21 Hours of Intermittent Fasting: Surprising Changes in My Body (and a Little Happening)
I’m getting stronger and stronger 🔥🍽️”
– “I just ate a bit too much, that’s all!”
Something felt off for the past few days.
My workouts were getting more intense, but it felt like my weight was going up instead…?!
“Did I… start bulking up?”
“Is something wrong with my body?”
All kinds of thoughts flashed through my mind.
I was exhausted, drained, and my motivation collapsed..
But since last night,
I started intermittent fasting
and now I’m at hour 20.
With just one fast,
seeing it drop from 85 kg to 81.9 kg made me sure!
1. Water retention—and what those snacks really were
Lately, as I’ve been doing high-intensity workouts, I’ve been drinking more water,
and my body has also been holding onto water more often for recovery.
And on top of that…
there were more days than I realized with cookies and junk snacks, not protein snacks.
I was just eating “snacks” the way I always do out of habit,
but the things I ate automatically—or based on my mood—
were making my body feel heavy.
2. “So that’s why I wasn’t hungry?”
Strangely, lately my appetite has gone down.
It felt weird because I wasn’t hungry,
but now I think I get it!
My body’s energy efficiency improved,
and my glycogen storage capacity went up too,
so I became someone who doesn’t need to eat as often as before!
My muscle density has increased through training,
and my whole body was gradually “leveling up.”
After lots of talks with AI ISTP,
I finally understand for real, haha.
3. Calories? I’m not using other people’s standards anymore
“If you work out a lot, you should eat a lot!”
“If you want to build muscle, you need around 3,000 calories!”
I’d heard this so many times on the internet and YouTube
that I was doing exactly that…
But I realized something.
Those standards are for “average” people.
And a bodybuilder-style diet focused only on muscle
is also different from the healthy, agile body I’m aiming for.
For bodybuilders, the goal is muscle size,
so they leave a lot of surplus calories and focus on hypertrophy.
Even though I now have a body that can become stronger
even while eating less,
I was still eating a lot like I used to…
Maybe that’s why my cheeks were puffed up…
(Every time my mom saw me, she teased me, calling me “chubby cheeks,” haha.)
4. The gift fasting gave me
This 20-hour fast gave me two gifts.
✔️ One was peace of mind.
✔️ The other was detox and lightness in my body.
When I fast,
water drains from my tense body,
my brain and stomach get a break,
and my mood, condition, and energy flow all get much better.
It was honestly amazing—
as soon as the stress eased after fasting, my weight dropped quickly,
and I could see my body finding balance again.
And apparently, when you eat less,
your body clears out built-up waste and old cells,
creates new cells,
and releases toxins.
In other words, eating a lot isn’t automatically better.
When people
are stressed, or come home tired from work,
they often end up eating a lot of tasty food…
Sure, it could be because they used their brain a lot,
but I think most of the time it’s the stress hormone cortisol
and the craving for dopamine to make up for it.
5. In the end, it was just a little happening.
Yep… haha
This “happening” was simply that I’d been eating too much.
Health, hypertrophy—none of it was a big deal…
That was really all it was.
If anything, my muscle density was increasing, just like my goal..
“Is something wrong with my health?”
“Did hypertrophy come too fast?”
Now I find the me who worried and overthought kind of cute. 😅
I feel refreshed.
✨ Trusting myself
My body was sending signals,
and I watched them quietly,
tested things calmly,
and faced the truth through fasting.
I learned one more way to take care of myself.
Noticing my body’s signals is hard,
but still, I think I should listen a little more closely..
💖 And my declaration
The universe exists for me, after all.
I’m perfect as I am,
and I can do everything I want.
Like I said earlier…
this happening was
just that I ate too much…
That’s really all it was, haha.
Now I’m past 21 hours of fasting!
