>Admittedly I only started trying IF again the last couple of days.
After this, no one need read any more.
Why is this not working? Because people don’t lose weight in 72 hours. They lose weight by forming habits and sticking to them. Don’t eat things that make you retain water, like carb heavy meals and seed oils.
It’s likely just difference in water retention. Your weight can fluctuate several kg per day just from water retention and other factors. It’s not fat gain. You need to wait longer to see the trends and not focus on day to day variations, because they’re meaningless.
16/8 isn’t really a weight loss protocol, it’s more of a long term maintenance lifestyle. It’s extremely easy to overeat on this regimen, especially if one leads a sedentary lifestyle. I’d recommend either 20/4 or add a weekly 40hour fast onto your 16/8 regimen.
Firstly, your weight is going to go up and down from day to day based on water retention, or dehydration, or how frequently you poop, or your period/hormonal cycle, etc. All these things can affect your weight on the scale by 3, 4, or sometimes even 5 lb in a day. So 3 days is not going to give you any idea on actual fat loss that’s occurring.
Which brings me to my second point: fat loss is slow, I repeat, sloooow. Most people who are steadily losing are only losing maybe a few ounces a day, which comes out to a pound or two a week. Those few ounces of fat lost are easily masked by all the things I mentioned up above that affect your weight on the scale. You need to track the trend over a matter of at least a couple weeks.
Lastly, you say you’re not tracking your calories but you assume you’re in a deficit, this is a dangerous assumption. Even if you’re eating a very healthy diet, you can still be eating too much. Even if you’re doing intermittent fasting, you can still gain weight if you’re eating too much. The only way to truly know, is to track your calories at least for a little while to get an idea of appropriate serving sizes and how much you naturally eat.
Stick with it got a month. Don’t weigh yourself until April 1st. IF (and any diet/lifestyle to be honest) it’s a marathon not a sprint. Aim for Realisticly loosing 2-4 lbs/month. Keep it up and good luck
I think you need to eat more. The end goal of fasting isn’t to eat fewer calories; it’s to let your body effectively digest what you’ve eaten and, if you need to, sustainably lose weight. So fasting is great, but eating fewer calories than you’re expending –not so great. It has to do with insulin and other hormones. Dr. Fung explains it really well here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPNzwUY486A So, yay –go eat some more. In particular, more fat. I fast 13 hours per day and am losing .5 lb per week. I {try to} stay away from highly-processed simple carbs, but otherwise pretty much eat what I want. I’m full and satisfied so I no longer binge. Quick weight loss? No. Sustainable? Yes.
I did 16:8 on weekends as my cheat days. To actually lose weight I did more one meal a day and extended fasts. I too am active & was eating low carb/ dirty keto at the time (now pregnant & not fasting or worried about carbs or weight). I def didn’t see results in days took about 2 months for weight to really start coming off.
>I am not actively counting calories but because of my old habits, I know the stuff I’m eating is pretty low in calories(…)
If you’re not counting, then you don’t know. You’re guessing. It’s very likely your estimates are wrong.
Get some hard data. Track your intake, precisely, for a at least a month. Figure out your TDEE and what sort of deficit you want to aim for.