The FastDay Forum

Hi,

I firstly wanted to say thanks to everyone that's contributed to this forum. I've found it really helpful to learn about this WOE and it's encouraged me to try the it out.

I've put on about a 20 pounds in the last 6 months. I've started a job where I travel around the world quite a lot - foodwise it's really difficult to keep things steady when you're spending 1 week in 6 eating hotel food.

I've tried loads of different diets over the years and found that whilst they all work, few of them are sustainable in the long term. I'm a single guy living in London in his late 20's and the idea of not being able to enjoy a few beers or a meal with my friends just doesn't work for longer than a month or so.

So I've started this WOE this week and thought that I'd post my experience on this forum.

My starting details on 10th June 2013:

- Weight - 15st 1.2lbs
- Body fat - 4st 2.25lbs
- Lean body mass - 10st 13lbs
- BMI - 30.2

I'm literally doing my second fast day today - but I weighed myself early in the week, after 1 fast day, and had already seen an improvement.

(14th June 2013)
- Weight - 14st 7.7lbs (-7.5lbs)
- Body fat - 4st 0.95lbs (-1.3lbs)
- Lean body mass - 10st 6.85lbs (-6.15lbs)
- BMI - 29.2 (-1)

I've using my Withings WiFI scales to measure the details above - fat measuring scales are known to be a bit inaccurate, but I'm hoping that over time my fat weight will show a downward trend.

I guess what I've learned so far is that I've lost a lot of weight even after just 1 fast day, but most of it is 'Lean mass' which means it's almost certain to be water (I did have a big weekend of eating and drinking before I started so that would explain why the drop seems so dramatic).

My strategy for fast days is relatively simple. I've been buying 2 Marks and Spencers "Fuller for Longer" flatbreads (Jerk Chicken - 300 kcals each). Then I'm trying to get as far through the day as I can before eating. I'm not a big fan of breakfast so waiting until 1/2pm before eating on a fast day feels like the right approach. I'll then have the other wrap at about 7/8pm and that should get my through to the next morning.

On my first day I was definitely hungry - but as reported by others - the hunger came and went in waves. A coffee, diet coke or glass of water seemed to knock it on the head.

I'll try to keep updating this thread as I progress. My first goal is to get under 14st - my ideal weight is probably somewhere under 13st - but I'll see how my body changes and make a call later.

If anyone has any advice or encouragement then I'd really appreciate it - I've done diets before and failed, so I'm really hoping that this WOE will be the one that sticks for me.

Thanks JB

Well done for such a brilliant start to this WOE! You have certainly come to the right place for information, support and encouragement. Keep us informed of your progress and good luck!

That's great! Would you update your progress tracker so we can see your progress, and it can be added to the group stats?

Welcome!

Hi All,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. @Minumonline I've added them already, but will certainly continue to do so over the weeks.

So I thought that I'd check in on my results since the last post - some good news, some bad news.

I managed to do both of my fast days last week - Tuesday and Sunday. But did have a pretty big weekend with nights out on Weds, Thurs, Fri and Sat. So I wasn't expecting great results. They're not awful but certainly could have been better. I weighed in after both fast days and got the following results.

Wednesday 19th June:

- Weight - 14st 5.5lbs (-9.7lbs)
- Body fat - 3st 13.3lbs (-2.95lbs)
- Lean body mass - 10st 6.25lbs (-6.75lbs)
- BMI - 28.8 (-1.4)

This was a great result. But after a pretty full on week of drinking and eating food the monday morning weigh in wasn't too great.

Monday 24th June:

- Weight - 14st 8.8lbs (-6.4lbs)
- Body fat - 4st 0.1lbs (-2.15lbs)
- Lean body mass - 10st 8.6lbs (-4.4lbs)
- BMI - 29.3 (-0.9)

So I don't know if that'll be useful to anyone reading this but after 4 days of really overdoing it my weight went up by about 3lbs. But the scales are showing that it's mostly 'lean mass' and less than 1lb of fat. Gaining lean mass isn't too bad, but it's highly unlikely to be muscle in such a short period - much more likely to be water weight. Hopefully I should see that disappear after the next fast day.

My big weakness, which isn't new from fasting, is eating when I'm drunk. I get home after being out for beers and really struggle to not overeat. Any ideas that could help me would be greatly appreciated...

It's certainly not a bad result and I'm still really pleased to be 6lbs down after 2 weeks.

This weekend might not be much easier for me! Off to Ireland for a mates leaving do before he goes to Hong Kong. So I'm planning on doing tomorrow (Tuesday) and Sunday (I'm flying home so shouldn't have too many challenges) as fasting days. Ideally I wouldn't do Sunday's as it's a bit boring, but the social life seems to make that easier than the end of the working week.

The fasting days so far seem ok, I'm not looking forwards to them yet, but I'm certainly not dreading it. And I do think that I'm eating less on the other days as a result.

I'm still really committed to the WOE, I've found it much easier than anything else that I've done before. I've given myself 4 weeks try it out without any other changes, after that I'll have a proper review and see if there are any other changes that I could make. Certainly the drunken takeaway curries need to go at some stage!

Again thanks for all of the encouragement!!!!

Thanks JB

Bit more quickly....

I'm a bit of a geek sometimes and found this cool website for anyone who has the same wifi scales that I do (I've got withings, but I think that there are a few others)...

It takes your weight loss and lets you share it with people. So here's mine in case anyone wants to take a look at the figures.

http://trendweight.com/u/4b63667a5a174b/

It also tries to 'smooth' out the stats on your weight loss to show a trend over time and take out the odd ups and downs, since it can change from day to day for little known reason.