Intermittent Fasting Update: 5 Weeks

I’ve just concluded my 5th week on IF.

I weigh and record my weight every Saturday morning.  Occasionally, I will weigh myself throughout the week just to get a sense of how I am doing, but I refrain from recording it.

Of course, I realize that it would be better to measure Body Fat percentages than to measure weight alone, but in checking into calipers that would measure Body Fat I was discouraged from buying one at this time because the manufacturer clearly states that the measurements of the “obese” are highly inaccurate.  As much as I hate to admit it, I still fall into that category, so the calipers and the Body Fat measurements will have to wait till I get a whole lot thinner.

In the meantime, my balance beam scale does perform a valuable service.  It gives me some indication in which direction I am heading.  As long as it is dropping, I have some confidence I am losing Body Fat especially since I am doing everything I know using resistance training to maintain lean muscle.

Here Are My Weekly Results for the Past Five Saturdays

• 6/19  –  300
• 6/26  –  297
• 7/3    –  289
• 7/10  –  287
• 7/17  –  283
• 7/24  –  278

So far, I’ve lost 22 lbs in 5 weeks.  As you can see, some weeks I lost a whole lot (up to 8 lbs) whereas other weeks I lost as little as 2 lbs.  I’ve averaged approximately 4.4 lbs per week.

My Observations

• As much as I enjoy moving the counter weights on my balance beam scale to the left, I realize I cannot maintain such a large weekly weight loss, nor do I want to.  Since it is virtually impossible to lose more than 2-3 lbs of Body Fat per week, some of my weight loss has undoubtedly come from water and lean body mass.  I need to slow down the weight loss to an acceptable 2.5 lbs per week to ensure muscle retention.

• I am presently on a 16/8 schedule, meaning I fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8 hour window, usually between 12 noon and 8 PM.  This allows me to eat a little something before I exercise (to take the edge off my hunger and give me a protein boost), a nice meal after I exercise (to replenish my depleted protein and glycogen stores), a very healthy supper sometime between 6 and 8 PM.  I also allow myself the option to have a protein shake around 8 or 9 PM if I so desire, but generally I am full from my evening meal and skip it.  I am seldom if ever truly hungry.  As you can see from my eating schedule, I get plenty of opportunities to eat, so I do not feel deprived.

• Surprisingly, my cravings for sweets (to which I am addicted) are almost non-existent.  I can’t really explain this except to say, I’ve never truly experienced this lack of cravings on conventional diets.  I’ve always struggled to avoid sweets on other weight loss plans.  And I most often lost the struggle to a night or two of binging.  I know it’s early in the process (5 weeks is not a lot of time), but I am encouraged.  I freely admit that I use artificial sweeteners in my tea and I drink Crystal Light and Diet Soda which help blunt my craving for sweets, but I did so as well on other diets and still “pigged out” more often than I like to admit.  Time alone will tell if my loss of cravings is a nice benefit from Intermittent Fasting.

• I find I crave good, wholesome, nutritious food more than sweets.  When I come off my fast, I am ready to eat, make no mistake about that.  I am not ravenous.  I am certainly not starving.  But I am hungry.  And I’m hungry for all the good stuff.  Most of my life, I avoided salads and vegetables.  I liked fast food, processed food, sweet food.  Up until recently, I ate applesauce every day.  I learned to eat it as a kid, so I could mix my unwanted vegetables with it and force it down.  But because it is sweet and tasty, I continued eating it every day for the last 50+ years.  Not good – at least from a health perspective.  Too much sugar.  Too processed.  I could say the same about breads, jelly (I like to eat jelly bread with pizza to give a bit of sweetness to the mix), corn, macaroni and cheese, pies, cakes – heck, any kind of dessert.  Now, I don’t crave any of it.  I enjoy eating all the good stuff and don’t in the least feel cheated.  Interestingly, because I am not really on a diet, I can eat any of these things (within moderation) if I so choose, but I have not had the desire or need to do so just yet, so why waste my eating opportunities on food with empty calories.

• One last thing.  I love exercising.  I exercise at least 5 days a week.  I always look forward to it.  Especially if I am a bit stiff or sore.  I know that after my workout, I will feel great.  And I always do.  There is something about working up a good sweat.  I don’t mess around when I exercise.  I work hard and lift heavy.  Of course, I’m not one of the big boys who can push or pull their body weight and then some, but I do OK for an old fat guy.  As I work my way down the left side of the scale, I am working my way up the right side of the weight rack.  And I feel great for the effort.  I always do a bit of cardio throughout the week, but having learned my lesson about over-training on cardio from previous diet/exercise routines, I keep the cardio to a minimum and concentrate on resistance training.  I believe, and scientific evidence confirms, I get more bang for my buck lifting weights than running on a treadmill.

In Closing

It’s now close to 9 PM and Barb and I just returned home from Dinner and a Movie.  I broke my 16 hour fast today by eating a small chicken breast around noon just before I went out to exercise.  I had planned to eat afterward, but wasn’t really hungry, so I just skipped my post-workout meal and saved up my calories for our meal out.  I thought I might have a little trouble when we got to the theater.  The smell of buttered popcorn is pretty enticing, but I was fine.  I was, however, ready for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants:  Bahama Breeze.  I really wanted to get the ribs, but I knew I would be full well before I finished the plate so I didn’t want to spend $20 for a plate of food I couldn’t eat and didn’t want to take home least it tempt me tomorrow.  Since Barb doesn’t like ribs, we split the following:

• Smothered Pork Tenderloin – Oak-grilled, moist and tender, smothered with creamed spinach and melted cheese, served with garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.
• Cuban Black Bean Soup – Slow-simmered and served with yellow rice.
• Warm Chocolate Pineapple Upside Down Cake – a warm rich chocolate cake with a Chocolate molten center topped with caramelized pineapple, Raspberry sauce, butterscotch brandy sauce and fresh Whipped cream.

The plates were huge, so we just tasted the soup and took it home to eat for lunch tomorrow.  We plan on enjoying the Pineapple Upside Down Cake tonight as we watch Masterpiece Theater.  Total calories for the meal (1/2 servings of Tenderloin, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and taste of soup) – 1020 kcal.  That means I am a little on the low side for today, but will make it up tomorrow on a heavy workout day.  Still, I am feeling good and totally satisfied.  Who ever said losing weight had to be hard?  Bon Appetit.

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Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 4)

(This is the third in a three part series entitled Nine Fat Loss Tips I have learned over the years and am employing in my Weight Loss Journey to reach my ultimate goal by the end of 2010.  Hope you find them helpful as you make your own Journey.)

7.  Limiting your food choices makes it easy to stay on your diet: To be honest, I wish I ate a great more variety of foods than I do.  When I diet, I tend to stick to basic dishes and eat similar meals almost everyday.

For breakfast, I almost always have a small to medium size bowl of fresh mixed fruits (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, oranges, various melons, and walnuts) and a 2-3 egg meat and vegetable omelet.  When I’m not watching carbs, I’ll add a piece of toast with either butter or olive oil on it and occasionally some cinnamon (without the sugar).  This is one of my favorite meals and I always look forward to it.  It is very filling and I can go all day long on it.  I eat this breakfast every day, except on the days I do an Intermittent Fast.

Since I enjoy a mid-morning workout (get to the gym at 10 or 11 am) and because I generally exercise in a fasted state (before breakfast), I usually eat breakfast rather late in the day – around noon or after.  As a result, I’m seldom hungry until supper which for us is always at 6 pm – when the news comes on.  I know you’re not supposed to watch TV and eat, but hey, I’m an old dog who enjoys this little indiscretion.

Supper is always a hearty spinach salad (with oranges, almonds, cranberries, peppers, onions, occasional tomatoes and other vegetables, as well as light salad dressing), lean meat (chicken, pork, beef, fish), and two vegetables (mixed, squash, carrots, beans, tomatoes, cauliflower, asparagus, and occasional sweet potatoes).  We don’t use a lot of spices or sauces and only a small amount of condiments.  I love this meal as well and never feel deprived or hungry afterwards.

Around 9 or 10 pm, I have my protein shake.  Most people use their protein shakes as a post workout snack to replenish depleted carbs and supply much-needed protein for muscle-building.  But having done that for years, I don’t find it all that helpful and besides my protein shake is so good its like a dessert that I savor as my evening snack.  It’s a thick chocolate shake I eat with a spoon and it fills the largest glass in the house (probably 16 oz or more).  That makes it both delicious and filling.  Here is the recipe which you mix in a blender:

• One chilled Atkins Advantage drink – Chocolate
• One frozen banana – medium size
• 1 Cup frozen strawberries
• 2 Scoops of Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Double Rich Chocolate
• 5 g of Creatine as well as 5 g of Glutamine – both which have been proven safe and of benefit to Hypertrophy (muscle-building) especially among the elderly

I don’t eat a lot of snacks, never feel the need to – am not that hungry – but if I do, it is always an apple or banana with a handful of nuts.

And that’s it.  Not very exciting, I know, but very filling and extremely healthy.  If I were to change anything, I would try more recipes.  I should rephrase that.  “I would have Barb try more recipes.”  I’ve seen a great many recipes in various diet books that look very intriguing and when I get my weight off I would like to try some of them – especially the LOW CARB ones.  But until then, I like making eating very simple.  I know I can lose weight on what I am eating and know it is both very filling and very healthy.

8.  Diet first, Lifestyle second: A lot of nutrition/diet experts tell you to think of your new eating and exercise program as a lifestyle change instead of a diet.  I say, “Phooey.”  First, concentrate on getting the weight off, then you can focus on changing your lifestyle.  Weight loss is hard enough to do.  Don’t make it harder by tying it to the much broader category of lifestyle change.  Keep it simple.  Focus.  See it as a short-term sacrifice and do the work necessary.  Once you’ve achieved your goal, then you can focus on the long-term and drawing upon the lessons you’ve learned during your dieting phase make the necessary changes to your lifestyle that will remain with you for the rest of your life.

As you can see from above, I limit my diet to a very few foods and dishes because I know what it takes to lose weight.  I don’t want to experiment around with a lot of recipes and dishes that may or may not satisfy my appetite or, worse yet, stop my weight loss.  There is nothing worst than trying a new dish and discovering you really don’t like “Kombu Egg Soup” or “Arctic Char Chowder.”  They may look good on paper, but hey, this is my main meal I’m talking about here.  If I discover too late that I don’t really like it or that it’s not very satisfying, I’m stuck with it.

I would rather keep it simple, focus on the weight loss, get my weight off as fast as I can, and then begin to add and subtract things to my diet and exercise that I can live with for the long-term.  In the meantime, weight loss is about deprivation and hard work.  To try to make it anything else is ridiculous.

Additional Note:  You may have to give up eating out for the short-term.  I try to avoid eating out as much as possible during my weight loss regimen.  Eating in restaurants is like playing Russian Roulette.  Sooner or later, it’s going to kill your weight loss.  Most restaurant meals are way to large and who really knows what ingredients they are using even in the so-called LOW CARB dishes.  This includes accepting meal invitations at the home of family and friends.  If it’s family, I take my own food.  If it’s friends, I try to limit the damage and stick to eating what I know.  But I am always tempted.  And that is something I seldom experience when I eat at home.  I know the conventional wisdom of nutrition/diet experts who are pushing this whole idea of lifestyle say you must learn to eat in places other than your home, and that is certainly true, but I can learn that discipline once I’ve completed the much more arduous discipline of losing my unwanted and unhealthy fat.

9.  Count Calories Once, then forget about it:  Initially, you need to know what you are eating (carbs, protein, fats) and how much you are eating (the number of grams or calories) but after about a week of weighing and counting you should know intuitively if what you are eating is good or bad and if you are eating too much.  Calorie counting is not practical for dieting and it’s certainly not practical as a lifestyle once you’ve achieved your goal.

That’s why eating simply – same or similar meals – day in and day out is such a powerful tool for dieting.  Once you create a menu you enjoy (having counted and weighed the portions), it’s very easy to eyeball it from then on.  Within a week, you pretty much know what and how much you can eat (within a few carbs or calories) and still lose weight.

I find carb counting easier than calorie counting – mostly because I am dealing with lower numbers – keep your carbs below 50 and definitely below 100 if you want to lose weight.  If you’re on a LOW CARB diet, you don’t have to be as calorie conscience as those on a LOW FAT (and therefore LOW CALORIE) diet, because the fat loss process is different with the LOW CARB diet.  Then too, the ample dietary fat and protein you ingest make you more satisfied and in time you find yourself eating less food and therefore fewer calories.

Unlike those people who incessantly weigh and measure every morsel of food they put in their mouth, I almost never use a carb or calorie counter anymore except if I introduce some new food to my diet.  (The other day, Barb wanted to make some bean soup with a ham bone she had.  She asked me to check the carbs to see if I would be OK with it.  As much as I love bean soup of any kind, I could not find a bean that was relatively low in carbs, so I said, “Forget it.”  It wasn’t worth the risk.  I’ll wait till I’ve lost my weight and can add a few more carbs to my diet before I once again indulge in bean soup.)  Simple meals – once calculated and repeated week in and week out – don’t require it.  And if you get tired of the same meals, just work up some new meals and add them to the rotation.  You’ll be surprised how long you can go before you get tired of your favorite “diet meals.”

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Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 3)

(This is the second in a three part series entitled Nine Fat Loss Tips I have learned over the years and am employing in my Weight Loss Journey to reach my ultimate goal by the end of 2010.  Hope you find them helpful as you make your own Journey.)

4.  Read about nutrition and fitness everyday to stay motivated: I don’t know about you but I can easily become discouraged, especially when after strictly adhering to my diet and exercise program, I check the scale only to discover I’m down a measly 1 pound for the week.  Man that’s discouraging. And although I appreciate her encouragement, it really doesn’t help when Barb says, “But you look great, honey.  I can tell you’ve lost a lot of weight,” because we all know being the Pollyanna that she is Barb sees the world through rose colored glasses; and a big butt no matter what color is still a big butt.

So, I’ve taken to reading a little every day about nutrition and fitness.  I find the more I know about the subject of weight loss and physical fitness, the more I know what to expect and what to do when I reach certain sticking points in my program.  I also read the stories of other people’s remarkable transformations and even watch videos on U-Tube showing these transformations.  They inspire me and remind me that many of these people were bigger and in worse health than I was and like me experienced long plateaus and huge setbacks.  Still, they persevered and were successful.  Man!  That’s encouraging.

If  you’re interested in finding the places I visit for daily encouragement, see my blogroll  to the right of this post.  And check out YouTube and this link for some great transformation stories with photos.  You can’t help but be inspired.

5. Kedge quarterly if not monthly: You’ve probably never heard of kedging but it’s a technique used for centuries by navies around the world to move stranded ships (especially those with sails) off sandbars.   The ship would send out a few sailors in a row boat carrying a small anchor with a long rope attached to the marooned ship and the men would set the anchor fifty to a hundred yards beyond the ship.  Once the anchor was set, the remaining sailors aboard the stranded vessel would pull the ship to the anchor thus freeing it from the sandbar.  This process would be repeated again and again until the ship reached open waters.

I’ve learned that if I’m to be successful, especially in my weight loss, I need to Kedge on a regular basis.  I need to set an “anchor” at some distance from my present location and use it to pull me in the direction of my ultimate goal.  This is especially true if I’ve hit a snag or the doldrums in my progress.

An “anchor” might be a challenge or test that causes you to work toward a short-term goal and gives your daily diet/fitness routine a sense of urgency and importance that it might not otherwise have.  You might, for example, commit to run a 5K or 10K or even a marathon in a month or two and by sending in the registration fee, you’ve set an anchor that will pull you toward your goal of health and fitness.

Kedging is more than just goal setting, it’s locking yourself into some future commitment such that if you fail to do the necessary diet/fitness work it will cost you something – money, added pain, embarrassment.

I’ve read of lots of people who in undertaking a new weight loss and fitness regime enter bodybuilding contests.  The constant thought of appearing half naked on stage before hundred of people is a perfect motivation for them to work hard at their diet and exercise.

I’ve not committed to appear on stage in a shiny new speedo, but I have set out some anchors that motivate me to keep going.  I’m not quite prepared to tell you what they are but maybe in subsequent posts I’ll let you know.  In the meantime, why not kedge your way to success and set out a few anchors for yourself.

6.  Feeling good is more important than losing weight: I don’t know about you but when I’m dieting and I weigh myself in the morning, the number on the scale staring back at me can either make or break my day.  I’m either charged and motivated or I’m discouraged and depressed, if only for a moment.  That number controls my life, at least to some degree, and to be honest, I don’t like it one bit.

That’s why I’ve resorted to using other, more subjective, measures to track my “fat” loss success.  And for me, the number one daily measure is, “How do I feel today?”  Do I feel lighter? – not bloated and stuffed.  Do I feel strong and full of energy? – not weak from diet and exercise.  Do I feel a slight post-workout soreness? – a good sign that I am strengthening and building muscles.  Do I feel like I stayed true to my diet and exercise yesterday? – if so, positive results are just around the corner.

How I feel has become far more important to me than what I weigh.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to get down to that magic number (200 lbs for me), but I’m more concerned I feel good getting there.  The journey is more important than the destination.

In the past, I’ve felt my age (I’m pushing 60) in my legs.  It was a major effort to get on and off the floor – something every good grandparent needs to do when he/she has little ones wanting to “rassle” or build Lego.  I often found myself using my hands to push myself out of my easy chair or hobbling around like an “old man” – stiff and sore – after riding in the car for more than an hour.  I dreaded climbing stairs, or taking long hikes, or playing tag, or getting up to get a soda (thank goodness for Barb – thus the phrase was born – “Hey, while you’re up and not doing nothing (sic)…how ’bout getting me something to drink?”)

So, these days, whenever I ask myself, “How do I feel today?” it’s generally regarding “How do my legs feel?”   On previous weight loss journeys, before I knew better and did copious amounts of cardio – treadmill, jogging, walking – I hated the way my legs (and feet) felt.  If it wasn’t an injury (torn Achilles tendon, plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, shin splints, strains, sprains and blisters – I’ve had them all), it was a general weariness or fatigue from a reduction in calories and an increase in cardio resulting in over training.  I quickly discovered this was no way to live.  I was seeing great weight loss results, and the falling number on my scales kept me motivated, but I felt like crap.  Even when I hit my ultimate weight loss goal, there was little celebrating.  I liked the slimmer me, but I was in constant pain from my many injuries and always tired.  I am convinced that the combination of pain and exhaustion, led in great part, to the regaining of my lost weight – because I finally concluded this is no way to live and gradually abandoned both my diet and exercise.

Not this time.  I’m not going to let the number on my scales dictate what I do and how my day goes.  This time, I’m looking within and asking how my diet and exercise make me feel – physically.  “Do I feel good today?”  And if the answer is, “Yes!” then I’m going to celebrate no matter what the scales say.

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Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 2)

I’m down 15 lbs since January 1, 2010.  WooHoo!  That means I only have 35 lbs to go to reach my first goal of 225 by my birthday, June 4th, and 60 lbs to reach my ultimate goal of 200 by the end of the year.  It has been relatively easy thus far but I know from personal experience that the weight loss will slow and it will get harder as I go along.

Nevertheless, I am encouraged.  Very encouraged.  This weight loss journey has been much easier and more enjoyable (if dieting can be called enjoyable) than any previous time before.  In the intervening years between my two great efforts to lose a lot of weight, I’ve learned a great deal and have attempted to use this knowledge to make my weight loss easier. So far, so good.

That being said, I thought I would share with you some of the things I’ve learned and am using to make this journey easier.  You might find some of this information counter intuitive, but that’s just the point.  Much of what we’ve been taught about weight loss and which passes for conventional wisdom is just plain wrong.  I’m hoping you’ll find at least some of these suggestions helpful.

Nine Fat Loss Tips (This is the first of three posts)

1.  Eat only when hungry: Most diet books recommend you eat 5 to 6 meals/snacks a day, (300 calories per meal) – “grazing” they call it.  They reason that anything less than this will slow down your metabolism and cause you to stop burning fat.  This has been proven not to be true.  (See my post on Intermittent Fasting)  Missing a meal or two is not the train wreck it’s been made out to be.  In fact, missing a few meals a couple times a week has been proven to have healthful benefits including an increase: (a)  in the production of  human growth hormones, (b) insulin sensitivity, and (c) fat loss.  Most of us can live on far less food than we think.

Most of the time, we eat out of habit and often (especially if you are eating a lot of carbs), the more you eat the more hungry you get.  I’ve found that when I get hungry, if I eat just a small amount to satisfy my hunger and then quit, I can go much longer and feel less hungry than the “eat every three hours crowd” would have you believe.  I do have certain times I like to eat, 6 PM supper when I’m watching the news and 9 PM protein shake, but the rest of the day I only eat when I feel “true” hunger.

2.  Carbs make you hungry: Everyone knows that there are three macronutriets (Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat).  Our diet consists of some combination of these three.  Some diets suggest we eat lots of carbs and very little fat (think Dean Ornish – Low Fat Diet).  They labor under the mistaken belief that “dietary fat” – the fat we eat – turns into body fat.  This long held belief has been thoroughly debunked over the past several years but it is so entrenched in the modern American psychic that many of us, including myself, feel guilty if we overindulge in fats.

The truth is “dietary fat” is not only good for you it reduces your hunger significantly.  Did you hear that?  Dietary fat – things like nuts, avocados, coconut, eggs, butter, olive oil, animal fats, milk, cheese, cream, the list is a long one – is healthy and it makes you less hungry.

I don’t have the time or space to recount the entire story (you can read about it here), but two definitive studies were done to better understand the effects of starvation where the participants were fed a diet of approximately 1560 calories a day for up to six months.  The only difference was that one group was fed a HIGH CARB – LOW FAT DIET (225 grams of carbs and 30 grams of fat) each day while the other group was fed a LOW CARB – HIGH FAT DIET (67 grams of carbs and 105 grams of fat – almost the reverse).

The results were stunning.  Those participants on the HIGH CARB DIET starved, were lethargic, depressed and obsessed over food continually, while those on the LOW CARB DIET thrived and felt an increased sense of well-being.  Both consumed roughly the same number of calories.  The difference was in the amount of carb vs fat they ate.

Think about it for just a minute:  when you eat lots of carbs, doesn’t it just make you hungrier?  Sometimes when I go on a carb binge, I just can’t stop myself.  I’ll start out eating a single cookie, or one piece of pie, or just a slice of pizza, or a handful of M&Ms and before I know it, I can’t stop. I pig out on carbs.  The more I eat the hungrier (for carbs) I get until finally stuffed and guilt ridden I stop my binge.  It’s a vicious cycle that is unhealthy.

Even those people who don’t binge on carbs, find living on a diet high in carbs and low in fat leaves them hungry all the time – think Chinese food, you’re hungry 30 minutes after you’ve eaten.  So, do yourself a favor and cut the carbs.  Eat more dietary fat and protein and you will find yourself more satisfied, less hungry, and will lose weight (fat) to boot.  Sounds like a Win-Win to me.

3.  Rest more, Exercise less: This is probably one of the most counter intuitive statements you will ever read on dieting.   It has been proven repeatedly that the more you exercise, the hungrier you get and thus (despite your best intentions) the more you eat.  TOO MUCH EXERCISE CAN SABOTAGE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM!

I know, I know, it sounds crazy but it’s true.  Notice, I said “too much exercise.”  Don’t get me wrong, you need to exercise.  You must exercise to be fit.  But too much exercise breaks down the body and eventually causes you to give up dieting and exercise altogether.  Too much exercise makes you feel crappy –  sore and tired and hungry all the time.

You need to go to the gym (or the park or the beach or whatever you do for exercise), and you need to do resistance training (machines, free weights, or bodyweight exercises) but you don’t need to do it every day for hours on end.  Three to four days a week, 60 minutes a day.  Add a brisk (3.5-4.0 mph) walk every day, maybe 10 minutes of interval training (wind sprints, spinning, elliptical) twice a week for your cardio and you are done.

Hitting the gym everyday for 60-90 minute cardio sessions is crazy and counter productive.  In fact, it’s destructive.  You’re body can’t handle it and it will rebel leading to injury or exhaustion.  More importantly, you don’t need to do it to lose weight.  Remember:  80% of weight loss has to do with what you eat.  Think about that for a moment.  Your diet is far more important to your weight loss than exercise.  You exercise to retain/build muscle.  You diet to lose fat.

And when you’re not exercising, you rest.  Quality rest – like 7-8 hours of sleep at night, cat naps throughout the day, taking it easy – is one of the little secrets most diet/fitness gurus don’t emphasize enough.  It is vital to your success.

Just by way of personal experience:  when I take a day off from the gym, I always have more energy for my exercises, lift more weight, and have a better workout than if I train everyday.  This translates into more muscle growth and less fatigue over the long haul.  So eat right, exercise hard, and spend more time in that easy chair.  You won’t regret it.

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Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 1)

I’m down 10 lbs from the first of the year.

I know these first few weeks always result in fast weight loss so I am not overly impressed with these results but I am encouraged that my diet/fitness regime is working.

Just for the record:

I weighed in at 275 on January 1, 2010.

My goal is to lose 50 lbs by my birthday, June 4th – just in case you have forgotten! – with most of that being FAT LOSS.

My ultimate goal is to get down to around 200 lbs with 10-12% BF.

I’m presently on a LOW CARB diet, eating lots of fruit, vegetables, and lean meat.  I have introduced INTERMITTENT FASTING (IF) twice a week and go to the gym 5 to 6 times a week doing mostly resistance training (weight lifting) and restricting my cardio to only 10 minutes a day on the elliptical machine.  I do try to walk 30 minutes a day since I spend most of the day in my recliner reading and researching.

One of the things I am trying to do this time around (I been down this road before having lost 100 lbs a few years ago but gaining most/not all back), is create a  life-long diet and fitness routine with which I can live.

One thing I did wrong last time was to over train.  I was following a particular fitness routine which suggested that to create a calorie deficit you need to add lots of cardio.  As my weight loss stalled, I upped my cardio until I was doing at least 2 hours a day – one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening – in addition to the 60-90 minutes of weight training.  I lost the weight but I was exhausted and hungry all the time.  I finally reached the point where I could add no more cardio, stalled in my weight loss and started to drift backward regaining much of the weight I had lost.

After a great deal of reading and research, I am trying a different approach.  Instead of relying on a CALORIE IN – CALORIE OUT approach which promotes a calorie deficit by restricting caloric intake (cut down on eating) and increasing caloric output (do more cardio), I am approaching my weight loss (fat loss is a better phrase) as a bio-chemical and hormonal process (eat fewer carbs and thereby reduce insulin, a hormone which promotes fat storage).  Only time will tell if this approach will work successfully and if I can live with it for the long-term, but I know now that the other approach did not work for me as something with which I could live the rest of my life.

I’ll keep you informed of my progress and impressions of this diet/fitness program.  So far, I am encouraged.

If you’re interested in following a Carb Restricted Diet or Intermittent Fasting, check out these videos for an introduction and follow the suggested links to learn more.

An ABC 20/20 Report:  A Great Introduction to Low Carb Dieting Just for your information: the video talks a great deal about a High Fat Diet rather than a Low Carb Diet.  They are one and the same.  If you think about it, there are three macro nutrients (Protein, Fat, Carbohydrate).  Most people tend to eat a similar amount of protein regardless of what diet they are on (although Atkins encourages you to eat more than normal).  That being said, if you cut the amount of carbs you eat, you generally tend to make up the decrease in calories by eating more fat – which as it turns out in a good thing, not the bad thing we were previously taught.  At any rate, a High Fat Diet is the same as a Low Carb Diet just not as politically (or nutrinally) correct.

A Charlie Rose Report on the Benefits of Calorie Restriction: This is really a basis for Intermittent Fasting which if practiced properly (twice a week) can reduce your calorie intake by 20%  and achieve most of the benefits outlined in this report.  A great place to learn about Intermittent Fasting is to read Brad Pilon’s blog. I will write about it in subsequent posts so you don’t need to buy his book (I’ve already read it and will give you the highlights).  For now, focus on some of the health benefits you will find in this report.  This is the first of five videos in the Charlie Rose series.  Definitely worth watching.  (Click here to see the remaining videos.)

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