Hy guys, so I started IF in the middle of summer. I am a 24yo female, 170 cm in height (5.57 ft) and 60,5 kg (133.5 lbs) in weight.
When I started I was about the same weight then now. I had quite a few cheat days or periods of time when I was not able to do 16-8 IF (travelling, vacation or activities that required me to have energy all day like dancing camp…).
But nonetheless I try to do as many days a week as I can, but I still am not loosing weight. I know I am already at a very good range, but I want to loose 5 more kg until I reach 56-55 kg. I do not think I overeat during the eating period (there are of course exceptions).
I have been training ever since covid started, but in the last 6 months I barely did any. (But I was still very active, dancing, biking, hiking).
Before I started IF I did like 2 months when I only ate about 1500 kcal a day and that had a good result.
So should I start calorie restriction again, or stick with IF, or do calorie restriction and IF together?
Not gonna lie, 1500 kcal is not a lot, so keeping IF is easier in this regard.
Any advice on what to do?
I’ll take a guess that your underlying goal is to look more fit and feel better, given your already reasonably low weight. In that case, you might want to go with exercise to build some muscles rather than restrict food. Personally the best I’ve looked was when I worked out very regularly - I didn’t see a change in weight, maybe 1-2kg, but the visual difference was significant.
Calories still matter and if you had that many cheat days of course you won’t see results. Your best bet is to find what works for your life. Consistency is the only way you will get and maintain results.
“Calories IN and Calories OUT”
I’ll be honest that bullshit never worked for me. If it was that simple the entire world would be slim.
If you eat less, your body just down regulates the metabolism keeping you at square 1 that simple.
I’d forget calorie counting, and forget this window or that window its just too convoluted and self restricting.
Here’s what you do, eat once a day, how much you feel like, what you feel like, when you feel like. But once.
That gives your body the other 23 frikkin hours every day to bring insulin down and lipase up.
I did various IF protocols the whole of 2021, nothing. The only thing, and I mean the only thing that made things change for me is omad. No calorie counting, no exercise, no particular fuss over what and how much and when, you just eat like a normal human being, once, and then go about your day. It’s beautiful and elegant and it just f-ing works.
Look at the most spectacular transformations here, they always end up at omad to make the thing happen, and this is exactly what I’ve found about all of this.
Calories IN and Calories OUT, you don’t need to understand anything more, check your calories and track your weight weekly, if It goes up or down. If happens to do cheat meals or cheat days and you can’t check your calories for that meal/day then you should just avoid it because probably that meal/day is ruining all your progress.
The great thing about fasting is you can fast more. You could think about it in a way that it’s not that IF has stopped working, but that it may be time to increase your fasting window. Some people have success overcoming a plateau doing an extended fast. If you usually do 16:8 could give OMAD a try? You could always ease into it by doing it 2-3 times a week. And sticking to 16:8 the rest of the time. Jason Fung sometimes reccomends trying an extended fast e.g 36 hours. Eat dinner one day, don’t eat the next day, then have breakfast the following.
You’re basically at an ideal BMI range, its going to be tough losing any more weight at this point.
Calorie restriction never worked in the long-run for weight loss - read up on actual studies. So don’t do it.
Working out/exercising is great for overall health, but it does very little for actual, sustained weight loss.