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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.

Weekend Curse Strikes Again - Or Does It?

by johncs2013 on 09 Dec 2013, 07:38

As all of you know who have read my posts on this forum, weekends tend to not be the best of times for me when it comes to this WOL. I am currently doing 6:1 for weight maintenance and usually, I will lose a lot of weight on my fasting day before maintaining that lower weight for most of the week, and then regaining it over the weekend. This last week has been no exception to that rule because after registering 72.1kg (which is 11 stone 5 pounds) at this time a week ago, I then lost 1.8kg with my fasting day to go all the way down to 70.3kg (which is 11 stone 1 pound). By this time, I had reduced my carb intake once again and with that, I then managed to maintain that same weight over the following day before losing a further 0.3kg at Thursday morning's weigh-in.

That took me down to exactly bang on 70kg (which is almost bang on 11 stone) and at that point, things were getting very exciting the prospect loomed that I could end up joining the 69 club on the following day, and possibly even with my weight dropping to below 11 stone in the process (the last time that my weight was 10 stone something was back in 1981 and even back then, that was the lightest weight that I could ever get to, and could only ever get there with a struggle). I therefore stuck to the same calorie intake that resulted in that slight loss to see if this would happen. However, that 11 stone mark is also the bottom of my maintenance range that I am trying to stay within and although the body doesn't go by targets which we set at a more concious level, it seemed as though my body was naturally acting to stay within that maintenance range as Friday's weigh-in saw my weight stick at the same weight (exactly 70kg) as what it was on Thursday. That meant that with the weekend looming, I was probably not going to be joining the 69 club during that week, and that was how it proved to be.

Friday started with the usual breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs and a tomato along with an apple and a glass of milk. However, I then waited in for a joiner who never turned up, and who was supposed to come to fix my letter box which was damaged by last week's storms. That meant that I wasn't able to get out to do my main weekly food shopping. I then decided not to wait in any longer than about just before 12 noon. Furthermore, I was working that afternoon and there wasn't enough time left for me to get to those shops before then. I didn't have any of the low carb stuff left in the house which I normally have and the shop which is across the road from me, doesn't sell that stuff. That meant that I was forced to consume a higher carb intake as I was hungry, and had to eat something at lunch time. That meant buying some pre-made sandwiches and at the same time, I treated myself to a small trifle.

I managed to hold off from eating anything else until after I had finished work, and managed to complete my main weekly food shopping on the way home. However, that earlier carb intake left me craving for more of the same and as well as my piece of meat and salad, I went on to consume a small stick of Austrian cheese, a Mars bar, a Snickers bar and a Twix. There may have been other things that I ate although I can't remember that off hand. However, that was punished on the scales on the following morning as my weight had jumped up by 1.5kg, which meant that in just one day, I had gone up from exactly 11 stone to 11 stone 4 pounds, although I also knew that this would be mostly due to water weight. However, my weekend of increased eating didn't end there. On Saturday morning, I had a big breakfast consisting of five pieces of bacon, three small sausages, three slices of black pudding, two scrambled eggs and a tomato. With that, I had a small orange and a glass of milk, and that came before my spin class that I had that morning.

The weekend was very dark and gloomy, and my eating habits followed that same type of pattern as I then went to consume quite a bit of chocolate after my lunch. Over those two days, I had also consumed two big bags of salted peanuts and for my evening meal on Saturday, I had quite a lot of chips along with some tinned herring and some tinned fruit with custard and another glass of milk. The following morning's weigh-in showed another weight gain because of that but this time, the weight gain was a bit smaller and only amounted to about 0.6kg. That shows that when you over-indulge over a number of days in succession, the biggest resulting weight gain will always come after the first day because that is when most of the water retention occurs, and also because that is when the accumulation of this extra food in the body is at its greatest. By the following day, some of that extra food will have been processed by the body, resulting in a smaller weight gain and so, that does level out a bit over time although eating in that fashion will still lead to a weight increase over time anyway, due to an increase in body fat.

Anyway, that took my weight up to 72.3kg, which is 11 stone 5 pounds. During yesterday, I was more careful with my eating although I still had the same big breakfast that I had on Saturday, and I still had a couple of chocolate biscuits with my evening meal. I also still had the rest of my tinned fruit and custard, but I had that on its own at lunchtime. The end result of this is that my weight has stayed exactly the same at this morning's weigh-in as what it was yesterday, which is 72.3kg or 11 stone 5 pounds. As far as the whole week goes, that is a slight over weight gain of 0.2kg over the week but despite that, my waist size has actually come down by a further 0.2 inches since this time last week, with a further drop in my body fat percentage of 0.67%. That means that I have now set new records both for my lowest ever waist size, and my lowest ever body fat percentage.

Under normal circumstances, my eating habits (I even drunk a bottle of red wine on both Friday and Saturday nights) and the resulting weight gains would have looked disastrous under any sort of health regime. However, the outcome has actually provided quite a good result because of the fact that I have still managed to lose some body fat, and also because my weight is still within my weight maintenance limits and exactly where I would have wanted it to be just now. That shows that under this WOE, you can go through a period of poor eating habits and get away with that without feeling guilty about that in any way, and that won't cause any damage in terms of my overall results (if anything, failure to regain that weight might have proved to be the more worrying scenario in my case). I have heard a number of accounts from people who stick to a very low carb intake over a long period of time, only to end up feeling as they are lacking in energy and tired as a result. My carb refeeds at the end of each week solves that problem for me and allows me to maintain a very low carb intake for most of the week, thus ensuring that my overall average carb intake across the whole week remains fairly low.

Overall, that is something which I am very pleased with and for now at least, my weight maintenance program is still very much on track and working very well for me (the weekend weight gain means that I can now, have that fasting day today).
Last edited by johncs2013 on 09 Dec 2013, 07:41, edited 1 time in total.

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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