Current weight: 292 lbs,
Total weight loss: 13.8 lbs.
First Day of Fasting
As I mentioned before, I decided to incorporate some alternate-day fasting into my wellness endeavor.
This is a strategy that some people have identified as helpful for weight loss and other metabolic conditions, including Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore in their book The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day and Extended Fasting.
Yesterday was my first full day of fasting, and I wanted to report on how it went.
The Good??
I survived.
The Bad??
It was tough, I’m not going to lie.
The Ugly??
(Actually, nothing yet…)
But, it wasn’t as hard as I had expected. I purposely picked a day that I knew would be very busy. (My hope was that I’d be so busy, my body wouldn’t notice it wasn’t getting any food…wishful thinking…)
Overview of Fasting Day #1
I started the day with a big glass of water followed by my regular cup of hot tea with some cream and liquid sucralose. Fasting purists probably would not be happy that I had the cream, but I figure that a tablespoon or two in my morning tea will just have to be ok for now. (I also know artificial sweeteners are discouraged, but I still have been using some sucralose or erythritol in my drinks occasionally. I would love to not use them at all, but I still crave a little sweetness. For now, so long as I’m in nutritional ketosis and losing weight, I’m not going to worry about it — it’s hard to change everything at once!)
And the rest of the day can just be summed up pretty easily:
Lots of non-calorie fluids.
I will admit, it was nice not to worry so much about food throughout the day: what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat. I also couldn’t believe how much extra time I had!
But I definitely did think about food. Especially in the early afternoon when my body realized that it had missed its normal meal. My stomach growled. A lot. And loudly. Fortunately I was alone in my office most of the day.
And I felt hungry during much of the afternoon. Drinking cold water with lime slices definitely helped. I think just being full of fluids also helped hold off hunger – though it also made me a frequent bathroom visitor.
I felt particularly tired last night and went to bed earlier than usual. Partly because of fatigue and partly because I just wanted the day of fasting to end. When there is no food, it seems like there isn’t much to look forward to…
This morning, my weight was down 1.4 pounds.
I realize that much of it was fluid, but I know that some was fat loss since I had no food intake yesterday. My urine ketones were also quite high this morning, which makes sense and is further proof of fat burning.
I didn’t wake up weak or famished. I actually felt pretty good, and I had my first meal about 2 hours after getting up.
And man, did that meal taste good.
So overall, I am calling my first day of fasting a success. Certainly a challenge, but a success.
After yesterday, I think I will be able to incorporate some alternate-day fasting into the 100 days. So long as I am feeling well and it seems to be working, I will try to stick to a fasting schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday as much as possible. In a few days I will be out of town for a meeting, so I won’t be able to start the official three times a week fasting schedule until Friday.
And until then, I’ll stick to my plan of eating delicious and nutritious whole foods.
Day #15:
Current weight: 292 lbs
Total weight loss: 13.8 lbs
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