FastDay User Blogs

Journals, thoughts and musings from our community

Archives

- January 2014
+ December 2013
+ November 2013
+ October 2013
+ September 2013

My Intermittent Fasting Journey

My progress on Intermittent Fasting will be posted here with updates on my weight being posted daily, and with updates on my waist size and body fat content being posted on a weekly basis on a Monday. My weigh-in day was a Monday but I will now be weighing in every day in order to keep everything on track, and I now fast on a Monday on most weeks (although that will often change depending upon my circumstances at that time). More information about my weight loss background and my goals for the future on intermittent fasting can be found on my first forum posting which can be seen by clicking here.
2 replies Page 1 of 1

Announcement On Low Carb Dieting

by johncs2013 on 19 Dec 2013, 19:13

When I started this WOL, my carb intake was very high as I was eating a lot of bread (albeit wholemeal bread), potatoes, pasta and rice. Since starting this WOL, I have cut out those things and tried to go by a diet which is lower in carbs than what I was eating before. With that in place, I was then ready to bring my protein intake down a bit whilst increasing my fat intake (especially saturated fats) or so I thought.

However, there has been a few comments in this forum today in response to another thread which I started earlier on today, and I have found those comments rather depressing to the point that I'm still feeling a bit upset by them. The reason for that is because a number of people have commented that my current carb intake is still not low enough for that to be considered as a low carb diet. To me, that is just making me feel as though I have failed in terms of trying to achieve my goal of a low carb diet and am now incapable of achieving that goal.

It must be remembered though that what is low carb for me, is not necessarily going to be low carb to someone, especially those who stick to the really low carb Atkins style diets that they advocate. To me, it has felt as though my efforts to reduce my carb intake has not been good enough in the eyes of these people, yet my carb intake is far lower than what it was before I began this WOL and far lower than at an point in my life beforehand. To me, that is an achievement which I will recognise for the rest of my life and because of that, I cannot allow that sense of achievement to be taken away by people on this forum who believe hat his hasn't been good enough for their liking.

However, these people have made their point and from that, it is clear that low carb dieting is just now something that I can continue to try to put in place. To me, there are things that people have natural talents in, and things which they don't, and in which they find a real struggle to even attempt that, let alone get any sort of decent results which will always be well below the standards of people who do have that natural talent (you can't for example, ask a chef to work as a plumber when they have no formal training or natural talent for that). For me, low carb dieting was something that I really hated before joining this forum and the comments on that other thread have now just made me hate low carb dieting even more.

Because of that, I have decided to ditch the low carb idea and go back to what I have always felt more comfortable with, a at is just going by e flow of what like to eat. At he end of the day, the promise of this WOL is that we can eat whatever we like on our non-fasting days, and that is what I intend to stick to from now on. or now, just be grateful that I'm not sitting down and eating a pile of carbs tonight as my means of telling you all where to stuff your advice on low carb eating.

Height: 5ft 8in

Lower Trend Weight Limit: 70.0kg (11 stone 0 pounds)
Upper Trend Weight Limit: 73.0kg (11 stone 7 pounds)

Last Weigh-in Date: 1 Mar 2014

Actual Weight: 74.3kg (11 stone 9.8 pounds)
Trend Weight: 72.6kg (11 stone 6.0 pounds)

Body Mass Index: 24.83 (actual) / 24.26 (trend)

Current Method: No Fasting
Low Calorie Days: As Required


Trend weights calculated from Libra Android App
2 Comments   Viewed 63728 times

Comments

Hey John,
Don't be disheartened, you asked a question and got answers. Sometimes we hear things we either don't like, don't agree with or just find too honest to deal with at that moment in time.

Your BMI is looking better than mine and we have both lost approx 5kg. This tells me that you are in fact losing weight at a good healthy pace, like me.

I don't want to preach or upset you but please be happy with this lose, as I am with mine. I believe that sometimes you get disheartened and impatient (remind me of my husband in some respects) which then depresses you.

Keep it simple and it will work. I do believe that our bodies do retaliate at some stages during a new
Way of Eating. If you still lose or maintain whilst eating carbs then jolly well eat them. I've maintained, for over a fortnight now, no exercise at all (which is definitely doing my head in, as I do it because I love it) I've eaten bread, pasta, carbs, mince pies and drunk some wine.

I'm going to leave you alone now, all my comments are made with good intentions, so please don't shout at me if you don't like them.

Happy Christmas.

From Caroline
(a carb lover)
Thanks for that, as I'm sure that there must be some carb lovers out there who are following this WOL (and that includes people out there who are following this WOL without necessarily being a member of this forum). Basically, I'm trying to minimise the carb intake as I see it because I do find that I gain a lot of water weight very quickly, and become very bloated if I increase my carb intake towards what I used to eat before.

However, I don't believe in constantly having to count calories, and tallying up an exact figure for carb intake in order to suit some sort of magic figure in order to satisfy those low carbers out there, falls into that category. That is therefore a road that I will refuse to go down under any circumstances.

For now, I'm not going to overindulge over this coming weekend (as I would normally) as there will be plenty of that over the festive period itself and depending on how things go, I might even do an extra fast on Sunday (which would make this a 5:2 week) since I'm not going to be fasting next week. With those festive overindulges to come, I'm not going to be too concerned with the resulting big overall weekly weight loss at my next official weekly weigh-in on Monday as that will give me some extra leeway going into that period.

Yesterday ended up being a 16:8 day as I had skipped breakfast and don't normally eat beyond 8pm. What I did eat was no different from what I would normally eat and so, I had the rest of my cheese with some salad, an apple and a glass of milk for lunch. For my evening meal, I had a chicken, veg and mushroom stir-fry with that done in groundnut oil (the nesrest Tesco from where I live is a few miles away and although there are two Morrisons' stores and a Lidl's store nearby, none of those stores sell coconut oil, hence my difficulties in getting that).

As a dessert, I had some redcurrants, blueberries and double cream and with that, I had another glass of milk. With all of that, today's weigh-in showed that I had lost 0.8kg of the 1.3kg of water weight that I had gained yesterday, so that shows that I have done something right there, at least. Now, some people will say that the carb intake for that isn't that low and doesn't follow the pattern of a low carb diet, but that carb intake intake is low enough for me and I have still managed to lose weight with that. Because of that, I will continue to follow in this pattern since my only motive is to maintain my current weight and keep my blood pressure down.

Those things are going well and so, I see no need to change that. Yes, the way that I'm doing things may not not necessarily be very popular on this forum but at the end of the day, this is not a popularity contest. To me, it is about doing what works for me regardless of whether other people on this forum like that or not. Just now, what I am doing is working, and that is all that matters.

Today, I have re-introduced my breakfast but instead of grilling everything as before, I fried my bacon in groundnut oil and had fried eggs instead of scrambled eggs. I even fried the tomato which I had with that, but I have since learned that a medium sized tomato contains 5g of carbs and so, I won't be having too many of them over the course of time. In addition to that, I replaced this morning's glass of milk with some coffee with only a spot of milk. That will introduce a little bit of caffeine which comes with the coffee, but the carb intake will be reduced a bit by that and so, I will continue to replace my glasses of milk through the day in that same fashion.

So overall, that should show that I am trying to do the best that I can to minimise my carb intake but once again, I will apologise to you if that is not to your liking.

Finally, I wouldn't worry too much about having a higher BMI because the most important thing is actually the body fat percentage, rather than your BMI or even your weight. To me, the BMI doesn't necessarily give a fair reflection of overall health and there has even been a number of studies which have been discussed before on this forum, and which show that people like myself who in the 'normal' BMI category actually has a slightly higher overall risk factor than someone who is classed as overweight according to their BMI (as long as they are not classed as morbidly obese). That also comes from the fact that you could have a professional heavyweight boxer or wrestler who is in top notch for their sport, and be as fit as fiddle and yet, they will be classed as obese according to their BMI.
2 replies Page 1 of 1

START THE 5:2 DIET WITH HELP FROM FASTDAY

Be healthier. Lose weight. Eat the foods you love, most of the time.

Learn about the 5:2 diet

LEARN ABOUT FASTING
We've got loads of info about intermittent fasting, written in a way which is easy to understand. Whether you're wondering about side effects or why the scales aren't budging, we've got all you need to know.

Your intermittent fasting questions answered ASK QUESTIONS & GET SUPPORT
Come along to the FastDay Forum, we're a friendly bunch and happy to answer your fasting questions and offer support. Why not join in one of our regular challenges to help you towards your goal weight?

Use our free 5:2 diet tracker FREE 5:2 DIET PROGRESS TRACKER & BLOG
Tracking your diet progress is great for staying motivated. Chart your measurements and keep tabs on your daily calorie needs. You can even create a free blog to journal your 5:2 experience!