Derek Stegelman

Intermittent Fasting Experiment

Mountain

For the past two weeks I’ve been experimenting with a Ketogenic diet to see if I could finally lose the last 30 or so pounds that I’ve gained over the last decade. The initial weeks have gone well, losing almost 10 pounds so far.

In addition to eating in a completely different way, I’ve wanted to experiment with another diet change that is “Intermittent Fasting”. My goal is to have periods of fasting for 16-18 hours per 24 hour period. Essentially, this means skipping breakfast and refraining from any eating after dinner time, which for me is never later than 7 pm. I want to try this for a week and see if it impacts any of my weight loss while on the Ketogenic diet.

I will only be weighing in on Friday, Tuesday, and the ending Friday. If results are fairly positive, I’ll discuss lengthening the experiment as well.

  • Initial Weight before Ketogenic diet: 191

Friday May 20

  • Early morning weigh in: 183
  • First Meal: 12:23 PM
  • Second Meal: 6:00 PM
  • Total Fast Time: 16.5 hrs
  • Exercise: 10 Miles on Bike

Notes

  • About 10:30 was the first time I started to feel a bit hungry. My plan is to begin biking the 10 miles I want to do at 11 (during lunch hour) and then immediately eat the first meal.

  • Before leaving on the bike ride, I got extreamly hungry, but working out and drinking water seemed to fix it.

Saturday May 21

  • First Meal: 12:03 PM
  • Second Meal: 5:15 PM
  • Total Fast Time: 16 hrs.
  • Exercise: ~7 Mile bike ride

Notes

  • Today went well. Did not have any cravings in the morning to eat.

Sunday May 22

  • First Meal: 11:45 PM
  • Second Meal: 7:00 PM
  • Total Fast Time: 16 hours
  • Exercise: None

Notes

  • Some cravings to eat by about 9, but drinking water helped.

Monday May 23

  • First Meal: 12:30 PM
  • Second Meal: 5:30 PM
  • Total Fast Time: 17 hours
  • Exercise: 10 miles bike

Notes

  • Had bad stomach cramps during the ride, but never felt low on energy. It was quite a weird feeling. Typically, if I get a cramp from not eating I see a large drop in energy, this did not happen.

Tuesday May 24

  • Weigh in: 181 (down 2)
  • First Meal: 12:30 PM
  • Second Meal: 5:30 PM
  • Total Fast Time: 16 hours
  • Exercise: ~10 Mile bike

Notes

  • Around 11 Am, got pretty hungry. Likely due to riding the bike so early in the morning and being up since ~ 4 Am.

Wednesday May 25

  • First Meal: 11:45
  • Second Meal: 4:50
  • Total Fast Time: 16 hours
  • Exercise: None

Thursday May 26

  • First Meal: 12:15 PM
  • Second Meal: 5:50 PM
  • Total Fast Time: 16Hrs
  • Exercise: 5 Mile bike

Friday May 27

  • Final Weigh in: 179 (down 4 from initial weigh in)

Conclusion

Overall, this experience has been eyeopening to the amount of food I had been eating for breakfast every day. I lost several pounds over the course of the week, and I’m going to attempt to continue doing this for as long as I can. I noticed that the longer I continue with the fasting, eating in the morning has become less and less appealing.