Day 8 – Weight 302.6 | Body Fat 43.1%
Four things I want to blog about today:
One: Hoorah – apparently while my waist and neck measurements are going down slightly my ass is the biggest benefactor – 1.5 inches – WooT!
Two: I found a BMI alternative calculation[1] that seems to account a bit better for height discrepancies as compared to the regular formula. This number is also closer to the body fat analyzer and US Navy formula results so I’ve changed my tracking to use this formula instead. Means my Body Fat number above is slightly lower than it would have been however the number more closely approximates the combination of the three measurement techniques I’m using.
BMI = 1.3*weight(kg)/height(m)^2.5 = 5734*weight(lb)/height(in)^2.5
Three: Back on Day 8 and 9 of my previous fast[2] I was complaining about back pain and other sleep complications. This time around at day 8 … nothing. No stomach problems, no back pain, I’m sleeping okay, with the added fiber added to my daily routine I’ve even had a reasonable ‘potty’ schedule. The next three days will be the real telling sign of whether this approach is really making a difference but so far it seems to be working way better than the last time.
Here is the thing however, while I’m down 25 lbs vs 23 lbs for the same 8 day period last November, the amount of water weight I’ve estimated I’ve lost is 4 lbs greater than last time. So the actual fat lost at this point seems to be lagging behind. That might just be the result of being lighter than the last time when I started but considering the amount of water loss in the first two days, it might be something more.
Four: I’m discovering a number of different alternatives[3] to an extended fast approach that I’ve been using so far.
- The 12/12 Method – 12 hours of fasting followed by 12 hours of refeeding.
- The 16/8 Method – 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hours of refeeding
- The 5:2 Method – 2 non-consecutive full days per week fasting. This works out to about 34-38 hours of fasting twice per week.
- Eat-Stop-Eat – Similar to the 5:2 diet except the fasting is limited 24 hours of fasting once or twice a week.
- Alternate-Day Fasting – One day of fasting followed by one day of refeeding.
- The Warrior Method – could also be considered a 20/4 method with refeeding occurring within a 4 hour window each day
While my intention is to break the fast either December 20, or when my lean muscle mass is reduced by 10%, I’ve been considering switching over to something that is more gradual and probably more sustainable. I’ve been looking into ketogenic[4] and paleo[5] options. I was sort of doing a paleo nutritional method last time with carbs, cheese, and milk. I don’t know if I can live without cheese thou. Desserts I can live without. Living without cheese – that is just unnatural – caveman ancestry or not.
Regardless
Once the holidays are over and I’m not inundated with people, I’m considering a mixed approach at this point. Something along the lines of a 4/2/1. Four days refeeding, two days of fasting, and one day of carbohydrate loading. I would look something like this:
- 1 day of fasting
- 2 days of a mixed paleo/keto
- 1 day of fasting
- 2 days of a mixed paleo/keto
- 1 cheat day – carb loading
Yes the cheat day will break the ketosis cycle however there seems to be benefits to carb loading and increasing calories that helps increase metabolism. The periodic fasting would also seem to help with metabolism. It seems as if the more often you enter a ketosis state, the more efficient your body gets at transitioning between the two. It is my thinking that if I break this up with a 3-4 day fast periodically (say every other week) that this might work in terms of a weight loss rather than the water weight problem I was seeing over the last month.
Also, there seems to be a direct connection between when I exercise on this fast and how much weight I lose the next day. So yesterday for example I didn’t do my 40 minute walk (was busy rushing around doing other things so its not like I wasn’t walking) and this morning was only a 2lb drop in weight which is the lowest amount in the past 8 days. While this might be due to other causes, I’ll be interested to see what the scale shows tomorrow.