Having practiced intermittent fasting for over 5 years I would like to give you a couple of warnings. First, like you I did a 16 hour fasting window and broke that fast in the early afternoon, and like you I lost about 16 pounds and my metabolic numbers improved. I also got a needed back surgery which allowed me to get back to an exercise routine, which helped with weight, blood pressure, and metabolic numbers.

I plateaued on the weight loss but felt pretty good about my basic health until a tumor showed up in my thigh, a non-aggressive cancer which only required surgical removal. As a safety measure though, I got upper body CT scans for 2 years and those revealed moderate calcification of my coronary arteries...yikes. A dye CT angiogram revealed a 65-70% calcified blockage of my left descending anterior coronary artery, also known as the widow maker.

I dove back into research and found that intermittent fasting does NOT convey many, if any metabolic benefits when done as a late feeding window, the practice you and I were/are doing, and that only through an early window do you get the lowering of LDL, insulin resistance, blood pressure, etc, that I was looking for.

Why did my numbers initially improve? It was the WEIGHT LOSS, which the IF definitely helped accomplish..

I have subsequently found that a whole food, plant based diet has been shown to not only stop the progression of heart disease but to actually reverse it, the same for type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, AND important for me and you, it conveys significant protection against cancers, notably breast and prostate, halting and sometimes reversing their progression.

I would recommend NutritionFacts.org (Dr. Michael Greger) ALL the work of Dr. Dean Ornish, who has gained Medicare approval for his lifestyle intervention program for heart disease. Also Dr. Neal Barnard and the videos of The Exam Room (Physicians Committee) on YouTube. I would also add that the science seems clear, animal based foods, definitely including animal protein and most definitely dairy products are cancer promoting, diabetes promoting, and heart disease/vascular disease like stroke promoting.

The most important factor is what you have done already, taking charge of your health, the rest is just gaining knowledge and building habits that serve you...Good Health!