Well, tantalizingly close is the 84.* mark. I just can’t seem to get there at the moment. The incessant rain over the past three days precluded any exercise and incited a bout of laziness that didn’t abate last night, even when the rain went off.
On the plus side, limiting eating hours is quite beneficial, even if I still need to eat something later. I’ve been opting to eat yogurt (homemade, of course) and trying to finish before 10pm. I’ve also been following the 14:10 principle of eating since I can’t manage 16/8. It feels about right.
Weight loss is continuing but as you’ll see, the initial gains are slowing down. Note the trending lines in the graph are flattening on both the daily and averages. Still they’re pointing down but this suggests that my body is adapting to the current diet stress, perhaps to minimize the effects of weight loss.
Remember: our bodies are systems that prize stability and self-regulation. So this consequence should not be surprising. Also, my scales aren’t THAT accurate. So some variance is to be expected. It’s one reason that I prefer to track averages, like 5-day average or even averages of averages to minimize the inaccuracies due to weight fluctuation, water weight and scale limitations. This also tends to minimizes the problems of excess readings, either in my favor or not.
A couple of additional points: I rediscovered that compared to my weight loss in the period last year, I’m doing slightly less after than last year’s at this point after 35 days. 92.5kgs > 89.3kgs so loss of 3.2kgs vs 88.2kgs > 85.3kgs a loss of 2.9kgs.
Given my weight and BMR are both lower than the starting point last year, it’s not surprising that my body doesn’t have to work so hard. Either way, so early in the 90-day fast… it’s easy to fall prey to self-doubts. Don’t.
The other point is that if you rest on your laurels, it’s easy to stop the weight loss. Just decrease your time and calorie outputs and the weight loss drops off. 1950~2050 seems to result in no loss. 2050~2150 results in minor or incremental weight loss. 2150~2250 gets weight coming off. 2250~2350+ results in faster (doh!) weight drop. The key to this is: being consistently on target for calorie/time!
You have to remember: it’s not what you think or feel that matters, it’s what you do: don’t overeat & exercise enough! Otherwise, don’t think about it too much! That’s it for Week 5.