variable loop depth

[ichabod801]

With my suggestion you can completely skip out any time you want to, and restart where you left off. I'm not saying use recursion, I'm saying fake the recursion.

def silly(n, x):
    m = n
    stack = [iter(range(m))]
    total = 0
    while stack:
        try:
            i = stack[-1].__next__()
        except StopIteration:
            stack.pop()
            continue
        total += i
        if total >= x:
            break
        if i == 5:
            m -= 1
            stack.append(iter(range(m)))
    return total

By keeping the stack of iterators yourself, you have complete control over it. You could pass the stack around between different functions doing different things.