I dropped fat when my eating window was smaller--like 4 to 6 hours.

I can easily eat over my maintenance level with an 8 hour eating window.

Also, dropping "aerobic exercise" frequency & adding in more "moving slowly" can help. Lower cortisol is essential for that last bit of belly fat.

You don't sound like a candidate for the leptin reset, from what you've shared, IMO.

You sound very much like me but a couple of inches taller. Dropped from 185/190 to 160/165 over the past year on LC paleo. I cut back on cardio (now just do HIIT) and started body weight and kettlebell exercises. I leaned out nicely but still had a bit of a belly bump at 165. Two things seemed to make it go away: daily eating window (12-8) and almost completely cutting out booze. Once I stuck to those 2 things, it was a matter of about 3 weeks and no belly. That was until this past June. With summer came increased booze consumption / decreased quality sleep. The belly came back with a vengeance and I was 170 lbs by August. Have reintroduced the above strategy and it's coming back off again.

Primal movements are fine, but I would drop the aerobics. It keeps cortisol high which inhibits fat burning, especially around the mid-section.

I think different things work for different people. I would stick with the IF for a while, and be as strict as possible to give it a fair chance. If you go for a month or two and if you feel like you are not getting the results you would like, then move on. Then at least you know it wasn’t for you.

I'd go with the leptin reset over the IF. To be sure you are LR, you can get tested. If all you have is some belly fat, you will probably notice a big difference in 2-3 weeks. Most people on the MDA reset thread have other issues that take longer to fix. Read what Dr. Kruse has to say about doing IF when you are LR. He does not think it is a good idea at all.

Speaking from experience, belly fat is an absolute pain in the gut. :)

One thing I'd caution you about, though, is expecting results from a week's worth of fasting alone. It has taken me a few months to get as lean as I am now, and I'm still (admittedly) not where I want to be in terms of body composition.

If I can offer a few tips:

1. Cut out the snacks. Nixing the gut won't force you to count calories, but it does require that you might be a little more mindful of them overall. Eat two meals a day, keep exercise consistent, and try to cut down on excess snacks if you don't actually need them to feel full.

2. You might not need a refeed just yet. What I've been doing recently is keeping my carb intake around 50g daily for a few weeks before doing a refeed on the (second) weekend. This combined with daily intermittent fasting has given me the best results I've seen in months, as reduced carb intake during the week also helps keep my calories low enough to really burn that excess belly fat.

3. Give it time. Above all else, this is the most important thing to do. The body has built-in mechanisms to hold on to this stubborn fat, so don't expect them to vanish within a few days to a week. It'll take time, so don't stress -- you're on the right path, for one, and you're still in the best shape you've probably ever been in, so don't forget that whenever you're poking your gut in front of the mirror.

Hope this helps! :)

I don't have the answer for you on IFing vs. the leptin reset. However, at 5"11 165-170 you sound like you are at an appropriate weight. You may want to trying adding muscle and it may help with the belly fat.

I tried working out fasted the last few days and have not been very happy with my workouts. I really enjoy walking fasted and IFing but working out fasting does not seem to get me great results. What I will be trying over the next few weeks is working out 1/2 an hour to an hour after eating a little bit of starch (something like half a sweet potato).

Do you eat dairy or nuts often by chance?

My first thought was sleep but you say you get 8-9 hours per night so that's great. Give this thing a shot and see what happens, you can always go back to IFing if you want.

How old are you? For men over 35, I think it's perfectly healthy and natural not to have single digit body fat, and to carry a bit of fat under the skin on the belly, even while eating extremely clean. Most animals experience some fat gain with age, even eating a biologically appropriate diet. I see it with my dogs and cats (who have been raw fed/zero carb for 6 year, my cats for their entire lives).

That's my contribution as I have no experience with weight loss and it seems very different methods work for different members of the 'paleo' community. Do you have any symptoms of leptin resistance?

Do you get enough sun/vit D?

Your not a good candidate for the "reset", even assuming that processes speeds increasing leptin sensitivity. You're too lean and doing too well eating paleo. Sounds like you're in healthy homeostasis and will need to carefully use the right bodybuilding techniques to get to lower bf%. You might start with 40g carbs per day and no snacking. Maybe get some calipers to really know how you're doing.

How much did you weigh when you started paleo a year ago? I went from 220 to 175 (5'11)in the past year, and still have the ol' spare tire. I've had it since I was a kid and I'm 46 now--so not expecting to lose it overnight.

I would look at blood type. Refine/weed out foods. Not sure about LR myself... I do IF and am pretty attatched to it but have gotten in to more of a Joel Marion/Jon Benson type weekly reset simply from eating more carbs one day a week. I wake up feeling great the next day. My weight is fairly plateaued and low irregardless of what I do though...... Fwiw, Brad Pilon, the Eat Stop Eat guy, says leptin isn't the end all be all master hormone people think it is.

I btw don't use dairy or wheat on my high calorie nights-- I just gorge on normal paleo food.