TL:DR - I used a combination of IIFYM and Intermittent Fasting. 34 year old male, 6ft6. Was 20+ stone, now 17 stone.
FYI I'm just a normal guy, these are just my experiences and views. Before you start anything new consult a doctor if you've any concerns.
So all my life I've been overweight, not massively compared to others maybe, but enough that it had a huge impact on me. I developed terrible eating addictions and would binge and emotional eat like a madman. I had several very lengthy battles with depression because of it - I hated how I looked, couldn't dress/be/feel like the person I wanted to be, so would be reclusive and not look after myself. I'm sure some can relate to this.
Like a moron, I blamed my family for many years. Why didn't they teach me about good nutrition...why did they enable me etc.. etc.. but after a while I realised, they come from a different generation where they couldn't be so choosy on what they ate, and just wanted to make me happy by giving me they things they couldn't. I realised that its up to me to make a change, and use the tools and benefits available to me now.
Over the years I've tried many times to lose weight. And every time I failed. I'd dive head first into something not knowing if what I was doing was effective. In my late teens and early 20's that meant a lot of time in the gym doing lots of random exercise. Of course this did nothing for me. After that someone told me it was diet I needed to focus on. So then came years of trying different fad and extreme diets. I would follow anyone who sounded like they knew what they were doing. The amount of money I spent over these years was ridiculous, thinking I could just pay something and that was my work done. But really, I never committed to anything.
Once I got towards my late 20's, I started getting the warnings from doctors. You're healthy now, but this will catch up with you. But like many before me, after the words 'you're healthy', I stopped really listening. And besides, by this point I'd developed a keen interest in weight lifting and martial arts (BJJ) and was becoming quite fit and had lost a little weight, so although I was still overweight and it still bothered me, I stopped trying to lose it.
In 2016, aged 31, I had what I assume to be a mental breakdown. One week I was fine (for me) and the next, and for the next almost 2 years, I was gripped with extreme anxiety, fear and depression. I think it was just life catching up to me...a marriage breakdown, career breakdown, several bereavements and still my self image issues.
I stopped all my exercise and although it took a while, my eating spiralled out of control and I crept up to my highest weight ever, where I stopped checking at 20 stone but know I put on more, maybe to 21/22 stone.
Then, in mid 2018, I finally decided to make a change. I'd been seeing the GP for an unrelated issue and he became concerned about by blood pressure, and had me start monitoring it at home. I would be averaging out at about 140/90 and the GP told me that its likely I'd need medication unless I lost some weight. Seeing those numbers in front of me and being told I'd need medication to save my life due to failing to look after myself...I was disgusted, scared and panicked. They told me it would catch up with me and guess what, it did.
Now armed with some serious fear, I spent a lot of time researching. The first thing that really caught my eye was If If Fits Your Macros (IIFYM). As it wasn't a diet per se, but more of a framework, it forced me to learn about good nutrition and make choices that worked for me, within my framework. Combined with Myfitnesspal to track my macros, I was off. I went with their medium weight loss setting. A stone gone in a couple of months or so, I was feeling good.
However, I still had insane cravings, and fell off the wagon fairly often. I'd have one snack, or bit of a snack, and then boom, I'd eat everything in the house. I was eating randomly several times a day, and trying to be disciplined so many times was extremely difficult.
I needed something to help get rid of my food addictions. I read lots of things and even went to a couple of CBT sessions (which I hated), but none of it seemed very practical to me. I was stuck. I then read someone's success story on here about using Intermittent Fasting (IF). I'd read about IF before and decided it was nonsense. However, I looked again, this time reading this examine.com article, which changed everything for me. Essentially it said that IF works, but just as a way of restricting calories, nothing else. So I dived in.
I used the Zero app and started straight way on 16:8, fasting for 16 hours, eating for 8 hours. In this window is when I'd eat everything needed in my IIFYM framework. I found it surprisingly easy. You can't eat if you're fasting. Seeing that clock ticking was a great deterrent. After a week I moved to 18:6 and found it a little more challenging to begin with, but it quickly became easy. Easy might not quite be the right word, as at times I'd feel hungry and get a few of the side effects of having not eaten for a while, but instead of the torture of eating small portions all through the day, it was just much simpler to not eat.
Here is where the amazing side of fasting came in for me. When its my time to eat, I'll eat what I need, and not feel one craving for anything else. I have no cravings! For the first time in my entire life I, feel, FREE! I get a little emotional just thinking about it.
It's been 10 months now and I am down to 17 stone, which is my ideal weight. I don't want to go down any more in fear of losing strength.
My schedule for fasting now is 5 x 18:6 fasts (Mon-Sat) and 1 x 20:4 fasts (Sun-Mon). I don't fast from Sat-Sun, I allow myself one night off, and also on a Saturday although I'll make sure I hit my protein macro, I'll have a few treats on top, probably going over my carb and calorie limit for the day. But I'm not a pro athlete by any means, and do believe you have to enjoy yourself, albeit in moderation. Now I don't have the crazy cravings anymore, I can just do this one day a week, and go back to normal for the rest of the week.
Now I am happy with my weight, I am eating my maintenance amount. I've worked very hard on both BJJ and my weight training (I do a program based on Stronglifts 5x5 if that's of interest to anyone) and have put on some decent strength and muscle tone.
The best thing now though is how much better I feel. My BP is down to a normal level (averaging 125/75) without having ever taken any meds which is a massive relief. But it's my confidence that has changed so much. I'm a different person. Me version 2. I can wear what I want and feel awesome when I look in the mirror. Yes that is a vain, but I don't feel embarrassed to say it, as I worked hard to get there and did so in a healthy way.
Here are some random tips from my experience and links that might help.
1) My number 1 bit of advice is always do your own research. Everyone is a fitness/weight loss guru. Anyone will give you advise if you ask. Many will give advice even if you don't ask. Everyone will have different opinions.
2) Be careful who you trust (even me!). There is an advocate for pretty much everything out there, most of which is clickbait. Don't trust the glam unless you're absolutely certain the person is legit. If in doubt (and this works for many things), look for the geeks, especially those who seem 'boring', or those who are actually unwilling to help. These are usually the guys with useful knowledge.
3) When people ask me about exercise, I approach it similar to IIFYM, from a framework point of view. As long as you're hitting an acceptable exercise goal (cardio 3-5 times a week, strength training 2-3 times a week, where the cardio sessions are 30 mins + and leave you sweating and out of breath, and the strength training sessions are targeting your whole body and you're seeing strength a progression) then, IMO, it doesn't matter HOW you get there. Cardio wise whether its running, swimming, soccer, martial arts, zumba, as long as it has the right effect, the differences between what you choose will be fairly negligible. Same with strength training - power lifting, kettlebells, crossfit, bodyweight exercises, again the differences are negligible. This is assuming a general goal of improved fitness and wellbeing. Of course if you have a specific fitness goal, then you might need a more specialised program. And of course, everyone you ask, will tell you X is better than Y. But I really believe that as long as it has the desired effect, do whatever you enjoy the most. If you can turn your exercise methods into hobbies, even better.
4) This video series had a massive impact on my nutritional knowledge and I'd definitely recommend it. It cuts out a lot of the bullshit around what you eat, including supplements.
5) Protein is not a magic potion. I am a little scared on all the protein products I see these days. A Mars Protein bar is still a Mars bar, just with a little extra protein in it. It is not a 'healthy' chocolate bar. That doesn't make sense. Extra protein wont do anything unless you're exercising regularly.
6) If you've never tried to lose weight or exercise, or not for a while, I'd suggest spending a month first only focusing on your diet, and then start the exercise. Don't start both at the same time. The added strain from the exercise will make you want to eat more, so you're just setting yourself up to fail. This is a long term thing, so waiting an extra month to start training will not make a negative impact in the grand scheme of things. In fact, it might make a big positive difference.
7) Want to know what BJJ is? Watch this.
8) Want to start getting strong with weights? This is what worked for me, and is universally agreed as a great beginner program. Also buying my own weights and power rack so I could work out at home, at my leisure, in a comfortable environment, really helped. Not everyone can do that but if you can, think about it.
9) Learn more about IIFYM here. Be a little careful as they've gotten quite bad with adverts and selling, but the macro calculator is still free and useful.
That took MUCH longer to write than I expected! If you did read it all thanks. If you have a question I don't mind trying to answer but again, I'm just a regular guy.
