Day 4 crisis of confidence!

Hey everyone! I'm a fresh one (to IF and reddit tbh!) and am 4 days into doing 18/6 but had a friend freak me out somewhat and now I feel like I've gone about this all wrong or it'll be unsustainable. So background - I'm female, 30 years old, 5ft tall (& 5ft wide!) and 230lbs has crept up on me over the last 2 years following a bereavement, no work over the 🐼🎤 and idle hands in the cookie jar. I was still overweight before & actually lived a very physical, happy life but just feel ghastly now the world is opening up again and want to reclaim myself a bit. My fasting window has been 7pm til 1pm the following day. It's been alright, really. It means I can still make dinner for my daughter and eat with her. Whenever I've done a juice cleanse that's been the hardest thing, actually making food whilst not eating is torture so this time period suits me. I was feeling pretty confident in what I was doing but my friend said in that window I'm not actually eating enough. I've typically eaten just what I would have during that time with zero snacks and no bread which has ended up being between 500-700 calories but she's IF too and said she eats twice that in her eating window!! I've not found it hugely gruelling and my intention is health so my question is; am I going to get ill? TLDR; I'm only eating 500-700 calories per day, feel fine, but is it sustainable or healthy?

Answer

Not sure if it’s sustainable as recommendations for your height are to be at or over 1000 calories without medical supervision. If you’re early into the process, there may be a benefit to limit feeding window versus calorie intake more. The intermittent part seems to be a lot of the secret sauce.

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500-700 calories is not enough. Find out what your BMR is. Subtract 500 from that. The total is enough to lose up to 10lb a month. I have been eating 500 calories less than my initial BMR since September and have lost about 38lb. I’m eating 1800 calories a day. Good luck

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Yes, you should be eating a minimum of 1200 calories. You may not get ill, but it’s not healthy or often not sustainable to a normal healthy diet and weight loss. Try adding more healthy fats or nutrient dense foods. Olive oil, avocados, peanut butter, etc.

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I’m thinking smoothies and protein powder are my best shout here, compardres.

I don’t want to put myself off by trying to eat loads in that window, it’s probably a mental thing and hopefully just gets easier with time and seeing results but between you/my friend/the Internet I’m now shit scared my belly will cling on for dear life, out of fear I’m starving myself 🤣🤣 a girl can’t win!!

Thank you all ✌🏽

Answer

I would recommend the book “The Obesity Code” by Dr. Jason Fung.

I realized while reading it that everything I had ever been taught about how to lose weight was wrong, and most of it is lies propagated by people making money off of my ignorance.