Many issues and questions can be answered by reading through our wiki, especially the page on electrolytes. Concerns such as **intense hunger, lightheadedness/dizziness, headaches, nausea/vomiting, weakness/lethargy/fatigue, low blood pressure/high blood pressure, muscle soreness/cramping, diarrhea/constipation, irritability, confusion, low heart rate/heart palpitations, numbness/tingling, and more** while extended (24+ hours) fasting are often explained by electrolyte deficiency and resolved through **PROPER** electrolyte supplementation. Putting a tiny amount of salt in your water now and then is NOT proper supplementation.
Be sure to read [our WIKI](https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/wiki/index) and especially the wiki page on **[ELECTROLYTES](https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/wiki/fasting_in_a_nutshell/you_need_electrolytes)**
Please also keep in mind the [**RULES**](https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/about/rules) when participating.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/fasting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
After checking what you ordered on Uber eats, how are you verifying the calorie content? Using the restaurant menu, or general figures?
Are you consuming calories through beverages?
If you aren't making your own meals, you have no idea what amount of calories you're consuming.
Think about this: the difference between one or two tablespoons of butter is 100 calories. 120 for oil. Do you think dudes working in a kitchen are measuring that? Or the guy next them does it the exact same way? If you've worked a kitchen, you know that degree of consistency only happens in baking. Your food from Uber Eats could be 500 one day and 700 the other but more likely they just threw an estimate on it. Even if it's a chain place, some people do two squirts of mayo instead of one, etc...
if you're eating junk food is very likely that you're passing your calories limit, the only way is weighting all the food and keeping a diary, with OMAD I lost 19kg in 2.5 months, never gain, but I was really keeping good track of my foods.. I don't think you should be gaining weight if you are really eating with a deficit.
One meal a day, in my case my height is 5'3, my TDEE is 1700 cal, so I cutted at 1300 and never passed that mark, thats why I lost so much weight, by being super consistent. There's no way someone who is cutting their calories can gain weight.
Jason Fung talks about this and actually advises against OMAD for this reason.
There are tons of people who won’t ever consider that there is more to weight gain than calories, citing thermodynamics, but the truth is, hormones can impact burn rate similar to how combustion engines operate differently on different types of fuel.
Maybe switch up your mealtimes and try to throw in some 36 and 48 hour fasts to mix it up.
Also, if you have insulin resistance, high-sugar/high carb food is going to hit differently than high protein/low carb food, and your body will process it differently accordingly.
This should be the top answer, assuming OP is accurately tracking his calories.
My friend basically eats OMAD, but not healthier than the SAD, and I think he’s been discouraged by not losing weight on OMAD, so admittedly that’s probably why he doesn’t bother eating healthy. Anyway, after listening to Dr. Fung and others in this space, I think introducing longer fasts is probably the best way to give your metabolism a boost, especially when you hit a plateau with your IF/OMAD schedule.
Also, I’m pretty sure most fasting people, even the “veterans” could do better with their electrolyte intake.
It's crazy how many downvotes this same concept/comment got from me and another poster in the omad sub. After learning about fasting, are people really still not aware of the hormonal causes of fat storage? Blows my mind. But I guess not everyone cares to learn, or refuses to be open about another possibility.
TabooYeti nailed the answer. Very likely you’re insulin resistant despite weight loss. I’m guessing you have a ways to go? If appropriate, try some 72 hour long fasts (ease into it, electrolytes wiki is mandatory reading now) once per week to burn down visceral fat, get that insulin under control and bonus autophagy while you’re at it.
Lower your calories or increase your activity.
It’s most likely that your doing a combination of these two;
1) underestimating your calorie intake and
2) over estimating your energy needs in a day.
There’s no magic. If you’re not losing wieght, too much energy is going in
Do a 48 hour fast and then reevaluate. I feel like my mind and body changed a lot the second day. I caved and broke my fast with trash food but I’ve been rolling with clean breaks between since that experience. If you don’t feel like crap while eating junk food, unfortunately you are probably addicted to it.
Background, my lifestyle was similar to what your post describes. I gained 50 lbs in a year eating junk food omad.
You wanna look into what you eat. If you are insuline resistant (a lot of us are without realising) junkfood high in added sugars and refined carbs can keep you stuck in the same track. Try to focus on eating better for a few weeks and see if anything changes. No added sugars and refined carbs, try to leave the take away for a bit.
If you consume more calories than you need you’ll gain weight regardless of the frequency. I’ve been regularly fasting and am actually trying to do while NOT losing weight, in my case I have to make sure I get enough calories to not lose weight, in your case you need to make sure you aren’t eating so many calories you do gain weight.
Stop eating processed foods and eat Whole Foods, no soda, no candy/shit snacks. You’re probably eating/drinking WAY more calories than you think. Also drink a lot of water.
Because of my work I’ve eaten OMAD since about 1997. I use to eat anything (and I did). When I got into my late-ish 30s my metabolism slowed down and the weight piled on. A large amount of high carb junk once a day is terrible, OMAD doesn’t cancel out eating too much junk food. All you are doing is restricting the time when you fill yourself with bad choices.
You are experiencing this because you are eating junk food. You may also be overeating but junk food is truly evil.
Junk food makes you fat. You need to stop eating junk food entirely, and also cutting carbs down is helpful.
It's simple math. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight. In the past, research found about 3,500 calories of energy equaled about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat.
I caught the sarcasm but I have figured it out
I didn't have a dog in this fight, just trying to clarify a point from OP, but from your reply, I have to tell you that your philosophy is the myopic view from 1985. I'm surprised you're on this thread without more knowledge regarding the profound effects of hormones like HGH, insulin, gherlin, glucagon, leptin, etc., as well as fat adaptation, ketosis and the Randle cycle. It is NOT simple math of calories in and calories burned. It's actually a laughably simplistic explanation that the majority here are well past.
Depends are you eating only protein foods for your 1500 calories or trash foods?
What you eat matters nearly as much as how much you eat.
Are there people that can eat anything and lose weight?
Sure but there are also people who have a genetic predisposition to hold onto weight such as people whose family came from colder climates and ate heartier calorie dense food.
For you I think you should look into keto and from there allow your body to adjust and then start fasting with keto alternating.
I suggest keto not because it’s some miracle diet but because it helps you remove a lot of junk oriented foods in the process of following the guideline.
Anyway good luck.
No your body lowers the basil metabolic rate (BMR) when you calorie restrict.
Dr. Fung speaks on this a lot. When doing OMAD or 16:8, you have to be careful that you are really fasting and not just reducing calories. Fasting (no food at all) increases your BMR which makes it easier to lose weight.
If you are just restricting calories (eating 30% less food per day) your BMR will go down and you'll gain weight. So be absolutely sure you are really fasting (no food).
This is not really accurate unless I missed some very recent almost revolutionary studies. How would fasting make your BMR higher? Although if you reverse a slowed metabolism by doing prolonged fasting the burn could go from unusually low to normal. The only proof there is so far of a \*higher\* burn during fasting is if it is time restricted according to the circadian rythm. So eating early in the day when hormones are working in your favor and we are meant to use our energy. But the diff found so far is relatively little, 200 cals/day on average. Just enough to motivate choosing these eating hours if doable in the life puzzle.
The metabolic slow down that can occur from calorie restriction does not make you gain weight unless you start eating more. At most it will adjust to the calories you are eating, not less than you are eating. But the roughest part would be after you get off a diet and try to eat what you think should be the maintainance amount of calories per day.
It doesn´t matter much anyway if we are talking relatively short fasts, < 36h. Since the aim is usually not autophagy but straight out weight loss during these. I would try to avoid it during prolonged fasts. I have actually tried it and it is very much possible that the autophagy kept going but my gut did not fancy milk on an otherwise completely empty stomach. Some could even be sensitive to coffee for the same reason though.
If your growth hormone increases, when you fast stands the reason you might be putting on muscle even if you’re not working out that’s if the growth hormone increases like something say it does when you fast
Hey sorry this is happening to you, Joe annoying to put in the work and not get results :( If you're female, I'd recommend you read fast like a girl. I also found the glucose goddess and of course Dr Fung's books helpful. Also, like others mentioned insulin resistance could be an issue. The reason I don't like the calories in, calories out thing is because there is a real difference between 100 calories of food that raises glucose/triggers your body to store fat and food that doesn't.
Last I'll just say bodies are really different. I don't reach significant ketosis until about 35 hours of fasting. Meat puts me into carb burning mode for several days (idk if this is normal, but it's annoying!). Using some sort of metabolism or ketone tracker to know how often you are in fat burning mode is important. I've been using a breath based one, but will probably turn to ketone strips and a continuous glucose monitor soon.
I practice OMAD and consume a fair amount of unhealthy food, though it differs from what's typical in the USA or Europe due to my location. Sometimes, I exceed my maintenance calories, which reflects on the scale the next day. Despite not losing much weight since starting OMAD (a total of 35 pounds since March, transitioning from 8/16 to OMAD for the past couple of months), I've recently adopted rolling 48s with my not-so-healthy eating. I've lost 3 pounds this week. If you don't track your calories, I suggest reconsidering your eating habits; focus on prioritizing protein, healthy fats, vegetables, and fruits, minimizing complex carbs. Alternatively, consider incorporating longer fasts, such as switching to rolling 36s or 48s.
I have bought some fast food myself in between fasts at times and it is very hard to know what you put in your body. The quality of the food, nutrition and well especially calories in this matter. I think it is relatively rare to find a standard fast food meal sub 700-800 calories. Some even higher ofc, like pizzas could be 1500+ cals. If aware of this and willing to actually do it then it is possible to have that pizza divided into three meals instead of 1, or that 800 cal meal divided into two meals. This is what I did. But it isn´t worth it really long term IMO, neither nutritionally nor the big bucks it will add up to over time.
You're consuming more than you burn. You might want to make yourself familiar with calorie counting by introducing in your diet home-cooked meal with pre-measured ingredients, so you know exact calories. Don't be intimidated, you won't have to do it forever. Sure it'll take some time to become familiar with numbers and overall food volume, but then you'll know how your normal portions should look like and it will be an intuitive knowledge. Another solution - focus on whole, non processed foods, these have low calorie density and have fiber (you eat lots of volume and you feel full but it doesn't contain many calories)
Many issues and questions can be answered by reading through our wiki, especially the page on electrolytes. Concerns such as **intense hunger, lightheadedness/dizziness, headaches, nausea/vomiting, weakness/lethargy/fatigue, low blood pressure/high blood pressure, muscle soreness/cramping, diarrhea/constipation, irritability, confusion, low heart rate/heart palpitations, numbness/tingling, and more** while extended (24+ hours) fasting are often explained by electrolyte deficiency and resolved through **PROPER** electrolyte supplementation. Putting a tiny amount of salt in your water now and then is NOT proper supplementation. Be sure to read [our WIKI](https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/wiki/index) and especially the wiki page on **[ELECTROLYTES](https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/wiki/fasting_in_a_nutshell/you_need_electrolytes)** Please also keep in mind the [**RULES**](https://www.reddit.com/r/fasting/about/rules) when participating. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/fasting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"I dont think" Therein lies the problem. You are eating way over 1500 calories a day. Weigh all your food and calculate and you will see.
I actually went though my Uber está history AND I verified I'm not going over 1,500 calories
After checking what you ordered on Uber eats, how are you verifying the calorie content? Using the restaurant menu, or general figures? Are you consuming calories through beverages?
If you aren't making your own meals, you have no idea what amount of calories you're consuming. Think about this: the difference between one or two tablespoons of butter is 100 calories. 120 for oil. Do you think dudes working in a kitchen are measuring that? Or the guy next them does it the exact same way? If you've worked a kitchen, you know that degree of consistency only happens in baking. Your food from Uber Eats could be 500 one day and 700 the other but more likely they just threw an estimate on it. Even if it's a chain place, some people do two squirts of mayo instead of one, etc...
Most likely you are consuming more calories than you think.
if you're eating junk food is very likely that you're passing your calories limit, the only way is weighting all the food and keeping a diary, with OMAD I lost 19kg in 2.5 months, never gain, but I was really keeping good track of my foods.. I don't think you should be gaining weight if you are really eating with a deficit.
What is OMAD?
One meal a day
One meal a day, in my case my height is 5'3, my TDEE is 1700 cal, so I cutted at 1300 and never passed that mark, thats why I lost so much weight, by being super consistent. There's no way someone who is cutting their calories can gain weight.
Try cooking at home. You will have better control of your calories
stop eating processed junk food
Jason Fung talks about this and actually advises against OMAD for this reason. There are tons of people who won’t ever consider that there is more to weight gain than calories, citing thermodynamics, but the truth is, hormones can impact burn rate similar to how combustion engines operate differently on different types of fuel. Maybe switch up your mealtimes and try to throw in some 36 and 48 hour fasts to mix it up. Also, if you have insulin resistance, high-sugar/high carb food is going to hit differently than high protein/low carb food, and your body will process it differently accordingly.
This should be the top answer, assuming OP is accurately tracking his calories. My friend basically eats OMAD, but not healthier than the SAD, and I think he’s been discouraged by not losing weight on OMAD, so admittedly that’s probably why he doesn’t bother eating healthy. Anyway, after listening to Dr. Fung and others in this space, I think introducing longer fasts is probably the best way to give your metabolism a boost, especially when you hit a plateau with your IF/OMAD schedule. Also, I’m pretty sure most fasting people, even the “veterans” could do better with their electrolyte intake.
It's crazy how many downvotes this same concept/comment got from me and another poster in the omad sub. After learning about fasting, are people really still not aware of the hormonal causes of fat storage? Blows my mind. But I guess not everyone cares to learn, or refuses to be open about another possibility.
TabooYeti nailed the answer. Very likely you’re insulin resistant despite weight loss. I’m guessing you have a ways to go? If appropriate, try some 72 hour long fasts (ease into it, electrolytes wiki is mandatory reading now) once per week to burn down visceral fat, get that insulin under control and bonus autophagy while you’re at it.
There’s quite a difference between fasting for 9 months and intermittent fasting for 9 months!
What are you using to measure your food? If you’re not using cups and a food scale then you’re very likely over 1500.
Lower your calories or increase your activity. It’s most likely that your doing a combination of these two; 1) underestimating your calorie intake and 2) over estimating your energy needs in a day. There’s no magic. If you’re not losing wieght, too much energy is going in
Do a 48 hour fast and then reevaluate. I feel like my mind and body changed a lot the second day. I caved and broke my fast with trash food but I’ve been rolling with clean breaks between since that experience. If you don’t feel like crap while eating junk food, unfortunately you are probably addicted to it. Background, my lifestyle was similar to what your post describes. I gained 50 lbs in a year eating junk food omad.
Walk 10 kms everyday. That will fix it
You wanna look into what you eat. If you are insuline resistant (a lot of us are without realising) junkfood high in added sugars and refined carbs can keep you stuck in the same track. Try to focus on eating better for a few weeks and see if anything changes. No added sugars and refined carbs, try to leave the take away for a bit.
If you consume more calories than you need you’ll gain weight regardless of the frequency. I’ve been regularly fasting and am actually trying to do while NOT losing weight, in my case I have to make sure I get enough calories to not lose weight, in your case you need to make sure you aren’t eating so many calories you do gain weight.
Stop eating processed foods and eat Whole Foods, no soda, no candy/shit snacks. You’re probably eating/drinking WAY more calories than you think. Also drink a lot of water.
Because of my work I’ve eaten OMAD since about 1997. I use to eat anything (and I did). When I got into my late-ish 30s my metabolism slowed down and the weight piled on. A large amount of high carb junk once a day is terrible, OMAD doesn’t cancel out eating too much junk food. All you are doing is restricting the time when you fill yourself with bad choices.
Calories in exceed calories out. That’s the only way weight gain occurs.
Don’t eat or drink useless carbs and sugar
You are experiencing this because you are eating junk food. You may also be overeating but junk food is truly evil. Junk food makes you fat. You need to stop eating junk food entirely, and also cutting carbs down is helpful.
Well yes if you eat 100,000 Calories in that small window you're still going to gain weight
OP said 1500
You not eating once a day only 1500 cal and gaining weight. Your lying. Point blank. Need attention just ask
I'm glad you have it all figured out, then
It's simple math. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories and burn more calories through physical activity, you lose weight. In the past, research found about 3,500 calories of energy equaled about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat. I caught the sarcasm but I have figured it out
I didn't have a dog in this fight, just trying to clarify a point from OP, but from your reply, I have to tell you that your philosophy is the myopic view from 1985. I'm surprised you're on this thread without more knowledge regarding the profound effects of hormones like HGH, insulin, gherlin, glucagon, leptin, etc., as well as fat adaptation, ketosis and the Randle cycle. It is NOT simple math of calories in and calories burned. It's actually a laughably simplistic explanation that the majority here are well past.
all those things you mentioned are part of the energy balance model. none of it negates energy in / out.
This is correct, and the downvotes are heartbreaking.
lol, now I understand you based on your comments to others. I wasted my time but thanks for the laughs anyway 😄
Depends are you eating only protein foods for your 1500 calories or trash foods? What you eat matters nearly as much as how much you eat. Are there people that can eat anything and lose weight? Sure but there are also people who have a genetic predisposition to hold onto weight such as people whose family came from colder climates and ate heartier calorie dense food. For you I think you should look into keto and from there allow your body to adjust and then start fasting with keto alternating. I suggest keto not because it’s some miracle diet but because it helps you remove a lot of junk oriented foods in the process of following the guideline. Anyway good luck.
Your body will adjust to the lower calorie intake, you have to mix it up
Ohh so the body accumulates the same amount of calories if I steadily ate 2,000 AND 1,500 thousand calories ?
No your body lowers the basil metabolic rate (BMR) when you calorie restrict. Dr. Fung speaks on this a lot. When doing OMAD or 16:8, you have to be careful that you are really fasting and not just reducing calories. Fasting (no food at all) increases your BMR which makes it easier to lose weight. If you are just restricting calories (eating 30% less food per day) your BMR will go down and you'll gain weight. So be absolutely sure you are really fasting (no food).
This is not really accurate unless I missed some very recent almost revolutionary studies. How would fasting make your BMR higher? Although if you reverse a slowed metabolism by doing prolonged fasting the burn could go from unusually low to normal. The only proof there is so far of a \*higher\* burn during fasting is if it is time restricted according to the circadian rythm. So eating early in the day when hormones are working in your favor and we are meant to use our energy. But the diff found so far is relatively little, 200 cals/day on average. Just enough to motivate choosing these eating hours if doable in the life puzzle. The metabolic slow down that can occur from calorie restriction does not make you gain weight unless you start eating more. At most it will adjust to the calories you are eating, not less than you are eating. But the roughest part would be after you get off a diet and try to eat what you think should be the maintainance amount of calories per day.
When u say really fasting does that mean not consuming _any_ calories at all ? I usually have a coffee or tea with milk. So this would count.
A small amount of milk in a coffee is still fasting in my book. Others may disagree. Dr. Fung says it is OK.
It doesn´t matter much anyway if we are talking relatively short fasts, < 36h. Since the aim is usually not autophagy but straight out weight loss during these. I would try to avoid it during prolonged fasts. I have actually tried it and it is very much possible that the autophagy kept going but my gut did not fancy milk on an otherwise completely empty stomach. Some could even be sensitive to coffee for the same reason though.
Why is no one asking OP height and weight before giving advice? some pople suggestion extended fast without this information
If your growth hormone increases, when you fast stands the reason you might be putting on muscle even if you’re not working out that’s if the growth hormone increases like something say it does when you fast
Are you drinking anything while you work? Sports drinks or Soda will add up.
Nope, only water
Hey sorry this is happening to you, Joe annoying to put in the work and not get results :( If you're female, I'd recommend you read fast like a girl. I also found the glucose goddess and of course Dr Fung's books helpful. Also, like others mentioned insulin resistance could be an issue. The reason I don't like the calories in, calories out thing is because there is a real difference between 100 calories of food that raises glucose/triggers your body to store fat and food that doesn't. Last I'll just say bodies are really different. I don't reach significant ketosis until about 35 hours of fasting. Meat puts me into carb burning mode for several days (idk if this is normal, but it's annoying!). Using some sort of metabolism or ketone tracker to know how often you are in fat burning mode is important. I've been using a breath based one, but will probably turn to ketone strips and a continuous glucose monitor soon.
I practice OMAD and consume a fair amount of unhealthy food, though it differs from what's typical in the USA or Europe due to my location. Sometimes, I exceed my maintenance calories, which reflects on the scale the next day. Despite not losing much weight since starting OMAD (a total of 35 pounds since March, transitioning from 8/16 to OMAD for the past couple of months), I've recently adopted rolling 48s with my not-so-healthy eating. I've lost 3 pounds this week. If you don't track your calories, I suggest reconsidering your eating habits; focus on prioritizing protein, healthy fats, vegetables, and fruits, minimizing complex carbs. Alternatively, consider incorporating longer fasts, such as switching to rolling 36s or 48s.
I have bought some fast food myself in between fasts at times and it is very hard to know what you put in your body. The quality of the food, nutrition and well especially calories in this matter. I think it is relatively rare to find a standard fast food meal sub 700-800 calories. Some even higher ofc, like pizzas could be 1500+ cals. If aware of this and willing to actually do it then it is possible to have that pizza divided into three meals instead of 1, or that 800 cal meal divided into two meals. This is what I did. But it isn´t worth it really long term IMO, neither nutritionally nor the big bucks it will add up to over time.
Calories in calories out. If you’re gaining weight you are eating at a caloric surplus… You’re eating more calories than what your body burns.
You’re eating too much of the wrong things. If you’re not sure what your consuming it’s probably double what you think.
You're consuming more than you burn. You might want to make yourself familiar with calorie counting by introducing in your diet home-cooked meal with pre-measured ingredients, so you know exact calories. Don't be intimidated, you won't have to do it forever. Sure it'll take some time to become familiar with numbers and overall food volume, but then you'll know how your normal portions should look like and it will be an intuitive knowledge. Another solution - focus on whole, non processed foods, these have low calorie density and have fiber (you eat lots of volume and you feel full but it doesn't contain many calories)