Hi, I’ve IF,d for a few years now but I gained some concerning weight during COVID. The gym is such a chore and boring for me. I refuse to buy bigger clothes because that would be conforming to defeat.
Albeit, I was eating delicious unhealthy food and maybe a weekly whole big can of Pringles and seems I got too complacent.
I did gain a pet dog, so took advantage of the situation and went for really long walks to burn some cals and switched to cleaner food Monday to Friday (weekends can be challenging to stay clean as we all know)
My details:
Male
37
Not very active
175cm height
Ectomorph body type
Healthy weight recommendation - 75kg
Started weight loss goal at 89kg
Increased daily activity with dog walking and not using the elevator or my e~scooter and occasional weight lifting
Currently at 79kg within 2 months and quite pleased with the progress.
I also added a 48 hour fasting because to be honest, I feel like my body has adapted and slowed down my metabolism. 24 hours fast used to be a challenge but now it’s the norm for me and I feel that my body is no way in shock starvation mode anymore.
I fear adding too much 48 hour fasting might bring my metabolism further down eventually but keeping it once a week keeps my body in shock for sure. It now feels like when I first started IF.
Anyways I hope I’m not doing anything seriously wrong, but if anybody has any wisdom that might help then feel free to chime in.
It is IMHO extremely unlikely that metabolic adaptation in the sense of adaptive thermogenesis is the source of your troubles. We’re talking literally a few (single digits) cals here, if the concept even stands (studies don’t agree). If you had lost 100+ pounds or had reached critically low levels of fat then I might have framed this a little more conservatively, but at a BMI of 25.8 your fears are absolutely not warranted.
Your energy expenditure however has changed – not because of genuine adaptation but merely because you’re lighter. Two months ago, at SW = 89 kg, your sedentary TDEE used to be estimated around 2,165 kcal/day. Nowadays at CW = 79 kg it is estimated around 2,045 kcal/day. That’s a significant change of -120 kcal/day or -5.5%. Have you looked into your intake calories to ascertain that still below your current sedentary TDEE?
Also, you lost 10 kg over 60 days give or take. It’s unlikely that all or most of it was fat, because that would require a daily deficit of 10 x 7,700 / 60 = 1,283 kcal, which in your case would in turn mandate eating less than 1,000 kcal/day. If you indeed ate/eat that little then yes, by all means, take things less aggressively. But then again I believe that your body would be giving you loud and clear signals that it’s unhappy – lethargy, coldness, increasing hunger, definitely no inclination to walk the dog, lift the weights or venture into extended fasting. So what I suspect has happened is that you lost predominantly water, and that’s totally fine. Note however that when we rapidly lose water we buy time from the scale which we inevitably at some point have to repay when our water levels stabilize, as by that time we’re stuck with pure fat loss which, I hate to say it, is slow.
Suggestions:
We are in quite similar situations.
Sounds like you are doing well.
I do those 48 non stop. My metabolism is kept high by the epic size of the meals. I find large meals to be very important for ADF OMAD. (I tried it once with small meals, and started feeling really weak after only 3 weeks.)