Hi all! I am new here and am interested in starting IF. I am 34F, 5’7, around 240lbs with a goal weight of 190.
I had a baby almost a year ago and haven’t been able to stay motivated to change my eating habits and lose the baby weight. I was already heavier than I wanted to be before getting pregnant. I have a desk job working from home since Covid started and go for occasional walks and to the gym but not very consistently.
I was thinking of starting IF by not eating breakfast and having an eating window of 12pm-6/7 pm. I know by 12 I’ll be hungry and I want to eat dinner with my daughter and husband.
Is the whole premise of IF that you eat the same amount you would eat in that time? Like I would eat normal lunch and dinner and just skip breakfast? I’m also a person who needs her coffee with a small amount of 1% milk, I’ve seen mixed info, is that ok?
If anyone has been in the same situation with baby weight or similar body size, please let me know how you had success. We are hoping to try for a second baby next year and I’d like to feel more healthy and light. Thanks in advance!
Hi there, I am a 34F 5’4” SW:163 CW:130 GW:130. I have 2 kids, and I started fasting when my second was 1 year old. I started off doing 16:8, basically I eat a light breakfast at 10:30 and then a late lunch at 1pm and dinner done by 6:30pm, I also stopped snacking. This worked for me in the beginning because going til 10:30 was still a stretch and it allowed me to eat dinner with my kids. Eventually I worked up to 20:4 for a few months. Now for maintenance I’m usually between 17:7 and 18:6.
Once I started loosing weight with that I got more interested in the science behind Fasting and I got a bunch of audiobooks on the topic. My favorite is “fast. Feast. Repeat” by gin Stephens. The main takeaway that I wanted to share is that fasting is not just about restricting calories. It certainly does that, but it mainly works because your decreasing the amount time in the day that your body releases insulin. Insulin stops your body from breaking down fat for energy. So, as you fast longer and longer you allow your body to use your fat stores for energy for more time of the day. It is important to eat normally during your eating window and then clean fast during your fast. I did “dirty fasting” for 6 months, hit a plateau and discovered clean fasting. I haven’t looked back since! But that being said, the bone broth and small bit of cream in your coffee might be some good crutches to start with.
Just wanted to cheer you on! I love IF because not only can I control my weight while still enjoying foods I love, it gives me time and energy back. I no longer stress about needing to eat but not being sure what. It’s so great.
If by ‘normal’ you mean how you ate that got you overweight in the first place, then, no, you can’t eat that way. You have to watch your calories. You can run a tdee calculator like https://tdeecalculator.net and aim to eat under the resting/maintenance number, but if it says you need more than 2000 calories a day, I’d just try 2000 or so to begin with.
But, yeah, you eat all your calories in that time, divided up however you wish.
Adding creamer in you coffee will break the fast, but if you’re fasting for weight loss it won’t really matter. It’s called a dirty fast. Results are what counts.
For weight loss, the important three things are diet, good sleep, and stress management. Take progress pics, measurements (if you can right now, or later if you can’t), and keep some old clothes around for comparison later.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of progress. You’ll mess up, and that’s okay. Just keep going.
And 190 should just be your first goal. Keep that in mind for when you get there.
Good luck!