I finished another 36‑hour fast this morning, which coincided with my weigh‑in day (Saturday). I was very briefly disappointed to see that I had put on 1.7 lbs since my mid‑week weigh‑in on Tuesday. Disaster, I hear you say? Nah. ⚖️
I’m used to these kinds of weird blips in weight from one weigh‑in to the next. The body is a weird and wonderful thing and never responds in a predictable, linear fashion. Muscle mass fluctuates as well as body fat, and water retention also has a large part to play—especially when fasting.
There are also blips caused by “refeeding” after a fast. After my last weigh‑in, my partner was visiting, and I definitely ate a little more than usual. She’s a bit of a popcorn addict, so I joined her for popcorn on both Wednesday and Thursday. But of course, popcorn is a very lightweight snack—we cook our own from kernels in coconut oil and a little butter. My partner prefers salted popcorn 🤮 while I still prefer sweet, but I’ve switched from sugary sweeteners (usually maple syrup) to melted dark chocolate in butter, with a couple of drops of chocolate‑flavoured sucralose sweetener—so all very keto‑friendly. Less sweet, but still yummy.
I also joined her in having a home‑cooked burger for dinner. Shock, horror! 😱
My burgers are generally pretty healthy. This week I bought us Wagyu beef burgers, which I air‑fried and served with fried red onions and a cheese slice on a brioche bun. The bun is probably the least healthy thing I’ve eaten since New Year’s Eve, but it was literally just one bun! And there were no accompaniments—no French fries/chips etc. Just a burger. 🍔
And anyway, as I said, my last weigh‑in was a mid‑week one and so really doesn’t count. If I look at the actual weekly weight loss, it’s still 3 lbs. Three pounds a week is not bad at all in anyone’s books. Especially not when my goal for average weekly weight loss is 66.6 lbs ÷ 26 weeks ≈ 2.56 lbs per week. So any weight loss above 2.56 lbs is still a stonking great result and worthy of celebration! If I hadn’t weighed in mid‑week, I’d have been none the wiser—which is one of the reasons why weighing too often is generally considered a bad idea! 😁
The other reason I’m not remotely concerned about the appearance of an increase in weight is ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state that occurs when your body burns fat for energy instead of glucose, and it’s a result of either fasting or a ketogenic (very low‑carb) diet—or both.
In my case, I’ve been doing both. And I knew I was in ketosis most of this week—well, to put it bluntly, because of my pee. 💦 One of the known markers of ketosis is that it can cause a very particular urine odour due to ketones—specifically acetone—in bodily fluids. It’s not entirely dissimilar to the odour you might detect in your pee after eating asparagus, but it is still quite distinct.
I noticed this smell repeatedly throughout the week and even commented on it to my partner when she was visiting. And no, there was no asparagus at all! 😆
This is one of the strongest, most pronounced ketosis smells I’ve ever experienced, despite doing both ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting before, and it’s always a very good sign. Switching to fat‑burning is ultimately my goal, and I know I haven’t eaten enough carbs to switch me back to glucose‑burning—even with popcorn and a brioche bun—precisely because of this smell.
So anyway, this week’s weight loss brings me down to 17 st 5.1 lbs, or 243.1 lbs (110.5 kg), which represents a cumulative weight loss of 14.6 lbs (6.6 kg)—that’s just over one stone in old UK measurements—in almost exactly one month since I started this new lifestyle in earnest.
And I have to remind myself that in that period I had four separate Christmas dinners, including alcohol and desserts, and at least one cinema outing that included a hot dog, fried chicken, and popcorn (Avatar 3 is a very long movie; I would have died otherwise! 😜), as well as a New Year’s Eve celebration of cider, bread and cheese, and chips and dips.
So—I shall very proudly celebrate this win: 3 lbs closer to my target, and rapidly approaching the 16‑stone mark and another milestone, getting under 240 lbs!
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