Not losing weight after 3 weeks?

Hello. I’m F21, 5’6, and 215 pounds. I started doing ADF December 19th, 2021. I’ve been consistently doing it since, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I fast for 36 hours. December 19-25 - 111:22 Hours fasting 75:22 in Ketosis December 26- January 1st 122:57 Hours Fasting 62:57 In Ketosis (I stopped early for New Years Eve, but I did do 25 hours) January 1-8 100 hours fasting 64:51 in Ketosis And this week, I ate all weekend quite a good amount on Saturday, because of a party. But otherwise, I fasted fine on Friday. So I have consistently fasted for 3 weeks. I’m eating less calories than before I was fasting, because fasting is also coinciding with me quitting weed for the time being. I had a lot of munchies when I smoked and would regularly eat an entire pizza, multiple bags of chips, etc. currently I’m eating less than half that amount and keeping it under 2000, apart from this past weekend and maybe Christmas. My maintenance calories are well over 2000, so I’ve been confident I’ve been eating less. I weighed myself on Day 1, December 19th. I weighed 213.8. I know the main reason one wouldn’t be losing weight is not being in a deficit, but I’m both in a deficit and not eating for the other 36 hours. My meals have been healthier, too. Lots of beans, grains, fiber, fruits, and nuts. So when I weighed myself today at 215, I absolutely cried. Could anyone help me understand how I could be gaining weight on such a deficit? I honestly felt I was losing weight since I was feeling better. I waited until fasting wasn’t so difficult to incorporate working out, so I started at the end of last week, but I made the rookie mistake of not stretching first and threw my back out. As of yesterday I’ve been on bed rest, but I still fasted today. I see so many people with results their first month and don’t understand why that it’s not me. Still, over 300 fasting hours and no change…

Answer

You are not counting your calories accurately. Are you using a food scale? Fasting isn’t magic - it still relies on accurate calorie deficits. Make sure you know what your calorie deficit needs to be and that you’re counting accurately.

I would stop fixating on the 2416 because that is a lot. You do not want to eat at your maintenance! That value is going to keep you obese. You need to plug your values into a calculator using “sedentary” as your exercise level and see what your calorie deficit actually is because that is going to be more accurate. A 5’6 female who doesn’t do vigorous exercise daily is not going to lose weight at 1800 a day. You didn’t lose 10 lbs of body fat in a month - that was water weight and waste fluctuations that females especially tend to have. Find your actual calorie deficit and track accurately.

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Beans, grains…fruits and nuts are high carb. Eat 33% or more protein in your daily macros and the water retention from carb metabolism will whoosh out. Also, you need to be in a caloric deficit of 500 kcal per day to lose one pound per week. You might be overestimating your TDEE.

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>And this week, I ate all weekend quite a good amount on Saturday, because of a party.

What’s a good amount? It’s perfectly fine to enjoy yourself once an a while, but if this was a particularly indulgent weekend over your norm you’re going to carry some extra water for a few days. It sounds like you’re being diligent and doing a lot of things right, I would give it a few more days and see.

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I had a similar dilemma and circumstances as you last year and someone suggested I try fasting for less time more often. His theory was fasting for too long makes your body panic so when you do put calories in it immediately stores them as fat in preparation for the next starve session.

I switched to daily 17/7 fasting, which gives enough time for my body to need to burn fat but not spending too long in ketosis for it to panic.

It worked great for me and I’ve been steadily shedding a kg a week or so.

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possibly do a resting metabolism test to see what calories you need are. Mine RMR is supposed to be 2200 and it is 1650 in reality. So if I ate my theoretical maintenance calories for a year I would gain 50 pounds, which Ive done multiple times.