I can confirm through my personal experience that intermittent fasting works too. I used to be a personal trainer (15 years ago) and I have experimented a lot with diets and exercises. Back in those days, the fad was to stay in positive nitrogen cycle and eat minimal carbs - basically just eat protein+fats all day. That diet works (assuming you don't eat too much carbs) but it wasn't very good to stay lean. I used to find myself becoming fat eventually because I couldn't always count my calories (I am an endomorph).
Fast forward to 2020, I first read about fasting diets and was extremely skeptical about them because it went against my past knowledge of eating all day to avoid losing muscle mass. Nonetheless I started on it and never looked back. I can eat a lot in one meal so it is actually a perfect diet for me. I do it daily now - normally 8hrs eating and 16hrs fasting, and sometimes I take to extreme with 6hrs eating and 18 hrs fasting or 4hrs eating and 20hrs fasting. I can't ever skip breakfast so I just have my 1st breakfast at 530, then post workout I have my 2nd breakfast (Tolkien fan ;)) at 830. Then between 830 and 1300 I usually eat fruits and finally have my big meal (which is generally the same amount of total calories that I had in all my meals from 530) at 1300 hrs. And that is it!
Results:
1. Definitely lost body fat and there was no difference in my strength training. I mean I am not as strong as I used to be 15 years ago but that is because of aging.
2. Dishes: No need to do dishes multiple times in a day :). I just clean most of it by noon.
3. Energy levels: I find I am less bloated as compared to eating all day, so I find my energy levels are higher - except right after my last meal where it takes a few hrs for it to process.
4. The only disadvantage I have found is that I tend to have acidic stomach at times. This happens more when I eat spicy food for lunch, but if I stick to salads, rice, beans etc. then that is not a problem.
I do think this diet makes sense because evoluntionarily speaking we never had the luxury of eating all day. In fact, we probably had to starve every few days.
That said, if there is anything I have learnt reading nutrition in the past few years is that diets are complex and they don't always work for all so take my anecdotes for what they are worth.
Fast forward to 2020, I first read about fasting diets and was extremely skeptical about them because it went against my past knowledge of eating all day to avoid losing muscle mass. Nonetheless I started on it and never looked back. I can eat a lot in one meal so it is actually a perfect diet for me. I do it daily now - normally 8hrs eating and 16hrs fasting, and sometimes I take to extreme with 6hrs eating and 18 hrs fasting or 4hrs eating and 20hrs fasting. I can't ever skip breakfast so I just have my 1st breakfast at 530, then post workout I have my 2nd breakfast (Tolkien fan ;)) at 830. Then between 830 and 1300 I usually eat fruits and finally have my big meal (which is generally the same amount of total calories that I had in all my meals from 530) at 1300 hrs. And that is it!
Results: 1. Definitely lost body fat and there was no difference in my strength training. I mean I am not as strong as I used to be 15 years ago but that is because of aging. 2. Dishes: No need to do dishes multiple times in a day :). I just clean most of it by noon. 3. Energy levels: I find I am less bloated as compared to eating all day, so I find my energy levels are higher - except right after my last meal where it takes a few hrs for it to process. 4. The only disadvantage I have found is that I tend to have acidic stomach at times. This happens more when I eat spicy food for lunch, but if I stick to salads, rice, beans etc. then that is not a problem.
I do think this diet makes sense because evoluntionarily speaking we never had the luxury of eating all day. In fact, we probably had to starve every few days.
That said, if there is anything I have learnt reading nutrition in the past few years is that diets are complex and they don't always work for all so take my anecdotes for what they are worth.