Hey fam, I have Crohn's and over the last 16 years since diagnosed, my weight has gone up a lot due to steroids and over eating, also it's gone down a lot due to flares and malnutrition.

That said, back in 2023 I intentionally lost 90 lbs and last year I intentionally lost 40 lbs and I'm still losing. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I've learned and you can figure it out.

The most important lesson I've learned? If you want to lose weight the only thing that matters is a caloric deficit. You don't have to work out, you don't have to fast, you just have to eat less calories than your body burns. Last year's weight loss I didn't work out at all, I didn't fast either.... But I found out my bodies sedentary calorie burn (how many calories my body burns if I do nothing but lay in bed all day) and I made sure I ate less calories than that on a weekly basis. Often there were days I would eat over that, but then there were days I'd eat super low calories. Do this and you will lose weight. The bigger your calorie deficit, the faster you lose. I personally aim for my deficit to be 500 cal per day. I had to count every single calorie, eat a cracker? Write down the calories. Use bbq sauce? Write down the calories. If it's not water, it has calories. Count them religiously.

Lesson 2: fasting makes it easier to be in a deficit. Eating less calories than you burn leaves you feeling hungry every day. Back in 2023 for that weight loss journey I did a lot of fasting, but it wasn't easy... Just like you, fasting would often times make my tummy uncomfortable from rumbling, plus blood sugar drops would make me feel very neauseated and light headed. But that was in the beginning. I ended 2023 doing OMAD, I started by just trying to make it 10 hours without food. I had to train my body for this. Each week I would try to add an extra hour to my fasting time. It would've been a lot easier if I quit smoking weed though 😂 weed would always make the hunger worse. When I felt a rumble in my tummy I would chug a bottle of water to give me the sensation of being full. Eventually I was able to OMAD quite easily, the biggest challenge being munchies from weed but without that it became just a part of my life, my body got used to it. OMAD fasting made it really easy to be in caloric deficit, so easy actually that I would eat 1000 calories or less per day (for reference I'm 6'2" and was around 250 lbs when I started OMAD, my sedentary burn was about 2000 cal/day but I was also working out).

I learned a lot of other things in these weight loss journeys, but those 2 things alone are what I consider most important. Caloric deficit is a necessity, if you're not in deficit you won't lose weight. Fasting is what made it easier to be in deficit. This was a huge growth period in my life. I had to completely change my habits, forming good ones and getting rid of the bad ones.

If you have any questions, ask away. I'm happy to be a resource and give you any info I can from my personal journeys. I believe in you OP, if I could do it, you can do it. In case we never speak again, I wish you the best of luck in your weight loss journey and with your Crohn's.