I used to really overweight 7years ago(I lost 51kgs in 200)

My lowest weight was 60kgs because I have always exercised and did weights.
But working in a newsroom has destroyed my eating patterns because I'm always stressed and I get comfort from food.

After 1.5 years of avoiding the scale- I recently found out that I gained 8 kgs that is slowly starting to affect my self esteem.

Diet mode now and confused about IF - will I gain the weight back on fast once I go back to normal eating schedule? Help!

Intermittent fasting is not, by itself, a diet. All it means is that for a period of time you don't eat.

When you eat does not matter in the context of fat gain or fat loss. Calories matter.

Regardless of what protocol you follow to lose fat, you will regain what you lost if you return to your previous eating habits. To maintain the loss one must not resume the dietary habits they followed prior to dieting. This is why people on this site will often refer to the changes they are making as lifestyle changes and not a temporary diet.

I agree with John, fasting is more a lifestyle than diet. It is great for maintaining, and many people use it for weight loss too. I fast a little differently from John. "Fasting" for me, involves 500 cal/day for female, twice weekly, and eat regularly (hopefully healthy) on the other 5 days of the week. You can break your 500 cals into two meals or just eat one. You can drink tea, water etc but no other cals during day.
It is not really very hard after the first couple weeks and it's nice not to have to count calories.

Thank you guys. True that I shouldn't even be asking for diet like advice because leaving my healthy 6yr lifestyle got me in this mess.

I'm busy with getting back to eating a 95 percent clean diet then doing the 14-16hr IF everyday. That's more doable for me. John: how do schedule your cheat meals or cheat days...I sure belive in indulging once in a while. But what do suggest?

I do this too and I highly recommend it...you can look up 5:2 or The Fast Diet if you're interested.

On this plan, once you reach your goal weight, you maintain by fasting (500 calories) once a week instead of two.

I'm not there yet, but its so manageable right now and maintenance seems manageable, too. Unlike other "diets" where maintenance seems like it can be scary and just as difficult as losing weight.

In the context of fat loss/gain calories matter. Not how "clean" you eat nor the number of days you "indulge".

My suggestion it to find a way of eating that makes it easiest for you.