The fasting journal · matched to fast day 44
Day 44. Broke 180
Day 44 is a Sunday and the scale hands John a number he has not seen since his thirties. He gets the housekeeping done in half a minute and you can hear the grin arrive mid sentence.
179.8 pounds. Down 0.9 from yesterday and 48.8 pounds below the 228.6 he weighed on August 1. BMI is 27.3, body fat 28.9 percent, muscle 38.2 percent and the day burned 1917 calories.
How do I feel? I feel good. I feel fine.
Then the line the whole day hangs on.
Lowest in 20 years
Today is probably the lowest I have been in weight in over 20 years. And I am feeling great about that. Wow, I broke 180. Excellent.
The milestones on this fast have been coming in a rhythm. Under 200 on day 20. Out of the obese range on day 23. Now under 180 on day 44, a floor he has not touched in two decades by his own reckoning. He is 56. The last time the scale started with a 17, he was in his thirties.
The wow is worth pausing on. Forty four days in, this man still gets surprised by his own scale. That is what it sounds like when the numbers move faster than the self image does.
The stomach that talks to an empty room
I did want to talk about my stomach growling. Usually happens when I am sitting there watching TV, someplace quiet. You can just hear it go.
Six weeks with no food in it and the stomach still runs its cleaning cycles. MedlinePlus calls them abdominal sounds and files them under normal gut activity, waves of muscle contraction that sweep air and fluid through the tract whether food is coming or not. On an empty system there is nothing to muffle the sound, which is why it picks the quiet moments to perform. John dug into the mechanics back on day 12 when it first started talking. His answer today is the same as it was then.
That is normal. Just drink water and get past it.
Cold arms, cold legs, more covers
The other thing I wanted to talk about was feeling cold in my extremities, like my arms, my legs, especially when I get ready to go to bed.
Then he explains it better than most articles would.
As you thin out, get rid of some of that fat in your body, the outside temperature becomes more sensitive to your body. Your body picks up on that.
He is right and the mechanism is worth one more sentence. Fat is insulation and he has lost almost 49 pounds of it, so the cold reaches him faster. On top of that a body taking in zero calories turns the furnace down. It protects the core first, which is why the arms and legs feel it before anything else. MedlinePlus lists low body fat and low calorie intake among the standard causes of cold intolerance. His fix is blankets and he is not embarrassed about it.
One honest note this site owes every reader. Cold intolerance that keeps getting worse can also point at a slowing thyroid. That is precisely the kind of thing a monthly blood panel is for. The next draw lands at the end of September and it goes straight to the bloodwork page when it does.
The strip reads 16 at the top of the chart, where it has sat for over a week. The engine is unbothered by the weather.
Day 44 of 90
August is crossed off end to end and September is marked through the thirteenth. He broke 180 on a quiet Sunday with a growling stomach and cold feet. Nobody said milestones arrive glamorous.
46 days left. Enjoy your Sunday. Cheers.
Quick answers
Why do you feel cold on a long water fast?
Two things stack. The obvious one is insulation. Body fat holds heat in and John has shed almost 49 pounds of it in six weeks, so the outside temperature reaches him faster than it used to. That is his own explanation on camera and it holds up. The second is that a body running on far fewer calories generates less heat, the furnace burns lower between meals that never come. MedlinePlus lists low body fat and low calorie intake among the recognized causes of cold intolerance. For John it shows up in the extremities, arms and legs first, which is where the body lets temperature drop when it protects the core.
Is it normal to feel coldest in bed during a fast?
It fits the pattern John describes. Lying still at the end of the day is the low point for heat production. No movement, no digestion, metabolism idling, the body routing warmth to the core at the expense of arms and legs. His answer is unglamorous and correct for him. More covers. He treats it as a side effect to manage rather than a problem to fix. The honest caveat belongs here too. Persistent or worsening cold intolerance can also signal thyroid slowdown, which is one of the things monthly bloodwork exists to catch. His next panel is due at the end of September and his doctor reads every draw.
When did John last weigh under 180 pounds?
Over 20 years ago, by his own estimate. He said on camera that day 44 is probably the lowest he has weighed in more than two decades, which puts the last time he saw 179 somewhere in his thirties. He is 56 now and started this fast at 228.6 on August 1. The line he actually said matters more than the number. Wow, I broke 180. Excellent. Six weeks ago the same man crossed under 200 on day 20 and out of the obese BMI range on day 23. The decades framing is his memory, not a record this site can verify. It is presented as exactly that.
What is John's BMI after breaking 180 pounds?
27.3 as of day 44, down from 34.6 on August 1. That is still in the overweight range, which runs 25 to 29.9. That fact is doing quiet work in this story. A man can lose 48.8 pounds in 44 days and still not be at a so called normal weight, which says more about where 228.6 sat than about where 179.8 sits. His body fat reads 28.9 percent, down from 42.3. Whether and when the fast should end is not a BMI question anyway. It is his doctor's call, made against monthly bloodwork. He has said plainly that his physician can stop it at any point.