IF doesn’t work for me anymore?
Hi all,
A little backstory, I discovered IF back in 2016 when my belly was pretty big and I was getting concerned because none of my pants fit. Between 2016 to 2017 I successfully applied IF to myself and lost about 5 kg and 10 cm of my waist. From 65kg to 59-60kg, and from 89cm to 79cm. Note that I’m not really concerned about losing weight. In fact I would like to GAIN weight and muscle, but without gaining the belly.
After my success with IF and being in my best shape in the last decade or so, I eased off IF and started eating more “normal.” I come from Indonesia where people feel if you don’t have white rice in your meal, then it isn’t a meal. I completely cut out white rice during IF, opting instead for brown rice, or just no rice at all, which I believe is where most of my success came from. After I started easing off IF I started re-introducing white rice into my diet, but really not that much. Between 2017-2019 I gained a couple kilos and several centimeters back, but I was still in pretty good shape so I wasn’t so concerned.
Then 2020 and pandemic arrived, along with a whole lotta staying at home. I really fell off the bandwagon this year. Just ate and drank whatever without thinking of consequences, and as a result I am back at my 2016 level, which is rather depressing for me. My body weight is 63 kg, and my waist circumference is 88-89cm. It took so much work to lose all that weight and waist, yet took so little to gain it all back. Again I’m not so concerned about body weight, but am really concerned about my waistline.
The last 2 weeks I have started IF again. A typical day would be like this:
I have been doing the above for the past two weeks, but with ZERO changes, which is just infuriating for me. Note that the above is exactly what I did in 2016 with great success in a relatively short time, but now I have zero results. In fact some days I would GAIN weight and waist, and I would just be like what the flying fudge??
The one big difference between 2016 and 2020 for me would probably be the amount of exercise I do, specifically weight lifting. I weight lifted a lot in 2016, just the basics like bench press, shoulder press, back rows, deadlifts, lunges, planks, and the likes. I went to an actual gym with complete equipments to do all those. Now in 2020 I still exercise at home, but nowhere near the amount nor the intensity of 2016. It’s just not the same at all exercising in my backyard with make-shift equipments compared to a real gym. Although, when I exercise I usually exercise fasted in the morning.
My questions are:
Thank you very much
I think you’re evaluating too quickly. The body tries to resist change, so just starting up IF will take a while to see some results. Just like when you’re losing weight and fall off the bandwagon, it takes a while to start gaining weight. Same concept. Stick to it, worse case at least it should stop you from gaining more weight. Good luck.
In that time (2016-2020) you have aged, and your hormones/gut-health might have changed.
My tldr answer is, research the carnivore diet if you’re stuck in your weight-loss journey! (it will also help to progress to prolonged-fasting if you become fat/protein adapted!)
Fast long enough, you will always lose weight so there is that. Try more hardcore omad and alternate day if you ever want to break through a plateau, which you always will hit. Your body doesnt like losing all the weight!
I always recommend people only weight once a month, and stick to a solid 1500 calorie OMAD monday to Friday. I have yet to meet anyone who did not see great results from that. half a pound of fat is 1750 calories, so if you are at 3k tdee and eat 1500, you should lose around half a pound a day, but water weight, and inflamation and a host of other things can make up that pound day to day, after a month though you will lose.
I have been doing this around the same amount of time, and I go up and down, but the last 6 months I have been doing exactly what I just suggested and I have seen amazing results. And I mean, I still eat carbs, and sugar (just way less) I drink beer and wine still too often. I do whatever I want on weekends, I have lunch some days when I really feel I just want to a lot. The key is long time consistency! Best of luck!