I woke up early to go to the gym to get my measurements as part of the 90 day challenge. It has been exactly 2 weeks since I started the challenge and here is my latest results! Drum roll please...
Weight: this week is 128.5, last week was 132.1 that's 3.6 lbs! 2 weeks ago my weight was 134. That is 5.5 lbs in 2 weeks! When I started in January 3rd i weighted 136
Body fat percentage: this week is 28.8 %;last week was 27.8 % and two weeks ago was 31.7. Since the challenge I have lost 2% body fat January 3rd my body fat was 32.8%
Body Measurement wise since January 3 rd
I lost 2.5 inches in my waist, 2 inches in my hip, 2 inches at lower waist (around belly button) I can't wait to try on the black dress I brought from Zara last year that was too tight and see how it fit now
This is also second week of my low carb journey. Except the very first two days, I really feel good and ate delicious nutritious meals that didn't make me feel deprived. Even my old favorite thing rice, has lost it's attraction ;)
Here are some of my observations:
1) dietary fat doesn't translate to body fat. During these last two weeks I tracked meticulously everything that enters my mouth and I can say with certainty that my fat intake (both saturated and unsaturated from plant say coconut oil, or animal say fat on ribeye and butter) did not cause me to gain fat rather I lost fat. Our daily calories from fat is about 55-60, calories from carb is around 17-25 %and protein is 20-28%
2) the meat we eat is exact same amount than before usually 3-4 oz per meal. The difference is the leanness. We now eat fattier meats then before, like thighs, lambs, ribeyes occasionally.
3) I slacked off big time in work out this last week. I only did weights on time as oppose to 3 and my cardio was more lay back like walking or elliptical at easy setting. I totally didn't do any pushups either. That may explain why I lost some weight that wasn't fat... I'm hopping it is water and not muscle, but this week I will refocus on workout. I don't want to loose my precious muscle that I work so hard to get. I'm surprised that despite all I lost 2.6 lbs and 1% body fat. Nutrition and what one eats is really important.
What I will change to my routine and do different this week
Last week I wrote that I want to walk after meals for 15 min and not eat anything before bedtime ( if I'm really hungry I will drink half a cup of warm almond milk, but I hadn't have to all week) the result is I didn't do the walks consistently but I was able to stop snacking before bed.
This week I will continue to not snack before bed or even 3 hr before bedtime and I will also do push-ups on tue, thu and Saturdays so they don't conflict with weight lifting days.
After weight lifting instead of doing one hr regular low heart rate cardio I will do 20 min interval cardio.
I will continue on the low carb diet since I can't see going back to the old way of eating. I do budget for 2 cheat meals per week but so far I have been using just one a week because I don't have any strong cravings.
Lets see if those changes will improve next week numbers!
Showing posts with label Nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nutrition. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Why we get fat? What surprised me and may shock you too
Many of you may have heard me complained about the fact that despite my diligent and consistent exercise and keeping a calorie journal i have not lost much weight in almost one month and half. My family would even as far as call me obsess with counting intake and expenditure calories however if the conventional wisdom is true that for every 3500 calories in deficit I should loose one pound of fat then I should have lost at least one pound per week or more so by now I should have lost 5-7 pounds and not just 1.8 pounds.
I always say lack of success doesn't mean lack of progress, because I do feel that I'm stronger and I can surely lift more weight, run faster and do more push up then I started so I'm happy with the progress. Also i have noticed that i enjoy exercise more and my skin is better as result of all the cardio, but I really want to know why I'm not loosing more weight, body fat and inches. According to my last thursday weight in i have lost 1% body fat from 32.7 to 31.8. mind you, this is after 7 weeks of hard labor. This curiosity really drives me crazy.
In an article in the January/February issue lifetime fitness magazine (which I read religiously when I'm bored in the sauna) I read an interested article that make mention of a book call" why we get fat" the author gary taubes seems to have impressive credentials and if anyone claims to know why we get fat (or why we can't loose the fat) I want to know!
At home with Fernando we googled the talk by Gary taubes
Wow, it really open my eyes! This is an old book it was out in 2011 and his previous book good carb bad carb was out in 2007. I guess I'm just a late adopter and I'm just now hearing it for the first time. I highly recommend you watch this youtube video. I never really understood all the fuzz about the low carbs, paleo diets and like many of you thought Akins diet was suicidal. I wish someone would have explained to me in such simple terms as Gary did in this video years ago.
What I learn from this video are the following conclusions and for supporting arguments/evidences please refer to the book or the video.
1) while calorie in and calorie out is important more important is why our body use the calorie to store it instead of using it ?
2) insulin controls the gate to the fat cells; when insulin levels is high fatty acid goes inside of fat cells and when insulin is low the fatty acid leaves fat cells ( thus reducing the size of fat cell)and the fatty acids can be used as fuel and energy to maintain body functions.
3) as we know, insulin is secreted primary as a respond to high glucose in the blood. High glucose or spike in glucose is caused by eating too much, sweets or refined carbohydrates or other high glycemic food such as white bread, pasta and some fruit such as bananas and grapes.
If those statements are true then if insulin levels are high, even if you are exercising and eating less, your body will not allow you to used store fat. I have said before that I believe in eating in moderation and I don't restrict any type of carb. In other words I believed an calorie is a calorie no matter what and white rice is just as good as brown rice when eating in moderation, under your calorie budget. But now I see that while calorie wise they may be similar the white rice will increase my insulting thus making burning stored fat difficult and facilitate increase of new fat storage
While I'm still going to research more on this subject and will continue to update the readers on my findings I will change my daily routine to test a few hypothesis:
1) I will still count calories with myfitnesspal but starting from tomorrow I will research the glycemic index of all food I put in my mouth and only eat high glycemic index food. In addition I will cut rice, (brown or white) flour and all flour derived products (white and whole wheat), corn, potatoes and all starchy carbs. I'm not saying I will never eat them again (I'm too much in love with food to make that kind of long term commitment) but for this experiment I will do so for 2 weeks at least. Since I'm in the 90 day challenge at lifetime, I will get my body fat accurate measured every week so I should be able to see if this changes anything. I will eat plenty of veggie, mostly lean protein, but I will eat egg yolks and and whole milk product
2) after workout I usually drink 1% milk to replenish carb and protein. I will change it to whole milk or whole yogurt even thought the calorie is higher but glycemic index is lower. Instead of drinking anything with added cane sugar as ingredient (in protein shakes) I will eat a piece of lowglycemic fruit.
3) as far as exercise I will keep it the same so that I can easily compare to previously 7 weeks. Basically I do 7 day cardio for one hour with heart rate between 120-130. I also do 5 sets of push up 3 times a week and strength training 3 times a week rotating from upper and lower body.
4) I will research more about insulin and find out what else triggers insulin secretion in the body and if there is any other triggers for fatty acid movement (in and out of fat cells)
5) I have started to take cla supplement from Costco 3 times a day(2 tablets each) some literature suggest that cla plays a role in helping body burn stored fat with moderate exercise and reduce fat cell size.
6) eat smaller meals and more often to reduce glycemic load and maintain insulin levels constant
This should be an interesting experimentation. I would be happy to report back and share my results. In addition I'm also researching genetic differences between Asian and American population and what should be the ideal diets for optimal health. So stay tune!
I always say lack of success doesn't mean lack of progress, because I do feel that I'm stronger and I can surely lift more weight, run faster and do more push up then I started so I'm happy with the progress. Also i have noticed that i enjoy exercise more and my skin is better as result of all the cardio, but I really want to know why I'm not loosing more weight, body fat and inches. According to my last thursday weight in i have lost 1% body fat from 32.7 to 31.8. mind you, this is after 7 weeks of hard labor. This curiosity really drives me crazy.
In an article in the January/February issue lifetime fitness magazine (which I read religiously when I'm bored in the sauna) I read an interested article that make mention of a book call" why we get fat" the author gary taubes seems to have impressive credentials and if anyone claims to know why we get fat (or why we can't loose the fat) I want to know!
Wow, it really open my eyes! This is an old book it was out in 2011 and his previous book good carb bad carb was out in 2007. I guess I'm just a late adopter and I'm just now hearing it for the first time. I highly recommend you watch this youtube video. I never really understood all the fuzz about the low carbs, paleo diets and like many of you thought Akins diet was suicidal. I wish someone would have explained to me in such simple terms as Gary did in this video years ago.
What I learn from this video are the following conclusions and for supporting arguments/evidences please refer to the book or the video.
1) while calorie in and calorie out is important more important is why our body use the calorie to store it instead of using it ?
2) insulin controls the gate to the fat cells; when insulin levels is high fatty acid goes inside of fat cells and when insulin is low the fatty acid leaves fat cells ( thus reducing the size of fat cell)and the fatty acids can be used as fuel and energy to maintain body functions.
3) as we know, insulin is secreted primary as a respond to high glucose in the blood. High glucose or spike in glucose is caused by eating too much, sweets or refined carbohydrates or other high glycemic food such as white bread, pasta and some fruit such as bananas and grapes.
If those statements are true then if insulin levels are high, even if you are exercising and eating less, your body will not allow you to used store fat. I have said before that I believe in eating in moderation and I don't restrict any type of carb. In other words I believed an calorie is a calorie no matter what and white rice is just as good as brown rice when eating in moderation, under your calorie budget. But now I see that while calorie wise they may be similar the white rice will increase my insulting thus making burning stored fat difficult and facilitate increase of new fat storage
While I'm still going to research more on this subject and will continue to update the readers on my findings I will change my daily routine to test a few hypothesis:
1) I will still count calories with myfitnesspal but starting from tomorrow I will research the glycemic index of all food I put in my mouth and only eat high glycemic index food. In addition I will cut rice, (brown or white) flour and all flour derived products (white and whole wheat), corn, potatoes and all starchy carbs. I'm not saying I will never eat them again (I'm too much in love with food to make that kind of long term commitment) but for this experiment I will do so for 2 weeks at least. Since I'm in the 90 day challenge at lifetime, I will get my body fat accurate measured every week so I should be able to see if this changes anything. I will eat plenty of veggie, mostly lean protein, but I will eat egg yolks and and whole milk product
2) after workout I usually drink 1% milk to replenish carb and protein. I will change it to whole milk or whole yogurt even thought the calorie is higher but glycemic index is lower. Instead of drinking anything with added cane sugar as ingredient (in protein shakes) I will eat a piece of lowglycemic fruit.
3) as far as exercise I will keep it the same so that I can easily compare to previously 7 weeks. Basically I do 7 day cardio for one hour with heart rate between 120-130. I also do 5 sets of push up 3 times a week and strength training 3 times a week rotating from upper and lower body.
4) I will research more about insulin and find out what else triggers insulin secretion in the body and if there is any other triggers for fatty acid movement (in and out of fat cells)
5) I have started to take cla supplement from Costco 3 times a day(2 tablets each) some literature suggest that cla plays a role in helping body burn stored fat with moderate exercise and reduce fat cell size.
6) eat smaller meals and more often to reduce glycemic load and maintain insulin levels constant
This should be an interesting experimentation. I would be happy to report back and share my results. In addition I'm also researching genetic differences between Asian and American population and what should be the ideal diets for optimal health. So stay tune!
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