Ok, now I'm really frustrated. First the numbers. This week my averages:
Calories: 2280.7
Fat: 172.2 g or 68% of calories
Protein: 116.4 or 20% of calories
Carbs: 28.8 g or 5% of calories
Fiber: 7 g
And my weight? Well the two day average puts me at 211.1 so 1.1 pounds over my 2 day average last week. Body fat 24.7 % so the same as my 2 day average last week. Given the margin for error for my equipment, I would suggest that I have essentially maintained my weight while eating in the range of 1700 to 2300 calories a week. There appears to be little or no difference in eating 1700 calories or 2300 calories (although the highest calorie count was this week) in terms of maintaining my weight.
Now I wasn't as successful in working out as much as I'd hoped. I did one slow burn workout, one set of tabata sprints on the treadmill and 2 - 45 minute walks on the treadmill. Not a lot but more than last week where my weight was less.
So what to do... Well, I'm off to Toronto for the weekend so there will be alot of walking for 3 days. When I get back I should be able to fit in a couple slow burn workouts but probably not a tabata day. Probably will be able to fit in a couple walking workouts though.
In terms of eating, well lowering my carbs down below 30 (close to Atkins induction in terms of net carbs) did nothing for me last week. I will still try to keep them at that level but I'm going to try for a week or two keeping my calories at around 1500 on average. With 1 24 hour fast next week (no breakfast or lunch), that'll probably mean the non fast days I can eat around 1600 calories and 800 on the day I break my fast. We'll see.
Does this mean I believe in Calories-In Calorie-Out? Well, I think that as a general rule for ALOT of weight loss, that belief is really useless. But for the last 15 pounds (which is what I want to lose) there may be something to be said for being conscious of a habit of eating a certain quantity of food when satiation can be reached with fewer calories allowing for the body to make up the deficit from the fat stores.
I suspect that for maintenance, calories-in calories-out becomes much less important. As the numbers for myself show (and yes I know this is one person's experience) you can maintain your weight with a range of calories so eating until satisfied is enough as long as you are keeping the carb count down. Once the carb count creeps up, you cannot trust your hunger/satiation response...
So let's see how this works. I'm not saying that 1500 calories a day will be easy and I am a bit worried about my metabolism slowing down but in theory, my body should be able to make up whatever deficit there is from my stubborn fat stores....
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
What else is wrong with Low Carb Diets?
I had a couple other things to add to my list of common (and wrong) objections to a low carb diet.
1. Low carb high protein diets are dangerous because they can cause osteoporosis.
First off, low carb diets are normally high fat not high protein. So that's silly. Secondly, this is based on some hypothetical reasoning not the clinical data. The logic goes like this (taken from here)
"a diet high in animal protein creates an acidic environment within the body. "When that happens, calcium in bone tissue is used to buffer the acidity. What you get is a lot of bone loss from bones when you're on a high protein diet,"
However, as we know from years of crappy advice, you can think through the hypothetical results of a dietary change and come up with a theory as to what will happen but that is very different from testing. I mean, let's remember that a hypothesis is the first step in the scientific process, not the last.
Here's an actual study of that hypothesis:
http://www.rxpgnews.com/osteoporosis/Low_carbohydrate_diet_did_not_increase_bone_loss_4320_4320.shtml
This is why I am skeptical of a lot of nutritional advice. Much of it is untested hypothesis, and much of the rest is based on badly designed studies. Thus I have my n=1 experiement.
2. Low carb diets are hard to stick too.
Has anyone out there tried the Ornish 10% calories from fat diet? Diets can be hard to stick to no matter what the composition. Being controversial makes it even harder to stick too. I can say from my own experience, I find low carb eating much easier than the rest because I can eat when I'm hungry and I don't have to count calories. I know, I know, I am counting calories right now but believe me, were I just maintaining my weight, I would not be. I see the calorie counting right now as a way of measuring what is going on so that I can see the results of changes...
3. Carbs are the body's preferred fuel source so limiting them is silly.
The reason people believe carbs are the body's preferred fuel source is because they are burned first, before fat. By the same logic, alcohol is even more preferred because it is burned before carbs. The reason blood sugar is burned first is because it is toxic at high levels so the body tries to get rid of it by burning or storing it. The body ensures it is burned first by choking off the supply from our fat stores so that we cannot burn fat. If the body had evolved to prefer carbs as a fuel source, wouldn't it make sense to evolve stores of carbs for burning? I know, that is just a hypothesis but it does make some sense. Aside from a small bit of sugar stored in muscles and the liver, the body does not keep sugar around. Doesn't that say something?
1. Low carb high protein diets are dangerous because they can cause osteoporosis.
First off, low carb diets are normally high fat not high protein. So that's silly. Secondly, this is based on some hypothetical reasoning not the clinical data. The logic goes like this (taken from here)
"a diet high in animal protein creates an acidic environment within the body. "When that happens, calcium in bone tissue is used to buffer the acidity. What you get is a lot of bone loss from bones when you're on a high protein diet,"
However, as we know from years of crappy advice, you can think through the hypothetical results of a dietary change and come up with a theory as to what will happen but that is very different from testing. I mean, let's remember that a hypothesis is the first step in the scientific process, not the last.
Here's an actual study of that hypothesis:
http://www.rxpgnews.com/osteoporosis/Low_carbohydrate_diet_did_not_increase_bone_loss_4320_4320.shtml
This is why I am skeptical of a lot of nutritional advice. Much of it is untested hypothesis, and much of the rest is based on badly designed studies. Thus I have my n=1 experiement.
2. Low carb diets are hard to stick too.
Has anyone out there tried the Ornish 10% calories from fat diet? Diets can be hard to stick to no matter what the composition. Being controversial makes it even harder to stick too. I can say from my own experience, I find low carb eating much easier than the rest because I can eat when I'm hungry and I don't have to count calories. I know, I know, I am counting calories right now but believe me, were I just maintaining my weight, I would not be. I see the calorie counting right now as a way of measuring what is going on so that I can see the results of changes...
3. Carbs are the body's preferred fuel source so limiting them is silly.
The reason people believe carbs are the body's preferred fuel source is because they are burned first, before fat. By the same logic, alcohol is even more preferred because it is burned before carbs. The reason blood sugar is burned first is because it is toxic at high levels so the body tries to get rid of it by burning or storing it. The body ensures it is burned first by choking off the supply from our fat stores so that we cannot burn fat. If the body had evolved to prefer carbs as a fuel source, wouldn't it make sense to evolve stores of carbs for burning? I know, that is just a hypothesis but it does make some sense. Aside from a small bit of sugar stored in muscles and the liver, the body does not keep sugar around. Doesn't that say something?
Biggest Loser is a bad example to follow
I awoke this morning to a blog post by the great Tom Naughton over at fat head. Here's the link:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/03/01/odds-ends/
The bit that caught my attention was the short description of a study that followed up with Biggest Loser participants. It found that after 30 weeks of participation in the program, their metabolism slowed down by 504 calories more than could be explained by the weight loss.
To me this is slightly shocking and really appalling. I eat roughly 2000 calories a day. That means, had I followed the model of weight loss provided by this show, I would probably be gaining weight at this level of calories rather than being somewhat plateaued at this level. How crazy is that?
And let's not fool ourselves. The model the Biggest Loser provides is simply the extreme of Conventional Wisdom. Eat less food, stick to low fat. Do cardio exercise (some resistance training) to exhaustion. Create a calorie deficit.
Now I just wish that there would be follow-up as to why the metabolism slowed down more than the weight loss can explain. I suspect that the consistent calorie deficit in the presence of carbohydrates causing an insulin response meant that the body was not able to release enough fatty acids from the fat cells to compensate for the deficit and the body had to adjust by slowing down metabolism.
But that's just speculation.... I'd love to see a study testing this...
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/03/01/odds-ends/
The bit that caught my attention was the short description of a study that followed up with Biggest Loser participants. It found that after 30 weeks of participation in the program, their metabolism slowed down by 504 calories more than could be explained by the weight loss.
To me this is slightly shocking and really appalling. I eat roughly 2000 calories a day. That means, had I followed the model of weight loss provided by this show, I would probably be gaining weight at this level of calories rather than being somewhat plateaued at this level. How crazy is that?
And let's not fool ourselves. The model the Biggest Loser provides is simply the extreme of Conventional Wisdom. Eat less food, stick to low fat. Do cardio exercise (some resistance training) to exhaustion. Create a calorie deficit.
Now I just wish that there would be follow-up as to why the metabolism slowed down more than the weight loss can explain. I suspect that the consistent calorie deficit in the presence of carbohydrates causing an insulin response meant that the body was not able to release enough fatty acids from the fat cells to compensate for the deficit and the body had to adjust by slowing down metabolism.
But that's just speculation.... I'd love to see a study testing this...
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Grok tries to lose weight by following Conventional Wisdom
So when we left Grok, he was fat. Now, he is getting tired of not being able to shop at normal sized people clothing stores. He's tired of being looked at like a fat person and being judged as a glutton and a sloth that has no self discipline. He's ready to make a change in his life and looks to the conventional wisdom (CW) as to how to best make a change, lose weight and get healthy.
And what does conventional wisdom tell him? Well, there is a fair bit of variance in the mainstream advice that Grok can get but the following are the basic commonalities:
1. You must eat less and exercise more to put yourself into a calorie deficit. I mean, duh, eat less and exercise stupid, why do we have to tell you that? So count your calories and eat 500 less calories a day than you burn to lose a pound a week and 1000 less calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week.
2. Eat less fat. I mean you are what you eat after all and if you don't want to be fat, you should eat less fat. Besides, fat contains 9 calories per gram whereas protein and carbs contain only 4 so if you want to cut down calories, it makes sense to reduce the amount of fat you eat. Do this by reducing the amount of animal products you eat and choosing lean versions of meat and non-fat or low fat versions of dairy products.
3. Replace sugar and refined carbs like white bread and white rice with the whole grain versions. This will reduce the blood sugar spikes because they are absorbed more slowly (they have a lower glycemic load) and therefore not cause the hunger pangs so soon after eating.
4. Eat lots of veggies and fruits to get your fiber in.
5. Replace pop with fruit juices or just water.
So Grok follows this advice. He goes online to a calories burned calculator and calculates that at his height and weight with a sedentary lifestyle (he works in an office now) he burns 2450 calories a day. If he averages burning an extra 200 calories a day in exercise (6 days a week he will do a heavy dudy workout) and wants to lose a pound a week for the next year (he figures he's 52 pounds overweight after all) he will have to only take in 2150 calories a day to accomplish his goal.
So he adjusts his diet. He only eats lean meats, lots of whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables. He keeps his intake at around 2150 a day and exercises 6 days a week doing lots of cardio and throwing in a couple resistance training sessions a week.
How does his body react? Well, the diet is better in that it is low in sugar so that it doesn't significantly worsen his insulin resistance, but each intake of carbs (at 60% calories from carbs say, he'll be taking in 322 grams of carbs a day) increases his blood sugar and insulin must be released to deal with it. Sure his eating of whole grains means his blood sugar rises more slowly because the carbs are aborbed more slowly, but that also means the blood sugar is elevated (and therefore insulin is required to be excreted for longer) to deal with it. Besides, the glycemic load of whole wheat bread is 7-9 compared to 10 for white bread. Not a big savings in terms of blood sugar changes. The difference in glycemic load between white pasta and whole wheat is from 18 to 16.
He eats lots of fruit but that adds fructose into his system. Sure the fructose is absorbed more slowly but certain fruits are very high in sugar (mostly fructose) like bananas. The fructose is processed in Grok's already compromised liver so can exacerbate his insulin resistance.
So all this to say, his bodies insulin levels are still high. High at a fasting rate and high while eating. The insulin is slowing or stopping the fat from coming out of Grok's fat cells and accelerating the process of loading up the fat cells with fatty acids.
But CW says, he is eating less than he is burning so he should lose weight but two things are happening. His body reacts to the calorie deficit not by freeing up his fat stores, it cannot, insulin is preventing this. Instead his body slows down Grok's metabolic rate as much as it can and makes Grok hungry. It may be that the body cannot slow down the metabolic rate enough to make up the deficit and some fat does get burned but Grok is fighting hunger all the way.
Now, a quick word about the VERY overweight. Because in these cases, the fat stores are overloaded with fatty acids, insulin may not be able to prevent the release of fatty acids. Imagine a balloon made out of very strong material. Put enough water in this balloon and the pressure could become too much to overwhelm a clamp on the spigot enough to release some of the water. This is why on almost any diet, the very overweight will lose weight. It is also why plateaus can happen once a lot of weight is gone. The pressure within the fat cells to release the fatty acids from being full isn't enough to overcome insulin's action to release the fat.
So Grok sees some initial loss of weight due to the diet and that motivation keeps him fighting through the hunger and tiredness his body is using to compensate for not having enough energy. Now Grok might lose all 52 pounds or he may plateau at a 30 pound weight loss. If he plateaus, he tries to eat even less and exercise even more, blaming himself for not doing enough. Either way, there will come a time when Grok gets tired of fighting his body and starts increasing his intake and starts taking days off the gym.
What does Conventional Wisdom also say? Diets don't work. People lose the weight but cannot keep it off and eventually cave in and often gain back all the weight and then some. I can say from personal experience this is correct. Been there done it.
So what is the final message to Conventional Wisdom to Grok... Grok has two choices, live with being fat or constantly fight hunger, tiredness, temptation to cave to maintain his weight.
Now Grok has an advantage. Remember, he is paleolithic man who experienced what a natural lifestyle is for humans. The lifestyle that humans evolved to thrive while living... He knows that the idea that we should be fighting our bodies hormonal responses is NOT a natural state. He knows that throughout evolution, humans and animals did not count calories to maintain their weight. He knows that our bodies regulate hunger and available energy through hormones that we should not have to fight to maintain a healthy weight. Animals in the wild do not do this. They follow their hunger drives. They follow their urges to move and to rest. What can we learn from this....
Next post... Grok goes back to his evolutionary roots....
And what does conventional wisdom tell him? Well, there is a fair bit of variance in the mainstream advice that Grok can get but the following are the basic commonalities:
1. You must eat less and exercise more to put yourself into a calorie deficit. I mean, duh, eat less and exercise stupid, why do we have to tell you that? So count your calories and eat 500 less calories a day than you burn to lose a pound a week and 1000 less calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week.
2. Eat less fat. I mean you are what you eat after all and if you don't want to be fat, you should eat less fat. Besides, fat contains 9 calories per gram whereas protein and carbs contain only 4 so if you want to cut down calories, it makes sense to reduce the amount of fat you eat. Do this by reducing the amount of animal products you eat and choosing lean versions of meat and non-fat or low fat versions of dairy products.
3. Replace sugar and refined carbs like white bread and white rice with the whole grain versions. This will reduce the blood sugar spikes because they are absorbed more slowly (they have a lower glycemic load) and therefore not cause the hunger pangs so soon after eating.
4. Eat lots of veggies and fruits to get your fiber in.
5. Replace pop with fruit juices or just water.
So Grok follows this advice. He goes online to a calories burned calculator and calculates that at his height and weight with a sedentary lifestyle (he works in an office now) he burns 2450 calories a day. If he averages burning an extra 200 calories a day in exercise (6 days a week he will do a heavy dudy workout) and wants to lose a pound a week for the next year (he figures he's 52 pounds overweight after all) he will have to only take in 2150 calories a day to accomplish his goal.
So he adjusts his diet. He only eats lean meats, lots of whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables. He keeps his intake at around 2150 a day and exercises 6 days a week doing lots of cardio and throwing in a couple resistance training sessions a week.
How does his body react? Well, the diet is better in that it is low in sugar so that it doesn't significantly worsen his insulin resistance, but each intake of carbs (at 60% calories from carbs say, he'll be taking in 322 grams of carbs a day) increases his blood sugar and insulin must be released to deal with it. Sure his eating of whole grains means his blood sugar rises more slowly because the carbs are aborbed more slowly, but that also means the blood sugar is elevated (and therefore insulin is required to be excreted for longer) to deal with it. Besides, the glycemic load of whole wheat bread is 7-9 compared to 10 for white bread. Not a big savings in terms of blood sugar changes. The difference in glycemic load between white pasta and whole wheat is from 18 to 16.
He eats lots of fruit but that adds fructose into his system. Sure the fructose is absorbed more slowly but certain fruits are very high in sugar (mostly fructose) like bananas. The fructose is processed in Grok's already compromised liver so can exacerbate his insulin resistance.
So all this to say, his bodies insulin levels are still high. High at a fasting rate and high while eating. The insulin is slowing or stopping the fat from coming out of Grok's fat cells and accelerating the process of loading up the fat cells with fatty acids.
But CW says, he is eating less than he is burning so he should lose weight but two things are happening. His body reacts to the calorie deficit not by freeing up his fat stores, it cannot, insulin is preventing this. Instead his body slows down Grok's metabolic rate as much as it can and makes Grok hungry. It may be that the body cannot slow down the metabolic rate enough to make up the deficit and some fat does get burned but Grok is fighting hunger all the way.
Now, a quick word about the VERY overweight. Because in these cases, the fat stores are overloaded with fatty acids, insulin may not be able to prevent the release of fatty acids. Imagine a balloon made out of very strong material. Put enough water in this balloon and the pressure could become too much to overwhelm a clamp on the spigot enough to release some of the water. This is why on almost any diet, the very overweight will lose weight. It is also why plateaus can happen once a lot of weight is gone. The pressure within the fat cells to release the fatty acids from being full isn't enough to overcome insulin's action to release the fat.
So Grok sees some initial loss of weight due to the diet and that motivation keeps him fighting through the hunger and tiredness his body is using to compensate for not having enough energy. Now Grok might lose all 52 pounds or he may plateau at a 30 pound weight loss. If he plateaus, he tries to eat even less and exercise even more, blaming himself for not doing enough. Either way, there will come a time when Grok gets tired of fighting his body and starts increasing his intake and starts taking days off the gym.
What does Conventional Wisdom also say? Diets don't work. People lose the weight but cannot keep it off and eventually cave in and often gain back all the weight and then some. I can say from personal experience this is correct. Been there done it.
So what is the final message to Conventional Wisdom to Grok... Grok has two choices, live with being fat or constantly fight hunger, tiredness, temptation to cave to maintain his weight.
Now Grok has an advantage. Remember, he is paleolithic man who experienced what a natural lifestyle is for humans. The lifestyle that humans evolved to thrive while living... He knows that the idea that we should be fighting our bodies hormonal responses is NOT a natural state. He knows that throughout evolution, humans and animals did not count calories to maintain their weight. He knows that our bodies regulate hunger and available energy through hormones that we should not have to fight to maintain a healthy weight. Animals in the wild do not do this. They follow their hunger drives. They follow their urges to move and to rest. What can we learn from this....
Next post... Grok goes back to his evolutionary roots....
Friday, February 25, 2011
My N=1 Experiment Part 5
So this week was a bit of an odd week. I didn't get to the gym at all due to travel to visit the in-laws and other circumstances. My eating was still pretty solid though. I have great in-laws who are very supportive and cook meals while we are there that fit my needs. My carb count was a bit higher this week than it would normally be but not by much and mostly due to nuts and veggies, still no bread, pasta, etc.
So here are the average intake numbers for the week.:
Calories: 2044.1
Fat: 124.6 g (or 54.9% of calories)
Carbs: 44. 4 g (or 8.7% of calories)
Protein: 118.8 g (or 23.3% of calories)
The rest of the calories would have been from alcohol (wine and scotch).
I should also mention I did another 24 hour intermittent fast this week. The night I broke that fast, I ate a significant amount of calories (about 1700 calories) so the fasting day didn't significantly affect the average calories
So, what happened to the weigh? Well, my 2 day average weight was 210 which is the same as last week and my 2 day average body fat percentage was 24.7%, basically the same as last week.
So, how do I interpret these results? Well, it's funny, my calorie count average goes down, my activity goes down as well and no change in weight. Does that mean anything? Well, it's hard to say. Last week I only weight myself once on my regular scale so perhaps I was a bit heavier than 210 on average last week. The exercise last week may have resulted in some weight loss. I don't know. Maybe the larger number of carbs this week affected things.
At this point, I think I am VERY slowly losing weight. I am going to try a couple things this week to speed things up. First, I'll try to do some more activity every day (or at least most days) this week. I'll do a couple slow weight workouts, one tabata workout and a few 45 minute sessions walking at a comfortable pace on the treadmill. I'll also try to keep the carb count below 30 for the week. I think I can do that by avoiding nuts and eating veggies only at dinner time. I'll try to keep the average calories between 2100 and 2300 and when I do my intermittent fast, I'll try not to overcompensate in the evening.
Let's see what that does...
So here are the average intake numbers for the week.:
Calories: 2044.1
Fat: 124.6 g (or 54.9% of calories)
Carbs: 44. 4 g (or 8.7% of calories)
Protein: 118.8 g (or 23.3% of calories)
The rest of the calories would have been from alcohol (wine and scotch).
I should also mention I did another 24 hour intermittent fast this week. The night I broke that fast, I ate a significant amount of calories (about 1700 calories) so the fasting day didn't significantly affect the average calories
So, what happened to the weigh? Well, my 2 day average weight was 210 which is the same as last week and my 2 day average body fat percentage was 24.7%, basically the same as last week.
So, how do I interpret these results? Well, it's funny, my calorie count average goes down, my activity goes down as well and no change in weight. Does that mean anything? Well, it's hard to say. Last week I only weight myself once on my regular scale so perhaps I was a bit heavier than 210 on average last week. The exercise last week may have resulted in some weight loss. I don't know. Maybe the larger number of carbs this week affected things.
At this point, I think I am VERY slowly losing weight. I am going to try a couple things this week to speed things up. First, I'll try to do some more activity every day (or at least most days) this week. I'll do a couple slow weight workouts, one tabata workout and a few 45 minute sessions walking at a comfortable pace on the treadmill. I'll also try to keep the carb count below 30 for the week. I think I can do that by avoiding nuts and eating veggies only at dinner time. I'll try to keep the average calories between 2100 and 2300 and when I do my intermittent fast, I'll try not to overcompensate in the evening.
Let's see what that does...
Thursday, February 17, 2011
My N=1 Experiment Part 4
Quick update as I'm off to visit the inlaws for the weekend tonight. First my average calorie intake for the week:
Calories: 2161.1
Fat: 149 g or 62% of calories
Protein: 140.5 or 26% of calories
Carb: 48.8 g or 9% of calories
The higher carb intake was due to a 'cheat' night at Valentines dinner. Very worth it.
I weighed in this morning at 210 even with 24.8% body fat. I'll weigh myself tomorrow at the in laws but since it's not the same scale, the basis for comparison won't be as good.
So all this to say, I ate 400 more calories this week and lost 0.8 pounds. Still within the margin of error but over the last 3 weeks, the trend has been downward (11.2, 10.8, 10). Slow decrease but that's fine as long as it's real. I suppose next week will show. I would like to see the BF change but as long as something is.
So this week I added a slow weight workout and a tabata workout. I also did 2 or 3 45 minute walks on the treadmill at a comfortable pace. I also did a 24-hour fast between Monday dinner and Tuesday dinner. I'll probably do one of these every week for a while to see if it helps out with the weight loss.
That't it for now. I'll have more complete analysis after next week's results. For now I'm off to visit my mother and father in law. Always a good time. They are both fabulous cooks and I very much enjoy their company, conversation and cooking!
BTW, I'm not really doing primal, well sort of but not really. Therefore, I have changed the name of my experiment. My intention is to use the next few months to try different things and see what the effect is on my body. If something works, I'll keep it. If not, I'll try something else.
Calories: 2161.1
Fat: 149 g or 62% of calories
Protein: 140.5 or 26% of calories
Carb: 48.8 g or 9% of calories
The higher carb intake was due to a 'cheat' night at Valentines dinner. Very worth it.
I weighed in this morning at 210 even with 24.8% body fat. I'll weigh myself tomorrow at the in laws but since it's not the same scale, the basis for comparison won't be as good.
So all this to say, I ate 400 more calories this week and lost 0.8 pounds. Still within the margin of error but over the last 3 weeks, the trend has been downward (11.2, 10.8, 10). Slow decrease but that's fine as long as it's real. I suppose next week will show. I would like to see the BF change but as long as something is.
So this week I added a slow weight workout and a tabata workout. I also did 2 or 3 45 minute walks on the treadmill at a comfortable pace. I also did a 24-hour fast between Monday dinner and Tuesday dinner. I'll probably do one of these every week for a while to see if it helps out with the weight loss.
That't it for now. I'll have more complete analysis after next week's results. For now I'm off to visit my mother and father in law. Always a good time. They are both fabulous cooks and I very much enjoy their company, conversation and cooking!
BTW, I'm not really doing primal, well sort of but not really. Therefore, I have changed the name of my experiment. My intention is to use the next few months to try different things and see what the effect is on my body. If something works, I'll keep it. If not, I'll try something else.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Tabata and Intermittent Fast
Just a quick update. Last night I did my first Tabata workout. I chose to do thrusters, mostly because I wanted to do something resistance based rather than running or something more cardio. I was able to complete 5 and a half 20 second intervals with a 10 second break in between for a total of 2 minutes 40 seconds of workout. I warmed up with 5 minutes on the treadmill walking and finished off my workout with another 42 minutes or so (the length of an episode of V).
A couple interesting things:
A couple interesting things:
- It's amazing how a 2 minute 40 second tabata workout can really work you.
- I walked very slowly on the treadmill because my heart rate stayed high for a while.
Also wanted to mention that I'm doing a 24 hour fast today. I finished eating dinner a little after 7 last night and will not eat again until dinner tonight. I'm slightly hungry but not bad. I am finding the desire to eat is mostly coming from boredom and routine. It's 11:46 and normally I would have had my lunch by now.
I'm hoping that adding IF to my routine will help me break through my plateau. Just another thing to look at in my experiment.
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