Hey everyone! New to the sub. I am a 5’3 F weighing about 137 currently. My goal weight is 125-130. I have been doing anywhere from 16:8 to 20:4 everyday for about three weeks now. My last meal ends at 6:30pm, and I don’t begin eating until 10:30am-1pm the next day. My meals consist of some sort of wrap or salad for lunch, plus a low calorie Hello Fresh meal for dinner. I will maybe snack with some rice cakes, bananas or lunch meat throughout the day if I get hungry after work before dinner. I’m not directly counting them but roughly stay at about 1300 calories per day. This is a drastic change from before the new year when I would have dessert with every meal, constant pasta dishes, sweets, and fast food.
I do a 30 minute workout on a Peloton, and walk about three miles a day on top of that. I average about 12k steps a day.
My problem is I am still at 137 even after weeks of this?? The things that potentially contribute:
Regardless of those things, I feel like I still should have at least lost a pound or two?!? It makes me want to go back to eating whatever, whenever because this is not making a difference in my weight.
Please help, thank you:)
Don’t sweat it. IF is a marathon… not a sprint. When I started (3years ago), it took almost three months for me to notice changes. Stop looking at the scale for a while and pay more attention to how you feel and how your clothes are fitting.
Just my 2 cents
Hey there. Not sure if this has been mentioned (didn’t read through the comments) but I was having similar issues as you when I first started. I went 2 months without losing a single pound.
I’m here to tell you that there’s a possibility you’re not drinking enough water. Once I started drinking a minimum of 100 oz of water a day, I lost 10 pounds in a month. 3 months later I was down 30 pounds.
Literally the only thing I changed was I drank more water. I hope this helps. Stay strong. Don’t give up.
IF is great but not magic, if you ingest too many calories you wont lose a gram ………….. Check your daily calories needs with the TDEE calc and stick to a plan to consistently undershoot it and you will lose weight … good luck.
Calories are king. Tto lose a lb you need to cut out 3500 calories. If you’re exercising every day, your TDEE is around 1800-1900. So if your calorie count is correct at 1300, you ‘should’ have lost 2-3 lbs. Now, you say you went out drinking on the weekend and had cake. A slice of cake could easily be 600+ calories if there is frosting. Now add alcohol and it can skyrocket easily. 3-4 drinks in a night? Can EASILY add 600-1500 calories depending on what you are drinking, essentially erasing your deficit during the week.
I think you’re underestimating your calories. You might be eyeballing it but the total calories is way more then you think. If you are currently on CICO i think you should stop snacking throughout the day and just consistently eat 1-2 small to large meals a day, It helped me lose weight faster. Also drop the tea you really don’t need a diet tea to lose weight, all you really need is to drink water and not consume sugar beverages.
The last 20 lbs are probably the hardest to lose. I didn’t have success with IF until I added in rolling 36-48 hour fasts (2-3 per week). I fast from midday Sunday to Tuesday midday, eat for a few hours and then start another fast until Thursday morning. The first week was hard and the first day is always the hardest but now I am extending the fasts to 60-72 hours. Lost 7 lbs in 2 weeks (0.5 lbs per day). I’m in a little stall now but I started weight training and that affects the scale. I would say start slow (maybe a couple 24 hour fasts in a week) and see how it goes.
Got these ideas from Jason Fung.
You don’t have a lot to lose, so your progress may be slow. I agree with other comments on cutting back on the carbs and measuring yourself instead of weighing.
I would cut out the snacking entirely, and move those calories to your meals. Snacking and even sugar free things keep your body producing insulin. One of the goals of fasting is to stop the need for your body to make insulin as long as possible to make it use up your free floating glucose and fat stores. Snacking stops this process.
I’ve been having some good success with OMAD, and 18:6 where I eat a small lunch and big dinner, but I have a lot more to lose, lol.
I’d also say, try eating more calories for a week. Your body might be restricting its weight loss because of the sustained deficit.
Stay off the scale for a while. When I am trying to lose weight I check it weekly. Also use an app (MyFitness Pal) and track everything. It gives a goal for the day and helps track macros which is important. For myself I found I was under estimating my calories in my head when I was stalling on the scale. Keep up the good work. You’ll get there.
As people always say “it’s the last few pounds that are the hardest to shift”. You are starting off from a position that most people would love to get to. Your BMI is 22.4 or something. If you were 59lbs overweight you’d notice the pounds dropping. Give it more time. Sounds like you’re doing the right things.
There’s lots of great advice in this thread. Here’s a little more to think about.
Generally speaking, your body can only burn carbohydrate in the form of glucose, or fats in the form of triglycerides. It will almost always revert to burning the glucose first. Anytime you have a meal with carbohydrates, your blood sugar will increase and cause a release of insulin. If your muscles do not need the glucose, it will get stored in the form of fat.
Try cutting out the processed food from your diet. This would include those tortillas in your wraps and the alcohol, as well as any other packaged food you may be eating. You want to avoid refined sugars, refined carbohydrates like flour and corn, as well as seed oils like vegetable oil, canola oil, and corn oil.
The goal is to keep your blood glucose low at all times. This will make your body fat adapted. Once your body becomes fat adapted, it doesn’t matter if the fat comes from the food you eat or from body fat. You can then implement a strategy of longer fasts, or meal skipping. If your body is fat adapted it will draw from your body fat and you will begin to lose weight without feeling tired or hungry, while maintaining muscle mass.
I’m in the same boat! 143 with a goal of 125 and not losing or losing very slowly. Cutting alcohol was an immediate loss for me though, because there are so many empty calories there. Of course, I’m an alcoholic and desperately needed to quit… Anyway, I’m probably eating too much during my window. I do 20:4. I’m getting way less exercise now that it’s snowy outside, so that’s probably a factor. Just wanted to commiserate! I don’t have any advice! Ha. Sorry!
yeah, i’ve been there. one thing i learned with IF is the scale doesn’t always mean a ton. i have gone some weeks without losing any pounds, but could literally feel a difference in my boy composition with loose pants, etc. the weight can sometimes come off easily, and other times seems to stall.
i hit a time when i was fasting too much probably, and i stopped fasting. when i came back i didn’t lose anything for a few weeks then too, but then it started coming in a bit
I was almost exactly you in terms of height/weight. First week or two I lost nothing (even gained 1-2 lbs here and there). Ugh so discouraging. Started with 12:12 then gradually added an hour at night and in the morning and now I average around 15 hours.
What worked: weighing myself everyday, little to no alcohol (kinda lost interest in it after awhile) no snacks or nibbling between meals (even diet sodas trigger insulin). When I eat, I eat whatever I’m having all at once (not eat, then an hour later have an apple etc).
What didn’t: salty food. It always changed the scale in the morning.
It’s taken me 80 days to lose 5 lbs but Ive always gained slow but lose slow. I’m at the gym or do some kind of activity 5-6 xs a week and that helps with health, but changing how I ate is what made physical changes.
Slow and steady you can do it!
Alcohol isn’t the best for weight loss since your body(liver) has to focus on getting rid of the toxin(alcohol) and puts burning fat on the back burner… I’m not an expert but it makes sense to me. Not to mention calories on it…
So basically the days you drink interferes with your bodies process of burning the fat.
Someone’s already said it but it’s probably the alcohol. You can do intermittent fasting all you want but if you calorie intake is too high, that’ll be it (trust me, as a man who loves a beer I’d rather this wasn’t true!).
measure yourself with a soft tape measurer. you’re likely smaller but the scale isn’t reflecting because of body recomp
edit just saw bit about the tea. that artificial sweetener was certainly breaking your fast and i’d say you likely weren’t really getting to ketosis or whatever if you were having them consistently during fasting hours
Like others have said, count your calories in an app like MyFitnessPal. Buy and use a food scale if you can. there can be a big difference between the amount of calories your brain perceives in a meal vs the actual amount of calories in a meal. People usually underestimate calories by 10-40 percent and you’d be surprised how much things like oil, sauces, and alcohol adds up. Tracking calories and using a food scale teaches you to eyeball more accurately in the future.
Also, it can sometimes take a minute for your body to get accustomed to new eating and exercise routines, especially if it’s drastically different from old habits. Stay with it!
Progress can be accounted for with a tape measure, periodic pictures and using the fit of your clothing in addition to the scale. The scale is easily influenced by water and same is true for impedence body fat numbers from a smart scale.
You gained control over your eating habits, my friend. The rest follows slowly. You are working on your relationship with food and eating. That takes time. Im also 3 weeks in, haven’t lost any kilos but am already feeling better!
IF doesn’t cause weight loss. It helps to create a calorie deficit, which causes weight loss. If you’re not seeing weight loss, then there is no calorie deficit, however there are shirt term things that can cause water weight fluctuations that will mask actual body mass changes.
My advice would be to calorie count, weigh in daily and take weekly averages of your weight and compare those rather than one weekly weight.
Don’t worry about the weight, worry about forming those habits and trying to strengthen them as much as you can, once you have good habits the weight comes off by itself. It takes time sometimes, you just got to stick with it.
Calories in calories out have been almost exactly spot on for me. You would be shocked at how many calories are in cake and alcohol too. I would try and calculate your BMR and track exactly the amount of calories you are consuming. While you may be eating healthier and lower calorie snacks, if you’re not counting your snacks those can easily add up as well. It takes a deficit of 3500 calories to just lose 1 lb. If you are meeting your calorie needs or just reducing them by a little that will take a long time to lose 1lb and if you’re overeating in the weekend it will cancel it out. Example: if you reduce your calorie intake by 250 per day, it will take you 14 days of this to lose 1 lb-that’s without any cheat days, meals or snacks. What I do to maintain and still have tuna and drink and eat good stuff on the weekends is track everyone M-F and then on the weekends I don’t track anything. I set my Goal on my fitness pal to lose 1/2 pound per week and enter all my exercise and food and just make sure I stay in the green. That way my “1/2 pound” will be accounted for weekend drinking, birthday cake, Italian pasta, pizza, brunch or a good bagel…you get the point…to a certain extent of course I’m not sitting and binge eating every weekend. I used to do that but found I don’t even crave doing that bc intermittent fasting send the way I eat now makes my body feel so good that I feel absolutely wrecked if I do something like that. I’m at a point where I’m maintaining my weight or trying to maybe lose 1-2 pounds after having done this for a year now. Adjust the amount of weight you want to lose per week. It’s painstaking for the first 2 weeks and then it will just become part of your routine. It’s almost like a game now lol what or how can I fit this in. Do I need walk or run 1 more mile today or eat something more vegetable based?
I’m no expert but is it possible you have some type of insulin resistance? You can’t be in ketosis when your body is producing insulin to process the carbs/sugars.
The good thing is you know about insulin spikes so reducing those will be helpful.
IF is obviously about when you eat, but what you eat is equally as important. Sounds like you’re on top of the calorie count so maybe try to add some keto principles to your diet as from what I’ve been learning, rice is a no-no.
The booze isn’t helping, though the timing isn’t bad. If you are going to drink, try vodka or gin with diet tonic/diet soda etc, but I’d try to limit that to one night a week max.
Try alternating your peloton and/or walking with some high intensity interval training and do this workout right before you break your fast if possible.
Only calorie deficits don’t work— Calorie deficits with IF works 100%. The days i know i over ate while IF did not do much in the positive direction with the scale.. with calorie deficit… that’s what helped. Alcohol will break your fast FYI.. hopefully those were in your IF period… and those are a lot of calories
IF is about forcing your body to burn fat on your body instead of the food in your stomach. Make sure you drink plenty of water (I drink 2-3 litres a day) and you’ll see results. Just make sure your eating around 1500 calories in total per day
I think the correlation between IF and weight loss is weak, and whatever correlation there is is due to a decrease in caloric intake. Although I am jealous of 1300 calories a day - that’s one meal for me.
Walking is probably too low a HR to burn much (maybe a hundred or so).
That’s wild. It seems everyone is different.
When I first did IF, it took me nearly 3 months to lose like 10 pounds. (I gained most of it back after I fell off the wagon)
Now I’m doing just basic CICO, no fasting, no exercising, nothing special. And in just the last month I’ve lost close to 8 pounds. Around 1850 calories, sometimes more. I believe my BMR is like 2200-2300 calories.
Same stats as you. Im 5’3 F . Started at 135 on Jan 2nd. Combining IF and Keto and currently on my 3rd week. Mostly on 16:8 and pretty sedentary. I’ve dropped 10 lbs according to the scale (im sure its at least 50% water). Maybe you cut back and eat a lower calorie count? according to one calculator I need to eat around 1119 calories to lose weight. In your case, perhaps the calories you’re consuming are to maintain. Try that and see if it works
You didn’t mention how old you are but I’ll assume you are after 30. The reason this matters is because before I hit 30, I could tighten up my diet and do a little extra waking and drop 3lbs a week with very little effort. Then, at 33, post baby, I tried a million times to lose that baby weight. It just would t budge. I did all the things I had done before and still couldn’t get the scale to love or my pants to be looser.
I’m 43 now. What I’ve discovered is I have to be absolutely angelic for three full weeks and THEN the scale will start to move. 2-3 lbs a week from that point onward. I also, sadly, learned I can’t have any alcohol at all. Not a drop. Not once a week. Not once a month. It doesn’t necessarily make me gain weight but it’s damned near impossible for me to lose weight anymore if alcohol is included in my diet. I’m not saying this will be true for you, but it’s true for me.
Good luck!
I am 5’4, 130lbs and I lost 35lbs doing IF. Even from just estimating what you’ve listed as your daily intake, it’s way too high.
At the time, I made sure to eat 1200 calories a day, which equated to approx 1lb to 1.5lbs a week. I had a cheat day every couple weeks where I’d go out drinking or maybe order a pizza.
Find your TDEE and subtract 500 calories from the maintenance for 1lb a week weight loss. You should log your meals into My Fitness Pal or something similar.
It looks like you’re consuming more calories than you’re expending and even with IF, you won’t lose weight that way.
I ended up going for a 20 hour fast (snack at 4pm, dinner at 8pm), which helped me make it almost impossible to eat more than 1200. That’s when change really happened for me.
But my bet is you’re just consuming too many calories. IF is really helpful, but it’s not magic.
Weight is made up of 2 things:
IF only deals with number 2. If you want to lose weight, you also need to be sure that during your window you aren’t consuming your entire day’s worth of calories, just in a shorter time frame. I had this problem for a few months, until I made some changes.
A lot of the things you are eating would spike my insulin like crazy. Rice cakes ahhhhh! That would cause me to lose progress for sure.
Calorie counting is pretty meaningless (unless you were just jamming thousands upon thousands in your eating window). I’m always surprised how many people on a fasting Reddit refer to CICO. Kinda of a big swing and a miss if you have read any literature or studies on fasting. I digress.
Speaking of reading, I read this in a book once; “Think of it this way, do you think your body responds the same to 1200 calories of jelly beans as it does 1200 calories of Broccoli?” That helped my understand how to make the most of my IF lifestyle. It’s about what I eat AND when I eat.
Be wary of the 1980s dieting advice that is around still. Insulin is the 🔑. If it is out, your body will not used stored fat for energy. I rarely think about calories just like I rarely think about The A Team (sorry… 80s joke lol). Good luck and keep at it. You’ll find the sweet spot soon!
I’d say the alcohol is the culprit. I’m not sure you actually need that many calories. IMO if is not eating the same amount of calories and just squishing them all into your window. It’s about eating quality over quantity and stopping when you’re 80% full. Also try more protein as you are exercising quite a bit! Water. Is. So. Important. It helps your organs run more efficiently and therefore help your body burn through your glucose stores faster to get through to the fat stores.