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Not eating for various periods of time, as outlined in various strategies, produces quick weight loss results for many. But as a long-term commitment? I don't think so.
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Like Teaser and Jey did, I want to start with "It depends on what you mean by..." with a side of "It depends on what your goals are..."
"Quick weight loss" always seems to be an easy bogeyman to drag out of the the closet. As if quick isn't real, is somehow unhealthy, doesn't really count, or the only legit way to lose weight is via a long, slow slog. The phrase always sets me on edge a bit. And it's rarely defined.
Going with the popular wisdom that 1–2 lbs. per week is a healthy pace (I have no science at hand to identify a different rate), then I think the majority of Dr. Fung's patients fall into this category or somewhat close, at least from what I've seen or read on his website, other forums and the IDM Facebook page. Personally, I think that without fasting, I might be losing about 1 lb. per week and with fasting maybe 2 lbs. (Early days on my N=1).
One of the most important things about weight loss is actually losing weight. Yes, learning new ways of eating is also important. But for most people, it's important to see significant results in order to have the motivation to keep going. So a faster rate of weight loss will help a lot of people.
Time-restricted eating (TRE) seems to be a really natural way for a lot of people to eat, so I don't think there's any concern with a making that a longer term commitment. And once people reach their goals, no one is suggesting that they continue to (truly) fast regularly. Some suggestions are doing it maybe 3–4 times a year as a maintenance strategy, to drop a couple of pounds gained on vacation or over a holiday, etc. The middle ground, then, is whether someone can commit to fasting on a regular basis for, say, a year until they reach their weight loss goal. This is not an easy commitment (and Dr. Fung likes to point out that fasting is hard--it's not complicated, but it is hard), but possible.
The other issue is that people fast for lots of different reasons: Some for weight loss, some for autophagy, to fight cancer, to cure metabolic illness and insulin resistance, etc. Some people are very ill and fasting provides a rapid improvement to their health. I think people who are in a life or death situation have way more ability to make a "longer commitment" to fasting than the average person. There also appear to be a number of diseases that can be turned around or prevented via the autophagy benefits from fasting, that you just can't get by doing anything else.
There's a lot more detail in Dr. Fung's videos on his YouTube site:
Dr. Fung's videos on YouTube