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.

Antibiotics & Weight Gain

Day #98, Feast Day #55

I am on my last day taking antibiotics and am more than ready to be done with them. Despite trying to get back on track with alternate day fasting this week, my scale has been messing with my mind. I have been gaining and losing pounds like my scale is on a rollercoaster ride. I got on the scale yesterday before work, and I gained 2 lbs in the night. Sure, I had a small slice of cake and a cocktail when I broke my fast that evening, but 2 lbs?!? I also have averaged below my baseline calories this past week. I've also had a lot of heartburn the last couple of days. So, what the hell is going on with my body? Even on bad weeks I haven't seen this much volatility in my weight before. My first thought is that it has something to do with being on antibiotics.

I used to work for a pubic interest group, so I am generally suspicious of taking any medication for the most part because I am wary of the influence of profit-driven, pharmaceutical companies, drug manufacturers, and their lobbyists. These are the same companies that pay off rival companies to delay the production of generic medications, do "phantom" recalls of tainted products from retail stores, and literally have given people AIDS. Now that I have noted my paranoia/bias, can antibiotics cause weight gain?

This fat antibiotic fed laboratory mouse says, "Yes!"

My stepfather has worked in the animal slaughter industry basically his entire life. So I have known that some agribusinesses mix antibiotics into the regular animal feed, so they fatten up their animals quickly. Luckily his company does not use this practice. The agribusiness practice of feeding animals low levels of antibiotics has been repeated in controlled laboratory studies. Mice fed a low dose of antibiotics got fat in these studies. It turns out the mouse bodies were converting more carbohydrates into fatty acids and storing more fat while on antibiotics than the control mice.

I obviously was given a therapeutic level of antibiotics and not a low dosage. I am also not a mouse. So do antibiotic treatments cause human weight gain? A summary of research on this topic suggests they do. The types of gut bacteria and their populations are correlated to weight in people and may be an important factor in weight gain, loss, and maintenance. Children treated with antibiotics early in life also tended to be more overweight than children who had not been treated with antibiotics when they got older.

So that cake and cocktail may have magically turned themselves into fat overnight due to my compromised bacterial balance. Ugh. Now that I have a good theory as to why my weight has been all over the place this week, I am glad that I get to start repopulating my gut with good bacteria tomorrow.

Fasting Away Heartburn

Day 27, Fast Day #13

Ever since I turned 22, it seems like I have been at war with my GI tract. I am not sure if this was due to some gene switching on or off, or if years of stomach abuse caught up with me in college. Perhaps it might be a long-term effect of eating the 15% butterfat University of Maryland ice cream. (For me, the Fear the Turtle flavor is a spiritual experience, so if you ever are in Maryland, make the trip to eat at the dairy's ice cream.) Either way, it has not been a fun war and I lose to my gut most of the time.

Where my freshman 15 (lbs) came from, but probably not where all of my tummy troubles come from. Genetics is more likely, especially in the case of my lactose-intolerance.

One of continuous digestive wars that is being waged in my body is an acid attack. I have regularly experienced heartburn and acid reflux (gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD) in some combination for almost a year. I blame the stress of wedding planning. 

Don't get me wrong, I am well aware that a lot of the foods I love to eat are commonly labeled as "heartburn triggers." All the yummy spicy, garlicky, oniony, citrusy, minty, fatty, and chocolatey ones I love are labeled "triggers." Plus I drink caffeine and alcohol, also supposedly heartburn triggers. However, what I have learned from researching heartburn for this blog post is that the first-line recommendations for acid reflux might be the result of medical practice being trigger happy.

Contrary to what one would think after reading through lists of foods and drinks to avoid if you have heartburn (like this one), there isn't an large or overwhelming body of evidence showing that quitting these foods or drinks will help with GERD even if they influence stomach pH (according to this meta-analysis of common heartburn first-line recommendations). Basically everything I was told or have read about heartburn is based on little or no evidence.

This doesn't really surprise me, since I have tried removing all those yummy foods and drinks by going on a BRAT diet to try to solve my heartburn. Removing "trigger foods" did NOT help me at all. I am sure there are many people that benefit from not eating heartburn trigger foods for one reason or another. I also know there are foods I know make my heartburn worse. The thing is, I don't have causal heartburn. My heartburn is already there whether I ate or not.

So, I still had acid indigestion without any trigger foods while on a BRAT diet and would still wake up early in the morning because of horrible stomach pain. I tried the usual antacids, OTC medications, and herbal remedies (peppermint and papaya) to deal with my sour stomach. Using omeprazole daily for a bit was my only relief from the stabby, debilitating heartburn pain at my worst point early last December. If I skipped a day, I was in trouble. No I did not have an ulcer---this was really bad heartburn.

The good news is my heartburn has improved since I started alternate day fasting and I have not needed to take any daily heartburn medication since. I still chew some Tums as a source of calcium with a meal, if I am lacking it that day, but no omeprazole and only ranitidine on occasion. The heartburn hasn't gone away completely, but it is so much better than it was. I have heard from other intermittent fasters that their heartburn worsened from fasting though, so fasting doesn't seem like a universal miracle treatment for heartburn or acid reflux.

I haven't found any specific research published on alternate day fasting (or just fasting) and its effect on acid indigestion, however, I have two theories on why ADF is helping with my stomach acid issues:

Research shows that at least in an overweight population (which can describe me right now), weight loss is an independent factor in reducing acid indigestion. My Body Mass Index (I am not claiming BMI is the most accurate method of determining healthy weight, I am using it as a unit of measurement) has dropped about 2.2 points in the last 27 days, including the additional pound I lost yesterday for 13 total pounds lost. Perhaps even just losing this amount of weight from ADF has pleased my stomach acid gremlins.

My second theory is that I am producing less stomach acid because I am eating smaller meals and eating less often ("shrinking my stomach" or at least its capacity). In the same meta-analysis where Kaltenbach looks at the body of research around first-line heartburn remedies, she emphasizes that acid exposure increased with volume of food, whether it is has high or low fat content. Controlling my food portions and being conscious of servings sizes due to starting ADF may also be helping with my heartburn problems.

Even though I am not entirely sure why my heartburn has lessened or if it related to intermittent fasting, I am happy about it. On that note I hope everyone has a great weekend and if you celebrate Cinco de Mayo, like I will be, have fun!