I’m a 49 year old man. 5’8” and 190 pounds. I’ve had good success with losing weight by calorie restriction and a little exercise in the past, but have been stuck for a while so I switched over to trying IF.
At around this weight I have usually had good luck losing a consistent pound or two a week by keeping calories at around 1800 per day. Some days I’ll go as low as 1500 and I exercise about an hour each day (combination of resistance and cardio that accounts for roughly 500 calories burned.)
I am stuck in the 185-191 range and have been for several months. I even stopped restricting calories for a month to see if it would help with “resetting” my metabolism (I know that’s not really a thing but I was out of ideas)
Anyway, I have been doing 20/4 fasting for the past 8 weeks and can’t get out of this weight plateau. I do have a cheat day once every few weeks but the most I have on those days is maybe 2500 calories. I track all of my foods and am at a loss as to why I’ve stalled out.
Guys in your forties at or around the 180-200 pound range, what is your daily caloric intake to maintain consistent weight loss on IF? I’ve been stuck for so long I’d be happy if I could get to just a pound lost per week as I’m not in any hurry.
Thanks.
Answer
Use a tdee calculator like https://tdeecalculator.net and aim to eat under your resting/maintenance number.
Depending on how much weight you need to lose, you might have to recalculate or reduce your calories occasionally to make sure you’re not overeating.
Answer
I’m of a similar size, age, and starting weight. I brought my calorie count down to 1300 calories a day for the first couple of months and as I got closer to my goal started incrementing that. I stayed below 1500 for at least 2 more months, and then under 1600 until very recently. I now allow myself about `1650 and think I need to stay here if I don’t want to gain it back.
I didn’t add any significant amount of exercise when I started so the low totals really take into account very static lifestyle. I’m about a year in and have lost 45 pounds.
Answer
I’d go as close to zero carb as you can go, and start lifting weights. Be sure to be getting in at least 150g protein daily. If you go zero carb then do not restrict your calories, at all. Eat whenever you’re hungry, and stop when you’re full. Repeat forever, and profit