In 2012, the BBC broadcast a documentary, "
Eat, Fast, and Live Longer" in which medical journalist Dr. Mosley investigated how to eat to live longer. His plan to decrease IGF-1, a growth factor which contributes to aging and diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's, involves intermittent fasting. For example, you fast on two days and eat for five days, thus the "5-2" ratio. For me, I will try to fast on Mondays and Thursdays and eat basically whatever I want on non-fast or "feed" days. You'd think that you'd gorge on non-fast days, but generally people on these diets eat 110% of their regular amounts. Dr. Mosley has now written a book and has an excellent
website to guide you should you decide to accept this mission.
BBC - Eat, Fast And Live Longer (Jedz, pôsti sa a ži dlhšie) from
Jozef on
Vimeo.
Fast days allow you to have 500 calories if you're a woman, and 600 calories if you're a man. So you get to eat something.
I'm going to chronicle my experience on this diet and will edit this page as my experiment progresses. I've always been a believer in basically eat whatever you want, but don't overeat. This has served me well until now, as menopause begins to rear its ugly head. I find that I am slowly putting on weight, and it is much more difficult to lose than before on my (non-diet) eating philosophy. As a moderate to heavy exerciser who trains for triathlons, putting in 5-8 exercise sessions per week of swim, bike, or run, I'm finding that exercise is no longer enough to keep my weight down.
My base weight is 129 pounds and I am 5'3. I would like to get down to 118 pounds, which makes me quite thin as I have a lot of muscle mass and large bones.
Wednesday, April 2, 2013: 129 pounds. Fast day.
Breakfast: 2 eggs. 144 calories.
Lunch: Nothing.
I am obsessed with food, and my stomach growled for the first time around 1:00 pm. It was torture to prepare a lunch for my kids, and sitting now in the kitchen is more torture. Watching the documentary on fasting is torture.
As long as I was distracted, I did not notice the hunger. Surfing the net is not distracting enough as there are food images everywhere!
Dinner: Swiss Chalet's Healthy Choice West Coast Salad, 380 calories. It is made up of white meat chicken breast, greens, raisins, sunflower seeds, walnuts (?), and onions. I received two dressing cups. I hope the calorie count is accurate!
Was surprised to find a dinner under 400 calories in a restaurant menu! There were about three choices under 400 calories at Swiss Chalet.
Total calories for the day: 524. I am over by 24 calories (well more, because I greedily ate 4 of my daughter's french fries). I am quite full and should have no trouble sleeping.
I did not drink any extra water today, so I should see some weight loss due to dehydration, unfortunately.
Thursday, April 3, 2013 126.5 pounds. Feast Day.
Water loss is pretty impressive. And I was still wearing my pajamas. Wasn't famished when I woke, but did eat two "two ingredient" cookies (made only of banana and oatmeal). Went for a run and felt normal.
Sunday, April 6 125.0 pounds. Feast Day.
Went for a 75 km bike ride yesterday and was really bagged-- could barely maintain average 30 kph speed at the end. Wondered if it had anything to do with my "diet" despite only fasting one day. I noticed that since my weight is coming off, I'm feeling encouraged and eating even LESS! Even on my feast days, I tried not to eat too much.
Today ate at McDonald's because it was the last day for the coupons and had: six chicken nuggets (290), medium fries (360), small blueberry-pomegranate smoothie (210), one dipping sauce (60) for a total of 920 for one meal. I grabbed one of the nutritional information sheets (the back of the tray liner) and was shocked to find out that the blueberry-pomegranate smoothie has only 6% my required daily Vitamin C with 47g of sugar, the same sugar in a hot fudge sundae!!!
And, for future reference, when I need a 360 calorie evening meal at Mickey D's on a Fast Day I can eat these:
350 Mighty Caesar Entree Salad with Grilled Chicken
330 Tuscan Salad with Warm Grilled Chicken
311 Cashew Teriyaki Salad with Grilled Chicken
290 Chicken Snack Wrap
340 Bacon Cheeseburger
300 Cheeseburger and 40 Garden Side Salad
250 Hamburger
Monday, April 8 126.5 pounds. Fast Day.
And so finally my weight went up instead of down.
I celebrated by frying two eggs for breakfast, but didn't have time to eat them before I headed to a spin class. I sweated my face off there, followed by a yoga session. When I got home, I wolfed down the two eggs.
This time the fast was much easier. Yes, I did think about food often, but I wasn't in agony. I think I can do this regularly.
Dinner was a very salty tuna tataki salad (with very little greens--restaurant!) and marinated tuna on a small bed of rice. I'm pretty sure that exceeded 350 calories, but oh well, I tried. There is no calorie guide in a local Japanese restaurant.
My kids offered me a popsicle and I had to refuse it. My husband gave me a tea with milk and sugar, and I took it. That probably blew my calorie allotment.
Not too hungry going to sleep.
Wednesday, April 10 126.5 pounds. Feast Day.
Did no exercise at all today. Did no exercise at all yesterday. Ate fried rice at lunch, but still felt starving, and had to eat another one. I hope I had enough calories today to be able to fast tomorrow.
Saw a
documentary yesterday night which examined the question of whether there are naturally thin people, that is, people who cannot get fat. Some naturally thin people tried to eat double their usual calorie intake for many weeks. It outlined these points:
You are genetically predisposed to a certain weight.
Mothers can impact the weight of their unborn babies by their diet.
Some children will eat treats even if they are full, and those chidren will have a tendency to be fat later.
Fat cells have a finite capacity. When this capacity is reached, more fat cells are created. Fat cells never disappear but shrink. Having extra fat cells makes it easier for you to gain weight in the future.
Obesity may be caused by a virus. The
adenovirus.
Some people cannot gain as much weight as others because they have coping mechanisms. They may physically reject the food by feeling the need to vomit. They may increase their metabolism in response to overeating. They may grow more muscle to increase their metabolism, despite not exercising.
You'd better watch the documentary yourself because I could be wrong about some of the above facts--my recall isn't what it used to be!
Thursday, April 11 126.5. Fast Day.
Okay, I admit that I failed at the fast. I was so darn hungry in the morning. So for the day I ate:
1 cup cottage cheese 203
three oatmeal cookies 200
1 cup cottage cheese 203
1 cup snap peas 41
3 mandarin oranges 37x3=111
1.5 cups soy milk 135
TOTAL 893
Cottage cheese is quite high in calories. Okay, yeah, it's actually not the cheese that ruined it, it's the oatmeal cookies. And the soy milk. And the two mandarin oranges. One was okay. Wow, 500 calories really is next to no food at all.
But I need to drink 2 cups of soy milk a day to stave off perimenopausal symptoms. That saps 180 calories from my budget, with only 320 calories left. So, I can drink one cup of soy milk for breakfast, and have one at dinner with my slice of chicken and salad.
You see, I ate the extra food because I was afraid that I would die during my first track workout in, um, two years. I was trying out a new running group, one which intimidates me because they run 45 minute 10Ks. Well, it turned out that I was right. I wasn't able to keep up with them for the 800s, and definitely not for the 1600s. Instead, I plodded around by myself, and they lapped me. How humiliating.
Not sure whether this is due to the fasting, or poor fitness, or both. I have only done two runs in the last month.
On top of that, I ran into a guy who had wanted to date me in first year university (although he knew I already had a boyfriend). It was a bit of an ego boost that their 14 year old son could not keep up to me on the track, though. He and his wife were standing on the field watching their kid's soccer game. Yeah, and I had no makeup on and was exceedingly sweaty with bad hair from wearing my bike helmet.
And the running coach obviously disapproved of fasting. I probably come off as one of those people who does every gimmick diet around, when actually this is my first real diet. Heck, it's not even a diet, but a way to prolong life, prevent cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimers. I'm just hoping to lose weight on it. It seems everyone else has, but it has occurred to me that maybe they were fairly fat to begin with? And maybe I am too close to ideal weight.
Still hungry, but I'm going to forget my failure. Hard to feel encouraged when my weight hasn't changed for a few days. I don't even overeat on my FEAST days.
Saturday, April 13 126.0
Did a 2.5 hour bicycle ride doing hill repeats.
Here's a cool tool for graphing your weight. It updates automatically, so what you are seeing is my present weight and progress.
Get your own graph at skinnyr
Sunday, April 14 126.5 Feast
This is very discouraging. Ran for 30 minutes, ate normally.
Monday, April 15. 128.0 Fast
Wow, this is getting ridiculous and continuing to be discouraging. Should I expect my weight to go up on Mondays after three Feast days?
I'm really questioning this fast/feast dichotomy now. They said that I would not overeat by more than 110-130% on my Feast days. I have been trying not to overeat on my Feast days, but something is happening. I feel bloated and big. I *think* I am eating the same way I did before this whole experiment.
Ate nothing until 11:10 am, and in the meantime, ran 6 km and walked 2.5 km.
Maybe this experiment will not result in any weight loss. I mean, you cannot go on losing weight forever. Maybe I am already at ideal weight and the only people who can expect to lose weight on this are those who are overweight or obese to begin with. From the first day, I had a normal weight, but was trying to get to my "race weight." The problem with that normal weight is that I had a small gut, an overhang. My clothes were clearly too tight and I was getting muffin top, yet my BMI pegged me as being "normal."
Also, I wonder how they came up with the 500 calorie limit for women on Fast days. I just read that the average Canadian woman, who is my height, weighs 153 pounds. Is that 500 limit for 153 pound women? Then if I weigh only 127, proportionately my limit should be 417 calories.
I'll have to console myself with the fact that the main object of this exercise should be to extend life, not lose weight.
This entire fast day I felt hungry and insatiable. I ate nearly a normal dinner. Maybe I'm not drinking enough water.
Wednesday, April 17 127.0 Feast
Well at least my weight didn't go up.
Friday, April 19 127.0 Feast
I didn't fast yesterday. Couldn't bring myself to do it. I was so hungry when I woke up. But I have gone for a run four out of the five days this week. Then I read an
article by DH Kiefer that suggests that women should avoid steady state cardio because it basically messes up their metabolism.
"Studies—both clinical and observational—make a compelling case that too much cardio can impair the production of the thyroid hormone T3, its effectiveness and metabolism[1-11], particularly when accompanied by caloric restriction, an all too common practice. This is why many first or second-time figure and bikini competitors explode in weight when they return to their normal diets, and it’s why the Jessicas of the world can run for hours every week with negative results. ...
Too little T3 (hypothyroidism), and the body accumulates body fat with ease, almost regardless of physical activity level. Women inadvertently put themselves into a hypothyroid condition when they perform so much steady-state cardio." ...
Training consistently at 65 percent or more of your max heart rate adapts your body to save as much body fat as possible. After regular training, fat cells stop releasing fat the way they once did during moderate-intensity activities[32-33]. Energy from body fat stores also decreases by 30 percent[34-35]. To this end, your body sets into motion a series of reactions that make it difficult for muscle to burn fat at all[36-41]. Instead of burning body fat, your body takes extraordinary measures to retain it.
That’s not all. You can still lose muscle mass. Too much steady-state cardio actually triggers the loss of muscle[42-45]. This seems to be a twofold mechanism, with heightened and sustained cortisol levels triggering muscle loss[46-56], which upregulates myostatin, a potent destroyer of muscle tissue[57]. Say goodbye to bone density, too, because it declines with that decreasing muscle mass and strength[58-64].
And long term health? Out the window, as well. Your percentage of muscle mass is an independent indicator of health[65]. You’ll lose muscle, lose bone, and lose health. Awesome, right?"
So all those runs and swims I've been doing the past year? Yup, I did them at a steady pace... almost all of them. Sure, I did intervals, like, TWICE while running and TWICE while swimming, but 99.9% of my workouts were steady. Because I hate pain, and intervals mean pain. Now, it's not that I didn't know that already, that high intensity intervals are the way to go. It was just that I had convinced myself that I needed to build up a base before I start speed training. And now to find out this.
It certainly explains why I not only haven't lost any weight since I first started in earnest on my weight loss program back in January, and then resorting to my first ever real "diet" in my life with the 5-2 plan.
Monday, April 22. 126 lbs. Fast.
Breakfast: one piece of homemade matcha pound cake. 350 calories.
Cup of milk. 146.
Dinner: fish taco. 250.
200 ml beer leftover from beer batter: 140
Day's total: 886
Maybe it's okay... if I swam for 44 minutes... 255 calories burned. I also cycled for 30 minutes. 249 calories burned. Does Dr. Mosley's formula for 500 calories apply if you're sedentary, or active? Does it matter? Apparently, it doesn't.
Here's a handy
tool for calculating how many calories you burn from exercise, with weight taken into consideration.
Another blogger asked the original scientists interviewed in Dr. Mosley's Horizon program to many questions I had, and I will try to sum those answers up for you:
Can you eat the 500/600 fast day calories all at once or can you spread them out throughout the day?
1. Best is fasting for four days in a row each month, with intermittent fasting during the week to maintain.
2. Try to eat plant based low protein food.
3. Try to do a strict fast for as many hours as possible.
4. If you must eat on a fast day, have the calories at breakfast and do not eat until the next day (this doesn't make sense to me... If you already fasted overnight from 7 pm after dinner, then the one meal could be dinner, to make it a 24 hour fast. Having it at breakfast interrupts the fast from the previous day's dinner, and starts the clock again, ending at breakfast the next day, so again, 24 hours.
5. It is best to have no calories at all on a fast day.
6. If you must eat on a fast day, eat all calories in one meal. One of the scientists allowed fasters to eat between noon to 2 pm on fast days.
So, for fast days make sure you have a 24 hour period with no food at all (but hydrate with zero calorie beverages). No food at all is the best. So forget the plan where you eat eggs and ham at breakfast, nothing for lunch, and a 350 calorie dinner. That would only result in a 14 hour fast, at best.
Thursday, April 25. 125. Fast.
Last night I decided to do the 24 hour fast, as recommended. The problem was, I ate a vegan dinner, and a tiny one at that. So by 10:00 pm I was already really really hungry. Do I eat again? That would re-start the 24 clock. I ended up eating 2 slivers of fresh mango from my daughter's plate.
Today both my kids were home from school with 37.3C fevers. I prepared blueberry pancakes for them that I could not eat myself. I went to school to pick up their homework and smelled food in the hallways, and saw a box of almonds on the teacher's desk. I could not have any. It's hard to imagine what it is like to be hungry all the time, as some people in the world must experience. I felt like I was being mightily tortured.
So, I get to live longer. I sure hope I get used to this feeling of hunger. My stomach started growling at 9 am, and I was not sure how I was going to get through the rest of the day. But I can always look forward to dinner today, 500 calories at that, which is a LOT OF FOOD.
Monday, April 29. 124.5. Famine Day, I mean Fast Day.
Yesterday at dinner I was cognizant that the next day would be a fast day. I wanted to eat extra, but I also did not want to eat more than 100% of a normal day's calories. I dread Fast Days. I really do.
I forgot it was a Fast Day this morning and ate gummy vitamins. I hope that does not ruin the fast.
My stomach started grumbling by 9 am. It is torture to prepare food for others when you're fasting.
Ran 5.5 km, cycled 6 km, and swam 2 km. I did not feel weak at all. I thought if I exercise, I can fill the time and not notice the hunger.
By 4 pm I gave in and ate popcorn with the kids. At 6:15 pm I ate a normal dinner which definitely exceeded 500 calories. Reasoned with myself that it is the 24 hours (oops... 23 hours) without food that is making the difference, not the 500 calorie meal. Probably wrong about that.
Tuesday, April 30. 125.5. Feast Day.
I'm pretty sure I was trying to make up for calories missed today. I ate four chocolates, leftover nuts, tofu dessert, macaroni and cheese, an apple, two bowls of ice cream, sole, spinach, and soba noodles. I was having an intense craving for high calorie foods. That's 1635 calories.
According to myfitnesspal, I need to eat only 1200 calories a day to lose just half a pound per week. I need a daily calorie deficit of 270 calories. It will take me 2.5 months to lose 5 pounds. We're looking at summer before I go under 120 pounds.
Thursday, May 2. 122.5. Fast Day.
Forgot to weigh myself this morning, so, unfortunately, I weighed myself after my 5 km run, so there is some water loss. At first when I got on the scale, I couldn't believe my eyes: 121 pounds! But lately I've been weighing myself 5 times to get a proper reading, because the first reading is always 1-2 pounds lighter than some of the other readings.
At dinner, I ate normally because I foolishly made some chia brownies and ate some. Then at night, I had a greek yogurt ice cream bar... delicious. I was surprised it was only 90 calories when I checked.
Total calories for the day: 942. Exercise calories burned: 354. Net calories for the day: 588. So although I overate, the calories for the day are only a little above the 500 maximum under the fasting rules.
I'm liking myfitnesspal. It makes me more carefully track all the food I eat and pushes me to do more exercise to keep my daily numbers down.
Saturday, May 4. 121. Feast.
Who doesn't like brownies for breakfast? Love the ability to eat whatever I want on feast days. Yesssss!
I'm now below my target "sustainable" weight of 122 pounds. Yesterday I wore a dress that was tight on me just five months ago, when I wore it at a party. Now it gapes under my arms and drapes loosely around my body, when I was practically straining the zipper the last time I wore it.
After my two hour bike ride, my scale showed 119.5 pounds! Nice to see, even if it's only water loss.
Here is what myfitnesspal told me today:
Totals (calories eaten): 2,553
Your daily goal: 2,956
Remaining:
403
(You've earned 1756 extra calories from exercise today)
I am allowed 1200 calories per day to lose weight. Exercising the equivalent of 1756 calories allows me to eat a total of 2956 calories!!! And I almost made it there.
"Remaining: 403" means that I have room to eat an additional 403 calories while still losing weight.
Surprising food fact: dulce de leche gelato in a waffle cone is a whopping 400 calories!
Tuesday, May 7. 122. Feast.
It might not be such a good idea for me to track diet and exercise on Myfitnesspal. Today I received a warning that eating less than 1200 calories would lead to starvation mode. So I ate a third piece of cake to bring my total to 1,205. Yeah, you heard that right. I ate THREE pieces of swiss cake roll, and my total calories for the day was still barely over 1200.
This morning I ran 6 km and then in the afternoon I swam 2175 m freestyle at a good clip. That is 778 calories, not counting all the walking I did. Myfitnesspal adds the exercise calories to your daily allowance, so my base 1200 calories has 778 calories of exercise added to it, so in theory I can eat up to almost 2000 calories while losing weight!
The reality is that almost every day I eat less than the allotment of calories. Without the exercise bonus, it is challenging to eat under 1200 calories.
I think for myself that using Myfitnesspal encourages me to eat more.
Advice for those starting fasting: The feelings of hunger will come and go throughout the 24 hours. Sometimes you feel like you want to gnaw off your own arm, and other times, you forget that you haven't eaten all day. Try to ride out the waves by drinking water or (sugarless milkless) tea and engaging your mind. Another trick I do is to exercise a lot.
Friday, May 10. 121. Feast Day.
Yesterday was a fast day and I forgot I was on a fast and ate the kids' leftover corn cob... ate a couple rows before I did a forehead slap.
The hunger was incredible. I went out for a 6.3 km run, did yoga for 40 minutes, then rode my bicycle around slowly spectating an event. That really helped to pass the time.
While fasting, I did some research on how many hours it takes for autophagy to kick in, autophagy meaning the cellular repair processes that help you live longer. You run out of liver in glycogen 12-18 hours. There was no clear study on when autophagy begins, so I have to guess that it is some time after 12-18 hours. I would think you're looking at a minimum of 18 hours. Why would I be looking this up? Because I wanted to eat sooner. That day.
When I'm satiated on a feast day, it is easy to look back at a fast day and think, "Hey, that wasn't too bad." But the reality of it is, although fast days are getting easier, they are by now means EASY. It's like childbirth, and raising babies. You get amnesia after your first child, thinking, hey, that wasn't too bad. Let's have another! But then when you have another child, you remember how bad it was! Hahaha! So I'm never going to tell someone that fasting is easy, even just a 24 hour fast, because it is uncomfortable feeling so hungry that all you think about is food, and your stomach grumbles like the giant empty cavern it is.
Friday, May 25. 123. Fast Day.
I didn't actually gain weight. I switched scales. My new scale, the Fitbit Aria, has me weighing two pounds more than my old scale. Sigh. It was demoralizing finding out I wasn't as light as I thought I was.
It seems that I have a new body weight setpoint, because I haven't gained any weight this week despite going off the 5:2 regimen.
Since getting the new scale two weeks ago, although my weight has remained steady at 123 (121 on the old scale), my fat has increased by 1%. This week has been a mess because I spent full days doing volunteer work and did not have a chance to exercise. So far I swam, ran, and did yoga once, and that's 50% of my usual load. I also did not fast on Monday because it was a holiday, and then when Tuesday came, I could not do it, despite eating huge amounts on the weekend. I also did not fast on Thursday. So a very bad week. This is the first week that I haven't done any fasting. I'll try to fast today, but in order to go 24 hours, I need to eat nothing until 9 pm, because that's when I last ate.
Have a commercial audition at 4 pm today. I hope my stomach doesn't growl in the quiet room.
Wore my skinny jeggings last weekend. I had avoided them for months because they were too tight and now they're loose. I love intermittent fasting!
The only thing I don't love is this: I am having frequent hot flashes again. When I mean frequent, I mean sometimes every 30 minutes or less. Sweaty, annoying hot flashes. My sleep is interrupted, waking 3-6 times a night, always followed by a hot flash, throwing off the covers, then resuming sleep.
After some research, I have decided the cause is likely the rapid loss of fat, since fat cells produce estrogen. I had been battling hot flashes a year ago and
solved it with drinking soy milk, which contains a plant estrogen-like compound. It seems my estrogen was barely adequate and with this fat loss has brought back perimenopausal symptoms.
My response has been to buy maca root powder. My research suggested it as a possible cure. Bought a one pound bag for $24 at Nesters Market on Main Street. I mix one tablespoon with hot water a drink it daily. So far, it's done nothing for me, and I've been taking it since Mother's Day, May 17. I'll try to be patient since I read it takes three weeks to have an effect.
After that I'm going to try hormones. It's not okay to have terrible sleep all the time. Last weekend I had a nap on a beanbag chair in the children's section of Chapters, I was THAT tired.
Friday, May 31. 122.2 Feast Day.
Well, it finally happened. We had a long weekend, and so Monday was a holiday. And not a fast day, because I don't like fasting when the family's at home.
I figured I would do it the next day. But I didn't. Then I thought I would do it on Thursday. But I didn't. Monday. Failed again. Finally, Wednesday, I did it. My next fast will be Monday again.
Perhaps because of this failure, I signed up for a bootcamp. Every time I do a bootcamp, I get injured. So far with this new bootcamp, which only costed me $29 for a month of unlimited classes, I have not been injured, but I certainly do have excruciatingly sore muscles. Not sure I subscribe to the method of basically pummelling the same muscle group repeatedly through different exercises for most of the class.
I joined on Wednesday, and that was quad and hamstring day. Thursday was tricep and bicep day. Friday I could not go as I had volunteered to supervise a end of year field trip to the garbage dump. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... who would choose a dump over exercise? But the dump was really very interesting!
The problem with the bootcamp is that I will not be able to do my usual running and cycling during the week, limiting myself to swimming.
My weight has remained surprisingly stable despite lack of fasting. It is now hovering around 122, which is 120 on the old scale. So now I've lost around 10.5 pounds.
We shall see whether the bootcamp will kickstart more fat loss. Interestingly, although I have lost 10 pounds, my body fat has also increased, from 24.6% to 25.1%. So perhaps I am losing muscle.
My hot flashes are still bothering me, despite now increasing my soy milk intake to 3 cups daily and one capsule of black cohosh. My sleep has improved, from four wakeups to one or two.
Thursday, June 12. Fast Day. 121.
I stopped going to the bootcamp after only two visits because I became injured. That is the last thing I want. I have to be in pain free shape so I can train for triathlon.
On Monday I finally returned to regular fasting. I was only half-heartedly fasting--doing the 500 calorie breakfast/dinner combo I first tried successfully. The 24 hour fast was too much as I would be waking up ravenously hungry.
I received my $99 Fitbit Flex yesterday. It is a tracker for walking (and running) and for sleep. I wanted it to motivate me to move more (and sleep more), but it hasn't, so far, since I only walked 5,700 steps yesterday. Although I spent the whole day dressed in my running clothes, instead I spent my day researching various things that I convinced myself were urgent.
This week I am acting in a commercial, and it is occupying my energy. Last week I put on a dress that I bought during March Break in Hawaii. It fit well then, but now it is is unflatteringly large on me, with the sides pooching out, an extra three inches of fabric around my chest area. Have I lost that much weight? My body fat is back down again.
I bought a box of Aero chocolate bars and another box of an assortment of chocolate bars. I have been eating whole chocolate bars, and my weight is still not going up, appearing to have stabilized.
My hot flashes have largely disappeared. I am thinking it is because I had stopped fasting the past two weeks? Or because I am drinking more soy?
My body fat percentage dropped below 25% again recently.
The other surprise is that I am running faster with less effort. I keep setting personal bests in my usual run, and I don't feel like I am trying particularly hard. My riding is also getting easier. Last weekend I rode with only my husband, and although I wasn't killing myself on the bike, it was our second fastest time for the usual route, despite there being only two of us and not the usual six for drafting.
If on the old scale, I would be 119, which is only one pound off my desired weight. I am almost there.
Monday, June 17. 124.7. Fast Day.
Forgot it was Fast Day and ate 1/4 brownie... and ate various junk food throughout the day.
So I've gained back nearly four pounds in the space of a few days. This coincides with my feeling of being bloated, and my body fat decreasing 1-2%, and, uh, ovulation. Let's hope it's just water weight. I did a terrible job fasting today, so I'll have to try again tomorrow. I might have to take baby steps and get back to how I started, with 500 calories spread between breakfast and dinner. That was easier than 24 hours of nothing.
Filmed my commercial on Sunday and ate delicious film set food...
Saturday, October 19. 122.5. Ended fasting.
I abandoned intermittent fasting because I could not handle the hot flashes any more. Once I gained weight, around five pounds, I noticed that my hot flashes stopped.
Recently, however, I have started increasing my running since I am training for a marathon. My weight has come down again, from a high of 127 two weeks ago. My hot flashes returned, just a few at first, and now I wake up regularly at night 3-5 times, sweating after I wake. My body fat measures 24.5-24.9%. I thought it was important to update this blog to note that it was not intermittent fasting that caused the hot flashes, but the low body weight.
Update: January 13, 2014. 125.3
Well, I gained weight over Christmas with the kids off school and no time to train. To the tune of 128 pounds by January 5. My hot flashes disappeared again. I am now losing weight again as I increase my mileage while marathon training. My hot flashes have returned. And I am not doing any intermittent fasting! When I was 125-128 pounds and body fast as high as 26.7% (thank you Christmas chocolates!) for a glorious few months, I was able to sleep through the night. Now as I lose weight, my sleep quality is going to pot. Last night was the worst yet. I woke up twice. I hope it does not revert back to the 3-5 times a night that it was when I was at my lowest weight.
