Intermittent Fasting is plateaued

· 410 words · 2 minute read

I have been doing intermitten fasting (IF) since 2020. Like with almost every other new experiment I do, I started with the extreme version of IF, called one meal a day (OMAD). To make it even worse, I added on top of that the Ketogenic Diet. One day to the next, my eating habit fully changed. I went through the whole keto flu, hunger crisis, foggy brain, and finally, I did not have to eat breakfast or lunch anymore.

After losing some weight and gaining mental clarity, it became a routine and did not do any further change, neither to my body nor to my brain. It literally stopped doing anything. Then, one day I started to eat sweets again and after few weeks my weight went up. Then I stopped it again. Then I went to visit my family, and I shifted from OMAD to 16-8 (16 hours of fasting period followed by 8 hours of eating window). I gained weight again.

There are numerous factors that can influence body weight. The individual has no control over some of these factors, including developmental determinants, genetic makeup, gender, and age. Other factors that influence body weight over which the individual has potential control include level of physical activity, diet, and some environmental and social factors. - National Academy of Sciences

Some people are lucky to have a good basal metabolic rate, or something else that burns their calories better or faster or in whatsoever efficient way that they are not gaining weight when eating a lot, even with a sedantic lifestyle. I, on the other hand, and probably many others like me are struggling with weight loss, even if I am walking at least 7-8 kms a day.

I’ve plateaued at losing weight with IF. I am pretty sure there is a constraint I am not considering. I know I am not exercising regularly. I would even say that I am exercising minimally. There is a reason for the lack of motivation to go to gym or do workout. My backpain is killing me. Especially when I am working out. So the pain is holding me back from doing it regularly.

I need to identify this constraint, get to the root causes of it and try to fix them. I might not be lucky like others, but then I need to be more stubborn than the others and be more persistent in improving myself to become better than myself today.