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Wondering if my gains are too low/slow…

New to IF as of 3 weeks ago. Im a 32yr old female with a sedentary lifestyle/desk job. I feel like I’ve made a great effort at fasting and find it relatively easy to do, however I’m a little discouraged today by the lack of weight loss. I have weighed myself the last 3 Mondays on the same scales. I started Mon 9th Jan at 72.12kg Monday 16th Jan 71.28kg Monday 23rd Jan (today) 70.60kg I have fasted for the following lengths of time recently: Sat 14th 16hrs Sun 15th 16hrs Mon 16th 17.5hrs Tue 17th 18hrs Weds 18th 17hrs Thur 19th 20hrs Fri 20th 19hrs Sat 21st 15hrs Sun 22nd 16hrs Mon 23rd 17hrs My question to you lovely knowledgeable people is, do you think my weight loss is appropriate? Or am I eating too much in my eating period? I thought I could eat anything(within reason)? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Needing some encouragement as I feel like giving up today because I’m not even in the 60s yet.

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I haven’t seen a significant weight loss either, been doing 16/8 and sometimes 18/6 for the past 2 weeks. Result is similar to yours, I lost 4 lbs so far, that’s not even two kilos. I was loosing much more when I was on low carb diet. Maybe I should stick to the diet and keep doing IF, I think it matters what & how much you eat in your window.

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I’d say your weight loss rate is perfectly fine, well within reason. There may also be some non-scale victories to notice, too…give yourself credit for those when they come up. Keep up the great work!

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If you can maintain a rate as indicated, that would be a very good result. A slower rate is actually to be expected, for the weight you are at. Because weight loss is much slower and harder to achieve, the closer you get to ‘average’ body weight.

Also note that it is still impossible to say how your weight has actually changed, due to short time span, and the fact that poop and fluids the body holds can go and down by as much as 3-4kg.

If IF feels like a chore, try swapping some food choices so that you feel better and less empty during fasting windows. The more pleasant you can make the experience, the faster you can move to even less eating windows, if/when required.

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I think your progress is pretty good and healthy. My two cents from doing IF for the past 6 years is that IF isn’t a magical weight loss method, especially if you don’t consistently work out and adhere to some form of strict dietary system (i.e. low-carb or KETO). To be honest, there are way more effective weight loss programs if you are targeting a certain goal. I went from 125KG to 100KG doing P90X and eating extremely clean.

However, for me, IF is beyond just weight loss. It helps your body heal from years and years of bad food and lifestyle habits. It helps fight food addiction and sugar cravings (junk food especially). It helps to form newer, healthier habits that align with IF’s lifestyle. All these variables will be different for each individual.

Once again, I think you are on the right trajectory and your weight loss seems healthy to me. It might be good to take into account all the other positive aspects of IF to appreciate the changes your body is undergoing.

From my own recent experience, I’m trying to lose lots of weight this year, we are talking 20KG minimum, I restarted IF about 2 months ago and didn’t see much weight loss but now, in the second month of 20:4 daily + 20KM cycling daily without eating too clean, I have lost 8KGs over the last 4 weeks or so. I guess my point is, IF isn’t a consistent metric from a day to day or a week to week basis, it’s a long term game. I know many people, myself included, who lost different amounts of weight at different times of their IF journey.