So today is the last day of the fast. I’m going to break it later this afternoon with a decent keto based meal. My weight loss for today was under one pound but at the same time I forgot to take the supplements before bed. So I’m now really curious whether that had a role to play or not as my water intake was 2-3 L yesterday.

That being said – here is where I have ended up at the end of 19 days.

So realistically I’m expecting to gain back roughly 12 pounds which is attributable to muscle mass and water loss and then to stabilize around 320-322 lbs before starting the next phase. This would be a similar pattern to previous fasts. Hopefully it will be the same this time.

The rate of weight loss, while still substantial, was definitely slower than before, however I find it interesting to note that in the first 4 days of the fast, across each of the three interventions, the pattern of weight loss was very similar. Especially by day 4-5. In each case the amount of weight lost was approximately 10-12 lbs.

So being very generous, between 33-40% of the overall weight loss therefore occurs in this first initial period. To be fair, my assumption is that most of that isn’t body fat but rather water weight.

Subject to summer time visitations, Intervention #4 is going to start July 2^nd once I get back from my conference. I’m going to try a Reverse 5:2 intermittent fast with the off days (i.e. full meal days) to include the gradual introduction of high intensity interval training.

Now that I know I can realistically complete a daily fast using the 10% rule (i.e. 10% of total calories and 11 glycemic load units or less) for an indefinite period of time, I think being able to do a reverse 5:2 intermediate fast shouldn’t be a problem.

In fact, the initial problem I’m finding is that while I want certain foods right at the moment – my interest in the types of foods I was eating before is substantially reduced from where it was previously. That is not to say I wouldn’t scarf down a slice of pizza right now if it was offered, but its not actually what I’m looking forward to. I have no desire for pizza. Now the salmon steak I have planned for dinner – hmmmmmmm, nom nom nom.

I’ve noticed however that this reduced desire for food effect usually kicks in full gear by around day 8 or 9. My thinking at this point is that I don’t need to go more than 10 days to break a carbohydrate addition in future fasts. Most of the key benefits seem to occur in that 10 day period of time providing an opportunity to get nutritional planning back under control again. 

To me, between stress and sleep, carbohydrate overloading is the next biggest killer in terms of getting insulin responses under control which is directly responsible for fat gain and loss. So having a method to break that cycle when it starts to starts to become an unhealthy pattern of behavior is great until you can make it a habit that doesn’t need an intervention.

— Kevin