Hey everyone! I have been fasting 20:4! I walk about 12,000 steps a day.
I have been stuck on my CW for the last 60 days. Over the last 20 days, i have tried to log my calorie intake (averaging about 1700 kCal). Upped my walking to 15,000 steps per day. Drinking 3 litres of water every day. While counting calories i realised that my protein intake wasn’t sufficient. So added a protein shake to my meals.
I tried resistance training for a bit. But gave up as I couldn’t do much at home and hate going to the gym.
Extremely frustrated and demotivated.
Any suggestions would be helpful to tip the scales ☹️
A. Change something about your diet
B. Change something about your exercise
You can do a lot of bodyweight exercises at home that will build muscle and potentially improve your metabolism. You can also incorporate more intense cardio instead of or on top of your walking.
>I tried resistance training for a bit. But gave up as I couldn’t do much at home and hate going to the gym.
I’m a big believer in bodyweight training at home. Depending on where you’d like to be eventually, some folks form their entire routines around just bodyweight calisthenics.
As for moving the scale, you’re basically never going to move it by upping activity. The body is just way to efficient at exercise. It almost always has to be what’s going in first and foremost.
might be worth trying super low carb or adding one 36 hour fast a week. Do you have feast days? In some people being at a consistent deficit can cause extra thermogenic adaptation and having a day a week at say 2000-2500 cal could possibly rev things up a little. If you are still drinking, that could also be a good thing to cut down on too
Plateaus are a fact of life in this business.
Your body’s job is to make do with the resources it has if at all possible and tap into fat reserves only when it is absolutely required. All of us face situations where the body says, “Look at me! I can keep handling the calorie deficits without burning fat!” Ok, the body doesn’t really say that, but if it could talk it most definitely would.
In my experience (2nd time through IF weight loss) I have found that you need to start changing things when the loss rate flattens out. Some are obvious and some are a bit counter intuitive but can work. Your body is in a form of stasis where things aren’t changing, so you need to change the status quo. I’ve found reducing calories further, while on paper should make the difference, just makes me miserable and still doesn’t improve weight loss.
Make a plan. Try something over one to two weeks. If you’re not happy with the results, go to the next thing on your list. Here are some ideas from my experience and from listening to others.
Cut the sugar / simple carbs like white bread completely without changing calorie intake. This has been my #1 plateau issue. I’m super sensitive to simple carbs and have to avoid them with zero tolerance. I have bumps on my weight chart where a single piece of birthday cake put a 10 day bubble in my weight loss even though I was 100% back on plan the next day. You may not have the same sensitivity, but I bet a lot of folks do.
Change your fasting window temporarily or permanently. I’ve gradually moved over my two journeys from 16:8 to 20:4 to OMAD to permanent, rolling ADF (36:12). That’s most definitely not for everyone, but it is for me. 20:4 is fairly aggressive already. You can try OMAD. You can try a couple 36:12 fasts to see how you do. Honestly I prefer ADF because the hardest part of any fasting regimen for me is the transition to burning fat and the wave of hunger I get. With ADF that subsides quickly as I get past that window. This means I suffer that unpleasantness only once every 2 days with ADF rather than every day.
Cut the exercise completely for a couple weeks. It turns out the actual calorie burn of moderate exercise vs. being sedentary isn’t all that much. Maybe your body relaxes about fat reserves a bit and lets you lose again. Counter intuitive, but I’ve actually had this one work for me when doing cardio 3-4 times per week.
Up your calorie intake by 500 calories per day for a week or two while staying on the fasting regimen and then return to your reduced target. Try to send a message to your body that things aren’t really that tight for resources.
Go off IF and calorie restrictions completely for a week. This is the total shock to the system solution. Yes, you may gain a bit of weight. Probably 8 - 10 pounds if you fully load up on glycogen again and then it will take a week or so to reduce the water weight. But you may find your body has reset and is ready to start burning fat again. I’ve not tried this one, but I have heard of people who do this. It’s kind of a mega-cheat-day thing.
The key here is to start changing things. You’re getting frustrated and demotivated. The worst thing you can do is lose you motivation and start gaining back. Start showing your body some different looks and see how it reacts. I will not say that ANY of my possible suggestions will work for you. A couple have for me and each one has worked for somebody. Find what works for you.
Been at the same situation for a few months. Was doing 3 day fast to try to break through and STAY under 200, but keep bouncing around the 200 mark.
I believe 200 is my body’s happy weight. I’d lost a 100 pounds over 10 years ago by going to the gym 2 hours a day 6 days a week and doing the 6 small meal thing - SAME thing happened. Hit 200 and never busted through.
I’m currently trying a 30 day (well 28 day February) fast to se if I can bust past my Happy Medium and break past 190. I think If I can get there (185 which is my goal), I could attempt to maintain that for the rest of the year through IF/OMAD.
That’s the goal anyway. Good luck.
First, I would say plateaus are a normal and healthy part of weight loss. I believe you are more likely to keep the weight off by continuing with a slow methodical approach. That said, 60 days would be frustrating for me too! I wonder if it would help you to do some longer walks or hikes on occasion. I never lost more weight than when I was doing 3-4 hours hikes on the weekends, plus I was really enjoying myself! Just hard to find the time, so I get it.