So I’ve seen that a lot of people lose weight with IF, but I’m wondering if that is done solely through IF or a combination of IF, exercise and calorie restrictions? I’m looking to lose about 45lbs (20kg), and I wonder if Im going to be able to achieve that solely through 16:8 IF. Im currently pretty busy so Im only able to fit going swimming once a week into my schedule in terms of exercise, and Im not a huge fan of calorie restriction as I have a previous history of disordered eating and I find that it triggers me.
You still need a calorie deficit to lose weight, even when doing IF. I have found that IF restricts your calories, without even trying.
Eating in 8 hour window prevents me from mindlessly snacking. I typically only eat 2 meals a day while doing IF, so that also restricts my calories. I can usually consume 1600-1800 calories daily without even trying. If I watch what I eat, I will consume about 1200.
I’m doing a combination of IF and exercise. It works for me because it allows me more wiggle room to eat more. I shoot for 2200 calories a day (it’s hard for me to get there with 16:8 though but I still try) and I burn off anywhere from 600-1000 calories in a day with exercise. You don’t have to restrict your calories or even exercise a crap ton, continue with your swimming and just try to hit at least 10,000 steps in a day, which can burn 400-500 calories depending on weights. If it’s hard for you to reach 10k in steps If you do a search on YouTube you can find like these 20-30 minute “10k step challenges”. Just marching in place / doing various steps to reach 10k steps. I hope this helped and I wish you a successful and healthy journey
We’re all a bit different but I did IF and mostly LCHF. I started out 16:8 but as I became used to missing meals and snacks - 2 or 3 weeks - that sort of naturally moved to 18:6, then 20:4 and I ended up doing something approximating OMAD most days, really without trying all that hard. I usually had to get through a period in the afternoon of “hunger” but it was really just habit. If I was busy, I blew through the day without eating. Bored and I got “hungry.”
The key is that as you adapt to burning your own body fat as meals during the fast, you’re naturally less hungry because you’re in fact ‘eating’ all day, just not food you consume. So, yeah, you have to cut calories, but if everything is working correctly you’ll do that naturally when fasting. If you “eat” 1,000 calories of body fat during the fast, that’s 1,000 calories you don’t WANT to consume that day because you don’t need it - it came from stored fat. So the calorie reduction is pretty intuitive, for me at least. I always, always, always ate dinner to satiety, but found that was only maybe 25% or so more than a pre-IF meal. If after dinner I was hungry, I made sure and ate something else - cheese, nuts, another piece of protein, whatever.
Some people do great counting calories and limiting meals. You’ll need to figure out what works, for you. I don’t have a clue what I eat per day and haven’t tracked a single meal in a year that I lost 50lbs, pretty effortlessly, and have kept off for about 6 months now. I’ve in fact lost 3 more pounds in “maintenance” but still doing at least 16:8 each day - it’s now an easy lifestyle. I only concentrate on eliminating junk carbs, sugar, white flour, chips of all kinds, only very few crackers, etc. and tried in general to keep my diet LCHF, which meant snacks of cheese and nuts mostly, and a dinner of meat and whole vegetables. I eat potatoes and rice only occasionally, but still go on occasion to our favorite Mexican place and have tacos and chips with guacamole.
FWIW, I do exercise nearly every day, but it’s really not for weight loss. I put on the weight while exercising the same amount and didn’t bump that up during weight loss. I do it because I feel better when I keep moving, so we’ve been working out 4 mornings a week for years, and I have two dogs and they require multiple daily walks….
I’ve been doing IF 16/8 since January 2. I’m not losing as fast as others. I don’t have a scale But my clothes are fitting better. I figured out what meals I could eat to keep my CI between 1200-1400 a day. Then I pretty much stick to those meals. I eat breakfast burritos (homemade w carb balance tortilla) or hash browns eggs and turkey sausage with a piece of sola toast. Or my favorite, egg sandwich with lettuce cheese ham and avocado. Dinner usually consists of chicken or shrimp with a half baked potato and veggies plus fruit. It’s about portion control and sustainability for me. Sometimes I’ll eat a burger and fries! Then a very light dinner (chicken salad). Now I’m hungry and I have 2 hours to go lol!
IF naturally helps you reduce caloric intake, even if you don’t count calories. I don’t count either, and my only exercise is walking (not heroic distances either). I’m 39F, 5’4”, starting weight 180 lbs. I have so far lost 40 pounds with OMAD since May 2021.
It may be harder to do with 16:8 than with OMAD — but not impossible, if you keep portions reasonable, avoid snacking, and eat more protein and vegetables and less sugar and starch. It’s well worth a try.
IF isn’t just caloric reduction, either. It helps your metabolism by letting your insulin drop back to baseline while you fast, which encourages your body to burn fat instead of storing it. It also helps you feel less hungry.
I suggest reading The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Despite the clickbait title, it’s a really good introduction to why regular calorie-counting doesn’t work, but IF does. I found it fascinating — and really validating. When I previously struggled with calorie counting and trying to eat “six small meals a day” — miserable, anxious, hungry, and not losing much weight — I wasn’t just doing it wrong. I didn’t just need to try harder or measure more stringently. The whole premise was set up for failure from the beginning. I was fighting biology every step of the way.
IF is different. I don’t feel like I’m restricting myself. I’m not constantly counting in my head and worrying all the time about going over the limit. I feel like I’m working with my body, not fighting it. That extends to listening to my body and learning what it’s truly trying to communicate. I feel like I’m a lot more compassionate towards my body now.
I just focus on eating lots of colorful veggies and protein. I counted calories when I ate more processed food, and it was very slow going, weight loss wise. When I switched to whole foods and dropped sugar and flour, the weight came off much more freely.
I subscribe to the idea that what you want to do is control your insulin to control your body set weight. Otherwise you can restrict, and it will work for a time, but the weight has a tendency to come back, and it becomes very hard to maintain a weight loss. But everyone is different.
This was a game changer for me, and helped me make sense of my experiences, including memories of a very sick grandmother who was under hospital observation trying to loose weight in the 90s, but continued to gain weight.
I don’t know if it works the same for everybody though. 34F here, I started with 16:8 then moved up to 20:4 then now OMAD, i didn’t reduce my calories, or practice CICO instead i did more of like a caloric redistribution. Whereas majority my calories used to come from unhealthy junk food, carbs and unhealthy fatty foods, i replaced them with high quality protein, vegetables, nuts, berries and healthier fats like olive oil and avocado. I eat up to 3000 calories in a day. And I have gone down from 18lbs in the last 4 weeks which was when i started. Again, this is what is working for me and has worked for me before.
I do not count calories but I feel that by fasting and cutting out all the snacking I used to do I have drastically reduced calorie intake. I’m a bit more mindful of what I eat when I do eat but in no way counting calories.
Yes I do keep an eye on calories - I’m not like meticulously counting every single thing anymore but at first I did. Not over eating (or severely under eating) also matters.
Honestly I’ve found with my 20:4 schedule I struggle more with making sure I eat enough.
I think you have to do CICO, too. I’ve been IF for 4 months now (started at 6 weeks postpartum with 32 lbs to lose). I lost 20 fairly quickly by counting my calories. Stopped counting and have now plateau’d for about 4 weeks. Frustrating. Gotta count calories for it to work I think.