Day 19, plateau? 
healthierguts
14 y
1,934
I've been planning to go for 30 days. Wondering if it's normal to plateau on the weight loss at this stage. I think my weight's stayed the same for a few days after losing steadily in the beginning. I'm still really weak and had an extra-extra tired day today. That 21-day mark looks good to me but I'd regret not sticking it out to the 30-day goal I set my mind to at the outset. I have made it this far, and I don't want to do this again anytime soon. I had a weight goal in mind, and I'm really pretty nervous about gaining weight back with refeeding, so I want to make sure I get it down as far as I can. But I suppose with ideal refeeding I won't gain it back other than a few pounds of water rebalancing weight?
- Re: Day 19, plateau? Mighty.Sun.Tzu
14 y
1,774
This is a reply to # 1,720,789
I've been planning to go for 30 days. Wondering if it's normal to plateau on the weight loss at this stage. I think my weight's stayed the same for a few days after losing steadily in the beginning.
Hi Healthierguts,
It is exceedingly normal for weight loss to be fastest towards the beginning and slowest towards the end and though a reduced metabolic rate is one factor (by 25-40% over a long fast according to Dr. Shelton, the vast majority of this by 21 days) the primary and overwhelming factor is that the majority of temporary water and intestinal content losses are already gone by the later stages."Metabolism is lowered from one-fourth to two-fifths during the fast. This falls quite rapidly during the first part of the fast until the true physiological minimum for metabolism is reached. From this point on, until the return of hunger, metabolism is maintained at a fairly uniform level.
from: http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch10.htm
If you have days with no scale loss whatsoever it's just a matter of how much water is being held or released since your body has no choice but to continue burning fat to sustain itself (and to a much lesser extent protein sources to procure the minimally required amounts of glucose).
In one of my own experiences, on days 1-7 I averaged about 2.4 pounds of loss per day: 3.5, 1.75, 2.5, 3.25, 1.75, 2 and 2, 16.75 pounds in 7 days... and on days 24-30 i averaged .75 pounds of loss, 5.25 pounds in 7 days. This would have been about a pound per day, but i had slowed down on my activity in the final days of that fast.
I'm still really weak and had an extra-extra tired day today. That 21-day mark looks good to me but I'd regret not sticking it out to the 30-day goal I set my mind to at the outset.
I can share in this :). Every day looks tempting to break a fast early but i agree with you that there is nothing quite as sweet or as worthy of our sacrifice as reaching our goal.
"But I suppose with ideal refeeding I won't gain it back other than a few pounds of water rebalancing weight?"
The temporary losses are often a bigger part of it than we might like to believe, but the fat losses are real and can be permanant with the right post-fast practices.
- Re: Day 19, plateau? healthierguts
14 y
1,614
This is a reply to # 1,721,031Thank you, Mighty!
I am grateful for such good info and your experience on this. I'm about 8 pounds shy of what I consider my ideal weight for longevity. I think I've lost about 20 pounds so far since starting the fast. I am looking forward to that day 30. Today I decided that I shouldn't worry too much about refeeding gains as long as I stay true to the refeeding plans I have spent a lot of time reading about.
Right now I feel pretty 'hungry' and it's somewhat challenging because I fix food for my kids and continue to be present around food quite a bit. I wonder if you experienced increased fatigue at this stage as well. And did you experience the return of 'true hunger' and end any of your fasts based on this? If so, how did you know it was true hunger?
I still feel that I am experiencing detox symptoms. I still have some back pain and mouth/tongue cleansing effects. I am tired and somewhat irritable. This is normal too, I believe. So....10 more days for me. Let's hope they fly by!
Thanks again for your encouraging words.
:)
- Re: Day 19, plateau? Mighty.Sun.Tzu
14 y
1,673
This is a reply to # 1,721,391
"Thank you, Mighty!
I am grateful for such good info and your experience on this. I'm about 8 pounds shy of what I consider my ideal weight for longevity. I think I've lost about 20 pounds so far since starting the fast. I am looking forward to that day 30."
hey healthierguts, you're welcome :). Congratulations, it sounds like you are doing great.
"Today I decided that I shouldn't worry too much about refeeding gains as long as I stay true to the refeeding plans I have spent a lot of time reading about."
This sounds like a truly sensible plan :).
"I wonder if you experienced increased fatigue at this stage as well."
Well i was mostly laying down so i was detoxing maximally and i felt fatigue most of the time when i tried to do anything that didn't include staying in bed :).
"And did you experience the return of 'true hunger' and end any of your fasts based on this? If so, how did you know it was true hunger?"
In my first long fast which ended about 16 months ago i reached true hunger at 29 days, 16 hours and i fought it for 8 more hours to hit 30 days. My goal in each subsequent fast was a repeat of that experience, but it hasn't happened again... not yet. I'm sure i began to run low on some nutrient because i had fat stores to continue. Also i believe i ran out earlier than might otherwise have been the case because in that particular fast i was brisk walking 2 hours per day before becomming convinced that resting profoundly is the best way to go and embracing that idea in each fast since.
How i knew i reached genuine hunger (what a shocker when it happened) is that it wasn't like any kind of hunger i had ever experienced before or since. Truly my body was SCREAMING for food. It was a ferocious, all encompassing DEMAND to eat and it never diminished even for a minute. Resisting food for 29 days and 16 hours was very easy compared to resisting it for these final 8 hours.
"I still feel that I am experiencing detox symptoms. I still have some back pain and mouth/tongue cleansing effects. I am tired and somewhat irritable. This is normal too, I believe."
Yes i agree that it's all normal stuff. As to the irritability, I'd say your body would love to be laying down resting in peace and quiet, but is perturbed at having to get up and do stuff with so little energy... so irritability is a natural consequence. It would be nice to have no responsibilities while fasting, but as in your case this is so often not possible.
"So....10 more days for me. Let's hope they fly by!
Thanks again for your encouraging words.
:)"
Yes that would be great! You are so welcome, happy to be of help. :) Great job. Wishing you all the best and curious to see how each day goes from here :).
- Re: Day 19, plateau? Mighty.Sun.Tzu
14 y
1,673
- Re: Day 19, plateau? healthierguts
14 y
1,614
- Re: Day 19, plateau? fasting321
14 y
1,618
- Re: Day 19, plateau? Mighty.Sun.Tzu
14 y
1,774
