Fat Loss Challenge

20:4 intermittent fasting (20 hours no eating, 4 hours eating) seems to be working well. Technically this is my second day of following that pattern, but the first day of doing it on an exercise day. My weekly exercise typically looks like this: 4 days of Barefoot Fitness (MWFS) to start the day, usually some extra lifting after the Barefoot Workout, 3 days of swimming over the noon hour (MWF), walking on my treadmill desk while working (I’m a web developer), and other odds and ends maintenance sort of stuff.

I was a little leery about how 20:4 would work on a workout day, but so far so good. I don’t eat before Barefoot in the morning, but I do typically have breakfast between that and swimming at noon. Today I didn’t, and I thought I might bonk or run out of gas in the pool, but it turned out to be fine. Maybe even a bit more energy than usual? That may change as this 8-week challenge progresses, but it’s good for now.

Sleep

7h 47m

Morning weigh-in

180.4

Day 1 morning weigh-in: 182
Yesterday’s weigh-in: 182

Exercise

Morning maintenance routine: Dr. Stuart McGill’s Big 3 (ab curl-ups, bird dogs, and side planks), 120 deadbugs, and Original Strength Reset. I blew out my L5/S1 disc a few years ago and had tremendous sciatic pain for months. Opted to not do surgery and instead have been working on my core strength and posture ever since. Haven’t regretted that decision once!

Barefoot Fitness: ball slams, KB power swings, jump lunges, goblet squats, rotational ball slams, push-ups, and pull-ups. At the end we did some slow deadbugs, and I added some dragon flags. I have a goal of doing a respectable front lever, and I’ve recently found that dragon flags are good for that. After the workout I did 80 snatches following the Quick and the Dead protocol, 5/4 x 4 with a 24kg (53 lb) kettlebell (4 sets of 5 powerful, explosive snatches, repeated 4 times).

Swimming: 1h 3m, 1.750 meters, IM workout (fly, back, breast, free).

Treadmill desk: 1h 38m