John Myers
Weight gain despite intermittent fasting can have a variety of causes. But if you know the possible reasons, it can be easier for you to lose weight. You can fix most of the triggers yourself.
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Weight gain despite intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting has become more and more fashionable in recent years. It’s supposed to help with weight loss. However, if you do not lose any weight despite this method, this can have various causes.
- Too Many Calories : While it’s often said that it doesn’t matter what and how much you eat during intermittent fasting, how many calories you eat is still important. If you consume more calories than you consume, you can also gain weight with intermittent fasting.
- Too few calories : But eating too few calories for too long can also prevent you from losing weight. Then your body goes into a kind of economy mode and burns fewer calories than before.
- Bad Fasts : If you haven’t yet discovered the right fasts for you personally, fasting periods can become a real pain. Then you will probably break them off more often, which means that you will not see any success in losing weight.
- Poor diet : You should also pay attention to your diet during intermittent fasting. If you eat only sugary foods and alcoholic beverages , losing weight will hardly be possible. A lack of proteins in particular can also lead to a loss of muscle mass and a deteriorating metabolism.
- Building muscle mass : If your weight on the scale stagnates or even increases during intermittent fasting, this can also have positive reasons. If you also train your muscles, your body fat percentage can decrease even if you gain weight. Since muscle is heavier than fat for the same volume, even if you lose fat, your weight can increase.
- Too high expectations : Intermittent fasting does not aim to reduce weight as quickly as possible. So if you don’t notice any weight loss after a few days, that’s completely normal.
- Not enough sleep : Getting enough sleep plays an important role in losing weight. A lack of sleep can lead to food cravings, among other things, which can prevent weight loss.
- Stress : When you experience too much stress, your body produces many stress hormones, most notably cortisol. As a result, nutrients are increasingly transported to the fat cells and less to the muscles. Too much stress therefore promotes the breakdown of muscles and the expansion of fat cells.
- Mismatched calorie needs : If you’ve already lost weight during your intermittent fasting, your calorie needs will change. If you don’t adjust this, it can quickly happen that you are no longer in a calorie deficit and therefore not lose weight.
How to avoid stagnant weight
However, intermittent fasting has not failed just because you have phases in which you do not lose weight. If you make some adjustments to your fasting plan, you can quickly get back on a successful path.
- Counting Calories : While intermittent fasting’s inherent feature is that you don’t have to count and track calories, it can help you stave off weight gain. You can determine your calorie needs either with special apps or various calorie calculators on the internet.
- Adjusting Fasting Periods : When beginning intermittent fasting, take some time to figure out the fasting periods that work best for you. Do you find it easier to postpone breakfast or forward dinner? Do you prefer the 16:8 or the 5:2 method?
- Adjust diet : Watch your diet. Above all, eat healthy foods and make sure you consume enough protein. Note that beverages, salad dressing and snacks also have calories.
- Getting enough sleep : Get between six and eight hours of sleep each night. Exactly how long you should sleep is different for everyone.
- Reduce Stress : Try to avoid or at least reduce your stress. Sufficient sleep, adapted training breaks or meditation can help.
- Adjusting calorie needs : Check your progress at regular intervals, for example once a week or every two weeks. If you’ve already lost some weight, adjust your calorie intake accordingly.
