Like Christina, I have a background of ED's (recovered for many years now, thank god), so I'd normally avoid dieting threads.

But I really want to say that imo fasting is a big con!

It's the worst thing you can do.

My path to being a healthy weight had moments where I was absolutely staggered to realise that so many of these faddy diets are actually having the opposite effect to the one they claim.

It's shocking, really. They seem to be able to claim anything, and there's no comeback.

My first golden rule is:

Dieting makes you think about food every second of the day (bad)!

Fasting means your stomach will never shrink!

I feel strongly about this. Gently reducing the size of one's stomach is the ONLY way I found of reducing my appetite forever. Fasting, on the other hand, replicates the starve / binge behaviour of anorexics and bulimics. And I can tell you with 100% certainty that the body does not like these extremes. It will keep the stomach large as it is used to receiving large amounts.

Small amounts, much more frequently than you'd normally eat.

I hope someone gives it a try.

It might take a few weeks for the stomach to get the idea that it doesn't need to stay stretched.

By the way, the type of food barely matters. Obviously, go for 'real' food if you can. But I didn't particularly do that.