I am 67 and started out at 257 lbs. (18.36 stones) 4 years ago. If I lost weight or gained weight, my body would always return to this weight. I started working out 45 minutes five or six days a week on a weight stack machine in my basement. I did not change my diet but still dropped to 238 after six months. I learned about the 2 day fast diet and decided to try it. At the time I was taking hydrochlorothiazide and did not realize that it increased the amount of uric acid in my bloodstream. The fasting increased this side effect of my medication and I started getting gout in my feet. I didn’t know what it was at first and so delayed treatment and even did things that made it worse (like putting ice on my feet). The uric acid was depositing on the joints of both feet (ice increased the deposit) and became so painful that I could not walk or sleep at night. My schedule changed so that my job commute became 3 – 4 hours a day, and coupled wight the gout, I was unable to maintain my exercise. I thought that my weight would go back to 257 but because of the six months of weight training, the new weight that my body would go back to was 238, so that much was good. I got gout off and on after that especially in cold weather. I tried the fast diet again after another year and had another bad episode of the gout. It took this second time of getting gout for my doctors to make a connection between the hydrochlorothiazide and the gout. My health plummeted because of a lack of exercise and a growing dependence on anti-inflammatory medication that I started after getting gout. I was finally so weak that I didn’t know if I was going to make it through the year. I had to take some initiative to save myself. I started to wean myself off of the anti-inflammatory medication. This involved at least a week of troubled sleep and body aches but they started to subside. Then I started taking the anti-inflammatory meds only when I was getting gout symptoms. I decided to carefully start the fast diet again, using the anti-inflammatory medicine to keep the gout at bay. For some reason (I am not sure if it had to do with the fasting or a vegetable breakfast I had on non-fast day mornings or something else) my blood pressure dropped. This enabled me to cut my meds in half (my blood pressure was still low) and cut out the hydrochlorothiazid altogether on fast days. I was able to successfully maintain the 2 day fast and even cut out the anti-inflammatory meds. This was six months ago and I have gone from 238 to 205 in that time. I reached a plateau when I got to 210 and stayed there for about a month. Since I have a horrible commute schedule and fight to get 5 -6 hours of sleep during the week, I could find no time to work out like I previously did. In order to increase my metabolism, I am exercising at work several times a day. By exercising short periods multiple times a day, my body will increase its metabolism to anticipate these bursts of activity. When you increase your metabolism you are basically increasing the number of mitochondria in your muscle cells. Also when you lose fat, it breaks up into water and carbon dioxide. The water goes out in your pee and you breathe out the carbon dioxide. By exercising, you are able to breathe out more carbon dioxide which helps the weight loss too. I brought in a dumbbell and at least four times a day, I go through some light exercises with the dumbbell and then take a walk around the floor of the building. At lunch, I take a walk around the building which is close to 2 miles. This seemed to jump start my weight loss again, and I have lost another 5 lbs. and hopefully will keep losing until I reach my goal of 180. I think it will take me to next spring to reach this weight, as I am 205 now. My blood pressure is still low (we have a health center at work where I get my blood pressure and sugar done frequently) and my sugar has gone from pre-diabetic to the normal range. I am gradually starting to incorporate other exercise such as doing sit-ups first thing in the morning. When I was in my 20’s I was doing 1,000 every morning but now I am starting out with 12 – 20. I know these will increase the more I do them. I am also hitting the weight machine on weekends even though I can’t do it during the week. On my slow way to 180 – lots of work – lots of patience. I know this will take a long time and looking forward to next year. I am gradually feeling healthier and having more energy every day. Not quite where I want to be yet. i am going to try to start jogging when I get home at night. I couldn’t do it before because of the weight on my knees but I think my weight is getting low enough that I can start some light jogging. I would like to be running again by next summer.

Thank you for sharing. That sounds like a huge effort of endurance to fast that many days in a row. When I first started the diet I thought that it was supposed to be 2 days in a row, so the first week I did two days in a row, which was a little difficult. I don’t know if I could handle four or five days. That’s truly amazing.

I was thinking of adding another day (3/4). I still haven’t been able to work the exercise into my schedule the way I would like to. Exercise would help too I’m sure. I work on a computer and sit too much during the day.

I seem to be losing a little but at an extremely slow rate. I am hovering between 205 and 210.