Quote Originally Posted by StartedAgain View Post
Improved gut health, improved blood sugar and better body composition isnt achieved by just fasting, fasting is a small contributer and there are much bigger/more impactful factors.
Gut health - this has alot more to do with your diet and balance of bacteria in your stomach than fasting
Improved blood sugar - fasting does help, but once again diet matters more.
Body composition - ok this is not from fasting, this is from repeated exeecise and recovery and having that strain be applied to the long enough to that the body adapts.

Intermittent fasting is good practice but its a small impact (maybe 10%) compared to diet , exercise and proper rest.
Well I think we agree on most of the stuff, IF is just a tool, a good diet in general + exercise is always the bigger picture, if your diet is shit and don't exercise then fasting becomes irrelevant, I've always been a proponent of a long term approach of clean diet + training, I was never a fan of those gimmicks/trendy/fad diets such as keto etc, and I'm not saying IF is the only way to improve gut health etc there are other factors in play (bacteria diversity in the gut, pro+prebiotics etc), but IF definitely helps the gut, someone who eats 8 meals a day vs someone who eats 2 meals a day in a 5 hour feeding window (assuming the diet is the same food), the person doing only 2 meals will have a longer fasting window so the gut can have a break, the problem is constant eating these days (consistent insulin spike), which can lead to blood sugar issues, which can lead to reduced insulin sensitivity or even diabetics, reduced insulin sensitivity = not great for muscle building = worse body composition (less muscle, more bodyfat), ok that's over-simplifying the whole process but you get the idea.

Like I said a long term approach of good clean diet + exercise is always the bigger picture, IF is an useful tool (if used correctly) it can definitely help with weight loss.