A very interesting side effect of the fast diet.

This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by Merryme 8 years, 11 months ago.

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JeremyTO

4:40 pm
5 Dec 15
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Hi everyone:)

I am a 38 year old male and I have been on the fast diet for 3 months now. I am pleased to say that I have now lost a total of 20 lbs. At first I found this diet very difficult to follow. The book telling you to prepare for hunger on the fast days is an understatement. However, as many other people have mentioned on the forums, this does get better in time. Although I am extremely happy with the weight loss, the most interesting effect from this diet is an improvement in my physical fitness. As a runner, I have struggled with reducing my overall time. No matter how hard I trained, I could never get my 10k time under one hour. In fact, on a bad day, I could be as high as 1:10:00. Ever since I started the fast diet, my time has been reduced significantly. The best results would happen the day after fasting. After the second week of fasting, my time for a 10k reduced by 4 minutes. Yesterday, 3 months into the diet, my time reduced by 12 minutes. Although my weight loss could have contributed to this time difference, there must be other factors in place as my time decreased well before this loss. I am curious to hear if anyone els has had a similar experience.

Fattymessi

11:21 am
7 Dec 15
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Hi, I noticed something similar in as much as I found breathing easier so could push myself further and harder running or in spinning.

Bizarrely I found spinning easier when I was on a fast day (not the first week) but once I had got used to fasting on certain days.

Maybe its a combination of weight loss and internal health changes?

Amazon

12:30 pm
7 Dec 15
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Hi,

If you’ve lost a significant amount and IMO 20lbs is, then your body doesn’t have to put so much effort into moving it around and it might be that it was working as hard as it could hence no time improvement, and the weight loss made a difference. I’m also of the opinion that exercise is a bit like losing weight where sometimes you reach a plateau and nothing seems to work to get things moving again so it could have been a combination of both. It is a great boost for you, knowing that your weight loss has improved your fitness in several ways. Well done!

Many people find exercising in a fasted state easier. I’ve always found it easier to exercise on an empty stomach. I started to go to the gym three times a week and found Mondays easier, and Weds and Fri more difficult. At first I thought I was pushing myself too hard and Mondays were easier because I had had two days rest and then I realised it was because I was fasting Tue and Thur. I’ve changed my routine so that I exercise on FDs and found it easier.

Merryme

11:56 am
9 Dec 15
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Hi Jeremy,

My doctor said every 5kg you lose (that’s 11 lbs) you heart function will improve. You’ve almost done that twice so you’ve produced that effect of cardiac improvement twice. Can’t give detailed physiological explanation, but that would probably explain your improvement too.

Cheers,
Merry