i’ve just started a OMAD fasting regimen and I am getting a roughly 500 to 750 calorie deficit per day.
i’ve been doing it for two weeks straight now, and the scale has not moved at all.
I am tracking my macros religiously so I know I’m not going over— I do drink a lot of high sodium electrolytes, and I am taking a creatine supplement bc I continue to work out almost daily, doing cardio and lifting weights. I’m wondering if this lack of weight loss is related to water weight.
tips,experience?
edit to add that my (F35) goal is to lose 1 pound per week and keep my muscle. I’m currently 130 pounds and would like to get back down to 120.
I was listening to an episode of the podcast The Fasting Method today, episode 67 I think, and one of the hosts said that it takes atleast 24 hours for our bodies to clear the insulin from our bodies and then be able to heal and burn fat. I never heard this before and really explained why OMAD wasn’t effective for me. If you’re insulin resistant, you should do some extended fasts or maybe try alternate day fasting. I’m 36F and the scale is finally budging with 72 hour fasts.
Try extended fasts. Or rolling 24s or 48s. Just like weightlifting you can easily plateau need to change it up to see further progress. I regularly lift while fasting. I’ve done heavy squats and deadlifts 48+ hours into a fast. It’s fine, but you have to work up to it. And your muscles don’t shrivel up and disappear if you don’t feed while lifting. Of course your not going to build muscle if you’re fasting which is no biggie because your goal is to lose weight and get shredded right?
A daily calorie deficit of 500 to 750 should result in weight loss over time, but it’s not uncommon for the scale not to move for several weeks, especially if you are also working out and building muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, so it’s possible that the scale is not moving because you are losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time.
Did you take the same amount of creatine and electrolytes before you started the diet? Both will increase water weight retention. (Not that that is a bad thing)
Additionally, as others have said if your calculation of TDEE is right and you’re at -500 Cals per day, you should to lose around ~1lb/wk. However this is very hard to see in the short term. Some tips to be able to see and understand your weight loss trend as accurately as possible:
Do you really need electrolytes if you are doing omad? I thought electrolytes were for extended fasting . Also, are you adding in excersise calories burned. I’ve seen a lot of people who couldn’t lose when they were eating back calories they thought they lost working out. Someone told me that you should put down sedentary when figuring macros.
That kind of calorie deficit (if accurate) should result in weight loss of roughly 1-1/2 lbs/week.After two weeks that is a maximum of 3-4 lbs, or nothing more than a normal daily fluctuation for a 200 lb man.The purpose of OMAD is to reduce calories by at least 50% (breakfast 300 / lunch 700 / dinner 1000) and that is assuming there was a normal maintenance program to begin with. It is self defeating to use the lone meal period to continue to eat more than a normal meal.
In my first 3 months of working out+fasting post-pandemic, I lost 5 pounds of fat and gained 8 pounds of muscle. I could only tell from a Dexa scan.
If I’d only gone by the scale I would have assumed I was doing something wrong