Day 2.

[MikePollard]

Yesterday's food was the same as Monday's. Break fast with coffee/cream at 6am, tinned kippers 4pm, 14 hours overnight fasting, then 12 hour fast to main meal.

12 am I tested for ketones, mild ketosis. Photo shows a strip 6am today full on!

Worked all day as a handyman and as it was a lovely evening went for a 22 mile cycle ride. Just as an aside, and not an aim, 22 miles equates to something like 700 calories burned and given that my calorific intake is roughly 500 I have effectively eaten nothing for my day's activity. Bonus!

Wasn't I ravenously hungry, as most people would ask? No, just a few vague feelings of wanting something whilst sitting in front of the box which pass very quickly, especially if I get up and get busy.

One thing of note. I have been eating very little meat of late. Not deliberately, just one of those things. Therefore I wasn't too surprised when I got knocked back during a blood donation attempt as haemoglobin levels were too low. Supplementing with iron tablets over the next week, then will try again.

[Whydothis]

Interesting that reducing meat has an effect on haemoglobin that quickly. How long were you off meat for?

[MikePollard in reply to Whydothis]

I wasn't off it as such, but eating much less for maybe 3 weeks.

[Whydothis in reply to MikePollard]

I am surprised it had that much effect - something to take into account when meal planning!

[Subtle_badger]

I wouldn't advise you going back after only a week of supplementing. It takes a longer time to build up iron levels, and with fasting you might not make any change.

The UK blood bank will remove you from the registry if you fail the haemoglobin test 3 times in a row, so you don't want to be 2 strikes. But they also make you wait 3 months to try again.

[MikePollard in reply to Subtle_badger]

Should be ok, that would have been my 228th donation

[Pixielula in reply to MikePollard]

Wow that is a spectacular amount of blood donated…. I’m in awe!!!

[Subtle_badger in reply to MikePollard]

That's amazing. I googled UK top blood donor, and all the results are well short of 200. Are you maybe the top donor in the UK?

[Cosmo501 in reply to Subtle_badger]

Lol!! You got me googling too!-- but I found Colin, who was UK's called most prolific blood donor in 2015, with over 400 donations .. then looked some more and found Maurice 809 donations, and apparently the 'record' is over 1000 donations from one donor! The mind boggles. One older chap had to stop donating because the scar tissue was preventing the needles... he was trying to give something back to society...

[MikePollard in reply to Cosmo501]

I had to give up my left arm because of scar tissue when the bean counters withdrew local anaesthetic. I was like getting hit with a baseball bat.

[Subtle_badger in reply to Cosmo501]

(google google) Ah, platelets! And further ah! A FOOTBALL injury in 1978 means Maurice Earp, 60, can give platelets every two weeks.

His spleen was removed after the injury at a match in Kingston Bagpuize and this means his platelets are replaced more quickly.

What a hero. Apparently it takes 2 hours. Every fortnight. And barely missed one.

I was mystified because I only knew about whole blood (4 times a year max) and plasma (12 times a year max). I thought you had to bend the time/space continuum to achieve that number

(I used to donate plasma, many years ago, but I don't have access to my records so I don't know how many. Wouldn't be more than a few dozen times I guess. Certainly nowhere near Mike's level, let alone Maurice's. Unfortunately I have been removed from the donor panel)

[MikePollard in reply to Subtle_badger]

Don't know.