Ways to permanent fat loss without hunger....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 11-6-2012

There are basically two ways to lose fat without hunger:

Both require permanent but doable lifestyle upgrades. 

Diets, if temporary harsh cutbacks in food intake is meant, virtually always fail because your body’s fail safe famine response lowers your metabolism and boosts your hunger.

So, the two ways to achieve permanent fat loss without hunger are:

1.  Increase your metabolism using methods you find doable enough to continue while escaping or sharply minimizing your famine response.

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2.  Find ways to lower calories eaten that you find doable enough to continue while escaping or sharply minimizing your famine response.

There are several ways to do these things.

That’s why there ARE people who lose from ten to over 200 pounds of fat they keep off.

It’s easier for some people than others and for almost everyone fat loss is a “try and succeed, progress stops, and a second effort is needed” and that process repeats.

But for people who simply keep it up and for people who get into a support group that helps them do that, permanent fat loss is actually likely and quite doable!

What is the reason for this post when I’ve posted on many of these things before?

There is new information on each of these two methods.

Note that many of these methods do the double and both reduce net calories and keep your metabolism up or increase it.

1.  Here are some ways to increase your metabolism that tend to not engage your famine response including the new one at the end.

a)  ALWAYS eat breakfast -- and if you can, always include some high quality protein, some fiber, and keep the glycemic boost of any foods with carbs mostly medium or less. 

This does work best for women and often more men actually do it.  But it’s dramatically helpful. 

People who always eat breakfast have been found to eat more total calories and weigh less and are less fat than people who never do!

The three main reasons seem to be that this helps avoid your famine response,

people who always eat breakfast have significantly higher metabolisms by actual test,

and people who ate a filling breakfast not too high in carbs or fast carbs, are MUCH more likely to resist fattening mid-morning treats, AND the eat less for dinner when your body is more likely to store extra as fat, again by actual test.

b) Work your way up to it slowly and don’t overdo BUT do strength training AND interval cardio that you put real effort into even if each effort is brief most days of every week.

People who do some of each get better results than people who do only one or the other.  And a short session at home each morning is most effective for most people.

You burn calories while you exercise, you burn calories and have a higher metabolism for up to several hours after you exercise,

AND you can add enough muscle and bone to have more of you to feed that is NOT fat helps you burn more calories and not store as many.  (This kind of exercise lowers:  insulin resistance, average blood insulin levels, and average blood sugar levels all of which tend to make you healthier and stop fat storage.)

c)  Our ancestors were only moderately active much of each day; but they hardly ever stopped doing something!  Today, people sit for hours at a time almost every day.

One way to beat that is to have a way to exercise at your desk while you are doing things like reading and sending emails or surfing for work or personal reasons.

This kind of light moderate but high volume almost daily activity doesn’t tend to turn on your famine response if you don’t overdo calorie cut backs because our bodies evolved to do it every day an expect it.  It’s actually more normal than sitting still according to your genes!

Talk about boosting your metabolism!  You can burn from 1750 to 3500 calories a week doing it!  And, you burn calories for a bit after you stop because it boosts your metabolism.

If you are overfat, that’s a fat loss of up to 2 to 4 pounds a month.

That’s not yet readily available.  But it is finally beginning to be.

My current solution is the recumbent bike plus desk from www.activoffice.net  .

You need a bit larger office and some determination to use it.  And, it makes accessing things not in arm’s reach a good bit more difficult.

But it both helps you lose fat and get healthier at the same time.  The man who originated the idea lost 18 pounds in 9 months and virtually all his health markers improved without drugs doing the job!  (And, he was not that fat or unhealthy when he started!)

My plan is to help him make it easier to use and set up and to sell them to people for whom they are the best solution.

But there is also a way to make a solution that is far easier to use and will easily fit most desks as they already now.  THAT solution will change things a LOT once it gets into use by enough people.  I hope to also help get that solution to you later.

d)  Even when you cut net calories, be SURE to eat moderate to moderately high amounts of health OK protein every day!

This is proven to help prevent the famine response.  It helps you lose fat instead of muscle. Protein helps because eating it turns off your appetite and has no rebound hunger.  And, it helps you keep your metabolism up both ways so you lose more fat. 

2.  Here are some ways to lower calories and mostly escape or not engage your famine response.

a)  ALWAYS eat breakfast -- and if you can, always include some high quality protein, some fiber, and keep the glycemic boost of any foods with carbs mostly medium or less. 

This does work best for women and often more men actually do it.  But it’s dramatically helpful. 

People who always eat breakfast have been found to eat more total calories and weigh less and are less fat than people who never do!

The three main reasons seem to be that this helps avoid your famine response,

people who always eat breakfast have significantly higher metabolisms by actual test,

and people who ate a filling breakfast not too high in carbs or fast carbs, are MUCH more likely to resist fattening mid-morning treats, AND the eat less for dinner when your body is more likely to store extra as fat, again by actual test.

b) Work your way up to it slowly and don’t overdo BUT do strength training AND interval cardio that you put real effort into even if each effort is brief most days of every week.

You can add enough muscle and bone to have more of you to feed that is NOT fat helps you burn more calories and not store as many.  (This kind of exercise lowers:  insulin resistance, average blood insulin levels, and average blood sugar levels all of which tend to make you healthier and stop fat storage.)

That has two wonderful effects! 

You can lose more fat with less and fewer cutbacks in what you eat which helps prevent the famine response because you no longer cut back enough to engage it or engage it as strongly.

AND, because you then have fewer surges and then drops in blood sugar levels, you get no rebound hunger at all instead of a lot every day!

c)  Even when you cut net calories, be SURE to eat moderate to moderately high amounts of health OK protein every day!

This is proven to help prevent the famine response.  It helps you lose fat instead of muscle. Protein helps because eating it turns off your appetite and has no rebound hunger.  So it minimizes how much you need to cut back and helps you do it with less hunger.

d) Completely STOP drinking soft drinks and minimize drinking fruit juice.  These add calories without registering that you took them in!  They have no protein, fat or fiber, to turn down hunger.  Then it gets worse!!  They give you rebound hunger for sweet things an hour or so after you drink them.  (Diet soft drinks too!  They don’t add calories but DO give you the rebound hunger which most people cannot resist.(

You literally can stop them all with ZERO increase in hunger.  You get a big to huge drop in calories you take in.  And not only does this do almost nothing to engage your famine response, it turns off a source of cravings for sweet things that fatten you!

Stopping these drinks and drinking water -- or tea or coffee with no sugar or milk -- or even drinking coffee with some cream do NOT have these effects.

This solution is literally hunger FREE fat loss!

e)  This next one has some extra news!

Eating refined grain breads and commercial baked goods and packaged snacks and desserts has a very similar effect to drinking soft drinks.  Eating foods to which high fructose corn syrup has been added produces almost identical results to drinking soft drinks.

But the health value of stopping ALL such calories is even greater!  Besides the fattening rebound hunger like soft drinks, these foods contain ingredients such as MSG, excess salt, hydrogenated oils, and oils high in omega 6.

People who eat almost none of those things and sharply cut back even on real sugar not only are reliably less fat with little extra effort, they are much safer  -- 

They are less likely to get gout, heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, and even cancers!  And, they are far less likely to need to take drugs to try to reverse the bad effects of ingesting this stuff!

But here’s the news! 

One of the tools your body uses to make you eat more when you lose fat is a kind of messenger related to the cannabis in marijuana that makes you hungry after use if you do that.

If you get even some of the famine response, these cannibinoids STOP adiponectin which turns off your hunger when you have eaten enough.

THAT basically turns your appetite up to very high and produces virtually impossible to ignore cravings.

It tends to cause binging on fatty and sugary foods.

The drug that turns off these excess cannibinoids has some nasty side effects though it does turn off that kind of hunger.

BUT there are two safer ways to block it!  That’s the news.

First, these excess cannibinoids are made out of omega 6 oils! 

So if you avoid refined grain breads and commercial baked goods and packaged snacks and desserts that contain them AND oils like saffola, corn, soy, and canola that are high in omega 6 and use extra virgin olive oil instead AND avoid animal fat from animals fed grains, your body is far less able and likely to make cannibinoids!

This also has dramatic health benefits and protects you against many diseases.

Second, even if you get these cravings, they work far better and you eat far more if you have an empty stomach or low blood sugar when they hit. 

But what if your stomach was NOT so empty and the sugar from your dinner was going more gradually into your blood so your blood sugar was less low?

You’d be able to stop the cravings or cut them back enough to binge far less!

So, if you tend, as I have experienced, to get these appetite surges late at night or after going to bed and waking up for any reason, if you take 4 grams of soluble fiber as PGX or apple pectin mixed into water an hour after dinner, you get substantial protection.

f)  By making these cuts in not nutritious foods and drinks AND eating health OK protein and a bit of health OK oils and LOTS of nonstarchy vegetables, you quite literally eat MORE food but take in LESS calories while not getting any hungrier.

g)  By making extra calorie cuts every other day or even just 2 days a week, but eat decently the rest of the time, you body thinks you have some variation in your intake but are NOT in a famine.

The proven result is that people who eat an extra strict diet with only protein foods and vegetables or even vegetables only two days a week LOSE MORE FAT with LESS overall hunger than people who only cut back a little every day of the week.

Just eat real and not fattening foods the other days and do the things like eating breakfast and exercise + eating enough protein every day to keep your metabolism up.

It works!

Rules for fat loss....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 8-28-2012

This one is relatively simple.  Some things people do make them fat.

And, some things people do cause people to lose fat or help them do so.

Some things help people keep doing the right things or help them keep fat off in other ways.

If you STOP doing things in the first group that make you fat, you will stop gaining weight and will usually lose some of the fat doing those things put on you!

Similarly doing lots of the things that remove excess fat or help you keep doing them to keep the fat off -- will remove your fat and keep it off!

And, if you do both almost all the time, guess what happens?

You lose your excess fat and keep it off!

The most important thing is NOT whether you call these strategies rules or helpful to know facts.

The most important things are to:

Learn what they are.  

Almost always stop doing the fattening things or stop them totally.

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Do as many of the things that take fat off and keep it off as you can manage to do and that are effective for you – and upgrade your life to make them a continuing habit.

For some people calling stopping the fattening things rules and doing the fat removing things rules, makes it easier to do them.

The important thing is to know them and do them – & to stop doing them for the fattening ones!

That said, if a fat loss coach with years of successful experience calls them rules, it makes sense to see what he has to say.

And, in doing what he has found works in practice consistently it can be quite helpful to think of his guidelines as rules you follow personally.

People who are well organized and systematic and who use good workable systems do better at everything.  They have better health and live longer too recent research has found.

Such people can be adventurous and playful and creative too.  In fact that’s the winning combination.

A study of what made the difference between jet aces and seemingly similar pilots found that the aces were both better organized AND more mentally flexible!

They’d systematically try new things while being careful and taking precautions until they could safely do things other pilots couldn’t do or were afraid to try.

That’s the winning formula to follow when trying out rules developed by someone else.

Immediately adopt the ones that make sense to you that are clearly doable.  That gets you started and will improve your results.

Then try out the ones you are less sure you’ll find doable.  Since these are proven rules, try to make adjustments and work arounds instead of just tossing the ones you find difficult to do or don’t like.  Do it part of the time instead of every day.  Try something similar that you can do.  Try out doing it half way.  Experiment until you have something you can do and actually do that gets results.  Then make what you find you can do your rule for now.  Try upgrades every once in a while.  Watch for things other people found work great that make the rule quite doable instead of difficult. Then try them out!

In short follow the best rules and do what the jet aces did with the rest!

Bob Harper is the fat loss trainer for the TV show, The Biggest Loser.

A Parade article on Sunday, 8-26-2012 about him and his book, “The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin by Bob Harper and Greg Critser (May 15, 2012)” sparked this post for example. (His book is available on amazon.com .)

The Skinny Rules presents a list of 20 straight forward rules that will help you lose weight.

(Some of his rules are easier for some people to do than others.  Each of them is something he found effective for people who followed that rule.  And some are more important and effective than others.

The article writer, asked Bob what he has found to be the most important fat loss mistake people make.

His answer is something I know about so I was quite interested.  But the most valuable thing is that he added something he found that he know from his experience that doubled what I know and explained why part of what I know happens!

His answer was that people often skip breakfast thinking that the calories they avoid will add to their fat loss find that it has the REVERSE effect!

So one of his rules is Always eat breakfast!

What did he find to explain why he found this so very important?

NOT eating breakfast and skipping it causes a massive slow down in your metabolism he has found over and over again.

I already knew that quite often people who always eat breakfast eat MORE calories than people who don’t BUT they are LESS fat!

Bob’s answer explains how breakfast is almost a free calorie time to eat.  If you always eat breakfast, you BURN up far more calories than if you don’t.

(You also will need to eat less and lunch and dinner and will be far more likely to turn down fattening mid-morning treats.  People who skip breakfast are often very hungry by mid-morning and again at lunch and dinner.  Then the calories they skipped at breakfast, get added back double or in more fattening forms or both!)

Thanks to Bob Harper, we also now know people who always eat breakfast also burn up MORE calories than people who always skip breakfast.

With that double of burning more calories and better appetite control all day long, always eating breakfast is an excellent rule to follow!

In the reviews of his book on Amazon, people found some of this other rules less easy to follow. 

But always eating breakfast is clearly a sound rule.  (Research found that it’s helpful for men and dramatically effective for women.  It’s a good rule for men.  But it’s an essential rule for women.

To get started if you’ve not been eating breakfast, your breakfast can be small at first if you have been eating very big dinners and aren’t yet hungry in the morning.

One fat loss coach found that even eating one string cheese and a few grapes or one boiled egg and half a banana can work.  The key thing is to insist on eating a small breakfast first.

Then eat a bit less at dinner mostly cutting back on starchy and sugary things.

Then you will be hungrier in the morning and can eat a bit more.  And that makes you less hungry for fattening things and boosts your calories burned all day.

For more of Bob’s thoughts and experience, you can buy his book on Amazon.

And, you can check out his blog or column on Parade’s website at www.parade.com/harper .

I do always eat breakfast and tell people it’s an important fat loss tool.

Thanks to Bob Harper and Parade I now also know it’s even more proven than I yet knew. 

And thanks to Bob Harper I now know a major reason why always eating breakfast is so important and why it works so well. 

3 True beliefs that can keep you fat....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 8-9-2012

How can true statements that you believe keep you fat?

Because they are used to make totally false conclusions that will keep you fat reliably.

And, for people who haven’t learned better yet they do just that!

The format is: “If this is true, then the action I should chose is this.”

The true statement can be misleading or even damaging if the second part it leads to is false.

That’s true for each of these 3 true beliefs.

As stated, these 3 statements are true.  But if that’s ALL you know you will stay fat!

1. You have to find ways to cut the net calories you take in compared to what you use to lose excess fat.

2.  No matter what you eat, if you cut net calories you will lose weight.

3.  Exercise is not sufficient to cause fat loss.

Let’s take them one at a time.

1.  You have to find ways to cut the net calories you take in compared to what you use to lose excess fat.  This is quite true.

So people often just cut way back on how much they eat. 

Here’s the hidden if then: “If I cut way back on what I eat now, I’ll lose fat and keep it off.”

Oops!  THAT is false—it’s completely false in fact!

Because if that’s all they do and they overdo it, they will lose lean tissue such as muscle and bone besides fat.  Worse, then their fail safe famine response cuts in.  They get far hungrier and burn fewer calories.  They get too tired of being too hungry all the time to continue because most people can do unpleasant things for a short time but only for so long.  They can’t do it forever.

Result:  The weight lost comes roaring back and their motivation to try again drops even if they hate being fat.

But you can lose fat permanently just the same.

How? 

Do things that cut your calorie intake that make you LESS hungry!  Avoid eating or drinking things that make you hungry later and well before you have actually used the calories they gave you.  Eat MORE things that fill you up but have few calories and support your good health.  Eat health OK things that keep your muscles and bones strong and turn off your hunger until you use up the calories they gave you.  And, eat things research shows do NOT lower your metabolism.  Prune out everything in your food and drink that will make you sick if you eat or drink it. (Why waste your calorie intake on things that harm you?)  And, cut back more on calories only part of the time and not by that much each time.  When you are bit hungrier than unusual, it’s very short and most people can do it successfully.  Also, doing it that way avoids triggering your famine response too!

If you do that, you will take in fewer calories, in many cases far fewer calories.  But you will keep your bones and muscles and mostly lose ONLY fat.  And, you will be about as hungry as you are now or even less hungry most of the time.   

The weight loss will be less for most people than dramatic losses in two weeks.  BUT instead of the weight coming right back, their fat loss will continue until most or all of their excess fat is gone.

2.  No matter what you eat, if you cut net calories you will lose weight.

For a limited time, this is actually true. 

One man went a few weeks eating fewer calories than his usual and ate only junky commercial desserts during that time.  He lost the weight predicted by the calories he cut back.  Was all or almost all of that weight fat?  NO!  Did that weight stay off unless he upgraded his methods to what we just described above?  NO!!

Here’s the hidden if then: “If I cut back on what I eat now, I’ll lose fat and keep it off.  And, I can keep eating and drinking the same as I do now, just less of it”

Oops!  THAT is false—it’s completely false in fact!

In different words, this is the same issue we just covered.  And the methods to overcome it are the same.

If you permanently upgrade what you eat and drink and cut back more on calories just a little and only part of the time, it’s something you can keep doing!  In fact, if you do it in ways that fit you well, the longer you do it the easier and more automatic it gets to do.

If you want to lose FAT and not parts of you that you would prefer to keep -- and if you want that fat to stay off, it DOES make a HUGE difference WHAT you eat and drink 99% of the time.

Weight Watchers found that people who cut back just a little bit or a bit more than that and who had regular meetings with others doing the same and the support of a trained coach could last about 6 months and WOULD lose weight.

After that 6 months, half the people would quit and gain the weight back.

But until recently Weight Watchers did NOT teach that you should dump some foods and drinks totally or teach what you should eat and drink instead. 

Only the very most motivated people and those who analyzed the foods compared to their point system and ate better on their own succeeded.

Weight Watchers still isn’t as proactive in teaching people to dump some things completely as the facts suggest they should be.  BUT, they recently have become dramatically better at coaching people on what to eat MORE of!

3.  Exercise is not sufficient to cause fat loss.

This is quite true.  There are people who exercise who would like to be less fat and who stay fat.  I was one of them at one time myself.

Here’s the hidden if then: “So, if I just eat less and do no exercise, I can lose fat and keep it off.”

Oops!  THAT is false—it’s completely false in fact!

Here’s just a few of the reasons why that’s so. 

People who want to lose fat do so for many reasons.  They want to look better.  They want to improve or keep their health.  They want to feel better about themselves and more in control of their life.  People who begin to exercise and keep doing it, get ALL those benefits.  Even better, they get them fast enough it helps them keep doing their fat loss efforts and this is true well BEFORE all the fat comes off.  That early success enables them to keep making the extra effort to lose fat.

People who lose fat without also exercising tend to lose muscle and have their metabolism go down.  People who do the right exercises well avoid both of these problems. And even doing any kind of exercise every week, minimizes these two problems.

As long as you avoid eating fattening foods with more calories than the exercise burns off, by exercising, you can cut back LESS on calories and still net out enough net drop to lose fat but also eat more and avoid hunger while continuing to lose fat and keep it off.

People who do no exercise that builds or maintains muscle every week tend to lose several pounds of bone and muscle each decade they live.  Since they eat the same, people who don’t exercise gradually and relentless get fatter!

Put all this together and it turns out that if you want to lose FAT and keep it off, regular exercise is essential. 

Exercise is not sufficient to lose fat. True.

But regular exercise IS absolutely NECESSARY if you want to lose FAT instead of the rest of you and if you want to keep that fat off!

Exercise at your desk to lose fat and keep your health....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 7-17-2012

It’s not widely known yet but there are now two ways to exercise at your desk while you work so you get the moderate exercise without taking time from your work.

One of them is new and can be used more of the time you are at your desk than the first one to come out.  It also costs less than half as much!

 This is extremely important news for two reasons.

1.  Doing nondistracting exercise at your desk has the potential to double or triple the amount of fat you can lose and keep off and to cut the time necessary nearly in half!

(I manage to squeeze in a bit less than half an hour a day of interval cardio and strength training each day.  But that much exercise leaves me about 1800 calories a week short of the 2900 calories a week people who have lost over 30 pounds and kept it off get on the average.  I don’t have more time.  But if I can arrange to get that added 1800 calories a week while I’m working at my desk, I CAN do that!

I lost 20 pounds recently and then regained 9.  I’ve kept off the 11 pounds because I’ve continued the eating upgrades since I began.

But had I lost 6 pounds too in the first part when I lost so well by using an at your desk exerciser I would have lost 26 pounds.  And had I lost another 6 pounds during the time when I regained, I’d have only gained back 3 instead of 9.  That means I’d be 23 pounds less fat than when I began now instead of 11!  That’s a BIG difference. )

This means that everyone who would like to be less fat or who is working to do so but sits at work now has access to this solution too!

2.  People today, between sitting at work and sitting at home, often sit for well over 8 hours a day.  This causes many health problems and literally billions of dollars a year in potentially. avoidable health care costs.

(I sit at work over 9 hours a day and about 2 hours at home each workday myself.) 

But research shows that this is a very powerful risk factor for heart disease and stroke and other diseases. 

Worse, exercising with interval cardio and strength training for an average of a bit less than 30 minutes each day while protective against this problem is only partly effective.

But if 80 to 90 % of the time you are sitting at work you are getting constant mild exercise by keeping your feet moving with such an exerciser, that problem is gone completely.  The health problem of sitting is virtually wiped out!

There are now two solutions to this problem and I’m working on a third one.

1.  The first one is the Steelcase walking desk or “Walkstation.”  See http:// http://store.steelcase.com/brochures/walkstation/ . 

This works partly but has two significant problems. 

It’s not usable for enough of the hours in the day you work for the best fat loss results and health results.  Even two hours a day of working while walking on the treadmill that it comes will burn 300 to 400 calories a day.  But few people will want to stand more than that a day while working. 

(At its set speed of 2 miles an hour, that’s mild enough to not detract from your work and equal walking 4 miles a day.  So it is better than sitting the whole time particularly for fat loss.)

Secondly, it’s much more expensive than I’d initially heard and starts at $4399.  OUCH!

2.  The second one is new and solves one of those two problems and partly solves the second one.

A man in Pleasanton, California has begun selling a desk plus recumbent bike combination for closer to $1800 to $2,000.  At a health show last Saturday, the people trying it praised it for having ample and usable desk space.  And, it costs thousands less than the walking desk!

That’s a lot better price wise than over $4,000!

(I think it’s still about five to ten times higher than what I think the market needs. It also isn’t easily retrofittable to the existing desks people already have. That’s important because I think everyone should work at an exerciser of this kind! I hope to help create that solution too.)

However, the active desk recumbent bike plus desk DOES do a great job on the health and fat loss side!  You can use it almost all the time you would otherwise sit at your desk instead of just part of the time.  So the exercise can be even more gentle and nondistracting than walking yet easily help you burn 2,000 calories per five day week or more.

As an example, Bryan, the man making them, is a regular runner.  But he needed to burn more calories a week to stop being fat as much as he needed and wanted to do. 

He’s used his active desk for 9 months.  AND, he lost 18 pounds!

The best news is that it’s available now directly through Bryan at bryan@activoffice.net .

He is also possibly going to sell it on Amazon soon.

If the price is something you can afford at all, and you have the bit of extra space where you work, I strongly recommend you consider getting one.

PS:  I got a much less expensive exerciser at my local BIG 5 sporting goods store.  Much to my great irritation, it raised my knees too much to fit at my desks either at work or at home.

But the key thing for this post is this: 

I’ve found I can use it while sitting on our couch at home and reading.  And, even though it’s not nearly as smooth to use as Bryan’s recumbent bike, I am easily able to start going and keep going on automatic pilot yet read with no noticeable effort or distraction for an hour or two at a time.  

My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 6-18-2012

This month’s report is a mixed review.

1.  First, I’d hoped the five new things I did or kept doing over the month since last time would help me lose a pound or two.  And, hopefully, they would help me lose one or two quarter of an inches more on my waist to add to the three quarters of an inch I lost the month before. 

But instead I gained a half pound which wasn’t too bad -- but gained back a half to three quarters of an inch on my waist which was much more disappointing.

2.  The better news is that I DID do the five new things consistently over the month since last time that I’d hoped would help me lose a pound or two, etc.

One. I ate no almond butter in my after dinner snack after eating nearly enough of it to make a pound per month difference in my fat level, about 3500 calories a month.

Two. I did run the inexpensive foot powered wheel while reading on evenings and weekends for about a total of 3 hours a week.  If that burns 150 calories an hour or about half what walking would, that could lose a half pound as that equals 1800 calories for the month.

Three.  I did well several times in my strength training a few times each week at making a strong enough effort to lift a bit more or  do more repetitions that I likely did release extra growth hormone and might have gained a bit of muscle. 

Four.  I did successfully add a second vegetable-only for lunch semi-fast each week without any noticeable problems or too much hunger.  If I’d done this by itself it could have cut about 920 calories each month including last month – enough to lose about a quarter pound. (During the last month, though, I had a couple of extra dark chocolate bars one on each of two Saturdays which added about 660 calories and likely left me with only a 260 calorie drop.  Over a couple of years that will add up to 7 pounds even with the dark chocolate.  But for just one month, it’s closer to zero.

Five.  I did eat a bit of raw broccoli florets almost every evening at my after dinner snack and did not overdo the nonfat cottage cheese or Irish cheese or no sugar apple sauce.  So my record doesn’t show I ate too many calories to compensate for not eating almond butter.  (Eating the raw broccoli florets almost every evening instead of just sometimes, helped do that.)

3.  So how did I go from losing 3 pounds without most of these efforts and gaining a half pound with them?

Apparently the persistent and many times a day bad cough I had, to clear my lungs, due to the got a severe cold I got 3 weeks before my monthly Saturday measurement on 5-19 last month, must have burned an enormous amount of calories

Month before last I didn’t do most of the things on this month’s list AND did less of my regular exercise to avoid making my cold better instead of worse.

Apparently I exercised a lot MORE during those three weeks by coughing so horribly much and hard.  I must have burned at least an extra 14,000 calories in those 3 weeks from coughing based on the math I know. In fact, it might have been closer to 21,000 calories.  It was vigorous enough, I may have added some muscle in my core muscles that contracted when I coughed.

In short, had I not added all the new things I did this month, I might have gained 2 or 3 pounds this month instead of just a half a pound.

4.  But what more do I need to do to add muscle and lose fat enough to restart losing a pound or so each month on the scale and more fat than that too?

a)  I came up with a plan to cut back on red wine with dinner just a bit.  I may or may not be able to maintain it.  But the one day last week I tried it, it did work.  That will lose a pound or two if I do it for a month which I’ll keep off if I maintain the cut-back after that.

b) It looks like I need to do enough more strenuous strength training and/or with heavier weights to add muscle and maybe also add other things to boost my level of growth hormone. 

I’ll try to do a bit more now and at least keep up the efforts I’ve been making.

Once the summer heat leaves in the mid to late fall, I may make more progress.

And, once I get a bit more control over my schedule, I’ve a plan to go to the gym one night a week for access to heavier weights which may help, particularly with adding muscle to my legs.

Also, once I can afford it, I may be able to take more of the amino acid supplements known to boost growth hormone release.

This category of actions is important since if I can gain 5 pounds of muscle, I’ll lose 15 pounds of fat by eating the same.  Even better, that will lose some belly fat out of that 15 pounds of fat.  And the 10 pounds net lost on the scale will get me back below my goal weight.

What I hope to get to is to double that muscle gain and gain 10 pounds of muscle eventually.  That would lose a total of 30 pounds of fat and I’d finally lose my fat belly if I can lose that much fat. 

c)  I’ll keep adding small strategies to cut calories as I find an opportunity to do so.  At this point that may add a pound or two loss per year of fat.  That’s not a lot but far better than nothing,  And, I have two or three I have in mind adding.

d)  I’ll keep up the efforts I’m already making.

e)  I also hope to add an exerciser I can use at work.  Since I’ve not been able to find what I need, I may have to find a company to make it.  (I know a design that will work and recently found out it wasn’t patentable when it first was put into volume use.)

I found out that having such an exerciser at work would improve my memory and mental sharpness on the days I used it.  I posted that news last month!

At my new job I do have enough more knee room under my desk, I'd known I might be able to get one of the tiny bicycle style exercisers and begin using that a few hours a day.  (They are just pedals and a support stand available online for about $150.  Not fancy; but an extra 200 calories a day on it will trim off some fat.)

And, it seemed silly not to try it already for that extra fat loss. But when I got the news it would improve me mentally too, I decided to try to implement it soon.

Then I realized I could go to the local sporting goods store to see if they had such an exerciser.  That way if I tried it and it didn't work out right away, I could return it.  The news then got better.  I asked and they would refund my money if the exerciser turned out right away not to be usable.  But even better, instead of $150, it only cost $50!

I did set that up and found that at work even with the extra knee room it was a bit too hard to stay on it and it took double the knee room I’d have needed at my last job and fifty percent more than I have now.  I do now use it at home.

But the big payoff and results will be when I can get one that I can use at work.  Even 20 hours a week for 150 calories per hour is about 3 and a half pounds of fat loss per month until my excess fat is mostly gone.

I'll let you know how I do on what I can already do and when and if I can add these other things.

My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post: Monday, 4-23-2012

Since last month, the good news is that I’m still making most of the effort to lose my excess fat and keep off what I lost.:

I still eat on my every other day fewer calories and no grain plan. I still avoid soft drinks and junky packaged foods and bad ingredients. I‘ve maintained my new cut back from 7 times each four weeks for sugar at breakfast to 3 times. And, I’m still doing my jump rope, Nordic Track, Kettlebells, and my strength training with my bodyweight and my new heavier dumbbells. I still log all my exercise sessions.

I even maintained keeping a log of my variable food intake after dinner.

The Ok news is that my waist measurement remained the same.

However, since last month I gained another pound on the scale.

.Maintaining my program including the new heavier dumbbells plus the new sugar cut back should have lost a pound or two instead or remained the same but lost some on my waist.

What happened?

I got laid off from my day job and we had to pay a bit more on income tax than we thought within 2 days of each other. The good news is that I only went two days before my new job kicked in and it’s going well too. (It may turn out to be better than my old job.)

But my record showed that I ate more in my after dinner snacks instead of less and drank 2 more drinks a week than the one more I was already drinking.

Hopefully the stress will get less and the better effort I started the last two nights on my after dinner snacks I’ll continue successfully almost every day until next month – AND after that.

The idea I had to make the lower calorie and higher protein food nonfat cottage cheese a more appetizing substitute for my excessive almond butter intake by adding some powdered paprika IS working. So that will help.

And, I’ve cut back on my alcoholic drinks before successfully. So I do have a shot at doing both.

Between focusing on that and my job doing well, I expect to do better by next month.

Meanwhile, I have a shot at better future results from a strategy I’ve ended this post with for several months. At my new job I have enough more knee room under my desk, I may be able to get one of the tiny bicycle style exercisers and begin using that a few hours a day. (They are just pedals and a support stand for about $150. Not fancy; but an extra 200 calories a day on it will trim off some fat.)

(I now need to lose 10 pounds total to return to my goal weight. And, I still need to lose at least four to 6 inches off my waist.

According to pictures I’ve seen, I’m now at about 25 % bodyfat or a bit more. To remove my abdominal fat, according to those same pictures, I also need to add enough muscle to stay at or just slightly below my goal weight AND lose about 12% to 15% of my current bodyweight as fat.

This translates into losing 21 to 29 pounds of fat while gaining 11 to 19 pounds of muscle.)

I'm finally putting the initial plan in place to add the muscle. But the fat loss part still needs some work. And so does my total calories of exercise and activity. I average 1400 calories a week now. But 3500 would be better. The good news is that there may be a 2100 calorie a week fix I can actually do. The next section repeats that from last time.

* X * X *X *

(Future improvements still planned:

Eventually I’ll also need to get a specialized minibike or other seated leg exerciser I can use while seated at my desk and another I can use while reading at home or at my home computer.

They don’t yet make those that I know of but most people today need them. Given the health harm of sitting too much and how many people do that, these minibikes or other seated exerciser for your legs and chairs that match them well are coming soon I think.

Walking burns about 300 calories an hour. (200 if you are skinny and walk slowly to over 500 if you walk really fast or walk somewhat fast but are much heavier.)

Using a seated minibike or other seated exerciser that you use much less effort on but keep moving slowly most of the time you sit can easily burn 50 calories an hour.

Then if like many people today you sit for 6 hours a day, you could easily add an extra 2100 calories a week by using a seated minibike exerciser most of the time you sit at home or at work. That would help people lose about 2 and a half pounds a month for a few months once they got into the habit of always using one.

If I’d used one of the seated minibikes since I began my current fatloss plan, I’d still need to add the extra muscle to be at my goal weight. But I’d be trying to add muscle weight to get back to my goal weight! That’s because I’d be 10 to 15 pounds less fat.)

I’ve also had an idea for awhile. Before sewing machines had electric power, they had an under the work area treadle that was designed to be effective but avoid distracting the person sewing from doing their sewing.

It may be possible to find an antique sewing machine and find a manufacturer to make a design of that treadle mechanism that would do the same for people working at a desk.

It’s proven to do the job needed in actual use!)

I’ll let you know how my additional planned changes and efforts work next month.

My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post: Monday, 3-19-2012

Since last month, The good news is on building more muscle. And, so far, that news is VERY good.

I'm doing well with the higher amount of weight on my dumbells I recently bought. They are getting a bit easier to lift. And, I'm beginning to see some increase in strength on other exercises. Best of all, they are enough more work, I'm getting more of a cardio workout during my dumbbell workout.

However, since last month I gained another pound on the scale.

That’s the less bad news.

The worst news is that I gained 3/4 an inch on my waist.

Since my goal is to lose 4 to 6 inches on my waist, clearly I need to lose the 9 pounds AND at least 16 pounds more of fat more that I replace with 15 pounds of muscle.

I may be on track for the muscle gain. But I need to do a good bit more to lose fat too.

I came up with in idea I hope will work. At least it might help.

I've cut back from having tons of sugar on my oatmeal every day. Now I have been having half that much 7 times a month. That already was an 8 to one cut back. I recently realized the banana breakfast with sugar I've been having every Saturday didn't taste that much better than the version I've been eating with none!

So, now instead of 7 times a month I'll be having sugar on my cereal 3 times a month. So instead of an 8 to one cut back, I'll be close to a 20 to one cut back!

Sugar is fattening enough, that should help!

And, of course I'll maintain my other cut backs and exercise that helped me take off the weight to begin with.

My new plant to limit almond butter and add broccoli each evening has been in place.

I've been doing a decent job with it too. Apparently it may have helped but wasn't enough.

I'll continue it add more doable calorie cut backs as I find them.

(I now need to lose 9 pounds total to return to my goal weight. And, I still need to lose at least four to 6 inches off my waist.

According to pictures I’ve seen, I’m now at about 25 % bodyfat. To remove my abdominal fat, according to those same pictures, I also need to add enough muscle to stay at or just slightly below my goal weight AND lose about 12% to 15% of my current bodyweight as fat.

This translates into losing 20 to 28 pounds of fat while gaining 12 to 20 pounds of muscle.)

I'm finally putting the initial plan in place to add the muscle. But the fat loss part still needs some work. And so does my total calories of exercise and activity. I average 1400 calories a week now. But 3500 would be better. The good news is that there may be a 2100 calorie a week fix I can actually do. The next section repeats that from last time.

* X * X *X *

(Future improvements still planned:

Eventually I’ll also need to get a specialized minibike or other seated leg exerciser I can use while seated at my desk and another I can use while reading at home or at my home computer.

They don’t yet make those that I know of but most people today need them. Given the health harm of sitting too much and how many people do that, these minibikes or other seated exerciser for your legs and chairs that match them well are coming soon I think.

Walking burns about 300 calories an hour. (200 if you are skinny and walk slowly to over 500 if you walk really fast or walk somewhat fast but are much heavier.)

Using a seated minibike or other seated exerciser that you use much less effort on but keep moving slowly most of the time you sit can easily burn 50 calories an hour.

Then if like many people today you sit for 6 hours a day, you could easily add an extra 2100 calories a week by using a seated minibike exerciser most of the time you sit at home or at work. That would help people lose about 2 and a half pounds a month for a few months once they got into the habit of always using one.

If I’d used one of the seated minibikes since I began my current fatloss plan, I’d still need to add the extra muscle to be at my goal weight. But I’d be trying to add muscle weight to get back to my goal weight! That’s because I’d be 10 to 15 pounds less fat.)

I’ve also had an idea for awhile. Before sewing machines had electric power, they had an under the work area treadle that was designed to be effective but avoid distracting the person sewing from doing their sewing.

It may be possible to find an antique sewing machine and find a manufacturer to make a design of that treadle mechanism that would do the same for people working at a desk.

It’s proven to do the job needed in actual use!)

I’ll let you know how my additional planned changes and efforts work next month.

Important weight loss news a key to fat loss....

Today's Post: Thursday, 2-23-2012

Last week there was a story about managing fat loss that was very important for causing permanent fat loss and for keeping it off.

Since it usually is needed to produce a net calorie decrease to lose fat, the commonly used guide is to predict how much you will lose for each 100 calories you achieve removing from your net calories per day.

The common way to do this is to note that a pound of fat contains 3500 calories. So, subtracting that net drop would predict that for each 100 calorie net drop each day you will lose a pound in about 35 days. So, in 6 months, you would lose about 5 pounds.

The news report said that obesity expert and analyst, Dr Kevin Hall says the data he has seen show that this model does work for about the first 6 months to a year in real life.

But at that point the model begins to stop working in real life. If people maintain the 100 calorie daily net drop, they do keep losing fat. But his data suggest that instead of losing the second 5 pounds in a second 6 months, it takes about another two and a half years for most people. The weight loss does continue but it takes five times longer.

He says the reason for this five to one slow down at this point is due to slowing or decreasing metabolism in people who have lost weight for 6 months or more.

Dr Hall works in the Laboratory of Biological Modeling in Maryland.

(Laboratory of Biological Modeling in Maryland http://mrb.niddk.nih.gov/

It's part of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

To see the news story, look up, the “Laboratory of Biological Modelling” because the name of the group had that double L typo in the story.)

Here’s why the story is so important.

1. Reading it, it’s clear that two things are likely the case. First, to keep the fat off, the 100 calorie daily net decrease must stay in place. And, it’s important to think in terms of at least a 3 year plan to remove the fat initially.

There are people who do better than that. And, we’ll next describe how they manage it.

But the two general statements ARE accurate and important.

The term “diet” and what most people mean by it is treacherous and tends to lead to fat loss failure.

a) One key reason is that most people define it as temporarily not eating as many calories after which they assume the fat loss will stay off once the temporary period ends.

b) The other is that most people presume that “going on a diet” for 6 months will remove all their excess fat and to plan on a 6 month effort.

Dr Hall is saying in very fact based way that the data show that both these beliefs are both proven to be false.

That’s why most people who write about permanent weight loss or permanent fat loss, talk about permanent lifestyle upgrades and do NOT talk much about diets! They don’t always use the term, “permanent lifestyle upgrades,” but what they recommend is always just that.

2. To do well with fat loss, his data show that having your body slow your metabolism less than the rate his data show can be a huge help in losing all your fat and in keeping it off.

3. To do well with fat loss his data show that doing things that tend to increase your metabolism can be a huge help in losing all your fat and in keeping it off.

These last two points are exactly what you need after you understand the first one to do well.

The people who do better than his model and those who succeed in losing all their excess fat and in keeping it off do those last two things.

2. How do you have your body slow your metabolism less than the rate his data show?

If you cut back your calories eaten too much and with no breaks and for too long at that level, your body’s failsafe famine response kicks in. You feel you have less energy because your body cuts back on what you feel like using and your metabolism drops so you burn fewer calories even at rest!

If you cut back on protein or fiber, this happens sooner and more severely.

He doesn’t talk about the fact that your famine response also makes you so much hungrier that you no longer eat that many fewer calories if you have access to food.

Cutting back that way causes failure. Most of us are the descendants of people who were the survivors during famines many times over.

So, you cut back less initially and plan to take longer. His data suggest planning a multi-year plan already. But cutting back to moderate intake instead of tiny intake helps you prevent triggering this famine response.

And, that’s true even though you cut back more on some days. The first time I lost weight cutting back less overall was one of the reasons I succeeded.

Second, the people we are descended from for hundreds of thousands of years – even when there was no famine – varied from day to day in how much they got to eat. So if your protein supply is excellent and you get enough fiber and then eat a bit low on the moderate side some days and moderate some days, your body may slow your metabolism a bit, but the massive slowdown doesn’t happen nor does the extreme hunger that you can’t resist.

I learned this idea initially from author Jon Benson. His version he calls the, “Every Other Day Diet.”

There are other effective ways; but his method works and I used it myself for the fat and weight I lost recently. The fact that I still have kept most of it off is due in part to my continuing to follow my version of his plan.

And just within the last few months there was a news story that cutting back to low moderate calorie intake and a bit higher in protein for just TWO nonconsecutive days a week, people in that group lost something like two or three times as much weight as people who cut back all 7 days.

Third, getting enough health OK protein foods and fiber mostly from nonstarchy vegetables and beans and lentils helps keep you from getting too hungry. Since being too hungry is hard on you and ALSO helps trigger your famine response, that too is extremely useful.

So what to cut back on instead? To some extent, everything else.

But for sure, every single thing you can stop eating or drinking that cuts your hunger very little when you have it or actually makes you hungrier, stop entirely or as close to it as you can manage – as in 95 % of the time or more!

Regular and diet soft drinks are exactly that. Regular adds calories without lowering your hunger and they both tend to make you hungrier later!

And, since one goal of weight loss and fat loss is good health and feeling better, anything that tends to cause disease or makes you feel bad, stop entirely or as close to it as you can manage – as in 95 % of the time or more! High fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and refined grains and the foods made from them are good examples of this one.

3. How can you actually work to avoid the other cause of the metabolism slowdown or even speed yours up?

There are several ways to do that too.

Have you heard that exercise doesn’t help with fat loss? That’s false!

Other than the fact that you will also need to eat a bit less and a lot better to lose weight and lose fat at all, to lose ONLY fat and to keep it off, exercise is essential.

It’s also essential to have your life work well and to stay healthy.

Walking is something your body is set up to do from hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. It’s a mild enough exercise that you can do a lot of it and not have your body trigger your famine response.

And if you can walk an hour a day or burn 300 calories a day by walking, you can cut back on food by 200 or 300 calories less and still lose fat which enables you to eat more and be less hungry while still losing fat.

But after doing all the walking you have time for, you may not be able to do that much of it.

The better news is that strength training and interval cardio can be done in less time than walking. And, they both add muscle and prevent you from losing it if you eat enough protein.

Muscle gained and/or none lost help prevent your metabolism from slowing!

But it gets better! If you do some of your strength training and interval cardio at a moderately intense or vigorous level, you burn more calories for up to several hours after you stop.

You might burn 100 calories by doing 15 minutes of interval cardio and then burn 50 extra calories an hour for another five hours.

In short, exercise, and particularly vigorous interval cardio and strength training both prevent metabolism drop off from losing muscle instead of fat, AND they also boost your metabolism by a good bit they day you do them!

Plus, when you succeed in adding muscle, your metabolism is higher even when you are resting and on your days off because that muscle burns more calories than fat does!

The research backs this up too. In one study I read of recently, the group that only ate less lost a bit; but the matched group that ate a bit less AND did strength training too, lost 9 more pounds on the average in the same time period and they lost a lot more inches.

So, they not only lost more, the extra they lost was fat!

Conclusion, eating a bit less by eating better for you food plus just a bit more cut backs on some days plus getting strength training and interval cardio; having a long term approach; and making each part a permanent lifestyle upgrade, DOES work.

Permanent fat loss and losing most or all of your fat IS possible.

So, Dr Hall’s data can be good news if you know what to do about it!

My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post: Monday, 2-20-2012

Since last month, The good news is on building more muscle. And, so far, that news is VERY good.

On my one-legged squats while holding a dumbbell, I went from 12 for each leg while holding a 25 lb dbl to 14 for each leg while holding the 25 lb dbl AND a 15 lb dbl in my other hand. Since the one legged style is like doing about 165 lbs on a barbell two legged squat, that's possibly as much as now doing 245 lbs.

I bought a 30 lb dbl last month just after my January measuring session. Then that Monday, I replaced the 25 lb dbl I'd been doing all my one handed upper body exercises with using that 30 lb dbl. It took some getting used to but I'm already about where I was with the 25 since that upgrade was long overdue.

Then, the Saturday I measured this time, I bought a 50 lb dbl to use with one handed shoulder shrugs and bent over rows. And, I bought a 35 lb dbl to begin to work up to on the 30 pound exercises now.

When I went to the gym I used 55 lb dbls for shrugs and 75 lb dbls for bent over rows. So the 50 pound dbl is also long overdue. But since I've not used it for a good bit, it will take getting used to AND between the two newest dbls and the 30 lb one from last month, I think I can add some muscle.

For example, if I can manage building up to one legged squats, getting into and standing up from a lunge position holding the 35 lb dbl in one hand and the 50 in the other, that will be somewhat similar to doing squats with 330 lb. If I manage to do that and not have any injuries achieving that WILL add muscle to my legs and butt and likely enough to shrink my waist!

That’s the good news.

However, since last month I gained one & a half pounds on the scale. That’s the bad news. It's even worse news too since in addition, the month before, I'd gained two and a half pounds. So although I'd lost two pounds the two months before that, in the past two months, I gained four pounds despite maintaining my basic fat loss eating pattern that initially lost me close to 20 pounds. I have kept half that off. But to be at my goal weight I now need to lose at least 8 pounds and have it all be fat.

But that's not all the bad news. Last month I'd lost some on my waist the month before. This time, I gained that back & about a quarter of an inch more. Since my goal is to lose 4 to 6 inches on my waist, clearly I need to lose the 8 pounds AND at least 15 pounds more of fat more that I replace with 15 pounds of muscle.

I may be on track for the muscle gain. But I need to do a good bit more to lose fat too.

The last two months was my holiday weight gain as you'll see. But had my fat loss program been on track, I'd have not gained any or just a pound or two NOT four pounds.

So, I need to boost my fat loss efforts.

First, here's why it was my holiday weight gain. I was really under the weather for Thanksgiving. So although I managed to go and enjoy the people, I had no appetite to eat much or enjoy the dinner. SO, I made up for that at Christmas dinner (on purpose) & ate a Thanksgiving sized meal when I'd have been a bit more restrained had Thanksgiving been normal.

Then at the end of last month, the local football team, was in the playoffs on a day I could go to the sports bar for crab cakes and beer. They lost but played well enough to win and very nearly did.

Then I watched the Superbowl at the sports bar and had crab cakes and a bit more beer.

Lastly, a week ago yesterday, there was a family dinner for my birthday. I ate well at that and had extra of the superb & very chocolate-y brownies they had for dessert!

I ate enough at those 3 dinners since I measured last month to and the Christmas dinner the month before, that had I not ate right the rest of the time and exercised, I could easily have gained more than 4 pounds!

But clearly I wasn't eating well enough to gain no pounds to replace the four pounds of fat I was losing the rest of that time.

Plus now I need to lose 8 pounds instead of 4 to get back to my goal weight.

What to do?

Because my breakfasts lunches and dinners are mostly OK and virtually the same from week to week, what varies for me is my after dinner snacks.

The better news is that the past two month I kept the journal I began about 2 months ago.

But the other part of the plan was a no show. My planned increase in broccoli was low and sporadic although I DID manage some. But it wasn't virtually every day by a long ways! And, eating less almond butter simply did NOT happen at all.

So, it's clear I need a larger and more easily accessible supply of raw broccoli florets to fill me up virtually every evening and to be far more strict on eating the spoons of almond butter. The two are solidly linked. I can eat only one serving of the almond butter on my less strict every other day and none at all on my strict days. But to be full enough to manage that, I need the larger and more easily accessible supply of raw broccoli florets to fill me up available each evening which it has not yet been.

I have a new plan to make the larger and more easily accessible supply of raw broccoli florets available each evening. Let's see by next month how I do.

I think I'll lose a pound or two a month once that's in place. What I don't know is if it will lose me all of the 8 pounds before it stops causing fat loss. We certainly will find out!

Part of the 4 pound gain over the two months was from the extra wine at the two family dinners and the beer two times that was in addition to what I normally drink.

Last week that was back to normal and it will be quite a while before those special occasions happen again.


So last month offers some promise and had some progress despite the bad news on the scale and tape measure.

(I now need to lose 8 pounds total to return to my goal weight. And, I still need to lose at least four to 6 inches off my waist.

According to pictures I’ve seen, I’m now at about 25 % bodyfat. To remove my abdominal fat, according to those same pictures, I also need to add enough muscle to stay at or just slightly below my goal weight AND lose about 12% to 15% of my current bodyweight as fat.

This translates into losing 20 to 28 pounds of fat while gaining 12 to 20 pounds of muscle.)

I'm finally putting the initial plan in place to add the muscle. But the fat loss part still needs some work. And so does my total calories of exercise and activity. I average 1400 calories a week now. But 3500 would be better. The good news is that there may be a 2100 calorie a week fix I can actually do. The next section repeats that from last time.

* X * X *X *

(Future improvements still planned:

Eventually I’ll also need to get a specialized minibike or other seated leg exerciser I can use while seated at my desk and another I can use while reading at home or at my home computer.

They don’t yet make those that I know of but most people today need them. Given the health harm of sitting too much and how many people do that, these minibikes or other seated exerciser for your legs and chairs that match them well are coming soon I think.

Walking burns about 300 calories an hour. (200 if you are skinny and walk slowly to over 500 if you walk really fast or walk somewhat fast but are much heavier.)

Using a seated minibike or other seated exerciser that you use much less effort on but keep moving slowly most of the time you sit can easily burn 50 calories an hour.

Then if like many people today you sit for 6 hours a day, you could easily add an extra 2100 calories a week by using a seated minibike exerciser most of the time you sit at home or at work. That would help people lose about 2 and a half pounds a month for a few months once they got into the habit of always using one.

If I’d used one of the seated minibikes since I began my current fatloss plan, I’d still need to add the extra muscle to be at my goal weight. But I’d be trying to add muscle weight to get back to my goal weight! That’s because I’d be 10 to 15 pounds less fat.)

I’ve also had an idea for awhile. Before sewing machines had electric power, they had an under the work area treadle that was designed to be effective but avoid distracting the person sewing from doing their sewing.

It may be possible to find an antique sewing machine and find a manufacturer to make a design of that treadle mechanism that would do the same for people working at a desk.

It’s proven to do the job needed in actual use!)

I’ll let you know how my additional planned changes and efforts work next month.