Looking for experienced IF’er advice.
Options
MelG7777
Posts: 14,031 Member
Hey! I’ve been fairly hardcore IF’ing since June. Mostly 18/6. Some 42-48 hr fasts. I’ve lost 70lbs. I still have at least 25 to go. In the past few weeks I’ve been having more of a hard time. Hungry a lot. Not always eating what I should. Not sticking to the eating windows as well. I got down to this weight a few years back and struggled too. I’ve been listening to podcasts and reading and watching YT videos to try to gain understanding. I workout fairly hard 6-7 days a week too. I feel like I need a reset or something. Any ideas? (Did I post in the right place? Sorry if not. Not looking for opposing IF views, just looking for those with more experience with something like this.) Thanks!
4
Replies
-
How are your eating windows adjusted around your workouts? Maybe try opening your eating window right after a workout so that you're replenishing fuel fairly quickly. You say you have at least 25lbs left to lose, but do you have the fat stores to fuel a workout amid a 48 hour fast?
Personally, I was not able to sustain the long fasts or OMAD around the days that I had long runs and had to amend my eating window to optimize training.7 -
MotherOfSharpei wrote: »How are your eating windows adjusted around your workouts? Maybe try opening your eating window right after a workout so that you're replenishing fuel fairly quickly. You say you have at least 25lbs left to lose, but do you have the fat stores to fuel a workout amid a 48 hour fast?
Personally, I was not able to sustain the long fasts or OMAD around the days that I had long runs and had to amend my eating window to optimize training.
I don’t do the 48 hr fasts very often these days. I used to to them once a week. Then every other day. But only because it was really easy. When it became difficult I went back to regular IF. I assume I have the fat stores. I’m pretty curvy still. I don’t know how to tell that except that I’m still “kinda fat”. lol. So....I usually wait until noon. Maybe try switching it up to eating earlier? I do a boot camp style workout 6 days a week at 4:45am. Use an elliptical 4-6 times a week and do some resistance band glutes workouts every day.
Thanks for taking the time!1 -
I don’t have much advice, but I’m in to read others’ thoughts1
-
You may want to amend your post title as I am not sure that your issues, strictly speaking, have much/only to do with IF.
You've lost at a rate of at least 10lbs a month by the looks of it, which is quite fast.
You are now much leaner and that deficit rate cannot continue. If you try to push for it you will have a slowdown in your general activity level, feel crappy... oh, wait a second, you are experiencing some of this already by feeling more hunger than normal!
You probably need to move to smaller deficits and to start looking (if you haven't been doing so) to how you will be eating long term. Are you planning on continuing to fast like you've been doing while you're maintaining your weight? What type of time restricted eating are you planning on doing at maintenance?
Protect your loss first and foremost as what you've already lost confers most of the health benefits.
Push slowly for what, in the context of your total weight loss, is an optimisation problem as to how you slide into maintenance and the exact weight level you will end up at.
And if you haven't been thinking about the next 5 years... it is good that you will be spending the time that it will take to perfect your techniques while still focused on losing slowly as opposed to making oopsies while trying new things that don't work out while you're already at maintenance! 11 -
Thank you for all of that! I feel like this specifically related to IF because I’m interested in someone experience with it. Like....it was SO EASY and now it’s not. And why? And what did they do about it?You may want to amend your post title as I am not sure that your issues, strictly speaking, have much/only to do with IF.
You've lost at a rate of at least 10lbs a month by the looks of it, which is quite fast.
You are now much leaner and that deficit rate cannot continue. If you try to push for it you will have a slowdown in your general activity level, feel crappy... oh, wait a second, you are experiencing some of this already by feeling more hunger than normal!
You probably need to move to smaller deficits and to start looking (if you haven't been doing so) to how you will be eating long term. Are you planning on continuing to fast like you've been doing while you're maintaining your weight? What type of time restricted eating are you planning on doing at maintenance?
Protect your loss first and foremost as what you've already lost confers most of the health benefits.
Push slowly for what, in the context of your total weight loss, is an optimisation problem as to how you slide into maintenance and the exact weight level you will end up at.
And if you haven't been thinking about the next 5 years... it is good that you will be spending the time that it will take to perfect your techniques while still focused on losing slowly as opposed to making oopsies while trying new things that don't work out while you're already at maintenance!
I definitely would like to continue with IF and experimenting with longer fasts. The longer fasts weren’t so much about WL for me.
You’ve given much to think about. I’m definitely more than a little worried about how to keep it off. Thank you. ❤️3 -
I can't help you on the IF aspect. As I initially wrote and then deleted as irrelevant, I don't practice IF even though I do eat most of my calories in the evening/night.
Still, if I don't consume an appreciable amount of calories (about 1/3) during the day, I definitely feel a slow down in my activity/energy level.
And I am by no means fat poor even though I am normal weight and normal fat for my age group (which still puts me at over 20% fat (even though my BIA scale lies to me and claims otherwise), which I think we can all agree is not exactly lean for a guy).
BUT, I CAN tell you that the difference between the first 70 (or 100 in my case) and the last 25 is significant in the amount of relative difficultly.
You can google body weight planner and you can see Hall's research as to how you will require increasing deficits to lose the last bit and how it will have progressively more of an effect on your maintenance level of calories as you do so (the last part is as generally expected, of course)
Leaner people do better with slower weight loss, with more frequent re-feeds and diet breaks etc.
While you may have enjoyed IF'ing, I am not sure how IF combines with a leaner person losing weight and with increased activity levels. I am sure that people make it work, don't get me wrong. But it is not something I have first hand knowledge about, nor does it intuitively make me think of it as optimal in terms of creating, for example, anabolic windows around exercise.
Regardless. and as a personal opinion:
part of what you're feeling is because you have less fat reserves now and are applying large deficits and is not, strictly speaking, just an IF issue.
Maintenance is where you will win or lose the game you've bought into by losing your first 70lbs.
In my opinion preserving that win comes first and foremost before seeking even better results.
So go gently and work yourself into your final weight without generating additional hormonal responses that will promote/exacerbate an outcome of rebound weight gain as opposed to landing softly and hanging in there for the 6 to 36 months it may take for things to stabilize and you to start feeling that you can keep on maintaining forever!
You've been operating at more than 2lbs a week of weight loss on average. Effectively, a more than 1000 Calories a day deficit. In my books anything beyond 20% of TDEE is way too much for you. So unless your daily TDEE is over 5000 Calories... you're in a no go zone
I am sure that others, guided by their own experience will disagree.
I don't think anyone will disagree with focusing on laying the groundwork for long term maintenance though
13 -
Thank you for all of that! I feel like this specifically related to IF because I’m interested in someone experience with it. Like....it was SO EASY and now it’s not. And why? And what did they do about it?You may want to amend your post title as I am not sure that your issues, strictly speaking, have much/only to do with IF.
You've lost at a rate of at least 10lbs a month by the looks of it, which is quite fast.
You are now much leaner and that deficit rate cannot continue. If you try to push for it you will have a slowdown in your general activity level, feel crappy... oh, wait a second, you are experiencing some of this already by feeling more hunger than normal!
You probably need to move to smaller deficits and to start looking (if you haven't been doing so) to how you will be eating long term. Are you planning on continuing to fast like you've been doing while you're maintaining your weight? What type of time restricted eating are you planning on doing at maintenance?
Protect your loss first and foremost as what you've already lost confers most of the health benefits.
Push slowly for what, in the context of your total weight loss, is an optimisation problem as to how you slide into maintenance and the exact weight level you will end up at.
And if you haven't been thinking about the next 5 years... it is good that you will be spending the time that it will take to perfect your techniques while still focused on losing slowly as opposed to making oopsies while trying new things that don't work out while you're already at maintenance!
I definitely would like to continue with IF and experimenting with longer fasts. The longer fasts weren’t so much about WL for me.
You’ve given much to think about. I’m definitely more than a little worried about how to keep it off. Thank you. ❤️
Ok. I am a 20 year veteran of skipping breakfast. What @PAV8888 says is correct.
I do not pretend to understand all of it but I will tell you from my experience last summer it does get harder when you are eating less than you should. For 3 months I cut my calories to increase my rate of loss back to 2.75 pounds per week or 1 percent loss per week to prepare for a surgery I needed. I believe the only reason I made it through was because I had already been losing for over a year when I started and I had a fair amount of discipline built up.
There is also the issue of what a calorie deficit will do to your hormone levels as your fat stores are lessened. Again, I do not understand it completely but I know that hunger can be increased.
I think it would be very wise of you to take your foot off the pedal completely and take a two week diet/deficit break. This will help reset your hormone levels and restore your BMR. It is not really a complicated process you just need to eat your maintenance calories for 2 weeks. This can be your first trial run so you can see how it feels.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
I have lost most of the weight I need to lose as well. I am slowing things down even further to make sure I am fully prepared when I get to the beginning of the forever part of this deal. I have often said that my goal is not just to lose weight but to lose the mindset and the habits of the person who gained it.15 -
I can't help you on the IF aspect. As I initially wrote and then deleted as irrelevant, I don't practice IF even though I do eat most of my calories in the evening/night.
Still, if I don't consume an appreciable amount of calories (about 1/3) during the day, I definitely feel a slow down in my activity/energy level.
And I am by no means fat poor even though I am normal weight and normal fat for my age group (which still puts me at over 20% fat (even though my BIA scale lies to me and claims otherwise), which I think we can all agree is not exactly lean for a guy).
BUT, I CAN tell you that the difference between the first 70 (or 100 in my case) and the last 25 is significant in the amount of relative difficultly.
You can google body weight planner and you can see Hall's research as to how you will require increasing deficits to lose the last bit and how it will have progressively more of an effect on your maintenance level of calories as you do so (the last part is as generally expected, of course)
Leaner people do better with slower weight loss, with more frequent re-feeds and diet breaks etc.
While you may have enjoyed IF'ing, I am not sure how IF combines with a leaner person losing weight and with increased activity levels. I am sure that people make it work, don't get me wrong. But it is not something I have first hand knowledge about, nor does it intuitively make me think of it as optimal in terms of creating, for example, anabolic windows around exercise.
Regardless. and as a personal opinion:
part of what you're feeling is because you have less fat reserves now and are applying large deficits and is not, strictly speaking, just an IF issue.
Maintenance is where you will win or lose the game you've bought into by losing your first 70lbs.
In my opinion preserving that win comes first and foremost before seeking even better results.
So go gently and work yourself into your final weight without generating additional hormonal responses that will promote/exacerbate an outcome of rebound weight gain as opposed to landing softly and hanging in there for the 6 to 36 months it may take for things to stabilize and you to start feeling that you can keep on maintaining forever!
You've been operating at more than 2lbs a week of weight loss on average. Effectively, a more than 1000 Calories a day deficit. In my books anything beyond 20% of TDEE is way too much for you. So unless your daily TDEE is over 5000 Calories... you're in a no go zone
I am sure that others, guided by their own experience will disagree.
I don't think anyone will disagree with focusing on laying the groundwork for long term maintenance though
I REALLY appreciate the well thought out response. I understand what you meant now. I won’t lie, I’m gonna need to reread this a few times to process it all. But I like the idea of eating maintenance for a while. Thank you so much again.4 -
Thank you for all of that! I feel like this specifically related to IF because I’m interested in someone experience with it. Like....it was SO EASY and now it’s not. And why? And what did they do about it?You may want to amend your post title as I am not sure that your issues, strictly speaking, have much/only to do with IF.
You've lost at a rate of at least 10lbs a month by the looks of it, which is quite fast.
You are now much leaner and that deficit rate cannot continue. If you try to push for it you will have a slowdown in your general activity level, feel crappy... oh, wait a second, you are experiencing some of this already by feeling more hunger than normal!
You probably need to move to smaller deficits and to start looking (if you haven't been doing so) to how you will be eating long term. Are you planning on continuing to fast like you've been doing while you're maintaining your weight? What type of time restricted eating are you planning on doing at maintenance?
Protect your loss first and foremost as what you've already lost confers most of the health benefits.
Push slowly for what, in the context of your total weight loss, is an optimisation problem as to how you slide into maintenance and the exact weight level you will end up at.
And if you haven't been thinking about the next 5 years... it is good that you will be spending the time that it will take to perfect your techniques while still focused on losing slowly as opposed to making oopsies while trying new things that don't work out while you're already at maintenance!
I definitely would like to continue with IF and experimenting with longer fasts. The longer fasts weren’t so much about WL for me.
You’ve given much to think about. I’m definitely more than a little worried about how to keep it off. Thank you. ❤️
Ok. I am a 20 year veteran of skipping breakfast. What @PAV8888 says is correct.
I do not pretend to understand all of it but I will tell you from my experience last summer it does get harder when you are eating less than you should. For 3 months I cut my calories to increase my rate of loss back to 2.75 pounds per week or 1 percent loss per week to prepare for a surgery I needed. I believe the only reason I made it through was because I had already been losing for over a year when I started and I had a fair amount of discipline built up.
There is also the issue of what a calorie deficit will do to your hormone levels as your fat stores are lessened. Again, I do not understand it completely but I know that hunger can be increased.
I think it would be very wise of you to take your foot off the pedal completely and take a two week diet/deficit break. This will help reset your hormone levels and restore your BMR. It is not really a complicated process you just need to eat your maintenance calories for 2 weeks. This can be your first trial run so you can see how it feels.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
I have lost most of the weight I need to lose as well. I am slowing things down even further to make sure I am fully prepared when I get to the beginning of the forever part of this deal. I have often said that my goal is not just to lose weight but to lose the mindset and the habits of the person who gained it.
Thank you. This all makes sense. I will look at that link. Good job on your loss. I appreciate the advice.4 -
I did IF for about 4 months last year before getting injured (2 fracture bones in my foot) ...I would not do it long term...I got dizzy and was told by my doctor please stop...so I did ....Please be careful ....hugs3
-
We are soooooo in the same boat, on so many levels. I started an IF based diet in May and lost ~ 65 pounds. Mostly 16:8 but then I went to 17:7 because I found it easier. I do IF almost every day. I too hit a kind of diet fatigue, but not a few weeks ago, more like in late November. EXACTLY what you're describing - hungrier, missing the eating window, etc. I still managed to lose 6 pounds over the next 6 weeks, which was quite an accomplishment given that I was having some full-bore binge days and so forth. After a major Christmas binge debacle that seemed like the usual end-of-diet catastrophe, I really took stock of what was going on and why. I concluded that the issue wasn't at all IF but that I wasn't getting enough food. The calorie level that worked for me from May to early November just wasn't cutting it anymore. I can't say exactly why, I just know that I was getting hungrier and less satisfied with the overall program. So I increased my calories 100 per day the day after Christmas and that really did the job for me! I've been compliant with the calories every day except one, since Christmas. Really feel good about being back in the groove. You might want to think about trying something similar. Maybe you just need a little more food; it might have nothing to do with IF.
Also, dieting is fatiguing. You, like me, have been at it a long time and racked up some significant wins, maybe we both were/are just ready for a break. I kind of took mine in December, maybe you're ready for yours now. It's hard to slog along for 7, 8, 9 months without a time out, to regroup and get the old enthusiasm back.12 -
Just to be clear, not advocating stopping weight loss;
definitely advocating reducing size of deficit;
possibly cautiously exploring diet break.
Would be cautious and give a good think at what my deficits have been lately and what my corresponding losses were.
Biggest danger, imho, of big deficits/ fasts/similar is huge pendulum swings
Depends on how you're feeling.
Personally I went with smaller corrections so that I could control them more easily.6 -
I'd cut down the number of days per week4
-
Thanks again. I should point out.....since Oct 1 I’ve only lost about 10-12 lbs. That’s when I started a new exercise plan. So the majority of what I’ve lost was from June through Sept. It’s slowed WAY down. I’m ok with slow as long as I feel good and I’m getting movement in the right direction.
Thank you all! I’m going to be re-reading all of this today.4 -
I don’t know if this gives any perspective. I posted this a week or so ago. This is the results of the 3 months at my new place.
5 -
I have to agree with others suggesting this isn't really related to IF and more a factor of needing to adjust methods and expectations given that you simply now have less weight to lose. The principles of "diet breaks" are pretty well fleshed out in some other threads. While there may be some disagreement to the magnitude of the physiological impact, there's definitely something to be said for the psychological benefits. By your post it sounds like you're burning yourself out a little. Taking a controlled step back and maintaining for a bit may be what you need to get back to a place mentally where you can adhere to your plan more easily.5
-
One other point I should have covered. We should not ever assume that was working during the bigger losses will see us through the smaller ones or maintenance. We should never be stubborn. The moment anything I am doing to make my day easier starts to make it harder I will dump it if I can. It is not as easy for me to start eating breakfast because it tends to make me much hungrier the rest of the day.
My goal is to be at a healthier weight and improve my state of fitness not increase my nighttime fasting. To do those things I only need a calorie deficit, exercise, and good energy management. Everything else either helps make those things happen or I do not need them.8 -
hobbitses333 wrote: »I used IF 16:8 to lose 70 lbs..the first 50 flew off. The next 20 a real struggle including a holiday gain. After not really losing more than a few lbs for a few months, I did some research and revamped my method.
One problem is I was having issues staying in my calorie goals with wild swings over to under. Gym day 2 to 3 hours lifting weights core exercises and cardio while eating huge amounts to stay over BMR of 1800 net then cardio on alternate days being really hard because I was so depleted. rest days not having very much food comaparatively.
I raised my calorie goals slightly and spread my exercise out through the week more evenly. Gym days I only do a warm up of cardio then split up my weight training into two separate workouts which I alternate from one visit to another. I am in and out in about an hour. I do cardio the next day. Mix in some belly dancing, some walking or some Yoga on non cardio days. This helped to stabilize my intake, takes up less of my day. Exercising 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week with one rest day more stable calorie intake. Boom! The scale started going down again. I actually look forward to moving my body on this routine too!
You are getting great advice above in this thread. Here's to you finding your new and improved groove. All of the best!
Definitely sounds so much the same!
Here’s a question....I’ve fairly blindly thrown out 1,600 calories as my target. Well, the trainer where I go talked about it with me too. But...should I be actually figuring out a Target in some better way? I was wearing a Fitbit but it seems to only track steps. So not sure if that at all even accurate. Originally I did put info into a calorie calculator and I think it was a little higher than that. Thoughts?
Thanks again all...I’m taking it all in.2 -
hobbitses333 wrote: »I used IF 16:8 to lose 70 lbs..the first 50 flew off. The next 20 a real struggle including a holiday gain. After not really losing more than a few lbs for a few months, I did some research and revamped my method.
One problem is I was having issues staying in my calorie goals with wild swings over to under. Gym day 2 to 3 hours lifting weights core exercises and cardio while eating huge amounts to stay over BMR of 1800 net then cardio on alternate days being really hard because I was so depleted. rest days not having very much food comaparatively.
I raised my calorie goals slightly and spread my exercise out through the week more evenly. Gym days I only do a warm up of cardio then split up my weight training into two separate workouts which I alternate from one visit to another. I am in and out in about an hour. I do cardio the next day. Mix in some belly dancing, some walking or some Yoga on non cardio days. This helped to stabilize my intake, takes up less of my day. Exercising 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week with one rest day more stable calorie intake. Boom! The scale started going down again. I actually look forward to moving my body on this routine too!
You are getting great advice above in this thread. Here's to you finding your new and improved groove. All of the best!
Definitely sounds so much the same!
Here’s a question....I’ve fairly blindly thrown out 1,600 calories as my target. Well, the trainer where I go talked about it with me too. But...should I be actually figuring out a Target in some better way? I was wearing a Fitbit but it seems to only track steps. So not sure if that at all even accurate. Originally I did put info into a calorie calculator and I think it was a little higher than that. Thoughts?
Thanks again all...I’m taking it all in.
You could just use MFP in the way it was designed. Go through the guided setup and select 1 pound per week loss. Sync your fitbit with MFP and then start eating your calorie goal plus a portion of your exercise calories.
Alternatively:
If you want a static calorie goal you should have enough data to do the math.
Take a recent weight and subtract it from one from 6 weeks ago.
Divide it by the number of days in between (google: how many days since [previous date])
Multiply that by 3500.
Add that to your average daily intake over the 6 weeks. That is your average daily energy expenditure.
Subtract 500 from your average daily energy expenditure and that is a calorie goal that will allow you to lose 1 pound per week.
If you make any changes to your activity (up or down) you will have to adjust your eating manually.
4
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 389 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 918 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions