it’s unlikely you’ll feel the need to eat another one straight after. In contrast the low fat/zero fat alternatives are unlike suppress your appetite, they often have a higher sugar content. You also feel justified in eating several of them.
Acceptance that as you get older you need less food helps to control your food intake. I now eat half the amount of food I did in my twenties when I was much more active. If we go out for a meal I struggle to eat more than the main course. I usually skip the starter and if I’m still hungry I may have a pudding but usually I’m too full.
Perpetually choosing the zero fat low calorie foods means you will stay hungry and eat more. Cutting out high calorie but low nutritional foods is a healthier way to approach dieting.