I (40M) am new to this whole scene because I wanted to lose weight. This is the first time I have ever really gained weight because my metabolism was always stupid high, but its slowed down in middle age as expected.
I started intermittent fasting, immediately cut out snacks and started having a Slimfast shake for lunch, then a reasonable dinner.
Thats all been fine, and my weight is starting to come down.
I did read articles saying that Slimfast isnt particularly good because of the sugar content, but all the articles seem to be from the US (I am British) and the stuff I have is no added sugar, and all that seems to be carb based.
People have suggested skipping it for a protein shake instead, but a lot of that is conflicting!
People have said about making a shake with protein and peanut butter, people have said peanut butter is awful for it.
I just dont know what to do and I am going in circles.
What can I drink at lunch that is better than I am currently drinking? Do I just mix the protein as directed? Do I add things?
For fat loss the single most important thing you can do is reduce your insulin levels, which means keeping your sugar and carbohydrate intake to a minimum. Since you said your already doing IF, try to keep all your carbs to one meal and the rest of your IF window protein and fat.
If you have the budget for it I highly, highly, highly recommend getting a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) - It gives you immediate feedback on your blood glucose levels all day (insulin follows glucose). Keep the glucose line flat and you will lose amazing amounts of fat.
I agree with everything @[email protected] said!
Please have a look at the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity TLDR - Don't worry about CICO, food restriction, even exercise - the only thing you have to do is keep your insulin levels flat and carbohydrate levels low.
The intuitive explanation:
Insulin is a super hormone, but it drives anabolism (gaining fat), and prevents adipose catabolism (burning fat). If your insulin levels are high, you cannot lose fat weight. Insulin is also used to drive glucose out of the blood into adipose tissue - this happens for a variety of reasons, but most importantly elevated glucose levels are really damaging to the body - so its a priority to get them out of the blood.
Every time you eat carbohydrates your blood glucose goes up, and then your insulin levels go up... hitting the pause button on any fat loss until you burn through all that glucose. If your goal is to burn fat, you need to keep those insulin levels low as much as possible - which means limit your carbohydrate consumption as much as possible.