Fast Diet: Week 11

I can’t quite believe that I’ve been doing the Fast Diet for 11 weeks! 11 whole weeks! It’s flying by. For those who don’t know, the Fast Diet (eating 500 calories for women, 600 for men 2 days a week, then, normally for 5 days) was conceived by Dr Moseley who researched diets which aided health and longevity on his BBC Horizon documentary, Eat, Fast and Live Longer.

To summarise his findings:

Humans have a growth hormone called IGF -1 which helps us grow as children but ages us in adulthood.  High levels of this hormone can lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer in men and women so if you lower these levels (as demonstrated by Moseley through fasting and reducing protein substantially), cells switch from growth mode to repair mode and it uses up glucose so burns fat and you lose weight.

I started the diet when my baby, Alexander was 3 months old and I’d stopped breastfeeding. Post elective C-section I luckily felt pretty good from the get go but I didn’t power walk on my treadmill until Alexander was 7 weeks old and I started running again at 12 weeks. I had my Dr’s approval before I embarked on exercise so please do ask your GP for advice before starting any new regime.

I was a UK size 10 before becoming pregnant with Alexander (and once I’d lost my baby weight after my first, Oliver) and I am keen to return to my skinny jeans and LBDs. I miss them. I did have a shopping spree in Topshop the other day, at the end of Week 10 of the diet and I bought dresses and skirts in a 10.

I still have weight to lose, though; a tummy which needs to go and my favourite pre-pregnancy jeans won’t fit just yet but I’m getting there and people are noticing. Slowly, my confidence is returning. It took me 14 months to get close to that size after my first and the Fast Diet has really lived up to its name. It’s been fast!

I personally tend to eat around the 700 mark in calories on fast days as I’m up in the night with the baby and I never go to bed starving as I simply can’t sleep with a rumbling tummy. It’s actually amazing how quickly your body adapts to this diet; the hunger comes in waves and is honestly bearable. I snack on apples and savoury oat biscuits in the day in between my usually large salad lunch, (always with low-fat protein such as tuna, salmon, eggs or hummus) and lentil or bean soup for dinner.

I’m always surprised that I don’t wake up ravenous after a fast day but I think the diet works because your body gets used to fewer calories meaning you don’t over indulge in the week. What is so great is the fact that nothing is banned on feast days but of course moderation is key for ultimate weight loss.

What I love most about the diet are the health benefits; nothing beats helping to prevent yourself from disease and lovely side effects include clearer skin and softer, longer, shinier hair. Yes, the fact I take prenatal vitamins postnatally helps but the diet must take a lot of the credit too.

So far, so good!

Are you on the Fast Diet? If so, how’s it going?

Outfit: dress, leggings and necklace Topshop, belt Therapy, cardigan Zara, leather boots Office.