R52 Day 12

19 verse 24 lbs after 12 days

That seems to be the main difference so far between doing an F10 fasting (i.e. 10% maximum calories) as compared to doing a R52 intermittent fast. However, I’m finding a couple of major differences.

  1. the percentage of lean muscle mass seems to be better preserved using this method. While lean muscle mass seems to decline linearly with fat loss during the fasting period, the inclusion of a few days of refeeding seems to helps with preserving lean-to-fat ratio. 

    That doesn’t seem to be the case on the way down. Or at least not as much as I’ve seen in the past. But there seems to be a significant re-balancing of the percentages after refeeding rather than during. 

    Whether this is due to improving muscle balance or due to an error in the electrical impedance when fasting I don’t know. 

  2. I’m having a major craving for protein while on fasting days. Whether that is psychological or nutritional I’m not sure. I’ve taken to adding about 100g of ‘natural’ turkey to what I’ve been eating this past week.

    It has been raising my total calories up towards the 12-13% mark of total calories for the day as compared to the 10% I was trying to limit to. Glycemic load is still the same as the glycemic index for turkey is zero (0). 

    Having the protein as the last thing I eat for the day seems to have more beneficial effects than if I try eating it earlier in the day. I need to research whether there has been a studied effect of this. One of my friends that used to work in a hospital indicated that often nurses will give diabetics peanut butter or other protein in the evenings to help balance out insulin throughout the night. So there might be something to this. 

    For now, this is just a place holder for if I’m craving it as compared to not including it at all. It doesn’t seem to adversely impact weight loss however. Will see what the next week brings.

  3. I’ve been walking more in the mornings rather than the evenings. Ya. Shocked the hell out of me as well. After almost 3 months of walking (now 7200 steps per day minimum) I’m finding that I like walking in the morning as compared to later in the day. This might just be a fad but in some ways, getting the steps out of the way early seems to be leaving me more time to do other things throughout the day.

  4. I’ve been having a bit of trouble sleeping again and so have taken to including 4.5 mg of melatonin in the evenings. This is despite waking up before the alarm (7a) and getting tired earlier in the evening (keep in mind 11:00-11:30p for me is early).

    A study with the University of Manitoba has make a link between melatonin (up to 10mg per evening) and fitness. The study seems to suggest that melatonin is beneficial for more than just sleep. It helps improve overall fitness as well. I had stumbled upon this in flipbook and then forgot to bookmark it. Once I find it again I’ll post the actual link and conclusions.

Today is my second refeed day this week. The first one I maxed out at 3500 calories (500 more than my estimated max) but today I’m struggling to get to 2000. At the same time I don’t want to eat just for the sake of eating which is what I was sort of finding myself doing on Friday in order to push towards that 2950 number. 

I’ve mentioned this before and will mention it again here. Doing this type of intermittent fasting seems to have a natural tendency to drive your desire for food down and more towards what would be considered a more Mediterranean dietary approach towards food. That is a good thing I feel in the long run. Truth be told however you don’t get there overnight. Its a gradual process and one that in my case has been taking years to get to this point. 

I just wish I had learned this earlier – like 30 years ago. Unfortunately, like most people at that age, you are still invincible and coming to that realization can oft times require a ‘coming to Jesus’ moment where you realize you can’t continue like this forever. You either want to make the change in your heart or you don’t.

— Kevin

R52 Under 300
R52 Day 7

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