Health

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EXPERIMENTS WITH WEIGHT LOSS: WEEK 4

Horrible… I feel like shit – both, mentally and physically. To make my bitching and complaining more constructive, let’s look at the numbers:

To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. Alright, sentimental things aside – what exactly happened? 

Monday->Tuesday->Wednesday-> Thursday – four days I’ve been a good boy. All I was eating was meat and salads. I set caloric intake to 1,500 calories/day, which I kept up with from Monday until Thursday. The reason for cutting calories was my body weight measurement on Monday – 75.4 kg. This number made me upset because it’s been three weeks and I’ve lost only 1 kg. I got mad, so I cut the calories down to 1,500. 

It wasn’t easy. I started having serious cravings on Thursday. They became very profound later in the evening, however I managed not to slip off the diet. The following day – on Friday, I slipped. I was binging on donuts, pizzas and chocolates… It was ridiculous and disgusting. Enough! The next morning I woke up feeling like shit. I went straight to the lake, to do the ice dip and refresh. Of course I got pretty cold and it took me about two hours to bring my core temperature back to norm. I then fasted until 2 pm.

Right before going to the gym I thought I would have a bid of oatmeal. I thought that I needed it to get a bit of energy. I binged again… I couldn’t stop eating. Started with oatmeal and ended up with a full box of donuts at 7-Eleven. Unbelievable…

What did I learn?

1,500 calories/day is tough. I can comfortably endure about three days of it. Anything longer and I get into the red zone – playing with fire. What if strategically introduced the refeed? Every fourth day – 1,500 calories of carbs. I will do three days of low carbs at 1,500 calories/day, then one day of refeed – 2,500 calories of complex carbohydrates. The following day 1,500 of carbs. Then back to three days of 1,500 cals low carb. 

This is the experiment. I am looking for something sustainable, that will work for ME.

SELF-CONTROL, MENTAL FATIGUE & EGO DEPLETION

Why is it so much harder to resist temptations and control cravings later in the day vs mornings? I have no problems skipping breakfast, even when I am hungry, but it’s almost impossible to resist the binge in the evening. Why and is it something that I can change?

As always, the first place to search for the answers is science: 

“A number of hypotheses on the mechanisms of mental fatigue origin (including self-control) have been proposed. Some of these hypotheses argue that during prolonged mental exercise, self-control resources are exhausted activities of executive function and decision-making are impaired, and inhibiting processes appear in the brain”, (). 

Reference: Terentjeviene, A., Maciuleviciene, E., Vadopalas, K., Mickeviciene, D., Karanauskiene, D., & Valanciene, D. et al. (2018). Prefrontal Cortex Activity Predicts Mental Fatigue in Young and Elderly Men During a 2 h “Go/NoGo” Task. Frontiers In Neuroscience, 12. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00620 

Self-control appeared to deteriorate over time from repeated exertions, such as decision-making. Just as the brain and body are muscles that can wear out with excessive use, self-control and willpower are also subject to exhaustion. As we make decision after decision, we drain our ability to control our impulses. Experiments have shown the interrelationship between decision fatigue and ego depletion, whereby a person’s ability for self-control against impulses decreases in the face of decision fatigue.

Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up. When the energy for mental activity is low, self-control is typically impaired, which would be considered a state of ego depletion. In particular, experiencing a state of ego depletion impairs the ability to control oneself. This is interesting… I get the idea, however my question is: How do I replenish the “ego energy pool”? Let’s dig deeper.

“The role of glucose as a specific form of energy needed for self-control has been explored by researchers. Glucose, a sugar found in many foods, is the primary fuel for the body and the brain. Multiple experiments have connected self-control depletion to reduced blood glucose, and suggested that self-control performance could be replenished by consuming glucose.” What this means is that by eating something sweet, I increase my chances of resisting that donut in the evening.

“Several recent experiments have found that resource depletion effects can be reversed by simply tasting (but not swallowing or consuming) sweet beverages, which can have rewarding properties. Others have suggested that the taste of sugar (but not artificial sweetener) has psycho-physiological signaling effects.”

What are the implications of ego fatigue on people who diet?

There was an experiment that demonstrated how ego depletion is particularly relevant when considering chronic dieters compared to non-dieters. Chronic dieters constantly work at resisting their cravings and limiting their food intake. Scientists showed that the task of regulating food intake could be undermined in the face of tempting snacks, especially when the individual was experiencing a state of ego depletion. Both dieters and non-dieters attempted to suppress their emotional responses while watching a movie. Afterwards, participants were required to consume ice cream in order to engage in a taste-test.
“The major finding was that dieters who suppressed their emotional responses to the movie experienced more ego depletion than those who were not required to suppress their emotions. Additionally, those individuals subsequently ate much more ice cream in the taste-testing task. Non-dieters did not show the same self-regulatory failures as dieters in these tasks. Therefore, it seems that the act of dieting itself is a form of resource expenditure. Dieters spend so much energy trying to limit their food intake, but these efforts are likely to be undermined when faced with overwhelming temptation.”

This makes perfect sense. You might spend all day diligently sticking to your diet. You eat a healthy breakfast and lunch, and even resist the sweet snacks that a coworker brings into the office. That night, as you arrive home from work, you find that your resolve has grown weak and you no longer have the self-control to stick to your diet. Because you have expended so much mental energy throughout the day resisting the urge to indulge, you have reached a state of ego depletion by dinner time. Instead of eating the healthy meal you planned, you order take-out from your favorite fast-food restaurant and spend the evening watching TV and snacking on chips. Exhausting self-control on unrelated tasks might then make it more difficult to say no when temptation strikes. 

Ego-Depletion Prevention

Back to my question – What can I do about it? How can I use this knowledge to make my weight-loss easier?

Positive Mood! “In a recent experiment, it was shown that inducing a positive mood can buffer the impairing effects of ego depletion on subsequent performance. Positive mood was induced by getting individuals to watch comedy videos or by giving them a surprise gift. Positive mood seemed to allow people to recover faster from ego depletion and furthermore, improved their ability to self-regulate.” Positive attitude is just a way to counteract ego depletion after a person is depleted. In some studies, ego depleted participants who had their moods boosted by watching comedy films actually performed just as well on self-control tasks as non-ego depleted participants.

Prioritize Sleep. Sleep resets your self-control and provides you with the mental energy needed to have willpower throughout the day. Similarly, lack of sleep makes self-control more difficult. Think about how much harder it is to resist junk food when you’re sleep deprived than when you have a good night’s rest.

Food. Early studies on ego-depletion suggested that the whole mechanism of ego-depletion is based on glucose: self-control or decision-making uses up glucose and after a while the shortage of glucose leads to ego-depletion. These studies found, for example, that ego-depletion could be reversed if people drank lemonade with sugar during challenging tasks. This suggested that effortful thinking uses up glucose. Other, more recent studies show that merely rinsing one’s mouth with a glucose drink is enough to strengthen self-control. In these studies, participants did not swallow the drink; merely rinsing the mouth also did not increase blood glucose. The likely explanation is that carbohydrates, even if merely sensed and not swallowed, activate dopamine pathways in striatum, a brain region associated with rewards. So carbohydrates probably reverse ego-depletion because they increase people’s motivation and not because of their metabolic effects. 

So food is crucial for restoring ego strength, and carbohydrates play the leading role. When it comes to carbohydrates, there are two basic types: simple and complex. Simple Carbs for Ego Strength. If glucose drinks reduce ego-depletion because they activate brain reward circuits, then simple carbohydrates should work better because their sweet taste is more rewarding. In short, it means that probably it is best to use foods that get their sweetness from fruits, honey, or table sugar. Yet, don’t rely on foods that get their sweet taste from artificial sweeteners —studies mentioned just above found that mouth rinses with artificial sweeteners had no effect.

What Will I do Differently?

  • 1,500 calories/day (low carb <100g) x 3 days
  • Refeed every 4-th day: 2,500 calories (high carbohydrate day 300g+/no fat)
  • Sleep more: 9 hr min. Whenever have cravings – take a nap
  • Whenever find it hard to resist temptations – try rinsing the mouth with Gatorade (or similar)

EXPERIMENTS WITH WEIGHT LOSS: WEEK 3

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

EXPERIMENTS WITH WEIGHT LOSS: WEEK 2

THE HIGHER QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE – THE BETTER FORM AND HEALTH YOU CAN OBTAIN. 

It will be harder to lose weight for people who constantly stress about money. The more financially and socially stable you are – the fitter you can get. There are exceptions. 

What I learned after Week 2 of weight loss?

Energy consumption during the first week was ridiculously low, so I made a conscious effort to eat more the next week. I ate approximately 2,800 calories more, which equals to more than one full day worth of food. 

The day after “refeed” day, I felt really hungry upon awakening. It even hurt a bit in my stomach. That’s good! I believe it’s due to improved metabolism caused by high carb intake the day before. I endured the cravings and went back on to the low carb track.

Blood sugar levels typically spike one day after refeed. That’s odd. I would expect to see elevated blood sugars immediately, on the next day, but it doesn’t work that way. The spike happens on the second day, after refeed and then gradually declines at the speed of about 0.2 mmol/l a day. 

I see direct correlation between carbohydrate cravings and blood sugar levels. The lower it gets – the more I begin to think of bread and simple sugars. Sometimes I even have food dreams in my sleep. I assume that we can use glucometer to schedule refeeds. Depending on a lot of factors, particularly the activity level – some people will be able to deplete their glycogen stores faster than the others. Once the muscle and liver glycogen is low – we begin to see a drop in blood sugar levels. Theoretically, we can schedule carbohydrate refeeds every time the person drops 0.6-0.8 mmol/l. Once the number reached – refeed.

Refeed Days

Three days of minimum/no carbs were easy. In fact, my carbohydrate cravings were much more manageable than the week before. I almost didn’t have any. Anyways, I had a day of refeed on Wednesday, as planned. 

My approach was simple – eat a lot of carbohydrates, as much as you want. Create a caloric spike with carbs only. No limitations, whatsoever. The only rule was to choose carbs with minimal fat content. If I were to buy a loaf of bread, I would pick one with the lowest fat content. Same for cookies, rice cakes and all sorts of simple carbs I ate that day. Fat – was the only macronutrient that I was searching for on the back of the packaging. This did not workout very well…

After the second workout of the day, which was strength training, I felt particularly hungry. Started with about 150g of oatmeal (dry weight), then it went on and on. Five flatbreads plus a bag of marshmallows. Simple carbs, pure sugar, but no fat – should be fine, right? Wrong. Once you begin eating sweet junk food, there is no stopping. I ate way more than I should’ve and felt sick that evening. This taught me a lesson:

Refeed Days also should be controlled and have boundaries.

What this means is that even on refeed days, I got to stick to a specific number of carbs I consume. Something like 400-500g of carbs, the rest is protein. For each person this number will be different. Also, not to mention that if you don’t feel that you crave carbohydrates that much – there is no reason to stuff yourself with oatmeal. Postpone the refeed day to tomorrow or day after tomorrow.

Carbohydrate Alternating Diet – THE THEORY

There are many names for this method of getting rid of subcutaneous fat. But the meaning is always the same – “floating” calorie intake. For several days in a row, you get the minimum calorie content practically by minimising/eliminating carbohydrates in your diet (eat mainly proteins).

All this time, your fat is actively burning as a source of energy, however at the same time your body slows down metabolism due to lack of energy. After a few days, you arrange a “belly party” by adding a lot of carbohydrates to your diet in order to speed up the metabolism and improve your well-being. After saturation, you go into negative territory again. This alternation of “starvation” and “global gluttony” allows you to burn subcutaneous fat more efficiently than the traditional low-carb diet.

This is a modified version of the regular low-carb diet. It’s very simple: constant manipulation with the amount of carbohydrates consumed. First, you consume low carbs -> fat burns + metabolism slows down. Then you consume a LOT of carbohydrates = no fat burns + metabolism accelerates. Why does this work so well? Because you get all the pros and you minimize the cons. PROS – the lack of carbohydrates is necessary for weight loss. CONS is a slowdown of metabolism (slowing down fat burning).

In the body, everything is CONNECTED and LOGICAL. There is a basic energy source that is very cheap and therefore best suited for conversion to energy. It’s called CARBOHYDRATES stored as GLYCOGEN in the muscles and liver cells. And there are emergency sources of energy, which are very expensive and therefore consumed last (when there are no carbohydrates anymore). IT IS PROTEINS and FATS. Including those that are stored under the skin. Alternation depletes glycogen stores and thus forces you to use fat (you lose weight). A few days without carbohydrates maximally deplete glycogen stores (the body begins to burn fat). In response to low energy consumption your body turns on the emergency response – slow down of metabolism and fat burning. This is when we start “carb loading” or “refeed”. Having filled the muscles and liver with glycogen for a day or two, we block the “dangerous ricochet” of our metabolism. After stabilization, we again go low carb for several days, after which we introduce the refeed back again. Two steps forward, one step back. We move up and down, in a rhythm, alternating between lack and excess.

On the first day of restriction of carbohydrates, the body loses its glycogen reserves, on the second (third) day with restriction of carbohydrates, the body begins to burn fat, on the following days, while maintaining a low level of carbohydrate consumption, anti-stress adaptation to hunger is turned on, which is aimed at maintaining weight (slow down of thyroid gland hormones, increased secretion of catabolic hormones, decreased insulin secretion, slowing down the conversion of fat into energy, etc.) In general, if you do not add carbohydrates at this time, you can greatly slow down or even completely stop the process of fat burning.

Example:

  • 1-5 DAYS = LOW CARB (2-4 grams of protein + 0-1 grams of carbohydrates per 1 kg of weight)
  • 1-2 DAYS = CARB LOAD (1-2 grams of protein + 3-5 grams of carbohydrates per 1 kg)
  • REPEAT

The cycle is repeated many times. The result in theory should be as follows: weight is reduced due to body fat loss, while the percentage of muscle tissue remains the same. For the first couple of low/no carb days, the body switches to self-sufficiency and begins to use the most convenient fuel – its own glycogen. Having quickly depleted its reserves in the liver and muscles, it starts the breakdown of fat and by the end of the second day it accelerates fat burn to its maximum. However, you cannot continue in this way forever, otherwise metabolism will slow down greatly in a couple of days as well as the process of losing fat. This happens because the body perceives the situation of carbohydrate deficiency as life-threatening and tries to preserve the “necessary” fat reserves by burning the less valuable – muscle tissue. Therefore, when you are on a “starvation” diet, the weight first drops sharply, and then suddenly freezes for a long time. But if you spur the metabolism on the 5th or 6th day with an additional infusion of carbohydrates, the body continues to consume the existing fat, and the carbohydrates eaten go to replenish glycogen stores.

A four or five day cycle of a carbohydrate alternating diet can and should be modified to fit your unique lifestyle and body. Many people successfully modify this pattern, for example: low carb for five days in a row, from Monday to Friday, and then load with carbohydrates on the weekends. You must experiment to find the most optimal schedule for you. 

This diet can be very effective. Actually, as it is not surprising, but the driest I was from using this diet. BUT it requires a VERY INDIVIDUAL SETUP! It is very easy to be wrong. THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT DIET BECAUSE YOU NEED TO CHOOSE TWO THINGS INDIVIDUALLY:

  • NUMBER of LOW CARB DAYS (by day)
  • SIZE of “CARB LOAD” (by days and by quantity)

First, the number of days may be too many or too few. For some people 3-4 days of low carb may actively slow down metabolism, so they will need to start eating carbohydrates. Other people can sit on a “starvation diet” for a week, continuing to actively burn fat. If you give those folks a lot of carbohydrates in this case, then the process of fat burning will completely stop.

Second, the “carbohydrate load” may be too large or too small. It is generally enough for one person to just eat a large portion of rice for breakfast and his/hers metabolism will go back up to the same rate as before the diet. However, others need to stuff themselves with a lot of food for two days to accomplish the same result. It also matters which carbs you eat: “fast or slow”, complex or simple. Because of so many different factors – it is very difficult to find your perfect ratio of days and amounts. You got to be in tune with your body. In an experimental way you need:

  • Choose number of days without carbohydrates
  • Select the size of the “carb load”

I can’t tell you the exact numbers. You need to experiment and watch the result. I can only give rough guidelines with which I would start these experiments. For beginners, I would try 2 days without carbs + 1 day refeed. I assess how I feel and look in the mirror. If you feel good (there is no muscle weakness), then I would increase the duration of low/no carb to 3 days + 1 day of carb load. I would work in this mode for 1-2 weeks, observing my feelings and reflection in the mirror.

FEEL GOOD = you can extend the low carb (add days)
FEEL BAD = reduce low-carb days or increase the load (amount and/or days)
THE MIRROR SHOWS PROGRESS = don’t change anything
THE MIRROR DOES NOT SHOW PROGRESS = you need to change the unloading and/or loading

Ideally, you should choose such a balance of low-carb days and refeeds, so that you lose weight in the mirror, and you feel good (metabolism does not slow down). Somewhere for 50% of people it will be about 4 days of low-carb + 1 day refeed. Moreover, on the day of carb loading, it may make sense to only eat in the first half of the day and fast for the rest of the day.

It also makes sense to experiment with the GI of the carbohydrates you use during loading. You can try eating simple carbohydrates (sweeter) or complex carbohydrates (oats, rice, buckwheat etc.) depending on the duration of the load. In theory, complex carbohydrates are better on the diet, in practice I have noticed that if you have a short “window” for intake (for example, only the first half of one day), then simple carbohydrates work better. Experiment.

EXAMPLE OF CARBOHYDRATE ALTERNATING DIET

STAGE 1: LOW/NO CARBS (2-5 days)
Protein + fiber, minimum carbohydrates:

  • Chicken breast cooked (500g)
  • Eggs (10 whites + 3 yolks)
  • Low fat cottage cheese (300g)
  • Vegetables (300-500g)

*If hungry, you can add breast or fish (animal protein source)

STAGE 2: CARB LOADING – REFEED (1 day)

  • Oatmeal (200g)
  • Buckwheat or Rice (300g)
  • Unlimited protein and fiber

On this day, we get an excess of carbohydrates. I gave an example with oatmeal and rice. This is not a dogma, but just an option. Perhaps you like pasta or bread more. Or maybe even honey. On this day, you can experiment with carbohydrates. BUT remember that this is not a day to indulge in binge eating. Carbohydrates are not for pleasure. It is primarily a tool to prevent a slowdown in metabolism. Therefore, you choose products not in terms of taste, but in terms of effectiveness for further fat burning.

By now you understand that the goal is to deplete your glycogen stores, to initiate the fat burn. Experimentally, I found a few ways to speed up glycogen depletion:

  • HIT. Any sorts of sprints: running, on bike, swimming. Short bursts of energy at all out efforts. 
  • Weight training. Heavy weights + supersets 
  • Swimming. At least 30 minutes 
  • Cold water immersion 

Metabolic Adaptation

ON AVERAGE, THE HUMAN BODY BURNS ABOUT 30 CALORIES PER KILOGRAM OF BODY WEIGHT. 

Let’s say, you weigh 75 kilograms. To maintain your body weight, you eat approximately 2,250 calories/day (30 cal x 1 kg). One day you decide to lose weight.

You set your caloric intake to 1,100 calories per day, creating about 1,150 cal/day energy deficit. In a short period of time you lost 10 kilograms. Wooo Hoooo! Right? Let’s see what happened to your metabolism.
Now your body weight is 65 kg. 65kg x 30 cal = 1,950 calories / day to maintain. Your body now requires less energy to maintain essential functions. As your body’s weight decreases – the energy consumption decreases as well. This is the law of physics.
What happens if you decide to maintain caloric intake of 1,100 cal / day? Your body regulates hormones in a way, so you start expanding less energy. Protein synthesis decreases or stops completely. You don’t build new muscle tissue, and at the high risk of destroying the muscles that you’ve already got. Resynthesis of glycogen also decreases because carbohydrate sources are minimal. Certain bodily processes either stop and slow down, so your body becomes more efficient and uses energy. This is called – Adaptation. Your body adapts to femen in order to survive. You lose any motivation for physical activity. If you used to go to the gym 4-5 times a week, now you train lighter or even skip one-two training sessions. You might also notice that you feel less emotional. Jokes are not so funny anymore. You become careless. Your libido drops. You don’t want to have sex, you just don’t care. 

What I will do differently:

  • Refeed days are planned and controlled
  • Complex carbs are preferred on refeed days
  • No fat on refeed days
  • Supplement with protein to feel more full and lower insulin response 

EXPERIMENTS WITH WEIGHT LOSS: Week 1

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

EXPERIMENTS WITH WEIGHT LOSS: WHAT TO EXPECT in THE FIRST WEEK

Effect of weight loss on hormones

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.

EXPERIMENTS with Weight Loss: FASTING

After a long run on Saturday morning, I decided not to have breakfast. Why? Because I over ate the night before, so I thought I would give my body a break. I ran 21 km that morning, which put me in about 1200 to 1400 calories deficit. Despite such a large expenditure, I was surprised to note that I wasn’t feeling hungry. It was more of a habit, I realized, do you have a large meal after a hard workout. I scanned my body and asked myself: Am I really hungry? The answer was – no. So why do I eat, if I am not hungry? Of course there is a lot to do emotional eating and behavior patterns, however I will leave it for the next conversation.

I finished my run at 9 AM in the morning and haven’t eaten anything the entire day. The urge to put something in my mouse came up several times, however it wasn’t hunger. It felt weird not to have eaten for the entire day. Before bed I had about a handful of almonds, a bag of carrots and half a glass of wine. I thought to myself that I might spiral in uncontrollable binge the next day. The body will take its back – as I thought.

It didn’t. I felt like I could go the second day with no eating. In fact I started liking this sense of emptiness and lightness. I got worried that I could develop some sort of eating disorder like anorexia.

I was a little agitated and short tempered. I didn’t feel tired or lethargic. I had enough energy to do some easy 10 km run and a 60, 90 minute bike session. I continued training twice a day, as usual, but the hunger wasn’t there. I thought that my body was cleaning up itself on the inside. The next day, despite not being particularly hungry, I ate right before bed. I overeat. I felt bloated and ashamed. 

The next day I decided to repeat my experimentation with fasting. I haven’t had any food from the time I woke up until 4 PM in the afternoon. I went for an 80 minutes bike session that morning. I was expecting to feel weak and tired, however I ended up doing several hard intervals, averaging 200+ Watts. I knew that I was in an energy deficit, however I felt great both mentally and physically. I thought to myself: “This is great! I want to feel like this all the time.”

I have no problems fasting for 20 hours, but I do struggle to stop once I’ve started. 

It’s like the more you eat, the more you eat.

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STRENGTH and PHYSIOTHERAPY Exercises

FLEXIBILITY EXERCISES: LOWER EXTREMITY

STRONGER LEGS: YOGA FLOW SEQUENCE

Band resisted row with calf raise

Why?

Row with calf raises is to improve mid back strength and calf strength simultaneously. Mid back strength is important for posture in endurance sports especially towards the end of a race – helps maintain the position of the rib cage for optimal diaphragm excursion. And the calf muscles, especially the soleus (which is trained with the knee bent) is very important for running. The soleus excepts the load of the body at initial contact and pushes off the ground during terminal stance while running.

How?

Raise up on toes and squeeze calf muscles in this position
3 sets of 10

Step-up with High Knee Combo (part I)

Why?

Focus of the exercise is to build quad strength and work on control/balance for the running form during the step-up/down down portion. The knee should cross over the toes when stepping up to emphasize the use of the quads. The high knee portion of the exercise is to focus on improving stability in the hip flexors which are very important in all aspects of triathlon, but specially in running they help to pull the leg through during the swing phase of gait and stabilize the spine when the foot is about to hit the ground.

How?

3 sets of 10
Use an 8-10″ step

Farmer’s Carry

Why?

The purpose of this exercise is to work on controlling and building strength in the running form position: mid back, core, glutes, and hip flexors.

How?

4x80s (40s heel to toe and 40s march)
Aim to hold an 18kg and 16kg KB in each hand (weight should be different in each hand)
Switch after every pass

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Emotions

What is emotion? According to the Oxford English Dictionary its: “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others”. There are hundreds of emotions that human can possibly experience and this is the list of the most basic ones:

  • Anger
  • Sadness
  • Fear
  • Enjoyment
  • Love
  • Surprise
  • Disgust
  • Shame

Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy.

Aristotle

As Aristotle learned, there is nothing wrong with being emotional. It becomes a problem when people are inappropriate with expressing their emotions. People who mastered the skill of managing own emotions and feelings, as well as other people’s feelings are more likely to be effective in their lives. Folks that cannot control their emotional lives constantly fight inner battles that drain their energy and negatively impact their ability to focus and think clearly.

According to Peter Salovey and John Mayer, Emotional Intelligence is the ability to:

  • Recognize, understand and manage our own emotions. Self-awareness is the pillar of EI. The ability to monitor feelings inn a given moment is essential to self-understanding and managing responses.
  • Recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others
  • Motivate ourselves and persist in the face of frustrations
  • Control impulse and delay gratification
  • Regulate the mood and keep distress from harming our ability to think clearly
  • Recognize emotions in others
  • Handling relationships

Emotions in the body

Every emotion has its impact on our bodies on physiological level, whether we recognize it or not. The more mindful and self-aware person is, the more sensitive one to the impact of emotion onto the body. Modern technologies allow researchers to study how the body reacts to the basic emotions.

Anger. Blood rushes to our hands, making us ready to attack. Heart rate rumps up, adrenaline gets released into the blood stream, making us feel strong and ready for action.

Fear. Blood fills large muscles, such as legs, chest, back muscles, making our bodies ready to run or fight. This is why in the state of strong fear, our fingers and toes might feel cold as the blood went into the muscles.

Happiness. Doesn’t bring noticeable changes in the body, however increases available energy and brain activity.

Love. Activates the parasympathetic nervous system and sets us into relaxed, euphoric and calm state.

Surprise. Raises our eyebrows and widens the eye pupils to allow more light into retina.

Disgust. Either taste or smell will change our facial expression by lifting up the upper lip and wrinkling the nose.

Sadness. Causes a drop in energy levels and enthusiasm towards life.

Know Yourself

Physiology

Manage Disturbing Feelings

Mental Performance

His & Hers

Social Intelligence

Empathy

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KNOW YOURSELF

The Hardware

 Mother Nature equipped you with two kinds of processors (brains): rational and emotional. Throughout the evolution, emotional one was the first to develop, followed by the thinking brain. They’re in the constant battle with one another, the battle of head and heart.

The thinking brain. One of the greatest nature’s gifts we were given is neocortex. Its located It’s a “thinking” brain that allows us to think about our feeling and ideas. Without it we won’t get to experience love and parent-child connection.

The feeling brain. Small part of the brain is dedicated to Amygdala. Without it we would loose recognition of feeling, as well as feelings about feelings. Our lives would seem meaningless, without the need to compete or cooperate.

Amygdala and neocortex are at the the hardware that runs our emotional intelligence. They both are designed not to just process incoming information from our sensors, but to also store it for future use. Strong emotions and experiences, particularly negative ones are being picked up and stored in amygdala. The stronger and more intense the experience, the longer it will be stored in the brain. Amygdala constantly scans the environment for events and experiences, constantly comparing them to the ones it has stored in the memory from the past. In case or reoccurring situation, it makes sure we react to it, exactly the way we did in the past, trying to keep us safe. When it comes to live or die situation, amygdala works faster that a flash, not giving us a chance to rationalize and think about what actions to take.

Neocortex on another hand allows us to make sense of the information we receive and lets us to choose how to respond to it. Speed is the weakness of it as it takes longer to processes information. Did you become sad after your dog died? Did you feel happy winning a competition? Did you get angry over the comment someone made about you at work? Neocortex is at work.

Self-awareness

Being aware of your own feelings and emotions is the keystone of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness is the skill that if developed, allow you activate your neocortex to monitor the emotion. It lets you to step back and and gain control over what is happening. The only way to becoming more intelligent emotionally is through self-awareness.

Self-awareness means being aware of your mood and thoughts about your mood.

After you recognized the emotional sensation, once you registered it with your neocortex, you gain control over it by deciding to change your outlook, therefore your mood.

There are three types approaches commonly used by people to manage their emotional lives:

  • Self-aware. These people are aware of their moods as they’re having them. They are typically in good psychological health and tend to have a positive attitude towards life. They are able to get out of bad mood easier.
  • Engulfed. These people feel overwhelmed by their emotions and feel helpless in taking control over them. They’re not aware of how and what they feel and makes them loose perspective over the situation.
  • Accepting. These people are aware of their feelings and they accept them. However they don’t try to change the way they feel. In case of being in a bad mood, they simply accept the condition they’re in and doing nothing to get out of unpleasant feeling.

Alexithymia

This is a condition which described by phycologists as inability to identify and express or describe one’s feelings. People with such condition are unable to speak clearly and openly about their feelings, not because they don’t want, but because they simply don’t know how they feel feel at the first place. When they experience strong emotions, they often feel overwhelmed and try to escape that feeling as soon as possible.

Inability to prioritize

There are people that have no sense of priority. They get lost in every small detail, and everything seems equally important to them. The main cause of it is poor self-awareness. Person don’t know what he feels about the decisions he makes.

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PHYSIOLOGY

Strong emotions have significant impact on our health. Negative emotions and toxic relationships are strongly correlated with chronic diseases. The ones who learned to manage their emotional lives calmly and mindfully are on the path of living more healthy lives.

By properly managing our emotional lives, we can not only cure decease, but prevent it from occurring at the first place.

We all know know how important strong immune system for our well-being. It defends us against viruses, bacteria and cancer. There is been shown a strong link between the central nervous and immune systems as well as correlation between stress and its harmful impact on our immune resistance.

Toxic Emotions

No doubts, emotions impact out bodies physically. A lot of surgeons report that if the person scheduled for surgery, comes to the procedure panicked and scared that day, they bleed much more than people who came in calm. Anxiety and panic increases the blood pressure, causing serious complications during the surgery. People who experience chronic anxiety, long periods of sadness and pessimism, hostilities, suspiciousness – are in the risk of doubling such disease as: asthma, arthritis, headaches, heart disease. Smoking and eating fast food equally decrease your chances of living a long healthy life. Therefore being a pessimist is no better that being a smoker.

Anxiety

One of the most harmful emotions for your body. The right amount of anxiety can help us to prepare for upcoming danger, however when if becomes chronic, it ramps up the stress levels causing medical problems. Anxiety weaken the immune system, making you more susceptible to catching such viruses as flu or herpes. Studies has shown that people who rated their stress levels moderate or high, were 47% more likely to get sick – direct evidence that stress and anxiety weakens the immune system. In additions to lowered immune response, anxiety harms the cardiovascular system, making people more susceptible to heart disease.

Depression

As mentioned before, depression harms your body. In a study of 100 patients who had their bone marrow transplanted, 12 of the 13 who were depressed died within the first year of the surgery. 34 of the remaining 87 were still alive two years later. Also, in patients with kidney failure, those who were diagnosed with serious depression were most likely to die within two years. Therefore depression impede medical recovery and dramatically increases the risk of death. Depression predicts how long we live.

It’s clear that anger, anxiety, chronic stress and depression shorten our lives. Optimism on another hand, can not only speed up the recovery from a major surgery, but also reverse certain medical conditions. 122 men who had their first heart attack, were evaluated on wether they were more of an optimists or pessimists. After 8 years, 21 men out of 25 most pessimistic ones had died vs 6 out of 25 most optimistic. One way to explain such positive impact of optimism on our bodies is that pessimism essentially leads to depression, which lowers the immune system, greatly reducing our chances to fight disease.

Value of Relationships

Social isolation – a sense that you have no one to share your private feelings with or have a close connection – double the chances of sickness and death. Just let it sink in, feeling lonely, lost and isolated kills you at the same speed as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and lack of exercise. In fact, smoking has less negative impact than social isolation. In the study of a 100 bone marrow transplant patients, the ones that felt they had support from their friends and family, had 54% more chance of surviving than people who were left alone. Another study, that was done on 752 middle-age Swedish men, who were born in 1933 went through a free medical exam, then retested seven years later. 41 of them had died. The others who reported highly stressful lives and lack of emotional support had 3 times greater chances of mortality in the following years. Men who reported having meaningful connections in their lives – wife, close friends – showed no correlation between high stress and death rate. By simply having someone to talk to, to ask for help or advice, protected them from life’s trauma and deadly effect of stress.

Stressful life events are associated with high mortality in middle aged men. Men with adequate emotional support seem to be protected.

Rosengren, A (1993, October 30)

By learning basic emotional intelligence skills and how to manage upsetting feelings – anger, anxiety, depression, pessimism, social isolation and loneliness – we get the power to prevent disease. If you are facing a medical condition and battling disease, it is crucial to keep the positive attitude and have emotional support from close friends and family, as in some cases it predicts you live or die.

References:

Rosengren, A., Orth-Gomér, K., Wedel, H., & Wilhelmsen, L. (1993, October 30). Stressful life events, social support, and mortality in men born in 1933. Retrieved December 25, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8251807

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