December 5, 2011: Post 329 (Day 338)

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Today's Weight:        203.2 lbs 
Yesterday's Weight:    204.8 lbs
Net Loss/Gain:        -  1.6 lbs

Daily weight from October 1, 2011. Note: November 4-13 weights are estimated.

Daily weight from January 1, 2011. Note: January 1-5 and November 4-13 weights are estimated.

When you fast, you give your body time to digest all the food you've eaten before you eat again. Besides the obvious reduction in calories consumed, this has many benefits. Large amounts of weight loss isn't among them (surprise!). 

The great majority of weight that you lose fasting is water. A high percentage of the little weight loss that isn't water is fat. 

What counts is the hormonal rebalancing that goes on when you go from a fed state (processing nutrients) to a fast state (California - no, I mean no incoming calories). It takes from 24 to 72 hours to fully digest food, but after 18 hours, the digestion of everything but fat is complete, and fat is being digested in the lower intestines. This is why 24 hours is the sweet spot for fasting.


Being in the fasting state has quite a few positives associated with it, and, in reality none are really weight loss, but it is true that regular intermittent fasting, even if (as I have been doing) you binge when you restart eating, you will lose a little weight. But slowly. Most of the disadvantages of fasting I have heard of (your metabolism slows down, you cannibalize your muscles, etc) do not seem to be backed up by any research, rather, what research has been done seems to disprove all of them. 


Of course, our hunter-gatherer ancestors (the pre-Agricultural Revolution humans) fasted frequently, in between hunts, and only feasted/fed after a successful hunt. Predatory animals in nature typically only hunt when they are hungry.

It would not surprise me in the slightest to see a small weight gain the day after a fast.

Daily Comment

Saturday and Sunday were pain-free.  Late Sunday night (10pm) I felt a little twinge of discomfort, but no real pain. Around lunchtime, I did feel a much less amount of pain than usual, though.


Hopefully, this means the healing process has begun. I don't know for certain what role the Physical Therapy has had in this - to be honest, I don't think it has been very helpful (or instructive). But, i've done the prescribed stretching and strengthening exercises. 


Mostly.

Food Log

Breakfast

Spinach, black beans, scrambled eggs, and a little Pomadoro sauce.

Lunch

Rotisserie chicken salad (with celery and home-made mayonnaise) on Spring Mix greens, pinto beans, red cabbage.

Dinner

Celery, baby carrots and homemade mayonnaise.

Snack

Vanilla whey protein powder (w/24g of whey protein).

Liquid Intake

    Coffee:   22 oz,   Water: 64+ oz.