Fasting is an interesting idea.  The way Brad Pilon explains it in his Eat Stop Eat program, you should be able to eat at maintenance most days of the week, fast for 1 or 2 days, and be able to lose weight.  The theory mostly makes sense to me.  I still have some questions about how many calories your body really uses when you fast or what effect this may  have on your metabolism.  But when you think about the number of calories you generally eat in a day, not eating for 1 or 2 days per week should equate to at least a pound of weight loss.

I have only tried fasting twice, so I am far from an expert on the subject.  All I have is my own experience on which to comment.  But so far, I’m really not impressed with my own weight loss (which I’d really prefer to think of as fat loss) experience with fasting.   The data:

Fast #1 

• Length: 24 hours
• Calories consumed during fast: whatever is in a couple packets of Splenda
• Time of day started/ended:  9:00 am
• Eating at maintenance/deficit on other days: maintenance
• Weight loss at end of fast: 1.5 lb.
• Weight loss as of 3 days later: 0.

Fast #2

• #Days since prior fast: 6
• Length of fast: 24 hours
• Calories consumed during fast: whatever is in a couple packets of Splenda
• Time of day started/ended:  9:00 am
• Eating at maintenance/deficit on other days: slight deficit
• Weight loss at end of fast:  3.5 lb.
• Weight loss after 3 days:  0

The bottom line on my two fasts:  no effect at all.  Again, this only represents two fasts, and things may change as you fast more.   However, given that fasting is something of an extreme experience, it is not something I want to jump into regularly without due analysis.  It is strange to me that there would be no net loss after two fasts within a week.  (The weight lost right at the end of the fast could be attributed to there being no food in the digestive system at that point and although attempts were made to avoid it, slight dehydration.)

To verify that there were no changes that the scale alone couldn’t detect, I also measured body fat using digital calipers and took measurements.  The measurements were exactly the same, taken 3 days after each fast, and body fat was up by around 1% after the second fast.  That of course, is well within the margin for error for the device.

There are some other benefits to fasting which cannot be overlooked.  During both of my fasts, I enjoyed a terrific night’s sleep.  In addition, I was generally free from the hassle of cooking for about a day each time.  Some people report being more creative or more alert, although I never experienced that.  I did feel refreshed and somewhat “cleansed” after each fast, as if I had reset my system.  That part was great.

 I’m not sure why I didn’t have success with my two attempts.    My instinct is that I burned so many fewer calories because of the lack of the thermic effect of food (the calories expended by consuming and processing food)  that a large enough deficit was never created by the fasts.

 Maybe the next fast would be different.  I am not convinced that fasting won’t work for me.  I will probably try again at some point.  Some people do seem to have success with intermittent fasting for weight loss or management, so there must be a way to make it work.  

For the meantime, I am putting intermittent fasting on hold, except to the extent that I may try eliminating an occasional evening meal.  My strength and endurance goals take priority over fat loss at the moment, and my weekly workout schedule doesn’t leave room for being low on energy.  However, the subject is intriguing, and I would like to collect more information about others’ experiences with fasting.  Please comment and let me know how it has worked for you.

Remember:  Consult your doctor before starting a new exercise or nutrition plan, including a fast.  My experiences should not be considered recommendations for anyone else.

I’m shifting gears with my training.  I have followed the Beginner Kettlebell program that Elise designed for about the last 2 and 1/2 months.  It’s what she gives all of her new kettlebell students.  I think doing them helped me in many ways, and I feel that the time doing those workouts was well spent.

However, I’ve decided to follow the program designed by Pavel in  Enter the Kettlebell.  It seems to be the most trusted method for developing the kind of pressing ability and conditioning that is necessary for the Russian Kettlebell Challenge.   Given that I’m jumping into this game a little bit later in life than most, I want to follow the program that I feel will give me the greatest chance of success at RKC, in the shortest period of time.

That is not to say I’m in a hurry to get to RKC.  In fact, having started Enter the Kettlebell this week, I see now that it is probably going to take me even longer to get ready than I thought before.  That’s okay.  As long as I’m moving forward at a steady pace and seeing regular gains, I know I’ll make it when the time is right. 

I am cheating a little and I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me.  I am skipping the Program Minimum section of ETK.  I feel that my workouts from Elise have earned me the right to start at the beginning of the second part of the training, the ”Rite of Passage.”   If I can’t handle it after I’ve tried it for a few weeks, I will reevaluate. 

For anyone unfamiliar with Enter the Kettlebell, the idea is that you begin the program with the kettlebell that you can press 5-8 times.  You follow the program, repeating it as many times as necessary, until you are doing  presses, swings and snatches with the size kettlebell that is appropriate for your tests at RKC.  Or until you can one-arm press half your bodyweight and snatch a 53 pound kettlebell 200 times in 10 minutes (men.)  The similar goal for women is to be able to perform the 10 minute snatch test of 200 reps with a 12kg kettlebell and clean and press the kettlebell closest to  a quarter of their bodyweight once with each arm.  I will be following this program a long time.

 My ETK training actually started several days ago.  I’ll finish Week 5  on Saturday.  (It’s week number 5 because I skipped  those 4 weeks called “Program Minimum” this time and went straight to “Rite of Passage.”)  So far it is going well, and I’m finding I have a bit of DOMS from the pressing, a very good sign in my opinion.

“Rite of Passage” in Enter the Kettlebell calls for 3 structured practice days, 2 variety days in which you pretty much do whatever exercise you want,  and 2  days off.  One of my variety days will be spent doing sprint intervals.  I’m doing this for extra HIIT benefits and for the extra lower body work.  You may know that lower body is the part of me that I love to hate.  My other variety day will probably be spent doing Turkish Get Ups and/or trying out the workouts I’ll be using in my coming-soon fitness classes for women. 

I’m also hoping to continue Eat Stop Eat,  the intermittent fasting that I’ve tried recently.  I completed a second fast this week. It was more difficult this time, quite different from the first.  But I’m starting to see some results.  (I’m after a bit of body fat loss.)  I’ll be closely monitoring my strength as I go along, as I know it is difficult to see fat loss and strength gain at once.  Since strength is primary for me, I’ll stop the fasting if things don’t go well.

Probably I won’t post my ETK workouts.  They are quite repetitive.  I’ll likely only write about whatever is new or what my variety days are like.  Or maybe I’ll find other things to drone on blog about. 

That’s my plan.  Unless I change it. 

Thursday I broke my fast at 9:00am, twenty-four hours after I had started it.  I think I chose a good time of day (for me)  to start and end the fast because I only ever felt hungry for a few hours.  I’m sure there is a best starting/ending time for everyone.  Yesterday when I was about to eat, though, I wasn’t all that excited about it.  I was ready to have more energy but I wasn’t particularly hungry.

I had a difficult time eating much all day and I definitely never had the urge to eat more than usual.  Rather, I found myself unable to eat normal sized portions.  After my first meal, in fact, my stomach felt a bit uncomfortable.  It was reluctant to get back into action.

Later in the day, after spending some time at the pool with the kids and coming home to shower, I experienced a slight episode of hypoglycemia.  It was really strange, because I normally would not expect it at that time of day, and I’d had a reasonable amount of protein and carbs at the prior meal.  A little more food took care of the problem easily.  However, I suspect the underlying cause was the fast from the day before. 

As the day went on, I began to have a more normal appetite.  Today (Friday) I’m certain that  everything is back to normal.  I had a pretty hard workout of primarily swinging and snatching the kettlebell this morning and I felt good before, during and after it. 

 
So in my experience, the effects of the fast didn’t end when the fast did.  I continued to experience a reduced appetite and a more volatile blood sugar  for about 12 hours after breaking the fast.  These effects weren’t unmanageable, by any means, but definitely are something to keep in mind for the next fast.

Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat program for weight loss or maintenance is very simple: don’t consume calories for about a day at a time, 1-2 times per week, in order to lose one or two pounds per week.   For weight maintenance, fast every 6-8 days.  He contends that as long as you are engaged in a strength training program at least 3 days per week, you will not lose muscle from fasting in this way.  If you are interested in more details or the science behind his program, please refer to his Eat Stop Eat manual.  Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.

I became interested in this type of weight management after following Julie’s fast recently on twitter. Julie seemed to manage well, without being particularly uncomfortable.  After we discussed it a bit more,  I decided to give it a try.   In fact, I decided just a day or so before I started the fast.  That’s just one thing this program has going for it.  It is so simple that very little  pre-planning is necessary.

Since my teenage years, I have struggled with a moderate case of hypoglycemia.  Because of it, I have a difficult time eating at a deficit on a day to day basis.  Higher protein and lower carb food combinations are what I typically rely on to keep my blood sugar in balance, but sometimes it  is unpredictable. 

I was a bit concerned about how my blood sugar would react during the fast.  Typically, if I do have an episode of low blood sugar, it occurs in the morning.  So I chose to start my fast after breakfast.  That way I would still be full during the time of day that I’d be most at risk for a low blood sugar attack.  Also I’d be able to break the fast during the same hour the next day.

My fast began on Wednesday at 9:00 am.  At first, of course, it feels no different from any other day.  I happened to be out running errands that morning, and stopped to buy a large bottle of water to drink around 11:00 am.  I think that helped me forget that my usual lunch time was about to be overlooked.

I arrived back home at around 1pm, and at that point it was later than I usually would eat lunch, so I didn’t feel the need to go to the kitchen out of habit.  But I was pretty hungry, and had a headache by then.  This was probably the worst point in the day for hunger for me.  However, hot tea and the distraction of chores in the house and friends to complain to on twitter kept me from focusing on the hunger too much.

Over the next several hours my energy level really dropped.  I wanted to sit still and do as little as possible.  I tried to avoid being too much of a couch potato, but it is what felt right, and my main goal was to get through the 24 hours without breaking the fast.

I relied on more hot tea, which by the way was decaf, with Splenda added.  I normally use a bit of half & half in my tea but did not include it in the tea yesterday.  Brad Pilon suggests that artificial sweeteners can be used at your discretion, and that any cream or sugar are to be avoided.  Caffeine would have been OK by the book, but I elected to go for decaf because 1) I didn’t want the dehydrating effects of caffeine and 2)caffeine can trigger an episode of hypoglycemia for me.  Unfortunately, I think I suffered a bit of caffeine withdrawal, which contributed to the headache, but it wasn’t intolerable.

By dinner time I was finding that I felt completely unmotivated to do anything besides sit.  Making dinner for the family was completely out, on several levels!  So my husband offered to take the kids out to eat.  I considered staying home, but decided to go with them.  I could just as easily sit with them, as sit at home.  Since they went to a fast food place (boo, I know!)  I wasn’t enticed by the food at all.  I sat with them and chewed gum while they ate. 

I drank a glass of water when we got home but it was cold and I got chilled from it.  So I went back to the hot tea.  I’m a tea lover anyway (coffee gives me heartburn!) The tea gave me the usual “comfort” feeling and helped me feel full.  I think hot tea was important to my success in getting through the day.

By early evening I knew I’d be able to reach my goal.  I wasn’t hungry and I’d made it through all the main meals that I’d have to avoid.  I was feeling tired and very out of it, like my brain was foggy.  But at that time of day I normally feel pretty tired and somewhat out of it anyway!  I had worried that I wouldn’t sleep well from my stomach growling but friends on twitter suggested that they had slept well during a fast.  That turned out to be my experience too.

I woke up today excited that I’d nearly made it, and feeling rested and generally very good.  Some people claim they experience a higher level of alertness or greater creativity during a fast,  and although I didn’t get that benefit, I also never felt bad either. 

I broke the fast at 9:00am, 24 hours after starting it, with celery stuffed with peanut butter.  It tasted good, but not out-of-this-world good.  I was glad to eat and  felt I had more energy almost immediately.  But I had never felt crazy hungry, and at that point I didn’t feel that relieved either.  Thankfully, I never had any problems with my blood sugar during the fast.  I chose not to work out during the 24 hours, because I suspected that doing so would trigger an attack.  Next time I might try it and see, though.

I would definitely do this again.  For me, it could be a great answer to weight management and/or weight loss.  However, I would do a few things differently next time.

• I’d more carefully plan what I would eat to break the fast, although the celery and peanut butter worked out well.
• I’d have a bit more caffeine with my last meal if  it were breakfast, as I think caffeine withdrawal may have triggered a headache.
• I’d carry a bottle of water with me wherever I went and consciously drink as much as possible early in the fast.  I felt cold and unwilling to drink plain water toward the middle and end of the fast.
• I’d plan to have fewer things that needed to be done during the middle of the fast, in case I felt out of it again.
• I’d prepare my family’s food ahead, so they wouldn’t have to eat out and I wouldn’t have to cook when hungry.

All in all the fast was a positive experience.  I felt like I accomplished a lot in a day.  I still need to do more evaluation with respect the effects this may have on my strength gains.  But I feel pretty certain that  intermittent fasting will be  an element I incorporate into my lifestyle.

Please note that these comments are all based on my personal experiences and should not be considered recommendations for anyone else.

The day after the fast has been almost as interesting for me, as the experience of beginning to eat again hasn’t been exactly as I expected.  Tomorrow’s post will cover that!