Check this article out re: IF and women. I had to stop because my hormones went haywire and i started gaining weight. I eat every 3-4 hours and i've lost the weight...

http://www.paleoforwomen.com/shattering-the-myth-of-fasting-for-women-a-review-of-female-specific-responses-to-fasting-in-the-literature/

Let us not forget that this person has an eating disorder. Giving her 'quick' fixes to lose the 20 lbs is absolutely insane! As a previous counselor and current nutritionist that is an area that most people who want to give advice are not well versed in. To the person that posted the question, if you are feeling good and eating disorder is under control, you definitely need not worry about the scale. My guess is that you look healthy. Most people would notice a 20 pound weight gain. The fact that you didn't until you got on the scale makes me believe that you are fine. However, the daily IF can be viewed as the 'control' that most folks with eating disorders can thrive on. I would use caution. :)

Here's my take on all of this, from someone who's been 'round the bend a few times. The weight charts that tell us what we're "supposed" to weigh do NOTHING to tell a person whether or not he or she is at a healthy weight for his or her own body. It is VERY individual. There are some things to look at to determine whether or not you are HEALTHY where you're at:

1. Can you exert yourself heavily and recover relatively quickly?
2. Can you bend, stretch, touch your toes, dance, etc., and feel good doing it?
3. Do you sleep well, for an appropriate amount of time?
4. How's your appetite?

If you're able to exert yourself heavily and bounce back quickly, have good flexibility, sleep well, and you eat when you're truly hungry, until you're sated, you're probably at a good weight for YOU, regardless of what the stupid charts have to say.

I'd also remind you that if you were -underweight- when you purchased those clothes, or you weren't at your own personal 'right weight', it makes sense that your clothes won't fit right, and the problem isn't the scale or your weight -- the problem is that it's time to go buy some nice new clothes that fit your body's best shape!

Namaste, Firestorm

Here's a funny thing.
This woman has the exact same BMI as you and she is also considered overweight by the BMI.

The BMI says this woman is obese.

BMI also says this woman is overweight, with a BMI of 25.

Just thought I'd show some fun pictures :P

But anyway....

May I suggest changing only one thing at a time? Don't try all the suggestions all at once, then you won't know what did the trick.

I would say to drop the nuts and cheese first (I knoooow, I love cheese too!), and see if that helps. If not, then get rid of the fruit next. If not...

I would say to drop the meat back a little, I'm 5'5" big boned woman (NOT fat, I just have a wide body) and eating 1.5 lbs of meat would make me sick, it's just too much. My 6'2" boyfriend, yeah, me? Nope.

If you're not hungry, then can you eat a little less meat? If you get hungry again, add it back in.

Also keep in mind that even if you did gain 20 pounds (though you said you used to be between 110-120 lbs, so you could have only gained 10 pounds), not all of it would have been fat? If you did calorie (and I would guess meat/fat) restriction, then some of the weight gain would be muscle which weights a lot more than fat.

4-5 eggs is probably way too much for a "little girl" like you (*), I eat 2 or 3 eggs for breakfast, today I actually had 4 and I felt so full I had to lay down. ^^

Again, my tall and strong boyfriend can finish a whole roast chicken for dinner, yet I eat 2 drumsticks and I'm done. Eating half a chicken sounds revolting to me :o

(*) I only say little girl because compared to most woman out there, even though I'm not fat, I look like Hulk compared to them :P My body type looks like I'm a strong warrior...

Things you could try:

1) Abandoning the 4 hour feeding window and just eating when you're hungry and to satiety.

2) Adding in some fruit and/or startchy tubers.

3) Both of those things.

I don't know that anyone is going to be able to give you a sure answer without knowing more, although if you're not eating enough and putting yourself into starvation mode with overly restricted calories, your body will store fat. I don't understand thinking you're not doing it well enough if this regimen isn't working for you. In some ways the cause will have to be discovered by n=1 experimentation, or getting some bloodwork done, e.g. to check your thyroid. If you're that concerned, list other symptoms. Otherwise, try something else; see what happens.

I wouldn't be too concerned about a BMI one shade beyond the "normal" range as that can simply be a function of gaining some muscle, which is particularly possible if you were previously doing loads of cardio.

I would not use scale weight or how clothes fit as a reliable metric either. Being healthy is quite often independent of numbers on a BMI calculator, scale, or the tag on clothing.

I would look to an honest assessment of you fitness or health abstracted from the numbers that we like to cling to so much as a better indicator.

First thing, i'm pretty sure your overall health is better than it was before, regarding to the weight gain issue, i believe there are two factors to it, 1st: Caloric intake, this isn't magic, if you consume more calories than what you burn, the excess will turn into adipose tissue as a reserve. 2nd: Intermittent fasting works better at shorter periods of time for women than it does for men, i would recommend fasting no more than twice a week for periods of 12-14 hours. Cheers.

I would also add that your food list could range from as low as 1000 calories to well over 3000.

1.5 pounds of ground beef is over 1000 calories alone.

You mention eating cheese, but do not specify how much. One ounce is over 100 calories, so several ounces at a meal can really add up.

Nuts add up quickly too. If and when I binge, it's nuts or nut butters. I can put away a lot very quickly, and I still won't be satisfied.

Half a chicken could be anywhere from 500-1500 calories.

Therefore, my suggestion is to track your calories for several weeks using dailyplate.com or one of the other calorie trackers. Anyone I know that can't seem to lose weight always finds out they are eating way more food than they realize. I have friends that will say they eat almost nothing, and when you add up the coffee with cream and sugar, snacks, sodas, meals, desserts, they are well over 3000 calories in a day. No wonder they are 40-50 pounds overweight, especially while sitting all day at the office.

Again, track things closely, and you might find you will lose fairly quickly. Your body does not need nearly the amount of food that your mind thinks it does.

hey coffeesnob! firstly, CONGRATS on taking huge steps to heal your body and reconnect with a positive self-image. you are where many with an ED dream of being. i have found for me, that a huge healing process recovering from an ED is learning to trust your body and just get away from all the craziness surrounding food. what you are experiencing seems to be a completely normal rebound from anorexia. it is super common for those who have restricted in the past to gain some weight before they stabilize... i gained a sizable amount. it didn't last long until my body started to work its way back to a healthy place.

you are doing so many things right - eating real foods, not weighing or restricting, taking care of your body. it's a learning process how to feed our bodies not too much and not too little, and make peace with the voices in our heads that tell us how to do so. this may be an unneeded question, but have you sought help for you eating disorder in the past? if not, you may still have some underlying control issues/reactions to food you haven't deal with that have just been in remission eating paleo. i would hesitate to recommend the warrior diet (restricted IF) to anyone with a disordered past until the emotions and control around food is healed. eating in such a dramatic style can keep the ED thoughts alive, even subconsciously. therapy or counseling and working with a paleo nutritionist would be my recommendation, as well as just giving yourself a hug. weight is changable, but emotional damage is a big deal. in order to know if this weight is not healthy for you, you need to be healthy in your mind and heart. treasure yourself!

The first thing I would suggest is to abandon the IF for now and try eating smaller meals throughout the day. Some people do well with IF, others do better with a grazing style.

The BMI metric needs to get thrown out the window- according to BMI I am overweight, but my BF % is 23%- well into the healthy range for women. BMI does not take into account muscle AT ALL, which it sounds like you may have gained a fair bit of.

I know frequent weighing is frowned upon, but I do it every morning. Have for over 25 years. Guess what....its a measurement. If your on the road to a destination then you should have a map and measurement markers to determine if your getting there. Your use of that measurement is what makes it good or bad. I've purposely allowed my weight to increase as I lift and gain muscle at a reasonable rate, or I decrease it to burn fat.....don't fear scales. Nine months without weighing yourself and possibly overeating that entire time could be the issue. The other issue is where you underweight before? Like I said the scale is a tool....gotta know how to use it.

CoffeeSnob and I are one....

In my search to find what works for me and eating/food, I've come across something that intrigues me: Reward Deficiency Syndrome. Livestrong.com has a good explanation. There is a product I may try call 'SynaptoGenX' that is supposed to help your brain balance out neurotransmitters/hormones and this plays into how we are around food (control, lack of control, bingeing, starving, and if you're me: obsessing).

I really struggle with the satiety of eating as much of whatever Paleo foods I like (you can read eating more calories than I probably need, and bingeing on heavy cream), and the knowledge that in order to be leaner I need to 'control' my caloric intake. Seems like as soon as I go down that path I get crazed to figure it all out, and the restrictive eating triggers bingeing and the inevitable emotional consequences.

I know, I know, I too am in need of some professional help in this regard!

But it's nice to have a forum like this to see how others are coping. Thanks, everyone!

And best of luck to you, coffeesnob, keep us posted. :)

I bet before you hopped on the scale you thought very highly of how you looked and felt. If you are wating properly then 130 is where your body naturally wants to rest. I think this discomfort is more about the number than the actual body look and feel and I bet you are beautiful at your weight right now. Remember that you've already admitted to eating dissorder/thinking irrationally about scale numbers. Coming from a guy who weighs just more than 2 of you I'd say you're doing ok for yourself darlin.

I wonder if you might be (perhaps subconsciously) minimizing the extreme nature of your eating schedule by calling it "IF." IF stands for "intermittent fasting," and one meaning of intermittent is "occurring at irregular intervals." But you seem to fast 20 hours a day, every day. (For those questioning my view of "intermittent," I wonder why 20 hours a day is called "intermittent" but, say, 8 hours a day while sleeping isn't? What's the meaningful difference that makes one an intermittent fast and one not? Or are they both actually considered IF?)

Whether or not that's related to weight gain, I couldn't say. But I rarely really see IF recommended this way. I don't know much about eating disorders, but if it was me, I might ask myself if the (possibly) extreme fasting is related to that, perhaps as a sublimation/coping strategy allowing me to escape some of the most negative, harmful consequences of the disorder. For example, you're not starving, and probably have excellent nutrition--something many people with eating disorders couldn't claim. And that's a good thing--progress!

Hi there. I am about to go Paleo very soon. I have a history of ED, although not exactly like yours. There are a few things that really struck me in what you wrote though:

1) Stop the IF. I did that for almost 2 years (on a mainly vegeterian/vegan diet) and it didnt help ONE BIT. Not even 1%. Nothing. Maybe it works for others, but it doesnt mean it will help for each and everyone of us, otherwise we'd all be doing IF, no?!

2) Be more flexible- I know this is a really tough one for ex/current EDs. For ex, do NOT set a time frame of when you can eat/not eat. You're only driving yourself crazier and setting yourself up to binges/cheat days, which have explained the 20lbs that have slowly creeped up the last 9 months. You're basically eating during your time frame, and then "dreaming" about when it opens again. That develops an obsessive thought about food, which is not healthy.

3) Ditch the scale. It's a big fat lie IMO. Judge on your clothes only. Female bodies especially fluctuate bc of water retention, constipation (male/female) etc...and a 2lb gain from water retention is a false number and will only make you more miserable. My ED greatly improved (although not 100%) the day I ditched the scale. I actually LOST weight when I stopped weighing myself.

4) My only advice would be to reduce nuts/olive oil. At the end of the day, they are high in calories and you need to take that into consideration. Dont be obsessive about your calories, but you have to cut down the nuts/olive oil if you want to lose the 20lb.

Have you ever had blood work done? Specifically thyroid?

Not likely the root cause, but your user name begs the question…when you have your coffee, do you drink it black or load it with dairy products and sweeteners?

How often do you cheat? Do you still eat dairy? I would keep a food journal. Sometimes it's easy to start cheating a little here and there but it can add up.

Your eating window seems far too narrow. I would guess your body has slowed metabolism because of it.

I would recommend you try beginner pilates, 3 times a week, just a half hour each time. Pilates not only builds strength and flexibility, but it certainly tones you up.

You wrote, "Then, I started on Atkins and then moved on to Paleo last October. Since then, I stopped weighing myself and just focused on eating the right foods until point of satiety. Not weighing myself or counting calories really helped me control my disordered eating. Eating Paleo really helped me with my mood and energy. I started feeling better in general."

Let me assure you, that Paleo is healthier than Atkins.

Following the USDA guidelines, I have developed a binge eating disorder. Paleo helped me to cure that.

Paleo also helped me to get rid of another 20 or so symptoms that I used to have. So... I see a definite progress in my eating. Same goes for you, I am sure.

Do you look much heavier? Ask somebody who does not know you. You might look really healthy, you know.

If you want to see your weight going down - ditching dairy, nuts (even occasional) and fruit for a while will do the trick. Later you can re-introduce berries. But I would still focus on the health aspect of this diet rather than weight loss.

it wasn't the paleo that made you gain weight. your body needed to reset from the ED related behavior. it took me a year to stop gaining after my recovery. continue to be healthy, you will even out.

I did IF for 6 months, and I can tell you it was the worst decision I ever made. I wasn't losing weight on it so on top of fasting I'd cut how much food I'd eat in my re-feeding window and I just kept on gaining weight. You think someone eating only 600-1000 cals a day 5+ days a week plus exercise 3 times a week you'd see weight loss, but I gained. My average body temp also plummeted to 96-97 degrees. Once I hit 10+ lbs over my paleo start weight i stopped the fasting.

I feel better with 3 meals, though my huger signals are now totally messed up. Trying to choke down even a small breakfast is very hard, but I feel better the rest of the day if I do it.