Lab 1: Food - Refining Methods

Leading up to this year, I had never had any particular relationship with food... other than just eating it. Between high cardio output and a high metabolism, dropping weight was just a matter of pouring cardio until I got where I wanted to be.

After a few months of very diligent running last year, I did not experience much of a weight change. I opted to try something different - a food tracking App on the phone. The method was fairly simple - I had a daily calorie budget. I recorded the food I ate every day, and as long as I kept in the budget, I should have a steady, measurable weight deficit. It was a big deal for me. I had not used an app like that before or ever tracked my food. This was rarified air for me, and I was proud of myself for doing something so outside my regular behaviors.

I used the application religiously. It was an interesting education - for the first time in my nearly forty years on the planet, I had more meaningful information about the caloric value of things and the herculean effort sometimes involved in burning through those calories. It quickly be came apparent that from both a time and physical resource standpoint, managing the calories at the intake point (eating) was vastly better than the output point (exercising). Slowly, I started to unwind the mental links between food as nutrition and food as a drug. I worked through the cravings. I talked to people and got support.

I kept to my budget and kept religiously doing my cardio four to five times a week, along with my martial arts and my archery.

I eagerly waited for the weight loss to begin.

I kept waiting... and waiting... and waiting. After a short initial drop off, I plateaued. I upped my running pace - virtually no change. Added weight training. Still nothing. I trimmed my caloric intake, again, no change. I was more than a bit frustrated because I had been "doing my part" and doing exactly what the app asked. I was so far outside my normaln behavior, and I had virtually nothing to show for it. There's little more discouraging then committing to a system that is supposed to work and seeing absolutely nothing.

Finally, I explained my frustration to my doctor during a routine physical. He asked an inane question.

"Do you drink coffee in the morning?"

"Sure."

"Sugar in it?"

"A bit, yeah. But I stay in calorie budget."

"Sugars are the first place the body goes for fuel. If there's always sugar in the system, even a little bit, it never eats the fat. Go read up on ketosis and see if something like an intermittent fasting window will get you where you need to go."

For those not in the know, intermittent fasting is the term for limiting yourself to small "feeding windows" so the body can go longer periods of time without the "I just ate" chemistry going on.

I thought about the steady stream of coffee (and by extension sugar) that drizzled into my system all morning. It made sense - there was always just enough sugar that fat never got burned.

I opted to give intermittent fasting a try - 16 hour fasts and 8 hour feeding windows. I allowed myself coffee, but no sugar. No food at all from 8:00 p.m. until 12:00 p.m the next day. It was challenging at first, but the shift in perspective made a difference.

If you feel hungry, you feel hungry. If you realize that it is your body changing fuel sources... it ends up feeling productive. You stop feeling grouchy because you realize you are doing something according to the plan. You interpret that hunger as the needed ketosis happening.

Wonder of wonders, it worked. Weight started coming off, and it was a steady loss of a pound every day or two, and it has stayed off. I had other benefits as well - I started sleeping a lot better, which for me was about as expected as growing wings. (I've struggled with insomnia for most of my life.)

The whole journey is a good example of refining methods. I selected a method, totally invested in it, and did not see results. I wonder if several people have adopted a similar "calories in, calories out" approach and thrown it by the wayside when they did not get the desired results. Where I think I made a good decision was to bring the issue to a professional and get feedback. Frequently, the methods for doing basic things (like losing weight) are just fine, but we have flaws in our execution.

The willingness to seek out experts and heed their guidance can often be the difference between success and failure in these sorts of endeavors.