Fasting = weight gain?!

#1

I have been doing 18/6 and doing two longer 24 hour fasts each week.

I am NOT losing weight! I track everything I eat and I am typically not hungry. It’s hard to eat 1000 calories a day. I could easily get by on 800 a day but then I wake up bloated and gassy and fat feeling!

I have to put MCT oil in my coffee. I have to add extra butter. I have to eat peanut butter. Little things since I know I need to maintain my protein and fats. I rarely eat out and try to make all my own meals and to eat as clean as possible. No junk! I think I am allergic to dairy but would that make me unable to lose weight completely – not eliminating something that I am allergic to?!

Am I not eating enough calories and stuck in starvation mode or do you think this is a hormonal imbalance? I have yo yo dieted my whole life and I am getting afraid that my body is used to 1000 calories a day.

Where do I go from here? Do I stop with the chronic fasting and get more calories in and then do more HIIT? What are your tips? I am working so hard and my muscles hurt and I feel bloated and fat all the time and hungry! :frowning: I am so unhappy that I cannot lose weight and it is affecting my wellbeing.

(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #2

How long have you been on your current regimen…

If your body is getting sufficient calories from what you eat, it will be reluctant to give up it’s fat stores…

#3

I’m not trying to be rude… I’m really not. I’ve been through this myself, but you have posts going back to a year ago asking all the same questions and getting all the same answers, you’re still fasting, still restricting calories, and still clearly getting the same results. You knew you screwed your metabolism then, you know it’s screwed now. We can give you all the answers on how to fix this but if you don’t do them you’ll never move forward.

You know for a fact your metabolism has slowed down to your dietary restrictions, doesn’t take a lab to tell that. You know you need to get your RMR tested so you can see where it currently is. Tracking calories is beyond pointless if you don’t know at what level you’re going to gain / loose.

Restricting food to a metabolism that’s already slowed down due to food being restricted is only going to make the problem worse. You are 100% in the calorie trap right now.

The ONLY way you’re getting out of it is to see where your metabolic rate actual is, and start reverse dieting to bring it back up.

Start by reading your last handful of posts replies, you got a lot of good correct ones. Get your RMR checked, start reverse dieting. You could most likely be back in business with a metabolism that works and allows you to eat what you want within a year but only if you actually do it. Being on a never ending search of maybe’s will never get you there when the obvious that’s right in front of you is being ignored.

Good Luck.

#4

Hi Stacie, I remember your posts from earlier years! It’s definitely not good for health (or weightloss) to be stressed and unhappy.

Stress + exercise + caloric deficit + fasting is a recipe for slower metabolism and high cortisol. Fasting, targeted deficits and exercise can all be great hormetic stressors - I love and use them all myself - but they’re a terrible combination for long-term health and body composition, especially in someone with a history of yo-yo dieting and restriction.

I coach people on weight loss quite a bit, and one of the best things you can do is genuinely appreciate your body where it is now. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but you’ll have an easier time finding the strategies that really work for you, and you’ll have a happier path on the way to your goal. Making self-acceptance contingent on weight loss tends to hamper progress in women in particular (and they also find it much harder to maintain once they’re at their goal).

(Both the comments above mine are terrific! I hope you find something in here that helps.)

(Robin) #5

Girl, ya gotta eat more. Trust me. Eat more, stay away from the scales. Keep it simple.

#6

If you are hungry and barely eat anyway, eat more, it’s quite obvious…
You should heal your body, focus on that for now. Even if you gain a little first. You must stop eating little and feeling hungry a lot.

I am not a successful one either, I am notoriously bad at losing fat but my metabolism is fine as far as I know and I eat better than before and I know what to do to have success (it’s just super hard to do). Health is my main focus as should be.

Don’t eat very much, you couldn’t anyway or it would feel bad but raise your energy intake slowly while getting all the nutrients you need.
Don’t eat stuff you are allergic to, oh my. Who do people harm themselves intentially so often? I am not fully innocent either but if something clearly feels bad or I am sure it is, I typically avoid it. You abused your body in the past, take better care of it now.

18/6 is fine just like 24 hour fasts but only if you eat enough and feel good.

This is surely a mental thing too so it’s not easy to do the right thing even if you know what that is. I can relate but I tend to overeat, not under, I am nicely satiated almost all day and my body doesn’t complain. Just stays fat. Not for long if I can do something about it and I can now.
More exercise sounds better than even less food (or the current amount) but I don’t know if your body can handle it now. You need more food and possibly some healing first.
But I don’t know about your body or even about your diet. Is 1000 kcal your norm? I assumed it is.

#7

I measured my bmr and tdee and i need 1700 calories to be in a 500 calorie deficit based on my weight and activity levels. I was eating about 1200-1400 a day it looks like on the calories that i have tracked. If i add in an additional 300-400 calories a day i will be where i need to be. Could eating at a 800 calorie deficit have been what made my weight loss stall so badly and made me unable to lose weight for the life of me?

I am worried that if i eat what i am supposed to i will gain weight for awhile. Also wondering, if i should throw in a 24 hour fast once or twice a week or if that is further hindering my metabolism. Would repairing my metabolism be best to just eat 1700 calories a day which is essentially throwing in an extra piece of chicken or a burger at dinner time. It appears my protein is where I was going too low.

Do you recommend i eat an extra 100 calories each week until i reach that or just eat that and then gain or stay the same for awhile until my body is used to it and then start taking a few more calories out and varying my exercise to a harder degree too.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

What we recommend is to keep carbohydrate intake low, protein reasonable, and fat at a level that will satisfy your hunger. In the presence of restricted food intake, the body reacts by slowing the metabolism and hanging on to its reserves, even on a ketogenic diet. This is a protective reflex for getting through a famine. To lose weight on a ketogenic diet, it is necessary to consume enough food for the body to feel safe parting with its reserves. Just as it cuts energy expenditure to match reduced intake, it can also increase expenditure to match increased intake. The hormonal response to the types of food we eat is crucial. “Eat less, move more” is a recipe for failure, as so many have found to their cost.