I swing between feeling like I’m not doing enough because I’m not counting macros, and feeling like I’m gonna get sucked into a hole of weighing leaves of lettuce again. The fasting is no problem for me, but I feel like I shouldn’t be eating when I can, though I do and then feel both satisfied and freaked because I’m not counting anything, just eating reasonable portions of foods I like until I feel full. I know I’ve chosen IF to get away from the trap of counting, but I don’t know how to get away from the worry that I’m eating too much when I do eat. Not weighing is a double-edged sword, because though I won’t obsess over fluctuations, it’s harder to tell if I’m losing.
Does anyone have similar feelings? How are you working through them?
I started IF about a month ago and I have a (suspected) ED. I’m not tracking anything during my 18:6, but I was definitely eating like an asshole in the beginning. Something about making sure I ate enough to get through my fasting window, except I don’t get too hungry during this time anyway. And then I would eat till I almost felt sick! I’m still learning how to do this, but I’m trying to treat my body better by being a little more reasonable with what I eat and seeing how I feel. When it comes to losing weight, my clothes are fitting a little better and I think that’s a good NSV. Good luck to you :)
Are you me..?!?! Because damn - everything you just said is why I’ve been struggling to stick to IF for the past few years! I start doing it, then feel like it’s not enough, so I’ll start tracking calories… then I get super overwhelmed and stop all of it because I don’t want to feed into my ED. Then I go back to trying to casually fast, but feel like I should be tracking SOMETHING (calories, hours fasted, water..?!? I need to see numbers!!). I’ve seriously debated redownloading an IF tracking app about 5 times today alone :/
I threw out my scale a few years ago because of my ED and how triggering the scale can be, and I definitely don’t regret that. I’m trying to base any weight loss off of how my clothes fit because that’s truly the biggest motivation for me… to be comfortable in my clothes again!
I’m struggling as well and hope someone can offer some solid advice on this dilemma… Just know you’re not alone!!
I wish I had some answers, but just wanted to say to OP and the other commenters that you are not alone. I did keto and i.f. very successfully for almost a year and then had a brain spasm and all the cico, tracking, logging, macros, etc became insufferable. I keep re-starting and half the time I can’t remember what I am doing. Trying right now to do 20-4 and eat predominately whole foods without any tracking or logging or carb counting. It seems easy on paper, but not so easy in reality. I just can’t face all the worry about macros and carbs and so on. It raises my anxiety and triggers over-eating.
I think of it like this: you either restrict portions or you restrict what you eat in the first place.
Restricting portions is appealing on the surface because, yay, I get to eat whatever I want still.
Restricting what I eat in the first place is appealing because, yay, I can eat until I’m good and full and I don’t have to track a damn thing.
After fiddling with the first choice on and off for a couple years, I’ve now been on the second option for a few months — no more plateauing, no more measuring, and I love everything I eat! I’ll never go back