My two years of Experience with Intermittent Fasting

It all started with a fabulous 45th birthday lunch my wife had prepared for me and some of our close friends. She is an excellent cook, and it was clearly evident in all the Indian Chaat dishes she had prepared. I love delicious food, and I had all the reasons to go all in. We all had a good time; the food was almost finished and my stomach was about to explode.

My birthday lunch

Later at night, after brushing my teeth, just for curiosity's sake, I stood on the weighing scale sitting in a corner in my bathroom. And it read: 200.2 pounds. I used to weigh myself casually a few times a month, but this was the first time I weighed above 200 pounds. I think I weighed around 190 pounds a few days ago, so there must be something wrong with the scale. I retracted from the scale; picked it up; cleaned below its legs; cleaned the floor where it was situated; put it back again and stepped on it. 200.2 pounds again! Next were its batteries. I rushed to find the new batteries for the scale; installed them and weighed myself again. Yes, it was again 200.2 pounds. Now I had run out of options to prove it wrong. It was a feeling of such disbelief that I cannot explain.

2019 — Feb Till May

Let me tell you a few things about myself. I was a national-level field hockey player and a competitive athlete during my school and college years. All the free time I had during these years was mainly spent on playing some sort of outdoor sports. I never put much thought into my eating habits, since I always believed that I can burn any junk food I eat with ease. And that was kind of true for most of my school and college years.

It’s been 20 years since I graduated with my Master’s degree and started working in IT. Even with my desk job, marriage, and two kids, I kept believing the same that I do enough exercise to ward off any excess weight and keep myself fit. But the reality was slowly slipping away from me. And that night brought a milestone for me that I had never imagined for myself. I had officially crossed 200 pounds.

I had come across a few articles on intermittent fasting a few days ago. However, I never believed in fasting or diet in my life. My parents always used to keep a weekly fast, but I never bothered. Avoiding food hurt my head. But this was the time for desperate measures. I didn’t think I had any spare time in my life to do more exercise. So I decided to give intermittent fasting a try to see what happens.

And let me tell you, this was the best decision I could make with a full stomach and guilty head.

I searched for a fasting app, and to my delight, there were a ton available with free features. So I downloaded the one with the most installs and started my first 16 hours fast. I also downloaded an app (myFitnessPal) that I can use to log my weight.

And this is how it all started. I decided to keep a daily 16 hour fast because that is what I thought was the most I could bear. Stopping to eat at 4 pm and resuming it at 8 am the next day seems to be the only possible way I could sustain it. I did not change my diet at all during this time.

Here is my weight progress for the first week:

Weight loss — first week of intermittent fasting

As you can see, I wasn’t exactly blown away from the first week's results. I lost a total of 4 pounds in the first week. But I did not change what I was eating and I did not keep myself hungry during this time. So overall it was very encouraging. Just by limiting my eating window, I could reduce 4 pounds. For me, it was the dream come true as I did not have to negotiate on my eating choices. And I felt better going to bed and felt even better getting up in the morning with an emptier stomach. I thought I can get used to it.

So I continued. Every day 16 hours fast. If I got delayed in my afternoon meal, I started my breakfast a little late. But I kept the rhythm going. One of the apps that I downloaded had the fasting clock, which I kept as the widget on my android phone to start/stop fasting time and to keep me honest.

The second week of results blew me away.

Weight loss — first two weeks of intermittent fasting

I lost another 7.2 pounds in the second week! I lost a total of 11.2 pounds in two weeks, without a change in my exercise routine and without a change in my diet. This was unreal! I knew I had discovered how I can easily lose weight with a little bit of discipline, and that’s it. I was more energetic than ever. I had no intention to stop.

One of my close friends already started noticing the change in me and asked if I am doing anything special to reduce my weight. We talked about intermittent fasting and the results that I saw in the last two weeks, and he became very interested in learning more about it and doing it together. And it made me realize that even I can benefit from him and others to keep myself motivated. So I decided to start a WhatsApp group to start the conversation around intermittent fasting and share our experiences. I called the group ‘GIFT — Great Indian FasTing. I grew up witnessing my parents fast every single week, and it is really a gift from Indian culture to all of us. We (including me) just failed to realize the importance behind it.

Now we have a humble group of 15+ people who try to fast at their own pace and convenience and motivate each other to continue the practice.

Back to my story — After two weeks, I had already started reading a lot about fasting, its potential benefits, and the science behind it. In our WhatsApp group, one of my friends posted the following video from Dr. Jason Fung on intermittent fasting, which I still believe is the one that has provided me the best reasoning behind why it works:

Dr. Jason Fung on Intermittent Fasting and why it works

Even till today, I am not sure I understood it all, but I had the results behind me to convince myself that it indeed works.

Our WhatsApp group was bursting with life. Everyone was so excited to research and share knowledge about intermittent fasting, how they manage to fast for 16+ hours and what strategies they use. To my surprise, everyone had adopted a different variation of intermittent fasting. Some were doing OMAD (One meal a day), others were simply doing a 12 hour fast with rigorous exercise, and the remaining were doing 16–18 hour fasts as many times a week as they could. And everyone had started reaping its benefits.

Some of the things that I did over the next few months to continue my fasting journey were as follows:

1. Minimized the use of fruits (Don’t ask why — I wasn’t a big fruit eater anyways, and now they went to the bottom of my list of food choices. Again, I am not claiming that it helped with my weight loss; I am simply stating what I did during that time.)
2. Continued the use of Indian tea with cream and sugar — I have to admit — this was my cheat during the fasting window. I knew that I am not disciplined enough when it comes to food, so I had to use a cheat to keep myself going. I was (and currently am) a big Indian tea drinker, and leaving tea for 16+ hours wouldn’t have lasted long. So I continued my tea during my fasting window. Some people may argue that it technically breaks the fast since I am consuming milk and sugar, but I did not care. I was weighing myself daily and was seeing the results, and that’s the only thing that mattered to me.
3. I started to monitor my calories — why? Just because I was on a good run, and I didn’t want to ruin it. Suddenly there was an inner desire to control my diet as well. My diet is mostly Indian food, and myFitnessPal app provided a great and easy way to log and monitor calories for both simple and complex Indian foods that may or may not be found on the shelves. I loved the fact that I could even log the home-cooked meals quite easily. I decided to keep my daily calories intake to 1500 calories and challenged myself daily to keep it down even further to 1200. I also paid attention to how much protein, fat, and carb I was consuming and made some food choices based on it, even though it wasn’t my prime focus.
4. I continued my exercise routine during the fasting window. I was told numerous times by multiple people that I will feel weak if I exercise when I fast and I should cut down on exercise and take it easy during the fast; but again I let my body do the talk. I was feeling better than ever, and there was no reason for me to stop my tennis if I am able to pull it through. I did take my electrolytes and made sure I add extra protein to my diet wherever possible.
5. Sometimes (especially during the weekends), I challenged myself to a 24 hour, 48 hours and even 60 hours fast. Even though I could not complete them half of the time, I ended up doing much better than the regular 16 hours fast, which was again the only thing that mattered.
6. When I had to travel for work, I resorted to OMAD (one meal a day) and had my early dinner before 6 pm. During the day, I loaded on coffee with cream and sugar (some of you again may disagree with the use of cream and sugar during fasting, but this is my story, so be patient and just listen :-D )
7. I made it a habit to log my weight every morning if I was at home. I also made a habit to log all my food “before” I ate them. This practice alone of logging food in myFitnessPal app caused me to cut down on my portion sizes and to make better decisions about my daily food habits.

Aug 13, 2019, was the day when I hit 160 pounds.

Weight loss — First 2.5 months of intermittent fasting

I logged 159.8 pounds on that day. That was a reduction of 39.4 pounds in 78 days. I had lost an average of 1/2 pounds per day just by controlling the window when I wanted to eat (and not eat). Most of my WhatsApp friends had also witnessed weight loss ranging from 10–25 pounds during this time.

I must also mention that during these two months from June till August, I had gone through a long period of personal stress as well. That also may have contributed to the end result, but I can’t tell for sure.

Enjoying grand Indian Thali dinner at Maharaja Bhog restaurant in Houston TX (Jul 20, 2019)

I had set up an ambitious goal to reach 150 pounds in 6 months, and I had achieved 160 pounds in less than 3 months. I was very content with the end result. I used to weigh 170–172 pounds when I was 18 years old, and in my heart, as long as I could keep my weight near that range, it was a huge success for me.

Next came the added benefits of weight loss — My waist size dropped from 36 to 31, shirt size dropped from large to medium, and even small for certain brands. I started fitting in my teen son’s shirts. Even my shoe size dropped 1/2 size. In September, I went to my PCP for my annual physical examination, and the results were astonishing. My blood pressure had come to normal, Triglycerides had drastically dropped from 342 to 85, Cholesterol readings hand all my other vitals had registered within acceptable limits. I had a skin mole under my chin that was growing for the last two years, and it fell off one day on its own. Intermittent fasting had not only brought my weight down, it had revitalized and rejuvenated my entire body from head to toe. I felt more energy and oomph in my life than ever.

So now my focus shifted on maintaining the weight instead of reducing it further. Over the next few months, I made some minor adjustments in my fasting routine to ensure that I could sustain it in long term:

1. Instead of a daily 16+ hours fasting routine, I changed it to an ad-hoc fasting routine. Every morning, after weighing myself, if I wasn’t happy with my weight gain from the previous day, I decided to fast. It was as simple. That way, I could attend friends' gatherings, birthday parties, and Friday night dinners, and still could fast the next day to nullify the effect of the damage done the previous day.
2. I decided to have 36 hours fast on a weekly basis. Thursday was the day when I simply decided to skip eating (I used to have dinner on Wednesday night and then eat on Friday morning as late as possible). Thursday was also the day for my regular tennis practice with my team. I still follow this routine after two years. This single practice has allowed me to address all the food indulgence-related slips I had over the week and have kept my weight in check.
3. I never sacrificed good food for fasting. Whenever the opportunity presented itself with delicious food during my fast, I simply broke my fast and enjoyed it to the fullest. But then, as soon as the feast was over, I restarted my fast on my app and made sure I don’t break it again. This practice allowed me to not crave food when others enjoyed it around me, but it also made sure I don’t slip too far from my fasting and weight goals.

Following is the summary of my weight goal journey for the last two years:

Year 1:

Year 2:

Year 1 and 2 combined:

As you can see in the above charts, I have gained ~12 pounds back from my lowest weight, and I have no regrets about it since I have been able to successfully manage it and keep the curve flattened over the last year with my intermittent fasting practices.

So this is my story of intermittent fasting. Hope that it can inspire you to start your own fasting journey. Please feel free to reach out to me at sgupta38@gmail.com for anything. I can confidently say that I am not an intermittent fasting expert by any means, but I would love to hear from you and share anything from my experience. Good luck!

References:

These are some things that I used over the last two years in my fasting journey. They are mentioned here just for your quick reference.

Weighing Scale: Renpho

Weight and Food Logging App: MyFitnessPal

Fasting App: Zero

Some good reference material that I have read:

Intermittent fasting may fuel neurogenesis and protect long-term memory

What Happens If You Don't Eat for a Day?

The Beginner's Guide to Intermittent Fasting

The Truth Behind What Intermittent Fasting Does to Your Body