Current weight: 288.6 lbs,
Total weight loss: 17.2 lbs.
Last week, I completed my first full week of alternate-day fasting.
This means that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I fasted the entire day, with the exception of some cream and liquid sucralose in my morning tea. This was based on one of the protocol’s described by Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore in their book The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day and Prolonged Fasting.
Since I had fasted twice before during this process, I knew basically what to expect. But I was somewhat concerned about what it would be like to do three days so close together.
And actually, it wasn’t too bad. I felt pretty good the entire week and between Monday and Saturday, the scale went down. I included some more details about the week below.
Alternate-Day Fasting – First Week Update
Weight
At the start of the week last Monday, my weight was 295 and this morning, Monday a week later, my weight was 288.8. Over the course of the week, that’s a loss of 6.4 pounds which is great. And that includes Saturday and Sunday, when I ate the way I normally would as part of the ketogenic diet.
The graph below shows the weights over the week. The fasting days in the graph would be Day 1, 3 and 5. Days 2, 4, 6 and 7 were eating days and today is Day 8 (another fast day and the start of the week). You can see that there was significant weigh loss after a fasting day, and some of that weight was regained the next day when I ate normally. But overall, the trend is definitely down.
Diet
On my fasting days, the only thing I had was some cream (and a few drops of liquid sucralose) in my morning tea. The rest of the day was just zero calorie fluids.
On the other days when I returned to eating, I didn’t limit myself at all, but stuck to the principles of my ketogenic diet. On those days, I usually had my first meal around late morning or noon. My calorie intakes on those days were:
- Tuesday: 1505 kcal
- Thursday: 2079 kcal
- Saturday: 1341 kcal
- Sunday: 1622 kcal
Over those days, I averaged 65% of calories from fat and mainly ate a variety of vegetables, healthy oils and fats, different meats and poultry and some dairy. Although my urine ketones were positive throughout the week, they became more intense the mornings after fasting.
Overall Experience
Overall, the week went well and I felt good. I didn’t have low energy on the days I fasted although I did feel tired earlier than normal on those nights.
It was definitely hard to fast when others where eating. I don’t think that will ever change, and I found myself avoiding meals and situations to help with this. Unfortunately, I think this will be one of the main downsides and challenges to any type of consistent fasting. I can see it being hard to have a normal social life while try to maintain a regular fasting schedule.
And what was interesting was that on my ‘eating days’, I wasn’t as famished as I thought I would be (although I was definitely hungry and super excited to eat!). Even though I could eat whatever amount I wanted, I don’t feel like I ate a lot. It’s almost as if I got fuller quicker. My calories ranged from 1342 to 2079 kcal on those days – a reasonable amount for someone my size.
I consider the past week of alternate-day fasting a success. Certainly a challenge, but definitely a success. And I think I will be able to incorporate regular alternate-day fasting as part of this wellness endeavor. But, I remind myself that I will remain flexible and be guided by how I feel.
Day #28:
Current weight: 288.6 lbs
Total weight loss: 17.2 lbs
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