Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Health Update: Day 19

Today, I'm sad to report a weight of 298.2 pounds, which represents a 1.4-pound gain. As I mentioned last week, fluctuations of up to 5 or 6 pounds in a single day are normal for me. Earlier in the week, I had weighed in at 295; today, I suppose this weigh-in caught me "mid-bounce," statistically speaking.

I haven't started exercising yet (in fact, I've been sick since yesterday), but I suspect that, once I start, I ought to see some weight loss in earnest.

I can say that, in general, my headaches have decreased in frequency, but my energy levels have also dropped: I find myself drowsy and wanting to nap more often than was the case two weeks ago. That kinda sucks.

Not sure how faithful I've been to the "30 grams/day of carbs" rule. I've tried very hard to stick to it, but carbs may have snuck in through things like meat sauce (specifically, barbecue sauce for pulled pork) and tiny boxes of Valentine's Day candy (my lame-ass rationale: 30 grams is about an ounce, and those jellybeans definitely weighed less than an ounce, so they fit within my daily allotment). At the same time, I know for sure that my carb consumption has plummeted since I started this regime: no more canned soda (except the occasional diet drink and pitcher of sugar-free Kool Aid), no fruits or fruit juice, no maple syrup or cookies or bread or pasta of any sort. Lots more cheese, though.

We'll see how this goes, I guess. It could be that my body is fighting what's happening to it. It could be that exercise is really the kickstart that I need-- something to get the metabolic engine in gear.

One other thing: the no-carb rule is making my culinary life boring as hell. I'm only beginning to recognize the extent to which breads, pastas, and sweets are my friends.

Don't mind me. Just moaning and groaning aloud.

UPDATE: at 11:50PM, my weight was down to 297.7. Go figure.


_

6 comments:

Aaron said...

A couple suggestions/notes:

* As the expression has it, "get healthy in the kitchen, get fit in the gym (or at least via exercise)." Don't get too discouraged if your body isn't immediately reprogrammed to drop massive amounts of weight. Work the exercise in and see how it goes.

* Perhaps relax on the "no carbs" rule a bit and instead focus on the source of the carbs. The bulk of your carbs (6-11 servings/day) ought to be from vegetables, but supplementing with sweet potatoes (or yams), quinoa, and even some wild rice won't hurt. Just stay away from the processed/refined grains.

* Tim Ferris (he of "The 4 Hour Body") recommends getting 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up each morning, as this has the effect of assisting in fat loss and energy. I won't speak to the science here, but it's an idea I've found useful (see more here: http://bit.ly/152gMjy ).

Good luck!

Kevin Kim said...

Thanks, Aaron.

John from Daejeon said...

Kevin, if you have an hour and a half, give the documentary film, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a watching. I never thought I'd become a juicer as I love meat so much (and still do), but the health benefits have been nothing sort of amazing. However, a tremendous amount of willpower (hell, tremendous is a vast understatement) is needed to undertake the program and to stick with it.

The hardest part for me (other than the hellacious first couple of days) was giving up colas and sugary drinks in favor of just water.

While most people don't think of kale or other vegetables as comfort food, they are extremely healthy for us and have been nothing sort of miraculous for my body. The most startling thing about my journey has been the fact that I can now drink, and love, the juices of vegetables and fruits I used to turn my nose up at in their solid forms. Just a few year's ago, I would have turned my nose up at this great documentary. Now, not only has it changed my life, but I'm getting closer to getting my brother and his family on a starter juicing program to help with his weight and health problems.

It's pretty ironic that so many of us are quick to point out the problems in others and their poisonous addictions, but they can't see that our fried food (processed food) addictions are just as poisonous to our bodies over the long haul.

And this isn't to say that I've given up all my fried food and processed food loves, it's just that now I eat them in moderation while at least juicing for one meal everyday.

Maqzito said...

Couple things I've learned:
- volume of food consumed (even if the food you've consumed in a day adds up to zero carbs, if you've consumed too much, it will just end up turning into fat).
- things like tomato sauce and starchy veggies (like butternut squash)have a lot of sugar or carbs and slow down weight loss.
- too much cheese, even though its low to no carbs, will slow weight loss.
- sugar from candy and other sweets completely stops and even reverses weight loss very quickly. this one for me is really big. even if all the sweets i have in one day only amounts to about 5 grams of sugar, it will quickly make me blow up. for example, if i end up consuming 15g of carbs in one day from veggies, i will still lose weight. if i consume only about 5 carbs in one day but they're from refined sugar, i will gain weight. i think it really matters what type of carbs are being consumed, not solely the number. this being said, be careful of bottled sauces, they contain a lot of nasty carby additives.

John from Daejeon said...

Kevin, since you love the art of the fart, here is a great video of one as well as a great looking French-Canadian woman from "Just for Laughs." Farting Beaver and Beautiful Montreal woman with an awful lot of chest hair.

If you have more time, they have over 2500 22-minute episodes. The alien/UFO encounter ones are some of the best.

Sperwer said...

So much bro lore here, I hesitate to wade in.

Nevertheless. my counsel is to hold fast to your position (ie the low-no carbs) and be patient. My experience is that at some point you will suddenly see a metabolic "paradigm" shift and your new normal will be 5-10 pounds less than your current normal, around which you will again have daily fluctuations of 2-5 pounds.

Try not to have ANY refined sugar in any form, since it will trigger an immediate insulin spike and tend to put your system back into its old bad pattern, thus undermining your effort to reset it with the low/no carb regime. It's earlier days, so don;t beat yourself up over transgressions, just realize they have a disproportional price tag in your circumstances.

And, for god's sake, ignore the no doubt well-intentioned but misguided idea of eating 10-12 times a day, let alone including carbs in each such meal.. It's impossible to eat 30 grams or less that way, and it also is counterproductive to the goal of getting your body into a regular prolonged circadian cycle of fat loss. Also try to make those 30 grams of carbs as low glycemic as possible, again to lessen interference with fat metabolism while not completely sacrificing the contribution that carb metabolism can make to fat metabolism until your body figures out how to do it more or less with protein and dietary fat alone. Ideally, your carb intake will be after exercise. But until you start exercising, it should be as late in the morning as you can postpone breakfast (to kcik start your metabolism after the nightly fast while prolonging it as long as possible. When you start exercising, substitute a fast-acting protein for the morning carbs that are shifted to post workout - look for something like hydrolyzed whey from eg. RxWhey.