The FastDay Forum

hi, i'm new to the forum and also new to fasting.
32 y/o male, currently weighing around 120KG, so at 6'1", pretty overweight

i've been sporadically dieting and working out for 3 years now (few months on, few months off, rinse repeat) - I do feel that for all that time, my week day diet was pretty good (salads, soups, tuna sandwiches) - weekends not so good, lots of buffets and pizza. In all that time i've lost ~20KG - pretty dismal really.

Despite being so big, I am pretty active - my fitbit tracks me at ~5KM walked daily (for 3 yrs+) - if during my gym slack I still sometimes get 1-2 hours of badminton in on a weekend.

Last week I started 5-2 (actually 4-3). Given it was easter my routine wasn't as smooth, so this week is a better indication.

I fast on Monday, Tuesday and then either Thursday or Friday (depends on work).
On a fast day i eat scrambled egg with a spoon of baked beans at 9.30-10am.
I still go to the gym on fast days (~5.2km in 40 minutes pace). I eat my evening meal around 7.30-8pm. This week it was quorn cottage pie (219 cal) with grapes. Last week it was vegetable soup with oven baked veg. On a feed day it was the same routine but my evening meal also included a sweet potato.

Im making a big guess about the scrambled egg since I don't know how it is cooked, nor the portion size (work canteen)... on MFP I entered it as 3 eggs with semi skimmed milk and 50g of beans (can't imagine it being any more), so my fast day calories are actually ~674

I eat at home on weekends (with family) so whilst trying to make healthy choices, won't bother to count or fast... in the week I have a more strict regime that makes it easier to follow.

I don't know what i'm really asking for here - since people get so emotive about fasting, low calorie diets, starvation mode etc... I am willing and able to suffer with limited food most of the time and work for this. I have a lot to lose, and like everybody the sooner the better... I guess i want to know how few calories I can consume daily and weekly without slowing down my weight loss.

How can I accurately measure and track my metabolic rate?

Also, when running on a fast day, half way through, I get (hard to describe/explain) what feels like an empty burp come up my throat with a quite distinctive smell. I know about ketosis but it seems unlikely that a few hours after eating egg i'd be in that state....

And finally, i suspect that I am coeliac (not yet diagnosed) but for the last 3 weeks I have tried to eliminate all wheat and gluten from my diet. I'm struggling with food ideas (both when eating out, eating at the office canteen, and when cooking for one in the weekday evenings) - I have limited kitchen/cook space, and little desire to cook elaborate meals for one... so fast and simple is the rule of the day

So many questions, this may not even be the right place to post it... thanks anyway

[Tracieknits]

Welcome to the forum!! And congratulations on your loss so far. Slow and steady wins the race, and builds habits that will help prevent mindlessly piling the weight back on.

I have to say that it might be a *lot* easier for you if you put feed days between your fast days. Fasting on both Monday and Tuesday is not recommended. For one, it makes fasting so much harder than it needs to be, and secondly I wonder about how long you can keep up the diet, when you make it so much harder on yourself. Many people here fast Monday & Thursday. Most people don't 4:3 don't lost significantly more weight than 5:2. I'm not sure if this is due to metabolic slowdown or diet fatigue or what. But if you really want to stick with 4:3, I would suggest Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Monday, Thursday, Saturday.

There are tons of low carb and gluten free threads here, if you go a forum search or go down to the food areas, I'm sure you'll find some great ideas.

I don't have any problems fasting on 2 consecutive days - i've done it 2 weeks running now with gym workout both times. It's hard for me to fast on a weekend, I have nothing to distract me from omg how hungry i am. In the week I can stick to a regime, my work distracts me from feeling hungry and I am used to routinely drinking lots of water. All that changes on a weekend!

Sure it may be a diminishing return to go 4:3, but since clearly calories out > calories in = weight loss, the more days of reduction, the better,
I don't even know if it's really fasting - it's more like VLC a few days a week, since I eat at 9.30am - 7.30pm - 9.30am - 7.30pm

Hi @mas54321And Welcome to this great forum full of help and advice to get you through each fastday, well done on your weightloss and all your exercise that will help both with fitness and burn some of your calories so be careful not to eatback those calories, I'm also more than OK with back2back fasting and fit it in most weeks its what's best approach and easiest for YOU that counts I'm also sure that my 4:3 was the key to my phenomenal success
last year.
At my start last April I weighed in at 121kgs!!!!
so I know how eager you are to shift your weight however this WOL works you do need to be patient and let it weave its magic on you, but the change in body shape with 4:3 is totally different to any diet I've ever been on, don't know why could be the fatburning effect, whatever the reason the result is amazing so much so that I actually look as if I've list even more weight than I have.
With my 4:3 (including back2back plus one other day) by the close of the year 8 months doing my new WOL I'd lost = 50lbs no one will convince me that those two factors did that for me.
Unfortunately I then had 4 month plateau I'm OK with this now because my body had one hell of a shock last year and maybe needed the time to recover repair and rest, I think I'm over the worst now and ready to shift the next 50lbs.
Good. Luck to you and I wish you every success do keep popping back to let us all know how you're doing.

[carorees]

Welcome @mas54321

I don't know what i'm really asking for here - since people get so emotive about fasting, low calorie diets, starvation mode etc... I am willing and able to suffer with limited food most of the time and work for this. I have a lot to lose, and like everybody the sooner the better... I guess i want to know how few calories I can consume daily and weekly without slowing down my weight loss.

The 'starvation mode' is a myth. After substantial weight loss there may be a small slowing in metabolic rate that cannot be explained by the reduction in weight alone. However, around 80% of the reduction in energy requirements with weight loss is simply due to weighing less and having less body to maintain. The reduction over and above that due to the fact of weighing less may be to do with changes in non-exercise energy expenditure such as fidgeting, temperature control etc rather than a change in metabolic rate per se. There is a small metabolic slowing with extended fasting but this takes around 3 days to kick in. The early days of fasting are associated with an increase in metabolic rate in fact.

Interestingly, the speed of weight loss when fasting is alternated with periods of feasting do appear to be better than restricting calories every day. Personally, any weekends when I have had an excess of calories have been followed by faster weight loss in the following week than when I have tried to be careful all the time. This may represent an effect on these other energy expenditure changes I mentioned.

So you could safely do two back to back fast days on zero up to 600 calories per day with no problem. What some people do is to fast completely on day 1 with no cals and then on day 2 break their fast in the evening with a normal evening meal.
If you then eat up to your predicted TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) on the non fast days before your next fast it will provide the boost I mentioned above.

How can I accurately measure and track my metabolic rate?

You cannot accurately track metabolic rate. Even in scientific studies estimating metabolic rate accurately is extremely difficult. You can, however, obtain an estimate of how much energy your body uses daily (the TDEE figure above) by signing up to our progress tracker. If you enter all the required information, after you have entered a couple of weigh-ins it will tell you your predicted TDEE. A more accurate way of determining your TDEE is to monitor your weight and calorie intake: the calorie intake that results in no weight loss is your TDEE! Or if you are losing, say, 1lb a week then your calorie intake for the week is around 3500 calories less than your TDEE etc etc.

Also, when running on a fast day, half way through, I get (hard to describe/explain) what feels like an empty burp come up my throat with a quite distinctive smell. I know about ketosis but it seems unlikely that a few hours after eating egg i'd be in that state....

As eggs have no carbs they will not break you out of ketosis if you're in it. You might not be in ketosis after the first fast day but might well be on the second day if you're doing back to back fasts. It all depends on the size of your glycogen stores and how much carbohydrate you have been eating before the fast. What sort of smell is it? Ketosis breath is usually described as acetone-like or fruity. You might also experience a metallic taste in your mouth which occurs in ketosis.

And finally, i suspect that I am coeliac (not yet diagnosed) but for the last 3 weeks I have tried to eliminate all wheat and gluten from my diet. I'm struggling with food ideas (both when eating out, eating at the office canteen, and when cooking for one in the weekday evenings) - I have limited kitchen/cook space, and little desire to cook elaborate meals for one... so fast and simple is the rule of the day.

Have a look at the various low carb threads on the forum for ideas as anything low carb will be likely to be gluten free. In the canteen/eating out if you stick to meat/fish/eggs with vegetables/salad and potatoes/rice if you must but no pasta, pastry, bread or gravy/sauces you will be reasonably sure of it being low/no gluten. Desserts and sweet things are more likely to contain gluten but as cutting out sugar is a good thing for our health, you could be virtuous and forego the dessert!


Good luck.

Welcome @mas54321
The 'starvation mode' is a myth. After substantial weight loss there may be a small slowing in metabolic rate that cannot be explained by the reduction in weight alone. However, around 80% of the reduction in energy requirements with weight loss is simply due to weighing less and having less body to maintain. The reduction over and above that due to the fact of weighing less may be to do with changes in non-exercise energy expenditure such as fidgeting, temperature control etc rather than a change in metabolic rate per se. There is a small metabolic slowing with extended fasting but this takes around 3 days to kick in. The early days of fasting are associated with an increase in metabolic rate in fact.

I've heard that before - but also the opposite. hence the yo-yo affect of bad dieting, and putting it all back on plus extra.

Personally, any weekends when I have had an excess of calories have been followed by faster weight loss in the following week than when I have tried to be careful all the time. This may represent an effect on these other energy expenditure changes I mentioned.

I wonder how accurately this can really be measured - every scale gives me a different answer! the same scale twice in a row doesn't always match!

So you could safely do two back to back fast days on zero up to 600 calories per day with no problem. What some people do is to fast completely on day 1 with no cals and then on day 2 break their fast in the evening with a normal evening meal.

to save on those 600 calories, or because it promotes another benefit over and above -600 income?

If you then eat up to your predicted TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) on the non fast days before your next fast it will provide the boost I mentioned above.

I want to avoid eating my TDEE on any day, fast or feast. I figure i've got enough reserves for my body to snack on.... I don't know what a sane feed day income is yet - 1200-1500 calories, and not eating back anything accrued via exercise?

Also, when running on a fast day, half way through, I get (hard to describe/explain) what feels like an empty burp come up my throat with a quite distinctive smell. I know about ketosis but it seems unlikely that a few hours after eating egg i'd be in that state....

As eggs have no carbs they will not break you out of ketosis if you're in it. You might not be in ketosis after the first fast day but might well be on the second day if you're doing back to back fasts. It all depends on the size of your glycogen stores and how much carbohydrate you have been eating before the fast. What sort of smell is it? Ketosis breath is usually described as acetone-like or fruity. You might also experience a metallic taste in your mouth which occurs in ketosis.

I was surprised on my MFP meal diary that I had eaten so many carbs (proportional percentage versus fat and protein) - sugar in my grapes, where else is it hiding, in my quorn cottage pie?! in my roasted vegetables, or in my scrambled egg/beans?

I've cut out bread, pasta, rice and noodles a few weeks ago. I'm not trying to avoid eating carbs, but I do want to understand more where I am consuming them.

As for the taste, I don't know how to explain it. It's like I am burping on an empty stomach - not very descriptive I know, and since I had a lunch today I won't be experiencing it at the gym later.

Have a look at the various low carb threads on the forum for ideas as anything low carb will be likely to be gluten free. In the canteen/eating out if you stick to meat/fish/eggs with vegetables/salad and potatoes/rice if you must but no pasta, pastry, bread or gravy/sauces you will be reasonably sure of it being low/no gluten. Desserts and sweet things are more likely to contain gluten but as cutting out sugar is a good thing for our health, you could be virtuous and forego the dessert!

i'm a stickler for the sauces (ketchup, bbq etc) - and still working out what causes my stomach reactions - on a fast day I have no issue. On the weekend (feed day) I feel that i've steered clear and still have a reaction (e.g jacket potato with chile) - the hunters chicken with bbq sauce and cheese was probably easier to explain!

I find it quite easy to deny myself in the week, I work away and am alone. At home I have to consider my family. Accordingly, all my fasts will be on a week day, and I hope that the occasional over eating on a weekend (e.g an easter egg last weekend!!) actually helps my body by avoiding being on a long sustained calorie depressed income. I don't know if that's true, if I read it somewhere or just made it up...

I am struggling to step up my calories on a feed day without making bad choices

[carorees]

I've heard that before - but also the opposite. hence the yo-yo affect of bad dieting, and putting it all back on plus extra.

You put the weight back on if you stop dieting because your new TDEE is lower than your pre diet TDEE, as I said, though, this is mostly down to weighing less and needing less fuel to support a smaller body, not due to a change in metabolic rate

I wonder how accurately this can really be measured - every scale gives me a different answer! the same scale twice in a row doesn't always match!

Mine are reliable if I jump off and on again.but as I weigh daily and use a moving average trendline to get a trend weight, I'm confident that the changes in weight loss trajectory are accurate.

to save on those 600 calories, or because it promotes another benefit over and above -600 income?

To save on the 600 if you want to.

I want to avoid eating my TDEE on any day, fast or feast. I figure i've got enough reserves for my body to snack on.... I don't know what a sane feed day income is yet - 1200-1500 calories, and not eating back anything accrued via exercise?

This may backfire or it may not. Increased stress of under eating causes cortisol release which slows weight loss. Eating up to TDEE on non fast days but having good fast days is the most efficient way.

I was surprised on my MFP meal diary that I had eaten so many carbs (proportional percentage versus fat and protein) - sugar in my grapes, where else is it hiding, in my quorn cottage pie?! in my roasted vegetables, or in my scrambled egg/beans?

I've cut out bread, pasta, rice and noodles a few weeks ago. I'm not trying to avoid eating carbs, but I do want to understand more where I am consuming them.

As for the taste, I don't know how to explain it. It's like I am burping on an empty stomach - not very descriptive I know, and since I had a lunch today I won't be experiencing it at the gym later.

Carbs in potatoes in cottage pie, roasted veg if they're root veg, baked beans, sauces.

i'm a stickler for the sauces (ketchup, bbq etc) - and still working out what causes my stomach reactions - on a fast day I have no issue. On the weekend (feed day) I feel that i've steered clear and still have a reaction (e.g jacket potato with chile) - the hunters chicken with bbq sauce and cheese was probably easier to explain!

I find it quite easy to deny myself in the week, I work away and am alone. At home I have to consider my family.

Hmm, there are other food intolerances, apart from gluten. Eggs and dairy are common but not likely for you. What about monosodium glutamate? If you love sauces from a bottle they might contain MSG.

Accordingly, all my fasts will be on a week day, and I hope that the occasional over eating on a weekend (e.g an easter egg last weekend!!) actually helps my body by avoiding being on a long sustained calorie depressed income. I don't know if that's true, if I read it somewhere or just made it up...

I am struggling to step up my calories on a feed day without making bad choices

As I mentioned, feasting is as important as fasting, but while making good choices is of course important, enjoying life is also very important so don't stress to much about your feed days, just try to identify what is causing the bad reaction.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I've heard that before - but also the opposite. hence the yo-yo affect of bad dieting, and putting it all back on plus extra.

You put the weight back on if you stop dieting because your new TDEE is lower than your pre diet TDEE, as I said, though, this is mostly down to weighing less and needing less fuel to support a smaller body, not due to a change in metabolic rate

right, but a healthy TDEE should be ~2000 right?

So why don't people that lose weight via VLCD (be that 600 or 1000 per day) and can manage to count upto that number, suddenly lose the ability to count to 2000.
Whats seems more likely (at least in my situation) is that my partner is very fit and healthy - she doesn't diet, she's never been fat, she just doesn't over eat or over indulge. She eats plenty of chocolate, crisps, biscuits - ironically things that I never eat.

When the weight is gone I would aim to eat like her - but given I am fat without eating that stuff, I dread to think what would happen if i did start! If eating in such a way to lose weight has caused a metabolic slowdown that means my body continues to expect only 800-1000 calories, then clearly i'd never get back to eating normally again...

This may backfire or it may not. Increased stress of under eating causes cortisol release which slows weight loss. Eating up to TDEE on non fast days but having good fast days is the most efficient way.

So how do I know if that is the case? How do I know if I am making things worse for myself, I don't want to eat extra and to have not been in that state - I guess I am trying to avoid every unnecessary pound and calorie that will delay this progress

Carbs in potatoes in cottage pie, roasted veg if they're root veg, baked beans, sauces.

I think I made a bad choice with the cottage pie - I avoid ready meals - but somehow let the fact it was Quorn fool me into thinking it wasn't processed junk....

I am starting to think my fast day should be close to carb free - I'm not at the point of being able to go zero cal! Does that make sense? The vegetables were a Mediterranean oven mix from Coop, so red onion, carrot, corgette etc.

Hmm, there are other food intolerances, apart from gluten. Eggs and dairy are common but not likely for you. What about monosodium glutamate? If you love sauces from a bottle they might contain MSG.

Eggs and dairy cause me no problem. MSG is hard to say, since if I am eating that i am liable to be eating something wheat/gluten heavy (noodles, pasta, bread etc). I know that certain foods definitely give me a negative reaction - pizza, naan bread, bread (not sure if just white or wholemeal too), beer on a big drinking night (but not always, and at 5+ pints).. I had a period of eating salad from the work canteen and having a reaction daily (presumably cous cous, rice, noodles or some such).. on a week of fasting and eating nothing but soup/veg/tuna I don't have any problems. on normal food days, I try to avoid what I know causes a reaction, and occasionally get surprised that i've eaten something and still had the problem after making what I thought were good choices.

[carorees]

right, but a healthy TDEE should be ~2000 right?

No, no, no. The quoted figure of 2000 refers to an average woman of height 5ft4 who is between 18 and 34 years old, moderately active and weighs around 60kg. If this is not you, your TDEE will not be 2000!

So why don't people that lose weight via VLCD (be that 600 or 1000 per day) and can manage to count upto that number, suddenly lose the ability to count to 2000.

They don't, what happens is that they don't realise they should be counting to 1500 not 2000.

Whats seems more likely (at least in my situation) is that my partner is very fit and healthy - she doesn't diet, she's never been fat, she just doesn't over eat or over indulge. She eats plenty of chocolate, crisps, biscuits - ironically things that I never eat.

I feel your pain - my OH is the same. Some people are just lucky that way! But then if a famine ever does strike they'll be the first to go!!

When the weight is gone I would aim to eat like her - but given I am fat without eating that stuff, I dread to think what would happen if i did start! If eating in such a way to lose weight has caused a metabolic slowdown that means my body continues to expect only 800-1000 calories, then clearly i'd never get back to eating normally again...

As I said before, losing weight only slows your metabolic rate a small amount. If you weigh 100kg, it takes more energy to keep it heated to 37degrees C, to move it from A to B, to grow the cells composing the skin, muscle etc to maintain a body of that size, than the energy needed to keep a 60kg body warm and move it from place to place. Your metabolic rate would not have to change for your TDEE to decrease from 3000 cals to 1500 cals. If you return to eating 3000 cals you will put the weight back on. Your metabolic rate may be unchanged or it may have slowed slightly, but whether or not that is the case, it is certain that a return to your old eating habits will result in a return to your old shape. The classic Minnesota experiment from whence the stories of starvation mode arose failed to appreciate that smaller bodies use less energy and so when they predicted how much weight the participants would lose on the low calorie diet they did not take into account the fact that the difference between calories used and calories eaten would get smaller as their weight dropped.

How do I know if I am making things worse for myself, I don't want to eat extra and to have not been in that state - I guess I am trying to avoid every unnecessary pound and calorie that will delay this progress.

Just have faith in the program! Give yourself 6 weeks at least following 5:2: eat 600 cal on three days a week and on at least two days a week eat up to your TDEE (as given to you in the progress tracker). It is OK if you want to be careful on the other 2 days, but don't over-do it. This is not a super quick way of losing weight but I have lost nearly 40kg in 18 months...that's 88lb or over 6 stone. My TDEE has dropped from around 2500 to 1500 and I am pretty sure that it is all down to being smaller not any kind of metabolic slow down. Sure I am losing more slowly now I am pretty much at goal but that is hardly surprising as it harder to create a large calorie deficit when your TDEE is only 1500 than it is when it's 2500.

I think I made a bad choice with the cottage pie - I avoid ready meals - but somehow let the fact it was Quorn fool me into thinking it wasn't processed junk....

I am starting to think my fast day should be close to carb free - I'm not at the point of being able to go zero cal! Does that make sense? The vegetables were a Mediterranean oven mix from Coop, so red onion, carrot, corgette etc.

I generally advise people to avoid all obvious carbs on fasts days (potato, sweet potato, rice, pasta, sugar, pastries, fruit and fruit juices, flavoured yoghurt and diet 'low fat' foods in which the fat content is often partly replaced by sugar) but not to worry about vegetables such as carrots and red peppers which although they have carbs the amount is low and they also contain so many good vitamins and minerals .

Eggs and dairy cause me no problem. MSG is hard to say, since if I am eating that i am liable to be eating something wheat/gluten heavy (noodles, pasta, bread etc). I know that certain foods definitely give me a negative reaction - pizza, naan bread, bread (not sure if just white or wholemeal too), beer on a big drinking night (but not always, and at 5+ pints).. I had a period of eating salad from the work canteen and having a reaction daily (presumably cous cous, rice, noodles or some such).. on a week of fasting and eating nothing but soup/veg/tuna I don't have any problems. on normal food days, I try to avoid what I know causes a reaction, and occasionally get surprised that i've eaten something and still had the problem after making what I thought were good choices.

It does sound like gluten is a problem for you. Unfortunately, it can be hidden in surprising places so unless you are cooking everything from scratch or inspecting every food label with a magnifying glass there will be occasions when some gets into your diet.

Honestly, I think you will do very well if you just relax into keeping on with what you are doing, enjoying your weekends and let the weight drop at its own pace rather than trying to speed it up. I know and completely understand that you want to get to your goal quickly, but I can assure you that when you get there it won't matter how long it took.

Have faith!

Yes, I agree. It took me 13 years to get to 104 KGS so I figure if it takes me 2-3 years to lose excess weight to get to an optimal weight then that seems fair.

Did my first zero day fast today - much more difficult than what i've been doing for the past few weeks. I don't think I can do two zero days in a row (whereas I can do 2x600c days) - so there's a question there about efficiency.

I did a hard gym workout this evening - pace was good.

I chew sugar free gum during the day, does this make any difference? I don't know whether ketosis is something I should be aiming for or not.

I also have a question about protein shakes - both as a way to increase protein intake whilst cutting meat from my diet, and also for fast days like today, where I don't eat anything and do a fair bit of weight training.

In my gym today they had some flyers for their summer challenge, and one of the statements is that people that eat breakfast have 30% higher metabolism than those that skip.... what is the science behind that to make such a statement?

Week 3, and I can't say the scale is showing any realloss so far... since I plan to do a lot more weight/strength training I won't be able to rely on the scales anyway, but it would have been nice to see progress on my weekly (saturday am) weigh-in...

I can recommend using a tape measure on waist, hips etc as loss can show up here when the scales haven't changed. Keep a record at least monthly of these to see the differences.
Good luck :0)

Welcome Mas x as you can see for yourself,Caro is a mine of info! Isnt she wonderful!
Good luck on your journey ! Enjoy browsing the site for tips and advice and lots of personal experiences of the ups and downs of IF!

[carorees]

Re the skipping breakfast issue: Most of the scientific studies into the value of eating breakfast have had serious flaws in their design and how the results were interpreted by the investigators.

A recent paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition castigated studies aimed at investigating skipping breakfast. The paper reports the results of an in-depth analysis of the available research, not only looking at the results of 92 unique articles, but also evaluating whether study results were accurately communicated in the abstract section of the article and whether other articles correctly described prior research results. The authors report that “Four examples of biased research reporting are evident in the literature as follows: 1) biased interpretation of one's own results, 2) improper use of causal language in describing one's own results, 3) misleadingly citing others' results, and 4) improper use of causal language in citing others' work.”

The lead author of the paper, Andrew Brown said"We specifically found that research articles tended to overstate the strength of study designs and ignored evidence that did not support the proposed effect of breakfast on obesity.” He continued, "These distortions leave readers believing that the relationship between breakfast and obesity is more strongly established by science than the data actually support."
On his website, Dr Brown says, “So how did ‘breakfast prevents obesity’ come to be so widely believed? The common refrain is that lay media misunderstand and miscommunicate research, and that the benefits of breakfast on obesity is a conspiracy of breakfast-food companies. However, we demonstrated that the primary literature often overstates the known relationship between breakfast and obesity. In particular, we showed that there is a substantial use of causative language when describing observational evidence about breakfast and obesity, both when researchers cited others’ work as well as when summarizing their own work. In addition, there is evidence that researchers misleadingly cite others’ studies to support the presumed effect of breakfast on obesity. Specifically, when authors would cite a study that had results both supporting and refuting the breakfast-obesity hypothesis, authors often would exclude the information against breakfast. Even in their own abstracts, there was a tendency for authors to only make conclusions about breakfast and obesity when the results were in favour of eating breakfast.”

There are many reasons why more people who skip breakfast might be overweight than those who do not skip breakfast. For example, what does ‘skipping breakfast’ actually mean? Do the breakfast skippers have a couple of chocolate bars at 10 am at their coffee break? Are the breakfast skippers missing breakfast because they are trying to lose weight? Are the breakfast skippers eating snacks late at night instead of eating a ‘healthy’ breakfast thereby taking in more calories than if they had eaten breakfast and not snacked late at night? Are people who find they don’t want breakfast more prone to obesity because of some other metabolic feature that both promotes obesity but also makes people not want breakfast?
The only long-term, carefully controlled trial that randomly assigned people to routinely eat or go without breakfast and then measured the effect on their body weight was published in 1992. In that study, moderately obese adults who were habitual breakfast skippers were put on a diet that included eating breakfast every day for 12 weeks. They lost an average of roughly 17 pounds. However, regular breakfast eaters who were instructed to avoid eating breakfast daily for 12 weeks lost an average of nearly 20 pounds. Both diets included an identical amount of calories, and each caused people to lose more weight than a diet in which a person’s typical breakfast habits did not change.

Another study examined the effect of eating breakfast on calories burned by assigning a group of people to eat breakfast for one week and then to skip breakfast another week. They found no difference in energy expenditure between the two weeks (i.e., no more calories were burned).

Regarding the specific claim that eating breakfast boosts metabolism: There is a phenomenon, termed diet-induced thermogenesis or the thermic effect of food. This refers to the increase in energy expenditure needed to digest the meal eaten. It is, with basal metabolic rate and activity induced thermogenesis, one of the three components of daily energy expenditure, albeit the smallest component. Most studies have reported that the energy expended due to diet-induced thermogenesis is less than 10% of the energy content of the food ingested. Thus, the calories eaten with breakfast will be 10 times greater than the calories burnt from eating it! So the figure of a 30% boost in metabolism from eating breakfast is unlikely to be true, and I can find no evidence for this figure anywhere.

Hope this helps

welcome Mas, Nice to see another man here. Good luck with the fasting, gets easier