Diary of a weary dragon

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  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    I have been low carb (under 10%), paleo & no sugar (or substitutes) for nearly 4 years now. I eat only real food. When I started out I lost 4st and got within 6lb of my ideal weight. However , over the last few years the weight has slowly crept back up again due to eating a high fat (too many nuts & dairy) diet and not moving enough. If I don’t do something about it soon I will be over half way back to where I started and I wont be able to squeeze into the top end of my new wardrobe.

    I’m a great fan of Michael Mosely and I’m hoping doing the FAST800 on this forum, coupled with working through a 5k beginners plan on the treadmill and making the most of the Fast Exercise App will help me find the willpower to lose 20% of my body weight and some of the love handles.

  • posted by Bissell
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    Bore da ddraig_ goch! It sounds like you are on the right track with your eating already, so hopefully the 800 calories part will kick start a good weight loss for you. Like you, I have too great a liking for dairy products of every kind! I’ve lost the weight I wanted and I’m (more or less) maintaining the loss 8 months down the line. I have to watch my portion control, refrain from snacking and repeat to myself ‘you are not hungry, you are thirsty’ and drink some more water.
    Most of the time it works! Good luck with the regime and keep us posted on how it goes. And enjoy the rugby!

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Bore da Bissell. Sorry not to have replied before. As I ma English but the rest of my family Welsh I have to say the Rugby went well!. They at now all just about speaking to me again haha.

    So this is the end of my first week. I have stopped the dairy (except for some rather nice mature cheddar which is now at an end) and only had 1 small handful of nuts and 2 pieces of 95% chocolate. I have also lost 5.8lb and 1.3% Body Fat so all in all I have to say its been a successful transition week.

    But that’s all it has been – a transition week. Due to a constant need for grazing and a sudden craving for fruit (especially bananas which I normally never eat because of the high carb content) I have only managed an average of 1048 cals over the week so an 800F week it has definitely not been.

    But, on the plus side, I have lost some body fat and started to look at my eating habits again in some detail. I have also managed to stick to a 10 hour eating window although I hope to get that down to an 8 hour window going forward. I will build a snack of frozen blueberries into my diet over the next week to ease the fruit craving and spend 10min walking on the treadmill every time I want to hit the fridge. I have also got a set of menus planned which will enable me to stick to the daily 800cals.

    So transition over, it is now time to stat the 8 week 800cal diet for real.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Over the weekend I have managed to stick to 800cals and walked 20k steps with a net loss of exactly 4lb. That’s a massive 9.8lb in 9 days. That’s with a daily average of approx. 900cals and a lot less exercise than I had intended as an old knee injury has flared up. I am happy to say I have now lost 5% of my body weight and am back to being simple overweight rather than obese.

    What I find most intriguing is that of than 9.8lb, 9.1lb is body fat and only 0.7lb lean tissue & water. So this is a real weight loss rather than the large water loss most people get when reducing carbs. As I haven’t eaten grains or starchy carbs for years (except for the odd potato hack) it seems my body is fine tuned to burning fat and not retaining water if I give it a chance by not feeding it high levels of external ‘food fat’.

    Going forward, I have decided to use Monday as my weekly weigh day just because it fits my old training diary that I used before to lose weight and have now resurrected. So today 20th Feb 2017 is the official start day of my first 8wk cycle having done 9 days of transition (I’m hoping to only need to do 3 cycles in all to reach my longed for initial goal weight (the weight I was when I got married 30yrs ago) which I have never achieved. After that who knows.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Had time for a good trawl through the forum yesterday. There are some amazing inspirational and helpful people out there.
    Came across a post from Igorasusual in which she mentioned the keto calculator (https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com). Brilliant site and it worked out my details as follows:

    53/5’6″ | CW 184 | 43.3% BF | Mostly sedentary
    BMR 1461 TDEE 1607
    * 869 kcal Goal, a 46% deficit. (706 min, 1607 max)
    * 25g Carbohydrates (would normally expect to be <10g but this gives me wriggle room as I’m going through a fruit phase right now)
    * 84g Protein (63g min, 104g max)
    * 48g Fat (30g min, 130g max) [NB:for 10g Carbs 55 g Fat]

    More importantly it gave me a suggested BF% loss over time which reads as follows:
    A) 11/4 Wt 174lb <40% BF B) 22/6 Wt 160lb <35% BF
    C) 29/8 Wt 148lb <30% BF D) 2/11 Wt 139lb <25% BF
    E)19/12 Wt 132lb increase cal intake to prevent muscle loss
    F) 4/1/2018 Wt 130lb <20% BF

    Unfortunately was not able to download the underlying data even thought there is a supposed link so you can (didn’t work) but even so this gives me great hope. What I found really fascinating was the figure for increasing cals as 9st6 was my longed for Bikini Body Weight (not that that’s likely to happen) when I originally went low carb and I’m a great believer in coincidences.

    Anyway moving forward, I’m going to make these my targets (not really expecting to hit the dates but am keen to stick to the macros to see how accurate it is and every little bit of motivation helps.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    After an enthusiastic start I then had to tear myself away from my treadmill and internet access due to ill health in the family over the last few weeks but now I’m back and ready to start again.
    So my new day 1 was 14/3 and in the first week I have lost 5.2lb averaging 750 cals and 10360 steps per day.
    Sad to say this week I have yo-yoed up and then slowly down until today I am the same weight I was last Sunday so moral is low. One thing I have learnt though is that walking on the treadmill when watching a TV program is better than extra dog walks for getting fitter as there is no stop start whilst he sniffs the undergrowth or convenient walls and lampposts. So Its been back to 1 main walk a day and an hour in front of the TV. Not a bad way to burn calories I suppose.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    Welcome back, and don’t worry too much about static weight if you are doing a lot more walking than you were. This is bound to cause some water retention but if you measure yourself you may find that inches are going anyway, as you build muscle.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi Mixnmatch thank you for your encouragement. I was interested in your post on the ‘Weight loss plateau theory?’ thread. Will measure myself on Tuesday which is the end of my week and hope for the best. The thing which concerns me slightly though is my body fat has risen against last week and the LBM gone down despite eating the recommended amount of protein and doing all this exercise. I would have thought if its all water weight the body fat would have gone down but I will keep my fingers crossed for the inch loss.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    My body fat used to rise randomly as well, usually when I hadn’t moved solids through for a while, all sorts of stuff gets lumped under body fat on my scales, and it is probably the same on yours. In any case, it seems to bear no relation to my actual body fat according to a far fancier machine with a lot more measuring points so I have stopped worrying about it. I also theorise that what loose skin I have is also included in this figure. Personally I used to try to err on the slightly over 800 calories side as well, particularly while exercising regularly, and, if you don’t already, consider taking a multivitamin tablet every couple of days to supplement nutrients you may be short of. All the best going forward, and don’t let a little stall get you down. I had several and still lost almost 2 stone over the 8 weeks.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    That is very interesting. I put a couple of pound on at the start of the week for no apparent reason. Yesterday I finally shifted some solids which hadn’t happened for a while (sorry if TMI) and then the scale started to go down again. I once got my body fat etc. measured accurately at my local gym and was surprised to find my BF monitor was surprisingly similar in readings. In any case I am of the opinion that as long as you use the same piece of equipment at the same time of day the reading will be true (i.e. up or down) if not accurate (i.e. the exact amount). But who knows what is getting lumped under BF and LBM. As you say I will just keep moving forward. Thanks for the advice about the vitamin tablet. My doctor told me they were a waste of money but perhaps I will get some anyway as they can’t hurt.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    I would certainly not take a tablet every day, I bought one pot for my 8 weeks, and there are still some left, but if I do another extended low calorie period I would probably use one every couple of days again, just for peace of mind.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    I think the problem with body fat measurements on my scale is it measures foot to foot only. I am ‘pear’ shaped and so this over states my body fat by quite a margin. My scales say over 34%, the Boditrax scan said 22.5%. I know which one looks more correct looking in the mirror.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    I hope its the Boditrax one Mixnmatch. I would love to be under 25% BF. Not sure I’ve ever been there haha.
    When I get down to what I feel is my ideal weight I’m going to get a Boditrax scan done just to see where I’m really at then go with my daughter to a weekend spa – something I’ve never done but have always promised myself I would do one day. Lets hope that’s this year.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    So my stats for week 2 are a loss of 3lb (despite my small plateaux at the start of the week), averaging 778 cals and 10592 steps per day. This means I have now lost over 5%of my starting body weight.

    I have also measured myself and since I measured last time 4 weeks ago I have lost 2cm off my bust, 8.5cm off my waist (that’s an incredible 3.3″ – I can hardly believe it) and a total of 23cm (9″) altogether.

    As of today I have lost a further 3.4lb this week which makes .4lb off a stone. That is so amazing in less than 3 weeks. So my goal for the rest of the week has to be to lose that final .4lb.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    Your ideal weight at the start may not be the same as when you start getting close. I was originally aiming for the centre of healthy BMI, but getting the Boditrax reading shocked me a little so I settled on losing a mere 8 stone instead of my originally planned 9. It seemed I had carelessly got too fit while on my journey 😀 I am still losing but very slowly now as I transition to maintenance, but don’t want to lose too much more. I am sure that final 0.4 pounds has no chance the way you are tearing into this, and keeping track of the mini-goals passed is always very motivating. Well done, and keep on keeping on.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Yesterday I sat staring at my prepared first meal of the day sitting on my desk for a couple of hours with absolutely no inclination to eat it. So I decide to put it in the fridge and see how far I could go before needing to eat. This morning I am still fasting and am not really hungry so have decided to see if I can stick it out until 16:30 which would be a full 48hr fast.

    I won’t go beyond that a) because I have never done a full 24hr fast let alone a 48hr fast, and more importantly b) because I want to lose fat not muscle mass and keep my metabolism as high as I can. From all the research I have done, I suspect full fasts will drop the metabolism like a ton of bricks.

    Did 15000 steps yesterday and the fast seems to have had no ill effect on me. One surprise positive is that I have dropped a massive 2.4lb overnight (5.8lb for the week so far!). Clearly this is not sustainable and although I constantly took in fluids yesterday I suspect that having eaten later on today the weight will increase tomorrow. Still, it looks as if my goal of losing a stone by the end of the week is just about safe.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi Mixnmatch my ideal weight has always been 10st7 because this is what I was on my wedding day and that first 12 months is its the only period in my life when I felt slim. Last time I changed my way of eating to no sugar, high fat low carb, I got down to 10st13 and stuck. Maybe it was my body’s way of telling me that is my ideal weight now, I don’t know. I only know that although I downsized my entire wardrobe (no more holding onto larger items just in case) I still wasn’t at the level I wanted to be. So for now my first goal is to get back down to 10st13. Then I will see about 10st7. After that I have visions of getting into the 9’s but we will see near the time.

    I have set out a series of mini goals (1/2st, stone and decrements of 5% of original body weight) with a potential final goal weight of 9st11. But then if I get down to 9st8 I will have lost 4st, 9st7 gives me a 30% BW loss and 9st4 would give me a 60lb loss. I have no idea which one is achievable, so for now I will keep the 10st7 goal in mind then get a full health check, Boditrax scan and speak to my doctor and go from there.

    I am glad you are reaching your happy weight Mixnmatch and look forward to you have a long term successful maintenance.

  • posted by LindaA
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    Hi ddraig_goch
    Congratulations, it sounds like you are fat adapted and in ketosis!😀👏

    Don’t worry, you won’t lose muscle mass. The body is designed to burn only fat or glucose for energy, not muscle. If you have concerns about this google Dr Jason Fung and read what he has to say. The following is a good article and the website http://www.dietdoctor.com is an excellent resource.
    https://www.dietdoctor.com/intermittent-fasting
    I regularly do 24 hour fasts 2-3 per week) and so far 1 x 48 hour fast and I could have kept going but I’m already at my goal weight and was doing it for my health as opposed to losing more weight!!

    I just finished a 24 hour fast before dinner tonight (I’m in Australia) and I walked 21,387 steps today (16.81km, around 3.5 hours), with no loss of energy, so I know how you feel!
    Let us know how you go.
    Cheers
    Linda

  • posted by Theodora
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    ddraig_goch, well done on your fast so far. The last time I lost a lot of weight, many many years ago, the way I maintained was to fast from dinner on Sunday evening to a late breakfast on Tuesday morning – about 40 hours – every single week. I did this for years, and it certainly kept my weight stable. No idea why I didn’t continue, apart from the fact that we took the kids on a World Tour for 3 months so I relaxed, and I never got back to it upon our return. And the weight started piling on. When I reach maintenance (not so far away now) my intention is to try this again.

    I actually have friends, a married couple, who fast for 7 days, twice a year and, during that time consume nothing but water (lots of it), sometimes with added fresh lemon or lime juice. Neither of them are overweight, but he is an alternative therapist (she is a barrister) and they do it for health reasons as he is convinced it purges the body of toxins. No idea whether this is true, but it never seems to do them any harm (they’ve been doing it for about 10 years) and they are convinced it does them good.

    Thanks for the article, Linda. I will read it later when I have a bit more time. Looks interesting, especially as I intend reintroducing fasting for maintenance.

    Good luck in your mini-goals.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Thanks Linda so much for your info. The article was extremely interesting and has put my mind at rest. I hadn’t realised the different the body reacts to a starvation (low cal) diet as opposed to a fasted state. As I’m about to get back into some serious weight training I was also pleased the article led me to this one:

    https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/keith-harmon/

    which put my mind completely at rest.

    I got to the 48hr mark and in light of the new information I now have, was going to continue the fast over the weekend since I still wasn’t hungry but as I have food in the fridge to use up and I am interested to see what the effect of breaking a 48hr fast will be in the morning, I decided to eat a meal then will probably do 24hr fasts over the next couple of days if the body is willing. I might try a 100hr fast in a couple of weeks when the mind and body is once again open to the idea.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi Theodora, thanks for sharing your experiences of fasting. I will be interested to see if I gain any weight in the morning as a response for breaking my fast and will certainly use it as a tool in the future if I hit a plateau or whenever my mind and body is aligned to the idea. I found it interesting that I could have gone on with it further than the 48hrs and also that I felt as if I had a lot of time on my hands as there was no need to think about preparing or eating food.

  • posted by LindaA
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    Hi ddraig_goch
    I find the whole concept of fasting fascinating and just love trolling through these websites and seeing where it will lead me. That article on Joe Harmon was very interesting and reminded me of yesterday when I attended my skin specialist for my once a year skin cancer check up (the perils of living in Australia with Irish ancestry!)

    I’ve been seeing her each year for over 15 years and the first thing she said was “what happened to you, do you have a worm?!”

    I explained about the BSD and the Keto diet and fasting and she wrote it down to investigate further herself as she is nearly 60, been putting on weight and now has rising glucose levels.

    One comment she made was how much younger I seem to be looking (I’m 57) and this was with no cosmetics!

    I also had far less sun spots burnt off my face this year than in previous years (only 2 this year and in previous years have had up to 20) and I had heard through Jimmy Moore’s low carb (Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show) and fasting (Fasting Talk) podcasts that a no sugar, low carb diet would have that effect.

    There are certainly more benefits than just weight loss to this WOE!
    Cheers
    Linda

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi LindaA, loving hearing your experiences about the health benefits of fasting.

    Pleased to report my weight stayed the same after I ended my 48hr Fast last week,then went down again the following day.

    I am convinced of the health benefits of fasting but have been mulling over the difference between fasting (halting of digestion process to allow health giving repair activity to perform) and starvation diet (unhealthy lack of calorie intake).

    Fasting experts say that fasting does not incur muscle breakdown or a huge lowering of the metabolism but a starvation diet does. So can a 16/8 BDS800 diet be classed as fasting or should it be classed as a starvation diet (i.e. a restricted diet of substantially reduced calories)? If one merely restricts intake of food for a few hours each day eg 16/8, or substantially lowers the calories consumed, but spreads those fewer calories out over the day as on the 5:2 diet, does one get the true benefits of fasting, or is there weight loss just because of the fewer calories are being ingested but no real long term health benefits?

    Jason Fung (https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/fasting-physiology-part-ii/) outlines the transition from the fed state to the fasted state as follows:
    1. Fed state
    2.The post-absorptive phase – 6-24 hours after beginning fasting.
    3.Gluconeogenesis – 24 hours to 2 days
    4.Ketosis – 2-3 days after beginning fasting
    5.Protein conservation phase – >5 days.

    So it could be said that fasts of 5 days + are required for the real health benefits to occur.

    Having said all of that, if a person follows a very low carb (<20g/day) diet for a prolonged period of time in a fed state, then it might be said that the phases of post-absorption, gluconeogenesis and ketosis are passed through without the need for fasting (albeit over a longer period of time) which I guess is the theory behind the BSD800. The protein conservation phase is I think academic because the body will never spend time trying to break down muscle mass whilst there are plentiful fat stores available which are far easier to access. And it turns out that the diet given to the participants of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment was that expected to typify the diets of people in Europe during the latter stages of the war: potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, bread and macaroni (all of which are high carb, high GI, little or no protein or good fats) so no wonder their low calorie diet was found to cause health issues over a prolonged (24 week) period of time.

    So I think I get from all of this that it the QUALITY of calories ingested that determine whether a starvation (low cal) diet is unhealthy or not, they can’t all be lumped under a single heading. However, for the true health benefits of fasting to occur, it seems to me that a reasonably prolonged period of time without digestion occurring (eg 24hrs) is required, even with the body being in true ketosis.

    For myself I shall continue to follow the guidelines of 16/8 as it restricts calorie intake more easily and may allow a small amount of daily ‘non-digestion’ time but will incorporate longer 24hr+ fasts (no calorie consumption at all) to start to pick up the true health benefits.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi LindaA, loving your shared experiences of fasting. Weight stayed the same after I came off my 48hr fast and went down again the following day so it was a good experience.

    Completed another 24hr fast at lunchtime but it was hard work. I ended up clock watching for the last 4 hours. The mind and body were obviously out of synch this time and I have had the munches all afternoon so will be spending extra time on the TM tonight burning the extra calories off.

  • posted by LindaA
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    Hi ddraig_goch
    One thing I have learned about fasting is listen to your body.
    If I’m on a fast and really feel like eating, more so than normal, I break the fast and eat. On the flip side, at times I have been fasting and felt I could easily keep going, so I did!
    Jimmy Moore and Jason Fung have recently written a book ‘The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting’. You can get it on Amazon in book format and kindle. It may be able to answer your questions.
    Cheers
    Linda

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Just had a lovely meal 1: Poached eggs with feta and olives. But 2 is definitely 1 too many now. Must remember going forward to try halving my portions in what I decide to eat. I can always double up next time. I guess this is the result of the stomach shrinking on the inside (shame it hasn’t done much shrinking on the outside) due to eating much less calories during the day.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Just read Michael’s twitter feed and he says that there is evidence that fasting helps reduce inflammation so will be interesting to see if regular fasting helps the knee.

    Just re-read this page of my diary and found that this forum works in mysterious ways. Yesterday I put together the results of what I discovered so about fasting in a long post. Started editing out the typos and got distracted. Went back and the post had disappeared. So I wrote a shorter post and have now discovered the original has turned up so now I am repeating myself. Weird.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi LindaA, thanks for the info re the book. I’ll have a look out for it.

    In the meantime, have put together a proper weights/cardio training plan (not counting my TM walking) and for the first 30 days or so will be resting every 4th day. On these days I plan to do a 36-48hr fast assuming the mind and body is willing. After that I will extend the rest day to day 5 and eventually to day 6. Like LindaA says, if I’m desperate to eat I will, but not if I’ve only got a couple of hours to go. Breaking the fast will not give me all the health benefits (I am especially liking the idea of reduced inflammation around my knee) so will not be an easy decision. On the other hand mindfulness must be considered so I will carry food with me and if I need to eat I will.

    On the remaining days I need to look at upping my calories I think. Currently I’m planning 2 meals and often only eating one, driven by my lack of hunger and also by the knowledge that every calorie I ingest is one more that I need to burn off in front of the TV. But it is affecting my intake of protein. I am struggling to eat the recommended 63g minimum for a non active person, let alone the 84g target I have set myself. It has not affected my LBM yet (have lost a bit but the LBM% is the same as when I started) so no problems so far but when I start lifting weights I suspect that will change. We shall see.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Re protein ingestion and fasting, have just come across this article by Jason Fung:

    https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/fasting-and-muscle-mass-fasting-part-14/

    In it he says protein is not broken down during a fast so there is no need to worry. I fully get that idea and embrace it but my concern is repair of the muscle when atrophied due to weight bearing exercise and of course production of increased muscle mass. His view is that muscle gain/loss is a function of exercise not diet but that doesn’t account for the damage done to muscles when exercising and the best way to repair them. I find it very frustrating when these so called experts only look at the point of view that is in line with their thinking rather than looking at the whole picture.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    Healthy protein isn’t broken down, but I read/heard somewhere that the body ‘scavenges’ old unused and faulty proteins if it needs protein, like the brain proteins linked to alzheimers. Prior to this I tried to ensure that at least some of my fluids on a fast contained protein, like a miso soup etc. but now I am happier to allow the body to do its own housekeeping. I don’t fast totally often though, and my 800 day weekly fast has the same percentages I used when losing the weight, so 60-77g protein target.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Hi Mixnmatch, thanks for sharing your experience. I think I’ll do the same and not worry too much about protein input until it shows up negatively in my stats.

    I’m about to embark on my muscle toning/building program. Its interesting that all the ‘experts’ seem to say you cannot put on muscle whilst on such a low calorie deficit as the BSD but if you are not eating carbs and your ingested and stored fat is easier to burn than protein, then there seems to me no reason why the proteins that are ingested cannot be used by the body to repair and build muscle.

    For now though, I shall continue to eat mindfully for pleasure (<15g carbs, <800cals, food that I fancy) as opposed to eating the required protein to get the macros exactly right. Once I have gotten form sorted out and start to lift heavy, then I will deal with the macros.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    This is a copy of a today’s entry on DAILY PEAK AND PIT 2017 because I want to include the info in my journal to look back on in the future:

    Stats on course but day 5 on the same pound. I am sick of the sight of 173 on the scales and probably should give up weighing for a couple of days. But there is a kind of perverse pleasure in stepping on every morning and seeing the same number flashing up at me, whilst waiting and hoping for it to change (downwards of course).

    It’s interesting to see the fight that my body is putting up not to go any lower. The .8lb I gained yesterday has come back off but the BF/water/LBM % have all stayed the same. I am doing extra exercise to burn off my daily ingested cals on top of giving the dog an extra walk, burning my TDEE and the exercise that comes with my normal daily routine and yet it still clings on valiantly.

    I am sleeping better than I have done in years, feel great, eating approx. 500-560 cals per day normally in 1 sitting (because mindfully that’s all I need, not because I am denying myself) so I have no idea where the body is getting all this energy from but hey, who cares. The whoosh fairy must come along at some point.

    Today I looked at my body properly for the first time in along time. I was surprised to find I have very defined, solid biceps (we won’t talk about triceps – think huge bingo wings). The puckering on my loose stomach skin is starting to reappear showing that the fat is melting from this area and leaving just the skin. The bottom part of my legs are looking strong and muscular (don’t look above the knees though). Someone commented yesterday at how thin my face has got. I will never have the perfect body but its time to get the weights out and start toning what I have got.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    MUSCLE TONING & EXERCISE PLAN 1

    So today I have started my new exercise regime (excluding TM & dog walking which is just part of normal life) and wanted to formalise it somewhere.

    I am going to do 36 days of 3 days on/1day off. The plan is to do toning arm/knee strengthening exercises daily and build up the cycling (at first on the trainer) every other day, heavy compound exercises of Deadlift/Squat /Bench on the middle day. On the rest day I shall complete a 36-48hr fast (i.e. no ingestion of cals on the rest day itself) unless the mind/body tell me otherwise. The exception to this will be Days 15-17 which will be rest days (apart from an exercise bike stint on day 16) but which will not be fast days as I’m at my parents and have a special meal to prepare and enjoy eating (Can’t imagine what my mum would have to say if I did a whole day fast in front of her – she had enough trouble accepting my no sugar and no grains WOE).

    So there you have it. My son has taken close up before photos of my arms and headless (I hope) body shots of me in a stretchy armless vest (and he didn’t laugh bless him!) and will do so at the end of the 36 days. I hope to see a significant change in body shape at that point. I am now formally committed.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Have just been redoing my macros based on the keto calculator I use https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ which is the most comprehensive one I have found. Thanks to Pod, who in losing her keto calculator made me think of mine. Vey interested results having completed the rehash after only day 24:

    GOALS
    Start) 14/03/17 Wt 190.20lb BF 44.6% 83lb
    A) 19/05 Wt 175.50lb BF <40% 70.10lb
    B) 24/07 Wt 162.09lb BF <35% 56.69lb
    C) 25/09 Wt 150.44lb BF <30% 45.03lb
    D) 23/11 Wt 140.28lb BF <25% 34.88lb
    F) 21/01/18 Wt 131.70lb BF <20% 26.30lb

    Start) 7/04/17 Wt 173.00lb BF 41.0% 71lb
    A) 16/04 Wt 170.06lb BF <40% 67.96lb
    B) 27/05 Wt 156.94lb BF <35% 54.83lb
    D) 03/07 Wt 145.85lb BF <30% 43.74lb
    E) 14/08 Wt 136.01lb BF <25% 33.91lb
    F) 09/10 Wt 127.56lb BF <20% 25.45lb

    It also gave me the chance to get my macros into perspective based on my current eating habit at the moment:

    Carb 12g min protein 62g min fat 30g min cal 566 which is approx. my average daily cal intake since I started BSD

    [NB: reading into the details of the keto calculator, it suggests than anything less than the ingestion of 30g fat/day halts the process of fat burning as a certain amount of ingested fat is necessary to release the stored fat (not fully convinced of that one yet – what about whilst in fasted state?) and Stephen Phinney suggests in The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living that you should not go below 30g of daily fat to prevent the formation of gallstones]

    So going forward, until proven otherwise, I will ensure I ingest at least 30g of fat daily. The carbs will take care of themselves as always and the protein may be a bit hit and miss depending on the cals required to keep me a sated state but I will try to eat at least 566 cals.

    Underlying reading of all of this led me to SS Alperts experiment A limit on the energy transfer rate from the human fat store in hypophagia (reduced food intake) (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15615615) which suggests that the net loss from fat cells is physiologically limited to 22 kcal per pound of stored fat. Hence I would only be able to use 1562 kcal of energy from stored fat (assuming I actually do have 71lb of body fat) and any additional energy would be taken from a breakdown of protein. It all makes for interesting reading and not a problem for me at the moment but I can see why, as I lose fat and my activity increases, the protein will have to go up to keep me out of starvation mode.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    Very interesting, and at my body fat level possibly more relevant, but I am not restricting calories at the moment as I don’t want to lose anymore weight. I will keep it in mind for any future fast days though, particularly those with intense exercise.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Oh to be in your position Mixnmatch! But I will get there.

    Based on my findings yesterday, I ended up eating 210 calories more than I needed just to get in 30g fat. The net result was that I had no need of that extra food, I didn’t enjoy eating it, stomach felt very heavy afterwards and I ended up spending an extra 40 mins TV watching when I didn’t really need to. And plateaux continues into day 6. Not a good experiment.

    So going forward, I shall go back to listening to my body calorie wise. I will however, try to skew the calories more towards 30g fat rather than worry about the 62g protein but make sure all protein is good protein ( no more pigs in blankets then).

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    Having kept up the calories in = calories out on the TM all week and doing my version of HIT on the TM Sat eve (up the speed to near running whilst the adverts are on), legs were really feeling tired yesterday and the HIT definitely didn’t do my knee any good (sorry doc). Coupled to that I left my intended lunch at home so I decided to do a full 24hr fast and give the legs a rest, knowing that I would still cover my daily 10000 steps at work. Didn’t even give the dog his new nightly walk he has come to expect as reward for being good whilst I’m TV watching (still haven’t been forgiven) and went to bed early.

    Unfortunately it turned into one of my ‘not sleeping well nights’ and even though I ate some high fat with protein at 3:30am still feel tired this morning. Hasn’t happened for a couple of weeks though so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.

  • posted by ddraig_goch
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    BSD1 WK4 RESULTS
    I am now halfway through BSD cycle 1 and the results are pretty impressive. Not only have I lost 10% of my bodyweight (19lb or 1st5), I have also lost 6.5% BF and gained 6.2% LBM (in fact my current LBM is 0.6lb heavier than when I started) which means that everything I have lost so far is fat.

    Looking over the weight loss numbers for the past 4 weeks, there seems to be a definite pattern emerging:
    Wk1 -5.8lb, Wk2 -3.0lb (6 day plateaux),
    Wk3 -7.6lb, Wk4 -2.6lb (5 day plateaux).

    To reach my newly defined goal of 32lb for BSD1 I will need this pattern to continue with big losses interspersed with smaller 2lb losses as I need to lose an average of 3.3lb/wk going forward. A 4-5lb loss this week will cement the theory.

    Whatever I lose this cycle I will halve that for BSD2 then do the same thing for BSD3 just to give me a goal to aim for and keep things interesting.

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