My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 1-21-2013

As is often typical, this month’s end of the month report is mixed but a bit better than last time.

BUT, there are MAJOR improvements coming!!

I lost a pound on the scale and lost another half an inch on my waist.  And, I gained a half inch on my chest and a half inch on my hips – both likely from added muscle!!

But this end of the month result obscures some strong progress from two sources.

(I now measure just my weight every Saturday to catch changes during the month between my main weight and measuring day I do one Saturday each month.)

A.  Since last time, I gained 4, repeat 4, pounds the week Christmas was in. 

And, I lost FIVE pounds during the other 4 weeks!

B.  The two sources for the 5 pound weight loss:

1.  One is a small and decent, but now wired in drop, of about 300 to 600 calories a month.

I was eating an after dinner snack that included one to three Table spoons of No Sugar added applesauce. 

(I was eating that No Sugar added applesauce since its fiber would fill my tummy and keep me from waking in the night with hunger AND the soluble fiber also helped keep my LDL Cholesterol down below 100 along with the other methods I use.  But I often ate more like two or three spoonfuls of apple sauce each evening than one.  And it was adding to my total sugars each day – NOT good for fat loss.)

I’d considered using PGX fiber supplements instead; but that’s so high fiber I was concerned it would interfere with digesting my food and supplements.

BUT then I remembered that you can get apple pectin supplements which are basically the applesauce with ALL the sugars removed but which still has apple fiber!

I decided that taking two of those capsules each evening at the time I was eating applesauce wouldn't prevent digestion in any way.  BUT, it would give me the soluble fiber and the more full tummy WITHOUT the few hundred calories a month of sugar from the applesauce!

And, taking exactly two apple pectin capsules each night prevented me and still prevents me from taking in even more calories on nights I might have had 3 spoonfuls of applesauce.

It also helps remind me to eat less of everything else at that time of day.  And, my daily record of my after dinner snacks shows it did.

2.  The other cause for the 5 lb pound loss in the other 4 weeks was a truly remarkable and effective way to add muscle studies tested to work best comparing it to other strength training methods.   

I’ve only tried this new method just the past two weeks. 

I literally can feel the difference in how much more effectively this method works my muscles – and I did even the first time I tried it.

That does the double! 

It burns more calories from afterburn every day I do it! 

AND it adds extra muscle mass and weight which burns more calories every day than the fat it replaces – which it does every day, not just on the days I do the exercises!

It also means I can add muscle to my larger chest and back muscles and leg and buttocks muscles with the weights I have now at home.  I don’t have to wait until I can use heavier weights at the gym sometime in future months!  I can do it NOW!

The method is simple.  I take a weight for an exercise I can do with moderate ease for 25 reps moving it right up and down moderately fast.

BUT instead I  only do FIVE reps for each exercise with that weight.  BUT I count to 25 as I very slowly move the weight up and 25 each time I lower it down – all five times! (My 25 count is about the 14 seconds each way the researchers tested.)

Yikes!  That is SO intense. But I can finish or close to finish the set of 5 reps most of the time at that weight.

A side benefit is that this style of exercise can be done, despite is incredible intensity, with LESS blood pressure boost than the other way of doing it.

That’s because that close to 14 seconds each way is simply too long to do on one breath in and one breath -- or holding my breath as I lift.  I have to breathe in and out more gently several times lifting the weight and then lowering it also.

(I’m also still adding a minicupful of Whey protein each morning because it’s been shown most effective at adding muscle mass when you do effective strength training.)

C.  I’m still averaging well over 2500 calories of exercise a week instead of the 1,000 a week only I was getting without the exercise at work by doing an average or 1500 calories a week on my recumbent bike at my desk..  And, one interesting note is that my estimate of calories burned at work may be low because I get warm doing the exercise bike.  This is true despite not pushing the pace past just keeping the pedals moving!

My goal is to push past 3,000 calories a week total because the people who lost over 30 pounds and still are keeping it off average just a bit less than that, about 2950.

And, my hope is to get to the 3500 to 4,000 calories a week range by boosting my at work exercise to 2500 to 3,000 a week.  That IS a challenge since my best week at work so far was 2,000.  But I’m at work 9 hours a day; and 3,000 calories a week requires me to keep the pedals moving for just 3 hours a day of that. So it’s potentially doable.

D.  The green coffee bean extract I’ve begun taking once before breakfast and once before dinner each day might also have helped.

But even though my guess is that it wasn’t that big a part of my weight loss, I did lose weight since I began it.

And, since green coffee bean extract has the same special antioxidants as the coffee I can no longer drink because of acid reflux, if I become sure it adds no extra fat loss, I’ll keep taking it.

Why?  The more of the special antioxidants from coffee people take in each day, research found from drinkers of coffee and decaf, the lower their rate of Alzheimer’s is!  (As good for you as green tea and black tea are for other things, they do NOT show that effect!)

Then there is the what if factor.  What if the green coffee bean extract did add a pound or two of the 5 pounds I lost on the weeks that I did lose on the scale?

E.  But there are 3 more things I’m setting up to do which will remove two sources of my belly fat and one which has proven to help lose all fat!

1.  Mike Geary, the very, very well informed expert on nutrition and removing belly fat, posted an article that really hit home with me! (See Mike Geary or the “Truth about Abs on Google for his work.)

Even 100 % whole grain wheat foods not only add the fast carbs that add fat in general, his research

-- and the research he has read show that eating even 100 % whole grain wheat at all often or at all, puts the fat into your belly fat AND is a direct cause of acid reflux!

I’d already begun eating ONLY whole grain wheat and cut my intake of that in half long ago.

a) But I still find all my fat loss comes off everywhere and NOT off my belly fat more.  So despite my overall fat loss, my belly STILL looks fat. 

b) And, I HAVE acid reflux which I hate I would dearly love to get rid of!

So I’m setting up plans starting this week to cut back even more on my wheat intake.  And, I may go to stopping ANY wheat intake at all in the future.

At the very least, the substitute foods have fewer calories, few carbs, and cause less of a blood sugar and connected insulin surge, so the net effect will be some fat loss in general.

2.  Two percent lowfat milk has been one of my staple protein foods for most of my adult life. 

Two percent lowfat milk IS high in protein, inexpensive, and easy to drink or add to other foods.  And, milk has lots of vitamin B2, and some vitamin B12. 

And milk has a large amount of bioavailable and slowly released calcium for strong bones.  The most effective and most heart protective way to get calcium is IN foods NOT in supplements recent research found.  Plus if you get calcium in foods and take 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 plus do strength training, you will tend to develop and keep strong bones. 

(I take more D3 than that and strength training.)

However, I had heard that despite a low glycemic effect on blood sugars, milk caused some extra insulin release.

THE NEWS IS THAT Dr Mark Hyman found research and posted an article on it.  Drinking milk DOES spike insulin levels!  Worse, it does so enough to triple them!!

(Milk contains both lactose, a sugar, AND directly contains insulin like growth factor.)

I just found that article very recently within the last few days by getting his articles on Facebook.

That means that every single time I can substitute nonfat cottage cheese or nonfat Greek yogurt and a glass of water for a glass of milk, I not only save a few calories, I slash the amount of fat depositing insulin in my blood.

The nonfat super low carb dairy foods have far less lactose and likely cause less of that fattening insulin surge according to the research I’ve seen.

But even if the insulin surge still happens some, it likely happens less without the lactose to trigger it AND I’ll intake fewer sugary carbs and cut my calorie intake.

I’m just in the early stage of making that switch particularly on my every other day fat loss days.  But I’m going to cut my milk intake in half or more with the next few weeks.  I’ve already begun doing so!

3.  Dr Pierre Dukan, one of the low carb diet proponents, has found that even ONE virtually carb free day a week, helps fat loss and is very good at helping people keep fat off.

And, a separate study found that people who had just two totally carb free days each week lost MORE fat than people who tried to eat low carb every day.

Despite reading those two things, I’ve not yet tried even one truly carb free or almost carb free day a week because of my daily milk intake and my every other day oatmeal and wheat germ intake AND my applesauce intake.

BUT, now I’m cutting down a LOT on all three. So I’m developing plans to do the almost carb free days every Wednesday and Thursday.

I’m at the place now where some of the things are in place and I’m adding others.

Conclusion:

Between cutting more calories with the exercise bike at work and adding that extra muscle in my at home strength training, I NOW EXPECT to see no more weight gains on the scale AND see some lower waist measurements!  I’ll lose fat and add muscle.

And, that’s far from all!

The other changes I’m making to cut sugars and milk and wheat from my diet most days and almost totally on two days each week, may help me lose a few MORE inches from my waist.

At the very least, the cut in my calorie intake each week will help me lose a few pounds on the scale.

The combination of those looks very promising to put it mildly!