The FastDay Forum

I have been thinking a lot about the way that we regain weight after vacations/holidays even if we make up the fast days before or after our week(s) of indulgence. I certainly have experienced this, and the amount gained goes beyond what I can attribute to salt, weight of food, etc. Since I know that there is no way I could put on 3 lbs of real fat enjoying my food over only 5 days, especially since I did not miss a fast, but just moved it, I am starting to conclude that something else is going on.

My guess is that it is due to glycogen refilling. My studies have convinced me that people who are overweight often store a lot more glycogen than others, and that, furthermore, eating high carb meals will pack on far more glycogen than the amounts you typically see listed in nutrition textbooks.

So to see if this might be true, my question to those of you who have started maintaining is this: When you dropped one fast a week, so that you were no longer draining your glycogen stores twice a week, did you notice more of a weight gain than you expected? One that went beyond the additional weight of the food you ate on the day that used to be a fast day?

I do not fast any more, but I practise mindful eating. I gained 2lbs recently on a holiday, but have lost that, so am back to maintenance weight.

I did gain initially but after a certain time I lost it again, as I have a 2 kilo buffer in maintanence I stayed within that so I never felt the need to fast more, I just continued with once a week, and after a while my weight went back down.
This summer I stopped fasting, and though I do 16/8 regularly I gained and even went over my maintenance weight quite quickly. Again without starting to fast again beyond the 16/8 most days I've done throughout I have started to see my weight go down slowly to maintenance level again.
Not sure what that means in relation to your theory, maybe the glycogen stores increase temporarily then decrease again with time??

No- I only put weight on if I over indulge. I weigh daily and adjust my eating accordingly but I don't fast regularly or count calories.

I have not stopped fasting but started gaining as soon as I went over my TDEE.

Good question, but for me the answer is no. Factors to take into account: I was never really overweight (BMI 25.01 as max), my weight was only creeping up very slowly, indicating I had been eating close to TDEE on average, I eat close to my new TDEE, perhaps 100 calories over, I have a slight increase in intensity of exercise in winter (October - March). For details, see my maintenance topic: weight-maintenance-f18/je-maintiendrai-i-will-maintain-t10556.html

I am still fasting two days but I have gained weight. It is not a lot but the fact that I have not reached my target back for five months bothers me. I know since I have started maintenance I am eating a bit more on the non fast days. This week I had three fast days but today (Friday) I am still 500grms above my target. So I am thinking may be I should shift my target up

I stopped fasting about six months after being on maintenance, just fasting occasionally, and my weight didn't start to increase for several months. I weighed about five times a week and cut down on food when I put on a couple of lbs, at first it was easy to lose the weight again but after a few months though I had gained half a stone. If you are going to stop fasting then you will have to watch your weight and do something about it immediately it gets over a lb or two above your goal.

I've had periods of not fasting this year (not at maintenance, just needed time off) and didn't put weight on, especially at first. But then when I've been trying to fast again, that's when I've put on weight. So only 1 fast a week or a couple of start off fasting and then eat instead. Sure it is mostly head stuff (stress, binge eating because feeling like shite). Really battled to get back on track. Only put on 3-4kg though, and this week my fasting seems to have clicked back in, and I"m back down to only 2kg over what I started the year on.
To put it in perspective, I lost 11kg last year, with 2 fasts a week pretty much every week ,dropping from 76kg to 65kg. My goal is 59-60kg. This year has been intermittent intermittent fasting (if that makes sense lol) and this morning I weigh 67kg.

I have done, but I don't always. There have been two particularly bad holidays, both during maintenance, where I've put on real weight. One was Xmas, where there were loads of treats around and we were going out for big breakfasts quite often. The other was a conference in Italy, where the only food available was the really amazing food they were serving 3 time a day.

Since then, I've had at least two holidays where I didn't gain at all. One was at my mom's home, so I had control over what I ate and could skip the odd meal if I wanted to. The other was in Hiroshima, where the food is amazing, but all very healthy. I walked tons, and again, could skip meals sometimes.

I really wouldn't mind some holiday gain if I could get it off again quickly. I have no idea why this has been such a struggle for me. I will get back to goal weight if it kills me, and at the rate I'm going, it will kill me!

Edit to add: I should point out, by regain, I mean a small amount relative to what I lost overall. All my new clothes still fit. I lost 28% of my initial weight, and I'm back to an overall 22.4% loss now.

I have never managed to make it to 6:1!
I reached goal just before last Christmas, then had 2 1/2 weeks away with lots of Christmas and holiday fare and no possibility of weighing myself. Managed one fast in that time which I hated. Ate LOADS of chocolate. Only saving grace was that I was very active. On return, did a couple of fasts in quick succession and was almost at goal weight.
Then started the cycle that has happened all year. Had some time away from home when I couldn't weigh, fasted as per 5:2 but put on weight (up to a couple of kgs or so) cos didn't manage my calorie intake on non-fast days. So when got home, kept up 5:2, was careful, lost the weight...til the next trip away.
And so the pattern continued, but I recently noticed, as I have commented in the maintenance thread, that my average weight was continually increasing slightly, so am now trying to do something about it.
But this doesn't address your question @peebles.
I have noticed that sometimes the amount of body fat goes up more than I would expect after eating more than normal (weight certainly does, but water and food waste do account for a lot of that I think), but it does shift with one, two or three good fasts, generally quite quickly.
I had one 3-day weekend where I ate at least my TDEE THREE TIMES A DAY(!!!!), very carby food - lots of cakes, breads and chocolates - almost no vegetables. I was a total pig. But I lost it all after 2-3 fasts once home again. Amazing. Very lucky perhaps.
I do think most of your gain is likely to be water and food waste that should be lost quite quickly, although you have mentioned it seems to be taking a while to shift.
Not sure how well I have answered your question though.

I haven't reached maintenance yet but my weight loss is up and down basically because when I go on holiday (and therefore eat more carbs than I usually do, though not spectacular amounts by most people's standards) I pile on a STARTLING amount of weight which is fluid retention because I have massive ankles and sausagey fingers. Last week I was away for 5 days, came back - Sun night I was 68.6, this morning I was 64.6 with relatively normal ankles. It is a real problem for me; I tried eating more carbs than usual in the days pre holiday to try and lessen the response but that wasn't much good - I am away for Christmas in Germany (a place where it is SO hard to eat low carb) and I know I will pile it on and it puts a bit of a damper on the holiday really. I usually like to eat around 70g carbs a day. Any advice?

[carieoates]

Very interesting question @peebles, thanks for asking it as I have subscribed to it ready for when I need it.

@Sassy1,

I've just finished my 2nd fast since the conference and was still up 2 lbs this morning from where I was last Weds morning before taking my flight to Florida. And I did not miss a single fast.

So I am really starting to think that fasting may be doing something interesting to our ability to store glycogen. My earlier reearch into glycogen storage had turned up the very interesting fact that some people were able to store a lot more of it than others--as much as 10 lbs compared to the 2 or 3 lbs that the textbooks state we carry. Moreover, young men who carb loaded could pack on almost 2 lbs of glycogen after a single very high carb meal. Rodents fed high fructose corn syrup also packed on huge amounts of glycogen.

There is no data about the impact on how the ability to store glycogen changes on a 5:2 style fasting diet, though. And because I know exactly how much glycogen I pack on when going from an extended very low carb diet to a non-ketogenic diet, and because it is less than I am seeing here, even though you would think that I started out with a liver full of glycogen before my conference, since I don't eat low carb on eating days, I am starting to wonder if this diet expands our ability to store it.

If so, that would make sense. And it would explain these unexpected gains. For me, since I have obsessively logged weight for years and studied how my own metabolism responds to salt and high carb intakes, this is a new phenomenon.

But the bottom line for me is that I should simply consider my weight after a vacation to be my real weight and, just as I did with Low Carb, add a couple pounds back to my weight while on the diet to get to my real weight when deciding if I'm at goal.

The good thing is that my hunger is still very much in control. My overeating carbs at the conference was mostly because there was nothing but very carby stuff available at the hotel for breakfast and lunch on days we didn't get fed the paid-for buffets. So I was eating big corn syrup-filled muffins and ice cream where I wouldn't usually have eaten them.

But my experience with Low Carb was that I learned most of what I knew from the reports of others who posted on newsgroups and later on forums. So I'm learning a lot observing what people post here, and those startling holiday weight gains do seem to be a striking phenomenon of this otherwise wonderful diet.

[Tracieknits]

I have not been gaining any weight back when I stopped fasting (which has been several times over the past (almost) two years. Well, I gained back three pounds over Christmas last year, but lost it the first week of January. I didn't gain on either vacation (although there was plenty of walking to go with the copious amounts of food).

I try to eat mindfully, and I rarely finish my plate - even when I'm not fasting. And i weigh daily in order to keep my head in the right space about my weight and food consumption.

But my husband has gained back 10 pounds or so since he stopped - although I also have to credit the stress and travel of his job.