Hi there. I’ve been IF for about a month now & have not noticed a budge in my scale or how clothes fit. I am fasting from 7pm to 11am. I mainly eat 2 meals/day (occasionally I snack), I’m working with a nutritionist, so my food intake is relatively healthy & well balanced. My Resting Metabolic Rate is 1700 & my calorie intake is usually at or below that. I’m exercising 5 times a week (once a week on Pilates reformer, once a week with a personal trainer, & the rest on my own). I’m 4 months postpartum with 2 kids under 2 years old (so my body has been through a lot). I have hypothyroidism but have had regular levels since I gave birth, 4 months ago. I’m starting to lose motivation by not seeing results & wondering if I’m doing something wrong? When did you start noticing results??
I’m sorry you haven’t seen the scale budge, you may have to narrow down that eating window a bit. For me personally omad was even maintenance and I had to extend my fasting. Since you’re a woman I’m a huge fan of this female focused intermittent fasting podcast The Fasting Method (Ep 52 all things TRE) here’s a good Ep to get started on. These two women are lovely and empathetic and I’ve learned so much from them during my fasting journey.
Weight-loss is more challenging for women because of hormones and being post partum even more so. Prolactin makes your body wants to bulk up in order to produce milk for your child. You can expect Prolactin to affect your body for at least 6 months postpartum. I assume you’re not breastfeeding, because you would be medically advised against fasting as it would affect milk quality and infant nutrition. The history of hypothyroidism is another complicating factor.
Have you noticed any changes in your hunger level or satiety after eating?
You might need to tough it out a few months before results.
Hi it may take you a bit to fine tune what works for you, firstly ditch the snacking and close your eating window. Not sure if you’re snacking outside your feeding window but if you are it’ll totally defeat the purpose of IF. Also ditch the lean protein, the idea that fats are bad is outdated, get some natural fats in there to improve your satiety and you’ll find you don’t need to snack. Also if you have a smart watch, have it track your steps. Aim for double your usual daily step count, I do 20k steps but for most people 10k is great. Do that consistently. Don’t need to do that all at one time but by the end of the day. Walking is one of the best fat burners and its easy, I don’t even go out, just walking around the house.
I used to do IF a lot from noon till 8pm but never really saw progress till I did keto.
I did keto for the last nine months until a month of constant celebration meals made it untenable.
Then I switched from keto to OMAD for a bit, found that too rough, so I’ve simply moved my eating window back to 2pm.
Technically I can eat till 10pm now but realistically I stop eating at 8, generally a 6 hour window.
That seems to be the best balance of restricted eating but not worrying about what’s actually on the plate. Still been losing weight and avoiding bloating and inflammation.
So maybe see if you can push back your first meal till early afternoon. Made a big difference for me.
You are already making so much progress with all the healthy habits you have implemented in your lifestyle. It’s understandable that you may be feeling discouraged when results don’t come as quickly as we’d like, but it’s important to remember that progress is not linear and it takes time to see results.
Given your medical history, I would suggest ordering the Thyroid Profile II (Comprehensive) test from private md labs. This test will provide a more comprehensive look at your thyroid hormones, which can help give insight into why you may not be seeing the results you want despite all of the hard work you are putting in.
I hope this helps - keep up the good work and stay motivated!