[biggerfisch]

If this strategy works to encourage people to accidentally consume fewer calories, isn't that good enough? I don't think this was about the mechanism about the weight loss, but merely that the behavior pattern ended up encouraging it.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

> If this strategy works to encourage people to accidentally consume fewer calories, isn't that good enough?

Depends. I'm sure for some people it does work. I don't understand those people, because I, like many people who put on a whole lot of weight, am a food addict. Give me only an hour in which to eat, with no other restrictions, and I will find a way to shove as much food into my maw as I can. I know this from experience.

It makes much more sense to just track calories directly and stop lying to yourself.

[notacoward]

"lying to yourself" seems unduly insulting. Maybe other people are tracking calories, and TRF is how they stay within a budget. Even if they are tricking themselves, what's wrong with that? We all hack our own reward-response mechanisms all the time to achieve all sorts of goals. If it works, it works, and what's the harm? Why condemn that as less "honest" than whatever you do to work around your own limitations and achieve your own goals?

Making people feel bad about the methods they choose is real-world harmful. Maybe "advice" like yours won't actually kill anyone, but people who become discouraged by that drumbeat of negativity could experience some ill effects. Be glad that what works for you works for you, but please stop pissing on everyone else.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

If you count calories, then any additional strategies are fine, but I know from experience that not counting calories and relying on other strategies as an abstraction leaves too much room for self delusion about your intake.

[xphilter]

Maybe, but my feeling is that they are trying to attribute the benefit to intermittent fasting (which may be the mechanism! I have no ideas (and neither do they!))