what should I do differently?

female, age 31, SW: 176lbs, CW: 162lbs, GW: 123lbs. height: 169cms. Hello Everyone! I'm a South Asian living in Michigan, USA. I started intermittent fasting about 2.5 months ago and have completed around 78 fasts so far. I started fasting because my weight was stuck at 176 for a year no matter what I did and I was developing insulin resistance and borderline high cholesterol. But in all honesty, I gave up on whatever I did after a month or two of not seeing any results on the weighing scale and my measurements. As a last resort and without much hope, I turned to intermittent fasting in December of 2021. To my pleasant surprise, my body started responding well to it. I lost around 9lbs in the first month. I wasn't active and wasn't doing any physical exercise during this time and my fasting window was 16:8 throughout with a cheat day every ten days. Once I got into the rhythm of things I started shortening my eating window and eventually stuck to 21:3. My weight and body measurements haven't changed from the 16th of January and are stuck at 162lbs. I also started going to the gym ten days ago. I go every other day and do 30 mins of cardio (a mix of running and brisk walking 2 mins walk and 3 mins run) and use the other machinery for abs arms and legs. I either do a combination of abs and arms or abs and legs. My meals are very simple and balanced. I break my fast with 2 Medjool dates and 4 almonds. I make sure to have 1g of protein per kg. chicken breast is usually my choice of protein. I make sure to have a serving of veggies and one fruit every day no matter what. And I eat around 1200-1300 kcals on most days. I drink at least 3 liters of water every day. I'm sick of my numbers not changing despite being so disciplined. I would love it if you could find a min to give me your valuable advice. I want to make this a lifestyle but the no change in my measurements and weight is demotivating me. Thank you for taking your time out to read this.

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I do OMAD/22:2 and was stuck at 135lbs for more than a month but did a 48hr fast last week and upped my water intake and that seemed to kickstart my decline again. Worth giving longer fasts a shot if you haven’t already?

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Are you fasting clean? When I started IF I was having some cream in my coffee and bone broth at lunch time, once I hit a plateau I learned about clean fasting and I haven’t turned back since. This means only black coffee, water, and non fruit flavored tea. No stevia, no sparkling water, nothing. Another to consider is changing up your schedule. You could add some 16:8 days in with your 21:3 days. For the past year I’ve been doing 16:8 on the weekends and 19:5 on the weekdays. The extra calories help keep your metabolism humming and avoid your body getting too used to schedule.

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Changing your exercise routine can cause you to gain water weight in the short term. That’s not really anything to worry about, it will resolve itself eventually.

Sometimes weight loss stalls for a while. Give it a few more weeks and I bet you start seeing results again.

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Ok good start definitely, but you could probably tweak your diet a little to see better results. First of all, breaking your fast with dates (or just eating dates at all) is a terrible idea. The reason fasting works is because the absence of food brings your insulin down. Low insulin = weight loss. Eating dates will surely spike your insulin, undoing some of the good work you’ve done with fasting.

Another way to bring insulin down and/or keep it low is eating a low carb diet that prioritises high amounts of animal protein and fat. Forget lean protein like chicken breast, and eat fatty cuts of meat (including red meat like beef, lamb and/or goat and seafood). This will totally transform your appetite and reduce your craving for sugars because your body will start running on fat for fuel. I would suggest that if you really want to hit 123 lbs, you cut out all sources of sugar including fruit, at least until you have reached your goal weight. If you are insulin resistant, that means your insulin levels tend to be higher, and you will also produce more insulin in response to foods like fruits than someone who is insulin sensitive, making it more difficult to lose weight.

Finally, ditch the cardio and spend most of your time in the gym doing weight and resistance exercises. Building muscles helps burn more fat which is really what we all want in the end when we say we want to lose weight. Cardio is…. not so effective at the fat burning as people like to think.

I hope that helps!