Stopping the Yo-yo Forever
Susanne Muller
Slowly gaining.
I was a chubby baby, but once I lost the baby fat, I was a slim kid. I was also a picky eater, and I think sometimes my mom worried about getting enough food into me.
That all changed when I hit puberty. It’s not that I got fat quickly—far from it—but suddenly I was most definitely not skinny, and I noticed that putting on weight was quite easy. I tried my best to moderate my intake, but in my late teens and 20s, I started to gain weight at a slow pace. It didn’t really become much of an issue until I got into my 30s, when I was immersed in a busy, and at times quite stressful, work life and for a while had a long commute.
Stats
- Starting weight: 198lbs/90kgs
- Goal weight: 165lbs/75kgs
- Current weight: 161-168lbs/73-76kgs
- Highest weight: 220lbs/100kgs
- Height: 5’9/175cm
Finally, freedom from the yo-yo.
In August 2019, at the age of 57, I started doing intermittent fasting. I had dabbled in 2018, but had never adopted fasting as a regular practice. What changed is that I started eating ONLY for 4-6 hours every day, and fasting the rest of the time—commonly known as “one meal a day” or OMAD—18-20 hours a day of fasting, 4-6 hours a day of eating. What this means is that I only eat dinner, and maybe a snack before dinner, and probably also a small dessert after dinner.
Since August 2019, I have lost over 30 pounds ( 14 kgs) and I’m back into a loose and comfortable size 12 (occasionally a size 10 as well, depending on the cut). And I’ve kept it off through vacations and pandemics. The beauty of this approach is that it resets your metabolism. I don’t count calories. Ever. I eat anything I want during my eating window.
Oh, and have I mentioned it’s free? Though there ARE a couple books you should read if you want to do this, but books are cheap. The book that got me started on the right path is called Delay, Don’t Deny by Gin Stephens. She has since written another great book called Fast, Feast, Repeat. And if you want to learn about all the science behind this approach, read The Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung.
Aging backwards.
We call them non-scale victories (NSVs) and they are one of the benefits that make intermittent fasting a sustainable lifestyle. I had so many of these that I started to feel like I was aging backwards.
- After years of suffering from extremely painful plantar fasciitis (since my 20s!), it is gone.
- All my other joint pain (mostly hips) is gone as well.
- I had suffered from dry eyes since my mid-30s. That has also improved dramatically now and is almost gone.
- My skin is much smoother, my keratosis pilaris (red bumps) is gone.
- My feet now have almost no calluses, which was not the case when I started.
- My resting heart rate went from 68 to 55, and my blood pressure went down.
I’m about to turn 60, and I honestly feel better now than I did 10 years ago! I will never go back to that pain!
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