The 24 hour (ish) Fasting Experiment

I like experimenting with various ways to try to lose weight.  I am in the Army National Guard and at this point don't want to get kicked out for my weight, as I will have just completed 14 years of service at the end of this month.

Over the years I have tried Adkin's, Keto, Intermittent Fasting(IF), etc. I like the science behind fasting but honestly, I find IF burdensome as, while it claims to be intermittent in practice most people do it 5-7 days a week. I actually like breakfast (even after my time in AFG where it was my dinner for 6 months) so I was never good at following a consistent IF plan. Then early last month I found some references to a book, "Eat, Stop, Eat," (by Brad Pilon) that intrigued me. Basically the book breaks down to just trying to go for 24 hours 2x a week (for those of us who are overweight... so America as a whole, then if you get really close you can drop to 1x week). I love that the book has something like 20 page of scientific citations at the end. And even besides fat loss there are additional health benefits to a 24 hour fast that made it an easy sell to me.  

So the basic numbers when I started the first fast on 13FEB19:

Weight: 275.1 lbs

RHR: 62 bpm

After 3 full weeks of 2x Fasting for 24hrs (08MAR19):

Weight: 265.2 lbs

RHR: 55 bpm

Interesting note, you can see my RHR spike during drill(1-3MAR)....  I was less than good going to the gym (only 2-3 time a week) during this period, but because I have a record APFT coming up, I need to get moving on that.

I also had a checkup on 28FEB19 and I will need to have some more blood work done in 3 months, so that should have some interesting nuggets. (one desire of this trip is to not need BP meds anymore)

I will check back in next month to see how things are going.  I find that while I am hungry, I don't feel tempted to cheat.  During these fast periods I try to be as strict as I can be, developing a taste for black (but with fake sugar) coffee and lots of water. I generally break the fast with some probiotics (fermented garlic, sauerkraut, plus maybe some kefir) and carrots/hummis.

The 21 year old me vs the 42yo me

Right around my 42nd birthday I was going out with a few Soldiers from my unit and one of them was a girl who was turning 21 that evening. Beyond the amusement of her trying to educate bartenders on the quirks of alcohol sales (she could buy from our ABC stores on the day before her birthday, but bartenders were not willing to take that risk). It got me to ponder the vast differences between 21yo me and the 42yo me. So in an totally un-ranked and unsorted list: (Old me is indented)

• Drinks coffee, tea. Has maybe a diet soda 2-3 times a week
• Swills soda (sugared). A case+ per week(!).
• Drinks beer (almost everything but IPA's), occasional whisky/bourbon, tons of red wine
• goldschlager and the ilk
• Cooks somewhat complicated meals, can bake if I have the right ingredients 
• Ramen... Maybe fried rice
• 2 kids and a wife
• Not even dating
• Is a Captain with good odds of being promoted to Major in the Army
• Military what?
• Regular gym goer. Lifts and Runs 5k's, 10Milers and as completed a Marathon
• Run if threatened
• Manager. Rarely looks at code. Runs a team of 8 hackers. Has 20+ people working for me on my part time job.
• Thinks he will spend his life coding

It amazes me when you stop to think that you can change so much over time.

* Note I wrote most of this around my 42nd birthday, then left it.  Oddly enough I was literally thinking about these same things today, March 2019.