After getting sick with the cold, I took a break from fasting and just ate when I was hungry, still eating foods I would normally eat. But usually, I eat three meals a week, and in one sitting, so OMAD. I also had my cycle. I gained from 174.4 to 182.6 before I resumed fasting. The next day of fasting, after gaining 8.2lbs, I weighed 179.2. Normally for me I gain 3lbs of water weight during my cycle that shed at the end of my cycle.
Although I generally feel great fasting some do believe that fasting can reduce your immune system. Whether this may or may not be true, I am just surprised at how much weight I gained so quickly. I know it’s not fat. Which then begs the question, what was I gaining? I put in my stats 35F 5’5 174lbs and my basal caloric needs are 1485kcal. While sick I was basically sedentary, and sedentary caloric intake at 174lbs is 1782kcal. On average however, I ate around 1800kcal for the week that I wasn’t fasting.
Did I gain 5lbs of muscle? Was I losing mass?
The best thing you can do for your immune system is to eat a variety of whole, unprocessed foods.
People underestimate the calories burned from simply moving around when they aren’t intentionally working out.
Online calculators should only be used as a guide. Your individual numbers will vary. The best thing to do is to take those numbers as a starting point and then see what your individual results are. If you gained on 1800 then you’ll need to adjust up or down to meet your goals.
It’s unlikely that you were gaining muscle mass. 5lbs of lean muscle takes some work and attention to nutrition.