What I learned?

On Monday night I was eating plain, cold, boiled chicken breast. It tasted so good that I realized that my taste receptors had changed. I was really tasting and enjoying raw vegetables – the same way, as before I went off the track with my weight gain. Moreover I realized that I haven’t had a single thought about fatty or sweet (junk) foods. I had carbohydrates cravings, but I wasn’t thinking about donuts and cakes, I was really craving plain oatmeal or pearl barley.

Entire week I felt sloppy. Both my mood and athletic performance got a toll. I felt apathetic to any kind of exercise. I had to drag myself to the gym almost every day. It was hard to stay focused at work.

I slipped into a minor binge (overeating) before bed on Friday night around 10 pm. Later I learned that people tend to be the hungriest around 10 pm mark. This is due to increased hormone level – Ghrelin – the hunger hormone. If you diet and severely restrict your caloric intake, try to go to bed sooner than later. If you stay up late – there is a great chance that you will end up by the fridge, binging on carbs. 

My blood sugar levels are back down to the norm. This week was the first time when I saw 4.9-4.9 mmol/l on my glucometer. That’s GREAT! I am back to the levels, where I used to be a year ago. Three weeks ago my fasting blood sugar was well above 5 mmol/l. 5.5-6.5 was not unusual to see. 

This week I was craving fatty foods. On my “refeed day” I went for a large fatty steak. I felt very good afterward. The energy came back and overall condition had improved.

DIET: WHAT’S IMPORTANT? WHAT’S NOT?

CALORIE IS A CALORIE

ENERGY BALANCE: TO LOSE WEIGHT, YOU NEED TO CONSUME LESS THAN YOU EXPAND

The amount of food consumed is a determinant factor to how much weight we gain or lose. Yes, different food sources have different energy contents. There are a lot of factors that determine how the food is being digested and absorbed. Nevertheless it all comes to a simple equation: if you eat less than you expand – you lose weight. If you eat more than you expand you will inevitably gain weight. It’s that simple. 

Having a monotone diet that consists of a few ingredients is very helpful for weight loss. It also makes it easier to manage your calorie intake. 

99% of professional athletes don’t count calories. They have their daily protein component, which contribution to energy supply is minimal. Also, protein does not convert into fat. Athletes know that on a daily basis they need to consume about 500g of plain cooked chicken breasts. As for the carbs – athletes know that to maintain their weight, they need to eat approximately 2 or 3 cups of oatmeal (dry weight). The rest are fats: one or two handfuls of nuts or one avocado.

The study suggests the following:
“We conclude that a calorie is a calorie. From a purely thermodynamic point of view, this is clear because the human body or, indeed, any living organism cannot create or destroy energy but can only convert energy from one form to another.”

Tip: measure/weight the food you cook, when it’s raw (dry weight).

Reference: Is a calorie a calorie?

BREAKFAST IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY

Should we eat breakfast or not? If you don’t feel particularly hungry in the morning, and the hunger shifts to the second part of the day – distribute your meal consumption accordingly. Hormone Ghrelin (hunger hormone) reaches its peak concentration in the body around 10 pm. That’s why most of us experience carbohydrate cravings in the late evening. On the other hand – its lowest levels are in the morning, around 8 am. If you really feel that you are hungry and need to have breakfast  – go for it. However, if you wake up and don’t feel particularly hungry – it’s totally okay to skip it. 

Reference: The causal role of breakfast in energy balance and health: a randomized controlled trial in lean adults

MONOTONY OF FOOD HELPS WITH WEIGHT LOSS

Scientists came to a conclusion that the more food options you have – the most like you to overeat. In other words, the more different kinds of foods you have in your fridge – the more like you are to consume more energy than your body needs. This is especially relevant for those who try to lose weight. Minimize the variety of foods in your fridge.

Reference: Effect of sensory perception of foods on appetite and food intake: a review of studies on humans

GLYCEMIC INDEX DOES NOT PROMISE WEIGHT LOSS

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT CONSUMING LOW GI FOODS ARE MORE SUPERIOR TO WEIGHT LOSS TO EATING HIGH GI PRODUCTS.

Every human body is different and unique, therefore we all have different blood sugar responses to the same foods that we eat. There are low of “Low GI” diets, proponents of which claim that consuming foods that have low glycemic response better for weight loss. People get really anal about GIs, and claim that the foods which have GI over 70 to be “bad”. There is so much histeria around SUGAR. Is it true? Do you really think that you can’t get fat by eating brown rice or pearl barley (low GI)?

“The average weight loss was 1.5 kg on a low-GI diet and 1.6 kg on a high-GI diet. To conclude, there is no evidence at present that low-GI foods are superior to high-GI foods in regard to long-term body weight control.”, (Raben, 2002).

Reference: Should obese patients be counselled to follow a low-glycaemic index diet? No

What about cardiovascular diseases caused by high GI foods? There was a study, that concluded:

“There is currently no evidence available regarding the effect of low GI diets on cardiovascular disease events. Moreover, there is currently no convincing evidence that low GI diets have a clear beneficial effect on blood lipids or blood pressure parameters.”, (Clar, C 2017)

Reference: Low glycaemic index diets for the prevention of cardiovascular disease

“…making dietary recommendations based on GI may be misleading, especially since low GI does not always mean high nutritional value, and high GI foods, such as potato, may have other healthful qualities including low energy density and a high satiety rating. Thus, focusing on overall dietary quality and promoting the healthful aspects of the diet (e.g., dietary fiber and fruit and vegetable intake) may be a better approach to help reduce chronic disease risk.”, (Vega-López, 2018)

Also, the same study concluded that: “…compared low and high GI diets with moderate or high carbohydrate content and reported no differences in weight loss by GI or carbohydrate content of the diets. This study further assessed metabolic adaptation 12 months after the weight loss period, and suggested no differences in weight regain based on GI during the weight loss phase.”, (Vega-López, 2018).

Reference: Relevance of the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load for Body Weight, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease

What if we were to eat high GI foods mixed with the ones that cause lower spike in insulin? Potatoes, especially mashed potatoes, are known to result in high glycaemic responses. However, we rarely eat potatoes on it’s own and such meals are typically accompanied by other foods. Scientists tried to answer the question: How glycaemic responses to a mashed potato meal changed when a high-fat food, a high-protein food (chicken breast) and/or salad were added to the meal? Good question, isn’t it? Here is what they found:

“We conclude that both fat and protein have an independent decreasing effect on the glycaemic responses to mashed potatoes in healthy subjects. The estimation of the GI of a mixed meal by calculation is imprecise when the meal contains fat and/or protein.”

Reference: Protein and fat modify the glycaemic and insulinaemic responses to a mashed potato-based meal

When we speak about weight loss – It doesn’t matter whether you eat foods which are low or high on the glycemic index scale.

The weight of our bodys don’t change from eliminating one product or another. It changes from the energy balance of foods we consume vs energy we expand. 

EATING MORE FREQUENTLY DOES NOT “SPEED UP METABOLISM”

There is a notion that in order to “speed up” your metabolism, you need to increase the frequency of your meals. Hence, if we eat less frequent – our metabolism slows down. That is simply not true. Let’s see what the research says:

“… recent prospective research has demonstrated a significant increase in disease risk with a high meal frequency (≥6 meals/day) as compared to a low meal frequency (1⁻2 meals/day).”

Reference: The Influence of Meal Frequency and Timing on Health in Humans: The Role of Fasting

“The use of the IF diet effectively improves glucose metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes… The positive effect of the IF diet has also been documented in obese and diabetic people. The reduced amount of food consumed when using the IF diet results in a decrease in body weight. It also improves glucose metabolism and increases the sensitivity of tissues to insulin by increasing the B cells of the pancreatic islets.”

Reference: Intermittent Fasting in Cardiovascular Disorders—An Overview

Two-three meals a day – is the most optimum frequency for health and body weight maintenance. 

EATING LATE IN THE EVENING IS NOT BAD

People say that eating after 6 pm is bad for your health. Why so? People say that our bodies don’t spend as much energy as they do during the day. Because of it, most of the food that we eat before going to sleep – will convert to fat. Sounds interesting. Is it true? How much energy our bodies consume during sleep vs active periods during the day?

“In a subgroup of 40 normal lean subjects the mean ratio of overnight metabolic rate (Overnight MR): BMR was 0.95 (range 0.85 – 1.02, s.d. 0.04). The mean ratio of lowest sleeping metabolic rate (Lowest SMR): BMR was 0.88 (range 0.83 – 0.96, s.d. 0.04). Ratios of Overnight MR: BMR were not significantly affected by different levels of exercise on the preceding day. “, (Goldberg GR, 1988).

When you sleep, your metabolic rate is 4% lower vs when you are awake. What this means is that if you were to burn 2,000 calories /day while awake, while at sleep, your energy expenditure will go down only by 80 calories!

Reference: Overnight and basal metabolic rates in men and women
Reference: Specific metabolic rates of major organs and tissues across adulthood: evaluation by mechanistic model of resting energy expenditure

Are large dinners associated with excess weight, and does eating a smaller dinner achieve greater weight loss? Great question! Here is what the science says:

“The meta-analysis of intervention trials showed no difference in weight change between small and large dinner groups (-0·89 kg; 95 % CI -2·52, 0·75, P=0·29)… Recommendations to reduce evening intake for weight loss cannot be substantiated by clinical evidence, and more well-controlled intervention trials are needed.

In other words – it doesn’t matter when you eat, as long as you stay within your optimal caloric intake.

Reference: Are large dinners associated with excess weight, and does eating a smaller dinner achieve greater weight loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis

What will I do differently

Overall I am satisfied with how the process goes, therefore the changes will be minor:

• Give preference to red meat (beef) over fish & chicken;
• Cut your calories down to 1,700 cal/day

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Alright, back to my weight loss. Below is the report for the first week of “dieting”.

My goal for the first week and thereafter was to lose 1 kg. To accomplish that, I started the first week simple – with typical “cut your calories” + “cut your carbs”. Right of the bet, I set my daily caloric intake in the following way:

2,500 calories/day:

• 50% Protein (313g)
• 15% Carbs (94g)
• 35% Fat (97g)

I pre-cooked my meals on Sunday and set the intentions straight. I packed a sh*t load of chicken breasts in several containers and brought them to the office fridge. I didn’t cook anything for carbs and decided just to eat lots of salads, broccoli and brussels sprouts. I thought that would cover my daily carb allowance. For fat, I ate a lot of nuts, a few avocados, olive and coconut oils. I also tracked everything I ate in MyFitnessPal app. Results are below.

What I learned after Week 1 of weight loss?

Unbelievable! What an insight… Whole week I lived on little over 1,100 calories a day. I expected myself to perform well in both sport and work. What an idiot! On day six, on Friday I gave into the binge and felt guilty afterward. I blamed myself for no reason. I realize now that it’s a miracle that I lasted that long at this level of energy intake. Six days on 1,100 calories…

Alright, what’s my total weekly energy deficit? Assuming that my basal metabolic rate is around 2,200 calories /day (standard for male my age and weight), I should’ve eaten AT LEAST 15,400 calories a week (2,200×7). This does not include any activity, just to keep my heart beating and maintain normal functions of my body. In reality I consumed 8,169 calories, which is almost twice less of the bare minimum. A 1,000 calories /day energy deficit. Unbelievable! And then I blame myself for craving sweet and salty foods…

HEALTHY EATING AND EATING FOR WEIGHT LOSS ARE NOT THE SAME

Bloating & Water Retention

If you eat too little and push your body with exercise – you might retain water. If you don’t know how to deal with it properly, it can fuel an emotional firestorm of anger and frustration. Look, The fat you lose through proper dieting can be obscured – both on the scale and in the mirror – by additional water that your body is holding on to. The fat loss only becomes visible when the excess fluid is flushed out of the body, creating the illusion of extreme fat loss over very short periods.

First of all – CALM DOWN! This is expected. Stay focused.

During the “Minnesota Starvation Experiment” scientists made an interesting discovery that came from this study. Weight loss progressed in a nice, linear fashion in the beginning. Men lost about 2 pounds per week, every week. After some time, though, it became erratic and unpredictable. Body weight would remain stagnant for several weeks followed by overnight “bursts” of large amounts of weight loss (3+ pounds). Of course, it’s physically impossible to burn several pounds of fat overnight. Water retention.

What was happening is the men were steadily losing fat even when their weight wasn’t changing because as they lost more fat, they held more water. This only became obvious once the excess water was expelled, which gave the appearance of very rapid weight loss. Apparently this is such a well-known fact, that bodybuilders even came up with a name for it – the “whoosh effect.”

It gets more interesting. Listen to this: “… a 2,300-calorie meal was served to celebrate the half-way mark of the experiment … many of the men woke up several times to pee that night and, in the morning, were several pounds lighter than the day before.”  Scientists found that a reliable trigger for the “whoosh effect” was a dramatic increase in caloric intake. Bodybuilders who dieted down to a super-lean level (7% body fat and below for men, 16% and below for women) also experienced something similar after doing a refeed day.

Why? Cortisol.

Prolonged calorie deficit dramatically raises cortisol levels. This causes quite a few unwanted effects in the body, including bloating and increased water retention.

COMBINATION OF LITTLE FOOD AND A LOT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY RAISE CORTISOL LEVELS, WHICH SPIKE WATER RETENTION IN THE BODY.

Refeeds and cheat meals lower cortisol levels, which explains the large expulsions of water. A few tips for reducing water retention:

• Don’t cut your calories too aggressively. Literature suggest: 20 to 25% calorie deficit.
• Don’t do hours and hours of cardio every week.
• Implement refeed days or cheat meals to give your mind and body a break.
• Sleep more. Implement mid day naps if you can.
• Decrease the sodium (salt) intake.
• Increase potassium intake. (Beans, Dark leafy greens, Banana, Potato, Squash, Salmon, Avocado, Mushrooms)

Basically, to drain the excessive amount of water, you need to lower the levels of Cortisol in your body. You need to calm your body down and show it that you’re not planning to starve yourself to death. 

Stinky Sweat

On day five of my diet I noticed a particularly strong smell of my sweat. Interesting, I wondered what made the change? People call this type of smell an ammonia smell. In short – this was a red flag that my diet did not keep up with my energy needs.

Your body normally metabolizes carbohydrates to create the fuel it requires for exercise, but if you’re exercising hard and don’t have enough carbs to meet your body’s needs, your system will switch over to protein metabolism. That’s easy for understanding. Most of the people, when they start dieting, go too hard too soon. They either cut their caloric intake too much and/or cut the food group completely (typically carbs). This is exactly what I did: brought my carb intake to bare minimum (under 100g /day) AND slashed my calories too much (~1,000 calories deficit /day).

My diet consisted mostly of proteins (43%) and fats (33%). When your body breaks down protein, ammonia is one of the byproducts. Normally your liver would convert that ammonia into urea, and your kidneys would dispel in the form of urine. “… if you’re starved of carbs and using protein for most of your energy, your liver may not be able to handle all the ammonia your body produces. In those instances, your sweat becomes the vehicle through which your body jettisons all of the extra ammonia in your system.”, (Time, 2020)

This is most common among people who eat low-carb and high-protein diets, or people who are over-exercisers, like ultra marathoners. I fit both descriptions… The big takeaway here is that if you’re smelling ammonia in sweat, something’s wrong. I did exactly what my sports doctor suggested – added more carbohydrates to my diet. Also, if upping carbs did not help, there might be problems with your liver or kidneys. 

What adjustments will I make?

Implement two “carb loading days”. That’s it. I won’t up my calorie intake just yet. I know it’s ridiculously low, however before I up the energy, I want to see how I will feel with two days of carb loading days. What will my Week 2 look like?

As I said, I will keep my caloric intake at 2,500 calories /day

• Sunday, Monday, Tuesday – Low carbohydrate consumption (under 100g /day)
• Wednesday – Carb loading
• Thursday, Friday, Saturday – Low carbohydrate consumption (under 100g /day)
• Sunday – Carb loading

Sympathetic Nervous System Stimulation [1st day]

The first thing that will happen when you cut your food intake, your body will activate the sympathetic response. You might feel more energetic and more focused than typical. Your body is in a fight or flight response, so you can go find and kill that mammoth. I noticed these changes in my own experience. Despite the fact that I was eating less, I felt more focused, and energized. This made me think that dieting could be a great tool not only to lose weight but to endure hard times in our lives. Final exams, deadlines, stressful life situations – diet or fasting can help to maintain the energy and stay sharp.

Metabolic Adaptations [4th-5th day]

When experiencing reduced energy intake, you body takes over and does two things:

1. Reduce Energy Expenditure
2. Once Food Available – Regain Fat ASAP

Hormones regulate our body’s energy expenditure. For example, hormone Leptin drops 50% on the 3rd-4th day of dieting and continues to decline gradually over the course of weight loss. This hormone is being produced by your fat cells, therefore the more body fat you’ve got, the greater concentration of it is in your body. This is a satiety hormone, which regulates your hunger. The fatter you are  – the less hungry you should be (in theory). The lesser body fast you have – the lesser Leptin concentration, hence you feel hungrier. Got it?

Weight loss is a great stress for your body. In response to stress, you will have elevated stress hormones like Cortisol. As a result of this – your blood sugar level will also rise. Add to this cardio exercises, stress at work, lack of sleep and your brain will become resistant to Leptin – satiety hormone. You will easily overeat, because you don’t feel full anymore. 

This all leads to reduced metabolic rate. This is how your body adapts. It doesn’t care that you need six pack abs or want to look great for a wedding. The one thing that your body cares about is to survive at all costs.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that your body can do extraordinary things to conserve energy. It can turn on and off your emotions because they use up to 20% of the energy. Someone will tell you a joke, but you will react with a poker face. You will feel indifferent to dramatic movies during which you used to cry before. Forget about sex – no libido. Your body canal also turns that function off. Spontaneous activity decreases. Your movements will become much slower and predictable. The lower your body fat levels – the worse these symptoms can get. Your brain can even control how far you see, to decrease the amount of incoming information. This will save energy to process this information.

You can’t fool your body. Once you start dreaming about food – you’ve reached the bottom.