My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 7-20-2015

[This month’s report is a mixed review with some positive and some negative events to report. I both gained some leverage and lost some. That status seems like AND IS where I’ve been stuck for some time!

My hope of course, is that I’ll gradually make progress by relentlessly continuing the things that have lost and kept off the fat I no longer have;

Having the things I’ve added get traction and gradually help lose some more fat;--

AND find things with more leverage that work well when I try them -- and then keep doing them also!]

Note:  Be sure to read the last section even if you skip the first ones. There is significant good news in fat loss for everyone, not just me, listed there!

Here’s the key news. 

1.  Last month, I lost a pound.

Because my chest measurement went up and my hips did too BUT my weight went down and my waist remained the same, I might well have gained some muscle! 

2.  The foods and supplements that I had hoped would help with increasing my muscle and strength may be working.  I did get measurably stronger since last month.

3.  I also did two things that may have been as important or more so than the foods and supplements. 

The Perfect Workout information was that optimum progress came with slow repetitions of 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down.  I had been doing much faster although slow reps; but when I re-read that 10 seconds each way is best, in one of my two weekly strength training sessions I have been doing just that.  It does seem to be working.

And, I read a study that people doing strength training who were given a placebo they thought was anabolic steroids increased the weight they used right away to levels the people not given anything were doing!

So, I thought, what if I just boosted the weight in a comparable way?  I did so.  And it seems to be working!

There is also better news.  I’ve discovered that when I can get to a gym with heavy barbells and resume doing the deadlifts I did when I was last lean at my goal weight and increase the weight to what I did then or close to it, there is strong evidence I’ll gain enough muscle in my lower back, buttocks, and legs to remove at least half and maybe a good bit more of my excess fat!

(My recovery from my Achilles tendon injury on my left leg is 100%; and the repair of the stress fracture in my lower left leg seems to be standing up still to the very slow building back program I’ve been on.  And, I’m getting close to a level where I may be able to speed my progress a bit.)

4.  My blood pressure medication the doctor gave me seemed to have no effect for the first 4 weeks I took it.  But a few days ago, it may have begun doing some good as my blood pressure readings have improved.  (This was a low dose of an ace inhibitor.)

Even better, I likely have some water weight to lose.  I have some accumulated water and swelling in my ankles.  If I lose that retained water, it may cut my weight from just over my goal weight by 6.5 pounds to a pound or two closer at least!

I just added the low dose diuretic she, my woman doctor, suggested for my blood pressure.

If it does remove a pound or two on the scale that would be nice!  (I still am short muscle and have too much fat, but it will still be nice and improve my mood and power to weight ratio if that happens.)

(When my blood pressure was in the 145 over 80 to 155 over 85 range, I think I likely did the right thing to do other protective things and not take the blood pressure drugs. 

But some recent stress drove it up well above 160 over 100 long enough that it may have caused some mild heart and kidney distress -- and the ankle swelling. 

And, I long ago read that once your blood pressure goes above 160 over 100 and stays there, the studies show that it IS protective to take drugs to bring it down and dangerous to not do so.

So when I went to the doctor last time, five days ago, expecting my blood pressure to be what it had been, 155 over 85 and it was over 160 over 100 instead, I consented to try a blood pressure drug or two.

So far, the low dose of the first one has low enough side effects I can stay on it as long as I need to.

I’ll likely need to double the dose of that one, an ace inhibitor, and add a diuretic.  It remains to be seen if I’ll find that doable or not.

**The news this month is good so far!

Admittedly today is only the very first day.  But the side effects are barely noticeable for taking the diuretic. 

If that keeps up, I’ll be able to stay on it while stress and too much belly fat and not enough vegetables were pushing it above 160 over 100 too often.

And, the even better news is that the typical reduction for people about where I am on blood pressure AND FOR THE EXACT DOSE I’M TAKING is 14 over 8!

So the 158 over 88 to 175 over 101 range I have been in, may well fall to 144 over 80 and 161 over 93 a MUCH better range to be in and below 160 most of the time and always below 100.

It remains to be seen how I do on getting that much effect and having the side effects be manageable.  But the low seeming side effects and the promise of that much blood pressure reduction look quite good so far.

*Last but far from least, my blood pressure is likely to go down because I’ve successfully switched away from the proton pump inhibitor I was taking to an H2 blocker for my reflux. 

Stanford just did a study proving proton pump inhibitors prevent normal nitric oxide release that relaxes your blood vessels and this directly causes high blood pressure from this effect.

So, stopping the proton pump inhibitor will cut my blood pressure for sure over the next few weeks.  What I don’t yet know is whether it will be by 5 points or 20.  It depends on how reversible this damage turns out to be and what percentage of my high blood pressure it was causing. 

5.  The GOOD news is that my ability to lose at least 10 to 20 pounds of belly fat may be on its way to me now! 

A significant amount of this fat loss may well show up for me this year. And, even more next year!

In fact, part of it may show up by my September report or even a bit by my August report.

Here’s why:

a) I already knew and had posted on how, sometime in the future, by getting a girdle and two cold packs – one on my belly and one on my lower back, I might lose an inch or two from my waist.

But that kind of project takes a lot of work and some funding; and I just have had too much on my plate for that low an expected return -- and one not tested to work for sure in advance.

NOW I just found out that someone else has pioneered just exactly such a device; but with several significant and dramatic upsides.

Best of all, some of a recent commission check was available AND sometime in later July or early August , I’ll have one to use!

His group has created what I envisioned AND built that and a similar wearable cold pack for your upper back and upper chest.

They have tested this two part combo and have shown that wearing it for two or three hours several days or evenings a week, burns calories and removes fat with ZERO changes in what you eat or the exercise you do.

In fact, this effect is so robust you may be able to eat MORE and still lose fat.

This apparently turns on your brown fat and removes some fat by that metabolic increase even when you aren’t wearing it. 

But the big effect is the direct burning of calories to stay warm while you are wearing it.

This is doable because you can wear a hat and gloves to minimize how cold you feel: AND you can read or work on your computer while you are wearing it!

It’s even possible that wearing the cold packs after a hard workout earlier in the day may enable you to recover better and make faster progress at building muscle.

Some people who had 25 or 30 pounds of fat to lose lost it in two months. One even lost it in one month.

I doubt seriously if I’ll be able to wear the packs enough to do that each week. 

But it does sound very much as if I’ll be able, FINALLY, to lose five pounds of fat each month for a few months in a row.

That may well be the best potential news that has ever been in my fatloss reports or in my blog at all for that matter.

*That’s because I may become quite well do to do personally by selling a fat loss set of products guaranteed to work – because they always do.

*And, it may give doctors a safe way AND totally effective way to help obese patients lose their excess fat.