Liver shrinkage

I had been following the intermittent fasting – or 5:2 diet – reasonably well until Christmas.

Then I suddenly noticed my gut was protruding and I was over 91 kg on 2nd January.

Back to low calorie days on Mondays and Thursdays and I've shed 7 kg in two months.

I noted here last year how my belly seems to deflate almost day by day as I lose visceral fat around my organs. Although intermittent fasting is supposed to have health advantages beyond weight loss, losing visceral fat is definitely a good thing to do. It is easy to monitor as I just try to stick my gut out.

For a while I noticed greater protuberance to the left side, presumably my stomach. Since then things evened up for a while.

Now it feels like there is nothing to protrude: trying flexes my stomach muscles rather than pushing my stomach, liver and whatever else forward. Things are fitting where they should again.

Last time I stabilised at around 82 kg. In theory my ideal Body Mass Index is a further 6 kg below this, which might be interesting to aim for just to see what happens.

First day fasting

And so my memory tag for 30 August 2012 is the first day of my fast, following the eat, fast and live longer regime.

The specific image is weighing my body fat on the special balance at the local chemist, at 25%. My target is to bring this down to 18% or less. These scales are apparently not very accurate, but presumably I will see some difference. My weight, with my shorts and t-shirt on (I was in public view) was about 5 kg above my accurately measured weight of 86 kg. My accurate BMI is 25, at the upper limit of the recommended range, so it would be good to bring my weight down to 80 kg or a little less. I run regularly and would love to feel a little lighter on my feet (and joints).

The other image pinned to this day on my mental calendar is feeling totally whacked by the end of the day. I don't think this was because of avoiding food. I missed breakfast and lunch, taking just fruit teas as refreshment. After arriving home I had a small meal of rice and vegetables and a small piece of beef, leftovers from the previous day, and then some fruit and yoghurt for dessert. Together it should have been within the 600 Calories limit.

I felt hungry during the day, of course, which is why I added dessert to my meal, not to suffer too much. Unexpected was the terrible headache and exhaustion to the point of falling asleep while watching television. During the night the headache also troubled me when I woke and my stomach felt knotted.

I realised what it was in the morning: caffeine withdrawal.

I don't drink a great deal of coffee any more as a few years ago it started giving me problems with stomach acid. So usually just a milky cup in the morning and perhaps a second in the early afternoon. If I'm out and about, I might have a latte at some point. Not a lot, but every day.

Having a cup of coffee this morning brought my headache to a quick end.

I had thought to make my first two fasting days consecutive, but decided against it after waking so rough.

I will probably make Saturday the next fast day - but I will have a cup of coffee and a biscuit as part of my 600 calories.