I'm also working on losing weight I gained over the last several years in menopause. I've been doing a lot of research and have been reading that managing insulin is the key to losing fat. Every time we eat, our body secretes insulin and you cannot tap into fat stored on your body. Low carb reduces the amount of insulin secreted, but with fasting, it will reduce even more and use the fat on your body as fuel. I have started IF over the last several weeks combined with cleaning up my diet (reducing sugar, bread, high carb and "junk" food plus alcohol) and have lost 10 lbs. so far (in about a month). I was at first resistant to the idea of fasting but then remembered that I never used to eat breakfast until my mid-20's, and when I did start eating breakfast, because I thought it was "healthy", that's when my weight problems began. I can't go into detail (may have already said too much), but Dr. Jason Fung is a great resource. He has some Youtube videos that are very informative. It is easier for me to manage when and how often I eat rather than being really strict about macros. To become more fat adapted, I have been practicing only eating at meal times (no snacking) and not eating from dinner to breakfast for a while. Then I gradually extended the time from dinner to breakfast and finally cut out breakfast altogether. I used to be a person who could not miss a meal and could only go 3-4 hours max between eating, and realized that means I was a sugar burner and was not fat adapted. It was a miserable existence - I was always worried about my next meal and getting stuck without food. Plus, I would get hangry and weak if I didn't eat.
I gained 35 lbs. during the transition and (fortunately?) it's spread out over my body instead of just my belly but my old clothes do not fit and I am very unhappy that my legs, which have always been my best body feature, are flabby and even my calves are big. I am sick of it and want to get back into my cute clothes.
For exercise, I am adding a lot of walking combined with gentle "sculpting" style workouts (body weight and light weights). I have found in the past that HIIT, running or heavier weights spikes my appetite, and I don't really enjoy those type of workouts anyway. I think I have gotten my stress, sleep and cortisol under control, and that has probably helped as well.
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