My weight loss saga - Jim

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Replies

  • jvcinv
    jvcinv Posts: 504 Member
    amflautist wrote: »
    11 days. Wow. I need time to think about this. Your report of the effect after 6 days - deprivation, isolation, bleak and bland - whew, that is humbling, and puts a lot of what we take for granted in new perspective.
    I've read accounts on fasting forums of many people fasting for 30-40 days, so apparently some can handle the deprivation. By doing a few extended fasts now I have come to realize where my limits are. I could not deal with it on that kind of time frame although for others it might be a different story. I need to have something to look forward to, the meal prep and of course the eating and full sensory experience.

  • NoMoreAfatChick
    NoMoreAfatChick Posts: 226 Member
    jvcinv wrote: »
    My plateau-busting fast (final tally)
    Day.........WT.......Change.......Total
    ..1..........236.........-3...............-3
    ..2..........234.........-2...............-5
    ..3..........232.........-2...............-7
    ..4..........230.........-2...............-9
    ..5..........227.5......-2.5............-11.5
    ..6..........226.........-1.5............-13
    ..7..........223.5......-2.5............-15.5
    ..8..........221.5......-2...............-17.5
    ..9..........219.5......-2...............-19.5
    ..10........217.5......-2...............-21.5
    ..11........217.........-0.5............-22

    It's over. I started taking in nourishment last night. (so wonderful)
    I broke through several barriers and feel I've achieved a total reset, so it was a success.
    I'll get back to a consistent eating pattern now and will stay on it for a long while I think.

    One final comment about extended fasting, for me through the first 6 days its not so hard.
    However around that point it starts to become more and more of grind, and gets harder by the day.
    And no it's not because of hunger, that goes away after a couple days and does not return.
    What is so hard for me is the deprivation. The complete absence of all sensory and emotional experiences related to food. You don't realize how much of an impact this is until you do without food for an extended time. In many ways our lives revolve around food, we're always planning our meals ahead, anticipating how good they will be. Of course the meals themselves touch on all senses, then the feeling of fullness and contentment afterwards. There is just so much pleasure and joy wrapped up in it.
    On a long fast, I find that after awhile I feel like a prisoner. Life is boring, bland and bleak. Day after day there is never anything to look forward to other than the scale readings. Not only does this not go away, it seems to accumulate as the days go by. Towards the end time slows down and its a real grind. It's not pleasant. Again this is not a hunger for food per se, but more an emotional feeling of isolation from all the pleasurable experiences that revolve around eating.
    But now I'm out of prison and have something to look forward to every day, so I'm feeling great now.

    @jvcinv 11days amazing... 22 is amazingly amazing.. hope you are feeling as lite as a feather..
    Great job!!
  • mikseyniha
    mikseyniha Posts: 442 Member
    You're amazing! Congratulations on completing your extended fast successfully :smiley: I wish to do one extended fast this month. Your results are awesome! Even if you gain a third back, you still will be good with the net loss.
  • amflautist
    amflautist Posts: 941 Member
    Would you like to speculate on the adages 'a calorie is a calorie' and 'calories in, calories out'? I think of a pound as 3600 calories. Losing 2 pounds/day means deficits of 7200 calories. Suppose I assume your body adjusts for water after a few days. What does that continuing loss of 2#/day mean? What IS your body doing?
  • jvcinv
    jvcinv Posts: 504 Member
    amflautist wrote: »
    Would you like to speculate on the adages 'a calorie is a calorie' and 'calories in, calories out'? I think of a pound as 3600 calories. Losing 2 pounds/day means deficits of 7200 calories. Suppose I assume your body adjusts for water after a few days. What does that continuing loss of 2#/day mean? What IS your body doing?
    I have no idea about this and ask myself the same question. I know it doesn't add up.
    They say that fasts will cause you to lose one pound a day on average, more in the beginning and less towards the end. But mine was double that and I don't know why.
    I'm skeptical about the simple calories in - calories out formula in the first place.
    All I can think of is that there is a "cleaning process" going on during the fast. I'm not sure how to put it but periodically there is material being expelled even after a week of no food.
    From what I understand this is debris from the digestive tract that accumulates over the years, and only during a fast does your body have to time to get rid of it. That may account for some of it.
  • jvcinv
    jvcinv Posts: 504 Member
    mikseyniha wrote: »
    You're amazing! Congratulations on completing your extended fast successfully :smiley: I wish to do one extended fast this month. Your results are awesome! Even if you gain a third back, you still will be good with the net loss.
    Yes the number is going to go back up over the next few weeks, it has to as the body and organs recover and reset. I'm absolutely fine with that though. Like you said, even if it goes up five pounds, which I doubt it will, it is still a big break from where I was.

  • arguablysamson
    arguablysamson Posts: 1,706 Member
    edited May 2017
    I'm ready to say Jim is an authority on this now. Everything he said about the isolation relating to the eating experience over time is true. That's why I broke my 7-day fast. A part of us needs to stay connected to our feeding side, even if we can live off of ourselves for extended periods of time.
  • arguablysamson
    arguablysamson Posts: 1,706 Member
    Wow!
  • jvcinv
    jvcinv Posts: 504 Member
    I'm ready to say Jim is an authority on this now. Everything he said about the isolation relating to the eating experience over time is true. That's why I broke my 7-day fast. A part of us needs to stay connected to our feeding side, even if we can live off of ourselves for extended periods of time.
    Thanks Joe coming from you that is a compliment but I'm no authority. Just trying to accurately describe my experiences.
    Interesting that you felt the same sense of isolation at roughly the same point of the fast.
    I've done two long fasts now and it was the same both times. The latter part of it is a real challenge and I felt like I was crawling in slow motion to the finish line. I'm not inclined to ever attempt anything over a week again.

  • arguablysamson
    arguablysamson Posts: 1,706 Member
    edited May 2017
    jvcinv wrote: »
    I'm ready to say Jim is an authority on this now. Everything he said about the isolation relating to the eating experience over time is true. That's why I broke my 7-day fast. A part of us needs to stay connected to our feeding side, even if we can live off of ourselves for extended periods of time.
    Thanks Joe coming from you that is a compliment but I'm no authority. Just trying to accurately describe my experiences.
    Interesting that you felt the same sense of isolation at roughly the same point of the fast.
    I've done two long fasts now and it was the same both times. The latter part of it is a real challenge and I felt like I was crawling in slow motion to the finish line. I'm not inclined to ever attempt anything over a week again.

    You will find that the experiences you take for granted are quite valuable to others coming up behind you!
  • blambo61
    blambo61 Posts: 4,372 Member
    jvcinv wrote: »
    amflautist wrote: »
    Would you like to speculate on the adages 'a calorie is a calorie' and 'calories in, calories out'? I think of a pound as 3600 calories. Losing 2 pounds/day means deficits of 7200 calories. Suppose I assume your body adjusts for water after a few days. What does that continuing loss of 2#/day mean? What IS your body doing?
    I have no idea about this and ask myself the same question. I know it doesn't add up.
    They say that fasts will cause you to lose one pound a day on average, more in the beginning and less towards the end. But mine was double that and I don't know why.
    I'm skeptical about the simple calories in - calories out formula in the first place.
    All I can think of is that there is a "cleaning process" going on during the fast. I'm not sure how to put it but periodically there is material being expelled even after a week of no food.
    From what I understand this is debris from the digestive tract that accumulates over the years, and only during a fast does your body have to time to get rid of it. That may account for some of it.

    I've read that gluconeogenisis is only about 57% efficient in converting fat to glucose. I imagine that on that kind of fast, the body tries to store glycogen and does some of this inefficient coversion. I think that the formula is more like:

    CI * efficiency of digestion - CO = weight loss.

    I think the path that the calories that are used is important. A glucose drip into the body would probably be the most efficient. Calories being digested and turned into fat and then back to glucose would be very inefficient i would think.
  • jvcinv
    jvcinv Posts: 504 Member
    blambo61 wrote: »

    I've read that gluconeogenisis is only about 57% efficient in converting fat to glucose. I imagine that on that kind of fast, the body tries to store glycogen and does some of this inefficient coversion. I think that the formula is more like:

    CI * efficiency of digestion - CO = weight loss.

    I think the path that the calories that are used is important. A glucose drip into the body would probably be the most efficient. Calories being digested and turned into fat and then back to glucose would be very inefficient i would think.
    Inefficiency? hmm. I didn't now that but thinking about it now it makes a lot of sense that it would be perhaps the least efficient method to create glucose.
    Thank you.

  • shans34
    shans34 Posts: 535 Member
    You're doing great and such an inspiration!
  • amflautist
    amflautist Posts: 941 Member
    This morning I was reading Upton Sinclair's book on fasting, and thinking of you. I feel so lucky to have found this group - with so many wise people. I am learning lots of valuable things from your experiences.
  • jvcinv
    jvcinv Posts: 504 Member
    edited May 2017
    3xm0lnw4d90t.png
    WK.......... Weight.........Week Chg......Total.....To Reach Goal
    28.............250.................-3...........-102..............70
    29.............248.................-2...........-104..............68
    30.............243.................-5...........-109..............63
    31.............241.................-2...........-111..............61
    32.............240.5...........-0.5...........-111.5...........60.5
    33.............236..............-4.5...........-116..............56
    34.............221.5.........-14.5...........-130..............41.5 (fasting)
    34.............219..............-2.5...........-132.5...........39 (partial fasting)
    35.............224.5..........+5.5...........-127..............44.5 (fasting recovery)
    36.............221.5...........-3..............-130..............41.5

    Thought I'd do a complete update now that I seem to have fully recovered from my extended fast.
    In my case it takes a solid two weeks once I start eating again for the weight to rebound, normalize, then start to decline again. This last fast I dropped weight faster and more consistently than in the past, but also gained back more weight after the fast than in the past.

    So I'm back on an OMAD routine but I have made a few modifications;
    Since it seems like others on here have good success with a weekly fast day that's what I'm going to do.
    Six meals a week rather than seven with a 47 hour fast between Tues and Thurs meals.
    Also I'm going to slightly reduce my meal size, it seem that unconsciously I had been gradually adding more over the months of OMADing, so I'm going back to the original portion sizes that I started with.
    Also increasing exercise days from 2 to 4.

    I'm going to stay on this program for some time and observe the results.
    If I can remember how to do it I'm going to attach my updated weight loss chart.


  • Brendalea69
    Brendalea69 Posts: 3,863 Member
    This plan sounds a lot better!!! :)
  • shans34
    shans34 Posts: 535 Member
    Your plan sounds solid and it's working for you! Great dedication, good job!
  • 1MADGIRL
    1MADGIRL Posts: 838 Member
    great work!
  • amflautist
    amflautist Posts: 941 Member
    Your chart helps me a lot. Helps me see how erratic I am! Helps me see what the effects of a long fast are.

    But mostly, it's your total loss of 130# in 36 weeks that absolutely astonishes me! 3.6#/wk without fail, consistently. Dedicated. Congratulations. I admire what you do.
  • mikseyniha
    mikseyniha Posts: 442 Member
    You've got a nice plan set up. I am sure it will work for you :)