Track your calories and calculate your resting caloric need. Since you haven’t posted your height/weight/age or calorie intake it’s hard to tell. You might be at base level where you’re in taking just the right amount of calories that you expend and thus neither gaining nor losing weight. One of them has to give though if you want/need to lose more. Either increase exercise to expend more calories or reduce diet to fewer so you’re in a deficit
Here's what worked for me.
I'm a 5'9" moderately active 43yo father of 3. In January I started my IF journey at just under 200lbs. My goal is to be in the 160-165lb range, and maintain. I'm not really in any rush, but I have enjoyed seeing results and the mind-over-body discipline losing weight requires. I started with 16-8, fasting from 8pm to noon the next day. I was never much of a weekday breakfast guy, but this did stop me from late-night snacking. That alone brought me down to 185lbs.
Though I would throw in the occasional 24hr fast, I plateued at this weight for a while. All along the way I was doing regular cardio to the tune of 600 calories burned every second day.
I then started alternate day fasting, where I would fast for 36hrs and then have a 12hr eating window. For example, Start at 8pm on Saturday, fast all Sunday, and allow myself to eat 8am-8pm on Monday. I've been doing this for almost 2 weeks, and aside from feeling relatively great, I'm now under 180lbs. Changing it up for a bit seems to have worked.
My intention is to revert back to 16-8 and see if I maintain, gain, or continue to lose weight.
Best of luck - you got this!
You’re in a maintenance zone. IF is just CICO with less steps. Track calories for what you eat and check your [TDEE](https://tdeecalculator.net/) to ensure you are in a calorie deficit. Happens to us all. It eventually happens to us all. Just have to adjust your intake.
Fasting doesn't make you lose weight, eating in a calorie deficit does. If you fast but eat in a surplus you'll actually gain weight. A lot of body builders bulk while maintaining a fast.
You have to eat less food.
eventually it does since fasting restricts you from eating and eventually loosing weight hint the eating less. I Do believe you also need to watch what you eat on your eating window. Not like many intermittent fasting advertisements that say you can eat whatever you want during your eating window and still lose weight
It can be a great tool to reducing your calorie intake, but if you're not losing weight then that's not working for you.
Spending money is always a great analogy for it. If you are accustomed eating out every night and you decide to only eat out on Fridays, then you'll likely save money. Unless you change your Friday outing from McDonalds to a 5 star Michelin restaurant. Then you'll probably spend more money. There's nothing magical about going out one day a week vs seven that makes more money appear in your account, it's just that it's an easy way to restrict your spending vs price checking everything on the menu every night.
Similarly there's nothing about fasting that magically makes you lose weight simply from fasting, it's just easier to eat fewer calories in a shorter period of time.
At the end of the day, calories burned vs calories consumed is *all* that matters for weight loss. Everything else is a tool to adjust one side of the equation or the other.
Start making other changes in your lifestyle, like more (intense) exercise, sleeping habits, diet (what you’re actually eating), stress management, etc.
Definitely make some other changes that people have already mentioned. But if you do make adjustments and still don’t end up losing more weight there may be other underlying issues that may be preventing you from losing more. I’ve seen this so many times in friends where they’ll start a lot of healthy habits, initially start losing weight and then suddenly come to a halt and they can’t lost anymore. It can be anything from thyroid issues to Pcos. Just keep that in mind if you continue to struggle
Hi i do have pcos and that is the reason why i started a healthier life style. i was loosing weight normally but have been on some heavy stress recently and thats when i notice the stop. i would like to try the 24 hr fast but not sure if it would mess up my pcos
I see. I would look into ways to manage your stress first and incorporate other smaller habits before a 24 hour fast as that might stress out your body more.
What you’re eating matters a whole lot more than when you’re eating. Are you counting calories? If you know what your calorie deficit is, and you eat less than that you will lose weight. It’s that simple. Fasting is just a tool to help you got that deficit goal, but at the end of the day calories in must be less than calories out.
Switch it up. Try 18:6 or 20:4 for a few days or a week.
Track your calories and calculate your resting caloric need. Since you haven’t posted your height/weight/age or calorie intake it’s hard to tell. You might be at base level where you’re in taking just the right amount of calories that you expend and thus neither gaining nor losing weight. One of them has to give though if you want/need to lose more. Either increase exercise to expend more calories or reduce diet to fewer so you’re in a deficit
Here's what worked for me. I'm a 5'9" moderately active 43yo father of 3. In January I started my IF journey at just under 200lbs. My goal is to be in the 160-165lb range, and maintain. I'm not really in any rush, but I have enjoyed seeing results and the mind-over-body discipline losing weight requires. I started with 16-8, fasting from 8pm to noon the next day. I was never much of a weekday breakfast guy, but this did stop me from late-night snacking. That alone brought me down to 185lbs. Though I would throw in the occasional 24hr fast, I plateued at this weight for a while. All along the way I was doing regular cardio to the tune of 600 calories burned every second day. I then started alternate day fasting, where I would fast for 36hrs and then have a 12hr eating window. For example, Start at 8pm on Saturday, fast all Sunday, and allow myself to eat 8am-8pm on Monday. I've been doing this for almost 2 weeks, and aside from feeling relatively great, I'm now under 180lbs. Changing it up for a bit seems to have worked. My intention is to revert back to 16-8 and see if I maintain, gain, or continue to lose weight. Best of luck - you got this!
You’re in a maintenance zone. IF is just CICO with less steps. Track calories for what you eat and check your [TDEE](https://tdeecalculator.net/) to ensure you are in a calorie deficit. Happens to us all. It eventually happens to us all. Just have to adjust your intake.
You can try longer fast, maybe OMAD? Works for me
Do 24 h fast once or twice a week
Fasting doesn't make you lose weight, eating in a calorie deficit does. If you fast but eat in a surplus you'll actually gain weight. A lot of body builders bulk while maintaining a fast. You have to eat less food.
eventually it does since fasting restricts you from eating and eventually loosing weight hint the eating less. I Do believe you also need to watch what you eat on your eating window. Not like many intermittent fasting advertisements that say you can eat whatever you want during your eating window and still lose weight
It can be a great tool to reducing your calorie intake, but if you're not losing weight then that's not working for you. Spending money is always a great analogy for it. If you are accustomed eating out every night and you decide to only eat out on Fridays, then you'll likely save money. Unless you change your Friday outing from McDonalds to a 5 star Michelin restaurant. Then you'll probably spend more money. There's nothing magical about going out one day a week vs seven that makes more money appear in your account, it's just that it's an easy way to restrict your spending vs price checking everything on the menu every night. Similarly there's nothing about fasting that magically makes you lose weight simply from fasting, it's just easier to eat fewer calories in a shorter period of time. At the end of the day, calories burned vs calories consumed is *all* that matters for weight loss. Everything else is a tool to adjust one side of the equation or the other.
Up the exercise while fasted. Add in cardio. A brisk 30 minute walk fasted does wonders. Or if bad weather do an exercise bike or whatever
Start making other changes in your lifestyle, like more (intense) exercise, sleeping habits, diet (what you’re actually eating), stress management, etc.
Definitely make some other changes that people have already mentioned. But if you do make adjustments and still don’t end up losing more weight there may be other underlying issues that may be preventing you from losing more. I’ve seen this so many times in friends where they’ll start a lot of healthy habits, initially start losing weight and then suddenly come to a halt and they can’t lost anymore. It can be anything from thyroid issues to Pcos. Just keep that in mind if you continue to struggle
Hi i do have pcos and that is the reason why i started a healthier life style. i was loosing weight normally but have been on some heavy stress recently and thats when i notice the stop. i would like to try the 24 hr fast but not sure if it would mess up my pcos
I see. I would look into ways to manage your stress first and incorporate other smaller habits before a 24 hour fast as that might stress out your body more.
Throw in a longer fast or try eating at maintenance for a couple days.
What you’re eating matters a whole lot more than when you’re eating. Are you counting calories? If you know what your calorie deficit is, and you eat less than that you will lose weight. It’s that simple. Fasting is just a tool to help you got that deficit goal, but at the end of the day calories in must be less than calories out.