Mark’s Alternate Day Fasting Blog

Tuesday 4th November 2008

Today I’m feeling pretty good. I weighed in at 80 kg this morning after an eating day. 80 kg is a good psychological barrier and I’m encouraged to keep below it.

I was so busy at work today I forgot I was hungry. I did eat an apple at lunchtime though. The Melbourne Cup was on this afternoon, and the company had put on a huge spread of sandwiches and finger food for the race. Normally I would take full advantage of such a treat, but I managed to restrain myself and just have a couple of bits of cheese & salami.

After work it was straight to the gym for a pilates class. After that I jumped on the cross trainer, and then the treadmill and burned about 600 calories. When I got home, my weight was 78.6 kg.

I’m down under 80 kg! Well at least for this morning…

Breakfast - 2 slices of toast with vegemite & cheese
Lunch - 2 salad sandwiches (2 tomatoes, one onion, one cucumber, wholegrain bread, wholegrain mustard, no butter).
Dinner - A bowl of pasta & my pasta sauce with a healthy topping of cheese.

I went to the gym after work. Only had time for 200 calories on the treadmill before going to a yoga class.

Sunday 2nd November 2008

Two weeks down. It was looking like I would break the 80kg barrier this week, but it was not to be after eating well for three days in a row.

Actually, I think the three day span of eating was quite a good thing for a number of reasons.

1. I definitely feel better emotionally
2. I don’t really feel very hungry today
3. It allowed me to eat on each Friday of the week

I did go to the gym today and managed to burn about 700 calories and attend a yoga class.

I weighed myself after getting home from the gym and was pleased to see my weight down to 79.6 kg.

I sweat profusely when I’m working out - obviously I’m getting rid of a lot of weight just from that.

Saturday 1st November 2008

Well, my two day binge has taken its toll and I’m back up to 81.6 kg. I say binge, but really it was just a couple of fairly normal days for me a few weeks ago.

Today I made a large cheese omelet - 6 eggs, 3 medium tomatoes, 150g tasty cheese, 50g salmon - I just used whatever I had. I ate about two thirds of it over the course of the day. I also munched on tomato & cheese on water crackers throughout the day. I felt hungry, so I ate freely.

Of course, no gym today.

Friday 31st October 2008

Today was a complete write off as far as fasting went. Lunch was steak, chips & salad at the local pub. After work I enjoyed a couple of bourbon & colas, followed by 4 beers. I also finished off the last of the pasta bake I made a week or so ago. Also, I did not go to the gym.

I was really looking forward to breaking the 80 kg tomorrow…..

Thursday 30th October 2008

Today was almost going to be another fasting day. Tomorrow I am going out to lunch, so I wanted to fast today instead. However, I was invited to lunch today, so that was the end of that.

For lunch it was a 250g rump steak with pepper gravy, chips & salad.

After work I went to the gym and burned 450 calories, and then attended a yoga class.

For dinner, I just had a light snack - some water crackers with tomato and cheese.

I also had a couple of beers while watching top gear on tv.

Wednesday 29th October 2008

Today I ate three apples during the day, but other than that, nothing but water, coffee & tea.

After work I went to a pilates class and then did a quick weights workout at the gym.

Tuesday 28th October 2008

Today I made the mistake of having a huge late lunch. I went to the gym after work, but even 5 hours later, I still felt bloated and ended up getting a cramp in the guts. I did managed to burn about 450 calories and go to a pilates class though.

Monday 27th October 2008

I’m starting to lean towards the idea of “alternate day calorie reduction” rather than fasting. Today I ate three medium sized apples during the day at 10am, 12pm and 2pm. This is around 900 kJ (215 calories), which is about 10% of the daily energy needed for an average adult. While it breaks the concept of fasting, it certainly helps take the edge off.

Also, I am consciously trying to increase the amount of water I drink. I’m probably consuming 3-4 litres per day and it shouldn’t be too hard to up that to 5+.

After a four day break, I went to the gym today. I managed to burn about 1600 kJ (400 calories) before going to a Yoga class. I would have liked to do double that, but it’s better than nothing.

Sunday 26th October 2008

It’s been one week since I started alternate day fasting. Last Sunday morning I weighed in at 83.8 kg, today it’s’ 81.4 kg - a reduction of 2.4 kg.

If I do the sums for the week, assuming normal daily energy requirements are 9,000 kJ and 1 kg of fat is equal to 37,000 kJ, I get:

Normal energy intake (7 days eating): 63,000 kJ
Actual energy intake (3 days eating): 27,000 kJ
Exercise at the gym: 10,000 kJ

Energy provided by burning fat: 63,000 - 27,000 + 10,000 = 46,000 kJ

1 kg = 37,000 kJ, therefore 46,000 kJ of energy = 1.25 kg of fat

It’s a rough estimation, but probably not too far off. I’m happy to assume that I’ve reduced my body fat by about 1kg this week, and that the other 1.4 kg in weight reduction is due to normal fluctuations such as body fluid etc. Also, if I look at the trend line in the Weight Log Graph, it shows a drop of about 1kg since last Sunday.

I ate quite a lot today - three good sized serves of pasta throughout the day.

Saturday 25th October 2008

It’s nice to see my weight didn’t go up too much after eating and drinking lots yesterday.

Today is a Saturday, and I definitely am having a hard time keeping my mind off my hunger. During the week it’s not so bad as I’m busy with work. To keep myself occupied, I made some pasta sauce - 12 litres actually. I didn’t eat any of it, but did nibble and taste test. That took the edge off.

I drank lots of mineral water and black/herbal tea - about 3 litres all up.

Friday 24th October 2008

Breakfast: a small bowl of pasta bake
Lunch: Rump Steak, chips & salad
Dinner: 2 bowls of pasta bake & 4 cans of beer

I ate quite well today - on Friday’s I go to the local pub for lunch with others from the office. After work, I didn’t go to the gym - just ate more and drank some beer.

Thursday 23rd October 2008

My weight has gone up 1.6 kg after what I thought was quite a moderate eating day.

Today I’ve had nothing but water, black coffee & green tea.

I was planning to go to a yoga class after work, but it’s cold and wet and I’ve already done two classes this week, so I decided to be lazy and stay at home.

I felt hungriest for a couple of hours around 8pm. I’ve found that drinking sparkling mineral water helped quite a bit and have drank a whole 1.25 litre bottle this evening.

Wednesday 22nd October 2008

My weight’s gone down another 1.2 kg to 80.8. This is really encouraging, and if this keeps up, I’ll make my target in no time! But, I have been pushing pretty hard at the gym the last few days and felt quite tired today, so I decided to take it a bit easier.

Breakfast was a couple of slices of toast & cheese. I had a coffee and two pieces of sponge cake at work - one for a birthday and one for a farewell. Lunch was two wholemeal rolls, two tomatoes and a small Lebanese cucumber with wholegrain mustard and pepper (no butter).

After work I nibbled on a few olives and a bit of cheese. I did go to the gym, but only went to the pilates class and didn’t do any weights or cardio.

For dinner I made a pasta bake - 3 onions, 2 cloves of garlic, lots of chilli powder, a dash of pepper corns, one tin of kidney beans, one tin of corn kernels, one large tin of Italian tomatoes, one large tin of tuna, a jar of pasta bake sauce and 500g of penne pasta. This turned out to be an enormous amount of food. Normally I would stuff myself full (I really like pasta), but this time I just had a small serve - about half a bowl - enough so I didn’t feel hungry.

I’ve also discovered an unplanned benefit to this diet. I only have to do the dishes every other day!