5 day fast
 

So I have been losing weight consistently since February, and have watched my numbers on the scale daily. Recently I went on a 5 day fast, because every night I was worn out, simply wasn't hungry and didn't feel like cooking after work and bicycling, and just went to sleep.

During this time I only drank tea, occasionally black coffee and water.

Before the fast, I weighed 178 after sweating out a lot of water from a bike ride, and after eating my meal and drinking water, I'd go up to around 181 - 182 or so.

After the 5 days of fasting with nothing but water and tea, I weighed 174 with some water in my system.

I do intermittent fasting normally, and only eat one meal a day around 7pm.

Once I got back to eating dinner, I didn't gorge, over eat, cheat the diet, or eat more than 15 net carbs carbs (I'm on keto)

Here are my calorie counts over the past few days after the fast. I normally keep it at 1500 to 1800 calories per day, but I decided to eat 2000+ to replenish my body after the fast.

2375

2465

2210

Then 1600 last night.

Over the past few days, after a meal and water I have been weighing 188.

If my basal metabolic rate is 2000 calories, I'd only be over base by around 1000 calories.

Even if my basal metabolic rate went to zero because of the fast, and my body didn't burn any of the calories I consumed over the past few days, I'd still have only gained 2.5 pounds of fat - 3500 cals over base equals 1 pound of pure fat...

So I don't understand where all the extra weight is coming from?


Any ideas?

Crazy water retention? But why would I be retaining so much water?

There's your problem, weighing yourself immediately after a big meal and lots of fluid intake will always result in a higher number.

Weigh yourself in the morning before eating or drinking anything, and preferably after using the crapper.

Lol wut?

That's not the problem. It is actually helping me discern between arbitrary water weight and real weight in the morning, after using the bathroom and after a workout.

I know my legit numbers from weighing myself so often. I weigh myself before and after meals, before and after workouts, I weigh a lot. This is why I know something is off.

I know what my post meal/water weights are and this one is way up there.

Numbers don't lie, unless your measuring equipment is faulty. Do you have a second scale to verify? Or maybe a 100lb reference weight to calibrate your scale?

Yes, I use 2 digitals side by side. They are different by a pound consistently. But both are seeing the same crazy sudden extra weight

Then assuming your calorie count is reasonably accurate, the only other place it could be coming from is water/fluid intake and retention. Otherwise you'd be violating the laws of thermodynamics.

The reason you're gaining weight is because your body and your metabolism is messed up from doing too much fasting and following keto diet...I think you're taking things to an extreme...When you restrict calories and fast your body interprets that as an attack and the brain starts sending signals to your body to store fat. If somebody makes a lifestyle out of it and continues to do that for a long time, eventually they come to a place where it will be impossible to loose weight, even on low calorie diets with fasting...It's best to stop following dietary fads and start eating normally.

Fasting means no caloric intake, the body can't store something it doesn't have. And in order to keep your body warm and moving, it has to burn something, which is existing fat stores followed by muscle and other tissue.

FWIW I've been doing an intermittent fasting diet and have lost over 70lbs in the past 7 months. High of 270, was down to 193 as of this morning. It works for me.

Keto is not a fad.

"Survival mode" is a fad thought process.

What do you propose to be eating normally? Incorporating bread? No.

Yes I weigh everything I eat down to the gram. My calories are as precise as jet turbines.

To effectively lose weight over the long-haul fasting and only eating one meal a day and "diets" or fad diets won't cut it. Our bodies need to "graze". Eat smaller meals throughout the day and watch the weight slough off.

By only eating one meal a day your body wants to retain everything it can because it gets fed only once a day. Get your body used to eating all of the time in small amounts and it then no longer needs to hold on and can burn off what it thinks it doesn't need.

Your body burns what it needs to burn, regardless of how often you eat. The human body is not a perpetual motion machine.

This is completely antiquated information.

Humans do not benefit from grazing. Grazing spikes insulin constantly making it much, much harder to burn fat.

OP, how old are you?

You sound a lot like me. I eat one meal a day (Not for the sake of a diet, but just because it's the way I've always been, and I don't get hungry during the day). I eat less calories than you. Lately, I can't lose weight no matter hat I do.

Up until my mid 30's, I never even had to give weight so much as a thought. I was always slim.
Late 30's I started gaining a little- not fat or anything- just heavier than what I always had been.
Late 40's....I woke up weighing 228 one day! (Had always been 170-180 since high-school).

I started taking weight loss seriously, and got back down to a maintainable 170...for a year or so. Now, at 55, no matter what I do, I just keep gaining- back up to 197- tried everything- it just seems to make no difference. I've always had a slow metabolism.....and lately I think it's even slower. It's unfathomable as to where it's coming from- all I drink are water and tea; and I eat good simple cooked-from-scratch food- I NEVER eat out.

I think it's just the age. Maybe we need it. When I was keeping myself down in the low 170's, I was getting pretty weak. I actually have more strength and stamina being overweight.

Oh, and the really absurd thing? I was a vegetarian (almost a vegan, really) for 15 years, and it was at the end of that period that I emerged weighing the 228- the most I've ever weighed.

Could imagine if I were to eat junk?!!!!

I'm 26, so I can't really comment or make any assumptions about your losses at that age.

If I had to guess though, I'd say if you just kept at it and decreased the calories even more by fillers (high weight low calorie foods like spinach) like I do to get full but not get many calories, and worked out like your life depended on it you'd lose weight.

Our bodies are fat storing and burning machines.

Try keto if you haven't already, it's hard to burn fat when you eat carbs and store glycogen and I'd imagine it'd be worse as you age.

So far I have gone from 255 in January to 175 now (180 with this bs water retention)

So it works

Now that I think about it I guess I'm asking myself the wrong question. I guess what I should be asking is how much water can the human body hold - what's in your stomach?

How much water can your other tissues hold that won't be readily urinated? That would answer my question I guess. Why I would be retaining so much water I have no idea because this is never happened before but maybe it was because of the 5-day fast.

I do not professionally fight but I do train and I m around guys all the time that are cutting weight for fights and some guys cut 15 to 20 pounds. Half to three fourths of that is going to be water so if people are cutting that much water I guess the human body could hold 20 lbs of water or more because if not they would be dying right there in the gym from losing all of their water

You are about 60% water. So if you weigh 150lbs, you are 90lbs of water.

How much water can a human body hold?

Quite a lot, actually, up to 75% especially if you stress it.

Which you did.

Other than oxygen, water is THE next most critical resource, so it is what your body retains first when stressed.

I stand corrected about grazing. So is salt good for us now or bad now? That keeps flip-flopping every few years.

....and yet the most efficient fat burning occurs in the flame of carbohydrates.

Any bicycling content in this thread?

I'm not saying you just have to eat one meal a day and that's it but Studies have shown that every time you eat insulin will Spike regardless if it's carb or not. And insulin will hinder hormones necessary for anything physical weather is performance, losing weight, sex, whatever. And as far as salt I'd say you would need it in moderation of course

Negative.

Pop science/health writers flip-flop on it, but the core knowledge hasn't. Some salt is necessary for life, too much can cause excess water retention and raise blood pressure. That hasn't changed.

Saying "you just need to consume X in moderation and you'll be fine" doesn't sell magazines, or get people to read click bait articles.

Nope.

That being said, I eat honey buns, pizza and ice cream on a regular basis and still manage to knock off a pound or so every month. I'm 31 btw and weigh 160 and weighed about 185 before I started cycling/ running a few years ago. Dropped to 170 pretty fast and then the remainder has just slowly been ticking away.

Grazing works! Small portions throughout the day keeps the metabolism moving and processes the foods that you are eating, rather than storing them.

Deprivation rides/runs are also a good way to trick the body into burning fats instead of glycogen stores, but man do they suck.

Sodium has a direct influence on how much water we retain in the interstitial space between our cells. This is the water retention that results in bloating and swelling and you can hold a lot of water in this area without really seeing it. Too much water, without proper electrolyte (mainly sodium) intake will immobilize the water and keep it in this space. This is where Hyponutremia would set in and is the reason people can literally drown by drinking too much water.

Black coffee and tea are both diuretics, which are terrible to take during a fast. A proper fast should consist of water and a supplement of BCAA's if you are continuing to workout.

What is the point of "replenishing your body" after a fast? You just defeated the purpose of the fast by cramming a lot of calories into a body that is in survival mode and storing whatever it can. So, yeah... I would certainly expect to see a weight gain in this scenario.

Also, how do you know your basal metabolic rate is 2000 calories. Have you actually figured this number for yourself, or are you going by the FDA "guidelines"?


And I agree with General Geoff, weight is best tracked consistently within the same parameters. So early morning with no food or drink and after you've emptied yourself. This is a fact, not opinion

Different strokes for different folks. Were you ever overweight?

How would replenishing be pointless? I know how many calories I burn at base so I know what I can and can't do. I didn't over eat or cheat on my diet. 5 days is plenty of fasting. For me to defeat the purpose I'd have to consume around 10,000 calories over base to undo the progress of the fast.

I know how much I burn by trial and error. I weigh up all of my food so after playing with 1500 to 2500 calories in increments of 100 over this period of weight loss, I have figured out that unless I eat less than 1800 calories I don't really lose any weight. I lose some, but I only lose any decent weight when I eat around 1500. Plus 1500 calories is plenty to make me full so anything past that I'd just be forcing myself to eat more.

The facts are that I weigh myself probably 5 times a day at least. I keep impeccable records. I have all of my calories and weights in a notepad. I weigh in the morning, after work, after working out, after my meal, etc.

Ride your bike more instead of weighing yourself every 10 minutes and you'll lose weight.

Or post this question non-cycling related question on a nutrition board instead of a cycling board like here http://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/