Yesterday was a non-fasting day. However, I’m trying something a bit different this week on days on which I eat: I’m just eating once. I’m skipping my usual yogurt and blueberries breakfast and waiting until I get off work to eat dinner. Because I’m eating only one meal a day, I’m sort of trying to see how much I can get away with. Regardless of what I eat, as long as I can stay under the 1,600 or so calories burned by basic metabolism, I should be able to maintain weight or possibly lose a bit. So, it’s probably not a surprise that I picked up a double cheeseburger and fries from P. Terry’s after work yesterday.

According to P. Terry’s nutrition information, a double cheeseburger contains 740 calories, while an order of fries contains 390 calories, so the combined 1,130 calories is below what my body consumes on a daily basis to power basic metabolic functions. I also had an apple and some steamed broccoli (with cheese sauce), but neither contributed that many calories (they did provide some needed fiber, though).

When I stepped on the scale this morning, I discovered that I’d lost 1.5 pounds. While 1.5 pounds is below the two to four pounds I can lose on a fasting day, it’s still not bad. And I’m not sure I would have lost any more weight had I stuck to my usual vegetarian salad. I’ll be having the salad tonight for dinner, so that’ll provide a comparison, but my guess is that the difference between my giant salad and a meal from P. Terry’s isn’t going to be as significant as I would have expected. The difference, of course, is that the salad contains a lot of fiber and water that is easily eliminated the next day while the burger and fries don’t, so the difference in the end is probably more substantial than the scale is going to indicate tomorrow morning.

There are all sorts of reasons why dinner consisting of a burger and fries is not a good choice, even if it’s the only meal of the day. Red meat, a lot of saturated fat, and a ton of sodium are not good things to be putting in your body on a regular basis. The phytonutrients and fiber in the salad, on the other hand, are good things, and, in the long run, that difference is why I need to stick to the salads.