Hi I’m 29F/5’7/168lbs and just started 16:8 fasting. I’ve lost 40 lbs before with CICO but have slowly gained a lot back and decided to do IF this time.
I haven’t been as strict on calorie counting since it became a huge mental chore before, and I’ve been feeling amazing and doing really well with IF. I find it super easy to do and haven’t felt super hungry in my fasting times.
When I started the scale said 170. After a day or 2 it went to 168…. Where it has stayed since.
Here’s my usual schedule: wake up drink some water and take 2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar (I heard this helps with hunger and doesn’t break a fast but am up for discussion)
Around 11 I break my fast with a plant based protein powder, 1 scoop = 150 cal, and one or two cups almond milk (30 cal a cup)
Then about an hour later I eat a small lunch usually a salad, or something else that is fruit and veggie based. I’m eating mostly plant based except I do still eat eggs and a little cheese.
For dinner I’ve had various plant based stuff as well, like avocado toast or last night I made some vegan dumplings in a skillet with peppers.
While I’m not being super strict on counting calories I’m still shooting for a ball park of 1200-1400 calories a day. I weigh a lot of my Ingredients to make sure I know how much is in something I make and keep a mental tally or sometimes enter it into a fitness tracker. I know I haven’t been eating in excess because I’ve done CICO before and eating smaller amounts in moderation has been pretty easy this time.
The only thing I drink in or out of a fast is regular water, black coffee, or black tea so I know I’m not consuming liquid calories.
I’ve only done a couple light at home exercise routines so far so I haven’t really built up any muscle.
Anyway, I just wanted to see if what I am doing is aligning with what people who see results are doing. I know it takes time for everyone but I figured I’d see the scale go down a little more and can’t help but wonder if I could be doing something better.
I can only speak for myself here but if I were to do your schedule I wouldn’t see results. For me, the eating window has to be small and I can’t eat that early. I also wouldn’t be able to eat three meals a day. Is it possible you’re consuming more calories than you think you are? That’s gotten me in the past.
I just started doing 16:8 as well. The first week I lost 4.4 lbs, but this week I didn’t lose or gain anything. I try to only eat two meals and have a Premier Protein shake as a snack. For the meals I focus more on portion sizes than calories.
So I started off with IF and IF alone didn’t work for me because even though the window was smaller, I still ate the same amount of colors as I did before. The type of calories and macronutrients I was getting was probably not helpful for weight loss. I think the misconception of IF is you can eat whatever but that’s not always true. Also just saw your calories 1200-1400, that is probably way too low of calories. I also did macros and did such low calories but I didn’t lose weight… this type of thing is a science to be honest and it will take some time to figure out. I know you said you don’t like macros but I think macros can help you in this case. They can be confusing at first, but I’m happy to like tell you about the basics and all.
My advice to you, you probably need higher protein and fats, you need to increase your calories which sounds scary but you need more calories. Don’t want to be too much of a deficit. You should try macros. Also I don’t know if you workout or not but that’s important as well.