Fasting

[ColinJ]

I took ill on Tuesday night / Weds morning but still continued with my fast day as I didnt feel like eating anyway. The feeling sick turned into fallthrough and today I am on the road to recovery I hope. So with the two fast days and an illness under my belt, weigh in day should be interesting.

GWS!

When I got ill back in July/August last year, I effectively ended up on a starvation diet. Not because I chose to, but because I became too ill to eat. (That should have made me realise how bad I was!)

I lost nearly 2 stone in about 6 or 7 weeks. I can definitely confirm that severe calorie restriction is not a sensible way to lose weight. My body effectively ate its own muscles. My legs shrunk down from being very chunky to looking more like my arms and they would barely support me. I pretty much had to learn to walk again.

The fasting diet I have now adopted, by contrast, seems to really suit me. I am slowly losing more weight, but at the same time I am getting stronger. I am losing fat rather than muscle. My legs probably won't get back to what they were like before until I get back on a bike again and put a few thousand miles in, but they no longer look horribly thin.

I am very rarely truly hungry, so I haven't found this way of eating difficult and I feel less guilty when I have treats.

 

[PK99]

That's why you use water instead for a normal portion only costing 110 cals!

Yuk! Porridge with water! You will be adding salt next!

 

[PK99]

I am very rarely truly hungry, so I haven't found this way of eating difficult and I feel less guilty when I have treats.

For me, that is the beauty of the fasting diet. there is no guilt about falling off the wagon! There is no wagon to fall off! Cheese and onion sarnie for lunch on an off day is ok!

 

[jazzkat]

For me, that is the beauty of the fasting diet. there is no guilt about falling off the wagon! There is no wagon to fall off! Cheese and onion sarnie for lunch on an off day is ok!

Agreed. I've never understood dieters, in that they usually lose weight and then go back to doing what they did before and then put all the weight back on. At least with this regime there's less guilt attached and so less likelyhood of jacking it in.

At my last weigh-in I've got very close to 11 1/2 stone. The lightest I can ever remember being! I've still got a bit of a pudgy tum but I seem to have lost the bit around my back (love handles?). This is good news, 'they' reckon that fat around the middle is the worst sort and I am typical of that body shape. Being 5'11 and quite broad shouldered I carry the weight well and people are surprised when I tell them I'm trying to lose weight. They say I'm skinny enough, but i am determined not to have the heart problems and diabetes that have beset my family. So at the grand age of 42 I'm in 34inch waist trousers and 11 1/2 stone and shrinking!!

 

[PK99]

Agreed. I've never understood dieters, in that they usually lose weight and then go back to doing what they did before and then put all the weight back on. At least with this regime there's less guilt attached and so less likelyhood of jacking it in.

Thing is with a 'conventional' diet, If, say I am stable at 100kg, diet ie change my eating pattern for 3 months and lose 5kg, then go back to my previous eating pattern, i am eating too much for my new body weight and simple energy balancing says i will put the weight back on! It ain't rocket science: reducing weight nerds permanent change in eating patterns.

 

[jazzkat]

I'm quite looking forward to the day I don't want to lose any more weight and I have to increase the amount of food I eat on non fast days to keep my weight static.
What a great diet

 

[chqshaitan]

I'm quite looking forward to the day I don't want to lose any more weight and I have to increase the amount of food I eat on non fast days to keep my weight static.
What a great diet

yea , me too bud!

 

[Garz]

* Weigh in day update*

Apart from being ill and now passing it to my poor 10 month old daughter , I have dropped 4lbs after completing two weeks (only once been out on my bike) so

 

[ColinJ]

Apart from being ill and now passing it to my poor 10 month old daughter , I have dropped 4lbs after completing two weeks (only once been out on my bike) so

GWS to your daughter!

You didn't strike me as being overweight when we met on the Rochdale to Blackpool ride a couple of years back so either my memory is playing tricks on me, or you must have put weight on since then?

 

[Scoosh]

<coughs>
It's a relative thing, Colin

 

[ColinJ]

<coughs>
It's a relative thing, Colin

Hmm!

Seriously, though ... (digs up photo taken on Rochdale-Blackpool forum ride and zooms in on Garz):

Not a lot of spare fat there!

 

[Garz]

GWS to your daughter!

You didn't strike me as being overweight when we met on the Rochdale to Blackpool ride a couple of years back so either my memory is playing tricks on me, or you must have put weight on since then?

Thanks Colin - Poppy hopefully will be well sooner rather than later.

I am not podgy but even when you saw me (I must have been around 11st 10) I would have been tipping the 'overweight' category in the flawed BMI charts as I am short and stocky. I started the 5:2 weighing 180lbs, just bringing it down to a tad over 175 in two weeks which is optimal for gradual weight loss.

If I get time out due to the weather improving I should be able to get some fitness back where I am comfortable completing 30 milers without feeling knackered. At the moment I am some way short of this so am tempted not to sign up for events until I have the base fitness back.

 

[ColinJ]

I am not podgy but even when you saw me (I must have been around 11st 10) I would have been tipping the 'overweight' category in the flawed BMI charts as I am short and stocky.

That's a surprise!

I started the 5:2 weighing 180lbs, just bringing it down to a tad over 175 in two weeks which is optimal for gradual weight loss.

180 lbs, er ... 12 st 12 lbs or 81.5 kg - yes, that is a bit too much for you. 175 lbs, 12 st 7 lbs, 79 kg - you are heading in the right direction.

I'd actually like to get down to about 175 lbs but am still at about 200. Still - I've lost 31 lbs so far so I am well over half way there. As soon as I can start cycling again, I'll really start to shift the flab.

 

[Scoosh]

Colin - remember that when you start cycling again, the weight might not drop off as much, 'cos muscle is heavier than 'flab' !

 

[ColinJ]

Colin - remember that when you start cycling again, the weight might not drop off as much, 'cos muscle is heavier than 'flab' !

It is already happening! My legs got so thin when I was bed-ridden that it made feel sick to look at them but they are about 50% recovered so my weight losses now are despite muscle gain.