RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
Gained 1.5kg in 6 days away from home as my eating schedule was determined by family / friends. Will see by tomorrow how much of that is water weight as my body gets back on to a normal schedule.
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Weight Loss/ Gain thread Dec 2014 - 2015
- Thread starter DrewChan
- Start date
I'm getting back on this bandwagon.
Its been a bad 2015 for me, in just about every way it has been possible to be bad. Its been bad professionally, personally and physically. I was making great strides in weight loss towards the end of April, then I contracted tick bite fever, and immediately after that, my stress levels skyrocketed, leading to me basically abandoning exercise and healthy eating. And my depression relapsed.
I've got my depression under control again, and I've started exercising and eating healthily again. The difference is, this time I'm going to pay more attention to what used to be my cheat days. I would cheat a lot on weekends, thinking healthy eating during the week would make up for it. I've realized cheating on weekends can undo everything you have worked so hard for during the week. I'm also cutting down hectically on alcohol consumption for reasons unrelated to weight, but doing so should have a noticeable impact on weight loss.
And I have a new goal - I want to upgrade my 15kg dumbells to 20kg by the end of the year, at least for a few of my exercises.
I think I'm 88 or 89kg now, compared to something like 85kg in March this year. So, I have some progress to make.
Its been a bad 2015 for me, in just about every way it has been possible to be bad. Its been bad professionally, personally and physically. I was making great strides in weight loss towards the end of April, then I contracted tick bite fever, and immediately after that, my stress levels skyrocketed, leading to me basically abandoning exercise and healthy eating. And my depression relapsed.
I've got my depression under control again, and I've started exercising and eating healthily again. The difference is, this time I'm going to pay more attention to what used to be my cheat days. I would cheat a lot on weekends, thinking healthy eating during the week would make up for it. I've realized cheating on weekends can undo everything you have worked so hard for during the week. I'm also cutting down hectically on alcohol consumption for reasons unrelated to weight, but doing so should have a noticeable impact on weight loss.
And I have a new goal - I want to upgrade my 15kg dumbells to 20kg by the end of the year, at least for a few of my exercises.
I think I'm 88 or 89kg now, compared to something like 85kg in March this year. So, I have some progress to make.
KingBel
Expert Member
Just got back from Cape Town and have decided to make more of an effort to lose this extra weight. So starting from today.. I am cutting out sugar and cutting down on carbs (except for a breakfast bar in the morning to give me energy for the day).
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
Sounds like a plan, I'll join you
Definitely, cheat weekends will undo all the strict eating during the week. For myself, if I just start to sleep 8 hrs per night, going to gym twice a week and making an effort to cook / buy healthy food then things should come right.
So... I've been reading this site a lot:
Intensive Dietary Management
Really excellent site, very detailed blog posts that goes through what we know about the science (and causes of) diabetes and obesity. The author is a medical doctor who specialized in kidney medicine. Not surprisingly, most of his patients were diabetics, which caused him to do more research.
Anyway, don't expect diet recommendation from him, BUT it has a lot of useful and surprising information that fills in a lot of the missing gaps, such as why some diets work in the short term but not in the long term.
Essentially, its all down to insulin. Insulin is the major problem. Insulin rises in response to food intake, which includes protein by the way. Protein does also cause insulin spikes. Its not actually blood glucose that is the problem, its insulin. Constantly elevated levels of insulin not only causes insulin resistance which leads to type 2 diabetes, but it also prevents your body from burning fat unless you exercise like a mofo.
So, if you constantly snack or eat small meals, even if those meals are "healthy", your insulin levels never really drop that much, and hence you are never really burning fat. The only way to get your insulin levels to drop enough is to just not eat for a while.
He also says calories are not meaningful enough on their own to make decisions about weight loss, since if you simply restrict calories (ie eat 1500 calories per day), the body will slow down its metabolism to adjust (among other things).
Putting it all together (and I really recommend reading the blog because I'm skipping out a lot of important details), it seems like a very effective weight loss tool (but only if you can keep it up, like all life style changes) is fasting. Carry on drinking fluids (non calorific drinks only, so no Coke or Beer and even Coke Zero would be out because it causes an insulin response), but no food. You can do intermittent fasting - ie only eating in a 4-8 hour window every day, as one example - or fasting for multiple days.
I'm trying the multiple day fasting. Its been 13 hours since my last meal. I'm hoping to not eat until Friday.
When I've dropped down to my ideal weight, I'll switch to intermittent fasting. I'll skip breakfast, and eat at 2PM or 3PM, and again at say 7 or 8.
Just to make one thing clear - during intermittent fasting, the aim is not to reduce how many calories you eat. The aim is to adjust when you eat, not what you eat. If you could cram in exactly the same food you eat into 4 hours instead of 12 hours, you would lose weight. Controlling when you eat, controls your insulin levels.
I'll let you guys know how I get on. I'm feeling hungry, but not starving. I think I'll be okay.
Intensive Dietary Management
Really excellent site, very detailed blog posts that goes through what we know about the science (and causes of) diabetes and obesity. The author is a medical doctor who specialized in kidney medicine. Not surprisingly, most of his patients were diabetics, which caused him to do more research.
Anyway, don't expect diet recommendation from him, BUT it has a lot of useful and surprising information that fills in a lot of the missing gaps, such as why some diets work in the short term but not in the long term.
Essentially, its all down to insulin. Insulin is the major problem. Insulin rises in response to food intake, which includes protein by the way. Protein does also cause insulin spikes. Its not actually blood glucose that is the problem, its insulin. Constantly elevated levels of insulin not only causes insulin resistance which leads to type 2 diabetes, but it also prevents your body from burning fat unless you exercise like a mofo.
So, if you constantly snack or eat small meals, even if those meals are "healthy", your insulin levels never really drop that much, and hence you are never really burning fat. The only way to get your insulin levels to drop enough is to just not eat for a while.
He also says calories are not meaningful enough on their own to make decisions about weight loss, since if you simply restrict calories (ie eat 1500 calories per day), the body will slow down its metabolism to adjust (among other things).
Putting it all together (and I really recommend reading the blog because I'm skipping out a lot of important details), it seems like a very effective weight loss tool (but only if you can keep it up, like all life style changes) is fasting. Carry on drinking fluids (non calorific drinks only, so no Coke or Beer and even Coke Zero would be out because it causes an insulin response), but no food. You can do intermittent fasting - ie only eating in a 4-8 hour window every day, as one example - or fasting for multiple days.
I'm trying the multiple day fasting. Its been 13 hours since my last meal. I'm hoping to not eat until Friday.
When I've dropped down to my ideal weight, I'll switch to intermittent fasting. I'll skip breakfast, and eat at 2PM or 3PM, and again at say 7 or 8.
Just to make one thing clear - during intermittent fasting, the aim is not to reduce how many calories you eat. The aim is to adjust when you eat, not what you eat. If you could cram in exactly the same food you eat into 4 hours instead of 12 hours, you would lose weight. Controlling when you eat, controls your insulin levels.
I'll let you guys know how I get on. I'm feeling hungry, but not starving. I think I'll be okay.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
^^ Interesting post, havent checked the link yet.
I did 'The Grid' class at a VA gym tonight, was pretty fun and challenging as I'm not too fit currently. Was about 12 women and 4 guys in the class
Then I did some extra weight training afterwards on my own.
I did 'The Grid' class at a VA gym tonight, was pretty fun and challenging as I'm not too fit currently. Was about 12 women and 4 guys in the class
Then I did some extra weight training afterwards on my own.Everyone should read it. He basically constructs a Grand Unified Theory of obesity, that puts all of the factors together. He uses his own medical knowledge of how things work combined with what the science says about whether various weight loss ideas (such as, is dairy fattening?).
What I like about it is that it isn't a one page "DO THIS TO LOSE 15KGs IN 2 DAYS", it actually doesn't even try to recommend a diet or approach. It just explains how things work and lets you figure it out for yourself. Its a lot of reading but well worth it.
I didn't eat for 24 hours yesterday - I skipped two meals. I ate a meal at 8PM on Monday night, and then ate again at 8PM on Tuesday night. In between, I drank water and coffee without sugar.
It was... interesting. First, because if you think about it, the idea that we need to eat every few hours is nonsense. We can survive longer without food.
I expected my hunger to get worse and worse, but it didn't really. I did feel tired and not that alert by the end of the day though. I felt better after eating, even though I ate a normal meal and not enough to make up for the two skipped meals. I found that when I had something else to concentrate on, I didn't feel hungry. It was only when I had nothing to think about, that I thought about the fact that I hadn't eaten.
People say that, if you fast often enough, your body adjusts to it and you don't feel dizzy or tired. This is because your body learns to use your fat as a fuel source - mine has never done so before. They do say that fasting does mean you will have lower blood pressure, and there isn't much you can do about that, other than perhaps have salt.
From doing a bit of reading, it sounds like fasting for more than 24 hours isn't really worth it. What I'm going to do is fast for 24 hours now and then, but not too much. Maybe after Christmas lunch or something. And, I'm going to start intermittent fasting every day - I'm going to skip breakfast as often as I can. Its not too difficult to skip breakfast really, I just need to get used to it. I will probably increase the amount that I eat to make up for the missed meal, but I suppose it depends on what my goals are (fat loss or muscle building).
Its worth noting that fasting does not lead to your body entering starvation mode. Its only if you eat regular low calorie meals that your body enters starvation mode.
What I like about it is that it isn't a one page "DO THIS TO LOSE 15KGs IN 2 DAYS", it actually doesn't even try to recommend a diet or approach. It just explains how things work and lets you figure it out for yourself. Its a lot of reading but well worth it.
I didn't eat for 24 hours yesterday - I skipped two meals. I ate a meal at 8PM on Monday night, and then ate again at 8PM on Tuesday night. In between, I drank water and coffee without sugar.
It was... interesting. First, because if you think about it, the idea that we need to eat every few hours is nonsense. We can survive longer without food.
I expected my hunger to get worse and worse, but it didn't really. I did feel tired and not that alert by the end of the day though. I felt better after eating, even though I ate a normal meal and not enough to make up for the two skipped meals. I found that when I had something else to concentrate on, I didn't feel hungry. It was only when I had nothing to think about, that I thought about the fact that I hadn't eaten.
People say that, if you fast often enough, your body adjusts to it and you don't feel dizzy or tired. This is because your body learns to use your fat as a fuel source - mine has never done so before. They do say that fasting does mean you will have lower blood pressure, and there isn't much you can do about that, other than perhaps have salt.
From doing a bit of reading, it sounds like fasting for more than 24 hours isn't really worth it. What I'm going to do is fast for 24 hours now and then, but not too much. Maybe after Christmas lunch or something. And, I'm going to start intermittent fasting every day - I'm going to skip breakfast as often as I can. Its not too difficult to skip breakfast really, I just need to get used to it. I will probably increase the amount that I eat to make up for the missed meal, but I suppose it depends on what my goals are (fat loss or muscle building).
Its worth noting that fasting does not lead to your body entering starvation mode. Its only if you eat regular low calorie meals that your body enters starvation mode.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
^ Starvation mode implying you start burning muscle as a fuel source? Or the body adjusts by slowing down metabolism?
Or all of the above?
Or all of the above?
Starvation mode meaning your body adjusts by slowing down your metabolism. It doesn't ever use muscle as a fuel source unless you have 6% body fat.
In other words, if you stopped eating today (but carried on drinking water), you would first burn through the glucose in your blood stream. After that is finished, you would burn through the glycogen stored in your liver and muscles. When that is depleted, the body will start lipolysis - the conversion of fat to glycogen. Or maybe straight to glucose, I can't remember.
Anyway, its only when your fat stores are too low that it will then use muscle instead.
Think about it - could our ancestors have survived as hunter gatherers if they started losing muscle as soon as they didn't eat for 24 hours? Makes no sense.
Also he devotes a lot of time talking about calorie restrictive diets and what they do to the metabolism. Calorie restrictive - meaning not fasting but reducing calories. What happens is that, as soon as daily calories change, the rate at which your body burns energy changes to match. This is because your body has a set weight that it likes to be at.
So, why are our set weights higher than we would like them to be? Because we've abused our bodies by constantly eating, which has caused insulin resistance. This is what makes our set weights higher than we would like them to be, and is also what makes it difficult to lose weight in the long term.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
So can fasting or rather intermittent fasting fix what is wrong, fix insulin resistance?
It sounds like it. He doesn't outright say it, but he does heavily recommend fasting. He devotes over 10 blog posts just to fasting.
Basically, from what I understand, the problem is not so much that you have insulin spikes (which are unavoidable and in fact necessary), the problem is that your body is saturated with insulin all day because we are always eating. This is what leads to insulin resistance - more and more insulin is needed for your body to maintain healthy blood glucose levels.
Certain foods lead to a greater insulin spike or a lesser insulin spike, so knowing that in combination with fasting I think could be quite effective. Obviously carbs cause insulin spikes, but he goes into detail why sugar in particular is bad for you - its the fructose. It may surprise you that meat also causes insulin spikes. Also, fiber reduces insulin spikes and so does vinegar (which was news to me).
My take on it, at least, what I am going to do is:
Have a 24 hour fast now and then while I am trying to burn fat. I won't do it too often because honestly it isn't very pleasant.
Change my eating habits to not eat breakfast, ever, and eat more veggies and vinegar. Probably more protein and fat too. No more bread or breakfast cereal.
I'm going to try push the boundaries of fasting as much as I can - in other words, start breaking my fast later and later in the day. Ideally I'd like to break my fast at 2 to 3 and then have my final meal at 8.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
Ugh.. Must stop buying junk food snacks when going grocery shopping :/
Bought two party sized 200g nik naks and choc biscuits last weekend. Been snacking on that all week
Bought two party sized 200g nik naks and choc biscuits last weekend. Been snacking on that all week
This week I've lost something like 3kg of water weight. Probably even a little fat. Skipped 5 meals so far.
Pretty sure my body will be running off fat now.
This weekend will be full of unhealthy eating and drinking, but I think I'll still skip breakfast.
Pretty sure my body will be running off fat now.
This weekend will be full of unhealthy eating and drinking, but I think I'll still skip breakfast.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
So if drinking tea or coffee throughout the day, adding milk to it would be bad because it's going to spike your insulin levels?!
It doesn't have enough carbsper serving to spike, but it will affect ketosis. Use cream rather
It will spike your insulin levels, but I think the spike is too small to make much of a difference. The spike will quickly drop back down again, because not much insulin is needed for the amount of carbs you have consumed. Don't add sugar though.
The way I think about it is that what matters is the total amount of time spent fasting. After you consume something calorific, your body produces an insulin response proportionate to what you have consumed. The bigger the insulin response, the longer it lasts. If you have consumed something tiny like coffee, it won't last long. Something big like a donut covered in icing and then topped with bacon and washed down with a milkshake will cause a much larger spike.
Some of the glucose resulting from coffee will actually be used directly be your muscles in any case. Once that is finished (which won't take long), your body will go back to fasting.
Black coffee is probably best though.
RogueTr00per
Honorary Master
Drinking only coffee with milk, and water today. Don't feel hungry yet. Will see how it goes. Been eating so much junk lately, mindless snacking :/
Kosmik
Honorary Master
Ticking along nicely now and got me digital scale at home that can handle the weight, so now sans shoes as they say.
Started: March 17, 2015
Starting weight: ~187Kgs
Goal weight: 110Kgs
Official first weigh in - 20 April 2015 - 181kgs
Prev Update 12th August @ 165Kgs
Progress as of today - down 28/29Kgs
Current weight - 158/159Kgs
Started: March 17, 2015
Starting weight: ~187Kgs
Goal weight: 110Kgs
Official first weigh in - 20 April 2015 - 181kgs
Prev Update 12th August @ 165Kgs
Progress as of today - down 28/29Kgs
Current weight - 158/159Kgs
Last edited:
30kg is a lot to lose in half a year! Congratulations!
I'm carrying on with fasting although not seeing any weight loss yet. Will continue to monitor my weight to see if it starts to change. I skip breakfast and lunch and then just eat supper. I do eat more for supper than I used to, but not nearly enough to make up the skipped 2 meals. Pretty sure I spend much more time in ketosis now.
I'm carrying on with fasting although not seeing any weight loss yet. Will continue to monitor my weight to see if it starts to change. I skip breakfast and lunch and then just eat supper. I do eat more for supper than I used to, but not nearly enough to make up the skipped 2 meals. Pretty sure I spend much more time in ketosis now.
Kosmik
Honorary Master
My portion sizes are still pretty large but they're like 50\65% veg to 35% protein. No starches\carbs etc. Shake for breakfast, lunch some form of salad with Tuna/Chicken or just salad, Dinner nice protein with veg base ( marrows, cauliflower, broccoli etc ).
Wife is a Godsend with preparation, always mixes it up for me so not same bland cauliflower.