So here I am, the evening of Day 2 of my attempt to lose the 11lbs I gained over Christmas. Day 1 was reasonably ok – I skipped breakfast, and went out for lunch and had a steak with a few chips (a small handful). All I drank was water and green tea. And from 2pm on Day 1, I didn’t eat anything until 1pm on Day 2, so a 23 hour fast. No dinner or breakfast obviously. No problems with the fast at all – no headaches, no dizziness, no feeling weak. Apart from a period in the latter part of day 1’s afternoon, where I felt peckish, I didn’t actually feel hungry. Hunger is not a permanent state, it comes and go.

For lunch today, I had a tuna salad and for dinner I’ve just eaten grilled chicken breast with some peas and coleslaw. That’s me done for food today now.

I weighed myself just before lunch to measure the impact of a 24 hour fast – from 13st 4 to 13st 1! Wow – 3 pounds in a day!!! Well, actually this isn’t anything to get particularly excited about. The reality is I haven’t lose 3 llbs in fat – I’ve just lost 3llbs in water. When you restrict carbs or calories, the first thing you shed is water. It’s particularly the base on a low carb diet as carbs retain lots of water – reduce the carbs, and you’ll lose water initially. By the same token, if you’re on a low carb diet and you pig out on carbs one day, your weight will shoot up 3-4 llbs as a result. Again, it’s water gain rather than fat gain. This is also the reason why when people start a diet and they lose loads of weight in the first weight, they quickly lose motivation when in the subsequent weeks they lose maybe 1-2 llbs a week.

Still, it’s a good start. Next key weighing point will be on Day 4 – hopefully, I might have actually lost another pound which put me nicely on 13st before the end of my first week.