Things are moving slowly on the scale for me despite doing 20:4 and controlling calories. Can you share your painfully slow but still successful stories with me so I keep going…
I started IF on Dec 1.2021. I Started with 16/8 for a whole month and lost 10 lbs. Gradually went to 19/5 and stalled for about 2 weeks. I don’t know why a a smaller eating window caused me to stall but I stuck with the 19/5 and started carb cycling with it. I lost 4 more pounds now. So a total of 14 pounds in approx a month and a half. I feel better than ever and I’m not really that hungry. I’m a 50 year old woman going through menopause. (awful) ever since I have been doing IF I have no more hot flashes at all. I was getting them all day everyday. They just stopped now. IF balances hormones too. :) Starting weight 194, weight today 180. Easiest diet I have ever done and I tired them all. Hope I helped. :)
I didn’t lose any weight for the first 2 months I started. I go through periods of stalls, plateaus, and even weight gain. My weight loss has not been a smooth downward trend, but I’m still averaging -3.5 lbs/month overall.
Everyone loses at different paces. Weight loss isn’t a race, there is no trophy for being the fastest. Losing weight quickly isn’t always the healthiest. Losing slowly can be frustrating but might be more manageable long term.
Shift your mindset. Tell yourself that every time you fast, eat at a caloric deficit, and exercise, you’re burning/losing fat. You might not be losing weight on the scale, but you’re losing fat. Weight is a combination of fat, muscle, water, bones, feces, etc, in your body. You can’t see what’s going on internally. Your body is doing a lot that the scales can’t see. You can literally weigh the same and look different if you’re 30% body fat or 20% body fat. The scale doesn’t know clothes fit better on you at 20% body fat or you feel better about how look. It just weighs everything together as one, that’s it.
I’ve lost about a hundred pounds in over 14 months. averages out to about 1.7lbs a month. This is includes the initial big drop when first starting, had a lot to lose, (SW 360) and some month long stalls. Probably since the initial quick 30lbs I’ve been averaging probably a little over a pound a week.