New Plan follow-up 9-26-11

So, a couple things:
Weight on Sunday morning (a more reasonable starting place after a big Friday--and big Friday weight):

2.5 pounds less, so one can say that most the difference is likely retained H2O. 228 is a reasonable starting point to see what effect this new diet has.

That means 19.5 pounds since I began--over 11 weeks that's one and 3/4 pounds per week . . . but most of that happened early on, with a huge slowdown and plateau in recent weeks. This new plan should change that.

Also, I've revamped my diet protocol. Given the relatively high calorie and fat count, I've modified so that I combine one scoop of Sisson's protein powder with one of Designer Protein (which is higher in protein, lower in fat and carbs). I also cut coconut oil to one tablespoon, calculated the egg yolk for only breakfast and dinner (lunch will be taken in a thermos, so I don't want a raw egg sitting around for several hours). Eliminated the BCCAs (not necessary, I think) and yoghurt. I'm also not counting the fish oil or SafSlim separately.

I've also added a cup of beef (or chicken) broth, mostly for the salt to help with the inevitable loss of salt with such low carbs. I'm not counting those calories, which are minimal.

This gives me a count of 1100 calories/day, with 90 grams of protein (plenty, I think, 33% of total calories); 25.5 grams of carbs (low, near induction levels, 9% of calories); and 72 grams of fat (almost all from the coconut oil--medium chain triglycerides, 58% of total calories).

Of course, I need to see what the result is (and how difficult it is to stick to this).

But I think it's a reasonable place to start.

I also need to start remembering to check blood sugar, to see where my fasting level is in the morning, and where the 1 hour post-prandial is most of the time.

Finally, I have been keeping up my exercise on a regular basis--keeping a complete log of exercises and how many sets and reps (I have missed almost no days, except Sunday, when the schedule is too tight to do this--also not bad to have one day off). It will be critical to see that I keep improving on this diet. Otherwise, it shows a loss of muscle, which I decidedly do not want! In the same way, I need to see that my energy stays high on this.

I should burn most of the MCT fats directly, so they should not be stored in my body (or more importantly, in my liver or pancreas). I will likely be in ketosis due to low carbs, which has a muscle-sparing effect, manufactures ketone bodies which can take the place of some of the glucose needed by my brain, and which should also repress appetite. I would say that this is lower carb than the Optifast used in the British study (despite the higher calories of my plan), and also more (and higher quality) protein. My hope is that I maintain more muscle mass (and in fact, want to increase it), while still burning lots of fat.

We'll see!

New plan - Week 11 report

Still not too disciplined this week, although not bad. I'll check again tomorrow on weight for a more accurate read, since I had a sandwich at lunch (bread!), a large Mexican meal (see a pattern here?) for dinner (didn't split the carne asada with my wife, but we each ordered one), then after a concert, had a friend over and had some "good" dessert snacks and a glass of white wine. Weight this morning after a high (and late)-eating day is:

We'll see what tomorrow's shows.

I'd been considering a very low calorie diet for 8 weeks (and still might). A very interesting study out of England used a VLC diet (600 calories/day, plus non-starchy veg). Report here . . . excerpts:

People who have had obesity-related type 2 diabetes for years have been cured, at least temporarily, by keeping to an extreme, low-calorie, diet for two months, scientists report today. 

The discovery, reported by scientists at Newcastle University, overturns previous assumptions about type 2 diabetes, which was thought to be a lifelong illness. 

Eleven people with diabetes took part in the study, which was funded by Diabetes UK. They had to slash their food intake to just 600 calories a day for two months. But three months later seven of the 11 were free of diabetes. 

"To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet," said Roy Taylor, professor at Newcastle University, who led the study. "This is a radical change in understanding type 2 diabetes. It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition. While it has long been believed that someone with type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition." 

The research, presented today at the American Diabetes Association conference, shows that an extremely low-calorie diet, consisting of diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables, prompts the body to remove the fat clogging the pancreas and preventing it from making insulin. 

The volunteers were closely supervised by a medical team and matched with the same number of volunteers with diabetes who did not get the special diet. After just one week into the study, the pre-breakfast blood sugar levels of the study group had returned to normal. And MRI scans showed that the fat levels in the pancreas had returned to normal. The pancreas regained its ability to make insulin. 

After the eight-week diet the volunteers returned to normal eating but had advice on healthy foods and portion size. Ten of the group were retested and seven had stayed free of diabetes. 

Taylor thought the massive drop in calorie intake after surgery could be responsible and to test this hypothesis set up the study, which included MRI scans of the pancreas to look at any changes in the fatty deposits. 

"We believe this shows that type 2 diabetes is all about energy balance in the body," said Taylor. "If you are eating more than you burn, then the excess is stored in the liver and pancreas as fat, which can lead to type 2 diabetes in some people. What we need to examine further is why some people are more susceptible to developing diabetes than others."

Interesting, huh?

The full study may be found here: http://www.diabetologia-journal.org/Lim.pdf

I started by thinking I'd do the diet as is, but with perhaps a little extra "good fat." Today I calculated a bit of what I'm eating and what it might look like, in terms of calories, protein, carbs, fat, etc.

My protein drinks are now Mark Sisson's protein powder, made with with 5 grams of BCCA's, one egg yolk, about 1/8 c. yoghurt (help keep healthy bacterial population in my bowel), and 2 tbl. virgin coconut oil (Tropical Traditions). I'm also talking fish oil 2 x day, plus a product called SafSlim, which is a specially processed high linoleic safflower oil, which is supposed to reduce belly fat (the bad kind!).

When I add this all together (3 shakes, plus the fish oil and SafSlim, I get the following:
87 gm. protein (ca. 20% of calories)
47 gm. carbs (ca. 10% of calories)
142 gm. fat (ca. 70% of calories)
and around 1800 calories/day.

Much more than 600 (you can probably do the math, too!).

The question is whether the coconut oil, which is a medium-chain triglyceride, fish oil, and SafSlim (there's also coconut oil in Sisson's protein powder, and a little fat in the egg yolk and yoghurt) will cause problems. MCT's are supposed to be burned directly in a different way. But will this much fat, even of a "good" kind, cause me to keep fat in the pancreas?

Presumably the positive effects of the 8 week/600 cal/day diet comes from lowering the fat in the pancreas, allowing the beta cells to return to normal function.

I'll see how I feel after a week and what the results are.

My choice, if I wish to lower fat and calories is, first, to eliminate the extra coconut oil--two tbls are 28 grams of fat, times three shakes is 84 grams, or 756 calories of fat. Hmmm . . .

I could also eliminate the yoghurt (I'm already taking some probiotics to help re-populate my gut after taking a fairly powerful antibiotic post-nasal surgery). Next would be the SafSlim, since there's perhaps not enough evidence that it works as promised.

That would lead to ca. 1000 calories/day, 84 gms. protein (33% of calories), 44 grams of carbs (17% of calories), and 54 grams of fat (ca. 50% of calories).

So, I'll see what happens this week, how my body reacts, and then decide if I should cut down fat. I could do that gradually, eliminating one element at at time.

An experiment of one. We'll see.

Weeks 8 & 9 report

Still incredibly busy, so haven't posted much. Moved too far from lower carbs, so reigned that in this past week starting on Monday. Exercise has continued very well: walking almost every day (finally out my front door instead of the mall with the heat broken), core exercises, and adding my bodyweight exercises (variations on push ups, pull ups, squats, and leg lifts) plus some grip work and a bit more stretching.

I've also started weekly massages (leave for one in about 10 minutes!) to help cope with a 6 days x week schedule that's really intense.

Week 8:

 

Week 9:

So, overall, back on better track. Total weight lost 18.5 pounds. A hair over 2 pounds/week lost.

Catching up - weekly reports for Weeks 5, 6 & 7

Sorry that I haven't been active lately -- lots happening. Reports first, then some analysis:
Week 5 weight:

Week 6 Weight:

Week 7 Weight:

So, weight loss has slowed down--not a surprise given some things I'll explain. But 3 pounds in 3 weeks is fine. Bodyfat, by the way, shows just how much this measurement is affected by hydration and other elements, particularly with this kind of scale. In the three weeks: 35%, 36.5%, and 30.5%. I don't think my actual bodyfat changed that much! That's why it's only a good indicator over a long period of time (and I may wish to get bodyfat measured later by another method).

So, what's going on? The good, bad and the ugly (except I'll go in opposite order):

Ugly! This has been an extraordinarily stressful time. School starting back up, usual hyper busy schedule. Stress, as we know, causes the body to release cortisol, which does all sorts of negative things, and stress also causes the body to react by protecting fat stores. My nasal surgery has not been effective, with the right nostril entirely plugged 80% of the time (and almost always at night). This means I've rarely been able to use the CPAP for a whole night, leaving me most of the time with about 4-5 hours of not-very-restful sleep.

Of course, that's what the surgery was supposed to solve! Saw the doctor again Thursday and he thinks the cutting of the turbinate on the right side has caused another problem. For now, I'm on a short course of steroids (prednisone) and a fairly potent antibiotic. We'll see if the prednisone takes down the swelling/inflammation in the right passage and if the antibiotic gets rid of the infection/inflammation behind the turbinate (where the doc couldn't see even with his scope). I'll check back in two weeks with him to see if, once off drugs, I'm getting a better result. If not, it means another X-ray/CAT scan to see what's going on. I don't want that to be another surgery! The prednisone also drives up your blood sugar--not good for me at all.

Bad! One phrase: creeping carbs. A few more carbs each day can add up. A few meals out (including several at a favorite Mexican restaurant where I have some chips and did eat the beans and rice), more of the sugar free (but not carb free!) puddings and nuts at night. Only once had wheat (sub sandwich while out for lunch with colleagues). And protein shakes for breakfast every morning (too easy).

Good! Despite all of this, I've managed to keep calorie counts pretty low with no real breakdowns, binging, etc. That's why, even given all the negatives, I've been able to have a modest weight loss and not lose control. Additionally, I've walked (at the mall--after all, even in the morning it's close to 90 degrees here!) almost every day (23-25 minutes, depending on how fast I get around the mall interior twice). This has made me feel much better. And I've also done my core exercises at least 3 times per week.

So, overall, still going in the right direction. If I can get past the most stressful part of the year and solve my nasal problems, then I should "resume normal operations".

Monday 8-8-11 - extra carbs

Monday was another fairly low-energy day. Doc's appt. follow-up on the septum surgery at 11 and we went to a local Mexican restaurant afterwards.

No chips (good for me) and a taco salad (quite good). The only problem was they layered refried beans on the bottom and put the ground beef directly atop, so I couldn't avoid eating the beans. Very tasty, but more carbs than planned for! Post-prandial blood sugar at 122.

For "dinner" I had 2 oz. of cheese, tomatoes, guacamole (this is always "house-made" and the equivalent of 1/2 avocado). My sweetie also made some interesting baked cheese things (essentially cheese and spices) which are delicious, but will call for some restraint. She also made (the day before) some "crackers" out of some combination of almond flour, sunflower and I'm not sure what. Again, tasty, but even though they aren't made out of grains, still doesn't mean they're low carb (although much lower than most). Also had one of the no-sugar puddings (again, no sugar, but that doesn't mean no carb: around 14 grams). Blood sugar at 110.

Bigger challenges ahead as my schedule becomes busier (crazy at times, I should say), more temptation eating out, etc.

Finding something that's sustainable, checking blood sugar to see how different foods affect me will all be important.

Sunday, 7 August 2011--looking ahead to exercise

Diet back to more normal low carb today, although two protein shakes and one meal (cheese, veggies, guacamole), one low-carb pudding and two 1 oz. servings of macademia nuts. I'm not including sugar-free jello, which I probably eat once or twice each day as a bit of a (no carb) treat.

Sleep not as good, still woke up after 2 hours, but up longer before getting back to sleep. Sunday night's sleep about the same, or even less. Soon I'll be back to a normal work schedule and have to see how I can settle into a pattern and be more regular. In a future post I'll outline a plan to improve sleep.

Continue getting better from the surgery, less congestion, although still enough to interfere with CPAP breathing and sleep.

Saturday was incredibly energized. Went to a mall where we walked ca. 2 miles. Then in the evening walked again at our "home" mall, very energetic. Sunday, however, felt tired, logy--walked at the mall but at a slower pace. Decided not to go to an opera at school--a bit too tired and the congestion gets much worse at night. Thought I would go Sunday, but was very tired and more congested (from doing more the previous day?).

Local mall is open for mall-walking from 7-9 every morning but Sunday, so I need to do before work as I work into a regular schedule.

Every day, I should walk, twice if I don't have an evening commitment. Not long, perhaps 20 minutes of continuous walking. Enough to get some aerobic effect. Eventually, I should do either stairs or running in an interval fashion, perhaps once or twice per week.

Then, 3-4 times/week my core exercises: bird-dog, plank, side planks.

3-4 times/week, simple body-weight strength exercises: pushups, pull-ups, leg raises and squats. For this, I'll use a progression from very simple (e.g. wall pushups to knee pushups, etc.) to more difficult (full pushups to one-arm pushups).

Essentially, I'll alternate core exercises with the body-weight ones. All this should build muscle and the core should help my back, long-term.

The progression in the body-weight exercises will come from a book with a somewhat terrible title, Convict Conditioning, but quite a good idea of how to progress from very easy exercises to very difficult. These move through 10 progressively more difficult versions of each exercise, plus recommendations for reps and sets . . . and when you're ready to move to the next, more difficult version. Ultimately there are two other foundation exercises (bridge and handstand pushups), but you can't begin those until you've gotten to at least level 6 out of 10 in the four listed above.

There are probably other things I must do too--some stretching, exercises for my rotator cuff, grip exercises--but those can be fit in to other times and places--at the office, while watching TV, etc.

I'll work my way into these slowly, not all at once. I need to adapt, both muscles and overall ability to do exercise and my normal schedule as I recover from the combination of surgeries and lack of activity this summer.

Week 4 Report

Here are the results for 4 weeks:

So, a pound and a half this week, 14 pounds in the first 4 weeks--truly good, especially considering the surgery this week and terrible sleep, plus lack of exercise.

Friday, protein shake in the AM (still makes me feel bloated--air in the blender shake or problem with the dairy in the whey protein?); hot dog w/o bun at 5 Guys; cheese, tomatoes, 1/2 avocado. Then a small amount of home-made ice cream (mostly cream/half & half, egg yolks, very little sugar), blood sugar afterwards 107.

Getting good sleep has been a long-term problem for me and sleep is one of the elements mentioned prominently by writers and researchers in the area of weight loss. Adequate sleep takes down stress levels, where inadequate sleep raises cortisol and insulin levels, both negative for healthy weight loss.

Robb Wolf makes it a very important part of his program. One of the things I eventually want to do is some intermittent fasting (Swede Martin Berkhan has one of the more interesting sites on this and has a particular protocol of working out and intermittent fasting to get very lean and muscular) and Wolf as much as says that until both your diet (paleo, of course) and sleep are in order, you shouldn't even attempt intermittent fasting.

My own sleep is made worse by being inconsistent--my natural tendency is to stay up late and I can very quickly be back to a late (read, 1-3 AM) bedtime. Any book on sleep disorders or increasing good sleep will mention consistency of bed-time/wake-time.

I also have interruptions to my sleep almost every night (i.e. I rarely sleep more than 4-5 hours at any one time) and once awake am often up for 1 1/2 to two hours. Part of the interruptions are normal for middle-aged guys: waking up to pee. But it is often because, since I use a CPAP for my sleep apnea, if my nose gets plugged up enough, you wake up (because the mask means you only breathe through your nose). That's the reason for: 1) doing the sleep studies and getting a new, better CPAP device and 2) doing this surgery and improving the air flow through my nose.

Temporarily, of course, sleep is much worse, since my nasal passages have been extremely swollen/inflamed due to the surgery, and I was having to sleep in a recliner to keep head higher to make drainage better. This meant three nights of even worse than even my usual crappy sleep: the night before the surgery with about 3 hours (on a late-night pattern, had to get up very early, stressed about the surgery), then not more than 2 hours at any one time for the next couple nights, waking up totally dried out (from breathing through my mouth) and uncomfortable. As my surgeon said, you'll have several days of cat-naps only.

Last night was my first night back in bed (yay!). My nasal passages weren't clear enough to use the CPAP when I went to bed (around 11:15). Slept until 1:30 or so, up for about an hour and a half, used saline to clear nose and got back to sleep around 3, but able to use my CPAP, awoke 7:30--so about 6.5 hours total (and I might yet go back to bed for another round).

Long-term, I need to work on several things:

• consistency of bed-time/wake-time (weekends as well as weekdays)
• figuring out a cut-off time for liquids to make sure the need to pee doesn't wake me up
• consistency of bed-time routine
• shutting off TV and not using computer after a certain hour
• dark as possible room (I usually do this)
• cool sleeping room (impossible now with the high heat here--I've had to keep our thermostat up near 78, even at night)

Hopefully this can lead to more consistent and deeper sleep (I would like to see around 7.5 hours per night), which should have huge physical and mental benefits.

I'll start tracking sleep better as part of this whole transformation.