Efforts not working?

[HuckleberryFields]

Hi I'm posting on behalf of my boyfriend who has been trying to lose weight for the last 5/6 months roughly. He's been fasting 16:8 5 days a week and keeping his calories very low. The most he thinks he has is 2000 and can be as low as 1000. He stopped doing any exercise for the last couple of weeks but this week he's done a lot and he's gained a small amount of weight. His sleep is very often poor which I don't think can help but it's so frustrating him trying really hard and not seeing the results he wants. It did seem he was seeing some results just much more slowly than he was expecting but this week to put on weight ,albeit small, seems wrong after eating really well and doing exercise.
Has anyone else found this and could offer any advice please?

The weight gain this week could be due to muscles toning up- a result of the exercise. I am in the same position, started diet beginning of July, lost quite a lot at the beginning but now nothing is happening and I am getting frustrated. Watching with interest for any other replies.

Thanks for your reply. Sorry you're finding similar. Hopefully some more advice comes along!

This is why I use combination of measures and weight.
My weightloss goes (hope it shows)
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The flat is when my scale showed no or minimal loss. However, measures usually confirmed a bit of loss. Also next week, scale showed massive lost (for nearly that 2 weeks). It depends on weather in my case. And it appears on salt intake. There are so many things which can affect weight or a measure.

My advice for your boyfriend and pp is:
Try both measure and weight, keep on it, it will budge. If not, reevaluate the food.

Nooooo. It didn't show😂

He thinks he has had.
That could well be the problem. He needs to include everything. Measure and weigh.
Record it if he has to.
Also think about what he’s eating. Has he changed away from his unhealthy habits or is he starving himself for 16 hours then eating crisps? (That’s extreme but you get the i idea!)
Also how much weight does he want to lose?

Thank you both that's really helpful. I'm a little bit vague on the specifics but I know he's said he's been tracking everything although I'm not sure if that applies to the weekend. I'm not entirely sure how much he wants to lose. He says it's a lot but to me it doesn't look like he needs to lose much! A PT I spoke to suggested that too few calories can be a thing which I didn't know about. I suppose salt is to do with water retention? Do you know how much is a healthy amount to lose per week roughly?

If he doesn't do it already he should download My Fitness Pal and log everything he eats and drinks for a week, ideally he needs to weigh food to make sure it's accurate.

He may find that he's having more calories than he thought, especially in drinks.

But presumably he's lost some weight? Is it the case that his expectations are just too high?

In reality, a loss of about 1-2lbs a week is normal.

How much weight does he have to lose?

Healthy amount to lose per week. Taht really depends. I am massive so it's easier for me to lose 1kg as my body needs more calories to maintain. If he is already good-ish weight, he might do absolutely ok with 0.5kg instead. To lose a kilo you need deficit of 7000 calories. That's hell of a lot!

And yes, you should eat too little. Anything in extreme is bad.

The body is weird. I was losing weight consistently for three months but my weight has now stalled for at least two and a half weeks. I am positive that I have been in a deficit so I don’t know why my body is just clinging on to the pounds at the moment. I am just going to carry on doing what I am doing though. Eventually the plateau will probably shift but I accept it will take a while. I think that’s the only thing he can do too. 1000 is way way too low for a male who exercises so he’s much better off sticking to 2000 every day and not letting the cals drop too low.

He hasn't told me how much he wants to lose but it can't be a huge amount. I think he needs to include what he's consuming at weekends and maybe adjust his expectations. Maybe he is eating too few calories but don't understand how a calorie deficit can't just equal weight loss! Will need to read up on that.
Thanks so much for the responses. Sorry I haven't worked out how to tag people!