Intermittent fasting vs calorie counting for women

AnnPT77

Fitness_t_k wrote: »

Hi guys. I started IF (24/5) 16:8 along with logging calories in the app (keeping a little deficit) and working out cardio for Atleast 40min a day.
I did 6 days IF 16:8 & 1 day 14:10. I have only lost 1 pound so far. Any recommendations or comments as I read people loose 2-5 pounds a week on IF....

What do you mean by "a little" deficit? If you lost a pound in about a week - which is really not a long enough time period to evaluate a weight loss trend, not even close - that would imply about a 500 calorie daily deficit.

IF doesn't make any material difference in weight loss rate, at the same constant calorie intake. At constant calories, one would reasonably expect the same weight loss rate from OMAD (one meal a day) and all-waking-hours grazing on small snacks, and everything in between. (For some people, IF it makes sticking with a specific calorie goal easier . . . for others, harder).

If a pound a week continues to be your average weekly loss, that's great. Two pounds a week is about the maximum even a quite obese person should be trying to lose, unless under very close medical supervision for health issues and nutritional adequacy. Five pounds a week is pretty ridulous, for health risk, and also unsustainability.

It's your calorie level (and your accuracy in tracking it) that determines weight loss, not what time of day or how many times a day you eat, at any given calorie level.

Cardio may or may not increase weight loss; it depends on how you manage your weight loss process. For sure, managing the intake side of the equation (what you eat) makes much more difference for many/most people than a normal, short amount of exercise. Typical exercise, half an hour to an hour, usually in the low hundreds of calories per day, is equivalent to a serving of peanut butter and a banana, or thereabouts . . . or a bottle of Coke and a couple Oreos.

yirara

Fitness_t_k wrote: »

Hi guys. I started IF (24/5) 16:8 along with logging calories in the app (keeping a little deficit) and working out cardio for Atleast 40min a day.
I did 6 days IF 16:8 & 1 day 14:10. I have only lost 1 pound so far. Any recommendations or comments as I read people loose 2-5 pounds a week on IF....

What AnnP wrote. Losing 2lbs per week requires you to eat 7000 calories less per week, or 1000 per day. Most people, especially those that don't have much to lose can't do that.
Losing 5lbs per week would mean eating 17500 calories less per week, or 2500 less per day. To still get kind of proper nutrition, your energy needs per day would need to be at least 4000 calories per day.

I ran some numbers for you, assuming you're female, 170cm and 40 years old. In order to get a natural calorie burn of 4000 calories per day you'd need to be about 580lbs. I'm not kidding. Does that sound anywhere like you?

Another assumption, if you think you could do this via sports. Lets again assume you're 170cm tall, female, 40 years old and 200lbs. It's a nice number. Then you'd have to eat 1974 calories each day to neither gain nor lose weight. To get your 2500 calorie deficit, you'd need to burn 2500 by means of sport each day. You see where this is going, right? Lets use running and weight x distance x 0.64. So you'd need to run 20 miles every single day. If you don't like running but prefer walking then you'd need to walk 42 miles every day. Is that realistic you think?

lgfrie

16:8 with a reasonable calorie deficit, food logging, and 40 mins of cardio is pretty standard IF dieting, and you're getting good results from it - a pound a week. Ignore the misinformation you've been reading about people losing > 2 lbs per week because that barely exists, and certainly not 5 lbs/week. Having those kinds of expectations is demoralizing and unrealistic unless you are hundreds of pounds overweight, for the reasons other people discussed above.

Go pick up a piece of fatty meat or some sticks of butter that weigh a pound and think about the fact that you eliminated that from your body this week. It's work well done, so just keep doing what you're doing. You could probably bump that up to 1.5 lbs/week, or in the short term even 2 lbs/week, but understand that you'll be getting much less food and are much more likely to abandon the effort before achieving your goals. 1 lb/week is pretty much the sweet spot for sustainable dieting for many people. It's the right balance of mild deprivation with sufficient reward to keep plugging away at it.

BigMamaLynsey

Makes a difference for me! When I get up I dont even think about food, the easiest time of day for me to skip breakfast and use the calories I would normally have eaten and add them to my dinner instead that way I can have abit extra and fill me for longer. Before when I ate breakfast i swear it made me feel so hungry afterwards i have no idea why! I was literally hungry all day. I am coping so well now with just 2x meals a day. Less hungrier, less cravings.