Terry's 30 day + water fast journal

[Tenax]

G’day everyone. I’m 17 days into a planned 30 day fast and thought I would start documenting in the hope it will help others. To start some stats and history

-58 year old male, working in a PT delivery job 5 days a week.
-Yo Yo dieter for a lifetime it seems!
-Weight was 283 in Feb. Currently 240lb. 24.8 lb lost since the start of my fast.
-I have osteoarthritis in right knee & a hiatal hernia.
-My goal is to get to 200lb minimum and ultimately to eat keto long term blended with intermitment fasting (method to be determined).

If I was asked to share one thing from experience it would be…try to get off any meds you can and careful what you start throwing at your body. I’ll give examples of both in my case. I’ve struggled with lots of what I call “stomach ache” since day 1. That being said, I was suffering stomach going into it as well which I chalk up to eating large & bad then doing a 16 to 20 hour fast the next day. Picture eating a big mac, large fries, shake, filet o fish sandwich for lunch then eating nothing until same time next day. Managing to stave off weight gain but really putting my body through the mill doing it! Anyway back to:

Meds- When I started the fast I was taking T3’s for knee pain at bedtime, a tylenol nighttime to aid sleep, laxative to stay regular. In the morning my hiatal hernia prescrip. At day 9 and ready to quit the fast due to stomach ache, I stopped them all. First, I realized I didn’t the T3 due to so much weight loss lessening my knee pain naturally…and my hiatal hernia has actually been fine for months due to watching irritants in my diet!

In regards to throwing stuff at it, as I stopped drinking coffee and using sweetener, I’ve tried all kinds of herbal teas to try to find some flavour to replace the sugar. I believe some of those teas actually irritated my tummy so I simply quit the tea. I added himalayan salt thinking maybe a salt defficiency and based on some bad advice, for me anyway, tried a 1/2 teaspoon taken bit by bit pretty quickly and…got violently ill and threw up. I added and still do a daily epson salt bath for magnesium.

So today my stomach is better during the day. Just a little achy but less than day 9 by far. Night time it still gets pretty sore in part because when I pee in the morning I clearly need fluid. On the other hand I don’t want to drink water before bed as I will be up for sure and sleep bad enough at night.

But I am still trying to find a solution for the stomach ache. If I could do that this fast would be a breeze. Zero cravings, weight is coming off.

I know my electrolytes, especially potassium are whacked and that could be an issue (or I might just have a sensitivity due my hiatal hernia and thats just how things will go). But in my quest to replenish electrolytes, I found Vega Sport Hydrator at Walmart today. Its mineral balances are better than gatoraid etc and its Stevia sweetened so aside from its healthy contents, no carbs, sugars. Just 3 calories. So I’m excited to see if it helps my stomach issues. I’ve just started taking today, so followup to come.

Welcome to my first journal entry! They will be shorter in the future😁

[Tenax]

Day 18 of fast. No weight loss today:(. Ah well, it happens and yesterday I was a slug. Weekends for me are pretty lazy unless I have a reason to do otherwise. Weekdays working delivery are my “exercise days”. I had planned to move 1500lb of sidewalk stones yesterday but weather was crappy. Today and this week is looking summer like. So a walk with my daughter is the plan today and I’ll get out for some walks this week. Otherwise, the hydrator drink I bought yesterday maybe showing some promise already. My tummy was still a bit sore waking up but seemed better than it has been. My keto stick this morning was purpler than it has even been so the ketosis train rolls on! Happy Sunday!

[Gabrielle]

Remember that days you aren’t losing scale weight, you are probably losing inches. Atophagy will eat loose skin and I’ve read on water fasting, days you aren’t losing are days your body is cleaning up junk and that is mainly loose skin. Stay motivated and strong.

[Tenax]

You bet! All aspects of autophagy are important to me as well.

[Tenax]

Day 19 of fast. 238.2lb. Very happy with the weight drop, but at what cost? Really sore stomach yesterday that got worse to the point when I went to bed, plus I had a bit of acid reflux which I haven’t had for weeks if not months. If not for this stomach issue I can’t seem to shake, I would be fine. Its demoralizing and tiring. Anyhow, why the stomach ache…and why worse last night? First, I have had pretty severe GERD (and Dr Fung’s book says people with GERD shouldn’t fast but I was 9 days in when I found that out) and I examined the contents of the Vega Hydrator I started drinking 2 days ago and as I expected it includes citric & malic acid. Now, with a meal or on a regular feed schedule probably ok. But on an empty stomach in a person with digestive etc issues? I wouldn’t be surprised at it being an irritant. If I can’t dial the level of ache back, my extended fast may be done. If that’s the case, so be it. I’m giving it my all. I have only one trick left in my deck at this point and I’m trying it today. Broth for my sodium, magnesium supplement and a potassium supplement…and water. Nothing else and we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I would like to make a full 3 weeks if possible. Just a personal point of pride. So close. Otherwise, first day of almost zero BM. LOL.

PS If I have to break fast, it won’t stop me from going into OMAD, alternate day etc. But it may well be that my extended fasting journey is done.

Happy Monday!

[Gabrielle]

You are amazing and you have accomplished a significant gain for your health in such a short period of time. You didn’t give up the fight, you went straight at it with fierceness and great courage. I think your plan of OMAD is an excellent transition and you will continue to drop a lot of weight while your body heals itself. CONGRATULATIONS on completing a very long fast!

[Compdude]

I feel for you. The detox episodes during my 40-day were the toughest as one of the metabolic diseases I was suffering from was CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease). The 1st detox episode put such a strain on my damaged kidneys processing decades-old accumulated toxins it felt like I had been kidney punched by Mike Tyson. All I could was curl in a ball all day and moan. The last 2 episodes were less severe but I always knew because my lower back would start aching.

[Tenax]

Day 5 post fast.

Thrilled I’m down another lb on refeed. That being said, I have been careful coming out of it. Last food was 24 hours ago and almost like clockwork I all of a sudden got really hungry 24 hours later. As my digestive system seems to be functioning normally, I added a slice of my keto taco pie to the planned salad. my calories are more than double today over yesterday, but my planned carb intake is dropped from 24g to 11g. My observations eating today:

-the taste of food is intense!!! noticed with my coffee first yesterday. more bitter. today, sour cream was so strong! salad dressing so salty! I accidentally used only a 3rd of the seasoning in the recipe on the taco pie and the flavour was perfect! I’m also very full post eating. That is a challenge on OMAD to get your calories in, in one feed. i’m going to tweak the same food for tomorrow to 1/2 the dressing (the old me would literally pour thousand island on my salad) and 1 less cup of lettuce. my meal was about 1200 calories today. i thought the taco pie portion size was perfect.

i’m proud of myself for controlling how i ate my food, taking my time. the intensity of the food flavour is vivid, making the experience of eating enjoyable again. my new eating plan is making me explore new recipes and meals.

Next week, I plan to make keto shrimp cakes. My most enjoyable crab cake experience is when I was in Maui and found a restaurant that had like 6 varieties of crab cakes and in the month I was there, I tried them all! plus very good memories are tied to the food experience so, why not make the food happen again? i’m doing shrimp because crab makes the cost prohibitive. the flour requirement will be satisfied with almond flour. 2 carbs per cake! I did investigate using imitation crab but its def not keto, makes it smell and taste too fishy and of course, processed to the hilt!!!

Otherwise, today is a good day for a long walk and reflection on my journey. My impending layoff in 2 weeks is very much on my mind. I need some sunshine and exercise to get some positivity going

[Tenax]

Wanted to post a few pics for you…

90s mullet. Lol. I was probably 190-195 here:

2017…287. I had been as high as 303. No pics were allowed then!

Today at 236. Same size tshirt.

[Tenax]

Well…as good as my keto taco pie turned out there’s a new champion in the house! Keto shrimp cakes. They are huge. About 1.5 times the size of a restaurant crab cake! Here’s the recipe link…

Shrimp Cakes Recipe-Low-Carb and Keto-Friendly - Simply So Healthy

[Gabrielle]

Congratulations on your transition! It sounds like you had great success and are on a path to good health. I bought an air fryer yesterday to have when I transition from my fast. I am definitely going to try your shrimp cake recipe in my air fryer.

[Tenax]

Yes! My daughter and i both want air fryers. I found a coconut shrimp air fryer recipe and thought…gotta have it!

[Tenax]

Good sleep last night (for me). I’m usually 5, 6 hours max unless I had a really exerting day. Last night I got 7…small victories😁 I attribute it to a good walk yesterday & the fresh air.

My one meal is keto shrimp cakes and spinach today. Delicious! Did not disappoint. I’m finding with this OMAD the biggest challenge is a bit of nausea after eating as I’m trying to get enough calories out of my meal. Today was better than yesterday when I definitely felt too full. Today…just full. I’m going to worry less about the calorie number. The other issue is eating slower. Hot food going cold! Lol.

Interested to see what my keto blood test numbers will be Thursday now that I’m out of my fast.

Beautiful day in Alberta for a walk!

[Tenax]

Seems I’m on a plateau stuck at 236.6. I can’t panic, can’t get depressed, can’t give up, can’t give in. I’ve lost weight under worse conditions, I’m in ketosis firmly, I just need to trust the process.

Honestly my bigger concern today is I felt like crap yesterday and I’m trying to figure out why. This is day 6 of refeed after a 19 day fast. I felt pretty good on refeeding aside from struggling to eat a reasonable amount of calories or to avoid eating too much, due to OMAD. My feed was fine yesterday, full but not overfull…and then the day went down from there. Severe stomach ache all day, all evening. Leading to much introspection and some investigation last night on the cause. So I start with “additives” left in my daily habits.

-Swerve sweetener- keto friendly but some pple get nausea from it. Turns out those few with issues with it were ingesting 50g +. Well, I used 2 teaspoons in 2 cups of coffee. Total of 6gm. I highly doubt thats my issue.

-Laxative- For about 1.5 months I’ve been taking what I was led to believe was a gentler laxative. Now I know its habit forming and can eventually destroy your digestive systems ability to process waste by itself. So thats done. Plus the laxative can cause nausea. So was that it? Possibly in any case, I need to learn to live without it. Was I hooked on it? I believe so. I loved how it helped clean me out.

Processed food-Again, I’ve lost weight in worse conditions. I am eating very little processed now.

-Macros off? See the point above. I’ve lost weight long term eating worse.

The last thing…and its a big one, is eating this high fat amount over only one meal. At one point years ago, I was diagnosed with IBS. I never thought of it as much of an issue, but between that and my GERD, I have issues literally from top to bottom in my system. I suspect and fear I’m not able to deal with that much fat in one meal. It’s the one thing I started doing differently just a few days ago, hence my logic.

So today, I’m going to go to a 16:8 2 meal per day feed.

I have to remind myself that I started this process only 25 days ago and what a journey it has been mentally, emotionally and physically. I’ve lost 28 lb since I started this particular leg of weight loss. But i feel optimistic I’m in my best place ever to continue this journey. Journalling helps a lot. Putting down thoughts on paper, as it were is like chewing your food, appreciating the taste. It helps me be more thoughtful and respectful of the process. I will continue.

[Compdude]

Good deductive reasoning.

Look forward to seeing how changing your meal plan turns out.

[Tenax]

Sigh. Weight stuck another day. Not sure what’s going on. 2nd day no laxatives and only one small BM since then at this point so maybe holding some water weight here? Stomach felt pretty good all day yesterday. Sore at bed time that I attribute to some constipation. I’m going to try OMAD again today to try to shake things up a bit for my system. It’s a big salad only day today too so that will be a change from a bit of a routine. Hopefully that gets a party started in my digestive system! If I feel a big need to eat something later today I have some pre cooked bacon I can munch on. I had really good activity yesterday so certainly no issue there.

This is a really big bad point in my progress for me. 2 years ago when I got to 230 and stuck, I gave in to my worst eating habits, addictions and gained back 53 lb.

I will not let that happen again. I’ve affirmed I’m still in keto. I have not had a cheat meal or day of any kind. Sometimes from what I’ve read that can shake things up a bit. As it happens, on Friday I’m going to a bbq that may be a “mindful” cheat event for me. By that I mean I still intend to monitor my carbs as I don’t want to get kicked out of ketosis. My basic meal will be a strip loin, grilled asparagus and a salad, plus a few glasses of diluted red sangria. That puts me at about 40g of carbs, my highest since before my fast. If there is something potatoes or dessert, I have in moderation with a plan to stay below 80g of carbs for the meal. We’ll see how that rocks my boat!

Failing all that I am contemplating a 2 day fast but mentally I’m not ready for it. Maybe not physically either. Now, May 8th is my last day of work before I’m laid off and then I intend to take a much needed break. Between CV19, the will I be laid off or not stresses and the extended fasting I need a break for my mental well being and reflection. I feel I could go into a 2 or 3 day fast easier again if I wasn’t working.

Take it day by day.

[Compdude]

Yes, you need to shake things up a bit to keep the body off-balance, Its the downside of one our greatest traits: adaptability. The body gets more efficient over time at anything done consistently. This applies to everything: working out, fasting and eating patterns.

Your wise to take a break with all the incoming stress heading your way. Fasting, by its nature is a source of stress.

[Tenax]

Going on to day 5 of my weight sticking. A bit bewildered. I’ve pretty much always lost weight on workdays. Yesterday I loaded and unloaded 1200lb of product…twice. Then I did some good walking (not 10000 steps like I used to because of my knee but 4000 plus which is as good as I’ve done lately). I didn’t quite eat OMAD as I got an airfryer and had to sample about 1/2 a fried chicken breast (keto of course). So I have to think a bit further out of the box maybe to get things going again. I’m running at about 1100-1300 calories a day and I’m feeling basically back to normal physically. Yesterday moving all that weight felt like it used to. When I was fasting I was breathing harder, moving slower so my energy is good. I’ve confirmed this morning I’m still well into ketosis. Clearly I am in a plateau I need to break:

Options I see to consider:

Going into another brief fast (like 2 or day). My least favoured option at this point.

Starting a on/off day eating fasting pattern with 48 hours rather than 24 between feeds. Probably can get my head around that if necessary.

Something a bit radical maybe but considering trying that bacon only eating for a bit that I’ve read about. But I’m not convinced its not BS. I think it was claimed 20lb lost in 30 days? But the guy pushing it says he was eating 2lb of bacon per day!!! While it sounds like an interesting solution…god knows I love bacon, thats a lot of sodium. I need to read more from more sources before I go that route.

OMAD but severly limiting my calories until this kickstarts. At this point properly my preferred option. Logic being still keep up the ratios but severely limit all fat carb and protein forcing the body to feed off fat by way of it being the highest percentage macro.

Lastly, OMAD but a period of eating bacon and eggs only. Which actually had been my plan coming out of the fasting into solid foods but I got distracted by my excitement to learn keto cooking.

In any case whatever I try, not really point doing much different until I get past the BBQ “cheat meal” friday night. But the more I think about this the more I think I want to try the bacon & eggs idea. a) I can eat bacon & eggs for 1 week no problem b) i have to recheck the nutrition numbers, but I believe I’ll be at less than 10g of carbs per day thx to that “mix”. Worst case scenario? I don’t lose a lb next week, but I don’t gain and still well fed. My ex lost 50lb which for her was a lot (i think she started at 160) and she swears by “eat as much bacon and eggs as you like” as part of her strategy to get there. Note She was able to go to the gym and put a lot of miles on the treadmill almost every day of the week as well.

Otherwise, love my new little air fryer! Got it on sale for only 79 bucks canadian and for one person its just fine. I made a batch of fried chicken breasts and next I’m going to make keto coconut shrimp with it. And buffalo cauliflower florets!

Lastly, reallllyyyy want to have a satisfying BM. Every time I try since my last 2 days ago, all I’m getting is gas. Lol. Happy humpday!

[Compdude]

The body is a complicated organism. From what I’m reading you are doing what you are supposed to AND the weight scale is an imperfect measuring mechanism in this situation.

It could be your body is adding more lean muscle mass (LBM) and at the same time burning fat. LBM weighs more than fat and takes up less space. Maybe try on some old clothes?

A forum friend of mine @Rebecca_Hughes was getting discouraged at the apparent lack of weight loss and then she took pics:

Rebecca's journal

[20200311_223657] Left: 10/26/19 169 lbs middle: 1/21/20 164 lbs Right: 3/11/20 161.8 [IMG_2020-03-11_22-44-56] Left: 10/26/19 169lbs Right: 3/11/20 161.8 lbs Progress photo time! I am loving my progress!! Still slightly, just ever so slightly butthurt that I have not seen a 159 or 158 etc on the scale, still hanging out in the stinkin’ 160’s lol. But if I can literally be slightly thinner in the 160’s than I was before child #3 in the 150’s, I’LL TAKE IT! I am loving what fasting is doin…

You may be going through the same process.

[Tenax]

There is a possibility of that on the fat vs muscle situation. I found that intriguing when I heard it 4 or 5 years ago and while its true, the actual difference in weight is negligable. That being said I definitely buy an exchange of muscle weight for fat weight, but given how I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks on weight loss after day after day of weight loss since feb aside from a few days, I believe there’s something more going on. But I’m not deterred from my goal. I just don’t like not having the answer. Lol.