Fasting Journal, 5th Cycle
I wrote this earlier but failed to post it, so I'm rewriting it with new information.
I'm now 25 hours into the 5th cycle of a wide Intermittent Fasting (IF). I'm doing about 42 hours of fasting and 6 hours of eating every two days. Basically it's a large long meal every other day that starts at 3:PM and goes til 9:PM.
Today was more difficult than the first four cycles, not from hunger, but from boredom. I found myself wandering into the kitchen looking for something to do and for me, cooking is interesting and fun. In fact I have some chicken in the fridge I want to roast, and I almost started it for something to do... except I didn't want the wonderful aroma in my house.
New info includes that my blood pressure is (according to my fitness tracker), averaging a very healthy low (115/75). Since part of what got me back on track was my Dr. trying to get me on BP medication, that's a big one for me. Also I had my first decent sleep in months. Again, by my tracker, 9:31 of sleep with 35% being deep sleep.
I measure my weight daily and claim gains with a 3 day rolling average. By that I have lost 31 lbs altogether and 5 of that since starting this pattern of eating. So that means a pound per cycle on average. That corresponds with 3500 calories shortfall, which at my Basal Metabolic Rate makes absolute sense. That's how many calories I should burn in a day and a half. Since I can't possibly eat two days worth of food in 6 hours, I'm satisfied that I am actually in fat burning mode. There's nowhere else for the calories to come from.
I'm going to try to round out a month of this pattern before trying different patterns, maybe trying the one meal a day IF with additional longer fasting. I feel a desire for both things. I like having a meal during a day. I also like having a few days when I don't have to think about having a meal.
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