Diet: Phase 1

Phase 1 is complete and went extremely well. I lost 13 pounds with very little effort, no restriction of calories, and no perceivable negative side affects.

I track calories IN very accurately. Calories OUT is an approximation. I use the estimated resting calories burned for a person my height and weight with an office job, which is about 2,000 calories a day. I add any exercise I get like biking to work, lifting weights, softball, and basketball. So you can see I've been burning about 500 calories a day through exercise.

I estimate about 7 lbs of my weight loss is simply water weight (the weight dropped in the first week). But there is a discrepancy in the remaining 6 lbs. According to my calorie counting I should have lost 1.1 lbs. Where did the other 5 lbs go? Either I'm more active than I'm giving myself credit for, or the type of food I'm eating is raising my basal metabolic rate (BMR).

If you starve yourself or eat a very low calorie diet your body will naturally reduce your BMR very quickly. I don't believe my body is doing that.

I will say that tracking every calorie has made me aware of how much I ate previously. Many times in the first month I wanted to eat more but I was aware of how much I had already eaten so I decided to skip the snack I was contemplating. Also, my limited food selection prevented me from overeating. One other observation I've had is that since fats are more calorie dense than carbs or protein the volume of food I'm eating has dropped dramatically.

Randy's Dietary Experiment

As I mentioned earlier, I decided to make an exercise and diet lifestyle change. The origin of my transformation was exactly one year ago when a good friend told me about the book he was reading on nutrition. He presented the basic concept that dietary carbohydrates are quite bad and he was trying to cut way back. Then, in November that same friend decided to really commit to this lifestyle change and the results were pretty impressive. Finally, this past March we discussed it more and I decided to do more research.

The bulk of my research has been:

• The book Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. The book provides a very detailed history on the evolution of nutrition and challenges some widely accepted ideas. The book was eye-opening and very convincing. The biggest point of the book is that carbohydrates, not fat, are the ultimate dietary evil. The book reads like a textbook so it is hard to swallow, but I highly recommend it.
• PaNu - a website written by Dr. Kurt Harris with a rather simple set of rules for the proper diet. He provides medical answers to a lot of common questions.
• Mark's Daily Apple - a website written by Mark Sisson a fitness and nutrition expert. He has many different opinions than PaNu, but the same main points.

I have struggled with weight my entire life. I was very heavy until 17, and after losing 50 lbs in a summer I have fluctuated +/- 15 lbs since then. I've had the discipline to lose weight the conventional way (low calorie, low fat diets) many times but my diets never gave me long term success.

Reading the book Good Calories Bad Calories completely changed my perspective on nutrition. Like most people, I was taught to avoid fat, eat fewer calories, increase fiber, reduce sodium, and try to eat whole grains, fruits, and veggies. Now I believe that the human body was designed to operate burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates and that carbohydrates in basically any form are detrimental to my health.

I understand this is a major change in philosophy and defies countless nutrition "experts" out there. But the evidence is there. If you actually look, I believe the research points to improved health when carbohydrates are removed.

So what is my plan? For one year (I started May 17), I will meticulously record every calorie I eat, my weight, my waistline, and my exercise.

• Phase 1: Minimize carbs, shooting for less than 20g per day. Duration: 1 month
• Phase 2: Less than 100g carbs per day (probably less than 50g). Duration: until I reach my desired weight (which I haven't decided yet, but likely less than 180)
• Phase 3: Experiment - adjust carbs, calories, exercise, etc. as I see fit. Duration: remainder of year.

I will also compare my blood tests from May 2009, May 2010, and May 2011.

I will provide updates on this blog weekly (roughly) and try to answer questions as I learn more. Notice I don't plan to restrict calories at all. For exercise I am eliminating long cardio workouts like running. Instead, I will lift weights and play basketball a couple times a week aside from my normal levels of activity.