My Self-Experimentation and Transformation
Thanks to Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal for this Guest Post! Here is more anecdotal proof that a high fat diet coupled with intermittent fasting can improve body composition. If you’re interested to know more about Richard’s transformation visit his site, or simply ask him a question in the comment board where he’ll be fielding inquiries. Thanks, Richard!
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I’m a blogger with over two thousand posts under his belt going back five years this month, to November of 2003. And, until May of 2007, about 18 months ago, I was a big fat blogger — one usually filled with rage over politics and all sorts of other societal elements far removed from my direct control. The blog was supposed to be an outlet; but instead, I was a basket case of stress, with blood pressure consistently measuring 145-160 / 95-105, probably well on my way to some cardiac event or stroke within a decade. To make matters worse, I took prescription medication daily, both for gastric reflux (pretty predictable) and for sinus allergies I’d suffered from since my teen years.
I was 46 years of age when I got fed up with it all. By this time, I had racked up over 5,000 miles walking the first hour of every weekday morning over a period of five years. Walking, by itself, doesn’t work — at least not for me.
Tipping the scale at 230 (5’10), 30%+ body fat, I decided to really and finally do something definitive about it. And I blogged about it extensively — mixed in with all of the ineffective, stress-inducing political toxins. But having now racked up nearly 60 pounds of fat loss and almost 20 pounds of lean muscle gain — now at 190 and closing in on 10% BF — I finally decided to blog about health and fitness exclusively last September. I’ll not be looking back. I’m enthusiastic about helping others achieve real results.
The mainstream advice is mostly wrong. One need only take a look around.
So it was easy, right? It’s all math: calories in equals calories out. Boost the metabolism, cut back a little — maybe even on refined carbs, add some lean mass, tip the “energy balance,” and watch the fat melt away. …Well, not exactly. Though, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a trainer who, not only stressed weight training over cardio, but actually steered me toward 30-minute sessions vs. an hour like almost all trainers and gyms try to do. I got set up to go twice per week. That’s an hour per week of ripping intensity and I’ve never worked out for a second longer. I do still walk my 3.5 miles every morning.
And so it began, I trained hard, made real strength gains quickly, initially gained some weight (lean mass) as expected, and then waited for the fat to magically vanish. But It didn’t work out that way. You see, I thought that as I built lean mass, I’d boost baseline metabolism, and my body would just naturally burn the fat over time. Well, maybe a little, but after six months I had dropped about 6 pounds net. At that rate, it would take more than five years. Still, I knew I was onto something, because almost immediately upon beginning the weight training, my blood pressure started coming down, and pretty rapidly too. Within only a couple of weeks I was down to 130-140 / 85-95 most of the time.
So this is when I began to really take others out here in the blogosphere seriously. Guys like Mark Sisson and his Daily Apple. It has been invaluable, and once I learned that diet is 80%, things began falling into place. It was a bit more than a year ago when I really began replacing carbohydrate with fat (mostly from animal sources). My pace of weight loss doubled immediately, to about a pound every two weeks — even though I was still doing too much cheating with burgers, fries, and pizzas too frequently.
But it was working.
Then one day last December I read about “Intermittent Fasting,” and suddenly, the whole foundation of evolution through natural selection, leading to Mark’s Primal Blueprint began falling into place. Think of it this way: everything begins with hunger. An animal — any animal, including the human kind — can only exist in two states with respect to food: fed or fasted. From the point we’re hungry to the point when we eat, we’re in a fasted state. From the point we eat until we’re hungry again, we’re in a fed state.
So, when we think of diet being 80% of the equation, how come so many focus on how to feed and never on how to fast? Could it be that it’s more like 50-60% diet (what we eat), 20-30% fasting (when we eat), and the rest is additional gene expression factors through various forms of brief, intense, stressful-functional activity?
So I decided to give it a go. By this time I’d been working out for over six months, and so had a pretty good idea of the demands. I decided that my first fast would be 30 hours in duration, and, I would do an intense workout near the end at about 26 hours in. It was a profoundly enlightening experience, one that once and for all convinced me that virtually everything you see, read, and hear from the mainstream “authorities” is completely and woefully wrong. I have named this phenomenon modern ignorance.
Far from “losing lean mass,” I and my trainer (to his utter astonishment) found that I gained it even more rapidly. Of the 100-300% strength gains I’ve accomplished over the last 18 months, perhaps 75% have come from the point that I began doing all my workouts moderately to extremely fast. I always ensure that I’ve not eaten for at least 12 hours, but from time to time, I’ll hit the gym not having eaten in 36 hours. Now, of course, I’m not aiming to get “body-builder” big, either; just strong, lean, ripped.
So then I rush to get that post-exercise protein, right? Nope; not even close. It’s never sooner than two hours, and from time to time as much as six hours. But this was an evolution too. Admittedly, at first, I “prepared” for my fasts with a big meal. Then, when I would finally eat, it would typically be the hugest ribeye steak you’ve ever seen, garnished with plenty of butter. What I found is that no matter how long I had fasted prior to the workout, hunger would usually go away 5-10 minutes in. Eventually, I learned to stay right on the edge of it. I could make it come and go at will, just by getting more intense, faster; then backing off.
Fat is king.
In retrospect, I doubt this would have been remotely possible without the essential pleasure and satisfaction I derived in the early stages from really pouring on the fat and pigging out before and after the fasts. I ate lots of fat (animal, olive and coconut oil) with everything, all the time. And then a strange thing happened, spontaneously. Subtly, without even really noticing it, I began eating less, less fat when I did eat, more variety including fruits, and my pre and post-fast meals took on the form of the normal. Now, increasingly, fasts are taken up spur of the moment, as in: “I’m busy; guess I’m fasting.”
I’ve found that fasting gives me high resolution into my own hunger and focuses me intensely on my own place here on this planet with respect to food. Perhaps that sounds a bit too “cosmic,” but I don’t know how else to express it. Consider how much emphasis is given on what to eat, and yet, everything begins with hunger. Could we go a step further? Without hunger, does anything really matter? Well, I can tell you first hand that fasting is your portal to hunger. Sounds obvious, but given the foregoing stated importance of it, how come people fear it so?
So there you have it; my story. It would not have happened without courageous and conscientious people out there like Mark Sisson and the cutting-edge work they do. I can only dream about helping half the people he’s helped; and yet, I’ve already helped plenty — many of them loved family and friends. I really appreciate Mark granting me this wonderful opportunity to put a guest post up on MDA.
What a great way to change a life, and to do it amongst such great people. If you’d care to see a bit more of the evolution in pictures, here’s my latest photo update; and also, my gallery of various progress photos and mashups. Finally, if you’re wondering how all this has effected my lipid panel, here you go.
Other Guest Posts:
Go Healthy Go Fit: Staying Healthy and Fit in Different Lifestyles
Fitness Black Book: Shake Your Gym Addiction. The Outside World is Waiting For You
10 Questions with MizFit from MizFitOnline
Modern Forager: The Tropical Oils
The IF Life: Building Muscle 101
Health Hackers: Conquer Restless Nights with This Simple Sleep Cure
Almost Vegetarian: Almost Vegetarian and Kitchen Geology
Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds
Posted By: Worker Bee
Dr Dan:
Let me just say that I recently began reading “The Paleo Diet” for the first time.
Frankly, I think Cordain is FOS on this point, and the book is plain IRRITATING with all the bromides he uses liberally (‘heart healthy fats’ — he means unsaturated — ‘artery clogging saturated fats’, etc.). I certainly grant that SOME indigenous populations didn’t have access to lots of animal fats (or it was easier to eat high carb, like the healthful Kitavans, Kuna, etc.).
What I think is that humans are generally adapted to a fairly wide range of fat and carb intake. Northern climes would have been high fat and protein, while southern ones would have more access to easy-to-obtain carbs. There may be something to the idea that whether your ancestors harken from north or equatorial may determine your tolerance both for fat and for carbs, in proportion. My wife’s lineage is S America, and she tolerates carbs far better than I. I’m northern European and (obviously) don’t tolerate them well. Conversely, where she doesn’t like lots of meat and fat, like I do, I love it.
The problem with Cordain is that he’s attempting to advocate only variation within a one-size-fits-all framework. I think the framework itself is vastly varied, and the important thing is to eliminate grains, sugar, vegetable oils (and the millions of processed derivative products). Then, you work to find the right ratios for YOU. Alternatively, I eat intermittently. Some days to weeks, it’s 80-90% fat. Other days to weeks, it’s 30-50% fat with lots more fruit. I basically go with what I’m hungry for, and this is how it seems to work out.
This is what I like about MDA. Fruits and veggies are great, but SO IS FAT.
Most excellent post Richard – Your blog is one I follow regularly (along with MDA! and a few others) – well written, always interesting and you seem inquisitive, playful and not doctrinaire. Works for me – I really like your approach.
My experience has been similar to yours. I have lost about half the fat you have – I am shorter (5’9″) and “only” weighed a little over 185 lbs at my heaviest. I don’t know about you, but I have been amazed how much weight I have lost – 30lbs – mostly fat I think – I feel at least as strong as before – and yet I still have fat to lose! We really fool ourselves into thinking we are “just a little” overweight.
I too have found IF to be great for me although I tend to limit it to about 16 to 18 hours per day, 4 or 5 times a week. And like Patrick, I do sip a large cup of coffee or strong tea throughout the day, laced with a good shot of coffee cream – it may blunt the effects, but I still feel great (and better) with the IF’ing.
I am just now looking into a gym and trainer to help me get started into working out. I am in good health and I have the same goals as you – strength and leaning out more. Any advice for the workout newbies? – I really want to get some professional help with form etc.
Another question – did you snore before all this and how about now? I have been a big snorer all my adult life even though I was far from obese with no allergies or breathing problems. My snoring has simply ceased. I am quite sure that the weight loss has been part of this, but I am convinced that the larger factor is general systemic inflammation affecting the throat and airway. Of course this is almost certainly much less now that I am eating the PB. I am aware of other effects in my body indicating reduced inflammation, but the end to my snoring has been dramatic. This may contribute to my increased energy on this diet – like you I cannot conceive of going back to my old way of eating – my memories of eating waffles and bread are enough.
Snoring and airway patency are huge issues – I am an orthodontist and dentists are becoming involved in making appliances to advance the mandible to improve the airway during sleep. My experience with one such appliance I made for myself was that it helped and pretty well eliminated my snoring for the first half of the night, but that I did start snoring in the second half – thank goodness for that spousal feedback!
The scary thing is that this is becoming an issue in children! Not surprising given the increasing obesity in kids, but I think that the inflammation is at least as big a factor.
I have heard a sleep expert say that if you snore, you cannot get a good sleep. I tend to believe it. Any thoughts on this?
In any case, keep up the great work! Your information and inspiration are very helpful.
John Campbell:
“I am just now looking into a gym and trainer to help me get started into working out. I am in good health and I have the same goals as you – strength and leaning out more. Any advice for the workout newbies? – I really want to get some professional help with form etc.”
This is another area where I think there’s often too much emphasis on what/how to work out than on just…simply…working out. All newbies need to know is ditch conventional cardio and do brief, intense. There’s a lot of resources like here at MDA, De Vany, and Chris Highcock at Conditioning research is fantastic (check out some of those “Mountain Athlete” videos he posts).
I’ve always used a personal trainer, but it’s important to find one who understands brief and intense, and lets you do 30-minute sessions instead of an hour. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF A PERSONAL TRAINER IS THAT HE HAS AN INTEREST IN YOUR CONTINUED PROGRESS. In other words, a good one will keep you from injuring yourself, so you stay in the game. Some injuries could put you out for months, even longer. In 18 months, I’ve never had anything but very mild strains and pulls — usually from ignoring my trainer’s advice (15 years experience, bachelor’s in exercise physiology). He really, really focusses on protecting my lower back and always watches my form very carefully.
“Another question – did you snore before all this and how about now?”
I began snoring only when I began to get really overweight, and it was exacerbated by alcohol. My wife has told me that snoring is very rare, now. I really have no idea about the quality of sleep issue.
As a dental pro, you might be interested to know that, one, I had to have braces as a teenager (severe crowding — several teeth pulled to make room, no overbite — could run a straw between teeth, thruster — they used the sharp barbs to torture my tongue and retrain it). Then, I had two surgeries for gum disease back around 2000. Had to have cleanings four times per year as some bacterial “pockets” could not be managed without it. Then, when I went off grains and sugar completely, my teeth/gums began feeling better, and I skipped three cleanings in a row. Finally went in and it had been a year. The hygienist and doc determined that not only was my gum problem resolved, but reversed. They had measurements going back 15 years and I was better off that 15 years prior.
That’s not all. I began reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Price, and began supplementing with Activator X (K2 Mentetrenone, MK-4) in combo with A and D. Even though my gums had resolved, I would get awful calculus buildup, especially inner lower front teeth. Within a few days of a cleaning, I could no longer suck air/liquid through my bottom front teeth. Once I began taking the K2, it was 2-3 days and the calculus began dissolving. I had a cleaning 3 weeks ago, and my teeth have remained very smooth. No buildup at all. I don’t even brush after every meal, sometimes not even every day.
Weston Price also observed in his travels that these indigenous people with no tooth decay also didn’t have dental crowding, and child berthing was easier than in the west. The speculation is these fat soluble vitamins are very important early on for proper bone development, such as the width of the dental bridge and the birth canal.
I mentioned some of this to my dentist and hygienist, and emailed some info. In spite of their astonishment at my dental / periodontal transformation, they seem not so interested.
Do you have any take on this?
Richard – thanks for the reply – I am not obsessing over the workouts, but your advice is very good – it will help me judge a personal trainer for maximum benefit.
As far your dental findings are concerned, I am not at all surprised by much of it. I posted in another blog I believe you frequent – Diana Hsieh’s Noodlefood – she was posting on a piece you did on vitamin D! don’t you love the incestuous nature of the web.
In any case I posted a reply which included:
“The plaque is formed by naturally occurring bacteria feasting on … TA DAH … fermentable carbohydrate. Brushing and flossing your teeth daily mechanically removes the stuff and your teeth and gums should remain healthy. Many people do not perform this adequately and problems arise. Plaque and the carbohydrate work to lower the local pH which dissolves the minerals in the teeth producing caries. The plaque also sets up an inflammatory response in the gums and later in the bone that supports the teeth. Daily cleaning is vital and the professional cleaning in a dental office further ensure that the plaque that was missed, that became mineralized by the saliva is removed on a regular basis.
Almost everyone eating a “normal” diet with fermentable carbohydrate will leave behind plaque on a regular basis and problems are very likely.
Another factor is the saliva which serves to neutralize the pH changes. Now this is probably more than most people want to know, but one can see that the essential factor is carbohydrates in our diet. Vitamin D itself is unlikely to have a direct effect on the plaque although it is certainly possible. The greatest benefit is to cut down on the fermentable carbohydrate and particularly the stuff that gets broken down in the mouth – ie sugars, starches etc. Eating a lot of vegetables will add very little or no plaque while the natural cleaning action of the fibrous vegetables could very well help depending on the alignment of your teeth.
You will likely find your teeth remaining cleaner, but you may still chronically miss an area or two so tooth brushing and flossing are still advised – it isn’t going to hurt unless you scrub and particularly if you do so after ingesting acidic foods. This will lower the pH again apart from the plaque and make tooth brush abrasion much greater. But of course acidic foods are often the carbohydrate crap again – cola drinks, orange juice, sour candies etc.”
My own experience has been very interesting – I have a fractured lower second molar (don’t chew ice kids!). The fracture almost certainly extends into the root which means doom for the tooth. My buddy patched and crowned it and we both kept our fingers crossed. The tooth was variably sensitive with some gum involvement – I was resigned that the tooth would soon have to come out – root fractures cannot be repaired. Since my PB diet and lifestyle, the tooth feels much better – virtually asymptomatic for now – I am fully aware that it could blow up at any time, but I am enjoying the reprieve.
Now lest anyone think that this PB can cure anything, I am not saying that, but it can do wonders – you still require professional guidance and help with some things at some times, but the Primal Blueprint does place your own health with you where it belongs.
It is very interesting that you were still finding a significant calculus buildup on your lower front teeth – with minimal carbohydrate consumption alone, you should not get the plaque buildup which leads to the calculus. Hmmm – as an orthodontist I am not the expert on this at all – periodontists or gum specialists would be much more knowledgeable. It is clear however that our modern diets are so messed up that many (most?) findings and studies are based on a diseased model of humanity. We have so much to learn – it is really exciting, but frustrating how stuck we are right now.
I am not really surprised that your gum problems have resolved and even reversed. I believe that the reduction in inflammation is the key to these improvements. As to the calculus dissolving – that is a real poser – again my oral biochemistry and physiology is a very distant memory. It has been apparent to me however, that this improved diet and lifestyle that you and others advocate has so many positive impacts on so many body systems that we are only beginning to scratch the surface.
I am aware of sounding like a bit of a nut when I enthuse about the changes I have experienced in less than a year of this. I cherish a scientific and rational approach to life, yet it is hard not to sound like a missionary! I am proud to be a dentist knowing that Weston Price is one of the pioneers in all this – maybe we dentists are predisposed to this thinking because it is carbs and not fat that causes dental problems
Sorry to go on but this stuff just juices me – most everyone I know rolls their eyes when I get started – my bad – I need a good editor!
One last question if I may – you mentioned the Activator X briefly on your blog – where do get it and what dosage?
Thanks again Richard!
Sorry – Mark I must add a huge thank you to you as well for your great blog and giving us all this wonderful opportunity to learn from your wisdom!
Kudos! We are all in your debt! As the name of your blog implies – I never miss a day! I often suggest interested people check out your site since it covers such a broad range of topics and is so intelligent and accessible.
Thank you John for the compliments and kind words. And thanks for being a loyal reader! Keep on referring people. I want to get the word out to as many people as possible, and I can’t do it alone. Cheers!
Mark
John Campbell:
Sorry, I didn’t get that quick question answered regarding “Activator X.” On my site, just pop ‘K2′ into the search function and that will pull up all my posts on it. In those, there are references to other articles. Pay particular attention to Stephan’s posts (Whole Health Source) as well as the substantial article by Chris Masterjohn at the Weston Price Foundation.