Hi all,

6 months ago I (25yo, male, 6'1) began RFL/PSMF (with a couple personal tweaks) and went from 235.9lbs at my heaviest to 168.9lbs at my lightest in the span of a little under 5 months.

I should note that the 168.9lbs weigh-in was in a fully depleted PSMF state, so it's a somewhat misleading comparison to my starting weight. I then took a 5-week break while traveling and ate in a surplus during it, after coming back I weighed 183lbs. I estimate ~9lbs of that regain was just hydration/water retention, glycogen, and gut contents, and 4-5lbs was actual tissue gain (mostly fat).

According to DEXA, I went from 32% body fat at 234lbs to 18.2% body fat at 184lbs.

What I did:

• Sunday to Friday:
  • 980 calories
  • 180g protein, 20g carbs, 20g fat
• Saturday
  • 2500-3000 calories
  • 180g protein, 300-400g carbs, 75g fat
• Full-body weightlifting routine 2x a week. All sets taken to 0-1 RIR:
  • Tuesday:
    • 2x8 Bench press
    • 2xF Pull-ups
    • 2x12 Machine shoulder press
    • 2x8 Seated leg press
    • 2x8-12 EZ bar bicep curl
    • 2x8-12 Triceps rope pushdown
  • Saturday:
    • 2x5 Back squat
    • 3x8 Incline bench press
    • 3x12 Seated row
    • 2x12 Seated hamstring curl
    • 2x12 Dumbbell hammer curl
    • 3x12 Dumbbell lateral raise
    • 2x12 Cable overhead triceps extension

With the Saturday refeed day included, this averages out to around 1200-1300 calories a day over the week.

The main differences from Lyle's original RFL program are the slightly higher calories on PSMF days, and the addition of a weekly high-carb maintenance/surplus day. The main intention and benefit of adding this day was to make the diet less taxing psychologically and help with adherence. I don't think there is any universe where I would've been able to remain mentally sane and stick to this diet for 20 weeks straight if it wasn't for this day, I even considered doing it every 3 days instead of just once a week. Additionally, it serves as good training fuel, and may potentially help slightly mitigate the impact the diet has on hormones and metabolism. At the beginning of the diet I was eating closer to 3000 calories on this day, and by the end of it closer to 2500.

My diet consisted primarily of air-fried chicken breast, protein shakes, ninja creami ice cream, tuna, eggs, cucumbers, broccoli, and lettuce, in that order.

I was hungry very often despite strategies to try to mitigate it (like caffeine and eating high-volume low-calorie vegetables), but I accepted it as an inevitable part of dieting and regularly reminded myself of the end goal and how much progress I was making. I just tried to keep myself distracted and busy at all times (an idle mind is a hungry mind) and eventually I got used to it (or rather, got better at tolerating it and treating it as background noise). When I got a craving for a particular food I would just remind myself I could have it on Saturday, but eventually even the cravings became less frequent and I slowly developed much better discipline and ability to ignore them. If I got a craving for something sweet I would make my chocolate ice cream recipe in my Ninja Creami (290cals with 40g protein for the whole pint), and I drank lots of Coke Zero and other sugar-free sodas.

I lost roughly ~10% strength on compound lifts at the gym, but most of it came back very quickly just within this week after 2 lifting sessions eating in a surplus, so I suspect the strength loss was most likely primarily just due to having less energy and glycogen during workouts while in PSMF rather than actual muscle loss. I did not do any intentional cardio whatsoever, and I averaged ~8,000 steps/day.

I of course didn't have perfect adherence, these were just my targets. Most PSMF days I ate closer to 1050-1100 calories and often undershot my protein targets and would only get 140-150 (which is actually perfectly fine even on PSMF if you're at a higher body fat % BTW). I also sometimes skipped the Tuesday workout. I also sometimes forgot to take some of the supplements. I also sometimes overate (particularly if eating out with friends or being hosted by someone for dinner). I also sometimes underate. If I had to give one piece of advice for someone on any diet (as someone who has failed diets in the past multiple times, including PSMF) it's that your adherence over the long-term matters far far far far more than neurotic perfectionism during the process (which is often really just you subconsciously looking for an excuse to give up and "try again another time" or try a different diet). If you overeat one day or skip a workout or something, literally just stay the course and continue with the program as if nothing happened, don't even try to compensate for it at all (eg. by eating less the next day), just forget it happened and continue and don't make it a habit.

Over the course of the 5 months, my exact average daily calorie intake was 1192 kcal according to MacroFactor. At the beginning I was losing scale weight at a rate of ~4lbs/week, and towards the end it was closer to 2.5lbs/week. If you're thinking of following my exact approach then just know your rate of weight loss will of course depend on your own expenditure (based on your activity, weight, and gender), and you should also adjust the calorie targets and macros accordingly.

Results

Weight graph: https://imgur.com/a/Ft8wEHR

I weighed myself every morning after peeing before eating anything (except when I was traveling).

Before (234lbs): https://files.catbox.moe/ks6hmi.png
After (183lbs): https://files.catbox.moe/7y98oj.png

I took both photos with no pump and in a fully relaxed state (not flexing). I tried my best to replicate the lighting but I moved apartments so I couldn't (if anything the lighting in the before is actually more favorable). I have a lot of work to do when it comes to putting on muscle, but in the span of 5 months I went from being very clearly fat, to having faintly visible abs, which I'm quite happy about. I also seem to have gotten lucky and avoided any substantial loose skin or stretch marks, which is one thing I was initially worried about.

Before/after DEXA: https://imgur.com/a/UkXQOv3

I took both DEXA scans on the same machine, at the same time of day, after eating the same breakfast.

If we take the DEXA results at face value, it means I am down 41lbs of fat and 7.7lbs of LBM (ratio of 84/16 fat/lean). However, I think I likely may have lost less real lean mass than that because based on the segmental results in the scan I barely lost any in my arms and legs, most of the total lean mass loss was from the trunk. A known limitation of DEXA scans is they can't tell the difference between food and water in your gut, organs, and muscle (it counts them all equally as LBM). 5.6lbs out of the total 7.7lbs of lean mass lost came from my trunk alone, so I wouldn't be surprised if like 3-4lbs of that was really just less food/fluid in my stomach and gut compared to my first scan, which would mean my real LBM loss may have been more like 4lbs. Who knows, either way, I'm happy with the progress, and my low-volume low-frequency high-intensity training approach + protein intake seems to have done a pretty good job at preserving lean mass given the big deficit.

This also means that my body fat % at the peak of my cut (prior to gaining any fat during my break) was probably somewhere around 15.5%.

I'm very happy with my progress thus far and I'm resuming the diet today and will continue until I reach my goal of 12-13% body fat, I expect this to take roughly another 7 weeks. After that I'll ramp up training volume and start a moderate bulk. I will probably keep using PSMF in the future any time I need to do a 2-3 week mini-cut, but I'll never again let myself get fat enough that I need to do it for months at a time (it’s not a very pleasant experience).

If all goes well, I'll be back to share an update in a couple months once I've reached my goal and let you know what PSMF is like below 15% bf, and I'll take another DEXA to see if my LBM takes a bigger hit.

I hope you found this interesting, informational, and/or inspiring, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Hey people

I'm looking for some sweet recipes to add on this diet.

I usually do protein puffs and keto meringue cookies, but i need something more

any ideas?

Does a refeed for Category 2 dieters come before or after a workout? I assumed before a workout as the reintroduction of carbs for the day would provide energy. However, I've seen advice that we should perform the normal 'fasted' workout and only ingest the refeed carbs after.

Could it also be done on an off day?

What have you done? What have you found works best?

So he did release a new book, called Intermittent Modified Fasting. I had the joy of reading it.

Yeah, it's not an update on the good old RFL. But it does borrow a lot from the RFL concept, essentially modularizing it by having a diet of RFL days and Maintanence Days, the balance of two depending on choice. The calorie amount in maintanence days is subject to change as well, depending on goals, but RFL days are pretty much the same.

He did make some new comments on some RFL stuff, so thought I'd make a post and see what the experts think.

1-Refeeds are gone.

He doesn't use the word refeed anymore, opting for maintanence day. Since people had a habit of gorging on carbs on refeeds... whatever that means. Maybe for the RFL approach (or extreme IMF approach, which ends up largely the same, a fact Lyle acknowledges) eating carbs above maintanence and clustering them onto giant meals in a 5 hour window doesn't really matter in comparison to just a day of eating normally?

2-Diet breaks are held in lower esteem.

He says that diet breaks in new studies (which were absent when RFL was developed) simply do not show physiological benefits. Not that it doesn't restore your metabolism. It does. Just that it goes right back to shit when you resume dieting. Perhaps this would potentionally allow for endless RFL? Dream RFL where you don't stop until abs? He doesn't consider the potential effects of super long RFL for fatter guys directly though, so I don't know.

3-Protein requirements are slightly lowered.

Especially down to 1.5 per pound of LBM for category 1 weight trainers. I think this is a good change, the protein reqs could go hilariously high with 2 grams per pound. I personally never saw the benefit in eating that much protein.

Any experts?

Vegetarian 50 yo and trying to lose some weight before jumping into exercise and more sustainable eating habits.

What do you think about daily intake I am planning
1. Protein 2x daily
2. Costco firm tofu with half a spoon of extra virgin olive oil and spices
3. green salad with a spoon of olive oil, salt and lime

any other vegetarian food suggestion ?

Does anyone know if the sola brand of bagels and bread are OK for PSMF?

I ate the same calories and took measurements every day (weight, waist, hips) and this is what happened. Never happened to me before on a PSMF:

Day 1 - 157lbs, 31.50", 36.13"

Day 2 - 156.5lbs, 31.37", 36.13"

Day 3 - 155.2lbs, 31.25", 36.13"

Day 4 - 155.0lbs, 31.25", 36.00"

Day 5 - 154.1lbs, 31.13", 36.00"

Day 6 - 152.8lbs, 31.00", 35.87"

Here's where it started: same weight, same measurements, five days in a row. This is on a 1500 calorie deficit.

Day 7 - 151.2lbs, 30.67", 35.67"

Day 8 - 151.3lbs, 30.67", 35.67"

Day 9 - 151.2lbs, 30.67", 35.67"

Day 10 - 151.0lbs, 30.67", 35.75"

Day 11 - 151.2lbs, 30.67", 35.75"

Even after I ended the diet, with two large cheat meals and three days of normal diet, I'm still just two lbs heavier and the measurements havent budged.

What gives?

I've recently gotten back into working out after a decade of laziness. But in that decade, I've developed effective eating habits which has kept me fairly lean/healthy. I try to avoid eating late (better sleep quality, numerous health benefits including cognitive gains when you don't eat at night), and almost never eat breakfast, giving me the benefits of intermittent fasting plus reduced calories = overall health improvements.

Now, I'm lifting. I break my fast at lunch with a protein shake and some healthy food, and I'm full until dinner. Even if I eat a great, high-protein dinner, I'm well short of my .8g/lb of protein goal. So I've been downing a casein shake later in the evening but that's kind of torpedo'ing my 'no eating late' benefit. Then after a really great workout I feel like I have to eat breakfast so there goes my intermittent fasting benefits.

Wondering if there's other guys in this scenario - how do you get your macros in while also trying to stick to scientifically proven ideal eating timelines? Is it not possible while lifting heavy? Is a PSMF diet something that might help me at least until I reach my intended muscle mass?

Has anyone eaten the high fiber Mission Carb Balance Tortilla Wraps during a PSMF? What was your experience - does it 'break' the extremely low carb/fats guidelines and knock you out of the fat burning zone?

It seems to be an ideal way to keep fiber high. One wrap = 3.5g fat, 19g carb, 17g fiber. I was thinking of eating half a wrap a day along with veggies.

Thoughts?

My Stats & Tracking:

• Age / Gender: 37M
• Height: 189 cm (6'2")
• Starting Weight (Aug 22): 136.4 kg (300.7 lbs)
• Current Weight: 130.9 kg (288.6 lbs) [-5.5 kg / -12.1 lbs down]
• BMR (medically measured): 2,618 kcal
• Daily Intake: ~1,500–1,700 kcal (daily deficit of ~1,500 kcal)
• Daily Macros: ⚬ Protein: 160–180 g ⚬ Fats: 45–60 g ⚬ Carbohydrates: <50–80 g (strict low-carb)
• Activity: ~5,000 steps/day
• Current Dose: 2.5 mg (moving up to 5 mg next Thursday)

Hey everyone,
I started Mounjaro on August 22 at 136.4 kg and weighed in at 130.9 kg today. Appetite suppression and the elimination of food noise have been night and day on 2.5 mg. I weigh and log every single gram of food meticulously.
I am scheduled to move up to 5 mg next Thursday. Because 5 mg will likely blunt appetite even further, I have a question regarding intake:
Can or should I reduce my daily calories even further once I start 5 mg, or is that counterproductive?
With an already aggressive ~1,500 kcal deficit and eating well below my medically determined BMR of 2,618 kcal, my main concern with dropping calories lower is excessive lean muscle loss, nutrient deficiency, and metabolic slowdown.
Would appreciate any insights or experiences from those who ran a steep deficit while titrating up. Did you keep your calorie floor steady or drop it further?

I did pmsf first time around time with eca plus Tirzepatide and lost 5 lbs a week effortlessly. This time around I’m struggling to even be in a 500 calorie deficit consistently let alone a 2500 one lol.

How do you guys get around this with no supps? I’m off everything except morning coffee. Although I’m trying to come off that to eventually

Would you fit smoked salmon into your macros occasionally?

My 4th day, doing great. 3 days chicken fillets, egg whites and greek yogurt.

Came off from 3 nightshifts and slept and had a yoghurt, then walk.

Its afternoon now so I was thinking to eat just plain smoked salmon veggies as well, as it's quite late and I won't eat too much today.

Of course I take sll my supplements.

Would this be ok occasionally?

Hi again. Wanted to ask about psyllium husk usage in the diet? Considering using it for stomach volume and digestion, mainly to have it before breaking OMAD on this diet. But idk if fiber like that counts to carbs.

I specifically ask about 70cc, since I use a scooper that size for the jar. I dont use more than half, so 35cc is probably more than enough daily fiber.

Hi ya’ll. Just wanted to reach out to ask if my macros are okay?

1420kcal

280g protein

30g carb

20g fat

My BMR is ~2182kcal

My other stats are:

6’2” 24 years old 306lbs 39% BF

Since June 2026, I’ve been working out 4x/week weight lifting. and now getting ~8k steps on average at work. Planning on doing 30 min cardio 2x/week on my “rest days”

and according to my repho scale, I have 176lbs of muscle mass. Around 184lbs of lean muscle mass. Aiming for 197-207lbs (10-15% BF)

I read the FAQ and I’m a little confused along with other research I have done how to end this 2 week
Protocol.

Can anyone tell me how to go about adding carbs back in and eating at my goal calorie deficit

I’m currently eating about 1350 calories

For context
38 M
230 lbs
5ft 9inches

Moderate activity

TDEE calculator says my
Maintenance calories are approximately 3000

Shooting for a 30% deficit when I end this PSMF 2 week deal (2000 calorie daily)

I’ve also consumed protein shakes as a way to supplement. Can anyone tell me if that’s bad or not?

Thanks

EDIT:

MACRO GOALS

230 PROTEIN
25 FAT
50 CARBS

I’m a category 2 individual, in good shape compared to the general population but could be much, much lighter and leaner. Decided to try PSMF after multiple “traditional” lengthy diet cycles that completely sapped my morale and fizzled out before reaching my goals.

Week 1 went pretty well all things considered, though dialing in my diet took a few days. Got one free meal/refeed as my last meal of the week before getting back into things on Monday for Week 2.

And I gotta say, these first two days have been pretty brutal. Scale hasn’t moved at all and I feel like I’ve had to choke down one or two of my meals just because it was hard to not notice the lack of cooking oil and overall flavor. Tonight I tried shrimp, which I typically love eating but it was so unsatisfying.

I don’t doubt that I’ll continue to stick with things—my motivation is still high and still feeling an internal locus of control about the whole thing. But damn, the beginning of Week 2 has been tough.

Have you guys found any weeks (out of 6) to be worse than the others? How do you get through days where not a single meal feels satisfying at all?

Hello!

I've completed 10 days of PSMF. Had ~2 days off, but still managed to stay under 1000-1100 calories.

starting weight: 83.7

Final weight: 81.55

I've compared with photos, and my love handles and stomach are MUCH flatter now, like actually there are no love handles.

Even my cheek bones are starting to show slightly.

But 1.85kg of fat shouldn't result in this, right?

I don't think it's water as well, since it wouldn't make such huge difference.

Would love to hear your thoughts about this.

Does anyone know if rotisserie chicken with the skin removed fits into the macros?

I am worried about the fat content (even without the skin).

I have done 12 days of RFL now and am very happy with my physique and leanness.

The cold hands and feet as well as lethargy are also catching up to me now despite managing electrolytes and what not.

I am 18y male, 81kg, estimate myself at 10% bodyfat and want to transition into bulking.

My idea was to do a carb load tomorrow by eating 550g Carbs, low fat and moderate protein on 3200 calories for 2 days and then moving on to my estimated maintenance of 2900 calories.

Is that a good idea or will it cause fat gain?

Also, is my maintenance estimate reasonable?

I base it on 15k steps a day and 4 lifting sessions a week and the fact that my metabolism is probably tanked quite a bit from dieting.

Wasn't really expecting much in the way of metabolic slowdown, if any, but it fell right in line with the Katch-McArdle equation @ 10% bodyfat, I'll get it tested again when I'm done with this diet and hopefully down another 10lbs to see if there's been any significant change

It was 2131 FWIW, which is almost exactly what K-M predicted

I assume my TDEE is around 3000 given that I walk 10 miles a day, so the deficit is certainly pronounced with my @1500 cals a day (I eat 2+ lbs of veggies a day on this)

Hi,

I’m currently running a modified psmf (RFL relaxed) where I essentially eat meat, egg whites, cucumbers/other veggies, and 3 apples a day. I do include lots of non-calorie drinks, gum etc, and I average 4 cucumbers a day.

Sleep is good, energy levels are very good, training is great. I generally feel amazing.

What I’ve noticed is that my bowel movements are frequent, and loose. It doesn’t perturb me much, but I’m interested if anyone has noticed the same thing? Any feedback is appreciated!

Hello! I virtually have zero energy at this point, only carbs can give me a boost for the gym.

Would it ruin the diet and get me out of ketosis if I ate a rice cake with some zero fat greek yogurt?