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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.

Target Weight Achieved Once Again

by johncs2013 on 13 Jan 2014, 07:46

Current Actual Weight: 72.3kg (11 stone 5 pounds)
Current Trend Weight: 73.2kg (11 stone 7 pounds)

Current Waist Size: 30.9 inches (down by 0.7 inches in last week)
Current Body Fat Percentage: 13.03% (down by 0.81% in last week)
Lowest Blood Pressure Reading: 132 over 83 (Pulse 55)

After reading the above figures, it would seem hard to believe that just a week ago, my weight had ballooned all the up to 11 stone 13 pounds as a result of my festive excesses. Because of that, I took immediate action by starting this week straight away with a 5:2 week, and fasting on Monday and Thursday. However, I knew that a large part of that weight gain would be due to water weight, and would disappear very quickly.

As I hadn't fasted at all over the festive period, I had expected last Monday's fasting day to be tougher than normal, but that was not the case in reality and I got through that without any problems. I even managed to lose a record amount of weight with that as my weight dropped all the way down from 75.7kg (11 stone 13 pounds) to 73.0kg (11 stone 5 pounds) on Tuesday morning.

For me, it was important to protect that weight loss as much as possible and so, my feeding days during the week were very careful ones with a fairly low carb intake. With that, my weight went down by 0.3kg on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings, so my weight was now down to 72.4kg on Thursday morning. That then took me into my second fasting day where I would normally have expected a 1.7kg weight loss, which would have took my weight down to 70.7kg.

However, that wasn't what actually happened because although I did lose some weight with that second fasting day, that weight was smaller than expected and amounted to just 1.0kg. That then, took my weight down to 71.4kg (11 stone 3 pounds) on Friday morning. I then had a very careful feeding day on Friday expecting to lose the same 0.3kg as what I was losing every day earlier in the week but instead of that, there was no weight loss this time and my weight stuck at 71.4kg (11 stone 3 pounds) which is what I recorded on Saturday morning.

As for exercise, I went straight back into my usual routine after my fortnight's break from that, and I had my Aquafit session last Monday as normal. Tuesday was a rest day from all of my gym and fitness sessions, but Wednesday brought my first big gym session of 2014. With me being away from that for a while, I found that very tough going and also I still managed to grind out some decent results from the cardio section of that workout, I felt very sore for the rest of the week to such an extent that it even affected my ability to walk a bit. The lesson that I learnt from that is not to try to go back into a gym routine at the usual pace after being away from it for a while but instead, to ease my way more gradually back into it.

Thursday would normally be a step class and I had turned up for that, but the instructor for that class failed to do likewise which meant that this class couldn't go ahead. Instead, a group of us in that class decided to do a spin class instead but since that is what I normally do on a Saturday, I therefore decided to make a last minute change to my routine by doing my step class on Saturday instead. That way, I would still be getting all of my fitness classes in for that week. A spin class is even tougher than a step class, and I really felt that on the legs as I struggled through that, especially since that was only my first spin class in over two weeks.

Luckily though, I had a rest day on Friday before my re-arranged step class on Saturday which this time, did go ahead as planned. Even by this stage, my legs were still very sore and that made the step class (which once again was my first step class of the year after my break) very tough going. However, I got through that, but that then took me into another big gym session yesterday. As all of that was happening, I was also feeling extremely sluggish, and was lacking energy quite a bit. Now, I had lowered my carb intake quite a bit during the week and that is what this WOE recommends. However, those recommendations also suggest that this reduction in carb intake should be done gradually and yet, I had dived straight into my pre-Christmas carb intake after a very high carb intake throughout my festive break.

That sudden drop in my carb intake was probably too much for my body to handle at that time, and that was probably why I felt so tired and sluggish. Because of that, I decided to re-introduce some carbs over the weekend so that I would then be weaning myself off them more gradually instead of cutting them out all of a sudden. However, it was also important that I was very careful with that, so that I didn't suffer too much from bloating as a result. What followed over the weekend was therefore, a controlled increase in carbs without actually going into an eating binge. With that, I expected to gain weight due to water retention but with my weight being at such a high level, I was no longer bothered about that since I had now already lost much weight during the week that even a massive binge over the weekend could never now, be enough to completely wipe out that overall weekly weight loss.

That actually worked out really well because although I did gain some weight, that weight gain amounted to just 0.9kg which then took my weight to 72.3kg (11 stone 5 pounds) yesterday morning. I also found that I suddenly didn't feel so tired and lethargic which showed that it is never a good idea to drop the carb intake too much too quickly (although dropping the carb intake over time is recommended). When I came to my gym session, I was still a bit sore going into that and I struggled with the beginning of that session. However, I felt much better, the more I got into that and ended up showing some really good form during the rest of that session.

With that, the soreness had also completely gone and I am now back to feeling OK as I write. For yesterday, I kept the same slightly higher carb intake expecting another weight gain but because my weight was so high last Monday, I wasn't too bothered about whether or not I got back within my maintenance range this morning as there was always next week for that. Rather bizarrely though, the expected weight gain didn't come this time, and my weight stuck at 73.2kg (11 stone 5 pounds) which is what I have now recorded this morning. What makes that really weird is that the fact that I have now had too days throughout the past week where I have maintained the same weight as on the previous day, yet my calorie intake has been complete different on each of those two days (that's the joys of daily weight fluctuations for you).

That in turn has made me wonder whether or not, I have actually been too restrictive with my weekday feeding days by not allowing that initial weight gain after my fasting days to happen. It may well be that by doing that, I might simply have pushed my body into a sort of survival mode where it hangs onto everything that it can. If that is the case, it may well then be the case that by increasing my calories a bit over the weekend, my body would settle down to a certain weight anyway as it becomes more willing to let go of more of its fat stores. Now, since I am now back within my weight maintenance range, I have now taken the decision to switch back to 6:1 with immediate effect, so today will be my only fasting day this week.

With that though, I am going to do an experiment to see if I can get away with being a bit more liberal on my weekday feeding days, by sticking to the same calorie intake on those days as what I was taking over the weekend. If that does work out for me, there would then be no need for any binges at a weekend as I am getting those treats within that regular calorie intake. Over time, my plan would then be to reduce the carb intake but increase the fat intake (by eating more things like almonds) so that the same calorie intake is maintained. Clearly, I will then cut back on that a bit if I end up gaining too much weight with that, but it will be very interesting to see how that experiment goes.

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
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