December 06, 2018 - April 14, 2019 Weight Loss
(Some people have asked what I did... so here it is...)
| |
BEFORE |
AFTER |
| Weight | 247 lb | 180 lb |
| BP | 140/90 | 116/73 |
| Waist | 44 | 36 (loose) |
(In addition, I had blood vein damage in my eyes (purportedly caused by either high BP or pre-diabetes),
which is now healing.)
Though the weight loss was not the same every day, the average weight loss was 0.51 pounds per day.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: I'm a land surveyor and engineer, not a doctor ("Damn it Jim, I'm a surveyor not a doctor!!!"). I don't recommend
health-related things to people. I don't recommend that any particular person do particular thing.
I simply offer my own story for anyone who cares to read it.
Also note: I was never on any medications. Part of the motivation for losing weight was that my doctor wanted to put me
blood pressure medication because my pressure kept going up (its been bouncing between 130/90 and 150/95
for a few years before this). One of this side effects of eating the way I do, is that blood pressure corrects and sugar levels correct...
so people who are on medications need to be
very careful... because the meds that are saving them when they eat
poorly, can kill them when they eat cleanly. While I did this, I checked my blood pressure every day. After the first few weeks it stablilized
to 120/77 and slowly got lower over time.
The Protocol
I did it using a few basic principles:
- Whole, plant-based food only
- Eat within a 6-7 hour window (noon to 6pm for me)
- Outside of the 6-7hour window: only water or black coffee (no sugar). (No lemon in the water... no artificial sweetners... nothing
The No-eat List
Things I won't eat:
- Dairy
- Meat
- Oil
- Salt
- Sugar (unless it is still in a plant)
- Flour (even "whole")
- Alcohol
It's all in the details...
This method was proposed by a scientist named
Ray Cronise. Through research and metabolism experimentation he realized some
key aspects about the metabolism. The best summary that I could find on the process was from
Penn Jillette's book "Presto...".
The main
"secret" or
"power" of this method, is what I call the "eating window". From what I can
glean, Mr. Cronise did calorimeter experiments to determine what was being "burned" (digested) in a person's body
at a given time.
When you eat, the body must process the food. It does it in this order:
- It stops everything if alcohol is present and processes that
- Then it processes "proteins"
- Then it processes carbohydrates
- Fats are special. The body can store unlimited fats, so if you eat fats, they just get
stored for later use, unless your digestive tract isn't doing any of the above... then it processes the fat
4 to 6 hours after you eat this processing of food ends. What happens next, depends on your
activity level:
- If you sit in a chair, sleep, or are otherwise inactive, your body gets about 50% of its
energy from the body's fat stores and 50% from the body's glycogen stores
- The higher the rate of exercise you do, lower the percentage of fat burn is and the
higher the percentage of glycogen... for example, if you run on a treadmill for an hour,
your fat burn goes down to about 15% of the calories burned (If you are an elite athlete, that
number may go up to 25%)
** Take away messages for fat loss (
*not* for general health or for muscle building):
- Only eat during a 6-7 hour window. That means nothing other than water. In my case,
I started my eating window at 12:00 and ended at 6:00pm (ish). (6-7 hours). This maximizes
the amount of time that your body will run on 50% fat. Note: coffee or tea is fine, but black.
As soon as you put anything in your body that needs to be digested, the 50% fat burning stops for 4-6
hours. Milk in coffee... lemon in water... anything at all stops the fat burn.
- No added fat to anything. I was trying to lose fat, and since any added fat (e.g.
olive oil) just gets stored in my body, I would have to waste time burning it later... so
for the entire time, I ate no fat. Forget about "good fat" and "bad fat". If the goal
is fat loss, then no fat added is good (except omega 3s... see below)
- No exercise during weight loss (nice, right???) If you want to get fit or gain muscle,
then you need to eat an enough calories to support tissue building... fitness is also important for brain
health... losing and gaining at the same time just doesn't work: they are opposites.
When I hit my goal, then I fed myself more and started an exercise program. Mr. Cronise showed
that while one person sat and did nothing for an hour, and a second person ran for an hour, the
running person only burned the equivalent of a 1/2 tsp of olive oil in calories during that hour.
Is it worth it? No, because the running person also damaged cells that can't be repaired while in
a calorie restricted state... plus, the running person will be very hungry and may just eat back
the calories burned as a result...
My Typical Day
My typical day looked like this:
- 12:00 Meal 1: massively huge salad with a balsamic vinegar dressing (no oil added). Onions,
celery, baby tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, chard, sprouts, microgreens...
whatever looked good in the store. I ate so much salad, that I made a Costco trip
2-3 times a week just to get fresh vegetables. How massive? Family-size bowl massive.
Takes me 1/2 hour to eat massive.
- 12:00 With Meal1
- 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds with a water chaser (Omega 3s). This constitutes
adding fat to my diet... so, by eating it without starches, it gets processed right away and
does not get stored. (that's the theory, anyway)
- 2 days a week 1500ug B-12.
- When in Canada, 1000mg Vitamin D.
- 5:30ish Meal 2: cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts etc.) Also
some "starch" like brown/black/red rice, baked potato, bean/lentil stew, etc.
- I did not eat any fruits at all until well into the 2nd month... then I had some fruit.. but
very little... 3 or 4 strawberries, or a few grapes or a handful of blueberries... by this
point, they tasted so amazing!
Probably this ended up being around 800 calories, but I never measured anything or tracked calories.
The only thing I made sure of was: No added salt, no oil, no sugar (SOS). I used
Spark People to compute
calories once, just because I have an enquiring mind.
The start
- Before I started this, I was not eating much meat, dairy or eggs and I was already eating the big
"Fuhrman salad" every day. So I just went right into this. My eating window started at about
12 hours, but I started reducing it as I started learning more things from online resources that
I will list below. Probably after a week or so I was down to a 6 hour window.
- I understand that Ray Cronise has people eat nothing but potatoes for 2 weeks. Whole potatoes only:
boiled, baked, microwaved... whatever, but whole only, no butter, salt, etc. Just potatoes. The point
is that most people are so used to salt/oil/sugar that it is difficult for them to adapt to this
whole-plant style of eating. This process kind of resets your taste buds. I didn't do this, but
for the first week or so, I did eat 3 or 4 microwaved potatoes every day within the window. I did
not seem to affect weight loss, and I love potatoes, so it helped me feel like was eating well.
- I understand that meat eaters who do this, get quite ill on days 3 and 4. I felt a little off. Since
I had pre-warning, I started on a Thursday, and just spent Saturday and Sunday napping (note, naps and all
and I still lost fat). Monday I was fine.
- For the first week or two I had amazing energy. That appears to be just an initial thing. Don't
get me wrong, after the weight loss I can do significanly more... because I'm no longer carrying around
a 70-pound set of body weights. For the first couple of weeks it was kind of a euphoria.
Minor Things
- Taste Buds
For the first 2 or so months, I found this diet very bland. I was dreaming of putting salt on
things (I used to eat a lot of salt). However, around 2 months in, the flavours
of everything became awesome. A single strawberry was just like candy. Cauliflower became amazing.
Also, about that time I started using more spices, and that helped a lot.
- Hunger
Before I started this, when I got "hungry" I would feel light-headed and have
sharp stomach aches. Honestly, I would almost panic to get something to eat. I'm on the road a lot, so
often that would be a sandwich, some Tim Bits (donuts), some chicken fingers and fries or maybe some
pretzels. Once I got used to this diet, the "emergency" ended. Now when I get "hungry", it's a nice
warm buzz that lasts for a few minutes and then goes away. There is no longer any light-headedness. Often
a drink of water doesthe trick. It seems Ray Cronise would say that cravings are just due to habit, not to
your body's needs. Your body is able to keep going fine for extended periods of weeks. "Food is not an
emergency".
- Ketosis
I know nothing about this! I undersand that when your body's glycogen stores are depleted, your
body switches to a process called "ketosis", in which your body switches to virtually 100% fat to
power your body/brain. Obviously, this is why people seem to like ketogenic diets. On my diet,
the deciding factor is how much "starch" (potatoes/squash/rice/legumes) I ate. The goal is to burn
50% fat and 50% carbs... so if I take in 1/2 my daily need for carbs, then I should never have gone
in to ketosis. There is really no need. Did I go into ketosis ever? Probably. I know that one
day my partner said she could smell it on my breath (apparently this happens). I tried to do it
on purpose a few days in a row... but I felt a little "fuzzy brained" and didn't feel like walking...
so I went back to adding starches
Whole Plant Based?
- Other than a few condiments (Frank's Red Hot Sauce!) and spices, everything I eat started as a plant in my
own hands (exception: rice, lentils, beans). I don't buy and processed foods. No broths, no soups, no flour, no oils, no tofu,
no nut-cheese or nut-milk. If it doesn't look like a plant in its original form, I don't eat it.
If I want nut-milk, I buy nuts and make nut-milk (but I don't
very often if ever). What I've observed is that a lot of "plant-based" or "vegan" processes foods
are just vehicles for salt, oil and sugar, and often have additives that must have come from a
chemistry lab, rather than a farm.
There are a few exceptions:
- Nutritional Yeast (adds a cheesy, nutty flavour)
- vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D (obviously those don't grow) (my last labwork before I started the diet showed I was borderline low in vitamin D and my doctor recommended the dosage I take)
- I use some canned things, like no-salt-added beans and tomatoes. (Lentils I cook)
but these are generally single-ingredient things... I don't do canned
spagetti sauce or anything like that... that is processed, and processed is out.
- Condiments (in extremely small amounts): Frank's hot sauce, hoison sauce, balsamic vinegar, etc.
- When I make salads, I throw the offcuts that I would normally throw out into a freezer container. When I get enough, I throw them in
a pot with some water and boil them for a couple of hours. I strain off the "vegetable stock" and used it for cooking rice or sauteing vegetables (I don't cook with oil).
- I am not a vegan. Vegans generally have an entire moral system added to this. I'm doing this for health reasons. The reduction in animal cruelty and the lowering of my
carbon footprint are nice side-effects!
- I just want to be healthy enough to hike, paddle and survey!
Lies, Damned Lies!
- If you stop eating, your metabolism does not slow down
Ray Cronise water-fasted under medical supervision for 24 days. He measured his
metabolism throughout the fast. At the end, he says his metabolism did not change from the start.
- If you have a craving, it does not mean you are missing something from your diet
Not to trivialize drug use, but when an alcoholic quits alcohol and has a craving, their body is not telling them that
it needs alcohol. Cravings are just habit and do not represent need. When I ignore them, they go away. I don't
have many anymore anyway.
- You have to exercise to lose weight
The idea that you have to exercise to lose weight is really big bad lie. You want your body burning fat calories,
not just calories. If you get aerobic, your body switches from burning fat to burning glycogen... which is the
opposite of what you want. Ray Cronise: "you cannot out-exercise your mouth". If you ran an entire marathon, you would burn
2600 calories... that is lest than a pound... who wants to do that? Just eat less! Exercise is very beneficial
to your health. Wait the 4 months it takes to lose weight and then start regular exercise.
- Eating many small meals will "keep your metabolism going faster"
The shorter your eating window, the more fat you will burn. Period. Every time you put something in
your mouth, you will have to wait another 4 to 6 hours before your body starts burning fat again.
- You can't get enough protein from a plant-based diet
Check out Andrew Taylor... the potato guy... he ate nothing but
potatoes for an entire year. No problems. Your body does not need protein, it makes protein from amino acids.
The only things on the planet that make amino acids are plants. If you are eating enough plants to
get enough calories, then you are getting enough protein. Ask your doctor if he/she has ever seen
someone come in with a protein deficiency (answer: they have not).
- Milk makes your bones strong
See Nutrionfacts.org. Studies comparing groups of people who drink
dairy to those who don't, show that dairy drinkers suffer more bone-fractures than the non-dairy group.
Dairy has also been associated with "hormonal cancers", such as breast and prostate cancer. I am not a baby cow so I don't need this stuff.
- Butter is better than margarine
This is a trick. Both are horrible for a human!!!
After the Weight Loss Phase
- Eating: This is the nice thing about this whole thing. After the diet, all I had to do was more of the same types
of food. Now is where the real food-fun starts. I plan to continue being whole-plant-based forever (or until there
is some convincing evidence that this is not the healthiest diet available).
- Rare and appropriate: every couple of months, if the opportunity arises, I will eat something
non-plant based. Nobody died from a hamburger.... people die from eating them every day though.
- Exercise: Aerobic training + Resistance Training
If only...
I wish Ray Cronise could have figured this all out when I was in highschool... then I wouldn't have had to try Atkins
and the Body Type Diet, and the juicing diet, Body for Life, and ...
References that I found helpful:
Ray Cronise
Penn Jillette
Dr. Joel Fuhrman
- I had experimented with this several times... the eating windows are what made this work for weight loss for me.
- Eat To Live (2003)
Dr. Rhonda Patrick
Dr. Valter Longo
- Dr. Longo has done extensive research on how to live longer and also how to fight cancer. He is probably most famous for the fasting mimicking diet...
which gives the same result as actually water fasting. See the Rhonda Patrick interviews above.
- The Longevity Diet (2018)
NutrionFacts.org
Dr. Philip Maffetone
The No Meat Athlete
Cookbooks
- How not to die -- Dr. Greger
-- My favourite so far.
-
Spark People
