Intermittent Fasting?

Bex953172

Is anyone doing this?
What ratio of fasting do you do and how long do you intend to fast for?
Also when you stop Fasting and return to CICO wouldn't you just gain the weight back?
What would you say are the down sides to Fasting?
I've done a lot of reading but still had questions..

nutmegoreo

Are you using CICO to mean calorie counting? The two aren't mutually exclusive. You need to still be in a calorie deficit to lose weight and that isn't guaranteed with IF.

kimny72

Bex953172 wrote: »

Is anyone doing this?
What ratio of fasting do you do and how long do you intend to fast for?
Also when you stop Fasting and return to CICO wouldn't you just gain the weight back?
What would you say are the down sides to Fasting?
I've done a lot of reading but still had questions..

Intermittent Fasting is CICO, just like everything else. It's just an eating schedule. If you need to eat 1500 cals to lose weight, that holds true whether you are doing IF, vegetarian, keto, IIFYM, or anything else. IF helps many people hit their calorie goal easier.

I used to skip breakfast to save calories for the evening, so was accidentally doing 16:8. I wasn't hungry in the AM, so I just waited til lunch to start eating and found it made it much easier to stick to my calorie goal. But recently I started getting hungry in the AM so I spread my calories out over the whole day. Still need the same calories, just ate on a different schedule.

The downside is that if it isn't right for you, you'll be hungry while you are fasting and end up overeating to compensate when you get to your eating window. Some people can also experience low blood sugar if they don't eat regularly and will get lightheaded. It could also interfere with your workout schedule if you are picky about working out on an empty or full stomach.

Try it out and see if it helps you manage your calories better. If not, try a different schedule, or just eat whenever you want and figure out what works best for your lifestyle!

CharlieBeansmomTracey

when you do IF you still have to be in a deficit of calories to lose weight. Ive done IF all my life(16:8 mostly and sometimes 18:6) and I got fat doing IF because I ate too many calories. CICO is an energy equation and it applies to all ways of eating.. for some IF may help them to adhere to a lower calorie count but thats not always the case. I can overeat my calories doing IF if I wanted to. I still have to count them to make sure I dont go overboard

kommodevaran

Doing and doing - I ate all my meals within 6-8 hours for a year, so you could say I did IF. I eat breakfast earlier now, and dinner at the same time, so I'm no longer filling the criteria. Which makes no difference for me.
Fasting is not eating, and we all fast between meals. You decide how long to wait between meals.
CICO is calories in/out, which always is at play.
If you eat less than you burn, you lose weight; if you eat more than you burn, you gain weight.
Because fasting is not eating, and most people like to eat, the downside to fasting has to be that you're not eating.
I wonder what you've been reading in order to come up with these questions!

(And fasting isn't a proper noun, but a common noun, so it's not capitalized.)

Bex953172

I just googled it tbh.
Read a few different things, I must have misunderstood some stuff, I knew I'd still have to eat at a deficit though.
I just wanted to switch things up a bit or give my weight loss a kick-start if it would help in that way. I eat at a deficit but don't exercise as much as I should, but I have 3 kids 4yo and under so I'm not exactly sat on my butt all day yet nothing seems to be happening.

I didn't mean to capitslize fasting, phone just did it.

kommodevaran

Haha, Fasting is actually a surname here in norway, come to think of it - not a common one, though

You can't give your weightloss a kickstart. When you reduce carbs, or start to eat less, your weight drops a bit because of less water/waste in your system, but fat loss is always down to how many calories your burn vs take in. Exercise is a poor weightloss tool; it's much easier to not eat a mouthful or two of food, than to run X miles. If you're not losing as fast as expected, you're either expecting too much too soon, or not in a calorie deficit. If you have estimated what a calorie deficit would be for you (based on height, weight, sex, normal day activity), and you have excess fat on your body, and you log your food intake, and hit your calorie target, and don't lose weight (as in, no downwards trend visible in 3-4 weeks), then you're not logging correctly, and that can be fixed.

Bex953172

kommodevaran wrote: »

Haha, Fasting is actually a surname here in norway, come to think of it - not a common one, though

You can't give your weightloss a kickstart. When you reduce carbs, or start to eat less, your weight drops a bit because of less water/waste in your system, but fat loss is always down to how many calories your burn vs take in. Exercise is a poor weightloss tool; it's much easier to not eat a mouthful or two of food, than to run X miles. If you're not losing as fast as expected, you're either expecting too much too soon, or not in a calorie deficit. If you have estimated what a calorie deficit would be for you (based on height, weight, sex, normal day activity), and you have excess fat on your body, and you log your food intake, and hit your calorie target, and don't lose weight (as in, no downwards trend visible in 3-4 weeks), then you're not logging correctly, and that can be fixed.

I weigh everything down to the gram and my scales aren't low on battery or anything and I make sure I log the exact food or as close to as possible.
It's just very slow. When I did this before I got pregnant I lost 8lb in the first month and this time I've only lost 2 in a month.

Probably should mention I do have an underactive thyroid. As far as I'm aware I'm on the right dose though.
The only thing I'm not doing this time is cutting carbs completely (well bread pasta rice etc.)

kimny72

Bex953172 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

Haha, Fasting is actually a surname here in norway, come to think of it - not a common one, though

You can't give your weightloss a kickstart. When you reduce carbs, or start to eat less, your weight drops a bit because of less water/waste in your system, but fat loss is always down to how many calories your burn vs take in. Exercise is a poor weightloss tool; it's much easier to not eat a mouthful or two of food, than to run X miles. If you're not losing as fast as expected, you're either expecting too much too soon, or not in a calorie deficit. If you have estimated what a calorie deficit would be for you (based on height, weight, sex, normal day activity), and you have excess fat on your body, and you log your food intake, and hit your calorie target, and don't lose weight (as in, no downwards trend visible in 3-4 weeks), then you're not logging correctly, and that can be fixed.

I weigh everything down to the gram and my scales aren't low on battery or anything and I make sure I log the exact food or as close to as possible.
It's just very slow. When I did this before I got pregnant I lost 8lb in the first month and this time I've only lost 2 in a month.

Probably should mention I do have an underactive thyroid. As far as I'm aware I'm on the right dose though.
The only thing I'm not doing this time is cutting carbs completely (well bread pasta rice etc.)

How much weight do you have to lose? 2 lbs in a month isn't exciting but it's not bad! And weight loss isn't linear, so some months you'll lose more than other months. If you struggle at all with hunger, IF may help so it can't hurt to try. Hang in there!

nutmegoreo

Bex953172 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

Haha, Fasting is actually a surname here in norway, come to think of it - not a common one, though

You can't give your weightloss a kickstart. When you reduce carbs, or start to eat less, your weight drops a bit because of less water/waste in your system, but fat loss is always down to how many calories your burn vs take in. Exercise is a poor weightloss tool; it's much easier to not eat a mouthful or two of food, than to run X miles. If you're not losing as fast as expected, you're either expecting too much too soon, or not in a calorie deficit. If you have estimated what a calorie deficit would be for you (based on height, weight, sex, normal day activity), and you have excess fat on your body, and you log your food intake, and hit your calorie target, and don't lose weight (as in, no downwards trend visible in 3-4 weeks), then you're not logging correctly, and that can be fixed.

I weigh everything down to the gram and my scales aren't low on battery or anything and I make sure I log the exact food or as close to as possible.
It's just very slow. When I did this before I got pregnant I lost 8lb in the first month and this time I've only lost 2 in a month.

Probably should mention I do have an underactive thyroid. As far as I'm aware I'm on the right dose though.
The only thing I'm not doing this time is cutting carbs completely (well bread pasta rice etc.)

Lowering carbs will take some water weight with it, not fat. So that may be why you saw a bigger drop last time. What is your calorie target?

Has it been a full month since you started this time? Are you using a trending app? Daily fluctuations can easily mask weight loss, so too much sodium the day before weigh in, close to TOM, some women find they retain water close to ovulation. All of these will influence the number on the scale.

Bex953172

I'm aiming to lose 40lbs ish. I'm 182 atm and want to be 145-150. I'm 5'7 and my calorie target is 1250 to lose 2lb a week.
Most days I tend to eat between 12-1500 ish but when it's higher like 1500 I'll try exercise some (if not all) of it off.
I weigh myself every Monday too. Same time too, before breakfast.

nutmegoreo

Bex953172 wrote: »

I'm aiming to lose 40lbs ish. I'm 182 atm and want to be 145-150. I'm 5'7 and my calorie target is 1250 to lose 2lb a week.
Most days I tend to eat between 12-1500 ish but when it's higher like 1500 I'll try exercise some (if not all) of it off.
I weigh myself every Monday too. Same time too, before breakfast.

If you are only weighing yourself once a week, it may just be that day is higher. For example, throughout the week your weight is lower, but on Sunday you had some extra sausages (or other high sodium food), the scale weight on Monday will be higher because of the water retention that goes with sodium. Likewise, if it's close to TOM that water retention will also mask any losses (heck, I've had a 5lb overnight gain). It's going to take more time and patience, I'm afraid. On the plus side, 2lbs down is better than gaining.

nutmegoreo

Have you taken any other metrics to go by? Pictures, measurements? The scale can be very deceptive. I find monthly pictures and then comparing those side by side are very helpful. Same with measurements. Neither are precise, but it gives you another comparison.

Bex953172

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Bex953172 wrote: »

I'm aiming to lose 40lbs ish. I'm 182 atm and want to be 145-150. I'm 5'7 and my calorie target is 1250 to lose 2lb a week.
Most days I tend to eat between 12-1500 ish but when it's higher like 1500 I'll try exercise some (if not all) of it off.
I weigh myself every Monday too. Same time too, before breakfast.

If you are only weighing yourself once a week, it may just be that day is higher. For example, throughout the week your weight is lower, but on Sunday you had some extra sausages (or other high sodium food), the scale weight on Monday will be higher because of the water retention that goes with sodium. Likewise, if it's close to TOM that water retention will also mask any losses (heck, I've had a 5lb overnight gain). It's going to take more time and patience, I'm afraid. On the plus side, 2lbs down is better than gaining.

Yeah I agree, I'm not going to give up but just wanted to see if there was anything else I could do!
I don't even know when my TOM is, I have a coil and I barely have a TOM now!

nutmegoreo

Bex953172 wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Bex953172 wrote: »

I'm aiming to lose 40lbs ish. I'm 182 atm and want to be 145-150. I'm 5'7 and my calorie target is 1250 to lose 2lb a week.
Most days I tend to eat between 12-1500 ish but when it's higher like 1500 I'll try exercise some (if not all) of it off.
I weigh myself every Monday too. Same time too, before breakfast.

If you are only weighing yourself once a week, it may just be that day is higher. For example, throughout the week your weight is lower, but on Sunday you had some extra sausages (or other high sodium food), the scale weight on Monday will be higher because of the water retention that goes with sodium. Likewise, if it's close to TOM that water retention will also mask any losses (heck, I've had a 5lb overnight gain). It's going to take more time and patience, I'm afraid. On the plus side, 2lbs down is better than gaining.

Yeah I agree, I'm not going to give up but just wanted to see if there was anything else I could do!
I don't even know when my TOM is, I have a coil and I barely have a TOM now!

I posted another thought just above, so yoh don't miss it.

Some women will still have water retention issues despite the birth control. Maybe review your logging again. Just to be sure. Small errors can slip in there unnoticed. Since the database is open to users changing it, someone might have changed something on you. Sometimes you think psssh I can eyeball this ice cream this time. And sometimes you can, but of your results aren't what you're expecting, That's where I'd start. When you exercise, is it on Saturday or Sunday?

Bex953172

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Bex953172 wrote: »

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Bex953172 wrote: »

I'm aiming to lose 40lbs ish. I'm 182 atm and want to be 145-150. I'm 5'7 and my calorie target is 1250 to lose 2lb a week.
Most days I tend to eat between 12-1500 ish but when it's higher like 1500 I'll try exercise some (if not all) of it off.
I weigh myself every Monday too. Same time too, before breakfast.

If you are only weighing yourself once a week, it may just be that day is higher. For example, throughout the week your weight is lower, but on Sunday you had some extra sausages (or other high sodium food), the scale weight on Monday will be higher because of the water retention that goes with sodium. Likewise, if it's close to TOM that water retention will also mask any losses (heck, I've had a 5lb overnight gain). It's going to take more time and patience, I'm afraid. On the plus side, 2lbs down is better than gaining.

Yeah I agree, I'm not going to give up but just wanted to see if there was anything else I could do!
I don't even know when my TOM is, I have a coil and I barely have a TOM now!

I posted another thought just above, so yoh don't miss it.

Some women will still have water retention issues despite the birth control. Maybe review your logging again. Just to be sure. Small errors can slip in there unnoticed. Since the database is open to users changing it, someone might have changed something on you. Sometimes you think psssh I can eyeball this ice cream this time. And sometimes you can, but of your results aren't what you're expecting, That's where I'd start. When you exercise, is it on Saturday or Sunday?

Any day. I do it at home in the evening when the girls have gone to bed. There's no other time for me to do it!