The FastDay Forum

Ive took in alot of the BP info in this thread as at present I am monitoring my bp 3 times a day because after losing 4 stone I noticed the reading were quite a bit lower, hovering around 118/60 . Not knowing what a low reading is my hubby suggested stopping the tablet (lisinopril 10mg) and continue monitoring 3 times a day.I am now in my 4th week without bp tablets and all of my reading are in low 70s(128/72).I am due to see my doc shortly and will be taking all this info with me as she originally said losing weight will not always lower someones bp. Thanks for all info and hope it works out for everyone

If I go all the way back to the end of 2011 when I first started to lose weight, I thought that by losing weight, my blood pressure would get lower as I continued to lose weight. Back then, my systolic blood pressure was away up at about 170 and whilst I lost weight during last year, it did come down until my systolic blood pressure reached a minimum of about 116 towards the end of last year.

My blood pressure then rose slightly, but my systolic blood pressure was consistently in the 120s or 130s throughout that period, right up until I started the 5:2 diet. When I read that people enjoyed a number of health benefits with the 5:2 diet including reduced blood pressure, I was having thoughts that my blood pressure might somehow, drop to a level where it became too low, thus making me feel a bit dizzy and forcing me to come off my blood pressure medication.

Yet, this has not been how it has worked out and I certainly would never have been able to envisage a situation where I would actually have to come off my blood pressure medication in order to get my blood pressure down. Yet, that seems to be the situation that I am facing now, which just goes to show that you learn something new every day.

Some great advice already on this thread John.
I am in maintenance mode at the moment but my weight can still fluctuate by up to 3 lbs a day. I 'officially' weigh myself at the same time every week and log those recordings on my tracker. It is the overall trend that is important and mine was definitely downwards until I hit my target.

Some great advice already on this thread John.
I am in maintenance mode at the moment but my weight can still fluctuate by up to 3 lbs a day. I 'officially' weigh myself at the same time every week and log those recordings on my tracker. It is the overall trend that is important and mine was definitely downwards until I hit my target.

The reason why I have always weighed myself once a week until now, was because I was just too scared of all of the day to day variations in my weight. Indeed, with my previous failed attempts that I've had over the years to try to lose weight, I would always give up altogether as soon as I hit a week where I hit a weight gain because to me, that would have made me feel as though I had somehow failed altogether with my efforts to lose weight which had then, meant that the results of my efforts now meant nothing to me because of that. That in turn would then lead me into regaining all of the weight that I lost with some more on top of that until my weight reached that peak of 19 stone back in 2011.

That of course, led me to being morbidly obese and at that point, the urgency to do something about that had overtaken the fear of any weight gain for only the first ever in my life. That was enough to ensure that I didn't suddenly give up after the any weight gain from the previous week, but I still wasn't any less frightened of those daily variations and that is why I have been weighing myself on a weekly basis until now. With the 5:2 diet though, I am now learning not to be scared of those daily variations and that for me is quite a huge achievement in itself.

[carorees]

It's not certain that the ACE inhibitor is the problem..but a trial of coming off it with monitoring is worthwhile. If you don't see a decrease or you see an increase, you had better reintroduce the tablets and see what happens.

It's not certain that the ACE inhibitor is the problem..but a trial of coming off it with monitoring is worthwhile. If you don't see a decrease or you see an increase, you had better reintroduce the tablets and see what happens.

That is exactly why I said that I would be doing that as an experiment, but it will be interesting to find out what actually is causing that increase in my blood pressure if coming off the tablets doesn't work, and neither does going back onto them again. I guess that it will then be up to the doctor to try to suss that one out.

Interesting thread lots of good advice thanks all

I have some very interesting updates (I'm doing this really early in the morning as I'm coming towards the end of a complete 36 hour fast with just over two hours to go until I can eat something again). Anyway, I wasn't able to post anything last night due to the problems with the server and so, last night's BP readings were:-

Reading 1 (taken at 10:36pm BST): 164/89 (Pulse: 51)
Reading 2 (taken at 10:39pm BST): 153/88 (Pulse: 50)
Reading 3 (taken at 10:41pm BST): 157/85 (Pulse: 48)

BST stands for British Summer Time which is the current time zone for where I live in the UK, this is shown for the benefit of all of you from other parts of the world outside the UK. Those readings show quite a big increase in blood pressure from yesterday morning, despite being at a more comfortable temperature, although my pulse was much lower.

For this morning, the most remarkable figure is my weight which has dropped by a whole 2kg in less than 24 hours. That takes my weight down to 72.5kg which is 11 stone 6 pounds (a loss of 4 pounds since yesterday's official figure for that was taken). That also takes me to below 11 and a half stone for only the first time in my whole adult life, and has shattered the previous record of 11 stone 9 pounds (74.0kg) which I had equalled 8 days ago. This massive weight loss has nevertheless come at the end of my 36 hour fast and that is showing that I am obviously gaining weight on my non fasting days, even in those weeks where I'm reporting an overall weight loss for that week. I can therefore guess that the real trick as regards to losing weight over time, will be to try to find a way of minimizing that weight gain.

This morning's blood pressure results are as follows:-

Reading 1 (taken at 4:37am BST): 151/82 (pulse: 62)
Reading 2 (taken at 4:39am BST): 144/74 (pulse: 59)
Reading 3 (taken at 4:42am BST): 148/76 (pulse: 58)

All of those readings are still high, although they are marginally better than what I was getting yesterday morning, despite being at the end of my 36 hour fast with all of the increases in cortisol levels which go with that. It is also interesting to note how my pulse readings are actually lower at night than in the morning, which is the complete opposite of what I would have expected if I hadn't been informed otherwise on this forum.

I am also noticing that it is only my systolic blood pressure which is coming out to be too high whereas my diastolic blood pressure readings are mostly coming out to be fine. One of my diastolic blood pressure readings came out as high yesterday morning and in fact, my diastolic blood pressure actually dropped slightly last night (all of last night's increases were in the systolic blood pressure). This morning, all but one of my diastolic blood pressure readings have even come within the normal healthy range with all of my other diastolic blood pressure readings being in the pre-hypertension range.

From this, it turns out that what I am actually experiencing is not full hypertension, but something known as Isolated Systolic Hypertension where it is only the systolic blood pressure that is in the hypertension region. I'm not yet at the stage of being old, but I am middle-aged and I'm sure that I read somewhere that the condition of isolated systolic hypertension actually becomes increasingly common as you get older. Anyway, I will not be taking my blood pressure tablets this morning and so it is from now on, that the real experiment will begin as regards to how my blood pressure reacts to me not taking those tablets.

[carorees]

There is a relationship between pulse rate and BP, too. The slow pulse rate allows more blood to enter the heart (preload) so the eventual contraction creates more pressure as it empties a bigger volume. I've noticed that when my BP is down, the HR is up.

Let's see what tonight brings.

That explains why for the most part, my pulse rate has been higher when my BP has been lower. According to my own data though and if I cast my mind back to 11 February 2013, I had a BP reading of 116/73 which is well inside the healthy range for both my systolic and diastolic BPs. However, that came with a pulse reading of 62 which is at a par with what I am getting just now with my current higher BP values. That shows that there are obviously going to be a few exceptions to that rule.

There is a relationship between pulse rate and BP, too. The slow pulse rate allows more blood to enter the heart (preload) so the eventual contraction creates more pressure as it empties a bigger volume. I've noticed that when my BP is down, the HR is up.

Let's see what tonight brings.

That is what I'm about to do, so here are tonight's blood pressure results which I have to say, are all over the place. This is my first day away from my BP tablets but since I am in between two non fasting days, the cortisol levels should be lower than what they were last night. Anyway, the latest results are as follows:-

Reading 1 (taken at 10:16pm BST): 147/82 (Pulse: 64)
Reading 2 (taken at 10:19pm BST): 131/79 (Pulse: 60)
Reading 3 (taken at 10:22pm BST): 151/89 (Pulse: 59)

To be honest, it is difficult to make out these figures properly but overall, they are all better than what there last night with a higher pulse rate. The first reading seems to set the trend for that although it showed the same old story of isolated systolic hypertension. The second reading was much better than what I was expecting with the systolic BP only just at the bottom of the pre-hypertension range, and with the diastolic BP even being in the normal healthy range. Sadly though, the last reading spoilt the good night by quite a bit with the diastolic BP being only one point away from making that a full hypertension reading.

It will now be interesting to see what tomorrow morning brings, as that is when I will also be doing another weigh-in. With today being a non fasting day, I will be expecting my weight to bounce back up a bit from that really low value that I got this morning after my 36 hour zero calorie fast. That is particularly true since I couldn't resist the temptation to break that fast with a Full Scottish Breakfast at the local supermarket cafe before going on to consume quite a few calories throughout today and feeling pretty stuffed (my fasts are making it more difficult for me to handle eating large amounts of food in the way that I could before I started this WOL).

Here are some more really interesting results that I have just had this morning. My weight is up to 73.8kg (in increase of 1.3kg from yesterday, which is about 3 pounds) which is just under 11 stone 9 pounds. That is to be expected because of the manner in which I ate yesterday. The body is still recovering from that big 36 hour fast, and yesterday was also a rest day from my gym and fitness activities which meant that I didn't burn as many calories as what I otherwise would have. Nevertheless, my weight is still 0.2kg below my record for my lowest ever officially reported weight and so, that is OK. Today, I will be at the gym and burning more calories which means that I shouldn't get such a big weight gain tomorrow. Meanwhile, this morning's all important blood pressure readings are as follows:

Reading 1 (taken at 6:16am BST): 137/84 (Pulse: 64)
Reading 2 (taken at 6:18am BST): 141/89 (Pulse: 64)
Reading 3 (taken at 6:22am BST): 138/86 (Pulse: 61)

These results are much more consistent than what I was getting last night, and a lot better than of late since I also got a much better night's sleep and am feeling a lot more relaxed. Here, it is only the second reading for my systolic blood pressure that is high with everything else being in the pre-hypertension range. Whilst it might take a month for the BP medication to leave my system altogether and whilst I therefore can't just go by one set of results in isolation, this is already starting to look promising in terms of my chances of being able to stay off the BP medication altogether. I will certainly be looking forward to showing these results to my doctor if they continue in this fashion.

Here is a really weird thing. On Wednesday 16 October 2013, I weighed 73.8kg. On that day, I ate a big breakfast and lunch, plus loads of carbs. Needless to say, my calorie intake was quite high on that day and as a result, my weight went up by 0.2kg to stand at exactly 74kg on Thursday 17 October 2013.

Yesterday (Wednesday 23 October 2013), my weight was 73.9kg which is an increase of 0.1kg from the same day, a week earlier. This time, I used a different tactic by trying out 16:8. That meant that I didn't have any breakfast. I didn't over-indulge at any point which means that my calorie intake was quite a bit lower as a result.

Since my carb intake was also much lower (which did at least, mean that I didn't face the same problems with bloating as before), all of this should have at least made some difference to the change in my weight from the previous day to such an extent that I was even hoping that I might have been able to celebrate my first recorded weight loss after a feeding day, given that the previous week's weight gain was so small.

Despite all of that though, my weight has still gone up by that same 0.2kg, to stand at 74.1kg which means that I am still running at a 0.1kg weight gain over the week, when I feel that I should have been running at an overall weekly weight loss by now.

I have already had two successive weekly weight gains and one earlier post in this thread suggested that if that was to become a third successive weekly weight gain, that would show that something is clearly not right. With results as they are just now, that third successive weekly weight gain seems to be where I am heading and it just seems that no matter what I do just now, I just can't seem to stop gaining weight from one week to the next.

Furthermore, my birthday will be coming up at the weekend and that is where I will be expecting to treat myself and so, the omens are once again, not looking good just now for that next weekly weigh-in which I report on in my weekly blog entries. It will be interesting to hear some ideas about what might be going on there.

Just a quick update. When I weighed myself this morning, I was 72.7kg. That came after a fasting day, but that wasn't one of my zero calorie 36 hour fasts and so, I'm a lot happier with that result especially since that now means that I've turned that overall weight gain over a week into a 0.1kg overall weight loss (last week at this time, I was 72.8kg).

The weird things as well with that, is the fact that my lowest weight of the week has actually come after my second fasting day this time instead of the first one, and that is despite the fact that my first fasting day on Monday did incorporate a full zero calorie fast.

That is the other way around from last week when my lowest weight was after the first fasting day, but this seems to raise the question of whether or not you really get anything extra in terms of weight loss with a full zero calorie fast, as opposed to the normal 600 calorie (500 calories for a woman) fast.

In my case though, it might just have been that it has taken a few days for my reduced calorie intake over this week to kick in, and that is why I wasn't getting such good results earlier in the week. It also looks as though the reduced carbs over this week has helped a bit as well. Having said though, tomorrow will be my birthday and I will also have the weekend off in terms of my fasting/eating routine.

Added to that, is the fact that I went into this week with two successive overall 1lb weight gains over each of these weeks. That means that even if I come out of this week by just maintaining the weight which I was at on Monday when I weigh myself then and enter that into my progress tracker, I will be happy enough with that since anything will be better than yet another weight gain, and also because I'm already at quite a good weight.

Sounds like a result then John and happy birthday for tomorrow!