The Fast Diet - Week One Summary

Having finished one week of the Fast Diet, here's the scores and a few subjective thoughts.

Week One

Monday May 6 102.9kg (16st4lb)
Monday May 13 100.2kg (15st12lb)
Total loss 2.7kg (6lb)

I thought 6lb was a good return for a first week that didn't feel like dieting and contained very little exercise. It's slightly higher than you'd expect than an ongoing per week average, which is caused by fluid loss and an unencumbered digestive system. I'd expect an average 1kg (2lb) loss over a normal week.

Fasting

Fasting is not so much a challenge but it needs planning and discipline. On the days I did it right the hunger is negligible. I found the benefits were incredible. I felt mentally active and was very productive on Fast days, especially in the morning before meal one and in the evening after meal two. The evening was the hardest though, resulting in extravagant plans for eating the next day.

Eating on Fast days

I learned the hard way a balanced meal the night before is as important as anything you do on the Fast day. Eating two meals worked better than one on the days. I had meal one about midday and meal two about five.

Fasting meals

Being a creature of habit I prefer porridge with superberry granola as meal one and chicken with vegetable stir fry in the evening. This left me with enough spare calories for a handful of blueberries sometime between meal one and two. By the end of week one the chicken stir-fry had balanced out to chicken, red onion, mushrooms, broccoli and two handfuls of spinach. Spinach is a great taste contrast to any meat and takes about a minute to cook thrown in at the very end.

Non-Fast days

The change in my body even after one fast day was much like the effects of a very good workout. The changes were accumulative with each fast day. Regeneration is the best word to describe it. Almost immediately I had second thoughts about snacking or eating junk food, despite being able to eat anything on non-fast days. I also found I only had room for three balanced meals on non-fast days and these meals tended to be smaller.

The extravagant meal I dreamed up while Fasting Wednesday night was gammon steak, chips and fried egg, washed down with two pints of Guinness. Which was a promise fulfilled Thursday lunchtime. It felt like a guilty pleasure with every mouthful savoured. I had a 250g slab of home cooked steak Sunday night as well.

Exercise

I ran 40 minutes Monday and Sunday, with 30 minutes low intensity cycling Wednesday. Otherwise I was very sedentary. I plan on doing an extra run next week. I found exercising on Fast days was not a problem at all, even if I hadn't eaten for 12 hours or more.

Alcohol

I drank two pints of Guinness on Thursday, four bottles of Peroni on Friday and four again Sunday. One week of Fasting curtailed my overall intake and my tolerance. I also enjoyed the drinks more than I have for a very long time.

Extra Fast days

I treated Saturday as a Fast day as we had nothing planned socially, with the promise I could abandon it at any stage. I didn't abandon but did promise myself the steak I had the Sunday night.

Overall

A very encouraging first week. The sense of regeneration is what I got most from the week and how this has impacted my innate compulsiveness towards calorie consumption.


My Fast Diet introduction
My notes on Fast Day One
My notes on Fast Day Two
Week Two Summary

The Fast Diet website
The Fast Diet on Amazon UK
Horizon