You can post pictures in your comments below! Please feel free to share your P3 living stuff you're doing to help other P3toLifers visualize and get ideas for how to do this!
Disclaimer: Intermittent fasting is considered a controversial topic by some AND depending on your health may not be a good idea- so you are responsible for checking with your doctor or medical professional before doing this. I am not a medical professional and the following are just my opinions based on my own experience and the research that I've done. There are quite a few books that expound on both the history and proof of the efficacy of fasting and I firmly believe in it's use, when done the right way, myself.
What happens when you don't lose anything after a fast day? Or worse, GAIN??
I am not going to claim I know the exact reasons this can happen- but here are a few possibilities to help you tweak and navigate.
- First of all, our female hormones fluctuate throughout the month quite a bit right? This effects how much water our body holds on to. It's very possible to experience fat loss from a fast day but have the scale not move or even go up if you are retaining water.
- Again, if you didn't drink anything all day on a fast day, it's totally possible for your body to hold on to water and cause the seeming "no loss" on the scale- but do keep in mind your body still likely did burn fat - what this means is that in future days, as your hormones adjust or you get enough liquids back in your system
- You worked out that day or that night - this happens to me all the time- when I go to crossfit at 5:30pm after a fast day (or even a non fast day) the scale OFTEN is like at least a 1-2 lbs higher. Obviously this isn't because I gained weight, but when you are unfamiliar to this process it can seem like that! But this also doesn't mean you should avoid working out just to see the scale go down. One thing I've learned through this whole process is that you have to learn to only use the scale as a tool but to see beyond it and make decisions based on seeing beyond that. Because for me, doing a fast day, then my workout, than a nice re-feed meal with some simple carb like French fries - the PERFECT time to have carbs like that because the body has likely used some glycogen stores - the sugar water that's stored in your muscles- and your body will ALWAYS first refill those glycogen stores, so that's directly where those fries go - then go to bed - this is a super effective day at transforming and improving my body over simply not eating.
- Not enough sleep after your fast day. Sleep is a very important part of your body's processing of fat - one small pilot study showed a much greater amount of muscle loss in a sleep deprived group than a group that slept 8 hours a night, both groups being on the same diet aimed at weight loss. This is just totally not a good thing whatsoever. So you need to think about sleeping and getting to bed at a reasonable hour where your body will actually do a lot of the WORK from your fast day for you to get those results. Otherwise it could actually be damaging. And I hate that this is true, because I tend to stay up late sometimes, but there ya go.
- At the more complicated level, not experiencing any benefits from a fast day can indicate a hormone imbalance to the point where you body just isn't able to respond to these measures and instead views it as like an attack and just holds on more fiercely. By and large, as long as you are eating enough the other days of the week and aren't fasting too frequently, this doesn't seem to be as much of a problem. My BEST resource I always send everyone to do further research in on this is stopthethyroidmadness.com - I'm not an expert on these issues but I do know they make a world of difference when addressed. For example me, I take both thyroid hormone and a physiological dose of cortisol and it has made a difference in my metabolism, how much I can eat without gaining weight, how my body responds to fasting, and obviously, my energy!
The reason you WANT to do your own research vs. only visiting a doctor without research in your back pocket is because really the latest information doesn't seem to be in the hands of some MD's. Testing is often interpreted in a non-useful way or on old standards
I’m actually finished and am on maintenance. I did a dr supervised homeopathic program which is like hcg in every single way, except for the non hormone supplements and sublingual drops. After you lose the weight and maintain for 3 weeks they kind of break up with you, and tell you that you now have the tools to maintain forever, but that is of course not the case. I did it with great results about 18 months ago, and then gained most of the weight back (18 of the 26 lbs). I finished this most recent round in early March and am happy at my weight set point. Unfortunately I haven’t seen that number for a while, and tend to hover about a lb or so above that. They figure out how many calories you should be eating (1818 for me) to maintain which seems like a lot but works well if you never eat a carb lol. Anyway, I did kind of plan the “cheat”. I have been following you through both of my journeys, and you are a wealth of information. I was able to get back down to .4 lbs above my2 lb limit, but seem stuck. I was advised to eat all my calories but stick to the p2 foods. I may do another steak day tomorrow, even though it’s in the same week. I just am trying to find a plan to correct, and am looking for ideas.
Sorry for the long email, but I want to thank you so much for all of your videos and for getting back to me. You are wonderful and inspiring and I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor. Your hard work shows????
Hey Carol! I gotcha more now, thanks for telling the rest of the story. I think Pizza is one of those foods that often is mostly water retention from the salt. With the fasting, you may already know this so I apologize if so, but the fasting sometimes does it’s work in a way that’s a little less obvious on the surface until you’ve done it a few times over a couple weeks – sometimes for instance, if I don’t drink enough water on a fast day, I won’t lose on the scale either, but it’s still doing the fat burning work I feel, your body may just be holding on to water still though because of the previous day of having high salt intake and then if you don’t get enough fluids the next day, your body instead of flushing extra stuff out will be holding on to water. But the fat loss is usually still occurring – it usually will take 2-4 fast days total to get 1 full lb of fat loss when you account for your metabolic rate daily and the fact that you’re intaking some calories for dinner. IE. if 3500 calories for 1 lb of fat. Say your metabolic rate is like you said for you 1800 calories or so. So on a fast day where you don’t eat all day and then have dinner, you might eat say, 800 calories for dinner maybe. That’s a 1,000 calorie deficit for you then as a “result” from your fast day. If you had higher sodium day the previous day and accidentally didn’t drink enough water on fast day, your body may be holding on to water and this 1,000 calorie deficit, or .3ish of a lb, could easily not show up, but the fat loss still occurred and then if you do that fast day 3 times, now you are almost 1 lb of fat loss. So usually I find with the fast days to trust they are working by doing them when I need them, even if I don’t see the results it seems like I should see on the scale immediately- long term it does seem to make a difference. That’s also why in my videos I mention that even when a person DOES lose say 2 lbs overnight on a fast day, that they should expect to see the majority of that come back on over the next couple days, because the majority of that was actually water weight and only a small portion fat. But it’s still quite effective really when you think about how you are only spending 1 or 2 days in a week doing something “diet” related to effect your fat levels and then getting to live at maintenance the rest of the time. Sometimes though it’s true that regular methods for corrections truly aren’t working and then that indicates to me that there are other factors like hormone imbalance going on. I’m not sure what might be the case for you, but I hope something in there helps a little! – Rayzel
Rayzel-I could really use a concrete plan as to what I can do in the days following a fasting day when the scale won’t move. I ate pizza on Sunday went up over a pound over my 2 lb limit. Fasting day did nothing now what ? I think this is at the crux of the reason why I gained the weight ack after my first round. The steak days stopped working. Please help!!!
Correction- I went over 2 lbs over the 2 lb limit!!!
Hey Carol- since Pizza is also so salty, how much water did you drink on your fasting day? It sounds like that may be important to getting water weight off at least there. I’m sorry you’re struggling! I don’t have all the answers unfortunately when sometimes our body just won’t respond to the usual things. Did you plan to cheat on P3 with the Pizza or did it just kind of happen? That’s the hard thing about P3 like P2 is it’s not very forgiving with cheats. 🙁 I’m sorry! What day of P3 are you on right now?