Mark’s Alternate Day Fasting Blog

It’s been more than four months since I stopped alternate day fasting. Time for an update. Over the xmas period, I ate and drank whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I also didn’t go to the gym during December due to work commitments. All this didn’t seem to have an impact on my weight, and I’m happy to say that my weight continued dropped to 76kg. Since then, I have been going to the gym once or twice per week, but certainly don’t restrict my eating or drinking like I did when I was on the ADF diet.

I still want to get my weight down a bit more - maybe even as low as 70kg, but i’m not in any rush - I’m now quite slim, apart from a bit of a tummy. The main thing for me is that I’ve managed to find a balance in my lifestyle that allows me to enjoy eating, drinking and excercising without having to go to the extreme on any of them. I’m also a lot more active than I was 6 months ago. I think the main thing is that I made a conscious decision to make a change and acted on it - for me, going on an alternative day fast was the catalyst that allowed me to make it happen. Sure it was hard, but it set up some ground rules to follow and achieve.

This is my first post for almost three weeks, and it’s safe to say that I’m not going to continue with alternate day fasting. It was good as an experiment, but I have a few opinions regarding adf as a long term venture.

Two and a half weeks ago I got sick and stopped fasting or doing any exercise. Predictably, my weight went up a bit, and then it levelled out. Annoyingly, my weight has even dropped in the last week despite eating and drinking whatever I wanted.

Ultimately, I think that the effort and discomfort of fasting is not worth the results. I do however think that a sensibly reduced diet of good quality nourishing food, along with regular exercise is the best way for me to lose weight - hmmmn, I’m sure I’ve heard that somewhere before………

Anyway, I will continue to monitor my weight, but I think the fasting thing is over for me for now.

Wednesday 19th November 2008

It’s now been one month since I started alternate day fasting. Looking at the trendline in the weight log graph, I estimate I’ve lost about 3kg (about 6.5 pounds). I thought I might be able to lose more than that, but I’m fairly happy with the result. If I can keep it up, in another month, I should be approaching my ideal weight.

My general fitness has improved a lot due to going to the gym, but I still wouldn’t yet call myself fit - a lot more work to do there. At least now I can run for 4km, which I managed to do again today. This time on the treadmill at 9.5 km per hour in just under 30 minutes. A few months ago, I was struggling to jog a few hundred meters.

I havn’t been measuring it, but my waistline has come down - I can tell by my belt. I’ve still got a gut and I can grab a full handfull of flab around my waist. This is really what I want to lose and I will continue with this diet and exercise until I am happy - even if I have to drop a lot more weight than I planned.

Today I ate well - a bowl of pasta for lunch and some left over sandwiches from yet another function at work (there’s almost one every day). I didn’t eat much after the gym, just a small bowl of fruit salad.

I went to pilates this evening, and then burned 500 calories on the treadmill. When I got home, my weight was at 77.6 kg.

Tuesday 18th November 2008

I had one small sandwich at lunchtime and a couple of cups of coffee with milk throughout the day, but that’s all. No workout at the gym after work, but I did attend a pilates class.

Monday 17th November 2008

I had a larger then necessary lunch today as there was a lot of nice fresh sandwiches left over from a meeting that didn’t happen, which I ate on top of the food I brought in from home. For dinner I had a largish size bowl of pasta - again more than I needed. Fore some reason I was thinking that I’d better eat a bit more now, because I wouldn’t be getting anything tomorrow. The reality is that it is the large fluctuations in consumption that cause me to feel hungrier.

The muscles in my legs were a bit sore after yesterday’s run. Nevertheless, I was back at the gym this evening. I’ve been neglecting the weights for a few weeks, so did three sets of 15 reps on six different machines. After this I walked/ran for about 20 min on the treadmill, burning 250 calories. After this I was quite tired, but went to yoga - I really found it harder than normal and struggled with some of the movements I’m normally fine with.

Sunday 16th November 2008

Accoring to some random websites I’ve been browsing, my ideal weight is around 74kg, so I’ve still got a long way to go. One month ago, I weighed somewhere around 82-83kg, so I’ve lost maybe 2 or 3 kg in that time.

I had a grapefruit this afternoon, and it was so good, I’m going to eat another one tonight. I didn’t get to the gym, but I was feeling fat and lazy this evening and went out for a run. I did 10 laps of the local athletics field which I assume is 400m long, so that’s 4km, plus the walk there and I walked one additional lap after running 5, so all up more than 5km.

Saturday 15th November 2008

I’ve been a bit slack updating the blog this week. I went to the gym on Wednesday and attended a pilates class and burned 250 calories on the treadmill. Thursday was a fasting day, but I didn’t go to the gym at all. Friday I ate a huge scotch fillet steak for lunch, again no gym.

Today I’m just under 80kg. The weight log graph shows a plateau for last weekend and I’ll probably get another one this weekend. I just havn’t been doing enough regular exercise.

Tuesday 11th November 2008

So now I’m back under 80kg - hopefully I can stay under this week.

I was give a piece of very rich chocolate cake at work this morning, and it would have been rude not to eat it - I rarely eat cake and eating it on an empty stomach made me feel a bit ill. Other than that I had two apples throughout the day and that’s it.

I did get to the gym and attended a pilates class and burned about 400 calories on the treadmill. When I got home, my weight was down to 78.2 despite having drank a lot of water.

Monday 10th November 2008

Only a slight drop in my weight, and I’m still above 80kg. I wonder how I’ll go when I reach my target weight and stop fasting - I really don’t want to just put the weight back on again. I suppose I could try backing off to just one or two days of fasting a week for a while. Anyway, I’ve got at least another 5kg to drop and I may even try to get down to the low 70’s depending on my physique. So, stopping the fast is a few months away yet…

I didn’t eat a whole lot today, just enough to not be hungry. I went’ to a yoga class after work, but didn’t do any other exercise.

Sunday 9th November 2008

Three weeks down and I’m sitting a bit above 80kg. Apparently I’ve moved 2 kg up from 78.8 kg on Wednesday to 80.8 kg today! I simply have no understanding of these day to day weight fluctuations and can really only put any faith in the trendline on the weight log graph. Unfortunately, the trendline needs a few days worth of data to even out. In any case, the trendline has taken on a nice steep slope since I started alternate day fasting compared to when I was only going to the gym. I think I can confidently say I’m losing at least 1kg per week (maybe 1.5kg).

I spent the whole day programming again, and found it extremely hard not to eat. The brain needs a whole lot of energy when it’s working hard. I tried to compensate with liquids, drinking water and tea almost continuously - I must have had 10 cups of herbal tea! Later in the evening, I started nibbling on some cheese, then found a raw carrot and a cucumber to eat. I kept working until about 3am and was very hungry when I went to bed.

Saturday 8th November 2008

Ok, I’m having two eating days in a row so I can set up a weekly routine. Today I ate freely and didn’t really do any exercise - actually I spent most of the day programming, so was sitting in front of the computer all day. I ate quite a lot today and was continuously hungry.

Friday 7th November 2008

I had my usual steak & chips at the pub for lunch.  In the evening I ate a huge bowl of pasta. Friday’s is my “alcohol” day and I ended up having a couple of bourbon’s and about half a dozen beers. That’s probably about 5000 kJ (1200 calories), so I’m probably going to pay for it…

Thursday 6th November 2008

I got another free lunch at work today, so ended up having a couple of sandwiches. But that’s all for the rest of the day.

I didn’t go to the gym either.

Wednesday 5th November 2008

Yesterday’s workout paid off with my weight dropping sharply again.

Today I had a training seminar which was catered and they provided lots of very nice cakes & treats which was hard to resist. I ate fairly freely today.

I didn’t get home till late, so I didn’t go to the gym today.