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Originally Posted by VALEWIS
Woo, out of interest, what calories (approx.) are you consuming on average, and how many/what carbs?
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Here is my fitday information between 01/10 and 02/28. This is a 50 day spread, and I was into relatively consistent eating habits (restricting to lose)…Although, the date range is still TOO small IMO to come up with any hard facts about my metabolism, but I think it is a good rough guesstimate.
It's also likely the cals shown here are if anything slightly higher than what I actually ate, since I tend to overestimate more when I feel full but do not underestimate when I feel hungry.
01/10 - 02/28
Average: 1323 raw calories, 1266
actual (after fiber is subtracted)
66g fat (594 cals, 47% of net cals)
104g carbs (79g net carbs, 25g fiber...316, 25% of net cals)
89g protein (356 cals, 28% of net cals)
Weight: The average between 01/09 and 01/11 was 120.5. The average between 02/27 and 03/01 was 115. This means I lost somewhere around 5.5 pounds. I know not all of it is fat, but still, it's as good an estimate as I have to go on. This means I burned 19,250 cals for a daily deficit of 385 per day. That means the absolute max my metabolism was over this period of time was 1651. IMO I consider that pretty craptastic considering I was increasing exercise much of this log, overestimating food intake, AND that is only a *best case scenario* and in all likelihood it's probably less. Plus I just felt pretty crappy.
Now my "experiment" has been running since 03/04, and I have just 4 days of data on it.
03/04 - 03/07
Average: 1583 raw calories, 1545
actual (after fiber is subtracted)
93g fat (837 cals, 53% of net cals)
72g carbs (54g net carbs, 18g fiber...216, 14% of net cals)
123g protein (492 cals, 32% of net cals)
Changes:
calories increased by 279, a 22% increase
fat increased by 27 grams or 243 calories, and is now 6%
more of my net cals than they were before (47% -> 53%). Fat gram consumption has increased by 40%.
carbs decreased by 25 grams or 100 calories, is are now 11%
less of my net cals (25% -> 14%). Carb consumption has decreased by 32%.
protein increased by 34 grams, or 136 calories, and is now 4%
more of my net cals (28% -> 32%). Protein consumption has increased by 38%.
As we can see, the biggest changes came from
what was increased, not what was reduced. That’s what leads me to believe this is mostly from “eating more meat as fat and protein” and not about reducing carbs that much.
The most dramatic change was that I am consuming 40% more fat than I was. This is followed closely by the relative increase in protein, at 38% more. In last is the relative decrease in carbs at 32% less.
Calorie level changes appear far less impressive, but considering the fact I am eating 22%
more yet experiencing so many improvements is is significant in it's own right.
This data does not show other things that have changed. For example, the types of proteins and fats and carbs have changed as well. The overwhelming majority of my proteins came from stuff like salmon, chicken, and eggs. Before, much more of those fats and proteins were from legumes, nuts, dairy, and grains. It is my personal opinion this is very significant, since each time I would eat a large quantity of such food I felt very warm and "workout tired" in that I could feel like my body was very anabolic and wanted me to sleep to build stuff (not deprivation of energy tired as in a sugar coma). Sleep has been very deep and strong, too. I feel better rested and, when I wake up my body feels leaner and stronger. I have more energy into the day. When I come home from work or school I no longer feel like I can barely make it and am so hungry and just
weak. Because I eat generously now if I go without food for awhile I do not feel so profoundly weak and starving; in fact today I ate barely anything but I feel not hungry nor especially weak or tired.
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What would a typical day's menu look like? I managed to get another 20 odd pounds off by reducing calories, but my metabolism has slowed way down.
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Let me start with what has changed:
I am now careful to eat a lot of animal protein and fat, and at least some animal fat with every meal. I have stopped the stupid thinking that reducing calories is more important than keeping my metabolism working. If my meals are under 50% fat or under 25% protein I try to add some, particularly an animal source… I’ll pop a bit of chicken or tuna w/ mayo or something. This has made a tremendous difference in sugar stability, and IMO my moods as well.
The foods I eat most often are meat and eggs. I make eggs a whole variety of way so it appears my meals are very different; I make them into cheesecakes, pies, quiches, and a wide variety of omelets. I think eggs are very important for my metabolism and satiety. The great thing about eggs is they are tofuesque in that you really can make them so many ways and even use them for sweets. Whenever I eat eggs I feel very warm and can tell metabolism is really active., and they satisfy like no other food.
I ate a lot of salmon especially fatty skin, chicken with skin and fat (and the soft bone portion as well), and a TON of nuts particularly peanuts. Salmon I ate a lot of but over a continuum of time I don’t eat it that much. I am going to start eating salmon more often because I love It and I always feel wonderful afterward (and my metabolism seems so much higher, I feel like a furnace).
Relative to calories nut consumption has gone down, but I still consume at least an ounce of nut-food daily (peanuts, peanut butter, almonds, walnuts). Dairy consumption has reduced too, I ate very little cheese and almost no yogurt.
I ate lots of low carb veggies including green beans, romaine salads, tomatoes, onions, cukes, asparagus, lots of broccoli, carrots. Berry consumption was decreased to like half (I’m more like 1-1.5 oz per day whereas before it was more like 3 oz daily). Veggie consumption has dropped slightly.
I have completely eliminated “junk food” which I used to have small nibbles of (like real cookies and what not). I do eat protein bars , in the same frequency (roughly half per day or half every other day). I also ate chocolate for my treats (good quality) and I have always drank green tea every single morning.
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Also, how would you see body composition changes in just 4 days?
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I suspect the reason I can tell so early on is because I am already rather thin. When you are already very thin even slight changes in body fat or muscle levels are easily detected; at least this is my experience. I can see the fat on my thighs and visceral section have gone down especially. I can also see muscle tone there has increased. This morning I looked in the mirror and I noticed my hips were sticking out a lot more relative to my hip bones and waist. Of course my first thought was “oh no, my hips are fatter”. Then I realized my hips weren’t fatter, but the section above it was now
slimmer because it appeared “bonier” than I recall it having been before. In clothes my waist is more well defined. My thighs, which always are so big and bloated, are now much more slim and shapely.
Plus, I can just *tell* my metabolism has increased a lot. The first night I kept drinking and peeing. The next morning I was down 2.5 pounds.
Seeing as my average carbs were only decreased by
25 that couldn’t be enough to cause extreme glycogen loss, especially when you consider the fact that I had eaten *so much food*. I know that water loss was caused by a relative increase in anabolic/metabolic activity and not simply reducing food. My body has been tending to bloat for awhile now… I think the phenomena of edema is closely related to excessive restriction/semistarvation. This also occurred in the minnesota starvation study. They experienced famine edema, in that they gradually retained water throughout the day that peaked at night. After eating a big meal, and thus, revving metabolism with all the available fats and proteins, they lost a LOT of water and were several pounds lighter the next day.
My lower body was *much less bloated* the next day.
SO the fact I lost so much water, even though carb levels were not much lower *and* food energy had increased lead me to believe I had somehow increased my metabolism enough to get my body to stop retaining water, to start building tissues and using energy at an increased rate.
Also, I should mention that even though my present weight is still lower than what it was pre-experiment (this morning it was ~ 112.8), I suspect I am actually slowly gaining and not losing weight. The first day I went down to 112.5. Next day I hadn’t slept more than 5 hrs so that doesn’t count (114, still lower than my pre-experiment weight mind you). The third day, another night of adequate rest, I was at 112.6. This morning was slightly less rest but relatively sufficient (7 hrs) and I was at 112.8.
Another thing of interest is that my morning weights
are now stable. Prior to this if I weighed in a variety of positions a variety times I would get 1-2 pound swings. I think that is from the water I was carrying. Now I get a very very similar weight no matter how many times I get on and it does not swing more than under half a pound.
Regarding the slowly increasing weights. I do not think I am gaining fat, but I do think I am building heavier lean tissues and decreasing fat. I can see that in my appearance. I can tell how I feel that I just feel so much better, like I instinctually know this is the right thing. Because my particular body has so much to build this is probably why I am experiencing hypermetabolism and actually gaining weight on the scale (slowly). For someone who has been restricting for a shorter period of time and has not wasted as many tissues they might not experience such a profound increase in metabolic activity or scale weight gain (since fat loss would exceed lean tissue synthesis g for g).
I apologize for the epic post
Hope this info proves useful.
I will continue to closely monitor my eating, weight, body and well being. I hope to report good things next month. I suspect I will.