Week 19 Summary

Day 135, Feast Day #78 - Six in a Row

Well that pound I gained back after entering maintenance mode disappeared. So I am back to where I started before deciding to decrease my numbers fasting days for the sole purpose of fitting in my wedding dress without more alterations. So I am at -27 pounds (12.2 kg) since April 5 and of course, my dress is just a little too loose. Last week I only did one fast day and a medium day with five feast days, and still lost that darn pound.

So this week, I don't think I am going to fast at all. Even on maintenance mode, my caloric intake has been comparable to other 4:3 weeks I have had in the past. I have been eating out less this month to save money, so I think that has prevented me from eating insane numbers of calories. Now gaining weight is difficult for me. What a silly problem to have.

Gaining weight is difficult is because I have retrained my tastes and my brain has different food reward associations now after nearly 5 months of alternate day fasting. To be honest, I read that this happens in Dr. Michael Mosley's The FastDiet and thought there was no way I would not always want to eat bagels, fried food, processed food, etc. It happened though! the last time I really went nuts on calories and carbs I felt awful sick afterwards with bloating and stomach pain.

I have basically had to unlearn everything my brain liked about food, and retrained it to like food that gives me energy and a lot of nutrition, not empty calories. I crave greens like chard, peppers, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli, not breads or pasta. The onion bagels toasting at work still smell good, but I don't crave them on my own without being exposed to good smells. I have been easing off of wheat products after scaring myself by reading Wheat Belly and not repurchased wheat products I've run out of (with an exception for beer) too. It is crazy how many calories you cut out once you stop eating bread, pastas, crackers, and the like.

Reducing my portion sizes and not eating after I am full is also becoming habit for me. These commons sense practices only become habit after lots and lots of conscious decision making and practice saying "no" the instinct to gorge.

I bought some bacon and have wine and cheese eating on my social calendar this week (aside from my wedding). So hopefully I can get one of those pounds back on!

Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories (-3,213 kcal/week)
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories (+294 kcal/week)
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,512 kcal/week)
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories (+2,100 kcal/week)
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories (-469 kcal/week)
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories (-2,555 kcal/week)
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories (+406 kcal/week)
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories (-4,900 kcal/week)
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,806 kcal/week)
Week 10: 1,637 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,813 kcal/week)
Week 11: 1,681 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,505 kcal/week)
Week 12*: 2,108 kcal or 111% of baseline calories (+1,484 kcal/week)
Week 13*: 2,649 kcal or 140% of baseline calories (+5,271 kcal/week)
Week 14: 1,882 kcal or 99% of baseline calories (-98 kcal/week)
Week 15: 1,280 kcal or 68% of baseline calories (-4,312 kcal/week)
Week 16: 1,861 kcal or 98% of baseline calories (-245 kcal/week)
Week 17: 1,684 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,484 kcal/week)
Week 18: 1,598 kcal or 84% of baseline calories (-2,086 kcal/week)
Week 19: 1,686 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,470 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,761 kcal or 93% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,732 kcal or 144% of baseline calories
All Fast Days: 435 kcal or 23% of baseline calories

For reference
Week 1: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 2: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 3: 4 feast days, 1 medium day, 1 fast day
Week 4: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 5: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 6: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 7: 4 feast days, 3 fast days,
Week 8: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 9: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 10: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 11: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 12: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*
Week 13: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*
Week 14: 4 feast days, 1 medium day, 2 fast days
Week 15: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 16: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 17: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 18: 5 feast days, 2 fast days - maintenance mode
Week 19: 5 feast days, 1 medium day, 1 fast day - maintenance mode

*Includes days during my bachelorette party weekend.

Wheat-Free Experiment

Day 101, Fast Day #43

After two full days of being off of Cipro, I lost 3 lbs and am at at 23 pounds lost (10.4 kg) in  the last 14.5 weeks. Woo hoo! All of that bachelorette party and birthday party weight is gone finally and I am losing weight again. 

In the last three days, I have also avoided consuming wheat products. Wheat is proving much easier for me to kick than Zach. I caught him eating some snack mix with pretzels and dried bread chips in it that was next to the trash can so it would be thrown out. So far no progress on the elbow rash. So my paranoia about my body getting rashes from wheat might just be plain paranoia. Either way, Wheat Belly has me all freaked out about wheat at the moment for many other health reasons.

In my wheat-free adventure, I made little pizzas with wheat-free crusts to break the fast today:

I went a little crust crazy! WARNING: This is not low-calorie fast day food.

So this is an example of what I might eat on a feast day. The crust is just 1 cup arrowroot starch, 1 cup almond meal, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 beaten eggs, 1 tsp olive oil, and a bit of kosher salt. I mushed it all up and then flattened the dough out on a thin layer of arrowroot starch so it wouldn't stick. This yield 2-3 servings and is ~1,261 kcal for the whole batch. It's some dense crunchy crust. It is not like normal wheat pizza crust, but it is better than not eating pizza at all.

Week 14 Summary

Day 100, Feast Day #56

After doing further research on antibiotics and weight gain, it appears one of the less common side effects of taking the specific antibiotic I was prescribed, ciprofloxacin (aka Cipro), is unusual weight gain. I also searched and found several health and weight loss forum threads where other people wrote about their similar experience with crazy weight gain on Cipro, even as much as a pound per day. I don't want to think about how much weight I could have gained if I hadn't done any fast days.

Here's the recap of last week:

Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories (-3,213 kcal/week)
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories (+294 kcal/week)
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,512 kcal/week)
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories (+2,100 kcal/week)
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories (-469 kcal/week)
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories (-2,555 kcal/week)
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories (+406 kcal/week)
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories (-4,900 kcal/week)
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,806 kcal/week)
Week 10: 1,637 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,813 kcal/week)
Week 11: 1,681 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,505 kcal/week)
Week 12*: 2,108 kcal or 111% of baseline calories (+1,484 kcal/week)
Week 13*: 2,649 kcal or 140% of baseline calories (+5,271 kcal/week)
Week 14: 1,882 kcal or 99% of baseline calories (-98 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,811 kcal or 96% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal 

All Feast Days: 2,856 kcal or 151% of baseline calories
All Fast Days: 448 kcal or 24% of baseline calories

For reference
Week 1: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 2: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 3: 4 feast days, 1 medium day, 1 fast day
Week 4: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 5: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 6: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 7: 4 feast days, 3 fast days, 
Week 8: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 9: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 10: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 11: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 12: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*
Week 13: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*
Week 14: 4 feast days, 1 medium day, 2 fast days
*Includes days during my bachelorette party weekend.

This week wasn't a total failure considering I ended up only pulling a 953 calorie "medium day" at the start of the week instead of a fast day, ate out on what should have been a fast day because of a company lunch, and indulged myself at a friend's birthday party. On top of that I had heartburn and volatile weight gains and losses that suspiciously occurred while taking antibiotics. I did end up losing one of the pounds I had gained, so I am back down to where I was at two weeks ago. So I just need to drop a pound to get back to where I was before my bachelorette party.

I am about halfway through reading Wheat Belly right now, and I got to the part about wheat gluten being a cause of rashes, especially on the elbows, knees, and back. I have had rashes on my elbows, knees, wrists, and back almost constantly since I was a teenager and had just accepted the fact that I will be itchy and bumpy for my entire life. My mother diagnosed my rashes as eczema, which is theorized to be caused by genetics. Now I am worried that I am sensitive to gluten, as I noticed my latest elbow rash occurred shortly after a very wheat-filled meal with pasta and bread. So Zach and I got more serious about cutting out wheat this weekend and tossed out wheat-filled snacks we found in our apartment and didn't buy any new wheat products while going grocery shopping this weekend. I guess we will see if my rashes get better at all or if I am just paranoid after reading about rashes in the same spots I get them.

Week 10 Summary

Day 72, Fast Day #34

My mother left Seattle yesterday and I ended up making her 3-day stay a 3-day feast for myself. I did stick to a 16/8 fast on Thursday, but that was really my only restriction. Within those three feast days, there was seafood, buttery movie theater popcorn, corn pudding, a cheeseburger, fried brie, and lots of wine. This weekend reminded me that lactose is not my friend, ugh. After all of the dairy and other food debauchery, I am glad it is a fast day.

I somehow managed not to gain any weight and even lost a pound over the weekend, which puts me at a total of 20 lbs lost in 10 weeks. That is right at 2 lbs (0.9 kg)of weight loss per week, which is what is generally expected while alternate day fasting. My weight loss seems to defy traditional logic since I was having extra feasts. But, I managed to not go completely carb crazy this week. I ingested and average of 150 grams of carbohydrates/day this week, while my baseline was 213 grams/day. Perhaps my continued transitioning to a lower carb diet has something to do with it, but I am not sure. 

I did eat 14% less calories than my baseline this week, despite the extra feasting, which is 1,813 less calories this week than prior to starting alternate day fasting. This is not the theoretic 3,500 calories/week reduction needed to lose a pound, mind you. Although, the 3,500 calorie "rule" is probably not a very good rule of thumb anyway because the energy deficit requirement to lose weight is probably dependent on body composition  I reduced my caloric intake by a total of 13,468 calories over the last 10 weeks, which by the 3,500 calorie rule would mean I would have only lost a bit less than 4 lbs overall, not the 20 lbs I have lost. How mysterious. 

Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories (-3,213 kcal/week)
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories (+294 kcal/week)
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,512 kcal/week)
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories (+2,100 kcal/week)
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories (-469 kcal/week)
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories (-2,555 kcal/week)
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories (+406 kcal/week)
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories (-4,900 kcal/week)
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,806 kcal/week)
Week 10: 1,637 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,813 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,704 kcal or 90% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,802 kcal or 148% of baseline calories
All Fast Days*: 472 kcal or 25% of baseline calories

For reference
Week 1: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 2: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 3: 4 feast days, 3 fast days*
Week 4: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 5: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 6: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 7: 4 feast days, 3 fast days, 
Week 8: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 9: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 10: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
*Includes faux-fast day that was my mama's birthday dinner.

I watched a few health and weight loss talks and documentaries this week. I think the one that was most intriguing to me was Wheat: The UNhealthy Whole Grain by Dr. William Davis, the author of Wheat Belly. I haven't looked into the papers and whatnot that Dr. Davis cites, but I know I do not feel great after I eat refined grains. I also have looked at the research papers showing the high glycemic response in those foods, so I figured they aren't healthy anyway. Zach just ordered me Wheat Belly on Amazon, so I am interested to read what he has to say on why we shouldn't be eating wheat. I would like to experiment at some point with cutting wheat from my diet entirely and seeing how I feel. 

I didn't eat any wheat products on today's fast day. I made some Paleo egg and ham cups instead. Yum. I rarely eat wheat on fast days anyway because of the calorie-load plus I never feel full from breads and what not.

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