Plateau --> Intermittent fasting?

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kweede14
kweede14 Posts: 29 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've hit a plateau with my weight loss and someone suggested I try intermittent fasting. I read a couple of things on it but wanted to see if anyone has tried it or if it worked. Other suggetions are also welcome, please and thank you :)

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  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    First of all there are several "methods" of Intermittent Fasting.

    As far as weight loss goes, you're basically attempting to manipulate nutrient timing to allow you to stick to your diet.

    I think it works very well for some people and horribly for others and I could say that about several other methods of dieting.

    One benefit that some people get from it is that it allows them to build some tolerance to hunger and I don't think that's a bad thing.

    I do not do IF, but I did at one point and it definitely opened my eyes up to the preference for larger meals and so now I minimize breakfast calories to allow me to eat larger meals later in the day.

    Ultimately, I think it's a good idea to recognize that IF is just a different eating schedule. It will help you break a plateau if it allows you to stick to a reasonable calorie intake for your goals.
  • Jen2133
    Jen2133 Posts: 95 Member
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    My experience is that as soon as you start eating in the morning, you are hungry. So, by delaying eating until late morning, after a 14 to 16 hour fast, you have narrowed the window of active eating time, and should feel less cravings. You still have to watch what you eat during your 'eating hours' – it's not a free pass :) It is easier to do if you have already reduced the sugar in your diet as your blood sugar levels will be more steady.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    Jen2133 wrote: »
    My experience is that as soon as you start eating in the morning, you are hungry. So, by delaying eating until late morning, after a 14 to 16 hour fast, you have narrowed the window of active eating time, and should feel less cravings. You still have to watch what you eat during your 'eating hours' – it's not a free pass :) It is easier to do if you have already reduced the sugar in your diet as your blood sugar levels will be more steady.

    Definitely agree regarding the morning eating.

    If you get used to a 16:8 type of IF where you fast for 16 hours and then eat for 8, any time you decide to break your fast early for whatever reason, be prepared to basically go way over your daily calorie intake.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Intermittent fasting only works if you stay in the calorie deficit. This is not something that will kick start weight loss or anything of the sort. It is just an eating schedule where you eat for example your daily MFP alloted calories in a certain window of time. Or you can use a 24 hour fasting for example one day week to help keep you in your calorie deficit or even allow you to cut some calories in 24 hour window and allow you to eat a few more during each of the others days... but still be in that weekly number of calories to loose weight. The same for 5:2.

    There are a number of folks that already live by the 16/8 or 17/7 (so on and so on) regularly just because eating early mornings is not their thing and put off "break fast" till later morning or lunch time (me being one of them).

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I don't do IF per se, I just have tea with milk all morning, and put off eating for as long as i can. If i eat breakfast, it just makes me more hungry throughout the day.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    kweede14 wrote: »
    I've hit a plateau with my weight loss and someone suggested I try intermittent fasting. I read a couple of things on it but wanted to see if anyone has tried it or if it worked. Other suggestions are also welcome, please and thank you :)

    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • kweede14
    kweede14 Posts: 29 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kweede14 wrote: »
    I've hit a plateau with my weight loss and someone suggested I try intermittent fasting. I read a couple of things on it but wanted to see if anyone has tried it or if it worked. Other suggestions are also welcome, please and thank you :)

    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Thanks! I just changed it.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Yep, opening your diary cleared it up. You often eat back all your exercise calories and MFP gives inflated calorie burns. Some days are not logged or partially logged, specifically weekends. You've gone over your calorie goal quite a few times, one day by over 1000 calories. This can cause water retention as well. Combine all this with not weighing your food and it explains not losing weight. You seem to be canceling out your deficit.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    kweede14 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kweede14 wrote: »
    I've hit a plateau with my weight loss and someone suggested I try intermittent fasting. I read a couple of things on it but wanted to see if anyone has tried it or if it worked. Other suggestions are also welcome, please and thank you :)

    There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Thanks! I just changed it.

    Thanks! I think cleaning up your logging will help you. What's going on on Sundays? You didn't log the last three Sundays. I see other days with just one or two meals logged and am wondering if this is truly all you ate or you didn't log everything you ate these days.

    You're eating a lot of hyper-palatable foods, which are likely not filling you up as well as other foods could. See http://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/fuller/understanding-satiety-feeling-full-after-a-meal.html

    Also try swapping Sodium or Sugar for Fiber and make sure you hit your Fiber target every day.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    Just tighten up your logging as you're eating more than you think and any plateau will be history.
    For exercise cals eat back 50-75% to account for inflated burns.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    Just tighten up your logging as you're eating more than you think and any plateau will be history.
    For exercise cals eat back 50-75% to account for inflated burns.
    Yep. Also, weigh all your foods on a food scale in grams, I see a lot of '1 piece'. Weigh your meat slices and anything that has a preset weight as they're often not always the same weight... even bread slices, eggs and cereal should be weighed. Always go for the weight servings instead of the cups/spoons as there is often more food in the cups/spoons servings which can add extra calories.
  • kweede14
    kweede14 Posts: 29 Member
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    Thanks guys. I used to do all that (weighing, and strict logs) but being on my own and having a weird schedule this semester made it harder to do that. Will definitely try to take some of your advice :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    You can do IF if you like but it's not a miracle solution to help with plateaus. Eating less is.
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
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    Looks like logging and maybe being too generous with the exercise calories are what has you stuck.

    FWIW, if you fix all that and get stuck again I'm another one that found 16:8 helpful to break a plateau in the past. Not saying it is a miracle, just that it worked.
  • ralostaz2000
    ralostaz2000 Posts: 135 Member
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    SideSteel wrote: »
    Jen2133 wrote: »
    My experience is that as soon as you start eating in the morning, you are hungry. So, by delaying eating until late morning, after a 14 to 16 hour fast, you have narrowed the window of active eating time, and should feel less cravings. You still have to watch what you eat during your 'eating hours' – it's not a free pass :) It is easier to do if you have already reduced the sugar in your diet as your blood sugar levels will be more steady.

    Definitely agree regarding the morning eating.

    If you get used to a 16:8 type of IF where you fast for 16 hours and then eat for 8, any time you decide to break your fast early for whatever reason, be prepared to basically go way over your daily calorie intake.
    From my experience this is not always true..I am following 16:8 now since a month and my weight plateaued since then:( Have no idea why although I am eating less than 1300 calories aday as I a discovered that I can't fit my 1300 in 8 hours but I wanted to try this way of dieting.
    I will go back to normal dieting starting tomorrow and see if the scale will move or not

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