The Intermittent Fast 5:2 Breakfast

As mentioned before, I seem to have settled into a rough Intermittent Fasting routine. With fast length and meal times sorted, I faced the other challenge: figuring out the perfect way to use the 500 calories.

I quickly noticed that 500 calories lends itself to a 200/300 split. I started off focusing on breakfast - eggs seemed a good idea. After a while, I started wondering if anything else might work so one IF day I tried full fat cream cheese - the Philadelphia type - but organic from Sainsbury's, which is normally very yummy. This cream cheese did not cut it at all. It disappeared very quickly and I had hunger pangs galore. It was too little substance from too many calories.

Back to the eggs, they do seem to work the best for me. Now my quest to perfect the maximum satisfaction from the 200 calories started. Today I think I pretty much cracked it (no egg pun intended).

Meet my breakfast, pictured above: 1 slice of wholemeal granary toast, 1 poached (coddled) egg, 1/2 a grilled medium tomato and 1/2 a grilled portabella mushroom. This was delicious. The tomato give moisture, the mushroom provides meatiness, and the egg is creamy against the crunch of the toast. Of course granary toast is glycemically good, and the egg is excellent protein and nutrients, so it is quite a satisfying way to end a fast. It also does not require too much preparation, which is important if you are like me and feel quite weak from fasting.

I am still struggling with the weakness on the 500 calorie days. I feel as if these very low calorie days are physical write-offs. I am at home on both days, so in some ways it is less of an issue, but at the same time, I have stuff I need to do and yet my productiveness seems way  worse than normal. Maybe this is because I am chronically sick or maybe my body is not efficient at burning up fat compared to other people. I don't know, but I still feel that it is worth doing IF.

Weight Lost So Far

So far, I have lost 2.25 pounds in total. Not bad! I am pleased with that. Intermittent Fasting for weight loss does work - for me. Of course, some people might not be overly happy with a weight loss of 2.25 in two weeks, but for me, this is on a par with what I would lose if I were traditionally calorie counting and logging. The thing I have to point out is that when I add up my calorie logs for my 2 days of fasting, plus my 5 days of eating and divide it by 7 to get a daily average, it works out at around the same as if I were calorie counting/logging the 'traditional' way.

In my measurements, the most notable descreases are an inch off my waist and one off my hips too. I can't wait for my knees and thighs to go down! They are my real problem areas. To be honest, my hips are a problem area because they are notably larger than my waist, so anything off them is always welcome. I just used this waist-to-hip calculator, and it turns out I am:

Result:	Estimated Health Risk:	Estimated Body Shape:
0.80 or below	Low	Pear

I guess it is nice to have at least one result that is favourable, despite still being officially classed as 'overweight'. 

Coming back to Intermittent Fasting - what I am trying to point out (to anyone actually reading this) is that IF is not a quick fix for weightloss. It is not a magic 'melt away the fat' formula. It is not as if you just do the IF days and then can do whatever you like the rest of the time. I find that it is more flexible for me, which is what I wanted from a plan. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea that the IF component comes with excellent health benefits.

Talking about flexibility, one of the reasons I struggled last year with calorie counting and logging was the inflexibility of it. I have a goal of around 1200-1400 calories per day. I tend to be able to eat 1200 to 1300 while being fairly sedentary and 1400 when I am doing more physical activity, and lose. Those numbers do not allow for having a cake when you are out, for going to a friend's house and having whatever they have cooked for dinner or are offering you for afternoon tea, or for visiting a restaurant and having what you want, rather than what you are 'forced' to have (to fit in with the 'diet'). With IF, it is possible to do those things on your regular non-IF days. In my case I have worked out that I still need to keep an eye on what I am eating overall. I have to aim for my average calories across the 7 day period of Monday to Sunday to be between the 1200-1400.

For that reason, I am still logging, because I know that I need to; I need to be held accountable for what I am eating. I come back, on that note, to my posts last year where I wondered if I would have to log for the rest of my life. Maybe I will. It seems that every time I lose weight successfully, I put it back on once I stop logging. I know partly this is because my thyroid problems are still not resolved/optimal, but there is still the fact that I am consuming more than I am burning and I put weight on. Since I got a Nexus 7 tablet, I have found it a lot easier to track my calories because I have the My Fitness Pal android app. I really recommend using a calorie counting app if you struggle to maintain your desired weight or if you are trying to lose weight. After a little while you get use to using it and logging becomes a habit. I don't find it straining like I did when I had to log onto the laptop every day.

Another aspect relating to logging and Intermittent Fasting is that I have noticed you can be a little more relaxed when logging calories when doing IF. That's not to say you cheat, but when I have been losing weight purely through calorie counting and logging, I have had to weigh all my food. Doing that definitely gets old FAST, but it is also the most effective way of doing that weight loss method. I hated having to do that all the time, plus when you go out, it's almost impossible to do it properly. Now on IF protocol, I will weigh things I know are easy to get wrong - cereal, occasionally fruit, and sometimes potatoes/rice/pasta. Generally, however, I am guessing and approximating, and I seem to be doing okay because I am losing what I would expect to lose if I were calorie counting and weighing it all out. Not having to weigh every single item is a massive bonus, that I really appreciate.

Intermittent Fasting Cycle 4 - What Fasting Teaches Me

Today is my Intermittent Fasting day. I am still thinking about the role of meat in fasting - I know this probably sounds weird, and it definitely sounds weird from someone who has spent some years being a pescetarian who could not face meat, but I find it an interesting topic.

Yesterday, for dinner, I ate a fillet of trout along with vegetables and some mashed potato. Last night the hunger during my fast was not overly apparent; however, I did have a bout or two of hunger pangs, which I did not have when I had eaten meat before starting the fast. I lay in bed, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling I get where my insides feel as if they are nibbling at themselves, and thought about what today might bring seeing as I had not eaten meat pre-fast this time around. Well, today it has been worse than last night. I have probably had about 3 major bouts of hunger pangs - or pains would be more accurate. 

At the same time, I am counting my blessings because, despite still getting hunger pangs, they are nowhere near what I experienced in the first week. Even though I don't think the first week was particularly bad, it seems like a horror movie compared to this week. On the first week, 5 p.m. on the IF day could not roll around quickly enough. I was standing at the stove, cooking the dinner at 4.30 p.m. so that it would be ready in time for a 5 p.m. meal. This week I am a bit more relaxed because I know that if the meal happens at 5.10 p.m., I am not going to pass out and die.

Fasting is definitely raising some thoughts and feelings in me that I hadn't really expected:

Food seems delicious and amazing when you are eating the restricted (500) calories on the Intermittent Fast day. I savour my food, take my time and really enjoy it. I am a foodie, and I love food, so it's not as if I don't enjoy my food the rest of the time. Believe me when I say, I do... probably too much! On the restricted calorie day, I guess I just feel more aware of how great it is to be able to actually eat something and I appreciate my food. I feel blessed to have access to food, a luxury which many people in the world do not automatically have.

I feel powerful. As someone who gets frustrated about weight and food intake, I do feel a power from being able to control myself in this way. I have actually started working on long abandoned projects this week, a step I feel has been partly motivated by me realising that: I can do things if I put my mind to them.

It is nice to not have to think about food. When you can't have food, or can have very little, it makes you realise how much of the time you might be spending thinking about food, consuming food, shopping for food, preparing food and so on. It's not unheard of in this country to have 'something' with your cup of tea or coffee, which means that you may have 1, 2 or 3 times in the day when you are eating something that perhaps you don't actually need. I am now more aware of this, which leads me onto...

The fasting and the calorie restriction is paying off on the non-Intermittent Fasting days! Yesterday is a case in point. I was sitting at my computer doing some work, and I noticed that hours had gone by without me even thinking about food or feeling hungry. This probably sounds normal to most people - I don't know, but for me it was a breakthrough. I usually would have thought about food during that time period and probably had an afternoon drink and a snack and then felt guilty for eating something. Instead, I had water. I also have been snacking less in the evening, as once you have 4 evenings a week (due to the IF) where you don't eat anything, it is not that much of a stretch to turn that into 6 or 7, which leads me onto...

You start to evaluate whether you really need to eat something. Now I am more conscious, when I do choose to have a treat or a snack, of whether that snack or treat is something I truly want and/or need. I am not averse to having a treat, but as I have discussed on this blog before, I do have a habit of eating because other people are eating/offer me something. I know that the reason I do this is because I want to make the other person feel comfortable, and to also be sociable. I feel rude if I don't join in or if I turn their offer down. Now, because there are these sections of the week where I cannot have anything at all, or can have very little (the 500 calorie days do not allow for snacks/treats), I am having to actively turn people down when they offer me food. The very act of doing this sends not only a powerful message to myself, but to the other person as well. I think it is almost like training, or retraining, your brain to an alternative setting. In turn, I believe this will make the regular eating days easier for me because I will learn to be able to evaluate whether I want or need the food item and be able to say no if I do not want/need it. In addition, because I am doing Intermittent Fasting, which people around me know to be for health, and weight loss is just a side effect, I am actually able to turn them down easily...

For some reason if you are doing something for health, it's more acceptable to people than if you are doing it to lose weight. Picture this: you are invited to go around your slim friend's house. When you get there, he/she makes you a drink. Then they get out the cake or the cookies or whatever, and offer them to you. In the past I have actually been in the position where I have accepted one of these offerings: a. because I have not wanted to turn the person down and b. because I have not wanted to tell them I am trying to lose weight. When I tell someone I am trying to lose weight, it adds a certain pressure. Suddenly I feel that person is evaluating me and in the future is watching to see if I am losing weight and what I am eating etc. I am not imagining this, as people do comment on my weight. In an Intermittent Fasting situation, I can turn the person down and say I am doing Intermittent Fasting for my health. Somehow that is okay. It would seem really weird if they then turned around and were 'off' to me because I refused their offer of food, when I am trying to improve my health. It's slightly ridiculous, but true in my case.

Weigh-In & The Role of Meat in Fasting - Intermittent Fast 3

Drum roll please... The results of my first week of Intermittent Fasting are in...

I have lost 0.75 of a pound!

This is the first loss in a while, so I am pleased. While it doesn't seem a lot, if I lost that every week for 52 weeks, I would lose 39 pounds. So I am not 'sniffing' at it. If I lose between 1/2 to 1 pound per week, it would be ideal really as it gives my skin a chance to catch up!

I don't really want to end up like this:

Picture credit: http://www.news.com.au/news/loose-skin-what-you-can-do/story-fnejnnxf-1226479027462

On to the second part of this blog post:

For several years I was a pescetarian - eating only fish and ovo-lacto vegetarian. A while ago I deiced to trial eating some red meat as I was starting to crave it, and I believe in listening to my body. Previously there was no way I could have eaten any meat as the mere thought of it totally turned my stomach, but suddenly I actually wanted to eat it and did not feel grossed out by the texture/taste and thought. I have been trialling eating it for a while now, and generally have probably had meat maybe once or twice a month for the past 3 or 4 months. I am hoping this may have helped my iron and vitamin B12 levels.

Now I am questioning the role of meat in fasting. I am on my third Intermittent Fasting cycle. I found the first two quite challenging because of the dreaded tummy rumblings and hunger pangs (they were actually quite painful!). Now on the first two fasts I had not eaten meat anywhere near them; however, unintentionally I ate some meat yesterday, and I noticed that last night I was not hungry at all while fasting - not one tummy rumble. In addition, today has been less bad than those first two. When I woke up this morning, I was not hungry. I am unsure if this is pure coincidence and nothing to do with meat consumption - as in, I have done two fasts, my stomach is shrinking, and I therefore am getting used to fasting and eating less.

After breaking my 16 hour fast with a cup of tea at 10 a.m., around 11.15 I ate a poached egg on a toasted English muffin. I am not sure if this is also helping me because it's protein rich and eggs are quite sustaining, but I don't even feel much hunger this afternoon. I do not feel all-consumed and like I am counting the minutes down to my 2nd meal at 5 p.m, which I definitely did feel last week!

I am going to see how I do on Friday and report back.

4 fasts from 2!

I was lying in bed last night and I realised something pretty amazing (well I consider it so), that on the 5:2 Intermittent Fast protocol, you actually can get 4 fasting periods out of 2 IF days.

The way it works is this:

On Thursday night I stopped eating at 6 p.m. and fasted until 10 a.m.  - 16 hour fast.

I then ate the IF day of 500 calories (for a female - 600 for males), and had my last meal at 5 p.m.

This means I have finished eating at 5.20 p.m. and as I did not have any calories left, I then went until 10 a.m. Saturday (this morning) before eating again. - 16 hours 40 minutes fast.

Effectively by eating my last meal/food intake on the IF restricted calorie day earlyish, and by not eating the next day until 9 or 10 a.m., I automatically get another fasting period of 15 or 16 hours in, without really consciously intending to. As I do this twice a week, it turns my initial idea of 2 fasting periods a week into 4. RESULT!

What makes this more tolerable for me is that it is only in 2 chunks. If I had to split this up more - say like the alternate day fasting, it would affect more of my week and my mood/energy levels. Due to my health issues, I am not a natural faster, so the easier I can make it for myself the better.

One of the reasons I am so excited about learning that I can do 4 fasting periods out of 2 IF rotations is that I watched Dr Mosley's Horizon documentary yesterday afternoon. Not only did it help me to cope with eating 500 calories (sometimes I need a bit of inspiration!), but the research thus far speaks for itself. The results of studies on mice and people are amazing. As someone for whom IGF-1 has been an issue (excessive growth) and for whom insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes is a concern (no one in my family has it - I definitely do not want it), the lowering of IGF-1, fasting glucose and cholesterol levels is heartening. I have come to the conclusion that regardless of weight, this is something I would try for the health benefits.

If you have not seen the documentary, check it out:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms#.UPFBkJzFLni

Intermittent Fast 2

I am mid-way through the 2nd cycle. Adding together my Intermittent Fast day and the subsequent calories over the 3 days since then and dividing it by the 4 days, I have a calorie average of 1350. I am quite happy with this as if I were calorie counting normally I would be aiming for between 1200 and 1400 per day.

Fasting itself is going okay, mainly because most of the fast takes place while I am asleep. I didn't find it quite so bad second time around, although I would not say it is particularly enjoyable either. I don't think I am a 'natural' faster - if such a person exists, which I am sure they do, as I seem to remember being around lots of women/girls who happily skipped meals seemingly without so much as a rumble of the tummy.

One thing I have noticed is that I really need to be prepared on a fast day. I need to have worked out an easy, satisfying and quick-to-prepare meal. When I have not eaten much for nearly 24 hours, I don't have the energy or willpower to be messing around with preparation. As soon as I get a sniff of the cooking, it needs to be ready within 30 minutes. I also am trialing this:

Cup of tea 16 hours after last meal/drink.
First meal at 12-ish. - between 150-200 calories.
Second meal at 5p.m.  - between 250-300 calories.
Whatever is left over from food becomes drink calories for milk in tea. Espressos are milk-less.
Plenty of water. 1 herbal or fruit tea at night on the fasting section.

Today I am aiming to eat around 500 calories. If I can eat less than 567, which is what I had last time, then I will be pleased.

I weighed last Monday, so I will weigh again then and cross my fingers that something has budged!

Survived... just!

It's official, I survived my first intermittent fast (IF) night/day - 24 hours - or whatever you want to call it. I don't really see it as being a total fast, as it's a mix of fasting and then very low calorie eating. To say it was hard and pretty uncomfortable at times would be the truth.

During the IF period, I did a little supportive reading by looking at articles about IF and other fasts. I have fasted before, so the sensation of fasting and emotional reaction to the sensations was not a complete surprise to me. At the same time, it is really tough to start with. My body pretty much protested from about 4 hours in (yes, how lightweight is that?) and my tummy growled a lot when I was trying to get to sleep. The amusing thing is, there are many times in life when I go without eating for more than 4 hours and I don't feel starving, so I feel there is some psychological component to this reaction.

Anyway, I managed to get a 16 hour window of fasting in before I ingested a tea with milk. Then I waited a while before having a 200 calorie meal, and later had a 300 calorie meal as an early dinner. To be honest, the 200 calorie meal didn't really work for a 5 hour period. My body wanted something in-between! I had some coffee with a little milk, and another cup of tea and finally cracked and had 1 plain cracker type biscuit/cookie. I ended up in-taking just under 600 calories.

I weighed myself yesterday and found out that I have put on 10 pounds since I last did calorie counting. That's a lot! I thought I would be more upset by this than I am, but I think because I already have a plan of action in place, the news is not upsetting me as it normally would. I feel matter of fact about it - okay, so I have put on 10 pounds, but I can get those 10 pounds off. I am still not at the same place I was this time last year, which is a boost. The weight is, as usual, gained pretty much on my thighs/hips and middle, my arms a tiny bit, and the rest of me is much the same as pre-gain. I knew this just by sight. I look very big around the thigh/bottom/hips and this is further accentuated by my small waist. It is not a good look for me personally and is definitely not the look I am going for!

So now Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are regular eating days. I am roughly calorie logging to keep an eye on intake. I want it to be no more than 1,800. Today, I would be happy with 1,700ish as this would make up for the 600 instead of 500 intake of yesterday. I am hoping that once I get maybe a month or two of this new plan underway, I may be able to avoid counting on regular days and just log on intermittent fasting days.

Anyway, something else I am going to blog about is an exercise concept I noticed while researching yesterday. It has been investigated by the same man - Dr Michael Mosley - who inspired me to try the intermittent fasting. He looks at whether really short bursts of intense exercise - 3 minutes - can be as effective as longer periods. Of course, given my health problems, this ideas interests me, as 3 minutes is definitely more doable than 30. More of that in another post.

In the meantime, if you are interested in Intermittent Fasting, you might want to check out Mosley's co-authored book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fast-Diet-Intermittent-Fasting-Healthy/dp/1780721676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357650492&sr=1-1

2013

Yes, I am back.

I will weigh tomorrow. I have put some weight back on, but not all. I am still wearing my 'new' clothes size from last year's weight loss - which was about 2 sizes smaller than I was in January 2012. That I am still in my new clothes is good news, but I am not happy about having put any weight back on. Therefore, I am going to try a new approach.

This time around I am doing Intermittent Fasting (IF). There is plenty of information on the web about it, and there was a BBC Horizon documentary aired last year that looked at its benefits. These benefits are not just weight loss, but health related - better blood work for starters. I am all for health improvements.

So as of 6.10 p.m., I have stopped eating, and am going to allow 16 hours before my next ingestion of 'food/drink' aside from water or an unsweetened herbal tea. This means that tomorrow my total calories will be no more than 500. I am aiming to do this 5:2. So 5 days of normal eating, and 2 of the very low calorie eating with a fasting period. Fast/VLCD this week is on Monday, and will probably also include Friday. I have to pick non-busy/non-strenuous days.

I shall keep updating with stats, thoughts, measurements etc. The whole point of IF is to do it long term. Wish me luck!