The FastDay Forum

I'm half a pound away from my target, having lost 43.5lbs. Read an interesting article on MFP which makes sense to me so I'm putting it to the floor of maintainers to see whether it affected you....?

The article says that us hoomans have a glycogen store of up to 5lbs, depending upon our start weight and that we will lose that when we first start reducing our calorie intake.... rather like a "first reserve" - and this is why we usually lose a lot in our first week or two of dieting. We are not depleting our fat stores, but our little glycogen store first (and the associated water that it needs to function)

So when you hit the target weight you've set yourself and start increasing your calorie intake to go onto maintenance, your body says "Phew... at last, I can start to build my safety-net glycogen store again" - and you find you've gained a few pounds again in your first week. So then you see the scales and reduce your intake AGAIN - and thus the see-saw starts. The article recommends you lose around 5lb UNDER the target you've set yourself (providing you don't have an ED!!) so that you then have that buffer for when you start maintaining... and that you won't panic when the scales go up in the first few days as once your glycogen store has re-built, your body will then happily go into maintenance mode, providing you're not consuming too many extra calories, of course!

Now, I can understand this theory - it makes perfect sense to me - but I just wondered whether any of you found this to be the case and how you dealt with it, please?

Thanks

[carorees]

I'm not there yet, BUT remember the info on MFP applies to people who are not used to fasting and so have not become efficient at using fat for fuel. I believe for many of us who fast regularly we have been preferentially burning fat and not dipping so much into glycogen stores. Where we have done so, we are replenishing our glycogen on each non-fast day, so I would say that the seesaw should be no bigger during maintenance than during weightloss on 5:2.

I'll be interested to see what the maintainers have to say...

[Betsysgr8]

I'm not there yet, BUT remember the info on MFP applies to people who are not used to fasting and so have not become efficient at using fat for fuel. I believe for many of us who fast regularly we have been preferentially burning fat and not dipping so much into glycogen stores. Where we have done so, we are replenishing our glycogen on each non-fast day, so I would say that the seesaw should be no bigger during maintenance than during weightloss on 5:2.

I'll be interested to see what the maintainers have to say...

This seems to be a reasonable explanation to the day-to-day fluctuations we all experience with 5:2, day-after fast low, next day weight starts to creep up a bit and the next then fast and pops back down, then the creep up again etc.

I've considered myself on maintenance for about 4 months now, after 3 1/2 months doing 5:2 fasting. My original goal was to lose just 10 lbs, but I lost about 16 lbs before deciding on a maintenance program of a combination of 6:1 or restricting to 1000 calories twice a week. I kept losing, until I was down by 22 lbs. I don't fast at all anymore and I have stayed within 3 lbs of my lowest weight for 2 months now. I have felt that something in my metabolism changed and reading some of the links others have posted on fat burning vs. sugar burning, I think I've managed to become a fat burner (even though I don't worry over much about carbs). I don't generally get hungry between meals, I do feel full quickly, my appetite is naturally decreased. I probably eat somewhat below my TDEE now (although I stopped counting calories a good while back, too), but I don't really deprive myself. I don't see much of a see-saw at all; the days I weigh a bit high I can usually attribute to eating salty snacks and water weight. Then I'll have a "be good" day with 3 healthy meals, but no snacks, dessert or alcohol and I'll drop right back down. So far, so good for me.

I've only been maintaining for about 5 weeks (having lost 20 lbs.), and so far so good. I have gone to a 8:16 a couple days a week, and, like MCC, I find that I am not eating between meals still. I also watch what I eat and allow for hi-cal days, and I seem to be staying fairly even - though one day my weight popped up about 3 lbs, then lost it within 2 days! That is the most my weight has varied so far.

I believed that we have about a pound of glycogen stored in our livers, unless we have been endurance training, and a certain amount - which is not available to be used elsewhere - in our muscles, maybe a kilo in total. When people 'hit the wall' in a marathon it is because their glycogen stores have been emptied, this tends to happen at 20 miles = 2,000 kcal = 500 grams of glucose. Where this figure of 5 lbs comes from I don't know.
Anyway, I am having to be careful not to continue losing weight, I'm now below my already twice reduced target of 135 lbs by a couple but have been around this point for 4 months or so. Sensible meals, and now back to cooked breakfasts most days, with restricted snacking seems to be working.
Strangely, I put on 5 lbs last weekend by having an Indian meal on Saturday night followed by a 24 hr fast then an English veggie roast Sunday dinner in a pub (no beer, though). Has taken all week to shift, and 35 miles on my bike...
I blame the salt content of the Indian...

[carorees]

Does the 5lb figure include the water content that is bound with glycogen whereas your figure does not?

I have always considered the big loss after a fast day that quickly returns was due to glycogen stores and associated water being cyclically used and replenished. That is why I record my weight at the start of the fasting week because I think it better reflects true fat loss.

See now that's interesting because I lose after a fast day but then don't gain again. Maybe that's because I'm CC'ing.....and I also run 5K a couple of times a week so perhaps my own personal glycogen stores really are depleted.

I usually allow myself just under 1500 calories per day but earlier this week I had a bad day and ended up consuming around 2000 calories, a lot of them carbs - which is unusual for me. Overnight I shot up 1.5lbs. Then the following day I fasted and ended up lower than before I'd started! Perhaps the carbs caused me to retain more water.... I weigh myself daily and log the results as I'm like analysis and figures, but only class Monday as my "true" weigh-in day.