202 lb this morning, weigh-in for week 7. I managed to break the plateau at 205, but it wasn't without some trickery. I did a modified fat fast on 3 of the 7 days since my last weigh-in, meaning 800 calories of 90% fat, spread into 4 snack-sized meals between 8am and 4pm, followed by a normal low-carbohydrate dinner.  I am yet to try a full-on fat fast, which would mean going to 1000 calories at 90% fat and removing the dinner.  I'm saving that for a more difficult plateau sure to come later on.

Sadly, I've also become fairly certain that aspartame is a no-no for me, which isn't a huge shock, but it's disappointing.  It's not uncommon for an insulin response to accompany a sugarless sweetener, even if no actual carbohydrates are eaten.  Supposedly, saccharine doesn't do this to most people, but it's still saccharine.  No thanks.  I'm not sure I want to bother seriously experimenting with sucralose/Splenda.  I might try stevia extract, but it seems easier to just avoid sweet things altogether, since they mess with my palate and cause me to crave starches.

In any event, this puts me down 18 lb in 7 weeks.  If I can lose another 2 lb by next weigh-in, I'll be slightly ahead of my goal of 10 lb per month, since 2 months proper will be Dec 21.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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205 lb again today.  I have been stuck at this weight before, and it might well be that this is a rigid plateau for me.  Since it's persisted for 3 weeks now, I suspect that's the case.  To keep pace with my goal, I basically have to break the plateau and lose 5 lb in the next two weeks.  This will not be easy.

It's also possible that I've just done this too many times now (lost weight and then regained it), and my metabolism has become particularly resistant to changes in weight (up or down; I've never managed to go above 220 either, no matter how bad my diet has been, and I usually stop at 205 on the way down and get frustrated).  The only cure for that is patience and consistency.

There are some other tricks I might employ, but I'm waiting to be sure those are absolutely necessary before using them to break the plateau.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 10:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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205 lb again this morning.  This is 5 weeks in, and I'm down 15 since I started, so I'm at least averaging 3lb/week as I'd hoped.  I just have to stay consistent and take the dribs and drabs as they come.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 08:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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205 lb this morning, down 15 lb from my starting weight, with 65 lb to go.

My waist measured in at... 40".  That's what I get for estimating rather than measuring back on day 1.  I couldn't find the tape that day, and I'm pretty sure this was my version of "rock bottom", so I haphazardly guessed that my waist was 2" larger around than my pants said it was.  Apparently a 38" pair of Wranglers is very, very generous, because my waist is visibly smaller than it was, and my pants are quite loose, to the point of being unwearable without a belt.  I'll just have to go forward with waist measurements from this point, since guessing at my original size would be just that: a guess.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Still 209 this morning.  Eating a little too much still, exercising too little, yada yada, SSDD.

It's tough to know something is basically life-or-death and treat it like life-or-death when it lacks all the traditional cues of life-or-death (like, say, an angered mother bear or an advancing line of mongol horsemen with bows drawn).

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:35 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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209 this morning, putting me down 11lb with 69lb to go. I had a fair amount of "comfort food" (i.e. cake and bread) on Sunday at a family funeral, which likely set me back a bit, and I took a pass on exercising on Monday. It's also possible that I've been overdoing it on artificial sweeteners, so those have to go for now.

In related news, here's a fun post at the Heart Scan Blog.

Also, I find it funny and sad that sucralose and aspartame -- both laboratory products found nowhere in nature -- have both found approval as sweeteners by the US FDA, but miraculin was denied.  I suppose you could argue that miraculin might cause the imbiber to consume lots of acidic foods and cause injury of some sort, but it hardly feels like something the government ought to be protecting us from.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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210 this morning, so down 10 since last week (i.e. day 1).  10lb sounds like a lot for one week, and it is, but the dirty secret of low/controlled-carbohydrate dieting (which South Beach assuredly is) is that a goodly portion of the early weight loss is water weight.  That being said, it's water you didn't need, and generally means that after the first couple of weeks you look and feel a lot less bloated and puffy.  A lot of critics of low-carbohydrate dieting claim that all the weight loss they produce is largely attributable to this diuresis, with minor fat loss caused by a simple reduction in calories due to the restrictive nature of the diet.  I suppose that's possible, but if they still produce a reduction of adiposity, that alone would put them well ahead of low-fat diets that focus on calorie restriction exclusively.

However, low-carbohydrate dieting has the added advantage of maintaining a very steady (and low) insulin level in the bloodstream.  The process of creating new adipose tissue (i.e. laying down new body fat) is regulated largely by insulin levels.  Low insulin => not much new fatty tissue being created.  That means if you're ever in a caloric deficit, you'll reach into your existing fat stores* without making new ones, thus facilitating fat loss.  Further, with so little sugar (glucose) in your bloodstream much of the time, times of exertion will leave your body using mostly fat for fuel, since blood sugar is the only ready supply of carbohydrate fuel after the glycogen in your muscles is spent.  To be perfectly accurate, real metabolism burns all three fuel sources simultaneously, but the proportion of fat metabolism increases significantly when there's not much sugar laying around.

What all this gibberish really means is that the first two weeks will be big losers, but the weeks and months after that will also be losers, if somewhat smaller losers.

*Interesting note, this can sometimes make you sick.  There are a number of toxins that your body has a tough time getting rid of, and many of them are fat soluble, so some of them inevitably creep into your fatty tissue.  When you start to use older fat, some of the toxic compounds creep back out, and can then cause illness.  Weird, huh?

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 07:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I hit 220lbs today. I've got a number of risk factors for diabetes (including a BMI of 36.6 and real waist measurement of 40"), and a number of pre-diabetic symptoms (excessive hunger, thirst, and tiredness). I'm 33, and I can't live like this, but I'm pretty sure I can die like this. My mother's father died at 44, not in any better shape than I am now.  This isn't vanity, this is a very likely early death that I'm facing, and a very poor quality of life leading up to that death.

WebMD says I can safely lose 3lb a week.  So, conservatively (heh), I'm planning to lose 10 pounds a month for the next 8 months.  Putting me at a final weight of 140lb at the end of June, 2010.  I've weighed as little as 127 as an adult, and 140 would give me a BMI of 23.3, which should make it a healthy weight.

Anyhow, I'm going to be following my progress with Aspiring Mad Scientist, in addition to my usual completely sporadic posts on the usual subjects.  I'll keep it concise, mostly updating my weight and waistline numbers, since those are the easiest to meter, but occasionally delving into nutrition.  I'm doing it to keep a record, and to hold myself accountable.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 04:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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