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Comment by nerder92 | Hacker News Reader

I'm doing exactly the same since almost 1year, but still I'm not seeing much benefit from it. Like I still have belly fat, I wonder how do you eat when you break the fast and how do you avoid binging? I'm not gonna lie, after 15-16h I start to feel hungry and as soon as the fast finish I tend to eat something pretty caloric & fatty (ie: cheese or nuts)

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I eat normal meals. No snacking. Before I started IF I was actually obese. I couldn't walk a mile without breaking into a sweat and being out of breath. I now have a six pack year round and have done for the almost ten years I've been doing this. So I think I'm qualified to offer some further advice:

* Limit your meals to two meals a day. Absolutely no snacking between meals. Make sure your last meal is it such a time that you won't go to bed hungry. But if you're hungry during the day, just wait until your next meal (lunch or dinner),

* Be mindful when you eat. The French are great at this. Don't eat for sustenance. Eat for pleasure. The object of eating isn't to get calories down your throat as quickly as you can. Enjoy the aroma of the food in your nose and the feel of it on your tongue. Don't load up your fork with the next bite while still chewing. If your food is too bland to enjoy this way, learn to cook French cuisine,

* Weigh your carbs carefully. Pasta, rice, potato etc. should all be weighed every time. Do not do it by eye. Your eye will cheat you. Do not rely on your satiation reflex because carbs won't trigger it,

* Do not be afraid of fat. Note the amount of fat in French cuisine. Fat is nice, but your body will automatically regulate your intake. Butter is delicious but nobody wants to eat a whole stick of it.

* Don't drink calories. Drink water, tea and coffee. Especially avoid beer, red wine, soft drinks and sweet cocktails. If possible, stop drinking alcoholic and soft drinks completely,

* Exercise discipline and restraint in the supermarket. Never go to the supermarket while fasted. Do not stock ready-to-eat food in your house. All food should be prepared before eating, and you should only prepare the amount that you plan to eat,

* Learn to relish hunger. Hunger is completely normal and something you are supposed to feel. Observe how fat people eat the moment they feel hunger. Remind yourself that you don't want to be one of them. If you feel hunger, just be safe in the knowledge that your next meal is planned and ready for you to prepare,

* Most importantly, find something that works for you. The first month should be discipline. After that it should become natural. If it feels like you want this new way of life to end at some point, revise your strategy. This should be easy. It's for the rest of your life.

Found this reply kind of funny but also functional. Good points.

I've been doing IF for the past five years or so (after "discovering" it by myself) and lost about 30 kg in the process. I am a bulk eater and I still "binge" periodically. The kinds of food that I binge on have changed greatly though, and that's what worked for me. I switched to simpler food: non-starchy grains like buckwheat, kidney beans, vegetables and fruit, and this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(dairy_product) . I dropped almost every kind of processed food (I am not an American though, and we never had the same level of dependence on processed foods anyway). I can't even eat sugar and candies anymore, they overflow my senses and taste like crap.

> I can't even eat sugar and candies anymore, they overflow my senses and taste like crap.

A slight life hack. A few days of fasting (3-5 should do it) will probably get you to this state.

So once deciding on a new healthy composition of food. Start of a with a few days of fasting and it will be easier to stick to it.

What're you experiencing is the "no miracle occurs" effect. There is no "one weird trick" to weight loss, only the very boring, obvious, and difficult exercise of restraining ones caloric intake and/or increasing one's output.

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