Tony M|Weight loss

Dear Dr. Berg, I'm a male in my early 50's and I've been watching your videos for a long time. Here is my success story: I was 108 pounds (!!!) above normal BMI and it felt like I could die at any moment. I've had many failed weight loss attempts, but about a year ago, I braced myself and decided to try again. I started with a 16:8 IM fasting schedule, which unfortunately was too hard and I ended up overeating in the evenings. The 12:12 schedule, however, works amazingly well for me. Some days I stretch it to 14:10, if I feel like it. I go to sleep at midnight and eat my first meal at noon. That's effectively just 4 hours of fasting while awake. Easy! AND WOW! I've lost 95 pounds in a year and I know I can sustain this new lifestyle for the rest of my life! In addition to IM, I changed my diet to whole foods only, with lots of green leaves and tomatoes on every plate. Per your suggestion, I drink water with 1 teaspoon of ACV before dinner and that's clearly effective as progress slowed measurably when I was out of ACV for three weeks. I would like to know more about why this is. I've completely stopped with snacking, and I drink plain water and green tea exclusively. I do add 10-15 salted peanuts to my last meal. Those few nuts don't slow progress, but are quite motivational at the end of the day. The claims of carbonated water being satiating doesn't seem to hold true for me, as I feel significantly more hungry afterwards. I suspect this is psychological, as I used to combine carbonated soft drinks with snacking. So plain water it is. I also drink one bottle of water with dissolved multivitamins every day. As far as meals go, I keep it simple: I don't count calories, nor do I worry about macros. If the plate looks healthy and I haven't heard anything bad about the contents, I eat it. I purchased small plates, which automatically prevents too large servings. Great investment! And eggs! Lots and lots of whole eggs, at least 2 every day in some form. Plenty of nutrients and they keep me full for an impressively long time. I weigh myself every morning without exception, and record it. It's what I use to adjust what I put on my plate on a weekly basis, since daily fluctuations and plateaus happen. From this simple metric, I figured out I can't eat pasta for instance, it ruined my progress whenever I added that to my plates. Any kind of rice, however, seems to be fine, as long as the amount is max 25% of the serving. My body also reacts well to two slices of whole-grain bread every day, usually with eggs or cod roe on top. And yes, I put on a thin layer of butter. I don't ever break the routine, so no cheat meals, which has proven to be a psychologically bad idea for me. I've concluded that motivation comes from steady progress, and steady progress comes from routine. Fortunately, routines become routine! As someone who hates working out, the best part is that I accomplished all this exclusively with diet and eating schedule changes. My exercise is limited to house work and a few walks every week - things I do anyway. So it seems weight loss is a fairly simple concept after all: eat less, eat whole foods, and keep insulin away for prolonged periods of time (IM + no snacking). That's literally it. Well, that and the magic ingredient apple cider vinegar for some reason. Your videos have been invaluable motivation, the advice has been spot on, and I wish you and your viewers all the best.