I am now successfully 10 days in to being a father of two.
It is VERY different from being a father of one..that’s for sure.
These last 9 days have been incredible.
Very little sleep. Only 1 workout session (a very quick shoulders and squats workout), and almost 6,000 calories per day!
Yep, 6,000.
According to the USDA food database and the nutrition charts of Starbucks, Second Cup and Subway I’ve been eating almost 6,000 calories a day and almost 60% of these calories were from refined carbs.
Not good – even by my liberal eating standards.
The result wasn’t pretty either.
Ever since I started fasting Eat Stop Eat style I’ve maintained a weight right around my goal of 175 pounds (down from 190-200)
I’m typically between 172 and 177 depending on the day (fasted weight).
Two days before my son was born I weighed in at exactly 175.
Sunday at 2 PM I weighed in at 181 pounds.
Even worse…I felt..fat. Not even fat. I felt squishy.
On Sunday I started my first fast in 10 days at exactly 2 PM.
By 11 PM I weighted 179 pounds.
By 6 AM this morning I was 177 pounds.
At 1:33 (just before finishing my fast) I was 175.7 pounds.
So what gives? Is Eat Stop Eat style fasting some sort of miracle fat loss cure?
Not in the slightest.
Fasting is really effective for weight loss, but it’s no miracle.
The truth is almost all of the weight I gained was water weight, most likely due to the higher than normal refined sugar intake, the lack of sleep, and the overall over-eating.
The rest of the weight was simply the weight of the food in my system.
If you eat 1 pound of ANYTHING you have added 1 pound of mass to your body (bread, butter, bricks, or lego blocks..it doesn’t matter..1 pound consumed is 1 pound added)…so if you do what I did and spend 8 days in the fed state..eating food at a much faster rate then you can get rid of it, you are bound to add some ‘matter’ weight.
The last little bit..yep, that was probably fat (there is no such thing as a free lunch…)
The other part of this truth is two fold:
1) We really have NO IDEA how many calories we are eating. I did my best to track my calorie intake and averaged around 6,000 Calorie a day. Realistically according to research this probably means I ate ANYWHERE between 4,200 and 7,800 Calories!
Judging by my weight gain, I’m guessing it was MUCH closer to 4,000 then it was 6,000.
2) We also really have NO IDEA how much we weigh. Our weights fluctuate from day to day..it is much more accurate to give a weight range then it is to give a precise weight. This is why it’s important not to freak out if you mysteriously gain 1 or 2 pounds…
These two facts make estimating and trying to rationalize weight gain an almost ludicrous idea.
You can measure and record as much as you like, but there will be time when it simply won’t make sense. This isn’t because your bad at math. It’s because every number you are working off of is an estimate!
So the point of this rather long post is simple –
There’s more to your weight then fat and muscle, so if you see 2-3 pounds changes, don’t freak out.
AND, even though there is no such thing as a free lunch,(overeating will almost always lead to some sort of weight gain), at least we can rest a little easier knowing that ALL of the weight isn’t pure fat.
That being said, if your goal is long lasting weight loss success and you catch yourself in a bad eating downward spiral, don’t try to rationalize your eating to yourself, simply realize what is going on and try your best to “right ship” as soon as possible.
BP
