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I’ve been killing myself on the elliptical for an hour every morning. Doing keto and 16:8 fasting. I haven’t lost a single pound this week. In fact, I was actually up a pound this morning. I know there’s natural variation with water retention and so on, but it’s so frustrating not to see even a little progress. Trying to stay positive and show up to the gym everyday anyway. 🤷‍♀️

@gotkimchi: Hey, any updates?

@crazydoglady: Yay - so glad that you are seeing that success and that you aren't feeling restricted. I have had the same experience and it is such a freeing feeling. We're still going strong and I don't see any reason to change anything at this point.

Hi all! I've been lurking around this thread for awhile and I am thinking about dipping my toe into the IF water. I understand the basic idea behind it, but does anyone have any resources online that I could read? Not looking for a whole book, just an article or two. I am not looking to lose weight right now. I am weaning off of breastfeeding and I lost a lot of weight from that so I really just want to maintain where I am now and also eliminate the sugar cravings I get right before bed. I have been pregnant or breastfeeding for two years straight and I spent almost every evening of those two years eating something sweet at night and now I am completely addicted.

Is there flexibility with the fasting times? Last night I fasted for 14 hours and it wasn't bad, but I do get hunger headaches and I am not sure if I could do 16 hours. Also, does IF allow for cheat days? I believe in treating myself and I don't want to give up wine before bed on the weekends.

Thanks ladies! I love the little support group that's formed here.

@bhbee: great info, thank you! Day 2 and I already failed lol. A baby up off and on all night plus a 4 yo who threw up in his bed at 4am means that I need creamer in my coffee this morning.

@LadyDi: It's been said here before, but sometimes allowing yourself to have half and half etc in your coffee is a good way to start IF. If I had known that I would "have" to skip dairy in my coffee while fasting, I'm not sure I would have ever done IF to be honest! About a month in, my weight loss started stalling, so I dropped the half and half (I did NOT want to,) but I wanted to see if not having a truly clean fast had an affect. It most certainly did! I very quickly lost 10 lbs after that.
So, long-winded way to say that it's ok to make changes as you go along and tweak things as they come up.

@bhbee: How are things going? I'm up 2 lbs and am really hoping it's just AF.

@bhbee: I think maintaining over the holidays and all the birthdays is HUGE! I totally understand wanting to lose weight before pictures...which is one of the reasons I am putting them off , but one thing I've learned with IF is that weight loss is not linear at all. It's crazy how I can be at one weight for weeks and then drop 5 lbs.
I've actually been trying to push back my window a bit more to eat from 3:00ish-6:30ish. I just think my body needs a little "jump start" to break past this current plateau.

Anyone have any advice on how to cut back on sugar/carb cravings? I get strong ones when I get ready in the morning but usually a cup of black decaf iced coffee fixes that. Then at lunch I always seem to want something sweet.

@Ms. RV: I definitely agree with @bhbee: . I feel like a lot of it is habit. I also want to make sure that I am not restricting myself, so I wouldn't be opposed to having a square of dark chocolate after lunch or know that I will allow myself to have dessert later in the evening.

@crazydoglady: My daughter had two birthday parties (one with family, one with friends) last week, so I’m sure all the cheating I did over that three day period didn’t help! But the good news is that I’m down a total of 8 lbs from my starting weight. It’s been up and down—I lost 8 lbs very quickly over the first two weeks or so of keto, then just as quickly gained it back once I began exercising...then I cheated...but I’ve been spending an average of six hours per week on the elliptical and doing an hour of relaxed walking on my rest day. So you can imagine how frustrating it can be to supposedly burn 850 calories, eat only 1200 calories, and not lose very much weight.

I’ve read that part of my problem may have been water retention. If you start exercising a lot, and you don’t eat many carbs, your liver still has to produce glycogen to fuel your muscles (at least, that’s what my doctor said), and you retain water to do that. And then I’m also taking around 1500 mg of NSAIDs to fight my inflammation, which also causes water retention. I don’t think much of the weight is muscle, since I’ve only been working out for a month and I think it takes longer than that to build significant muscle?

I think the lesson learned is that even with careful calorie restriction, exercise is not the way to lose weight. It’s GREAT for other things, like mental and cardiovascular health, but you can’t really exercise your way into losing weight. And that’s okay.

I just finished reading a book called Spark, about the science of exercise’s effects on the brain, and it’s given me a renewed motivation to keep exercising even if it slows my weight loss. Did you know that they’ve done studies that show that exercise is more effective than anti-depressants at treating depression, for example? It’s really fascinating.

I need to lose another 23 lbs to reach my goal weight by early August. We’re going to be doing one of the most amazing hikes in the world, and I don’t want to give up halfway through because I’m too out of shape. Plus, I’m convinced that dropping the weight and strengthening my core, my back and hip problems will be improved. I’ll continue doing keto and 16:8 in the hopes that I can meet my goal in time!

P.S. We just bought one of those scales that measures your body fat percentage, etc. and it was a relief to see that by very measure except weight, I am pretty healthy. I’d like to get a more sophisticated scan and compare the two to se ehow accurate it is.

I'm sorry I didn't read all the way back to the beginning but does anyone use an app to help track your fasting?

I found it was getting annoying to keep thinking about when i had stopped eating and when i was going to eat again so this weekend i downloaded an app and it really helped me (for the two days I've used it ha) but it helps me visualize better bc duh i can see how long I've fast and how much longer until my window opens or closes...

anyway i was just curious if anyone else used an app?

I really need to add in some activity and I think i'd start to see some real change.. but it's so hard for me to find the time.

@Twolittlemen: That is the one I got this weekend. I am really liking it so far! less thinking is always a GOOD thing for me HA!

@Hypatia: It seems like you are doing amazing! And what an amazing goal to have and good reasons to lose some weight. I dropped 5 pounds pretty quick. I was so happy because it helped me feel better about a dress I wanted to wear to an event this past weekend. But I'm having knee problems since my second pregnancy and I'm really hoping that if I can lose 10-13 more pounds, that would really help me. OMG, if I could lose 18 pounds, that would be a dream. But I'm not really putting much effort, so I need to reevaluate what I am willing to do.The elliptical is great and six hours is really good if you are a busy working sleep-deprive mama like I am.

@Twolittlemen: Thanks for the app reccomendation! I love apps!

@Ajsmommy: @Twolittlemen: Thanks for the recommendation! I just downloaded it!

How is everyone doing? I'm still in the same gaining and losing two pounds. Admittedly, I have been less strict about timing.