I have some ideas as to why but let me lay out my details and hopefully the group can help me get a reality check:
32/f 5’3” SW: 150 CW: 148 GW: 130
OMAD M-F.
Same meal each night: 4oz grilled chicken + salad w/black beans, quinoa, bell peppers, onions, corn, sweet potato and homemade dressing: olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice salt/pepper. Protein shake w/ pure protein (24g protein) cup blueberries + a banana, blended with water. I aim for 1200 calories and try to get as much protein as I can based on my height
Weekends: OMAD/2MAD, likely take out, Friday night I tend I have ~2 homemade cocktails.
I don’t work out, I go on an hour-long walk about three times a week and have a sedentary job.
I understand that my weekends are probably screwing up my week, but I was hoping to see more change considering how much I was eating regularly compared to my OMAD eating schedule.
Before OMAD I was eating at least two times a day, and many of my meals were not made at home.
Sometimes the gains we make are hidden b/c of the metrics we use. Overall weight can be a bit of a blunt instrument. Have you measured your body composition? You may be down on fat, but have more muscle/bone mass now. I use a body composition scale, which helps me track how I’m doing at a more meaningful level. Good work on taking control of your life. 🙂
Make sure you’re doing a clean fast (meaning ingesting nothing that will release insulin, ex black coffee or unflavored tea). Makes a huge difference in what goes on in your body during fast. Check out Gin Stephens book “Fast, Feast, Repeat” or “Delay Don’t Deny”. Be patient. Once your body adjusts, you will be able to access your fat stores for energy during the fast incredibly efficiently. You can do this, trust the process and the results you see here. Be patient for a bit and the results will come!
If you’ve only lost 2lbs, then you’re probably eating more than you think you are (could either be your main meal or calories from other sources). At 1200 calories a day, you should have lost more weight for someone weighing 150 lbs.
I haven’t broken OMAD in over a month but I feel like if I did, I would want it to be a week day. I have a sedentary job, so weekends I definitely try to move more. Are you keeping the same calorie restriction for the weekend as well?
I’m curious on what others think you should tweak. Sadly this past week, I’ve gone out for my 1 meal, and I was still down 3 lbs in 4 days, 3 of those days were not home meals. It made me nervous but also doesn’t help on those days when you eat unhealthy and the scale drops lol
Take body measurements! I am going through the same situation. But oh my… body measurements are literally everywhere a few cms down… and i thought I was failing!
I think you need to give the weight progress some time.
What is your eating window? You may get better results depending on waiting until you have been up for four hours before breaking your fast, or not eating anything for eight hours before you go to bed, etc.
Few thoughts
One - if you want to have extra calories on weekend maybe take them out of one or two of your weekdays.
Also, as previous poster noted, maybe use a metric other than weight. Measure your waist, if you are maintaining mass but getting smaller, that’s a great result.
Also if you are very sedentary that’s a bigger health risk than a few extra pounds. I know not everyone is able bodied but if you are, consider changing the other side of the equation by moving more.
Not enough protein, at all. 4oz of meat plus protein powder is just plain inadequate, even for a near-halfling sized lady like yourself, imho
For your height and sex, try eating 120g of real, whole food, 100% bioavailable protein (that is to say, meat) ever single day, at the minimum. It will see like an obnoxiously large amount, most likely, but it isn’t. If you eat that much protein your body will rapidly start approaching your goal and you’ll start feeling better in all kinds of ways that maybe you didn’t even know you weren’t feeling great in.