I’m a 57 year old male from Sydney, Australia with Type II diabetes, controlled by diet/exercise. I’m now on Day 79 of the intermittent fasting diet. I can have very strong willpower when I put my mind to it and so I’m having no trouble on fast days. A typical fast day for me is a small bowl of porridge with skim milk followed by a coffee in the morning and a small carton of cottage cheese (which fortunately I love) at dinner. That’s about 500 Calories. I only have water during the day. On non-fasting days, its about 1500-1700 Calories in food. Everyday I go for a very brisk walk for about 9km, finding as many hills as I can, doing pushups every now and then on the way. My Magellan Switch watch, with heart monitor, registers an expenditure of about 650 Calories. And the results of all this?
a. Gone from 83.0kg to 73.5kg with not much loss of lean tissue.
b. I’m much fitter. My resting heart rate has gone from about 70 to 48bpm.
c. My fasting blood sugars have gone from 7-8mmol/L to 5-6mmol/L and random BGL results are lower as well. Haven’t seen any double figures for quite a few weeks.
Why do I love this diet?
As a yo-yo dieter from way back, I would always lose weight from dieting and exercise using immense willpower, but always fell back eventually to my original weight. That was because a long period of dieting, eating only 1200 Calories per day, was so restrictive. Now, fasting two days per week is no great sacrifice. I don’t feel tired (in fact, I feel more energetic and still walk my 9km or so on fast days – the other fast day I walked non-stop for 19.6km in three hours.) And on the non-fasting days, those extra 400-500 Calories above the previous 1200 limit I have allows me to not feel hungry. It also allows for the occasional treat. And when my scheduled fast day coincides with another event (eg going out) I just fast another day instead. AND it takes the guilt out of eating too much on Christmas Day or a party because you just fast the day after.
Thanks to Michael Mosley. I saw the documentary on TV here in Australia, researched it online, bought the book from England, and haven’t looked back since.
12:32 am
5 Feb 14