From a biology perspective, when the body hits a plateau in weight loss, what do you believe is actually happening? Something about homeostasis?! Explain it like I am in 5th grade pls, I trust reddit more than google
And I must have searched ‘intermittent fasting plateau’ 20 times here over the past year or two and I see people offering great insights—check your CICO, widen your fasting window, eat to surprise your body, assess gaining muscle vs fat, measuring portions etc etc
All these points are useful.
But after making those checks, when you’re staying the course with 20:4, and all positive healthy habits are in place, what do you believe the body is doing when your weight doesn’t change for weeks++ at a time?
Signed,
A person who can’t remember high school biology
Answer
A body weighing 300lbs has a higher ‘running cost’ than a 200lbs body.
So as weight is lost, more and more restriction of intake is required for the weight to continue dropping.
On top of that, the human body is very resourceful at reducing or shutting down functions to avoid starving. Sexual functions, heating, sweating/salivating, cell reproduction, recovery from exercise, recovery from injury etc etc. (must be thousands of things on this list)
Answer
I’m not a medical expert or nutritionist. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. What I think happens is that when you reduce calorie intake, eventually your body ends up slowing down your metabolism over time to compensate, which ends up causing CI to equal CO, even though you reduced CI initially.