I'm currently around 235 pounds, which is still about 65 pounds above my goal. Remember from previous posts that I started at 256, so I've lost 21 pounds of weight. However, I went from a completely sedentary lifestyle to doing about 2 hours of cardio every day in the form of walking, jogging, and hiking. My calf muscles are huge compared to two months ago when I started Keto.
I've read a lot of good things about exercising your legs. One thing that is mentioned frequently is that your legs have the ability to rebound from intense exercise. They'll get sore, but they'll quickly get over it. My ability to run has become increasingly easier over time. I've also noticed that I can run longer distances without my legs hurting.
When I started walking regularly, I noticed that my ability to exercise became easier fairly quickly. I was a smoker for a long time so it was common for me to get short of breath when I would walk up my driveway, since I live on a hill. I can easily walk without getting out of breath now. So running isn't necessarily and issue when it comes to running out of breath. The problem for me is that I have 235 pounds of mass on top of my feet and that is dangerous when it comes to ankle and knee injury.
So, I've been trying to take it a easy until I get more weight off. That's a double edged sword though, because as I walk/jog/hike, I increase my muscles mass which adds weight even thought I'm losing fat. So I've watched my weight hover for the last couple of weeks even though I'm doing things in my diet that should promote weight loss.
Another huge thing I've noticed is that any sugar or carbs at all have huge effects on my ability to lose weight. My extreme zero carb diet was working at taking off the weight, but adding even a smidgen of sugar or carbs can cause me to plateau. There's a lot of factors at play, but I'm trying to approach everything that I'm doing with the best scientific approach I can. By that I mean that when I can see that something isn't working, I have to adjust and try something else.
So far, my body responds best to zero carbs. I felt a huge difference when I was doing that. I think I approached intermittent fasting incorrectly. So, it wasn't as beneficial as I thought it would be, but again I think it was my fault. I was going for 20 hours without eating, but then I was eating some bread and drinking some sweet tea (half unsweet) and I would even allow myself to have a desert from time to time. This showed me one thing. Even one meal a day, under 2400 calories, would stop my weight loss if it had sugar in it. I didn't gain weight, but I didn't lose weight either.
Keep in mind that this is while I'm averaging 3200 calories burned daily. That being said, if I was completely doing CICO, then I should have a deficit of around 800 calories per day at least. Truth be told, my calorie deficit is probably more like 2000 most days. At that rate, given the 3500 calories = 1 pound estimate that many people talk about, I should be losing about four pounds per week. That hasn't happened. I've lost and kept off twenty-one pounds over the last fifty days. If I was doing pounds per week, I'd be closer to twenty-eight or thirty pounds lost.
Keep in mind that this is while I'm averaging 3200 calories burned daily. That being said, if I was completely doing CICO, then I should have a deficit of around 800 calories per day at least. Truth be told, my calorie deficit is probably more like 2000 most days. At that rate, given the 3500 calories = 1 pound estimate that many people talk about, I should be losing about four pounds per week. That hasn't happened. I've lost and kept off twenty-one pounds over the last fifty days. If I was doing pounds per week, I'd be closer to twenty-eight or thirty pounds lost.
My conclusion, based on those numbers, is that I've probably increased my muscle mass by at least five or six pounds over the last 50 days through exercise. This may be optimistic, but I think it is accurate. I'm a little anxious to get the weight off, but at the same time, I want to be healthy while I do it. I think that I'm doing it correctly. Before this post, I was a little disappointed at my twenty-one pounds lost, but now that I think about it, I may have lost four pounds per week of fat and gained one pound of muscle while I did it.
So now I need to calculate how long it will take me to get to my goal given those numbers. It's simple math. I have a net loss of three pounds per week. I have around 66 pounds left until my goal. I have twenty-two weeks left until I hit my goal. So, by Christmas I should be there. I should be be very close by my 42nd birthday coming up at the end of October.
That's a very conservative estimate. Knowing what I know now, I think I can speed things up quite a bit by doing a low/no carb diet along with a 23-1 fast every day. I'm currently doing this and I can tell it's going to be huge in terms of effectiveness.
I've also increased my exercise routine. I've stopped going for walks outside of the house so much. I need to do some more of those soon, but sometimes that's not easy to orchestrate. I've relegated myself to my treadmill. I've also increase the incline on my treadmill so that I can keep my heart rate high enough to be considered cardio. That's another factor in all of this, my heart rate. I've dropped my resting heart rate so much that it's becoming increasingly harder to keep it in the cardio range. It's still easy mind you, but my heart rate is actually getting into a more normal area so I have to try harder and harder all the time. It's a good thing, but worth noting.
I don't know what the best solution is for overcoming plateaus, but I can tell you what works for me. I step back and evaluate where I'm at, where I want to go, and what isn't working. I know, without a doubt, that sugar is a terrible thing for me still. I'm pretty sure that my body needs much longer than I thought to heal from insulin resistance. I think that any small amount of sugar, even if it's mixed with 24 hours of fasting, is enough to screw up the benefits of fasting, at least for me in my current state. I feel like that won't be the case later on when I've reach my goal weight and I'm no longer insulin resistant. However, right now, I think my main goal should be to defeat the insulin resistance, and the only way to do that is to lose most of this stored fat, increase my cardio fitness, and stay away from the sugars and carbs.
To be honest, it's extremely difficult to stay away from some sugars, namely fruits, because some of those foods have a lot of other positive effects. Blueberries, for instance, are real good for me, but I can't eat them because of their sugar content. Bananas are another good example. I'd love to be able to eat a banana or two for the potassium, but then I'd be breaking my no-sugar rule. Coconut also has a lot of potassium, but again contains more carbs and sugar than I'd like to have in my diet at the moment.
Perhaps I'm being paranoid when it comes to the sugars, but I can say without a doubt that I felt a significant change in my body back in may when I was doing no carbs and no sugars at all. I really need a better name for "no carbs and no sugars". There's probably already one out there, but I'm unaware of it. Leave a comment if you know of a better term.
While I'm on the subject of no carbs and no sugar, I'd like to point out that I'm not talking about "net carbs" like you'd see on a ketogenic diet. I'm talking about ZERO carbs and sugar. I focused on that for three weeks. It was actually pretty awesome. I lost about sixteen pounds during those three weeks. Much of it early on was water weight. Then I plateaued. So I switch from that strict no-carb diet to try intermittent fasting. Now I'm combining them (just started this two days ago in full force).
Sometimes when you hit a plateau, you just have to step back and take a break from your serious diet. You shouldn't fall off the wagon so-to-speak. You should still eat healthy and not gorge yourself, but you should step back and allow yourself to take a break from any super strict diet, especially if you are hitting weight plateaus. I took a few weeks to test new plans, but the whole time I was watching my sugar intake and my calories in general. I definitely didn't stop my diet and then eat 4000 calories in a single day. Well I may have hit 4000 calories in a single day, but I was doing it while fasting most of the day or while exercising enough to burn most of it off.
So now I need to calculate how long it will take me to get to my goal given those numbers. It's simple math. I have a net loss of three pounds per week. I have around 66 pounds left until my goal. I have twenty-two weeks left until I hit my goal. So, by Christmas I should be there. I should be be very close by my 42nd birthday coming up at the end of October.
That's a very conservative estimate. Knowing what I know now, I think I can speed things up quite a bit by doing a low/no carb diet along with a 23-1 fast every day. I'm currently doing this and I can tell it's going to be huge in terms of effectiveness.
I've also increased my exercise routine. I've stopped going for walks outside of the house so much. I need to do some more of those soon, but sometimes that's not easy to orchestrate. I've relegated myself to my treadmill. I've also increase the incline on my treadmill so that I can keep my heart rate high enough to be considered cardio. That's another factor in all of this, my heart rate. I've dropped my resting heart rate so much that it's becoming increasingly harder to keep it in the cardio range. It's still easy mind you, but my heart rate is actually getting into a more normal area so I have to try harder and harder all the time. It's a good thing, but worth noting.
I don't know what the best solution is for overcoming plateaus, but I can tell you what works for me. I step back and evaluate where I'm at, where I want to go, and what isn't working. I know, without a doubt, that sugar is a terrible thing for me still. I'm pretty sure that my body needs much longer than I thought to heal from insulin resistance. I think that any small amount of sugar, even if it's mixed with 24 hours of fasting, is enough to screw up the benefits of fasting, at least for me in my current state. I feel like that won't be the case later on when I've reach my goal weight and I'm no longer insulin resistant. However, right now, I think my main goal should be to defeat the insulin resistance, and the only way to do that is to lose most of this stored fat, increase my cardio fitness, and stay away from the sugars and carbs.
To be honest, it's extremely difficult to stay away from some sugars, namely fruits, because some of those foods have a lot of other positive effects. Blueberries, for instance, are real good for me, but I can't eat them because of their sugar content. Bananas are another good example. I'd love to be able to eat a banana or two for the potassium, but then I'd be breaking my no-sugar rule. Coconut also has a lot of potassium, but again contains more carbs and sugar than I'd like to have in my diet at the moment.
Perhaps I'm being paranoid when it comes to the sugars, but I can say without a doubt that I felt a significant change in my body back in may when I was doing no carbs and no sugars at all. I really need a better name for "no carbs and no sugars". There's probably already one out there, but I'm unaware of it. Leave a comment if you know of a better term.
While I'm on the subject of no carbs and no sugar, I'd like to point out that I'm not talking about "net carbs" like you'd see on a ketogenic diet. I'm talking about ZERO carbs and sugar. I focused on that for three weeks. It was actually pretty awesome. I lost about sixteen pounds during those three weeks. Much of it early on was water weight. Then I plateaued. So I switch from that strict no-carb diet to try intermittent fasting. Now I'm combining them (just started this two days ago in full force).
Sometimes when you hit a plateau, you just have to step back and take a break from your serious diet. You shouldn't fall off the wagon so-to-speak. You should still eat healthy and not gorge yourself, but you should step back and allow yourself to take a break from any super strict diet, especially if you are hitting weight plateaus. I took a few weeks to test new plans, but the whole time I was watching my sugar intake and my calories in general. I definitely didn't stop my diet and then eat 4000 calories in a single day. Well I may have hit 4000 calories in a single day, but I was doing it while fasting most of the day or while exercising enough to burn most of it off.
I think it's important to stick to your diet, but if I'm trying a dietary change and I'm not seeing the results I think I should see, I'll definitely step back and look at things again. I've been posting about this experience over the last couple of weeks, and my conclusion to break this current plateau is to continue my exercise (actually increasing it some) while fasting 23 hours per day and then when I do finally eat, I'm eating no carbs or sugar. That's my dietary plan for the next week. I want to be in the 220s by the end of next week. That could mean 229, but that's still in the 220s. I'm hoping to be more like 222 by the end of next week. We'll see if this plan works.
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