5’6” F, SW 180 CW 174 GW 150
So I’ve been doing IF for nearly 3 months now. My progress has been slow, as you can see by how much I’ve lost, but I’m not too worried about that. My windows are usually 18:6 or 20:4.
The issue I’ve been having is with, well, pooping. I’ve never had a problem with being regular and I usually hit my recommended amount of fiber. But since starting IF, I go 2-3 days without having a BM. I drink plenty of water/liquids so I’m not sure what’s going on.
For the last 3 weeks I’ve gotten into the habit of drinking tea with senna (a laxative) on Sundays. This let’s me “clean house” a bit, and hope for progress during the week - but it doesn’t come. I don’t think this is sustainable, and I want to find a better way.
Has anyone else struggled with this? Did anything help?
This is normal. Toootally normally. I could poop several times a day if I ate every meal. I only poop once a day since I started IF. Pooping every 2-3 days is also a normal poop schedule. It’s normal to poop less often if you eat less often.
First, congrats on losing 6 pounds! That is nothing to scoff at.
I have similar regularity issues since starting IF, but I just assume it’s because I’m eating less overall?
I think one thing to keep in mind is that you’re really not supposed to lose more than 1 pound a week, especially if you’re relatively thin to begin with. You’re averaging slightly slower than that but that probably means you’re more likely to keep it off in the long run.
We need to know exactly what you’re eating. And I don’t recommend store-bought laxatives; salt water flush is more natural, more guaranteed, and less likely to cause problems.
Given your very slow progress (very slow is still better than no progress or gaining weight) I recommend you eat less. Probably 1000 calories or less a day in a single meal, consisting of meat and veggies, low carb.