Hi guys, new to the forum. It’s great to see the community you have built here. I had no idea it existed and I thought I was the only one nuts enough to experiment with water fasting.
A little bit of backstory : I did intermittent fasting (18/6) for five years 2010-2015 and lost 140 lbs. (330 down to 190) while also eating mostly a paleo diet of meat veggies eggs and fruit.
Since then I have gone up and down and have fluctuated between 190-230 lbs. as I got a bit lax with my eating and later got hardcore again etc. Over the past 4-5 years I stopped the fasting and stopped excluding a lot of foods, but am always still trying to watch what I eat and I have weight lifted regularly for the last 10 years. I seem to gain weight very easily and it’s always a challenge. I see my friends eating candy and ice cream and pizza and be skinny while I watch everything I eat and restrict foods and kcal and can never seem to get to my goal or even maintain stability under 200.
Over the last 2-3 years I started doing some experiments with longer fasts, starting with 1-2 days, later 3-4 and eventually made it to a 14 day fast. In December I started a 28 days fast and that went pretty well but a) I didn’t lose as much weight as I wanted to and that is partly because b) I didn’t stick to it 100%. Every once in a while I might have a small piece of cheese or a few nuts etc. but I always made sure not to go over maybe 300kcal and often have zero.
Anyhow despite the limited eating I just didn’t lose too much weight and I gained a lot of it back in the 3-4 months after. So at the end of April I started another fast. I started strong for the first 10 days but due to a social engagement I broke my fast and ate one day. Of course my weight went right back to where it had been previous to the fast. 109 kg down to 105, then tight back to 109. I went back into the fast and although I had a a little snack here or there I kept myself in a good groove. But over the course of the next 15 days or so I had a couple of eating days where I admittedly pigged out. I had a few beers, ate pizza , had some dessert etc. of course, my weight went right back up to my starting point.
I understand that much of what came off and went back on is water. But nonetheless, even on a bad eating day I doubt I could have eaten more than 3000 or 3500kcal. The problem I am having is I am trying to understand how eating 3000kcal 3x in 30 days can invalidate 27 days of fasting.
At the moment I am at 106kg and I was at 105kg about 5 days after I started. So 25 days and no progress despite only 3 days where I ate (admittedly a lot) ?? I really don’t understand how that is possible. Does anyone have any insight? Has anyone fasted for long periods without losing weight?
I understand that the metabolism down regulates, but according to weight loss experts I have read like Lyle McDonald, it doesn’t down regulate that much. My body should still be burning at least 2000-2500 kcal per day.
Another thing that could effect this is the fact that I had not been working out much for 2 months during quarantine and over the last 2 weeks I have been hitting the gym hard. So there might be some type of changes regarding glycogen or water absorption etc , not sure.
Either way I was wondering if any of you experienced anything like this and if so if you saw that effect later diminish or if you tried anything to make the weight loss pick back up.
Thanks for any help anyone provides!
