Today's supper was a surprisingly satisfying serving of guacamole, egg, and broccoli dressed in sriracha. I'm figuring since the guacamole is 100 kcal per serving, the egg is about 80 kcal, and the 1/2 cup of broccoli is about 15-20 kcal, so that all adds up to around 200 kcal. I also ate a handful of sunflower seeds, sucking the salt from the hulls as I split them open, so I went over the daily 200 goal, but hopefully still stayed below the 500-600 mark.
Since my calf has recovered I did my run, and a bit more of the normal exercise routine, but this did mean that I felt hunger pangs, which didn't happen during last week's more staid approach. All things considered I've decided to forego any further fasting and aim for time restricted eating (TRE) for the next five days. While playing around with this fasting thing was fun, I don't want it to interfere with my exercise routine, and if things work out well I may just consider that TRE will be intermittent fasting enough for me.
Some of the sources I've been reading suggest that excluding wheat and similar cereals for ~6 months might be enough to mitigate intestinal damage and restore normal digestive capacity, so I'm going to give that a try.
http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2016/07/26/columbia-researchers-find-biological-explanation-wheat-sensitivity-2/
http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2016/07/21/gutjnl-2016-311964.full
A few articles on fasting and different things to eat:
https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/tag/fasting/
http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/facts-about-fasting-diets
https://authoritynutrition.com/ketogenic-diet-101/
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Monday, September 19, 2016
Week two of trying to jump-start my metabolism
I'm reasonably satisfied with the current progress of my anti-hibernation stance. This is the second week of my 2-5 planned fasting* regimen, and my energy is at a higher note, and my stomach is definitely much happier. The benefits of fasting vs a low calorie diet goes to human resting metabolism. In a low calorie diet the body goes into hibernation mode, starts storing fat, and metabolism drops vs fasting the body goes into hunter/forager mode, starts burning fat, and metabolism increases.
The results from last week's 5-2 were pretty much as expected. The first day of fasting in each cycle is pretty much just a slow burn of all the readily available glucose in the body. Day 2+ is when the body switches from burning freestanding glucose to burning ketones and making its own glucose as needed. While there are some benefits of simply burning through a single day of fasting, the long term benefits, including reversing incipient insulin resistance, requires at least a day of ketosis. I ran much of the research by the biologist wife and it seems to pass muster.
The weight loss for me is secondary to ramping up metabolism and reducing/eliminating intestinal discomfort and bloating. Research into the subject puts each pound of fat as being worth roughly 3500 calories (~7700-7800 kcals per kg), with each day of fasting burning around .5 lbs (~200-300 grams). This means that after 5 days of fasting the body will burn about 2-3 lbs of fat (900-1400 grams); however, if one weighs oneself after fasting, the numbers are deceptively higher, this is because we tend to lose an equal amount of water weight along with the fat, this water weight is recovered very quickly though, so don't consider it part of the weight loss.
My results were typical, after 5 days of fasting during the first week there was a substantial decrease in intestinal bloating, increased energy and a general feeling of well being. The starting weight was ~200-202 lbs (91-92kg), the final weight goal is somewhere in the area of 172-178 lbs (~78-81 kg). Week one weight loss was ~2-3 lbs (~900-1400 g), this number was only apparent this morning, since it pretty much takes a weekend of normal eating to eliminate the water weight lost during the fasting. This means that on Saturday morning it appeared that the weight loss was ~5-6 lbs (~2.25-2.75 kg), that number is deceptive however, since a normal weekend eliminated half of it pretty naturally.
For this second week of fasting I'll be swapping in a daily hard boiled egg (80-100 kc) for the daily banana (100-120 kc) I had last week, after the biologist wife pointed out that bananas have 3-4 teaspoons of sugar (12-16 g).
I'm hoping that the increased energy from this week will allow me to ramp up my exercise regimen too. The calf injury sustained during drill weekend means I wasn't doing any running, so hopefully adding that back in this week will help with the energy levels.
*Fasting in this regimen doesn't mean zero eating, the research clearly indicates that staying below 200 calories while avoiding sugars still triggers all the positive benefits of fasting. It's possible that there's leeway there all the way up to around 25% of normal daily calories, ~500 kc, but as I don't want to risk lowering my metabolism I'm striving to stay below the daily 200 kc mark.
The weight loss for me is secondary to ramping up metabolism and reducing/eliminating intestinal discomfort and bloating. Research into the subject puts each pound of fat as being worth roughly 3500 calories (~7700-7800 kcals per kg), with each day of fasting burning around .5 lbs (~200-300 grams). This means that after 5 days of fasting the body will burn about 2-3 lbs of fat (900-1400 grams); however, if one weighs oneself after fasting, the numbers are deceptively higher, this is because we tend to lose an equal amount of water weight along with the fat, this water weight is recovered very quickly though, so don't consider it part of the weight loss.
My results were typical, after 5 days of fasting during the first week there was a substantial decrease in intestinal bloating, increased energy and a general feeling of well being. The starting weight was ~200-202 lbs (91-92kg), the final weight goal is somewhere in the area of 172-178 lbs (~78-81 kg). Week one weight loss was ~2-3 lbs (~900-1400 g), this number was only apparent this morning, since it pretty much takes a weekend of normal eating to eliminate the water weight lost during the fasting. This means that on Saturday morning it appeared that the weight loss was ~5-6 lbs (~2.25-2.75 kg), that number is deceptive however, since a normal weekend eliminated half of it pretty naturally.
For this second week of fasting I'll be swapping in a daily hard boiled egg (80-100 kc) for the daily banana (100-120 kc) I had last week, after the biologist wife pointed out that bananas have 3-4 teaspoons of sugar (12-16 g).
I'm hoping that the increased energy from this week will allow me to ramp up my exercise regimen too. The calf injury sustained during drill weekend means I wasn't doing any running, so hopefully adding that back in this week will help with the energy levels.
*Fasting in this regimen doesn't mean zero eating, the research clearly indicates that staying below 200 calories while avoiding sugars still triggers all the positive benefits of fasting. It's possible that there's leeway there all the way up to around 25% of normal daily calories, ~500 kc, but as I don't want to risk lowering my metabolism I'm striving to stay below the daily 200 kc mark.
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