Weight Loss Progress – January Update January 30, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in weight loss.Tags: paleo diet, weight loss
9 comments
Finally the weight loss has started to kick into overdrive once again. Here you can see a graph of my weight loss over the 19 weeks I have been doing this.
You can see around week 7 the little increase in weight. This was when I introduced whole grains back into the diet thinking that it would be ok if they were unprocessed. Clearly, I was wrong! Also another increase occurs around weeks 13-14 and this was during the christmas period where I was eating and drinking all sorts of non paleo foods. Finally, you can see the sudden drop this week. This week I introduced intermittent fasting to my diet and I think this is a result of that. It is only saturday here in NZ (11:45am) and I have another two days until the week officially ends and my weight is currently sitting at 102.9 kg or 226.6 pounds. Thats a 1.4 kg (3.1 pound) loss so far this week. So I do believe that intermittent fasting introduces a new dietary tool to get rid of that fat. Next week (or next) I intend to seriously introduce some high intensity training and so I will be interested to see the results from this.
So here are the pics.
- 29 September….29 November….29 January
- 29 September….29 November….29 January
The Omega Fatty Acids and Brain Evolution – Part I January 30, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Omega 3.Tags: brain evolution, mammal evolution, Omega fats, paleo diet
5 comments
For the first 2.5 billion years of life on the planet, the blue-green algae dominated the oceans. The algae trapped the suns energy by photosynthesis and converted this to complex molecules, including proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids that were rich in n-3 (omega 3) fatty acids. Based on the sudden explosive radiation of phyla in the fossil record oxidative metabolism became prominent about 600 million years ago. Basically, this means that all of a sudden there were organisms (animals) that were using oxygen to release energy from those stored complex molecules in algae. Thus, the visual senses, nervous systems and brains of animals evolved in a docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA (a type of omega 3 fatty acid), rich environment.
The dominance of omega 3 fatty acids continued until the end of the Cretaceous period 70 million years ago where the fossil record shows mass extinctions of giant reptiles, cycads and ferns and the rise to dominance of flowering plants. Flowering plants stored lipids to be used as energy for germination and these lipids were rich in omega 6 fatty acids. At the same time a new group of animals replaced the reign of the giant reptiles and these were the mammals. It may not be a coincidence that mammals require omega 6 fatty acids for reproduction and brain development.
Mammalian brain size is much larger in proportion to body weight compared with their reptilian or amphibious predecessors. This difference could be explained by the evolution of the placenta (a mammalian morphological trait) which continuously supplies energy and nutrients to the development of one or more progeny during the critical phase of brain development. For humans 70% of energy during this time is devoted to brain growth. The placenta is a rapidly growing vascular system with a high requirement for omega 6 fatty acids, especially arachidonic acid (AA), in addition to DHA the omega 3 fatty acid. DHA and AA are major constituents of the brain with the precursors being virtually absent. The emergence, and use of, the omega 6 fatty acids (such as AA) may have added the missing biochemical link liberating genetic potentials for vascular development, the evolution of the mammary gland or placenta, and the larger brains of mammals.
The availabilities of DHA and AA may have been limiting factors in the evolution of the brain, and the need for both omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids for development and health of the vascular system and brain has long been recognised. Today, we get a much higher proportion of Omega 6 fatty acids and little Omega 3 fatty acids. Surly, since our mammalian brains and bodies have evolved to require both of these substances a lack of omega 3’s could only be extremely negative for our health. This may explain the decrease in the size of our skull, and therefore brain, once we stopped consuming Omega 3’s in high proportions after the agricultural revolution.
Food
Today was my last fast for the week. I fasted for 24 hrs. I was very tired, grumpy and lethargic. So I may be over doing this. I will only do it once or twice a week to ease myself into it. But overall it has been a beneficial experience. When I came home I finally ate at around 7 pm and had some marinated lean pork with chard.
Then I was still hungry. So I had some lamb with a salad that consisted of mesclun salad with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes.
PS – another great blog I found is zeroing in on health. Unfortunately, I cant leave comments and tell this guy how well written and great his blog is. But hopefully this link will let him know. When he says zero carbs he means it as he eats only meat from what I can tell!
A New Frontier January 29, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in weight loss.Tags: intermittent fasting, paleo diet, weight loss
5 comments
So the good news is the fasts are working. Today I weighed in at 103.7 kg or 228.6 pounds. Although this is only 100g below my prior lowest weight it is more than just the weight. What it means is that I am back in the swing of things. That I have worked out what works for me and its WORKING! So I think I have learn’t a lot in the last week if you wanna paleo and lose weight.
1. Eat LOTS of leafy green vegetables
2. Make meat and organs your primary energy source. Also include lots of fish.
3. Fast for 24 hrs twice, maybe three times, a week but NOT back to back.
4. Don’t worry about calories. It won’t matter if you do this.
5. Watch out for fruits and non-green veges. They do increase your carb intake and for me I need to keep it really LOW (below 50g).
So thats pretty much what is working for me at the moment. Oh and perhaps I should have added eat normal sized meals. I think I might have that one down too. I keep wanting to binge and eat heaps. But lately I have realised I don’t need to eat as much to be full. This has resulted in me eating a lot less food.
So today I had some smoked fish with coleslaw for lunch. I didn’t have breakfast which meant I didn’t eat for 17 hrs. Weird and that did NOT feel like a fast. To me a fast doesn’t start until after the 18th hour but I know that some (who have more experience in fasting) disagree. So lets say thats my personal opinion no matter how warped it is.
Then for an afternoon snack I had some roast pork left over from last night with a mesclun salad and tomatoes. For dinner I had some of the smoked fish left over. See I told you I wasn’t bingeing. I put this in with some coconut cream, courgettes (zuchinni), onion, peas, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, chilli and garlic. It was really tasty and very filling. Probably ate more than I needed to (shuuuuuut up).
I know I havn’t exercised much lately. So to counteract this I have decided that next week Im joining the gym. I want to do some powerlifting – squats, deadlifts and bench press. Thats it. Three times a week and it will probably take about 20 mins. Not sure if I want to do anything else but am open to suggestions!
Last but not least. I have found a cool new paleo blog site and so if you havnt already check it out its called barbarian blog. Redbeerd who runs the blog is a very valuable and thoughtful commenter here at Darwin’s table and so I have a strong feeling his blog will be well worth watching.
Back to Back Fasting January 28, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in intermittent fasting.Tags: intermittent fasting, paleo diet
9 comments
After yesterday I wanted to fast again today. I wanted to see if I would be alert during the day and then not be hungry at all. Well, I think that back to back fasts for me at this stage was probably jumping the gun a bit. I felt very tired, lethargic and grumpy. I was very low in energy. I didn’t have food cravings as such but my stomach felt very empty and I knew intuitively that it needed food. Although it was hard to pinpoint what food as I wasn’t really craving anything. When I did finally eat at 7 pm (24 hr fast) I didn’t feel hungry afterwards at all. So I think Im starting to see how this does reduce your appetite. Also, today I didn’t overeat and just ate a normal sized meal. It was roast pork with some silverbeet (chard) cooked in the fat from the pork.
All in all I think back to back fasts was not a good idea. But I will certainly make this a habit and do it at least once or twice a week. Although my rules have fallen to the wayside somewhat I feel like the paleo diet boot camp has evolved my eating patterns quite drastically which was the aim. Also I do feel back on track. But for me the ultimate test will be if I drop weight.
The Fast – Boot Camp Day 4 January 27, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Paleo Boot Camp.Tags: intermittent fasting, paleo diet
9 comments
Well I did it. I stopped eating at 7 p.m last night and I ate today at 7 p.m. A 24 hr fast – not quite the 30 hr fast I intended but long enough. So this is what I noticed. Although my stomach was rumbling throughout the day I never had food cravings. Clearly my stomach wanted food but it was a physical discomfort which was easily remedied with some hot water or tea. It was not the usual food cravings where you can’t think of anything else but food and it almost feels like every fibre in your body is screaming for you to eat.
I find it interesting that I lacked any food cravings. I have always known that I only get ‘hungry’ after my first meal of the day. In fact Im not even sure this is hunger now but, as I mentioned, food cravings probably induced by the sudden spike in insulin. Once I have eaten however these cravings continue and its hard to turn them off until I have woken up again on a new day. This is likely to be because once you leave the fast state into the fed state it takes approximately 18 hrs to get back out of it again and into a fasting state where you no longer feel hungry.
When I finally did eat (at 7 pm) I made a massive meal. It consisted of 600 g of gravy beef (21 oz), 115g of chicken kidney (4 oz), 400 g of spinach (14 oz), a whole broccoli head, an onion and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. This meal was huge and I made it into a stew but I had absolutely no difficulty eating it. I find after the meal I have no hunger whatsoever. I am simply full and content. Here it is.
The lack of hunger after this meal probably arises from the fact that the meal itself was a whopping 2200 calories. It was also extremely low in carbs with only 27.8g consumed. I think the combination of fasting all day, and therefore lowering down my insulin levels, and then having an extremely low carb dinner helped to control the cravings. In fact I have become quite sleepy and it is clear to me that my body is telling me to go get some sleep so it can digest the meal. In summary, I was highly alert during the day until I ate which then meant bedtime. This of course makes intuitive sense for a big meat eating animal. It should be highly motivated, alert and energetic when searching for food but then go and rest for a long time once its made a kill as this will allow it to digest the food.
I might try and repeat this process again. In order to do this it means I have to stop eating again now. In other words I get to eat one meal everyday with a 24 hr fast in between. This is similar to hunter gatherers who typically only eat one meal a day. Before everyone says I won’t be getting enough calories and this will effect my metabolism let me remind you that I ate 2200 calories in one sitting. This is the same as the amount of calories I normally get over a whole day. The only difference is I had a 24 hr fast in between rather than breaking down the meals over the day.
Also with the combination of green leafy vegetables, organs, meat and olive oil my vitamin and mineral intake is once again much higher than the RDA allowance. I truly believe that I have found the way to eat and the foods to eat. I will endeavour to continue this for a few more days and see what happens. It seems that the paleo diet boot camp was a great idea as it has given me many interesting revelations.
1. Fasting reduces cravings because your in a fast state
2. When you do eat a meal make sure it is very low in carbs so the insulin spike isn’t high enough to induce cravings when you enter into the fed state. For me this is below 50g.
3. Having a diet largely consisting of meat and organs with supplementation from green leafy vegetables and olive oil will give you more than adequate nutrients and calories. All other vegetables and fruits are not important and simply garnishing. They are not needed as you can get everything from eating spinach and chard, which really make the difference.
Modern diseases of civilization – in bears? January 27, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in animal studies.6 comments
A study has found that black bears that have given up on the wilderness and now live in the city are obese. They divided black bears into a group that was found only in the wilderness and another group that came into the city to forage. The city slickers get most of their food from dumpster diving behind fast food joints and in the suburbs where they would ’forage’ on food in the garbage. In the wild, black bears typically eat berries and deer. City bears dining on garbage were 30% fatter than wild bears. These bears were also 30% less active than wild bears. Hmmm eat rubbish and stop exercising and you get fat – seems to be a current theme no matter what species you are.
Sadly all the city bears were dead by the time they were 10, while over 60% of the wild bears made it past this age. You may argue that bears are not supposed to to eat food they havnt evolved to eat, such as the foods we make. My argument…….neither have we! Bears are extremely efficient foragers being intelligent, resourceful and adaptable. When they find a good food resource they make use of it very quickly. So city bears are not lazier than wild bears, but in the city are able to spend very little time foraging in order to gain a large amount of calories whereas their wild cousins must hunt for hours to get the same energy input. Sound familiar? We are NOT that different.
Feast and Fast Cycle in Carnivores January 26, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in animal studies.7 comments
Because I am fasting I thought I would look at some of the literature and find out the benefits of intermittent fasting for humans. But I got a little side tracked and found that intermittent fasting works for lions also. Lions in captivity face problems of obesity and this is likely to be because they are in a continuous feast cycle. Yet, lions in the wild only tend to eat every 2.5 days in the plains and 3.5 days in the woodlands.
To mediate these problems lions were placed on a gorge and fast cycle that better simulates naturalistic patterns. Digestibility of protein, fat and dry matter increased significantly. Food intake was also decreased and the weight of lions became similar to those of their wild cousins. When they resumed conventional eating patterns the lions put on weight again. Also, while fasting lions became less active and rested for similar periods as wild lions, which sleep approximately 20 hrs a day.
Boot Camp (Paleo Style): Day 3 January 26, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Paleo Boot Camp.Tags: paleo diet
5 comments
Arrrgghhh. I decided to go on a fast tomorrow and the thought of food restriction messed with my head. Thinking restriction lead to hoarding behaviour and the mentality that I better eat now so I don’t starve. Thus, I binged out and ate far too much meat, which pushed me over the limit of 2200 calories. In fact it pushed me waaaayyyy over the limit. Unfortunately, I had the fatty ham in the fridge and I finished it off which meant I ate 1.2 kg of ham over the day. Because it was so high in fat, and therefore calories, this meant I ended up eating 5200 calories. This also pushed my saturated fat content up higher so that it wasn’t half that of monounsaturated fats. This was the damage.
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On a positive side this has kind of tied my hands and I will have to fast tomorrow so that these calories are halved over two days. If I do this (which I will) then my goals will still be reached as I intended my calorie intake and monounsaturated/saturated fat ratio to be at the correct level over the week not each day! Yeah TOTAL cognitive dissonance. Im hoping that after a few of these fasts Ill stop been so afraid of them and hitting the fridge.
Oh and just to make my day. I was 104.3 kg this week, which is half a kilogram over last week. But this past week was anxiety hell and so Im glad I didn’t put on a lot more. However, I seem to be retaining water as my water % is much higher than normal. So I have a feeling this weight gain is water! But I can’t figure out why.
So here is how my day got progressively worse. Well it started off well. I had a salad this morning with mesculin, avocado, lemon juice, olive oil and prawns.
Then later in the morning I had some blueberries. Yummy. Still going well…
Then the out of control attack began and continued. I had ham (X 5).
Tomorrow I will stick to the fast. I walked today for about 15 mins.
Boot Camp (Paleo Style): Day 2 January 25, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Paleo Boot Camp.3 comments
If you have not already please read the paleo boot camp rules before reading this post.
So after receiving a couple of comments I have adjusted two of the rules I made. Firstly, Stargazey from lowcarb4u suggested not lowering my calorie intake below my BMI as this can cause my metabolic rate to drop right down and my body to go into energy conservation mode. So I will make sure my calorie intake stays around 2200 calories. Also, Richard from Free the Animal suggested not fasting for 16 hrs but rather doing a 30 hr fast as the positive effects, such as fat burning, don’t start until after 18 hrs. So I have adjusted the rule so that now I am fasting once for 30 hrs each week.
Fortunately, I have noticed that I can still get my protein intake above 150g, and keep my monounsaturated/saturated fat ratio at 2:1, without having to trim the fat off the meat. So this makes me very happy. I think this is largely coming from eating a lot more meat and organs and less vegetables and fruits. The vegetables I am largely eating are leafy green vegetables. You may think that this is unhealthy but let me assure you it is not. Having consumed only olive oil, leafy greens, organs and meat today my vitamins and minerals are far higher than the recommended daily allowance. If you don’t believe me look at my intake today (% of RDA).
Vitamin A: 635%
Vitamin B6: 272%
Vitamin B12: 936%
Vitamin C: 145%
Vitamin E: 144%
Pant. Acid: 226%
Phosphorous: 268%
Potassium: 117%
Riboflav: 318%
Selenium: 535%
Thiamin: 311%
Zinc: 182%
I was taking multi vitamin and mineral supplements, but now I think I might stop because if I keep eating this way there is absolutely no need for them. The fact that I can get all my nutritional requirements on such a low calorie intake amazes me and is further evidence of how we really are evolved to eat organs and meat.
Today is the same as yesterday. I am simply not hungry much to my relief! I got quite hungry at midday and I had found some extremely cheap ham at the supermarket that I couldn’t resist. So I had nothing but ham for lunch.
I kept worrying that I was going to get hungry after lunch but it just didn’t happen. I remained full for the rest of the day. At 5pm I got the first pangs of hunger and so thought I better have something so I fried some chicken kidneys in olive oil/balsamic vinegar and had it with some beetroot.
Even though this was not much I was still full for the rest of the night. But I still had to have my serving of leafy green vegetables and get my monounsaturated fat intake up so I had some silverbeet (chard) with olive oil and garlic.
I went out nightclubbing last night. I didn’t drink any alcohol but did dance for about 30 mins so I think that that counts as exercise. As for my nutrition breakdown today here it is:
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Boot Camp (Paleo Style): Day 1 January 24, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Paleo Boot Camp.2 comments
You will not understand what I am talking about unless you have read this post describing my new rules for a paleo style boot camp that I have inflicted upon myself.
All rules obeyed and…….success. Complete and utter success. My hunger levels were practically non existent. I feel I am really back in control and am really motivated by the fact that I feel so completely different in just one day! My only worry at this stage is that I might get bored of the meals, but we will have to wait and see about that one. My vitamin and mineral intake was off the chart with intakes far higher than the RDA amounts. I think this is due to my mix of green leafy vegetables, organs and lean meats!
I cannot begin to explain the utter relief I feel. A huge weight has been taken off my shoulders (ha excuse the pun). I was beginning to get really scared that the train was starting to go off the rail and that my 10kg weight loss was all I was going to achieve and I had hit the wall. Basically, I felt a mixture of anxiety, failure and fear!!! But today has really turned around and got me back into it. Its really nice to not feel hungry every second. I am very glad to be back to the paleo basics and sticking to what has proven to be the most efficient way for me to lose weight. So Day 1 was a roaring success. Heres how it went:
I first started to feel hungry around midday so I had an omelette with four eggs cooked in olive oil. It was great and it did its job by filling me up. I kept waiting for the hunger pains to come to me but they stayed away. I believe this is because it was an extremely low carb meal.
I got hungry again around 4pm and so I made some beef and chicken liver stew. Yes it was organ day today. These two ingredients were added to 3 cups of water along with 2 bayleafs, peppercorns, mushrooms, onions, garlic and a carrot. I cooked it for about 45 mins and until the sauce was nice and thick. It tasted absolutely divine and I didn’t miss the salt at all. It also really filled me up for the rest of the night. I enjoyed the addition of the kidney and it really added some flavour so Im beginning to get that ‘acquired’ taste.
Later at around 7.30 pm I started to feel slightly hungry. So I had my serving of leafy green vegetables – a 600 gram (21 OZ) serving of silverbeet (chard) along with three tablespoons of olive oil and garlic mixed in. This got rid of any hunger I had and I felt REALLY good afterwards.
For exercise it was a fairly laid back event. I went to the beach with my friend and played around in the water. Nothing dramatic but it was good and its nice to be working my whole body. Including abs as you really use your abs to balance yourself when you are floating!
Here is my nutrition breakdown.
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As you can see the fat content is still high but a far higher proportion coming from monounsaturated fats. Protein was above 150g and carbs below 50g. My calories were slightly over 2000 but well within an acceptable limit. In fact, stargazey from lowcarb4u mentioned how I should really keep my intake at around my basal metabolic rate otherwise your body starts to reduce the BMR and goes into starvation mode. I think that this makes sense so this slightly higher calorie intake doesn’t concern me at all.
