Desperate Timez Require Desperate GAINZZZZ

So last time I vowed I'd have some GAINZZZ to report or else I'd make them up. I'm too lazy to make them up, so I just kept away from a GAINZZZ thread.

I do have GAINZZZ-- continuing to exercise and such -- but not weight-LOZZ GAINZZZ. I've plateaued right under 170 and can't seem to budge it down further.

Not that I've been trying. Wednesday night I decided to be "Bad" and have a cheat meal. I had mac and cheese plus desert (damn fine strawberry pie, in honor of Dale Cooper's imminent return).

I was surprised to see I'd gained weight at the meal.

But then I thought about it: I'd also cheated without declaring it Sunday (Indian-- with naan) and Monday night too (chicken McNuggets after working out).

So basically I've been cheating like a bastard and then lying about it to myself.

After coming home from my acknowledge cheat meal (and realizing I'd had a couple of unacknowledged ones), I noticed my guru had a new video out, about the benefits of fasting.

The video notes that fasting is hard for the first two days, but then becomes fairly easy. So I figured, if you get through two days, you might as well extend that.

So this is what I'm doing: a five day fast. 120 hours without food. (Okay, a very small amount of food.) I'm in hour 46; my last chewed food was Wednesday at around 8:30.

I picked the number "five" at random -- it sounded just long enough, but not too long -- but it turns out that earlier this year the Five Day Fast became the new buzzy idea in weight loss. Most plans call it a "fasting-mimicking diet" for five days -- allowing you 1,100 calories on day one, then like 700 calories from days 2 through 5 -- and you can read about those if you like.

Personally, I'm not good with calorie counting. I either eat or I don't. The minute I start eating, I'm just going to eat, you know?

So I'm going without eating per se, but with some small amount of easily-measured calories. The only thing I'm eating is bulletproof style coffee in the morning (which has butter and MCT oil in it, so there's a little food there), athletic green powder for lunch (which has 50 calories in it, and a good dose of vitamins and antioxidants), and 20 grams of bone broth protein with tumeric for dinner.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm allowing myself some bulletproof green tea (with butter and MCT oil) if, mid-day, I need a boost in both caffeine and some amount of calories.

Adding in some of the supplements I'm adding -- BCAA's, glutamine, creatine (damnit, I want those GAINZZZ) -- I guess I'm maybe having 300 calories a day, or less. I also have two tablespoons or so of apple cider vinegar to help dull my appetite when it gets bad. (I'm drinking that now, mixed with ice water -- it's helping.)

The first day was pretty easy. Today was pretty easy until a couple of hours ago, when I got really hungry, and then my mind just kept perseverating about the fact that I was hungry.

Actually, it's not even that I feel hungry -- I'm just very aware that I haven't eaten.

I put off lunch so I have that delicious meal of athletic greens still coming up, and then later, that delicious cup of bone broth.

I'm actually a little spacey. I wasn't yesterday and wasn't earlier today, but right now, my brain is pretty foggy, if I'm being honest.

This is a dangerously stupid plan and I don't know why I let you guys bully me into it.

Tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday will be hard too, because I plan to work out on those days.

But hopefully, this guy is right, and the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin is at its peak right now and will get weaker, not stronger, starting tomorrow.

This other recent video he did recaps the new understanding of hormones' effects on weight loss and weight gain, again repudiating the idea that "A calorie is a calorie is a calorie."

That video makes a good point-- sure, calories in, calories out. But why don't overweight people just burn off the extra calories they eat, either in the form of jittery energy or just raising their internal metabolic heat a tenth of a degree? (Which, by the way, is how lean people's bodies tend to treat unexpected surplus calories.) Why does the calorie surplus go right into stored fat for some, but not for others?

Anyway, good vids.

I'll let you know how it goes, maybe with updates over the weekend. Hopefully I won't tap out -- I think that today is pretty much in the bag, even though it kind of sucks at the moment. I do have the athletic greens and protein powder still to drink. And hopefully tomorrow will be easier, though, again, after I work out, I'm going to be really hungry, and really wanting protein for my GAINZZZ, and I'm worried I'm going to be very sorely tempted to say "55 hours is plenty" and tap out.

By the way, I'm not a doctor, and I'm making this up as I go. I'm told this can be dangerous. This guy did a strict five day fast (water and vitamins only) and says that there's a danger not just in the fasting, but in the refeeding following the fast. Apparently if you spike your insulin too high post-fast, you can do real damage to yourself. I don't like the idea that after fasting, I have to slowly reintroduce food -- I want to just end the fast.

But apparently that's unwise.

So don't try this at home. To be honest, I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to refeed safely, but I figure I have a couple of days to draw up a plan.

Hopefully movieqique will check in and let me know how these more serious, three or four or five day fasts go.

By the way, this recent post on PJMedia is about exercising after 50. Which is obviously important stuff.

This is my rest day but I'm planning on getting in some light exercise via a three mile walk later.

So -- tell me about yo GAINZZZ. Are you on-plan, or have you gone off? Have the people who've already lost lots of weight lost more, or have you guys plateaued as well?

Hmmm: Jason Fung describes the problems with long fasts of five to ten days (or more) here, and it sounds like something I don't want to mess with.

I think I'll do four days, to keep away from all that business.

posted by Ace at 06:00 PM

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