Not Losing Weight Intermittent Fasting
By bulksupplementsdirect
Table of Contents
While exercising and having a correct diet are the best ways to get in shape and lose weight, many people opt for other methods. The reason is that they don’t have to go through a painful workout or won’t have to change their regular diet.
Intermittent fasting (where you are not eating for set periods) is one way that leads to weight loss.
You create an eating window and reduce your calorie intake to almost zero until the time is up. Many people have lost weight using this method. However, there are a couple of reasons why you might not lose weight with intermittent fasting.
While not losing weight is a problem, the bigger problem is that some people start gaining weight by fasting. The idea behind intermittent fasting is to control your calorie intake during and after fasting.
People make the mistake of overeating after fasting, leading to weight gain. So, if you are ever worried about why you are not losing weight with intermittent fasting, here are some reasons.
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How Does Intermittent Fasting Promote Weight Loss?
Simply, you reduce your calorie intake by not eating anything for 8-16 hours. Once that window is over, you can start eating nutrient-dense foods instead of calorie-dense foods for the best results.
One of the best approaches for intermittent fasting is the 16:8 rule, where you fast for 16 hours and eat like normal during the eight hours. This might look a little difficult and rough at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll find fasting a better option than dieting. You can have a cheat day every week to enjoy whatever you want.
Since you naturally decrease your calorie intake, which is the basis of weight loss. Since your body requires energy, not eating will force it to take energy from the fats, causing your body to burn fat much more quickly. Moreover, intermittent fasting also slows your insulin pump, promoting fat burn.
As your body burns fat for energy, you start losing weight. However, you must monitor your progress as a drastic weight loss can make you sick. Your body might not like the idea of forcing; thus, it takes preventive measures to ensure that you start eating again. Also, you might want to avoid building insulin resistance which can lead to severe health issues.
The best way is to make a diet plan and stick to it as long as you decide to continue fasting. Since the cheat day is always there to save you, there is no need to worry about not enjoying the food.
However, it would be best if you did not overeat on cheat days and must take a break after a cheat day allowing your body to gather and store energy for the coming week.
How Long Does Intermittent Fasting Take To Cause Weight Loss?
There is no solid answer to this question, as many factors play an essential role in weight loss. Your body weight, the food you eat after fasting, and the method of intermittent fasting change the overall outcome. Some people might see significant changes within weeks, while some might start seeing minimal changes after months.
It would be better to approach a professional to set a proper diet schedule, so you’ll have enough calories to stay energetic and lose weight.
Once you reach the desired weight, you can change your diet slightly or decrease your fasting time. If you reduce the calories you consume right away and eat less consistently. The weight loss process will begin within days. However, it might take two to three weeks to see noticeable results. On the other hand, if you take things slowly, it might take more than two to three months to see significant changes.
Remember, your body requires healthy fats to keep providing you with energy. Ensure to eat food promoting your fat cells during your cheat day so you won’t feel weak. While fasting, monitor your blood sugar and pressure and keep them at optimum levels. The whole process is lost if you get sick and eat calorie-rich food to get better. On the other hand, drink water like usual so you won’t feel dehydrated.
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Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight with Intermittent Fasting
While the experts have proven that this method is best for losing weight, with minor mistakes, you might not get the results you want.
1. Overeating During Your Eating Window
While it is necessary to eat right after fasting to have enough energy, overeating will gather more than the required calories in your body. During the next fasting window, your body will spend time burning the new calories instead of taking energy from your fat. This is one of the most significant reasons you can’t lose weight with intermittent fasting.
You will need some preparation before starting intermittent fasting. This gets confusing because you must follow a proper diet plan to know the required calories and how much you burn. You can visit a professional or use a fasting app to let you know about the best food for intermittent fasting. Since you’ll know which food to eat, you can track how many calories you consume and how much you’ll burn during your fasting period.
Also, such apps can help you know which food has many calories you might not know before. However, you don’t have to use the calorie counting app for the entire session; use it for a few days, and you’ll get the idea.
2. Eating Too Many Carbohydrates
While tracking the number of calories is important, their quality is also essential for weight loss. Carbohydrates play a crucial role in weight gain by stimulating insulin production. One important thing is to remove all the carbohydrate-rich snacks from your list. If you want to eat processed foods after fasting, forget about that and prioritize fresh food.
This might make your food list extremely short, but you must follow a strict plan for the first few months to get better results. Read the labels of every food you purchase and see its number of carbohydrates. Also, do some research and use apps or charts to see the list of carbohydrate-rich foods.
Some food companies try to hide them using creative names, but with a good app or chart, you can quickly identify them. Some foods that you must avoid are potatoes, rice, corn, and pasta.
3. Eating Processed Foods
If you want the best results with intermittent fasting, stick to fresh food. That doesn’t mean you visit the shop daily to grab ingredients but to make food at home.
The processed food on the shelves contains artificial ingredients, colors, additives, and preservatives. Some of these foods are high in calories, sugar, and fat, leading to weight gain and decreased diet quality. They are not only harmful to health, but they can also mess up your healthy metabolic function.
On the other hand, processed fiber might not be as adequate as natural fiber in fresh foods. Always take time to make natural meals and save them for later instead of grabbing processed food.
Remember, your diet plays a crucial role in weight reduction, don’t mess it up with cheap food. Also, even if the label mentions that processed food is low in carbs, don’t believe it. However, after a couple of months, you can use such foods to save time and effort, but for the initial two to four months, always eat fresh, homemade food.
4. Fat-Rich Meals
Combining fewer carbohydrates with fewer proteins and healthier fats can bring much better results for weight loss with intermittent fasting. One study has shown that people eating fat-rich foods feel 30% less hungry than others. Since many believe that fat-rich food can lead to obesity, they tend to avoid adding anything fatty to their meals. However, that is not the case; your body requires fat for energy, so having a bit of fat in your meals will keep you active during fasting.
This is another reason you should make meals at home, as you’ll have more control over the ingredients. However, eating the same meal might be exhausting; try changing the recipe after every two to three days until your cheat day is near.
5. You Are Eating Veggies Full of Lectins
While you might think that eating veggie salad can help you lose weight, you’re mistaken. Many vegetables contain lectins that bind to the insulin and leptin receptors, causing weight gain. On the other hand, eating lectin-rich vegetables can also lead to inflammation because they bind to nerve endings in the gut. Since many people don’t know that such vegetables can increase weight, they keep eating them with intermittent fasting and end up with no results.
Wheat is one food you must avoid during your weight loss journey, even if you see many suggesting eating wheat with your breakfast. Simply put, all grains have lectins; you must avoid them until your professional trainer recommends using them. On the other hand, if you are not looking for significant weight loss, add some of these vegetables to your menu.
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6. You are Stressed
Your brain is responsible for making decisions about your body, which is why it must stay calm. The reason why people overeat during depression or stress is that their brain is triggering hunger. If you are feeling stressed for any reason, your body will release cortisol more often, even the inactive cortisol in belly fat., leading to high blood sugar levels. Increased blood sugar levels elevate your insulin levels, directly counterfeiting the effects of intermittent fasting.
Being stressed for some time is fine, but if you stay stressed for days, you’ll continuously increase your insulin levels. This not only leads to weight gain but also type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. These insulin levels also limit your metabolic functions, including digestion, so you digest less food, and more of it becomes fat. Try joining some yoga classes to relax or listen to some calm music while fasting for better results.
7. Lack of Sleep
One of the main reasons for stress is lack of sleep. Since your brain is not getting enough rest, it constantly keeps you in stress, so you can get tired quickly and get some rest. On the other hand, sleep quality helps improve your digestion and gives all body parts the necessary nutrients. To get the best results, it is necessary to have more than six hours of sleep with intermittent fasting.
One study shows that people with less than six hours of sleep are more prone to gaining weight. Your hormones are easily disturbed with less sleep reducing leptin while increasing cortisol and ghrelin levels, triggering appetite, and promoting fat storage.
If you are sleeping less than six, if not eight hours a day, you now know an important factor of why you are not losing weight. Change your sleep schedule, get a good rest of up to eight hours, and see how quickly you see positive results.
8. Excessive Exercising
Exercise and fasting are the best combinations for weight loss, but they must be balanced. Since exercise helps reduce your fat and burn calories, with intermittent fasting, you can get much better results if you join a small cardio session. The problem arises when you exercise a lot and your eating window is also small. This leads to extra stress on the brain due to a lack of energy and rest.
Exercise is excellent for mental health, but extra exercise means more stress leading to weight gain. It would be better to prioritize one and pay less attention to another. For example, you can increase your eating window and do more exercise. On the other hand, you can keep your intermittent fasting window bigger and exercise less. Extra exercise can also lead to inflammation and drastically weakens your body.
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9. A Wrong Fasting Plan
You can correct all other issues but still won’t get satisfactory results because of wrong planning. Since there are many intermittent fasting plans, you must choose one that suits you best. For example, during endurance training, you must choose a plan that allows you to eat in the morning.
The thing is that you cannot decide which plan is suitable for you without professional help. It is better to visit a registered dietitian to help you make decisions in such cases. You can also watch videos on such topics, but we recommend meeting a professional in person. They can advise and suggest intermittent fasting to improve your weight loss journey. You can also tell them to create a map for the entire process, so you won’t face any side effects as you progress.
10. Dehydration
Water also helps quell hunger, so it is necessary to drink plenty of water during intermittent fasting. There is no reason to stay dehydrated during fasting, only to drink tons of water in the eating window. This affects your health as you might miss the necessary water intake for optimum health. On the other hand, you can also stay hydrated using other drinks like seltzer water, iced tea, or coffee.
The best is to keep a water bottle with you as you fast and drink a small cup or two or three sips to keep your tummy filled.
11. Consuming Drinks with High-Calorie Content
Avoid sodas, sugary drinks, or sports drinks, as they can increase blood sugar and insulin levels. While it is necessary to keep yourself hydrated, check the drink’s calories before gulping it down. You can continue fasting for months, but with such drinks, your weight loss journey will only bring fruitful results.
Since coffee is allowed with intermittent fasting, you can add some organic cream to have enough to last the day. Staying hydrated with coffee, water, and tea will keep you safe from headaches during fasting.
12. Less Salt in Your Body
Many people might not know that our body requires sodium, and salt also helps reduce cravings. Unlike sugar, when your body has enough salt, it will tell you not to take it anymore. Likewise, it also helps you lose weight by increasing insulin sensitivity. Headaches during intermittent fasting indicate that your body is less on sodium. Many people try to sleep with those headaches, which worsen their health. So, in your eating window, make sure to take enough salt so that you won’t get any physical problems during fasting.
13. Your Fasting Window Is Small
Remember, the best results come with a small eating window and more extended fasting. If you fast for eight hours while eating during the 16 hours, you won’t see any results for months. The best approach is that you fast for 16 hours and eat during the eight-hour window. If you feel this is difficult, reduce the fasting time to 14 hours but any less than 12 hours won’t bring desired results.
You can start with a longer eating window and gradually decrease it as you get comfortable. There is no need to mess up your health by forcing a fast for 16 hours. This is where proper planning comes in handy, or you can get advice from a professional.
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Conclusion
Intermittent fasting is an excellent method for weight loss; however, like all other methods, it needs a proper schedule. On the other hand, you might encounter some challenges during fasting, leading to undesired results. We covered all the potential reasons you are not losing weight with intermittent fasting. Remember, plan ahead so you can succeed without problems.
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