Weight Change

After my wife and I got back from a cruise in 2011, I remember finally getting on the scale and seeing 272 (I’m 6’3”).  This put me in the obesity range at 34 BMI.  I was wearing a tight 42” waist/comfortable 44” waist.  I made some changes over a number of months and dropped a bit down to 258 pounds (BMI 32; still obese), but what I was doing certainly wasn’t enough. 

I had heard that Tim Ferris’ Four-Hour Body was coming out; when it became available, I checked it out of the library.  Included in the book is a regimen that claimed to drop 20 pounds a month with no exercise.  Reading the details of the diet, I thought “I can do this.”  And yes it works (see pics below):

On the left is probably in the neighborhood of 260 - 270 pounds; on the right under 195.

I started in June 2012; following a few weeks of cheat days (more on that later), I am under 200 pounds with a 24 BMI (normal/healthy range).  Waist has moved from that aforementioned 42”/44” to a tight 34”/comfortable 36” waist.  Total weight lost is over 60 pounds.

Here are the components to the regimen:

1.            No grains/processed flours/sugar.  That means no breads.

2.            No fruits.  The only acceptable fruits are tomatoes and avocados. 

3.            No starches.  No potatoes, no sweet potatoes, no rice.   I would probably add carrots to this.

4.            No dairy products.

5.            No alcohol, with the exception of no more than two servings of red wine.

5.            Eat lots of vegetables (you can also eat nuts). 

6.            Eat lots of beans (lots of protein; lots of fiber).

7.            Eat protein; specifically, have at least 25 to 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking.

8.            Numbers one through seven are for six days of the week.  On the seventh day, (I picked Saturday), eat whatever and however much you want.  This is what I call cheat day. 

The overall concept is that you are eating low-glycemic foods.  When you eat a high-glycemic food, such as a sugar or flour, this spikes your insulin.  The insulin spike tells your body to produce and store fat, usually in your belly.  The lower glycemic foods don’t spike the insulin and the body instead burns fat for energy. 

The cheat day does a couple of things.  First, it resets your metabolism so your body doesn’t get too used to the reduced carbohydrate diet.  It also gets cravings out of your system.  On a cheat day, I've gained anywhere between three to seven pounds, but then lost it back by Tuesday or Wednesday.  

Since being on the diet, I’ve averaged 1.74 pounds lost per week.  My exercise is limited to walking for an hour a few days a week; an hour in the pool once every two weeks; and weights on my carb-heavy Saturdays.  While being on this regimen, I've determined, and I believe there is some scientific journals out there that support this, that exercise accounts for only 10 to 20 percent of your body's health and physique.  I laugh when I see those Insanity or P90x infomercials - one, the drop-off rate has got to be enormously high.  These programs are simply not sustainable for probably 99 percent of the population.  Two, in all these programs, there is a significant nutrition component that they don't talk about much (99 percent of the infomercial is the awesome exercises; maybe one percent is the nutrition component).  The Insanity system actually has you counting calories - I have yet to count a calorie on my regimen.  

Which leads to another huge misconception, that a "calorie is a calorie is a calorie."  Jillian Michaels actually believes this - she was on Dr. Oz one time stating the women shouldn't eat more than x calories a day and men shouldn't eat more than x.  That logic would mean that 1,000 calories of black beans has the same impact as 1,000 calories of broccoli which has the same impact as 1,000 calories of sugar.  It doesn't.  

A couple of other things - this diet forces you to eat healthier and the Day 1 through Day 6 meals don't have to be that difficult (see my Fiesta recipe).  Since I started this, I also have not been to a McDonald's, Burger King or Taco Bell (I can imagine eating a Big Mac on a cheat day, but I have sworn off Taco Bell for the rest of my life).  

Unfortunately, when you go out to eat, your options decrease to about 10 percent of the menu - all restaurants have a tremendous focus on simple carbs and dairy.  As an example, we go to Chili's every once in a while.  Yes, we could get a steak and mixed veg, but for their signature fajitas we go through a spiel of "extra black beans instead of rice; we can't have dairy, so substitute guacamole in lieu of sour cream/cheese; and no tortillas."  The only appetizer available on the menu is chicken wings (everything else is loaded with simple carbohydrates or massive amounts of dairy).  With the wings we substitute extra celery instead of the cream-heavy ranch or bleu cheese dressing.

One "fast food" option that I like is either Chipotle or Q'doba - but even then it's a naked burrito (meaning no tortilla), extra beans in lieu of rice, and no cheese.  Certainly no corn chips.

But also to give everyone an idea of what the food industry does (and how it's impacting us), I encourage everyone to see Hungry for Change  and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.   Both are on Netflix.  Just so everyone knows, both films strongly advocate juicing as your primary means of nutrition intake, but there is still a remarkable amount of information regarding your health and how what we put in our bodies directly affects our overall well being.