So, I’m only a month in of doing IF 16:8 (eating window is 11-7:00). I eat 2 meals and 1 snack per day for a total of about 1500-1800 calories. I don’t exercise regularly, but I get an average of 8,000-10,000 steps per day because I’m chasing after my 2 little guys all day, so I’m moderately active. My FitBit tells me that I burn an average of 2,900 calories per day, but I’ve only lost 1.5 pounds in the past 4 weeks, and my goal is to lose 100. What am I doing wrong? Nothing ever seems to work for me when I attempt to lose weight and I’m getting discouraged because I really thought IF would be “the thing” that finally worked for me.
Edit (what I eat): I usually have something like a lean protein such as tuna or grilled chicken in a lettuce wrap with one slice of cheese for lunch and then my snack in the afternoon is always a piece of fruit. Then I eat whatever we cook for dinner at night and that’s it for my daily intake of calories. I also don’t intake any extra calories from liquids, nor do I ever eat fast food or takeout more than once a month.
Edit #2 (my physical activity): I’m 5’2” with 100 pounds to lose. I literally don’t sit down at all during the day and am constantly lifting and carrying my 18 pound and 30 pound children. I walk 20 flights of steps a day and bring the kids for a 2 mile walk each day in their double stroller. My FitBit tells me that I get about 10,000 steps a day and spend an average of 20 minutes per day in “fat burning” mode based on my heart rate increases throughout the day, but hey, those heart rate increases might just be because of stress.. haha
TDEE of 2900 sounds high for alot of people.
estimate your tdee here. For activity level I’d try light exercise first. Post your results.
Also if you’ve eaten consistently and lost 1.5 lbs in 4 weeks that’s good info to have. That represents a deficit of \~187kcal/ day. Reduce your calories by \~200/ day and next month should double your fat loss rate.
Or, if you’d like to keep your calories the same this month add 1-2 workouts/ week. Protip: I only do workouts I enjoy. I lift weights and play hockey, my wife walks, rows and gardens. What do you enjoy?
Don’t get discouraged, 4 weeks isn’t a long time at all if your goal is to lose 100lbs. Also don’t quit and try to rewrite the book. You dropped 1.5 lbs. Now make a small tweak to improve on that. Don’t completely go off the rails.
Edit: just read you have a 5 month old. I’m guessing you don’t always sleep well. It’s hard being a mom and it sounds like you’re doing great. I stand by my statement to keep it up and make some small adjustment this month to keep moving forward. It’s all about finding what’s right for you and that takes time and experimentation.
Having a 5 month old, with the assumed poor sleep quality and hormone craziness would be enough to mess everything up. Unfortunately for women especially, weight loss is not linear, and does not line up with the prediction (looking at you MFP)
Instead pick an item of clothing that you can just do up, you wouldn’t wear it yet as it’s not comfortable, but this can be a better indicator than the PBS (Pissy Bitch scale).
And think about the other benefits of IF, I like the reduction in meal planning and closing my food window on an app, as well as knowing that I am in control of food, it does not control me
First off it’s only a month and you are losing weight which means there is a slight caloric deficit happening. I almost guarantee you’re over shooting your caloric intake. You said “I eat whatever we cook for dinner that night”. It sounds very random and hard to measure. How much are you eating at dinner and what does that usually consist of? Last thing, your TDEE sounds way too high. I really started to shed weight once I started to be really conservative with my smart watch numbers and my intake. Basically over estimating my intake by 500 a day and underestimating my burned calories from my Apple Watch by 500. All of the counters and calculators have so many variables, that they can never be exact.
I wouldn’t rely on Fitbit for the calories burned. It’s been shown that those types of devices overestimate the calories burned. I have an apple watch, and I know it does the same thing. I use a calorie tracker that adds the calories burned; if I eat the amount they suggest I can strictly, I lose weight slower.
I have found that I can only add half of the calories burned to my daily calorie limit if I feel like I need to. I generally do not consume those calories back at all.
I would also encourage you to get a food scale and start weighing out your portions to get a much closer estimate of the calories you are consuming. It isn’t that hard to do and sounds super intense, but it helps get a more accurate picture of what you’re consuming.
I would say you’re still sedentary for a TDEE calculator because you don’t have something like a warehouse job where you’re walking 10-15km/day (15-25k steps a day). I get as many steps as you on average but usually walk 3-5k/day, I hit the exercise bike for about 60-90 mins every day, but I am an office worker, so I put sedentary in any TDEE calculator. I know this isn’t easy to hear, and I hope it doesn’t discourage or upset you. So I think you’re overestimating your TDEE, which is why you may not see as much progress as you like.
I know raising kids is more active and if you’re breastfeeding, you’re going to burn a crap ton of calories. And I am not trying to say that raising kids is not an active job. But when using a TDEE calculator, moderately active is for people who get 15-25k steps/day just from their regular duties, w/o working out or other extra-curricular activities.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you sure your calories are in that window? I have found it very easy to underestimate what I am actually eating. I started rounding up to the nearest hundred on things and found I start to lose faster. staying well hydrated is also important. Other than that, i have no clue
Have you had blood work done recently? A check up can see if you are having any hormone or thyroid issues. I think you are taking all the right steps to lose weight, but for some reason your body is holding on. I would not recommend decreasing calories.
So here’s an alternate perspective based on my personal work with a registered dietician over the years: slow weight loss generated by a gentle deficit is easier to maintain and is less likely to reduce your BMR. Eating enough calories (never lower than your BMR) is critical to hormone balance and metabolic health. Focus on protein, add some strength training, and try to focus on metrics that are not only the scale.
Ultimately, would you rather take 10 months to lose 100 lbs and gain most of it back over the net two years or take 2 years to lose 100 lbs and keep it off forever? Slow and steady wins the race. You’ve got this.
Easiest would be to extend fast to at least 19:5. Tracking is usually inaccurate. Most people who think they’re fasting a certain period are actually 1 to 2 hours less (according to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast).
If you find extending the fast difficult, most likely due to lack of water & salt/electrolytes. Not lack of food.
Lots of good advice on here, but I recommend reading the obesity code and at a minimum cutting out the snack. Try just two meals with no snacking, and if that still isnt helping work on stretching your fasting window and try to get to omad.
IF didn’t work for me until my baby was a year old. I walked regularly and ate 2 meals p/day. My colleague who did the same lost a whole lot more than me. I do realise now that my body wasn’t ready. I stopped it completely during December and started fresh in January. I could feel that my body was now ready to lose the weight. I’ve lost quite a bit (I haven’t weighed yet, but people around me are definitely noticing, myself included) and started doing 20:4. I’m on week 3.You’ll get there. Took me about a year!:/ Baby steps!:)
Maybe ditch the Fitbit. Is it doing anything but mislead and discourage you? It’s pretty hard to burn 2900 calories a day as a SAHM. You’re losing weight albeit slowly so you’re doing something right. Keep it up.
I’m new to IF myself, hoping to get inflammation in order. I’m not an IF expert but I can offer nutritional advice.
It looks like you’re being mindful of what you eat but maybe take it further. Eat full fats and nutritiously dense foods. So instead of lean chicken breast, eat chicken thighs. Instead of ground turkey, go for bison or grass fed beef if that’s possible.
look into the paleo diet. Not that you should do that per se but there’s a lot of good information about processed foods, pasteurized dairy ETC and also eating Whole Foods and how your body responds. There could be some useful things you take from researching paleo and implementing into your diet
Either you’re eating too much (or not healthy food) or you’re burning too little. The 2,900 calories is possible but likely on the high end of what you really burn. Also make sure you count everything you eat to really have a feeling for calorie intake. You can do this. Give your body time as well!!
What are you drinking during the day? Try only drinking black coffee, black tea or water as its possible you may be intaking some sugars or sweeteners in those drinks? What’s your alcohol intake? Try to reduce it to the weekends and when you do eliminate the sugars and carbs in the drinks wherever you can. Skinny margaritas, diet tonic or soda with gin or vodka etc.
Your steps are a great start to exercise however you may want to try high intensity interval training for those 20 minutes per day as it will really kick start your fat burning.
$20 kettlebell from a local sports store is all you need.
I do this workout every other day and the results are great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5IMCZwKesg
Also, a tip. How fast were you adding weight before? People assume that weight loss is compared against their weight, but you should also compare it against how fast you were adding prior.
Example, if you added 1lb/week prior, and since fasting you’re losing 0.375lb/week, then the net change in calories in vs calories out is 1.375 lbs/week. That’s a big win!
Also, the 2900 calories per day your watch says sounds off to me.
Are you still breastfeeding? My body refused to drop any weight until I weaned, and then it started to come off regularly and consistently. BF is definitely not the magic weight loss solution that everyone always made me think it would be (it can be for some people, but I was surprised to learn that there is a sizable percentage of women who hold the weight while nursing)
Baby weight is hard. Just wanted to validate your struggles. I’m still working on the last 15 of the 40 lbs I gained after 2.5 years. But even though the scale is higher than it was pre-baby,I’m much happier with how my body looks and feels after giving it some time to recover. Good luck to you and keep fighting the fight!
I don’t see a mention of sex but assuming by your numbers that you’re biologically female, maybe try to eat strictly around 1300-1500 the following week and weigh yourself by the end of it. If it still doesn’t work, then maybe you should look outside of your diet. Side tip: include some HIIT 2-3 times a week.
To cover all of your bases I highly recommend that you have your doctor do a blood test to make sure your thyroid is functioning properly. That’s a really common cause of difficulty losing weight and other things like depression and low energy
Do you have a history of dieting? Contestants on Biggest Loser were tracked after the show and in some cases their basal metabolic rate had dropped to 800 calories a day, and never returned to normal.
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to what your TDEE allegedly is, and how many calories you’re burning, unless it’s being tested in a lab.
Based on your results, as one poster said, it looks like you’re at a deficit of about 187 calories a day, which is a nice deficit that won’t make your body think you’re living in a famine.
Whatever you do, it should be something that you can maintain forever, and not something you plan to go off because there is a good chance you will regain the weight if you see it as a temporary diet.
Give it time. If after 3ish more months nothing had happened then go to your Dr and get a full set of blood tests done, get your thyroid, blood glucose, full nutrient panel, kidney and liver function amd a basic hormonal blood check to see if that shows anything
Nothing will work for you if you’re not exercising and building muscle. You have to get your metabolism to shift in your favor and adding muscle/fitness is the way to do it.
IF requires a bare minimum of exercise… start with 2 sets of 5 pushups and 10 situps/crunches and increase your count by 1 every other day. You can start small/easy, consistency is key.
Count your TDEE on the calculator. See what it tells you. Please share with us, I’m curious. I’m successful with combination IF and CICO, and I have always had difficulty losing weight. I started to believe I’m beyond hope. I’m so happy that is not a case!
You may want to take multi vitamins or at least the vitamin B family and maybe drink more water. I’m on keto and IF and my weight loss journey has been nothing short of painfully long weeks of going plateau. Hang in there
Drop another 500 calories daily and evaluate in 2 weeks, you’re looking for 0.5 to 1 lb lost per week on average, that will keep enough food for the energy you need.
There is no way you drop 3500 weekly calories from your current level and not have the body adapt by using more stored fat as fuel.
Down the road you will slow your rate as body gets more efficient, add more daily movement or longer fast times then
There are a lot of things that could be affecting your weight loss. Could be hormones, types of food you eat, sleep, activity, water intake, fasting window, etc. Maybe try more exercise, it doesn’t have to be super intense, you can probably find some 20-30 min videos on youtube if you’re pressed for time. Also, take photos and measurements as some people will lose inches, but not see the scale move.
Give your body time to adjust. I haven’t lost that much weight fasting, but I haven’t been consistently eating healthy so that’s on me. I have seen benefits from fasting as my period has become regular for the first time in my life. You may want to check out some fasting resources (books, podcasts, youtube, etc.) as you’re not alone in not losing much weight initially. I’ve heard about something called the “whoosh effect” where people will all of a sudden lose weight after not losing for awhile.
Good luck, don’t give up.
It’s possible it’s not working for you and your metabolism is slowing down in response to less food. First work on your metabolism. Try to learn more about a metabolic diet. I recommend reading Alyssa Vitti’s WomanCode book (it’s available on audiobook too).
If you are already eating so much less calories than you use, the IF is redundant. you are basicly “fasting” 24/7 if you have more calories out than in. maybe you need something completly different like anaeriboc workout and trying to eat more. but first of all you should probably visit a doctor, maybe an endocrinologist and get your hormones etc checked because like some others here said having a baby can cause a lot of different stuff in the body.
OP- I too have two little kids and could lose 100 lbs. Look into bariatric surgery . Evidence is way stronger that IF or anything else. It sounds like lots of successful women still fast post bariatric surgery. My dr recommended it
If you are that active, eating with that level of restriction, and aren’t losing any weight at all, it may be a health issue. Never hurts to make a doctor’s appointment and get blood work done to ensure you don’t have an underlying medical issue. I’m sure all will be fine, but just to be safe.
Dr mindy pelz specializes in building a fasting lifestyle for women, I’m a guy but still use a lot of her guides for fasting and metabolic health. You might find some good guidance from her. From what I know, if you’re fasting in the exact same window long-term, your body may be adapting thus you’re not seeing the fat melting benefits.
I’d suggest mixing up the fasting length, such as doing one or two shorter fasts and then mix in some 18 hour and maybe a single 24 hour fast if you can manage it. I like to stick between 14-16 and then i’ll push it to 18-20 a few times a month. There’s scientific evidence for why this works I just don’t want to go searching right now, something about metabolic flexibility. I’d suggest checking out Dr. Mindy and seeing if what she says helps you, good luck.