IF (imho) is nothing more than what Americans did about 20 years ago..re incarnated and labeled. It works imo simply because I've done it whenever I get out of control and fall off.
Growing up I was never a breakfast kid at all, so it was just called skipping breakfast but even if you ate breakfast most households shut down the kitchen around 6-8 pm. If you get up and eat around 8am there is a nice 12-14 hour window from your last meal.
If you didn't eat breakfast like me you hit about 16-20. Then you ate through that window to 6-8pm and you did it as part of normal life. Add in a gym life and you pretty much would have a nice build low to moderate bodyfat..but you weren't going to ever be a fat ass guaranteed becuase of the deficit you created for yourself in regards to cals by not being sedentary like the present sedentary lives we have.
From my own experiences up to present..whenever I've lived my life outside of the so called IF strategy I gain body fat, usually b/c I'm eating like shit, out having fun with humans and social life, my work life balance is shit, i'm not going to a gym..etc...when i'm ON and fasting 16+, half ass tracking calories/macros, do a carb backload/refeed day once a week and hit the gym 6 days week minimum lift/cardio split, ....180 degree difference, massive body fat drops, weight, I lose pretty much no muscle and I feel like an idiot for getting out of shape..but hey I got the genes to pull it off so fuck it.
Anywho...the fast food juggarnaut industry along with long work hours, lack of discipline, "it's ok to be fat" evolution, pills can fix everything, fad diets generation we live in pretty much has the average american in chains.
The average joe or jan simply needs to go back in time and restrict their feeding window, stay in their cal zones (learn to weight/track shit and prep your meals) and simply walked 6 days a week around their neighborhood...I can pretty much guarantee they'd drop insane bodyfat and lean out over a 12 week window.
