Slow progress but still winning!

As I mentioned in my last post, this has been a bit of a weird week, but one that highlighted how my strategy (fasting, keto, exercise) has become an ingrained habit. and that I’m really winning! Why? Because, when faced with a stress situation around my redundancy, I didn’t turn to comfort food or booze – I did a double workout instead! 😄

The fact that I have three strings to my bow so-to-speak means that even if one fails, often just staying the course with the other two keeps things on an even keel.

As an example, this week I did my usual Monday and Tuesday swim, then Wednesday I got genuinely confused and went out for a run instead of my swim. Having made this error, I decided to still swim as well. Even though that swim wasn’t great, I still made the most of it.

I then rested on Thursday because I didn’t want to overdo things.

And on Friday, I had an emergency tooth removal at the dentist. What that meant was that I couldn’t swim again on Friday or run today (Saturday). Neither of those activities would have been conducive to proper healing/clotting of a big open wound in my mouth! 😉

Actually, the advice is to take a few days off at least, and longer for swimming.

But, even though this week was a bit disjointed from an exercise perspective, I still managed my usual strict keto diet and 3 perfectly good 36-hour fasts.

The result, I still lost weight. Not a huge amount, but I’m now down to 15 St 11.2 lbs
(221.2 lbs / 100.3kg). That means I lost 0.3lbs.

It really doesn’t sound like a lot given my “effort” with 3 fasts, 3 (and a bit) workouts, and a strict keto diet, but bear this in mind:

Firstly, none of this feels like effort. 3 x 36-hour fasts are just a habit for me now. I genuinely feel better in myself knowing that I’m giving my poor pancreas a rest while also seeing the benefits in nerve repair that come from autophagy. I genuinely prefer eating keto, knowing that I’m not inflaming my nerves further or damaging my vascular system and thereby perpetuating my hypertension. Given my diet and fasting, I know, without any shadow of a doubt, that I’ve been in a significant calorie deficit this week. Simple physics says I have lost fat, which is the goal.

So why haven’t I seen any weight loss on the scales then?

That brings me to my second point. As we’ve discussed before, sometimes life gets in the way, and learning to just ride the wave is really important to long-term success and metabolic stability.

I had some bad news regarding my redundancy on Wednesday, which resulted in significant stress and anxiety. The stress response triggers the release of cortisol, which in turn signals the kidneys to hold onto salt and water. I am very likely holding on to 2–3 lbs of water weight right now, which is masking my actual fat loss.

At the same time, I had a tooth removed yesterday, involving lots of local anaesthetic and major trauma. My body isn’t just “healing a hole” – it’s currently running a massive, high-priority logistics operation. When that tooth came out, my immune system hit the “emergency” button, and blood vessels dilated to act as a highway for millions of white blood cells rushing to the site to prevent infection and start building new tissue. Along with those cells comes a significant amount of fluid (plasma), which creates localized swelling. But the response isn’t just in my jaw; it’s systemic.

Inflammation is essentially “water-heavy.” For every gram of healing tissue and every immune response triggered, my body is stockpiling water to facilitate those chemical reactions. It’s like a construction site that suddenly needs a dozen water tankers to mix the concrete – the site gets “heavier” even before the building goes up.

So, while the simple physics of my 36-hour fasts means I’ve definitely burned through fat stores, my bathroom scales are currently measuring the whole construction site!

I’m effectively swapping fat for healing fluids. Once the inflammation peaks and my body realizes the “crisis” is over, it’ll release that water – and I expect the scale to catch up with a very satisfying “whoosh” effect, letting go of water and the fat cells I’ve already burned.

So I’m really not sweating a “meagre 0.3 lbs”. I’m just letting the incredibly complex machine of my body do its essential maintenance work in the background while I focus on the next goal.

You can see some of this week’s stress in my blood pressure numbers. On Wednesday, I averaged 138/89 high due to the redundancy stress. By Thursday they had naturally recovered a bit down to 124/88, which I think is more reflective of my natural medicated baseline.

Then this morning I was up again to 133/88 – not as bad as Wednesday because I’m not stressed psychologically, just physiologically due to my dental trauma yesterday! And that’s the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth! 🦷😁

I’m still feeling these are healthy enough for now. Once I lose some more weight and as I improve my fitness, I expect them to drop more consistently.