Why Am I GAINING Weight With INTERMITTENT FASTING 😡😤😭😕 4 Big IF Mistakes That Lead to Weight Gain

All right .

So , you know , I'm a fan of intermittent fasting because it helps to burn stored fat better .

It helps with your cognition .

It helps increase your insulin sensitivity , reduces inflammation and a host of other amazing benefits .

But what about those of you who have started intermittent fasting and you're actually gaining weight ?

Well , in this video , I'm gonna go over four intermittent fasting mistakes that you might be doing that could actually cause you to gain weight while you're fasting .

So that you know exactly what you need to do in order to be successful .

So let's get started .

So intermittent fasting also called if is just a way to approach when you're eating your food , it's not really about a diet .

It's specifically just the timing of when you have your food called the feeding window and when you have your fast , called the fasting window , but basically intermittent fasting allows you to follow whatever diet you choose whether it's keto paleo vegan , clean eating , gluten free , whatever it is just regular eating .

All of those work within an intermittent fasting lifestyle .

It's not that you have to follow a specific diet plan in order to do .

If so given all of that , it's important to understand in order to reach our weight loss goals .

If that's what you're looking for , you're probably going to want to find a way to eat healthy along with your intermittent fasting so that you can be more successful and reach your goals .

So just because you're doing , if doesn't automatically mean you're going to lose weight , but it can make the process way easier and a lot more efficient for weight loss if you follow some guidelines .

So one reason you might be gaining weight with intermittent fasting is you might just be eating too much food .

So paying attention to the amount of food you're eating is going to become really important .

So if you're eating a ton of food during your feeding window , and you're not really thinking about how much your body actually needs , but you're just overeating during that time frame , even if you're fasting , it's going to make weight loss much more difficult .

For example , if you have 3000 calories during your feeding window and your feeding window is just four hours .

But then after that , you go on a fast .

If your body only requires 1800 calories , then you're going to be eating over what you need and that's going to result in weight gain most likely .

So it's still very important to consider the amount of calories you're eating and to eat at a calorie deficit for weight loss .

If you think this might be the reason why you're gaining weight , then you can simply just start tracking the food you're eating , using an app like my fitness pal or just writing everything down and paying attention to the calories you're eating versus what you probably should be eating .

And if you need to know what you should be eating , I have a video on how to calculate your macros that goes through all sorts of detail on how to calculate exactly the amount that you need in order to reach your goals .

Just like it's possible that you're eating too many calories .

Another intermittent fasting mistake is you might be eating too few calories while at face value eating too little calories sounds like it might be better for weight loss .

In fact , there's actually a few problems that this causes first , it can cause you to be super hungry during your fasting window .

So then when you do have your eating window open up , you binge eat and you overeat because of how hungry you are rather than just having a stable way to approach your food and feeling content with the food you're eating .

Second , your body might actually start to store more fat in your body because is it recognizes that it's not getting what it needs on a daily basis .

So it wants to store as much as it can so that it has energy for later .

Your body is really smart .

So it's going to do what it can , even if you're not giving it enough food .

Again , understanding your macro nutrient needs is a really valuable tool so that you don't either overeat or under eat and you eat to meet your goals in general .

If you're only eating about 1000 to 1300 calories in a day , that's just not enough food for what your body needs and you likely should be eating more .

Another intermittent fasting mistake that might be leading to your weight gain is you might not be eating enough protein .

So , like I mentioned before with , if you really don't have to follow any specific diet plan , so that means theoretically , you could be doing intermittent fasting and eating a bunch of junk food .

So given that it's really important that you pay attention to the food you are eating and how it breaks down and making sure that you're getting enough of those macro nutrients , the carbohydrates that are in the complex form , the protein and the fat .

So if you're gaining weight , it's really important to pay attention to what you're eating .

If you think of what you're eating , and you realize that you're having a lot of pizzas and pastas and breads and refined carbs and even a lot of fruit smoothies without extra nutrients in there .

Those extra carbs still add up .

And you need to kind of understand what you're eating as a whole to make sure you're eating your complete macro nutrient meats and eating enough protein each day is a very important way to not only be healthy and provide your body what it needs , but also for weight loss .

And I dive into all those reasons on why protein is so important and how much protein you should be eating a daily basis in a separate video .

And I'll link to that for you below .

But in general , protein is super helpful for making you feel full .

We talked about how being hungry during your fasting period is going to make you overeat during your feeding window .

And it's really helpful for weight loss as well because you burn more calories while you're consuming it and digesting it .

And it's helpful for burning fat .

And another reason why you might be gaining weight with if is that you're not eating clean .

Now , I know I said you don't need to be following clean eating diet .

That is absolutely true .

You do not in order to be and lose weight with if , but you do need to kind of follow some clean eating guidelines so that you don't cause more problems while you're trying to lose weight by adding in extra stuff that your body doesn't like .

So eating foods that are highly processed and have refined sugars and flowers in them like refined baked goods that are on the shelf at the store .

Fried foods , a lot of fast foods and just pretty much anything that contains trans fats and highly refined sugars .

And the reason for this is because when we eat refined foods that are highly processed and contain a lot of refined sugar and flowers and fats , that causes an issue for our blood sugar .

And when our blood sugar levels rise , that means we have to secrete insulin to bring our blood sugar levels down .

The problem with that is if you keep eating that way and you keep causing your insulin to rise , you're going to become less and less sensitive to that insulin .

And you're going to constantly have more insulin in your system to keep those blood sugar levels down .

The beauty of intermittent fasting and having those fasted states is that we can actually help increase our insulin sensitivity and make all of that better .

But if you're eating processed food and causing your blood sugar to rise during your feeding window higher than normal , that's kind of working against you when you're trying to lose weight .

And this is especially true with refined sugars .

So when you have refined sugar , it causes a dopamine overload in your receptors .

And so basically , you just start craving these sugars more and more and it kind of becomes a drug .

You have this dependency on this thing and you start having all these cravings and you just really , really want more and more sugar .

That's why we find it so hard to stop eating sugary foods because it actually has an effect on our brain .

So instead of eating highly refined sugars , look for complex carbs like sweet potatoes and apples and vegetables and quinoa and foods that are just whole foods rather than highly refined sugars and make those foods that are those complex carbs work for you , make sure that they have fiber and protein and other nutrients in them rather than just plain old sugar .

And if you're interested in learning how to reduce your dependency on sugar , I have a video on how I quit sugar in seven easy stuff and I will link to that for you below .

Personally , I prefer a clean eating approach with intermittent fasting .

I feel like the benefits of both of those really work well together for weight loss .

And currently I'm in weight maintenance and I'm trying to just reduce my body fat percentage , which intermittent fasting is also really helpful for .

And I also find that this combination allows me to eat pretty much all the foods I enjoy in moderation without overdo it and making sure that it all works together so that I can still reach my goal .

So check out my guide on intermittent fasting for women and how to get started .

And I will see you in the next video .