Advice on Calories and 16:8 Fasting

BourbonCowboy

I've been IFing for about 2 months now. Everything is going pretty well, I started at 235lbs I am down to 221lbs. I am limiting myslef to 1,300 calories per day. As I continue to lose do I need to continue to lower my caloric I take? I IF every day, haven't started training yet.

tomcustombuilder

BourbonCowboy wrote: »

I've been IFing for about 2 months now. Everything is going pretty well, I started at 235lbs I am down to 221lbs. I am limiting myslef to 1,300 calories per day. As I continue to lose do I need to continue to lower my caloric I take? I IF every day, haven't started training yet.

if you’re at a true 1,300 those calories will take you to the finish line. You won’t need to lower, you may need to increase slightly when training.

kshama2001

BourbonCowboy wrote: »

I've been IFing for about 2 months now. Everything is going pretty well, I started at 235lbs I am down to 221lbs. I am limiting myself to 1,300 calories per day. As I continue to lose do I need to continue to lower my caloric I take? I IF every day, haven't started training yet.

As a male, you shouldn't be lower than 1500 calories, and as low as 1500 only if you are very very short AND sedentary. See https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/ and mentally replace 1200 with 1500 and woman with man.

That said, since you've lost less than 2 pounds per week during these past 8 weeks, I have to wonder if you are in fact actually eating more than 1300 calories per day. Perhaps the 1300 calories per day is new?

If not, you may be making some logging errors that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

BourbonCowboy

@kshama2001 there are times my diary won't allow me to record, as I am below 1300 calories. I am short and stubby and of recent sedentary. I was getting too big and cardio wasn't an option. I take walks, but haven't planned on working out til I had lost some pounds. Agree, typically I should be around 1500 calories, but trying to dump weight fast so I can work out. Hope this helps!

tomcustombuilder

BourbonCowboy wrote: »

@kshama2001 there are times my diary won't allow me to record, as I am below 1300 calories. I am short and stubby and of recent sedentary. I was getting too big and cardio wasn't an option. I take walks, but haven't planned on working out til I had lost some pounds. Agree, typically I should be around 1500 calories, but trying to dump weight fast so I can work out. Hope this helps!

Less than 2 lbs a week is fine for you regardless of what you think your actual calorie amount is. The weight loss tells the story and not the calorie tracking which is never going to be perfectly accurate.

AnnPT77

Basically, what tomcustombuilder said. Your weight loss rate is the thing to watch. Ideally, it should slow a bit as you have less weight to lose (for reasons of health risk, loosely speaking).

If loss gradually slows then stops for 4-6 weeks, you might need to cut calories a bit further after that point, but I don't think that's likely if your counting is accurate. (I'd lose like a house afire on 1300 as a 5'5" 133-pound 67 y/o woman, even before considering exercise.)

If loss stalls suddenly, wait it out for 4-6 weeks, or take a break of a couple of weeks at estimated maintenance calories. It's probably some water weight weirdness in that case, not a sudden hard stop in fat loss, when at a calorie level that had been working fine up to the sudden stall.

Once you start doing more exercise, watch the loss rate, and don't let it get too fast. (0.5%-1% of current weight per week would be good, bias toward the lower end of that range.) You might even need to increase calories at that point.

Some people - oddly - do find that they need to increase calories as they get lighter, because they move more in daily life once not dragging a bunch of excess weight around and fatiguing themselves that way.

Watch your loss rate, adjust accordingly.

BourbonCowboy

Thank you all for the feedback. Agree, I do plan to increase caloric intake a bit as I start adding exercise. Just didn't want to sabotage my loss plans. Trying to get down to 190-185 and maintain, gotta keep a lil chub 😄