OK, so a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is never going to be great, and with a correlation between T2D and Pancreatic Cancer (PC) which killed my dad, it’s no surprise that I’ve panicked.
The advice from Diabetes UK to lose 15kgs of weight as this may reverse T2D hasn’t helped and literally in two days I’ve jumped into a massive program of exercise and fasting.
While the results at first seem to justify the effort, in reality I know I’m already in danger of burning out.
Firstly – the “good news”. I weighed in again this morning – well aware that I only weighed myself yesterday – but since I’d completed a 36hr fast yesterday, and then gone straight into another 16 hour fast overnight, I was keen to see the results.
And yes – I’ve lost 3.3lbs overnight! That’s amazing right!? That takes my total loss since Monday’s weigh-in to an incredible 7.9lbs!! In one week! The numbers don’t lie, do they?
Well, yes, of course they do. It’s virtually impossible to lose more than 1lb of fat per day due to simple arithmetic. 1lb of fat equates to ~3,500 calories. During the course of a day my body burns through a certain amount of calories – that’s my BMR – you can find more about this here on my General dieting terms and concepts page. My BMR is around 3,000 calories. Even if I add in the bike rides and runs I’ve done – none of these will equate to much more than 500 calories extra being burned.
So if I consume nothing, and burn 3,500 calories (BMR of 3,000 + 500 extra activity) then I could realistically burn 1lb of fat a day.
So – there’s no way I just lost 3.3lbs overnight. And it’s impossible for me to have lost more than 7lbs in the last week since most of those days I ate “normally”. So probably consumed at least 2,000 calories per day. I couldn’t possibly have had a calorie deficit of 3,500 per day in that case, which would be required to burn 1lb of fat per day.
So – it’s important to set a reality check. What I’ve done is just lost maybe 1lb of fat, and around 6lbs in water weight! This is not necessarily a bad thing as long as you understand it and don’t get too carried away.
At the same time – I went out for a bike ride today despite my legs feeling fatigued from Friday’s cycling and yesterday’s walk/run workout, and despite fasting again overnight for around 16 hrs.
Result: I really struggled to finish my ride. It took me 1hr 23 today, where it normally takes me less than 1hr 10! I had to stop and rest multiple times.
Why? Duh! Because I’ve seriously depleted my body’s glycogen stores – the fuel we use for energy, especially when increasing our activity levels beyond slow-but-steady activity like walking into higher intensity exercising.
Fasting can be effective, but it also has to be respected.
So – note to self. Calm down. Slow-but-sure will win this “race” to lose weight. The aim is also not JUST to lose weight it’s to get healthier! Killing yourself in the process kinda defeats the object! 😀
OK, but I’m still going to enjoy the fact that I am already approaching 18 and a half stone (260lbs / 118kgs). I’m going to studiously ignore the fact that it’s mostly water weight. And I’m going to carry on by easing myself into things a little more from here on in!
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