For example, I personally know a drug that helps
I don't know which drug you mean, but I spent a few years in medical education, with obesity as one of our specialties, and there are two brand news ones that are genuine gamechangers. In fact, if you look up "weight loss" and "game changer", you're going to find acres of results for semagulatide, which was approved in 2021, and it is indeed a game changer. SAFE weight loss of 15-20% total bodyweight had previously been unheard of without surgery, but this is doing that. A newer one, tirzepatide, is through FDA approval for Type 2 diabetes, and will be approved for weight loss any day now, and it's regularly showing up to 30% total bodyweight reduction!
Semagulatide also had its origins as a treatment for T2D, and is marketed under two names, depending on whether it's primarily for diabetes or obesity, but I did want to note: there's a tendency in American medicine (and culture) to view drugs and surgery as dishonorable shortcuts, that you need to somehow "earn" weight loss, when nothing could be farther from the truth. People are finding that the benefits of these treatments include sending Type 2 diabetes into remission, as long as you still have working beta cells left. Diabetes is by its nature a progressive disease, no matter how well its treated, so acting as quickly as possible with drugs and surgery is not only extending lifespans, but reducing overall health costs. Insurance is only part of the way along in catching up to this truth, but people should definitely be speaking to their doctors sooner rather than later about this!
the thing that really did it for me was starting on intermittent fasting - not eating for 16 hours straight.
Once I did that, for the first time in my life, my eating changed from a neurotic reaction to something that just addressed hunger. I actually would walk away from my favorite treats if I was not hungry. That hadn't happened for me for 60 years.
Like you,
@greenie44, I've struggled most of my life with this. Four times, I've lost over 50 pounds, the biggest of which was over 80 pounds, and the most recent of which is happening right now.
I'm down just over 50, with another 5-ish to go to come in for a landing. Even though I'm in my 60s now, there are ways in which this round has been the easiest, because of THIS.
The best tip I got was to start slowly. If you normally eat breakfast at 7, wait until 8 for five days, then take the weekend off.
The following week, breakfast at 9 for five days, take the weekend off. The week after that, breakfast at 10 for five days, take the weekend off.
The goal that was suggested for me was noon, so basically no breakfast, but on purpose, and be done with eating by 4 -- so yes, a four-hour window. It wasn't super easy to get there, but once I got there, the weight came off the easiest that it ever has, and like
@greenie44, I found my success so motivating that it was easy to ignore the siren call of treats.
The reason why taking the weekend off works is that by narrowing the eating window, you're giving your mitochondria time to repair themselves, which buys you metabolic flexibility. You don't NEED to do do it every day, and the success keeps your "off" days from turning into food orgies, which is exactly what used to happen to me.
Your mileage will vary, but I definitely found that adjusting the window to be earlier in the day rather than later makes a BIG difference....but hey, if you work in the world, and your spouse wants to have dinner with you, then make it more like noon to 7 or 8, but unless you're awake until midnight, that's going to make things a LOT harder. Your body will do the work if you let it, but maximizing your chance of success also means maximizing the distance between the end of eating and when you sleep.
Again, that's when your body is repairing itself, and building in that metabolic flexibility.
I tweak the time of day and size of the window to act almost as a gas pedal-brake system. Tighten the window, make it earlier = faster weight loss; wider window, later = slower weight loss.
There are additional nuances with what you're eating (some things you just can't eat if you want to lose weight, and they're probably not
at all what you're thinking), but for most people, just narrowing the window will be enough for at least a few pounds. You can take it from there as your needs apply...
....but tightening up that eating window will work for pretty much anyone.
