The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone, I am here to ask for ideas about my last week of fasting. I have just finished my 4th week on 5:2 and things are going pretty well. I have seen my weight falling down but something weird happened this week. I had on Monday my first “get to dinner fast day” and managed it better than I thought. Had to go to lunch out with a guest, but had only a steak (grilled) and therefore stayed well inside my 600cals, plus a 15k run. Day after I hit my PB (75.8kg). Had Tuesday and Wednesday with only breakfast and dinner since I couldn’t have lunch because of work. Had a dinner out on Tuesday with the guest, but even if I had appetizers, a second course with bread I don’t think I passed my TDEE (which is around 2300. I am keeping on the lower side, just to be sure). Wednesday had a pizza for dinner (a simple tomatoes and cheese). On Thursday my second fast of the week and it was even easier to get to dinner without eating anything during the day. I weighed myself yesterday morning (I love weighing myself everyday, it keeps me motivated) and I hit another PB: 75.6Kg. Just amazing. Had a Friday with simple breakfast as usual, went for a 12k run, had lunch (peppers with tuna, bread, chicken nuggets (oven) and potato chips (oven), weighed myself ( I do after runs to rehydrate the water lost and was on 75.7kg) strawberries with whip cream (ops ) , snacked during the afternoon and had a light dinner. Moreover I am keeping to my word of not eating any chocolate, pastries or sweets. So I jumped on the scale and what do I see: 76.9kg. That is not only a gain of 1.3kg in one day (with training), but since last week a gain of 700g. Now I know that there can be ups and downs, but I find it really hard to understand given the readings of yesterday morning and today results. Does anyone has an idea? Sorry for the long post. J

Get some smoothing per Kencc' s posts.

I have results like that. I had a 2 kg difference over a day last week. You need a downward trend, day-to-day isn't reliable.

Training adds water weight quickly. Look at the FAQs as there's a great thread on this.

Hi BBT053, as you can see from my chart my trend is downward over the long period. It is just that I don't get the sudden variation over one day especially when training. it usually goes down not up. thank you anyway. I will try to find the posts you are suggesting to look at. J

I have gained 1.5 kilos day to day, but have an overall downwards trend so really just weigh daily for interest, not expecting to go down always.
I know it seems strange.
I often find I have put on .3 or .4 kg the day after fasting, then go down .5 or so a couple of days after.

Yes the link that BBT refers to is here. I suspect the exercise is causing water retention because of temporary inflammation of the muscles. And coming off a fast there is always (in my experience) some 'bounce back', in my case it can be more than 1 kg in just a couple of days. Several people who weigh daily have posted graphs of their weight progress and it is not a smooth curve it is rocky ridge gradually descending, with the troughs at the end of the 2nd fast day in each week followed in each case by a rise to a new peak (but usually lower than the peak of the previous week).

Ta Dominic. Harder to link posts when surfing on my Kindle.

Hope that answers your question.

If your weighing everyday, you must be prepared to see ups and downs everyday.

On another note, do make sure that you're staying within your TDEE. I see pizza, I see whipped cream, I see 2-course meal and bread, I see nuggets and chips... are you sure that you're counting your calories properly? One slice of pizza can start from 200 calories and go upto 350...

@dominic: my graphs are rocky as well and I do know that there are ups and dwons. It is the big change that made me think.
@TML13: I am in my TDEE. If you read closely I had pizza on a day that apart breakfast (cereals with milk) had only that. and a normal pizza goes around 900cals, so quite far from my 2300cals. yesterday I had, out of the usual food, 2 spoon of whipped cream (with my strawberries) and around 50g of preztels (those are my afternoon snacks, no chips, coccholate, creams or coca cola type of drinks), so even if I dodn't weigh the food, but have a quite good knowledge of how much it weights I have not gone put of my TDEE that much to cause 1.3kg gain.
I tend to agree more with BBT053, gigi55 and dominic, but thank you for trying to give another idea to my question.

I'm not of course trying to patronise you or anything and of course I don't know what a normal pizza might be to you but please make sure that your calorie counting is correct.

No worries TML13. I didn't feel about your comment. Just wanted to give a clearer picture of what i had during my week. I do use a calory counter software (fitday.com) since 10 years now and I have a huge DB of mine so I easily can fill in what i eat. I just think I don't think I went out of my TDEE yesterday or the previous days. ciao, J