Why is 16:8 NOT working? Should you fast longer?!

16 hours with no food every day. But your weight stays the same. Your waist is the same size. You think, should I fast for longer? First, check 5 things or you may be stuck forever. I'm Dennis, a German engineer and fitness coach. Here, we settle fitness decisions with data. Check 1. Has your fat loss really stopped? You see the same number on the scale. But does this mean you have lost no fat? Your scale weighs your whole body. You weigh your fat, your muscles, your water and the food inside you. These things can change every day. You may lose some fat, but your body may hold more water. So your weight may stay the same. One study looked at 42 women during their period. They weighed about half a kilo more. They also had more water in their bodies. That extra weight was not at all fat. Exercise can also change what the scale shows. A large review looked at 25 studies. People ate less to lose weight. Some also trained with weights. People who trained lost more fat. They also kept more of the other parts of their body. But they did not lose much more weight overall. So the same change on a scale can mean different things. What can you do? Weigh yourself in the morning. Use the same scale. Try to do it the same way each time. Look at your average weight for each week. Do not judge one day. Measure your waist too. Measure it in the same place each time. Watch these numbers for 3-4 weeks. This gives you more information. First, why not if fat loss has really stopped? What if your weight and waist do not change? Man, check your food. Do you eat less or eat later? You stop eating breakfast. That feels like a big change. But where does that food go? Here's an example. Your breakfast has 400 calories. You skip breakfast. But you eat 200 more calories at lunch. Then you eat a snack with 200 calories. You eat at different times, but you eat the same amount overall. You follow 16-8, yet you may not eat less. Studies help us understand this. In one study, 41 adults got food from the researchers. The groups got the same calories and similar food, but they ate at different times. One group ate all its food within 10 hours. Both groups lost weight. The shorter eating time did not really help them lose more. Another study lasted one year. It included 139 adults. Both groups were asked to eat fewer calories. One group also ate within 8 hours. That extra rule did not show a clear extra benefit, or weight or body fat. Fasting can still help. It may help you eat less. But check what happens inside your eating time. Look at your meals, your snacks, your drinks, and your weekends. You can write down... your food for a few days, you do not have to do this forever. The kind of food may matter too. In one small study, people could eat as much as they wanted. They ate more calories with one diet full of highly processed foods. They ate less with a less processed diet. This was not a fasting study, but it gives us something to check. Your food choices may make it easier to eat more. The key point, eating later does not always mean eating less. But perhaps you did eat less. You lost weight. Then your weight stopped changing. Check 3. Does your smaller body need less food? You still skip breakfast. You still follow the same plan. But your body is now smaller. A smaller body usually needs less energy. So the food that helped you lose weight before may now keep your weight the same. You may also feel more hungry after weight loss. Your meals may slowly get bigger. You may eat more snacks. Your eating times stay the same, but your food amount changes. Research models show how strong hunger can help explain this. These models do not test 6 in 8 directly, but they can help explain why weight loss can slow down. So look at your plan again. Are your meals still the same size? Are you more hungry? Do you move as much as before? Choose one small change, then Watch what happens. Your body has not learned to ignore fasting. Your daily plan may now help you stay at your new weight. Before you eat less, check one more thing. Check 4. You move less. You fast for longer, but now you feel tired. You miss your walk. You sit more. Exercise feels harder. This does not happen to everyone. But does it happen to you? Compare your day now with your day before fasting. You take fewer steps. You train less often? There's another point here. During a fast, your body may use more fat for energy. But this does not tell us how much body fat you lose over the whole day. One small study lasts 4 days. People ate within an early 6 hour period. Their bodies use more fat for energy, but they did not really use more energy overall. These are different things. So check your whole day. Keep walking, keep doing exercises with weights. Choose an amount you can do often. The key point? More hours without food do not always mean more fat lost. If this helped you so far, please consider to give me a subscribe. Thank you so much. Our last check starts at night. Check 5. Do you get enough sleep? You follow your eating times right. But you sleep too little. The next day you feel tired. You feel hungry. Your food plan feels harder. One study looked at adults who usually slept less than six and a half hours. Some got help to sleep longer. Over two weeks, this group ate about 270 fewer calories per day than the other group. That was the average difference. It does not mean everyone will get that result, but sleep is worth checking. Are you often tired? Are you more hungry? Is the exercise getting harder? A shorter eating time may not solve these problems. Try to give yourself enough time to sleep. Your food plan may feel easier when you are well rested. Should you fast for longer? Start with the five checks. Has fat loss really stopped? How much do you eat? Does your smaller body need less energy? Do you move less? Do you sleep enough? Choose the clearest problem. Change one thing. Then give yourself time to see what happens. Perhaps snacks have replaced your packed breakfast. Start with those. Perhaps you walk less now, add a short daily walk. Perhaps your weight stays the same, but your waist gets smaller. Keep watching before changing your plan. Write down your change, then you know what you're trying. These checks can help you understand your habits. They cannot give you a certain answer about every problem. Some people may choose a longer fast, but longer is not always better. A recent review looked at different eating times. Shorter eating times... Do not always give better results. Keep 16.8 if it helps you eat well, change it if it makes your day harder. Choose a change that helps with the problem you find. And what about fasting for 36 hours? Does that extra time help you lose enough extra fat? Watch my 16.8 vs 36 hour video next. Let's look at the evidence.