16:8 IF Diet - No results after 3 weeks

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Replies

  • tinaedstrand
    tinaedstrand Posts: 1 Member
    Using common sense and following a high protein/low carb/low calorie diet and eat small portions every 2 hours and you can't fail with this diet.i will have a smoothies for breakfast-banana for snack-egg/gluten free pasta or jacket potato for lunch to fill me up-fruit for snack and then high protein meal as last meal,drink at least 2 liters of water per day sometimes squeeze fresh lemon into it.And i am never hungry during the day.if you skip a meal you take away the main function with this diet and your body goes into starvation mode
  • EddieEHitler
    EddieEHitler Posts: 52 Member
    Using common sense and following a high protein/low carb/low calorie diet and eat small portions every 2 hours and you can't fail with this diet.i will have a smoothies for breakfast-banana for snack-egg/gluten free pasta or jacket potato for lunch to fill me up-fruit for snack and then high protein meal as last meal,drink at least 2 liters of water per day sometimes squeeze fresh lemon into it.And i am never hungry during the day.if you skip a meal you take away the main function with this diet and your body goes into starvation mode

    Sorry but that is total nonsense. Starvation mode is a myth and nothing more. Since I adjusted my diet this week (thanks to the help of MFP forum members) and having spent almost two weeks on plant supplements I have lost almost 4 pounds - in a week. This is following the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet. 5 days I ate around 2,500 calories and the two fast days I was below 600. By your theory I should have been in 'starvation' mode and therefore either lost very little or no weight. You ought to read up on intermittent fasting as you may be very surprised.
  • DeadliftAddict
    DeadliftAddict Posts: 746 Member
    IF isn't a diet first off. It is a eating protocol. Any diet a person chooses can work with IF. I don't care how long you fast, if after you start eating you go into a surplus, you will gain weight. Same thing for if you eat at maintenance, you will stay the same. The ONLY thing that matters when it comes to losing weight is a caloric deficit. So, if you have been doing IF for three weeks and no results. You are still not creating a caloric deficit. I follow IF for the convenience of it and I'd rather have calories at the end of the day instead of waking and eating breakfast. It still comes down to being in a deficit. People telling you to use a low carb diet or this and that. Non of it matters. Those are the small things we think to much about. Create the deficit to get the scale moving in the direction you want it to go. Then, once you the most amount of calories you can eat and still be at a deficit, create the macro split you can adhere to for those calories. High carb, low carb, or whatever. Hope this helps.
  • in_the_stars
    in_the_stars Posts: 1,395 Member
    Using common sense and following a high protein/low carb/low calorie diet and eat small portions every 2 hours and you can't fail with this diet.i will have a smoothies for breakfast-banana for snack-egg/gluten free pasta or jacket potato for lunch to fill me up-fruit for snack and then high protein meal as last meal,drink at least 2 liters of water per day sometimes squeeze fresh lemon into it.And i am never hungry during the day.if you skip a meal you take away the main function with this diet and your body goes into starvation mode
    It's time to log off the internet.

    Only when people realize Martin's an idiot.
  • in_the_stars
    in_the_stars Posts: 1,395 Member
    Ha!
    http://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/1b01ll/is_anyone_else_becoming_more_and_more/
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    What happened to Martin? Haven't seen him around for a while...
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    ^^^
    wow...as much as I like some of the beachbody workouts..this is just too obvious...you know there's more subtle way to do this type of ads...
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Sixteen hours isn't really fasting. It's a long time to have nothing to eat, but I've gone longer without trying at work. I didn't consider it a fast, lol.

    The diet will only work if you take in fewer calories than you use up. But any diet will work if you do that. No reason to go 16 hours.

    If you like it and it's working, great! But if it doesn't work, just stop and don't worry about that. There is no reason to use it. :)
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
    I was hooked up to a machine called a Dach machine or something? Basically it pass a 5hz electrical signal through your body and outputs to the Dach(?) machine which gives you a reading between 0 and 100. The supplements were suggested to me due to the readings. I'd never heard of sea kelp or chlorella before hand to be honest. One thing I will do though is take at least one probiotic capsule per day to boost the immune system.

    Sounds like a waste fo time...

    Agreed. It sounds like a way to sell supplements.
  • RUNNING_AMOK_1958
    RUNNING_AMOK_1958 Posts: 268 Member
    Um, why not just eat sensibly and work out? Sounds like you're overthinking things.
  • EddieEHitler
    EddieEHitler Posts: 52 Member
    Um, why not just eat sensibly and work out? Sounds like you're overthinking things.

    I wish it was that simple, believe me!
  • littlefoot612
    littlefoot612 Posts: 156 Member
    If your food diary is accurate for the past week or so, without taking your under estimations into account, you are still over your daily calorie goal most days.Take an honest hard look at your food diary and I think you might see the reason you have been having trouble losing.
    I hope you get on the right track and the scales start moving down for you.
  • FoxyLifter
    FoxyLifter Posts: 965 Member
    So you are telling me that a magic machine "passed" a 5hz signal and from that you got some sea kelp supplements?
    Care to explain how this ISN'T a total waste of time?

    I'm open to new ideas but my somewhat extensive research knowledge suggests its a waste of time. The onus of efficacy is yours. Unless there is evidence that it is useful for something, it isn't. There are zero publications in pubmed/medline on a so-called Dach machine. Zero.

    Apologies. It's actually a Dietx machine I think it's called. No idea where I got Dach from! It is similar to this one: http://www.allergycarenutrition.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/3373?opendocument&part=3

    I looked up food intolerance testing in my local area and only a few places do it. From the results that came out it was suggested that I cut back on diary products and try taking kelp, chlorella and probiotic capsules. I mentioned earlier that I also get headaches in the middle of the day and the only way to get rid of them is to sleep. Presumably this is why dropping diet coke from my diet completely and taking chlorella may help to boost my energy levels.

    I apologize if this has been mentioned before, but is it possible that you're hypoglycemic?

    I am. I have to eat throughout the day or I risk hitting "the point of no return" (I gave this name to the headache and occasional nausea that only goes away after sleep, not just a 30min nap, but a long sleep session). On the weekend, I can get away with having a HUGE breakfast and a small lunch, but i don't like to push it too often. It's all about experimenting and finding your threshold.

    I am also sensitive to caffeine withdrawals. I have to keep track of my pop and coffee intake. If I have a cup of coffee two days in a row and no coffee on the third day, I get a small headache. I can do coffee every other day just fine.... which sucks because I LOVE coffee. Our office decaf coffee is a different brand and tastes like crap compared to the regular stuff.

    Anywho, feel free to do what you want, but if someone is hypoglycemic, then I would not recommend any type of eating pattern that involves extended periods between meals. The threshold is different with everyone, so you'd have to experiment and look for trends and patterns.
  • EddieEHitler
    EddieEHitler Posts: 52 Member
    If your food diary is accurate for the past week or so, without taking your under estimations into account, you are still over your daily calorie goal most days.Take an honest hard look at your food diary and I think you might see the reason you have been having trouble losing.
    I hope you get on the right track and the scales start moving down for you.

    Thanks. Yes, since I started recording my diary as accurately as possible over the past week or so I kind of knew I was going to be a bit over this week as I attended two birthday parties in consecutive days. Despite this however, I still lost over 3 pounds which I am extremely please about. I don't expect my diary this week to be over. We shall see :-)
  • EddieEHitler
    EddieEHitler Posts: 52 Member
    I apologize if this has been mentioned before, but is it possible that you're hypoglycemic?

    Thank you. I never thought of hypoglycemia. I don't think this is the case because the headaches have now completely gone and I have far more energy than I've had in quite a while. I'm certain this is because of the additional supplements I've been taking; namely spirulina, chlorella, sea kelp and probiotic capsules. I guess it's a combination of these.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Wow, thank you very much for all the helpful replies guys! The consensus here is pretty obvious. I've probably been a bit naive in thinking that I will lose weight no matter what, but of course if I am overeating without properly realising then that's the problem right there. I should point out that one or the main reasons I went for a food intolerance checkup was because of the real bad headaches I tend to get mid afternoon. The only way to get rid of them is sleep. I also feel very lethargic most of the time so if anything chlorella and sea kelp will hopefully give me a boost of some kind.

    I was hooked up to a machine called a Dach machine or something? Basically it pass a 5hz electrical signal through your body and outputs to the Dach(?) machine which gives you a reading between 0 and 100. The supplements were suggested to me due to the readings. I'd never heard of sea kelp or chlorella before hand to be honest. One thing I will do though is take at least one probiotic capsule per day to boost the immune system.

    Starting now, I will record everything I eat and see how things go. After all, I'm on the best website in the world for calorie counting!

    One more question, do you guys eat your workout calories? Cheers!

    Like I've said elsewhere, these machine tests are worthless.

    http://www.foodallergy.org/diagnosis-testing/unproven-testing
    http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/9/2/198.pdf
  • klinger6395
    klinger6395 Posts: 44 Member
    Lol IF
  • NahrasWay
    NahrasWay Posts: 78 Member
    I am big into eating when you're hungry because I PERSONALLY feel that for MYSELF forcing myself to eat X amount of meals a day (even if I'm not hungry) is just as an unhealthy relationship with food as it was when I snacked mindlessly and over indulged on everything just because it was there. I also realized .. I had NO idea what being hungry really felt like. Sure I would get a twinge in my stomach if a couple of hours went by without eating .. but was this habit/head hunger because I ate several small meals all day long at around the same time and my brain was like 'hey .. you aren't eating and it's X time. Get going!' Also food is so readily available at every corner that anytime we get even the slightest bit of a craving or a pang (regardless of whether it's actual hunger or not) most people will pull out a snack, go to a convenience store for a snack, or dash through the drive thru because it's fast and easy. It's okay to wait .. it's okay to feel a bit of hunger.

    I did a week where for 2 days (not consecutive days) I went for as long as I could without eating. I was aiming for 24 hours (from dinner the night before to the same time the next day) but was going to eat if I felt any sort of super pain. I lasted 24 hours by drinking a lot of water and I finally felt was hunger felt like. I wasn't in super pain but it was uncomfortable because I (and I'm sure a lot of people at high weights) are used to shoveling food in our mouths every few hours. After that week I started to pay more attention and compare that feeling I had with what I was feeling at the moment. It led me to not realizing that i was doing IF on some days. I could eat dinner at 9pm the night before and then not eat until 1pm or later the next day just because I wasn't truly hungry.

    I now follow 5:2 eating style where I try to eat as normally as I can while keeping my calories in mind (I don't want to go over but I find that I am not even getting near the calories recommended for me which is 1900. I get between 1200-1600 and am satisfied all day without feeling hunger) for 5 days out of the week and then 2 days of the week I go from dinner the night before to dinner that day (it's much easier to 'fast' for me knowing I get to eat a good sized meal, in my case 500-600 calories, for dinner). This works for me for many reasons. Benefits that I've noticed already in the few weeks I've been doing this is that I get 2 days a week where I feel actual hunger and it keeps me in check for my normal eating days, If I end up going out and over indulge I am still at a deficit for calories and that helps me mentally because I don't beat myself up over indulging, and being strict on myself for those 2 days a week has really helped me be able to control any cravings I get (as in I can tell myself no and then plan out the craving for another day so I can work around my calories, or even just saying no because I don't feel like I need it and taking control over what I eat instead of the food controlling me).

    TLDR: Experiment on what works for you. If that is IF, 5:2, 16:8, calorie counting, IIFYM .. you get the point. Not everyone is right, and not everyone is wrong. Some things work for some people, some things don't work for some people just because it works for you doesn't make it the best but the same just because it doesn't work for you doesn't make it stupid. Why can't we all respect what someone is doing for themselves (unless it's super dangerous of course) and wish them well?

    OP: I'm glad you did experiments to figure out why IF wasn't working for you. I just recently read something where people who weren't getting results were calculating their intake wrong and were over eating but started to blame the IF instead of taking a look at themselves and how they were working it. Good luck to you!
  • in_the_stars
    in_the_stars Posts: 1,395 Member
    Nahra, I'm sorry, but I don't understand how food controls you.
  • EddieEHitler
    EddieEHitler Posts: 52 Member
    OP: I'm glad you did experiments to figure out why IF wasn't working for you. I just recently read something where people who weren't getting results were calculating their intake wrong and were over eating but started to blame the IF instead of taking a look at themselves and how they were working it. Good luck to you!

    Thanks for that NahrasWay, appreciate that! The 5:2 approach which I am using at the moment seems to be working well. Even if the food intolerance test turns out to be nonsense, I still learned about some supplements which I am certain have made a difference to my energy levels at the very least. I no longer get headaches in the afternoon as I did before and I'm now 6 or 7 pounds down in just about 2 weeks. I big part of this no doubt is logging calories CORRECTLY. I've realised that t is absolutely essential to do this.

    My TDEE is a rather generous 2,494 calories per day. My 24hr period is usually 7pm to 7pm as this seems to work better; especially for the fasting days. I try to eat between 500-600 calories on these days and to be honest, it has been fairly easy so far. Another important lesson I've learned is that I don't eat my excercise calories. I don't even bother logging them anymore. Since making these changes this have been going well so far!

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