Age: 37 Height: 5’6 Weight: 195 lbs
My daily caloric intake is about 750. My diet consists of fruits, steamed veggies, chicken breast, and oatmeal. I’m spreading it out 4:20. It’s tough, and I’m usually starving at night before I go to bed since I’m eating only between the hours of 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.
My day to day work and activities are light. No lifting but I’m on my feet for the full 8 hours of my shift. I average about 12,000 steps.
Is there something I could be doing better?
My biggest issue is my nightly cravings. But by the time I wake up the next day, the hunger is gone.
My goal is mostly to reduce the fat around my glutes, thighs, legs, and gut.
My macros breakdown:
You are eating wonderful foods but not enough. You need at least 1000 calories in my opinion, but probably more like 1200.
I personally don’t agree with your small 4-hour eating window. I would do an 8 hour window. But it’s up to you.
By the way, you do not have to have just one meal. You can have two or all three if you want and stay within your 1200.
IF doesn’t have to be combined with other fad diets. Keto or atkins..The great thing about it is you can eat more and more of what you like. It’s a lifestyle change. Counting calories is helpful but hard to maintain for life. Do your fast, break it with a healthy meal, eat a nice dinner maybe dessert then your done by 8pm. Add exercise because this like IF is all inclusive for healing your body. Exercise is for your health,Losing weight is a benefit of that. IF heals your body, losing weight is just a benefit of that. You will not be able to stay committed for long with what you are doing so try a different IF approach, a lot of suggestions in the comments. Stay on the hunt for what works for you, it’s life changing. Don’t give up. Start again the next day. Try 18:6, 24 hr, OMAD. Consistency is key.
I was accidently eating less than my 1500 calories a day without knowing it (I wasn’t counting at the time) and weight was hard to take off.
Once I managed to start counting calories and upped it to about 1700, sometimes 2000 when I was active, weight fell off super fast.
At your current rate, you’re in starvation mode, you’re just eating muscle and tanking your metabolism. Find a food and a routine that brings you to 1,200, more if you’re active (which are are at 12k steps) - everyone’s metabolism is different, but I’d put my floor of caloric intake at 1,500, maybe 1,700 given your activity (+300 on that if you’re a man). Do it for a month even if you’re not shedding weight, and then make re-adjustments.
I honestly think it’s super important you give your body some time to reset to the suggested calorie intake - you’ll yo-yo otherwise, feel like shit, and won’t get the health benefits you should be getting from IF if you’re not entering it on a good foot.
Try to readjust first to IF without cutting out too much calories.
And don’t go overboard with the cut either. The key to any fat loss is sustainability.
100 calorie deficit is sustainable, 1000 is not.
If you need to reset your food habits, check r/WaterFasting
You’re eating way too little. Your TDEE says you need to eat 1900 calories a day to maintain your current weight. Since you are trying to lose, you should aim for at least around 1200 a day probably and maybe mix in some more fats. Nightly cravings are tough I deal with the same, so I’ve set myself up to eat for the first time around 4-5 and again around 11 before I sleep. I’ve lost 25 lbs myself doing this..not for everyone but it works for me. Remember weight loss is just CICO, so if you have a longer window of eating it’s fine.
I am 35f, 5’9” (currently 191 lbs) and my goal weight is 165 so I’ve been eating for my goal weight.
I do OMAD and some days it is hard to get that many calories in, but I never go below 1200, even if I have to eat a couple tablespoons of peanut butter. Lol
I would definitely eat higher protein, that helps me during my fasting hours. I recently got insoluble fiber to take before I eat my meals as well since I’m not normally a “regular” gal.
I called into work today and it’s been hell trying to stay away from food.
Add some:
egg, bacon, avocado for breakfast
potato or sweet potato for lunch
egg, bacon, and avocado for breakfast are fats that you excluded. Don’t be scared to add kcal, you can easily aim at 1300-1500 kcal/day
Your daily caloric intake is really low. You may be even slowing down your metabolic rate because your body is only getting 750 calories a day to function. In time, you may start to experience other side effects of such low caloric intake, like hair loss. Please speak with you physician, as that seems like such a small number of calories.