I have followed IF with a 1100 calorie deficit per day by only eating 1200 calories at dinner for 3 months. This translated to more than 1kg weight loss per week, pretty reliably. Overall I lost 17kg. I adjusted the TDEE and calorie values as needed to maintain the weight loss speed.
The weight loss was extremely fast, but so was the rate at which I lost lean mass. This makes sense, as I didn't exercise much, aside from occasional long walks / 1 mile run. According to this study [0], exercising should maintain lean muscle mass.
My personal observations are in line with the studies I have read about IF.
Some other observations I have made:
* The rate at which I gained 75% of the weight back was stunning to me. It was as fast as I lost it.
* My partner does not feel well when fasting, so IF doesn't work for everyone. I think it worked well for me. I did supplement with vitamins to account for the decreased amount of food intake.
* I noticed that whenever I had alcohol, while still adhering to the daily calorie limit, my weight would not go down until about 3 days have passed. I had assumed alcohol would only contribute its caloric energy, but, sure enough, every time I had a beer, I could see in the weight graph a bump that lasted for about 3 days, then the weight would suddenly jump down to where I was expecting it to be, based on the weight loss slope.
1100 calorie deficit is a bit extreme. Shoot for 500, or maybe 750 if you are pretty heavy.
How much protein did you eat? You'll maintain more muscle if you eat more protein.. consider 50% of calories from protein. Lifting weights also helps with maintaining lean muscle mass.
Alcohol can mess a lot with fluid retention. A good strategy for that when measuring progress is to weigh yourself each day but only look at the average weight over two weeks to see if you are progressing in the right direction.
Good advice, thanks. There is another aspect here, which is mostly about applying discipline and force of will. Seeing good progress feeds the reward system, and though discipline should be distinct from that, it helps me stay on track if every week I see 1kg lost, as opposed to 0.5kg, which could just be usual weight fluctuations.
1100 calorie deficit per day is too harsh and its no wonder your weight came back quickly. That large calorie deficit to your metabolim was equal to a famine, so as soon as you upped your calories again your metabolism put your surivial first and stored as much fat as it could.
Yeah, fasting is one of those ""health fads"" that really does seem to work miraculously... for some people. For some, it's just nothing; for some, it's miserable. Kind of bizarre how different our metabolisms can be.
I would argue it's definitely not a fad (at least in the sense it's something that's been happening only very recently); people have been fasting for literally thousands of years, though mostly for religious reasons.
It has an aura of being a fad nowadays since some modern research has indicated it actually does have health benefits, which I think some people have been a bit too quick to pounce on.
I have followed IF with a 1100 calorie deficit per day by only eating 1200 calories at dinner for 3 months. This translated to more than 1kg weight loss per week, pretty reliably. Overall I lost 17kg. I adjusted the TDEE and calorie values as needed to maintain the weight loss speed.
The weight loss was extremely fast, but so was the rate at which I lost lean mass. This makes sense, as I didn't exercise much, aside from occasional long walks / 1 mile run. According to this study [0], exercising should maintain lean muscle mass.
My personal observations are in line with the studies I have read about IF.
Some other observations I have made:
* The rate at which I gained 75% of the weight back was stunning to me. It was as fast as I lost it.
* My partner does not feel well when fasting, so IF doesn't work for everyone. I think it worked well for me. I did supplement with vitamins to account for the decreased amount of food intake.
* I noticed that whenever I had alcohol, while still adhering to the daily calorie limit, my weight would not go down until about 3 days have passed. I had assumed alcohol would only contribute its caloric energy, but, sure enough, every time I had a beer, I could see in the weight graph a bump that lasted for about 3 days, then the weight would suddenly jump down to where I was expecting it to be, based on the weight loss slope.
[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7468742/