In my opinion everything boils down to CICO, IF is just a timeframe. I know there’s plenty of people who claim you don’t have to do cico when IF, but your body won’t magically burn fat when you eat at maintenance or even overfeed without noticing it. I don’t like calorie counting that much either, but with IF at least I don’t have to do it all day long. Now, I think you should calculate your TDEE and subtract a reasonable amount, say 4-500 kcal. That should get things started
You don’t need to count calories just reduce your portion size or if you’re having multiple meals/snacks in that timeframe just cut one of those or replace some of your food with lower calorie alternatives etc
I will say it is helpful if you count your calories just for a few days so you know where you stand and it’s easier to make adjustments but you can definitely make those changes without knowing the exact calories
Just a fellow newbie saying I get it. I haven’t seen much movement on the scale but I also downloaded the Zero app recently (about a week, as it was the most suggested by this group) and I’ve found it helpful and motivating.
I think you know what you have to do— either just try to eat less in the window (which if you feel deprived already may be tough) or track it. Tracking is easy once you do it a while — just a mental hurdle to get over to get to your goals. I find Chronometer the easiest to use.
I totally get this, I’d be super discouraged as well if I hadn’t lost anything after 19days!! You’ll hate to hear this, you gotta count calories though. So many little things add up that we never think of, they all count though. I find it easy to stick to a couple of the same meals so i didn’t need to constantly, some people get too bored with that though. It helps with you and your wife doing it, maybe you could trade off days/weeks meal prepping and work out the calories for each other so its not a constant thing?
Well, intermittent fasting works because it enables your body to get at stored fat. It does that by reducing your over all insulin excretion. If you’re burning your stored fat in relevant quantities can be measured by keto sticks quite cheap - it’s a not very sensitive urine test. Starting with about 1.5 mmol/l you’re on a good way. To boost your IF experience I’d recommend to go on low carb too, and that means primarily no added sugar, honey or syrup, forget processed food and make sure to eat a good measure of leafy greens now and then. And, of course, avoid soda like a plague, even the “diet” versions. All of this prevents insulin spikes and maintained relative insulin resistance. And insulin tells your body to store what’s coming in, regardless of a restricted calorie intake. You can easily survive on a 900kcal high carb diet, getting listless, tired and still not losing body weight. If your weight proves to be stubborn, just switch to OMAD and pure keto for a week. Getting your body adapted to easily switch between glucose and fat burning is the key. Been there, done that, got t-shirts three sizes smaller. Good luck!