History of My Weight Loss, March 2019
Diet and Exercise. Diet and Exercise.
Diet and Exercise. Diet and Exercise.
Diet and Exercise. ...
Perhaps you've heard this before?
A recap of why I care about losing weight, specifically body fat: My belief is that having excess body fat expresses itself as the condition known as T2D. I also believe that losing that excess body fat will greatly reduce the existence of, and implications of, being a T2D person. So, body fat has to go. The target remains 15%.
What's new during the month of March, 2019?
I dropped Metformin 2/26/19. That's huge. I got the blood glucose (BG) increases, and the Lantus use increases, my Doc's talked about. I believe I also got the VO2Max and mitochondrial response I wanted. Win win. I also believe that this off-the-meds miracle got into my head, and lowered my motivation to maintain discipline. That's not good.
There was more exercise on the water row machine, and it got easier (form, power output, endurance). Doing my first long distance row (3 x 2500 meters) dropped my BG numbers like a stone. That's huge, and new, and useful, for me.
I re-read what I wrote about the rates of weight loss, fat versus non fat, and got concerned about losing muscle mass. I believe that and the Metformin drop, moved me to relax my food intake discipline. So, everything body composition related, that was changing, stopped. Like weight loss went flat for March (179.8 to 180.4), as did body fat %, skeletal muscle %, and fat free body weight. That's not terrible (consolidating my gains, so to speak), but it's not making much progress. I am growing upper arms and biceps, though.
I've read maybe a thousand papers, stories, and studies about fat loss, body re-composition, and metabolic repair. When discussing food intake, each and every one of them says the same thing: Seriously restrict sugar, refined grains, industrial seed oils, and hyper-processed food. Do eat real food. Keep your protein up. Control your calorie intake, as hard as you can. Once you're at a certain level of fitness, more exercise doesn't improve your health.
OK, given all that, what to do?
First, put fewer calories into my mouth. Sine qua non. I lose weight when I intake under 1700 calories per day. Worry about the bad implications of doing that after I demonstrate I can do it at all. Return to tracking my fasting times, because the discipline helps.
Second, change my exercise pattern. Do more water rowing, Tabata style and distance, and less weight lifting. Do 2 distance sets on the water row machine, for every 1 Tabata set and weight set. I don't think I can go consecutive days, but may be able to have fewer 2 and 3 rest days.
I believe that, since I started using the water row machine, and eating more resistant starch, that my insulin sensitivity has improved.
The lower the frequency of lifting, the more risk of injury. Be not afraid to lighten up. It is entirely possible my body will insist on more rest days. I'll consult with my shoulders and knees.
Third, continuing education needs to continue. For example, I relearned about the EAC stack. Every day, I take a full aspirin and enough coffee / tea to fuel a rocket. Coincidence? I think not.
Charts follow. Be well.
Diet and Exercise. Diet and Exercise.
Diet and Exercise. ...
Perhaps you've heard this before?
A recap of why I care about losing weight, specifically body fat: My belief is that having excess body fat expresses itself as the condition known as T2D. I also believe that losing that excess body fat will greatly reduce the existence of, and implications of, being a T2D person. So, body fat has to go. The target remains 15%.
What's new during the month of March, 2019?
I dropped Metformin 2/26/19. That's huge. I got the blood glucose (BG) increases, and the Lantus use increases, my Doc's talked about. I believe I also got the VO2Max and mitochondrial response I wanted. Win win. I also believe that this off-the-meds miracle got into my head, and lowered my motivation to maintain discipline. That's not good.
There was more exercise on the water row machine, and it got easier (form, power output, endurance). Doing my first long distance row (3 x 2500 meters) dropped my BG numbers like a stone. That's huge, and new, and useful, for me.
I re-read what I wrote about the rates of weight loss, fat versus non fat, and got concerned about losing muscle mass. I believe that and the Metformin drop, moved me to relax my food intake discipline. So, everything body composition related, that was changing, stopped. Like weight loss went flat for March (179.8 to 180.4), as did body fat %, skeletal muscle %, and fat free body weight. That's not terrible (consolidating my gains, so to speak), but it's not making much progress. I am growing upper arms and biceps, though.
I've read maybe a thousand papers, stories, and studies about fat loss, body re-composition, and metabolic repair. When discussing food intake, each and every one of them says the same thing: Seriously restrict sugar, refined grains, industrial seed oils, and hyper-processed food. Do eat real food. Keep your protein up. Control your calorie intake, as hard as you can. Once you're at a certain level of fitness, more exercise doesn't improve your health.
OK, given all that, what to do?
First, put fewer calories into my mouth. Sine qua non. I lose weight when I intake under 1700 calories per day. Worry about the bad implications of doing that after I demonstrate I can do it at all. Return to tracking my fasting times, because the discipline helps.
Second, change my exercise pattern. Do more water rowing, Tabata style and distance, and less weight lifting. Do 2 distance sets on the water row machine, for every 1 Tabata set and weight set. I don't think I can go consecutive days, but may be able to have fewer 2 and 3 rest days.
I believe that, since I started using the water row machine, and eating more resistant starch, that my insulin sensitivity has improved.
The lower the frequency of lifting, the more risk of injury. Be not afraid to lighten up. It is entirely possible my body will insist on more rest days. I'll consult with my shoulders and knees.
Third, continuing education needs to continue. For example, I relearned about the EAC stack. Every day, I take a full aspirin and enough coffee / tea to fuel a rocket. Coincidence? I think not.
Charts follow. Be well.
 |
| At 1750-ish kCal per day, my weight maintains |
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| Daily macro intakes. 21 DMA because the data is noisy as heck. |
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| A dashboard. Want red on top, green below. |
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| Start of the water row era. 5.78 marker is start of the "no Metformin" era. |
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