My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 8-17-2015

[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 .4 pounds, about half a pound net.

My waist didn’t go down and chest and hips went down a quarter of an inch each.

That’s close enough to measurement error tolerance, it’s pretty close to no change.

2.  The foods and supplements that I had hoped would help with increasing my muscle and strength may be working.  I didn’t get measurably stronger since last month BUT I kept my gains and did so despite some real stress and way too hot workout conditions. 

3.  I also continued the 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.)

So I wrote last time; but the progress has stalled due to how weak the muscle got.  And, it’s not responding as well as I’d hoped – at least not yet.

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!

NOPE!  Either my body just stashed the extra water in other locations or I gained some fat to replace the weight. 

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

(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 still 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! 

I wrote this headline last time.  The gadget arrived just a few days ago.   It may yet deliver on its promise.

But yesterday when I finally had time to open the package and try to use it, I found that I’d expected a much more usable and well designed version than showed up.

The cold packs seem fine.  But the vest for my upper chest and shoulders may only be usable if I can get the missing directions on how to make it work and stay on me!

And, the waist wrap seems to hang too low by a bit with no way to adjust it up.

Lastly, I only was able to put the cold packs in the freezer for a couple of hours and then it was 95 degrees in our apartment for the half hour I wore them.

I’m assuming there is a way to make the top stay on.  And clearly, wearing the cold packs on a more normal day when they have been in the freezer for at least the previous 24 hours will get more effect.

But the test got postponed by the extra month it took to arrive so zero effect this report.  And, the next month and maybe even October will be blocked by the hot weather from the full effect

Even so, it may work yet! 

The 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. 

(The legal folks had them put all kinds of disclaimers on it just in case there are hidden safety issues for people such as those with type 2 diabetes in using it.

Since it has such a high caloric burn rate per hour, just like exercise capable of doing  so, it may indeed be that you have to know what precautions to use to use it safely.)