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Day 4 of a planned 5 days of ‘no solid food’ fasting
Blood sugar 103 mg/dL
I may have figured out why I get an odd weight gain when I start my ‘no solid food fast’. Essentially I think it goes like this:
Sunday Night: Glycogen levels are high because I ‘carbed up’ during the weekend and the carbs were broken down into glucose and some converted to glycogen, and stored in my skeletal muscles. In order for glycogen to bind to the muscle cells, water is required. I get ‘water weight’. The problem for me is the ”some” part. The rest, I believe, gets stored as fat.
Monday: I usually run. This depletes glycogen stores so I ‘negate’ or sometimes ‘reverse’ the ‘water weight’ gain.
Tuesday: I don’t run. Glycogen stores still refill. Why? My body will always seek ‘equilibrium’, If glycogen levels are low, it will try to fill them. If I have kept my carbs and protein low (protein can be turned into glucose), my body, using a process known as “gluconeogenesis”, will create glucose. Insulin will then move this glucose into my muscle cells to be stored as glycogen . This is great, because I am breaking down body fat. This is what I want.
Wednesday: Glycogen stores have been filled… along with the ‘water weight’. End result, my weight goes ‘up’
Thursday: Glycogen stores have been depleted somewhat, along with the ‘water weight’. End result, my weight goes ‘down’
The problem I have right now, is that I *still* don’t have a net loss from 7 days ago. I believe I have actually 'added fat' that I still need to get my body to use.
So I don’t want to consume a lot of carbs and protein. Otherwise my body will just keep refilling the glycogen stores from dietary carbs and protein. Instead, I want it to refill the glycogen stores from breaking down fat using gluconeogenesis.
Simply reducing my calories will also reduce my carbs and protein and produce the same result. This is what I get when I ‘water fast’ and this is how I lost 40 pounds last year. However, I am already under 1,000 calories most days this week, so just reducing calories is ‘unsustainable’ for me.
Solution:
I need to reduce the fat gained during the weekend. I need to reduce the carbs and protein consumed on the weekends.
First change will be to not drink any protein shakes on the weekends. I am already getting a lot of protein from the cheese I consume on the weekends.
😎 Life is Good! Have a great day everyone!
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