Hi all, F43, 5”1’ SW 80.4kgs, GW 63kgs
So I’m 4 days in and I’m handling the fast pretty well. I’m doing a 17:7 with my eating window roughly 1pm -8pm, and I’m not really having any issues with hunger. I’ve been breaking the fat with either a protein shake and salad, or a vegetable omelette, then a mid afternoon snack (around 4.30pm) of a piece of fruit and cheese, or a small serve of popcorn, then dinner with my family around 7pm. Dinner is a variety of things but usually home made with a variety of carbs, protein and vegetables.
I’ve come up against two blockages today. I’m using the simple app to help me get started while I hopefully cement these changes to my routine and it is encouraging me to drink around 2 litres/ half a gallon of water each day. The first 3 days I handled it fine but now I feel like I need to pee every half hour. Is this normal? Will it get better? I know that water is vital to good health but I just can’t handle peeing this much.
Second, I jumped on the scales this morning and have had a slight gain. I know it’s only four days in and I need to give it time, but it was a bit disheartening. How long should I give it before I expect to see some weight loss, and is there anything I am doing that you think I should change?
Fasting + CICO is the best way to go. Find your TDEE and subtract 500 from it. Use a food scale ($15 at target) and count every single calorie that enters your mouth. Most food has way more calories than you think.
I’ll disagree with some others. I combined LCHF with IF and got adapted to burning fat. I found I could after about three weeks skip breakfast and lunch and just “eat” my body fat. I’d have some snacks like nuts or cheese around 3 or so and then a good dinner, always to satiety. It ended up being a bit more than I used to eat but maybe 30%. Not double or close to it.
Bottom line is I lost 50lbs last year with ease. Never counted a single calorie and had very little hunger. Ultimately it’s CICO but with LCHF it was done eating intuitively.
Anyway diets work differently for all of us but I’ve kept doing LCHF and IF and it’s been great. After reaching my goal and doing maintenance I’ve actually lost 3 more pounds in the past few months. You might look into it.