16:8 and gaining weight

[Parrotcoop]

I've always been a healthy weight with a few days of "sensible" eating able to deal with any pounds gained over e.g. Christmas or holidays.

However, this is getting harder as I get older and I have a stubborn 6/8lbs I can't shift.

I'm trying 16:8 and have stuck to it religiously, at the same time eating only good healthy food. Not low fat or low carb, but no refined sugar or other refined carbs, and proper home cooked meals, lots of veg and protein with every meal.

In 5 days, I've gained 2Ilbs!!!

What's going on?

Unlikely that you've gained 2lb of fat in 5 days, you'd have to have eaten a LOT for that to be the case. You might be eating more calories than you think in your eating window though.

I did 16:8 when I was 34, lost 1lb a week for 8 weeks, it was so easy! Trying it now aged 39, lost nothing in 2 weeks. It's miserable!

Ive always done 16:8 without knowing it was a "thing" until recently, its just the way I roll with eating - never hungry before 1ish, evening meal at 7pm. still didnt stop me getting to be 2 stone over weight

Yep I thought I was eating well, but I was packing in the calories

Now I watch them, still doing 16:8 - and Im back to a normal healthy weight

You need to find out your BMR and work from there https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html is as good as any

2lb could just be a fluctuation for most women (water, hormones etc). You'd need to try it for at least three weeks, preferably 4, and see what the general trend is to know whether it's having an impact on your weight.

16:8 is a slow burn not a quick fix. I’ve been doing it for 6 months and have lost about half a stone. I’m really happy though because it’s really not that much effort and doesn’t interfere too much with normal lifestyle.

It’s quite possible that you eat too much. It’s not a given that you will lose weight with 16:8 and healthy food if there more of it than your body needs

I'm very active. Walk 5 miles a day for my commute and run about 40 miles a week, plus gym and yoga sessions.

I don't snack, eat no "junk", refined sugar or bread. How can I be eating too much in 2 meals a day?

You need to work out your calorie needs and intake to know the answer to that. It's very possible to over eat in 2 meals of healthy food . Not saying you are, but you don't need to be smashing mcDonald's every day to overeat.

If you eat more than you burn? A “healthy” meal can be anything between 300 and 3000 calories, possibly more.

What healthy meal is 3000 calories? I ate out in a low end pub chain on Sunday.

The meal I chose was around 600 calories. The highest, fried chicken and chips was 1100, fish and chips was 900ish.

I don’t want to sound patronising, I was once in your shoes. Running, lifting weights and training martial arts every week. My diet has been clean for a long time, I eat many more than 30 plants a week, organic meat only, limited dairy, no gluten (I’m gluten intolerant). I was slowly but steadily putting on weight despite eating healthily.

When I started tracking calories it turned out my portions were huge, all the exercise made me extra hungry. I was also mindlessly picking small bits and pieces of healthy food from the fridge. I measure and track everything now and the extra kilos I just melted away.

Keep a food diary and work out your daily calories to check that you are below your TDEE.

Though I agree with PP that 2 lb may just be a natural fluctuation. Reassess after a month.

I know I can be prone to picking and also that I'm all or nothing, which is why I have stopped snacking completely. Nothing at all, not even milk in drinks (because I prefer them black) in between meals.

I don't think my portions are big. I follow a recipe for 2 and eat it over 2 days.

If you don’t carry kitchen scales around it’s very hard to tell exactly. Our assessment of portion sizes depends on the size of the plate, how hungry we are, how much empty space was left on the plate and so on. That’s quite a lot to control.

Things like sauces or oils take very little space and are often hardly visible.
The dinner I’m going to have today is very simple and fits on a medium-sized/dessert plate. It’s 624 kcal.

Then it might be a natural fluctuation. Or if you keep gaining it’s worth weighing and writing down everything you eat.

I still snack and have milk in my coffee. I just do it within my calorie budget. I measure out oat milk with a little 100 ml cup, because I like my coffee white and was prone to overdoing it.

Hi OP, I'm doing 16/8 or 18/6 at the moment. The only way I can make it work is by restricting my cals to 1200.

If I eat what I like there's literally no point.

Yesterday was great. Today I started eating at 11 and I've already had 800 cals, it's going to be a long time till lunch tomorrow 😁

Yes, but I burn 950 calories a day exercising. 7 miles running = 700 + 5 miles walking = 250.

1200 isn't enough, but I have much less than 2000.

Yesterday I had:

A packaged wrap sandwich from the "gym" range 350 calories
1/4 melon and 4 slices Parma ham c. 200?
Beetroot and bulgar wheat salad with orange, mint, Feta and walnuts (no oil in the dressing, all ingredients weigjed for portion size) 400
3 Ryvita and 3 thin slices cheddar 300?
Plain Greek yogurt 100
Apple 50
Banana 100

This is typical.

I burn 950 calories a day exercising. 7 miles running = 700 + 5 miles walking = 250

are you tracking using a fitness tracker? They aren't always accurate. Also some of the calories included in that will be your base use rather than additional calories burnt.

I think you can't be sure you've gained weight after 5 days. Your initial weight might have been low because of dehydration and your recent weight might be what you actually weigh. You've probably not lost or gained any actual fat. Keep going and weigh regularly so you can track patterns.

It's 5 days. That's all really.

I can change by 3lbs plus in 24 hours with water retention, time of the month. Whatever. 5 days is nothing to base a long term lifestyle/plan on.

Hi OP, yes I also exercise a lot. I'm no longer a runner but even when I was I never counted calories burnt in my calories for the day.

Many years of experience have taught me that if I don't count the exercise I can lose 2lbs a week. If I count those cals, I lose 1/2 to 1lb a week.

I'd rather go hard and fast.

@Parrotcoop - those calories burned are not accurate. They're an average, probably based on a bloke's body composition too.

As a pp has stated, don't count exercise calories (allegedly) burned when trying to lose weight. 90% weight loss is down to what you eat and drink. Think of exercise as someone you do for health instead. Don't eat back exercise calories. If you are very hungry, replace some of your cardio with strength training instead. Up your protein intake within your calories.

A 2lb gain in 5 days is probably just water as your body adjusts.

I can lose a 1lb by going for a wee so it's not a big deal.

No, they're based on my body. A heavier man would burn more.

I can't fuel serious training and not count it in calories requirements

What can work for one person, the same portion sizes won't help someone else lose weight the same way,

Also, most of weight loss is down to food and drink, not exercise. You're exercising huge amounts but also feeding yourself huge amounts of calories.

Hardly huge, there's about 1500 calories in my daily intake?

I agree a short swim or a stroll isn't going to make much difference to weight loss, but you do need to fuel proper exercise.

If you don’t weigh and measure everything it’s difficult to know. 50 would be for a quite small apple, for instance, and they typically weigh over 150 grams. Same with bananas, I often have a banana after a run and they weigh anything between 80-160 grams (peeled), so quite a big difference.

I have been tracking my food intake for a long time and I still don’t trust my judgement because we tend to underestimate what we eat.