The FastDay Forum

I am coming towards the end of the first week of daily weight tracking and I am finding some interesting observations. Firstly, my weight on each day of this week has come out as follows:-

Monday 14 October 2013: 74.5kg (up by 0.5kg from same time on previous week)
Tuesday 15 October 2013: 72.5kg (down by 2kg from previous day)
Wednesday 16 October 2013: 73.8kg (up by 1.2kg from previous day)
Thursday 17 October 2013: 74.0kg (up by 0.2kg from previous day)
Friday 18 October 2013: 72.8kg (down by 1.2kg from previous day)
Saturday 19 October 2013: 74.2kg (up by 1.4kg from previous day)
Sunday 20 October 2013: 74.7kg (up by 0.5kg from previous day)

From these figures, it is easy to see that Monday and Thursday were my fasting days where I did a full zero calorie 36 hour fast from 7pm last Sunday night, right through until 7am on Tuesday morning, and a full 24 hour zero calorie fast from 7pm on Wednesday night until the same time on Thursday night. That is reflected in the very low values for my weight which I recorded on Tuesday and Friday.

However, every other value represents an increase from the previous day and whilst it was looking for a while as though I might be able to post a decent overall weight loss for this week, the results from Friday onwards have shattered that and since today is another feeding day, that has now left me on course for a second successive weekly weight gain at tomorrow's weigh-in (today's figure is 0.2kg higher than at the beginning of the week).

This clearly shows that my calorie intake is too high on feeding days. I did break my first big fast of the week with a Full Scottish Breakfast but it is after the second fasting day that the problems have really occurred. The point of daily weight tracking is that I am meant to be able to see what is going on right away and act on that immediately. With me though, that has had the opposite effect because of the fact that I had such a big weight gain on Saturday morning.

Even though that still left me with a weight that below Monday's value for that, I had already felt resigned in my mind to another weekly weight gain because I had just assumed that my weight would continue to go up regardless of what I did. The result of that, is that I have not been able to stop eating since then and that has left this weekend as a total disaster in that regard.

By that, I mean that I have been taking loads of things like chocolate, a full fry-up for breakfast, loads of carbs (although I did make some attempt to curb that last night by replacing my usual potatoes with some mushrooms) and also some alcohol. That of course, has meant that my weight has gone up and course, this is exactly why I have always hated daily weigh-ins.

However, I was also finding that I was feeling very tired and lethargic earlier on in the week, and that my gym workout performances were suffering because of that. After taking in all of those calories towards the end of the week though, I have actually felt a lot less tired as a result and today's gym workout was the best one that I've had for quite a while in terms of performance.

From that, it seems as though my body does not like facing a calorie restriction and being at a lower weight, and therefore shuts down a bit during those periods in order to preserve that energy. That would then imply that my body needs those extra calories for optimum performance even if that is at the expense of at least, a temporary weight gain over a week or more.

Effectively, it is like as though I am being forced to choose between keeping a low calorie intake in order to get my weight down, or going for better performances in my gym workouts by taking in more calories, even if that means that my weight goes up in the meantime. I was therefore wondering if anyone on this forum had also faced that scenario and how they dealt with it.

[carieoates]

I'm wondering if you are hitting Ketosis. Maybe a very low carb hit might shock your body into fat burning. I exercise nearly every day and have a high TDEE (2300) but have recently lowered my carb intake and have a cup of homemade veg based soup at work every lunch time. I also don't have alcohol until thurs/fri. But with the daily weigh in I had seen a fluctuation of up to 3lb. Which is slightly less now but I also think that our bodies are very good at survival and as such may hold on to fat rather than burn it when put under starvation. What is your TDEE.? I don't find it a struggle to exercise on fast days. Try not to overthink things, I know it can be frustrating, been there, done that and I am sure it will happen again.

My TDEE is shown on my Progress Tracker to be 2467 calories per day based on the last set of values which I entered there on Monday (that of course, will be updated with the results of tomorrow's weigh-in). I have probably consumed quite a lot more calories than that over the last few days, but that figure which I have seems a bit high (although I would expect that figure to be higher when I'm exercising, than what it would be if I was just sitting around doing nothing all day).

[carieoates]

Well I think that someone else with a lot more experience will be able to of more help. I can only go on my own experience. It can be very frustrating I know. Best of luck

Hi and welcome:

Don't know much about your exercise routine, but you might check this:
5-2-diet-chat-f6/topic6543.html

Also, you might check out this idea - seems gym performance is just fine after you are in constant ketosis: http://eatingacademy.com/start-here

My overall comment is you seem to be very detail oriented. The body does not work that way. You can gain or lose two or more pounds on any given day just with a normal change in water weight.

Good Luck!

I do understand the effect of water weight, but it is the fact that every single value is showing an increase with the exception of after a fasting day, which has been the main concern and that can't be put down to water weight alone.

You don't have enough data and you're comfort eating in response to the natural ups and downs.

I exercise a lot now and have reached a point where my weight has stabilised, however, I managed to both lose weight and keep going by varying what I ate on feed days and being fairly regimented on fast days (I'm not a calorie counter, so I had 3 restricted days in the region of 500-700 cals probably).

You do have to eat enough, particularly if you're doing any strength training. Eat big, lift big but if you use Paleo principles, then the ups and downs smooth out a lot.

By that I mean more meat, veg and fat, less or no sugar, bread and simple carbs. It's easier on the hormonal system and you do start to burn fat instead of relying on frequent carb ingestion. Read Robb Wolf or Mark's Daily Apple for more info. Your calorie intake might not be too high, it might just be not quite the optimum fuel for working out.

Hi John, you seem to be stressing a lot and maybe need to relax a little around your daily weigh ins. Remember, 'slow and steady wins the race!' so stop beating yourself up!
Do you think your cortisol levels may be forcing your body to hold on to its fat and energy reserves? Maybe take things easy for a while and give your body chance to catch up.
http://www.project-aware.org/Resource/a ... ight.shtml


Don't know if this article rings any bells with you?

You don't have enough data and you're comfort eating in response to the natural ups and downs.

I exercise a lot now and have reached a point where my weight has stabilised, however, I managed to both lose weight and keep going by varying what I ate on feed days and being fairly regimented on fast days (I'm not a calorie counter, so I had 3 restricted days in the region of 500-700 cals probably).

You do have to eat enough, particularly if you're doing any strength training. Eat big, lift big but if you use Paleo principles, then the ups and downs smooth out a lot.

By that I mean more meat, veg and fat, less or no sugar, bread and simple carbs. It's easier on the hormonal system and you do start to burn fat instead of relying on frequent carb ingestion. Read Robb Wolf or Mark's Daily Apple for more info. Your calorie intake might not be too high, it might just be not quite the optimum fuel for working out.

Thanks, but could you provide some useful links for that info (I guess, I'm just too lazy to do a Google search for that)?

Hi John, you seem to be stressing a lot and maybe need to relax a little around your daily weigh ins. Remember, 'slow and steady wins the race!' so stop beating yourself up!
Do you think your cortisol levels may be forcing your body to hold on to its fat and energy reserves? Maybe take things easy for a while and give your body chance to catch up.
http://www.project-aware.org/Resource/a ... ight.shtml


Don't know if this article rings any bells with you?

That might also help to explain why I have been having issues with my blood pressure results. I sent a post about that on another thread, and it was suggested that the BP tablets which I was taking, might actually be part of the problem rather than the solution, now that I have lost a lot of weight over the last two years.

I was starting to get some improvements in those results as I continued to lose weight, but my blood pressure then gradually went up again after I started the 5:2 diet. As a result of that, it was mentioned in that other thread that it would be a good idea for me to start a trial where I come off BP tablets and monitor my BP twice a day. I am now recording those results into an Android app which also shows those results on a graph, together with a trend line.

Currently, I am still getting some results for that which are quite high. However, the above mentioned trend line is showing a very slow decrease in both my systolic and diastolic BPs over time. Since high blood pressure is linked to the cortisol levels, that would suggest that my cortisol levels are slowly decreasing over time which means that this issue might actually resolve itself over time, but take a bit of time to do so.

Google will be quicker than me googling, cutting, pasting...they will be the top search item in both cases, I suspect. (-:

My bp is down from 160/105 to 130/75, it was my main reason for losing weight. Stress plays a part so work on lowering your cortisol, as suggested. More sleep etc.

I do try to get more sleep, but I often struggle to get even 6 hours of sleep per night especially after a fasting day. I never have any problems with getting to sleep, and I always go to bed at around 11pm. However, I'm often finding that after a fasting day in particular, I'm struggling to sleep beyond 3am or 4am.

I have already taken all of the carb reduction stuff on board but for me, that is a massive step which would be too much for me to handle in one go. That is why I prefer to do things in small steps at a time and I am already managing to completely cut out all carbs on a fasting day (the final stage of that was achieved by replacing all rice or potatoes with some mushrooms).

As for my non fasting days, it will take a bit of time for me to greatly reduce the carb intake there, but I am gradually working on that. The good thing about the 5:2 diet though is that it allows us to eat whatever we like on a non fasting day. That means that even if I am eating too many carbs for good health, the fact that I can eat whatever I want according to those 'rules' of the 5:2 diet, makes that OK.

That in turn, makes me feel a lot better knowing that I can then introduce those further improvements to my diet in my own time, whenever I feel ready to do so.