Lots of trial and error to figure out what worked for me.

Fasting for breakfast and lunch and eating dinner did not work for me. I came into dinner extremely hungry and would just eat my daily calorie allotment in one meal.

Fasting breakfast, lunch and dinner, then starting up eating at breakfast the next day worked. But it’s exhausting to fast an entire day. The hunger pangs suck. So doing a day of fasting then eating a day worked OK. But I would dread fast days to the point it wasn’t sustainable for long. And because day 1 of a fast is by far the hardest, this made for a lot of day 1’s.

What ended up working the best for me was a 3 or 4 day fast. Day 1 of a prolonged fast really sucks, but days 2 and 3 are pretty easy. Day 4 is hit or miss. I made it a point that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were fast days. Thursday was a bonus day if I did it, which I usually did, unless there was social pressure to eat. Friday I would start eating with breakfast, which I’m usually not hungry for anyway, then my lunch and dinner on eating days were just a reasonable meal. My stomach shrunk, so on my non-fast days I wouldn’t eat as much as usual.

I lost 90lbs over about 4 months. I’ve gained 30 lbs of it back. This was 2 years ago. I’m starting up round 2 this time hoping to lose another 90lbs and get to my ideal weight of 240lbs.

The hardest part of intermittent fasting is dealing with the social pressure to eat. People invite you to lunch or dinner, which is awkward if you go and don’t eat. When people know you’re fasting routine they always say, “Is today a fasting day?”; then proceed to talk about food. So keeping it a secret that you’re fasting works best, but it’s still hard to do. The 3 or 4 day fast seemed to work best with a social life because you could eat out on weekends and with the family on Sundays.

Just a fat man’s perspective.