It's February 1st (new year month, new me?)! We all like firsts; firsts are nice numbers symbolizing new beginnings; I guess it's a good time to attempt another water fast. Ideally I would go for 6 days, but if I can make it even 2 or 3 days I will count it a win. Not doing any silly experiments this time with water consumption or whatever, just wanna get it done and get some good momentum back, so 4 liters of liquids a day (2l of tea + 2l of water; electrolyte water starting day 5, if I get that far)—that amount of liquids worked fine last time to keep the dehydration headaches at bay, should work again! Day 1 of 6 day water fast in progress... Daily morning weight in: 256.61 lbs (116.4 kg). Daily 10k walk done.
1 day water fast completed! Didn't make it to 6 days haha. Hunger was too much. Mainly psychological hunger (unhealthy urges to get dopamine from food). I expected not to make it though, so not disappointed, just happy I made it to almost 2 days. I broke the fast at 5 PM, so that's 7 hours short from midnight, when it would have been 2 days technically, and I stopped eating few hours before midnight the day before yesterday (so that's about 44 to 46 hour fast, not that bad). Starting another one tomorrow, 6 days is still my goal, doesn't matter if I make it or not because I'm sure I will get back the momentum I had in November back eventually. Reffed day 1/1 done. Daily morning weight in: 253.09 lbs (114.8 kg). Daily 10k walk done.
January recap (month Nr. 3 of weight loss); no progress this month. Kind of don't even want to do this recap, but I feel like I have to for the sake of documenting stuff. Basically this month was complete fail when it comes to weight loss. What messed me up I think was me getting flu/bronchitis, so I couldn't fast, cos I felt like shit, which then effected my mental state. Then once I recovered I tried to eat healthy and get back into fasting but could not, the food addictions and urges to eat were too high. I think the catalyst for it was the fact that I was going through an anxiety phase, as well depressive phase, and I have conditioned my mind to use food to numb, relax and self–medicate myself when feeling like shit, just the same way I used to do with PMO. On top of it I felt no drive from semen retention either, I only felt cravings for pleasure and orgasm now and then but no actual sexual energy to transmute, so that didn't help. I guess this is what they call a flatline? At lest I started doing daily 10k walks by the end of a month, so at least I have that going for me... Overall this month I did: One 4k walk. 19 10k walks! Cardio exercise (walking) for 20/31 days of November! In total I fasted for 0/31 days, and was in calorie deficit for for 0/31 days, of December! I weighted myself on the February 1st after waking up (as per usual: in the morning on an empty stomach). My previous stats, in my previous month's (December) recap, was: Hight: 6'4 (194 cm) Weight: 251.10 lbs (113.9 kg) BMI: 30.3 Goal weight:152 lbs (68.9 kg); that's 18.5 BMI Weight left to lose: 99.10 lbs (44.9 kg) My current stats now are: Hight: 6'4 (194 cm) Weight: 256.61 lbs (116.4 kg); +5.51 lbs (+2.5 kg) BMI: 31.2; +0.9 BMI points Goal weight: 152 lbs (68.9 kg); that's 18.5 BMI Weight left to lose: 104.61 lbs (47.4 kg) Weight lost so far: -17.89 lbs (-8.1 kg) Obviously I will not be doing any tape measurements or progress pictures this month either, cos if I felt there was no point last month then surely there is even less point now, I don't want to make myself even more depressed lol. This is my weight loss gain chart for the past 4 weeks: It's taken on February 4th (today) so last 3 dots are due to me getting back into water fasting this month (so these don't count), but everything else prior is January, as you can see it's slowly going up... Overall I am angry, mad and frustrated. I am mad at my body for getting sick twice in a row, I am mad at my messed up brain for having depression and anxiety, I am mad at myself for being a food addict and I am angry at myself for being too weak mentally to push through all of that pain and fast anyway despite of it. So yea, that's that. Goals for the month ahead: Rebuild fasting momentum. Do few shorter fasts until I get enough momentum to make it to a 6 day fast, preferably this month. Do a daily walk of 10k, possibly with exception of being deep into the fast, cos might feel too weak then.
Another 1 day water fast completed! Another one done! Feeling some progress, cos this one was easier than previous one: less cravings and urges. Gonna eat today, and maybe tomorrow, and then start another fast either tomorrow or overmorrow. Gonna aim for 2 days. Hopefully more though, if I can, but at least two should be manageable. Reffed day 1/1(2?) in progress... Daily morning weight in: 250.66 lbs (113.7 kg). Edit: Total 10k walking done (spread this one in halfs: some at morning and some at evening).
It looks like you are down about 24lbs from where you started. Congratulations on all the progress you have made!
Reffed day 2/2 in progress... Daily morning weight in: 254.85 lbs (115.6 kg). 10k walk done (slightly more than 10 actually; same as yesterday, split in two sessions)
Day 1 of 2 (or maybe more) day water fast in progress... Daily morning weight in: 255.73 lbs (116 kg).
Hey, congrats on your journey. Any reason your weight goal is so low? It seems way to low for someone as tall as you
I second the motion to add strength training. Especially just some bodyweight calf raises and air lunges or squats would strengthen the leg joints for keeping the legs healthy on those long walks @MindfulWarrior @Ūruz @lowkeysonly Also seconding low's idea to keep the goal weight at 185-200. I'm guessing Uruz is just trying to get lean. Which would make sense if he isn't trying to do strength training and just be thin. However if he does strength training then he'll be able to be completely ripped with visible abs at the 185-200 range. I weight 175 at 6" and my bodyfat is about 10% I can see my abs but I still want to be leaner cuz it looks good and makes me feel good. Also kudos to you URUZ for getting your weight down so much already. Impressive charts and graphs work!!!!
@MindfulWarrior @lowkeysonly @ZenYogi Hi guys, thanks for dropping by and sorry for the late reply—my fitness stuff has not been going well due to depression and anxiety that I've been dealing with, so I did not want to even visit this journal, cos the very existence of it makes me mad at myself and even more anxious lol, cos I am reminded of shit I need to do that I am not doing. My last reply here was about one month ago, about my 2 day water fast attempt, but no follow up, so obviously you can guess that it did not quite work out as planned. And I've been struggling with my diet since then. But anyways, I need to get back on the track, so I will start journaling here more frequently again, maybe it will provide me that extra boost of motivation. Always nice to see other people who follow the same diet and do fasting! Yep, my plan is to not just lose weight but develop healthy habits that I can stick to for the rest of my life. Thanks! I love walking so it hasn't been that difficult to do these 10k walks. Please, all advice is absolutely welcome and appreciated, especially since I am relatively new to this whole fitness stuff, I only remember the basics from my early 20s when I used to work out casually, but I was a beginner beck then too. I do know that building muscle helps, but honestly I did not want to do that because I think my mind is too weak right now for too big of a routine, I would just burn out (I've tried that in the past, so I know how it will end up). So instead my plan is to finish one thing, while building my "mind muscle" of willpower and discipline along the way, and then focus on other things—I want to slowly add more and more stuff as I keep progressing. I am trying to build my discipline in other non–fitness related areas too about which I don't journal here, it's been slowly moving along. Thanks! I guess the reason is nostalgia; this is how much I used to weight in my late high school years (I was just as tall back then too), as well as in my early 20s—I remember how light and fit I felt, and how much I loved my body back then, so it would be cool to get to that place/feeling again. You guys speak the truth about strength training, I can't disagree with that. But honestly I just don't want to right now lol. All though it is on my list eventually for sure, if anything then just for the sake of health. But I don't know if I want to be 200 pounds with ripped abs. Maybe I do? I am not sure; it kind of depends from my mood really; sometimes I want to look like Greg Plitt (I used to watch him in my early 20s a lot) used to look like, and other times I think that I want to look like a skinny kpop star (minus the haircut and makeup part lol; I do want to look rugged from the neck up)—I love how I used to look in skinny jeans—my ultimate body goals definitely are something I need yet to figure out, I think I probably would be fine either way to be honest, only thing I know for sure is that I do not want to be fat but rather fit. When I think of my ideal body type what often comes into mind is that classical body type of men's fashion runway model body, where they are not just skin and bones but have some tone on, and some abs, but at the same time they are not super buff either, so they can still rock skinny looking fashion without it looking weird on them. I don't know, maybe it's cultural? In America apparently they admire big muscles a lot, even in high school you are supposed to be a buff football player haha, but here in the eastern Europe, very similarly as in the Asia, the skinny look (albeit with some tone) is preferred—when I was in high school all the cool kids were tall and skinny basketball players, so maybe what body style I prefer now might be influenced by the culture in which I grew up—often times whatever we will like or dislike as adults is influenced by our childhood experiences.
I have an old book that I bought years ago (Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade) that I plan to revisit eventually. It has a full body exercise routine and I remember beginning exercises were super easy too, like wall pushups for example (and then eventually it builds up to one arm pushups), so I should have no issue easing into it. That's my long term plan.
February recap So I've been doing one recap post every month, with measurements and graphs and stuff—not doing it this month. I still wanted to make a short journal entry for the sake of documenting, but there is no point in going any deeper into it, because everything's been on a standstill—no weight loss progress in the February, in fact I have gained a couple pounds. Basically it's been pretty much the same as last month, so just refer to my previous month's (January) recap instead. I already mentioned in posts above the reasons for it (emotional eating due to anxiety and depression). I blame my mental state on PAWS (withdrawals from porn addiction) that I think I've been going through recently, there is a thread on this forum about it which goes into more details: P.A.W.S. - what are they, cure, duration. One thing that I will mention though is that in the month of February I did walk 10k almost every day: I did daily 10k exercise for 21/28 days; did 9k for 2 days in a row; did 4k for one day; did 7k for one day—that's 25/28 days of the February when I exercised, so that's good. So far walking has been the easy part, cos it actually relaxes me a lot and helps to alleviate anxiety. The goals for the new month of March 2023 are pretty much the same as the goals for the last month of February: rebuild fasting momentum; do few shorter fasts until I get enough momentum to make it to a 6 day fast; keep doing daily 10k walking exercise for as many days as I can menage. That's all for now.
You have a point for sure; a lot of people tend to binge after fasts, or do a crush diet and regain a lot of the weight back after that diet has ended, etc. Will that be me? I don't know, will see I guess. I mean I don't think I will, but at the same time I can't say I know 100% what I am doing either lol; I think I know enough to do what I am doing safely but I am still experimenting with things and learning as I go. I know I need to find something that I can sustain long term eventually, so far the plan is OMAD of WFPBD, after I am done with fasting. But it's hard to do for weight loss, because I do have food addictions—it's harder for me to limit food every day than just stay away from it altogether. I think it makes sense for addicts, I mean think of alcohol addiction; they say it's better to quit completely than it is to still occasionally have a glass of vine here and there, and it makes sense, cos it's harder to resist when you have a tease present all the time tempting you. Unfortunately with food, unlike with alcohol, we have to use it and eat, so it is what it is. But I still think similarly as to alcohol it's easier to reboot from food addictions if we take a longer break from eating altogether, like it's easier for alcohol addict to get clean by stopping altogether rather than decreasing intake bit by bit every day. I mean I kind of look at rebooting from food addiction the same way I look at rebooting from porn addiction. And it's not just physical addiction (brain chemistry like dopamine, etc) but also psychological: we use porn to sedate ourselves when we feel stressed or to make ourselves to feel something when we are depressed or bored, etc—food is the same way. And the best way how to reboot from porn addiction is (in my opinion at least, cos this is true for me) not to do Easy Mode reboot where we don't watch porn but still MO, but rather to do a Hard Mode reboot where you avoid P, M and O. Hard mode works better because it doesn't tempt and tease all those conditioned pathways of behavior and association in our brain, so they fade faster. Extended water fasting is like an equivalent of that Hard Mode for me, just for food addiction instead of porn addiction. I have noticed this to be true from my previous fasts too—after I have finished longer fast it's easier for me to eat healthy and in disciplined way following that fast for days to follow, and the more extended fasts I do the easier it becomes to stick to long term. But when I have tried to follow a calorie counting diet and just to eat less it's way harder to sustain it for long time. So it's not just a theory, because I have tried this out in the past, before I started this journal. I mean, so far extended water fasting is the only thing that has worked for me for losing weight. Getting in the habit of intermittent fasting is something I want to do, but to get in that habit I first need to get rid of the bad habits—just the same way as to get into the habit of not watching porn I need to get rid of the habit of watching it, to get into the habit of not eating all the time I first need to get rid of the habit of eating all the time. Ya know what I mean lol? So I am rebooting (through extended water fasting) my brain from old and unhealthy habits of eating so I can then replace them with things like intermittent fasting. Obviously the fact that through extended water fasting I can lose the weight very fast is a benefit—love it! But there is another "reboot" aspect, from food addictions, to it as well. I mean if I could lose weight by limiting my portions and stick to it long term then I would not have gotten this fat to begin with.
Good stuff man. I agree with you, I think extended water fasts are like a hard mode reboot. It’s so good for the mind. I remember when was watching porn every other day habitually as a stress reliever, I then did a 2 week fates and during the fast I did not do/watch any PMO and had no desire or temptation for it. Maybe because all my mind was consumed with was food, but still. It kinda worked as a PMO detox. Now…the goal is to detox from an obsession of food as being a an emotional / mental crutch. Especially high carb foods. I think keto and carnivore are def preferable to get into before and then after an extended fast.
Yep, same—when I fast the urges and cravings are way less. I honestly think extended water fasting is good way how to deal with many addictions, not just food addiction or PMO addiction but also things like, alcohol, drug addiction, caffeine addiction, video game addiction, etc, etc, etc. Fasting just does good things for the psyche! I've seen and read testimonies of people on the internet that said water fasting for a week at a time helped them to quit smoking for example.
