I have been doing IF for 16 weeks. I started at 14:10, and am now up to 16:8, with my fasting usually lasting 17 or 18 hours. I’m mindful of what I eat, drink water and black coffee. Practicing yoga daily. I suffer from a torn rotator cuff, depression, anxiety, insomnia and acid reflux, medicated (sadly treatment resistant MDD, but we’re cycling through meds and remain hopeful). I am a larger person. I always have been, my body type doesn’t do slim well, I generally look ill if I’ve lost too much weight. I have seen zero results. I have gained weight. I have tried longer fasting, but anything longer than 20 hrs causes my acid reflux to flare up. I am limited in exercises due to my injury.
I am just so done. Weary. It seems like nothing works.
I got tired of making no progress at 16:8 and 18:6 so I switched to Alternate day fasting. I also give myself a cheat day every 2-4 weeks. I started 6 weeks ago and I’m down 8 lbs. things are t moving fast, but they are finally moving. I do not “watch what I eat”. My fasts are now 36-40 hours. I sometimes have reflux, too but it’s less severe with ADF than with IF.
First off, congratulations on 16 weeks of progress, even if you’re not seeing results yet.
What foods are you eating? Give an example daily menu.
It’s also possible you could have a thyroid issue or other medical condition that’s slowing your metabolism, but I’d start with looking at your food choices. Everyone has to find what works for them. For example, sugar is my enemy. I could stick to a 1,200 calorie diet everyday for a year and never lose a pound if I drank as much as a Dr. Pepper a day. Not lying, my body refuses to go to work on pounds until I lose most sugar from my diet and really limit carbs to about 1/3 of recommended daily intake. Lack of exercise definitely does hurt, I understand this, I have this same issue when I diet, so food choices are something I focus on.
It could be a single food that’s holding you back. Are you using a calorie tracker that shows fat, carbs, and protein intake? I’d grab an app to track your food. There were a lot of foods that I thought of as diet foods in the beginning, and I learned real quick that some of them were packed with too much of one thing or another. Tracker apps help you learn what’s in food and can be a help to adjust your food.
Try tracking food and setting goals for calories, fat, carbs, and protein. If you do that for another month or two with no results, I’d talk to a doctor and get bloodwork to see if there’s a medical condition causing trouble.
Hah I’ve noticed the same thing, fasting seems increase acid reflux, making it difficult to endure, but I found a hacksolution: a bit of bicarb of soda in water, so simple, so effective, neutralizes acid. Add to that an acv pill even more so.
As for making things shift…. omad is changeville, 18, 20 is good….. but 23 makes things change, its a real stretch too and certainly feels like it, but maybe thats the zone you gotta reach for. A curious effect of omad is you really can only eat so much at one sitting, but if you allow yourself a longer window with more meals, overeating silently becomes a real possibility.
I was in your shoes for a long time. Didn’t see any results with 16:8 or 18:6. Finally I switched to OMAD and started seeing results. Now I do 23:1 and have lost 10 lb in last 2 months (I don’t have much to lose. 10 more to go, but I was stuck).
With one hour eating window, you can only eat so much. So if you are overeating without noticing, it will self correct. Just stop eating when you are close to being full.
Try to do a clean fast as much as possible. I was drinking coffee/tea twice/3 times with small amount of milk and sweetener. I was telling myself small amount doesn’t matter. But it does, it takes you out of fat burning.
Also, see if you can incorporate a little walking. Even 20-30 mins of walking is good.
You got this. Good luck.