The FastDay Forum

When I got on the scales this morning for my daily weigh-in, I got a really good surprise. I did gain some weight from yesterday as I always do after a feeding day. However, I only gained 0.5kg which is actually my smallest weight gain so far, for the first feeding day after a fasting day. My weight this morning is 73.2kg, which is almost bang on 11 and a half stone, and that has beaten my all time record for my lowest ever weight after a feeding day.

To top it up, my weight a week ago was 74.2kg and that means that my overall weight loss over a week has now jumped up to a whole 1kg, which is just over 2kg. Last weekend, I went on to overeat by quite a bit in response to the figures that I got then (although my weight only went up by another 0.5kg over that weekend).

That means that if there is ever a time where I shouldn't ever do a 16:8 day, this is it because it is said that a healthy weight loss over a week shouldn't be more than 2 pounds per week for someone with a lot of weight to lose, or one pound per week for some like me who has little or no weight left that they really need to lose.

Because of that, I don't want that overall weekly weight loss to grow any bigger now, than what it is just now and so, I'm now about to enjoy a good breakfast for the first time since Tuesday (when I broke that big 36 hour fast). I will expect today's eating pattern to reduce that overall weight loss a bit as the body soaks up some lost water content after all of the fasting that I've been doing this week.

However, it is looking as though whilst I can always have a 16:8 day tomorrow if I need it, that probably won't be necessary now. This has certainly been the best news that I could ever receive on my birthday.

Well done John

And

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Lesley

With that, I'm now beginning to see my longer term plans in front of me. The previous couple of weeks showed that 5:2 on its own, wasn't enough for me to lose weight and wasn't even enough to prevent me from gaining weight over time. That is why it is important to have those 16:8 days which I have introduced this week and so, that seems to be the way to go for me. For now, I will continue with 5:2 with 2 days of 16:8.

Since I'm already at quite a good weight for me, I don't want to be losing too much weight too quickly. That means that if the rate of weight loss continues in the manner in which this morning's results have shown, I will then probably be looking towards going from 5:2 to 6:1, by turning my second fasting day into another 16:8 day. That in turn, should slow down the rate of weight loss whilst at the same time, minimizing the risk of turning that into an overall weight gain over time.

I think these results are showing that for those people who are struggling to lose weight with 5:2, introducing some 16:8 days might actually be a better idea than going from 5:2 to 4:3 (although that might not necessarily be the case with everyone, as everybody is different). In any case, my long term plan has always been to switch to 6:1 at some point (as Dr. MM has done himself), and this is now the first time that I've been able to see my possible path towards that goal.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, John! And what a lovely gift your body has given you!

[carieoates]

Happy Birthday. And it's so nice to see a happy, positive post from you. I hope you have a super birthday weekend.

I've also just come back from my RPM class (which is really a form of spin class (more details of what that is can be seen here)). I was told some time ago that you continue to burn the extra calories from that for several hours afterwards and so, the fact that my body should still be in fat burning mode from then when I have my birthday meal should make that the best time to have such a meal (my birthday couldn't have come at a better time in that regard).

Happy Birthday John - hope you have a good day. How did the thing with your blood pressure work out?

The trial that I underwent by trying to come off blood pressure tablets didn't go so well, as you will see by looking further down this page. I then went back onto the blood pressure tablets and saw an immediate improvement as you will see by looking further down the last (and next) page of that same thread. So, I went back to the doctors armed with those results, and I have written about the outcome of that here. Since then, the results have been fairly mixed, but there isn't really anything there which I doctor believes it should be worried about (although I would have been happier if I had been able to successfully come off my BP medication).

[Betsysgr8]

Happy birthday John! Enjoy your day.

Happy Birthday John!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. I had quite a good lunch today with my friend. However, although I was planning in treating myself to a Chinese Takeaway tonight, my stomach isn't really feeling all that much up to it just now thanks to all of the fasting that I have been doing. However, I'm sure that I will be having more than a single glass of wine tonight, especially as I'm not having to worry about closing my eating window on this occasion.

I've come towards the end of my birthday, but the news on my health front just gets even better. I have had a full bottle of wine tonight along with three glasses of whisky, which is more alcohol than what I have had for some time. Yet despite all of that, I have now gone on to have my best blood pressure results so far on the 5:2 diet.

These blood pressure results are as follows:-

Reading 1 (taken at 11:35pm BST): 128/56 (Pulse: 56)
Reading 2 (taken at 11:38pm BST): 124/56 (Pulse: 56)
Reading 3 (taken at 11:41pm BST): 133/63 (Pulse: 54)

Does that disprove the theory that alcohol intake causes an increase in blood pressure?

Suprised you could even see the readings!Glad you enjoyed your birthday.

Despite all of that alcohol intake, I don't even feel drunk but I did enjoy my birthday. That of course, now takes me into my 50th year on this planet and I'm looking forward to the challenges which lie ahead for that which hopefully, might even include me finally being able to come off those blood pressure tablets altogether.

This of course, is also the last time that I will be writing 'BST' beside all of blood pressure reading times for this year as the clocks will be going back an hour here in the UK, to take us back into Greenwich Mean Time. That means that any blood pressure readings that I share for the remainder of this year, will show the timezone for the time of each reading as GMT instead of BST.

That will make it even darker here at nights, which will provide yet another challenge in itself.

Even after my birthday and the extra calories that were consumed there (including the alcohol intake), the good news on the health front has continued afterwards and that starts with the fact that there is no hangover from last night. I can also report that my weight is unchanged from yesterday, and remains at 73.2kg, making this the first occasion where I have not gained weight after a feeding day.

Today, is another feeding day but this is one where I'm not expecting to consume so many calories and I will also be at the gym later on. That means that my overall weight loss across the week has now increased to 1.5kg which is about 3 and a third pounds. With the overall running weight loss now being so large, it is probably time to relax things a bit for the week ahead.

My weekly 36 hour zero calorie fast was introduced in order to deal with the first weekly weight gain that I had a couple of weeks ago, but that doesn't appear to be necessary now and so, tomorrow will now be a normal 600 calorie fast with its usual low carb intake. I will still continue to do my two 16:8 days during the week ahead but since there will be no big zero calorie fast this time, I will now be able to do a 16:8 day on Tuesday.

My plan will therefore be to do my two 16:8 days on Tuesday and Friday because that means that I will be doing this on the first feeding day after each fasting day, thus ensuring that I don't overeat on those days and overcompensate for those two fasting days. During that time, I will still continue to monitor my weight over the next week but if I still continue to be running at a big weight loss from the previous week, the second fast day on Thursday won't even be necessary.

That would mean that I would doing a third 16:8 day on Thursday instead of the usual fasting day which means that I would then be doing three 16:8 days (on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) in what would then be a 6:1 week instead of a 5:2 week. My blood pressure is also continuing to drop, and the latest results for that are as follows:-

Reading 1 (taken at 5:40am GMT): 120/71 (Pulse: 63)
Reading 2 (taken at 5:43am GMT): 121/65 (Pulse: 61)
Reading 3 (taken at 5:46am GMT): 119/68 (Pulse: 62)

Here, GMT stands for Greenwich Meantime which is now my current timezone since the clocks have just gone back an hour here in the UK and across Europe. The results are all fairly consistent with all of the diastolic BP readings coming well within the healthy range for that. The last systolic BP reading is also within the healthy range for that and so, the last blood pressure is my first completely healthy BP reading that I started with the twice daily monitoring, and my first such reading since away back last year. Furthermore, even those two readings that are still in the prehypertension range for systolic BP, are only one or two points away from being in the healthy range for that. That is news that I'm certainly pleased with this morning.