Today I cooked up one of my favorite foods, pork roast. It is relatively inexpensive, tastes great and provides lots of good protein. Since I'm trying to up my protein a bit these days, which is surprisingly hard, this last is a good thing.
This time I used a pork loin roast of about 4 lbs (bone in), but in the past I've used the even less expensive shoulder or butt roasts. The secret to the roast is brining. Brining is simply soaking the meat in a salt water solution for a few hours. Most brines I've seen call for sugar, but since I'm avoiding sugar like the plague, for a long time I've just used salt. Kosher salt specifically.
To make the brine I use 1 quart of water (more or less) and 1/4 cup of salt (more or less) for each pound of meat. Today that resulted in about 1 gallon of water and 1 cup of kosher salt. Just dissolve the salt in the water and add the meat and stash in the refridgerator for about 1 hour (more or less) per pound of meat. You can go longer, but I've read not to go more than 8 hours. You can some herbs or fruit juices or sliced apple if you want, this is supposed to draw the flavors into the meat, but I've never noticed much effect from that.
Once you've brined the meat, you will want to drain it and dry it off to help make sure you get nice crispy outside. You can also add some spices at this point. Today I added a BBQ flavored rub I made from a recipe in the new Atkins book which is quite nice. Put the roast on a wire rack on a baking sheet.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and once it is hot put the roast in and set a timer for 30 minutes. This first bit of cooking is to get a nice crispy outside, which is especially tasty if you have used some sort of spices. Once the timer goes off, turn down the oven to 350 degrees and continue cooking until the internal temperature of the roast is about 150 degrees. For a 4 pound roast, this takes around an hour.
Once the roast has reached the desired temperature, remove from the oven and cover with foil to let it "rest" for 5 or 10 minutes. I can never seem to wait that long but it is supposed to help keep all the juices from running out of the meat when you cut into it.
You can also cook whole roaster chickens using this same method. I've found both chicken and pork come out very juicy and tasty this way, even poorer cuts of pork like the shoulder or butt roasts.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Trip to the Farmer's Market
It has been quite a long time since I visited the Farmer's Market here in St. Johnsbury, and I'd never been since I'd started eating a low carb/paleo (off and on at least) last year.
I expected that things would tend to be more expensive than regular "store bought" food, and by and large I was right. However, I was somewhat surprised to find things like grass-fed ground beef that were not all that much more expensive than store bought. Warden Farms was selling grass fed meats, though the pork did use some organic grain feed and really the prices were not that bad for some cuts. There were several options at around $5 per pound or less. The ground beef was $4.50 per pound (unfortunately they were out) while the ground beef in patties was $5.25. Not quite sure why the extra cost for the patties, but I bought some anyway. I compare this to the $9 per pound that I paid for ground bison last night at the local grocery store and pretty much decided I'll start going to the Farmer's Market earlier on Saturdays to see what meat there is before I buy stuff at the grocery store. I don't think I'll start buying eggs at the market since they are almost twice as expensive as the omega-3 eggs I've been buying at the grocery store. I can't see doubling the amount I spend on eggs each week when my budget is limited. I do like the idea of getting twice as much grass fed meat each week though for roughly the same amount of money.
Stuff had been pretty well cleared out by the time I got there, less than 15 minutes before the market closed, so hopefully if I go earlier there will be more selection. Not sure if there is a lot of benefit buying the locally grown stuff for vegetables depending on the cost, plus right now it is mostly greens and they appear to be quite a bit more expensive than at the grocery store. We'll see how prices go as the season goes on. I'll likely be able to get good deals on summer squash and zucchini later on as those tend to produce a ton.
I expected that things would tend to be more expensive than regular "store bought" food, and by and large I was right. However, I was somewhat surprised to find things like grass-fed ground beef that were not all that much more expensive than store bought. Warden Farms was selling grass fed meats, though the pork did use some organic grain feed and really the prices were not that bad for some cuts. There were several options at around $5 per pound or less. The ground beef was $4.50 per pound (unfortunately they were out) while the ground beef in patties was $5.25. Not quite sure why the extra cost for the patties, but I bought some anyway. I compare this to the $9 per pound that I paid for ground bison last night at the local grocery store and pretty much decided I'll start going to the Farmer's Market earlier on Saturdays to see what meat there is before I buy stuff at the grocery store. I don't think I'll start buying eggs at the market since they are almost twice as expensive as the omega-3 eggs I've been buying at the grocery store. I can't see doubling the amount I spend on eggs each week when my budget is limited. I do like the idea of getting twice as much grass fed meat each week though for roughly the same amount of money.
Stuff had been pretty well cleared out by the time I got there, less than 15 minutes before the market closed, so hopefully if I go earlier there will be more selection. Not sure if there is a lot of benefit buying the locally grown stuff for vegetables depending on the cost, plus right now it is mostly greens and they appear to be quite a bit more expensive than at the grocery store. We'll see how prices go as the season goes on. I'll likely be able to get good deals on summer squash and zucchini later on as those tend to produce a ton.
Friday, June 24, 2011
This Past Week
So this week has pretty much been business as usual as far as diet and exercise go. I have been listening to a ton of Robb Wolf's podcast this week as well. I highly recommend this if you are looking for good information on eating a lowish carb paleo/primal diet and exercise.
I have been working on increasing the amount of carbs as I think this will help me keep on track beyond the 2 to 3 months where I usually have issues. It is pretty difficult though with only eating things like broccoli, green beans and the like. So I've added in small amounts (~60g) of things like beets and parsnips. So far this seems to be going well.
I experimented yesterday with eating 4 meals to try and get more protein in my diet. Robb Wolf has been recommending shooting for 1g per lb of body weight for protein and I've been getting about 130g per day which is like .6g/lb. What I found was that hunger has a lot to do with routine. Meaning if you are used to eating at a given time, you tend to get hungry at that time. I'd read that on leangains.com before but had never really experienced that. Even though I had eaten at noon, I started getting hungry at around 2 or 3pm which was my more normal eating time. Decided it was a better choice to just add a bit more protein to each meal to get the level up.
For exercise, I've been doing one round of the Spartacus workout 2 days and 1 day of more strength body weight stuff (push ups, body weight rows and Bulgarian split squats). I'm thinking to be changing things (again) based on things from Robb's podcast in regards to what is best for leaning out. His advice is pretty similar to what Mark Sisson has in his book, mainly 2 days of strength, 1 day of sprinting and the rest of the days just being active. So I think I will be using a short guide in this month's issue of Men's Health to design my own workout based on what equipment I have on hand. The remaining 5 days I'll wing it. Doing stuff in a pretty unstructured stuff and mix it up, though I'll likely ride my bike a couple days a week.
I definitely feel like I'm still making progress and was able to wear 36" jeans today, which was totally impossible a few weeks ago. They are little snug but not uncomfortable.
I have been working on increasing the amount of carbs as I think this will help me keep on track beyond the 2 to 3 months where I usually have issues. It is pretty difficult though with only eating things like broccoli, green beans and the like. So I've added in small amounts (~60g) of things like beets and parsnips. So far this seems to be going well.
I experimented yesterday with eating 4 meals to try and get more protein in my diet. Robb Wolf has been recommending shooting for 1g per lb of body weight for protein and I've been getting about 130g per day which is like .6g/lb. What I found was that hunger has a lot to do with routine. Meaning if you are used to eating at a given time, you tend to get hungry at that time. I'd read that on leangains.com before but had never really experienced that. Even though I had eaten at noon, I started getting hungry at around 2 or 3pm which was my more normal eating time. Decided it was a better choice to just add a bit more protein to each meal to get the level up.
For exercise, I've been doing one round of the Spartacus workout 2 days and 1 day of more strength body weight stuff (push ups, body weight rows and Bulgarian split squats). I'm thinking to be changing things (again) based on things from Robb's podcast in regards to what is best for leaning out. His advice is pretty similar to what Mark Sisson has in his book, mainly 2 days of strength, 1 day of sprinting and the rest of the days just being active. So I think I will be using a short guide in this month's issue of Men's Health to design my own workout based on what equipment I have on hand. The remaining 5 days I'll wing it. Doing stuff in a pretty unstructured stuff and mix it up, though I'll likely ride my bike a couple days a week.
I definitely feel like I'm still making progress and was able to wear 36" jeans today, which was totally impossible a few weeks ago. They are little snug but not uncomfortable.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
So true...
http://everydaypaleo.com/2011/06/12/attention-scale-addicts/
Came across this link today and it rang very true for me. I am definitely a scale addict, checking my weight every morning. In a way, this might be good as it keeps me focused on eating right, but sometimes (often) it is the thing that discourages me the most. Even when I am doing everything "right", keeping carbs and calories low enough to burn fat, the scale doesn't move. Or moves up!
So I am going to try and NOT use the scale for awhile and just eat right (according to plan) and do what I do for exercise and take my progress pictures once a month and measurements every couple of weeks. Between that and just being aware of how my clothes are fitting, that should be enough to keep me going forward.
Came across this link today and it rang very true for me. I am definitely a scale addict, checking my weight every morning. In a way, this might be good as it keeps me focused on eating right, but sometimes (often) it is the thing that discourages me the most. Even when I am doing everything "right", keeping carbs and calories low enough to burn fat, the scale doesn't move. Or moves up!
So I am going to try and NOT use the scale for awhile and just eat right (according to plan) and do what I do for exercise and take my progress pictures once a month and measurements every couple of weeks. Between that and just being aware of how my clothes are fitting, that should be enough to keep me going forward.
Adding some exercise
This week I've been adding back in exercise, well more structured exercise, to my routine. A couple of things in "The Paleo Solution" I liked the sound of prompted me to make this change. Rob's suggestion is to basically mix things up over the course of the week combining strength training on some days, intervals on others and some light exercise on still others. I like this variety.
He also suggests for people just getting started or back into exercising to use a circuit training method for the strength training and gradually reduce the rest time between exercises until there is basically no rest between them. At that point you can start adding more rounds to the circuit. This seems a nice way to ease back into more regular exercise.
A year ago my main exercise routine, and one I really liked once I got used to it, was the "Spartacus" workout from Men's Health. This is a tough circuit of 10 exercises:
You are supposed to do each exercise for 1 minute, take 15 seconds between exercises (mainly to get ready to do the next one). You rest for 2 minutes between each round and the goal is to do 3 rounds total.
A year ago I was doing some of these movements with 30lb dumbbells and the others with 20lb dumbbells. In starting back on them I am only using 10lb dumbbells, though I'm feeling like I can move the weight up to 20lbs for some of the movements. Also I am only doing one round with (currently) 50 seconds between each exercise. Following Rob's idea, I'm reducing the time between exercises at 10 second increments (will change to 5 once I'm at 30 seconds). Once I'm at 15 second intervals, I'll add a second round and then maybe a third, hopefully increasing weight as a go along.
That covers my strength training, for now at least.
For my intervals, I am using cycling. There is a perfect little hill for this near my house. Currently it is the perfect distance away as it gives me 5 or 6 minutes to warm up before I get to it for the first interval. The hill itself is long enough, again currently, so I can do 45 seconds flat out at a power level well above my threshold. It is long enough that it should stay effective for awhile as I get stronger/faster and can maintain the pace longer.
For my light exercise I am using something called the Marrow Washing Classic from the book "Scholar Warrior" by Deng Ming Dao. I found this book quite a number of years ago, almost 20 now. The Marrow Washing Classic is a set of exercises that are tai-chi like, though more energetic. Since I am trying to keep the workout light, I am only doing the first half of the movements as the later half work the legs fairly hard and both my strength and intervals work my legs hard already. As I improve in my fitness, I may do the whole set again.
I know that some books recommend taking a somewhat "how do you feel" approach to exercising, I'm feeling right now like I need a definite structure. It is something like Dr. Eades says about listening to your body. If you listen to your body when you are first switching to a low carb or paleo type diet, you are in big trouble.
So my current routine:
Monday & Thursday - Strength training (Spartacus workout)
Tuesday & Friday - Intervals (Bike hill sprints)
Wednesday & Saturday - Light exercise (Marrow washing classic)
Sunday - Rest. Well, not really rest as there is generally something that needs doing around the yard or house.
He also suggests for people just getting started or back into exercising to use a circuit training method for the strength training and gradually reduce the rest time between exercises until there is basically no rest between them. At that point you can start adding more rounds to the circuit. This seems a nice way to ease back into more regular exercise.
A year ago my main exercise routine, and one I really liked once I got used to it, was the "Spartacus" workout from Men's Health. This is a tough circuit of 10 exercises:
- Goblet Squat
- Mountain Climber
- Dumbbell swing
- T-Pushup
- Split Jump
- Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows
- Dumbbell Side-Lunge
- Push-up Position Row
- Dumbbell Lunge and Rotation
- Dumbbell Push Press
You are supposed to do each exercise for 1 minute, take 15 seconds between exercises (mainly to get ready to do the next one). You rest for 2 minutes between each round and the goal is to do 3 rounds total.
A year ago I was doing some of these movements with 30lb dumbbells and the others with 20lb dumbbells. In starting back on them I am only using 10lb dumbbells, though I'm feeling like I can move the weight up to 20lbs for some of the movements. Also I am only doing one round with (currently) 50 seconds between each exercise. Following Rob's idea, I'm reducing the time between exercises at 10 second increments (will change to 5 once I'm at 30 seconds). Once I'm at 15 second intervals, I'll add a second round and then maybe a third, hopefully increasing weight as a go along.
That covers my strength training, for now at least.
For my intervals, I am using cycling. There is a perfect little hill for this near my house. Currently it is the perfect distance away as it gives me 5 or 6 minutes to warm up before I get to it for the first interval. The hill itself is long enough, again currently, so I can do 45 seconds flat out at a power level well above my threshold. It is long enough that it should stay effective for awhile as I get stronger/faster and can maintain the pace longer.
For my light exercise I am using something called the Marrow Washing Classic from the book "Scholar Warrior" by Deng Ming Dao. I found this book quite a number of years ago, almost 20 now. The Marrow Washing Classic is a set of exercises that are tai-chi like, though more energetic. Since I am trying to keep the workout light, I am only doing the first half of the movements as the later half work the legs fairly hard and both my strength and intervals work my legs hard already. As I improve in my fitness, I may do the whole set again.
I know that some books recommend taking a somewhat "how do you feel" approach to exercising, I'm feeling right now like I need a definite structure. It is something like Dr. Eades says about listening to your body. If you listen to your body when you are first switching to a low carb or paleo type diet, you are in big trouble.
So my current routine:
Monday & Thursday - Strength training (Spartacus workout)
Tuesday & Friday - Intervals (Bike hill sprints)
Wednesday & Saturday - Light exercise (Marrow washing classic)
Sunday - Rest. Well, not really rest as there is generally something that needs doing around the yard or house.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Artificial Sweeteners, Fruit and Blood Sugar
I have been reading for awhile the idea that artificial sweeteners can be problematic when trying to reduce body fat. It seems to be mostly anecdotal evidence, as some studies show using these sweeteners increases hunger, while others show it has no effect. At least no effect when taken during a meal (i.e. drinking a diet Coke with your lunch). The studies that show an increase in hunger have generally been those where the sweetener is given without accompanying calories. The anecdotal evidence seems to be that in some cases when people give up the artificial sweeteners, they start (or resume) weight loss. There are also some concerns that some (all?) artificial sweeteners my have side effects, especially when used while low carbing.
So I've been cutting back on my use of these things. Right now I pretty much only get some from sugarless gum that I bought last week, and my hope is once that is gone I won't buy any more. My goal is to stop using them to curb my desire for excessively sweet things. We'll see how that goes, but I've definitely noticed a change in my tastes in just this last week.
I've been eating a little bit of fruit the last few days and I'm not quite sure how I am adapting to it. I feel a little more hunger during the day which is not a good sign, and weight loss has stalled. There are some possible confounders though, as I haven't slept as much lately, being up until after 1am, which I know from the past affects the scale readings in the morning. There has also been a radical change in temperature over the last couple of days going from the upper 80s/low 90s on Wed and Thur to in the 60s this weekend. That could also have an impact.
I've been checking my glucose levels the last few days as well. Usually I am just checking my fasting level when I first wake up and then my level 1 hour after breakfast. The first day I also checked before and after each meal. On that day I saw the familiar pattern that I had seen 8 months ago, which is that my glucose level was usually progressively higher as the day went on, though almost always below 100 for 1 hour postprandial. This time around, my levels are running a bit higher with fasting levels being about 10% higher, around 81, which is still good. I am not sure why the readings are even that much higher than last October, though it could be that my exercise pattern is quite different now than it was then. Still, my levels are good, with the highest I've seen which was 1 hour after a dinner meal at 102 (+/- the error level of the meter).
One interesting thing is that it appears that the small amount of fruit causes a much larger jump in glucose levels than a roughly equal amount of carbs from vegetable sources. In the few days I've been checking, I had 2 days when I was consuming about 40g of blackberries or raspberries with 15g of heavy cream along with bacon and eggs for breakfast. This gave about 4-5g of effective carbs. On those days my glucose jumped about 12-14 points between pre meal and 1 hour post meal. Today I had ground beef cooked with a bit of coconut oil as well as some salsa, 3oz of cauliflower and two dill pickle spears, which gives about 6g of effective carbs. Today, my glucose level dropped 2 points between pre meal and post meal readings.
Now a lot of that could be just variations in the meter, as it is a fairly inexpensive one (though the strips are not, at least to me.) I am inclined to believe that on days when I'm not getting good sleep, even that much fruit may be an issue, at least for now. I will periodically try again with the fruit, but for now I am backing off from it and see how I feel compared to the last few days.
I've also started reading Rob Wolf's "The Paleo Solution" which is a pretty good read. I especially like the, rather quick, walkthrough he gives about digestion and what happens in different feeding states. That was information that I kind-of knew already but it was good to have it restated in a different and accesible way. In general, though I have not finished the book yet, it appears (not surprisingly I think) similar to Mark Sisson's "The Primal Blueprint". I haven't got to specific recommendations for carb levels and the like, but so far they track pretty well.
So I've been cutting back on my use of these things. Right now I pretty much only get some from sugarless gum that I bought last week, and my hope is once that is gone I won't buy any more. My goal is to stop using them to curb my desire for excessively sweet things. We'll see how that goes, but I've definitely noticed a change in my tastes in just this last week.
I've been eating a little bit of fruit the last few days and I'm not quite sure how I am adapting to it. I feel a little more hunger during the day which is not a good sign, and weight loss has stalled. There are some possible confounders though, as I haven't slept as much lately, being up until after 1am, which I know from the past affects the scale readings in the morning. There has also been a radical change in temperature over the last couple of days going from the upper 80s/low 90s on Wed and Thur to in the 60s this weekend. That could also have an impact.
I've been checking my glucose levels the last few days as well. Usually I am just checking my fasting level when I first wake up and then my level 1 hour after breakfast. The first day I also checked before and after each meal. On that day I saw the familiar pattern that I had seen 8 months ago, which is that my glucose level was usually progressively higher as the day went on, though almost always below 100 for 1 hour postprandial. This time around, my levels are running a bit higher with fasting levels being about 10% higher, around 81, which is still good. I am not sure why the readings are even that much higher than last October, though it could be that my exercise pattern is quite different now than it was then. Still, my levels are good, with the highest I've seen which was 1 hour after a dinner meal at 102 (+/- the error level of the meter).
One interesting thing is that it appears that the small amount of fruit causes a much larger jump in glucose levels than a roughly equal amount of carbs from vegetable sources. In the few days I've been checking, I had 2 days when I was consuming about 40g of blackberries or raspberries with 15g of heavy cream along with bacon and eggs for breakfast. This gave about 4-5g of effective carbs. On those days my glucose jumped about 12-14 points between pre meal and 1 hour post meal. Today I had ground beef cooked with a bit of coconut oil as well as some salsa, 3oz of cauliflower and two dill pickle spears, which gives about 6g of effective carbs. Today, my glucose level dropped 2 points between pre meal and post meal readings.
Now a lot of that could be just variations in the meter, as it is a fairly inexpensive one (though the strips are not, at least to me.) I am inclined to believe that on days when I'm not getting good sleep, even that much fruit may be an issue, at least for now. I will periodically try again with the fruit, but for now I am backing off from it and see how I feel compared to the last few days.
I've also started reading Rob Wolf's "The Paleo Solution" which is a pretty good read. I especially like the, rather quick, walkthrough he gives about digestion and what happens in different feeding states. That was information that I kind-of knew already but it was good to have it restated in a different and accesible way. In general, though I have not finished the book yet, it appears (not surprisingly I think) similar to Mark Sisson's "The Primal Blueprint". I haven't got to specific recommendations for carb levels and the like, but so far they track pretty well.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Paleolithic Diet
Thought I would pass this along, not to mention keep it easily findable by me. I don't quite follow Paleo, though it is close. Actually at this point my diet is very close, though much lower in carbs than most Paleos would recommend. I particularly like the history part of the graphic. Lots of good information in a small space for sure.
Learn more about the Paleo Diet
Learn more about the Paleo Diet
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Some numbers
Decided today to start tracking some additional data.
Last fall when I was doing low carb for the second time, I picked up a blood glucose meter just to get an idea of what some meals did for me and where my fasting glucose level was in the mornings. My fasting levels during the time I was checking (which wasn't all that long as the test strips are a little expensive) were always below 80 and often below 70. I didn't have any feelings of great hunger at that time (it was often a couple of hours after I took the readings when I finally had breakfast) I would frequently train in that state with no great problems. My post-prandial glucose levels rarely got as high as 100, and that would usually happen only at the end of the day, which makes sense.
So I've bought another batch of test strips and I will start taking my fasting glucose levels and maybe some before and after readings for some meals. Not sure how many of those I'll do as I only have 50 (well, 47 left) test strips and they are $40 a batch, so a little pricey to buy for curiosity's sake right now.
I will also start periodically checking my blood pressure. I am thinking every other week will suffice. Since I was in the drugstore buying Vitamin D3 and the test strips, I used the machine there to check my blood pressure. Here are the results:
Last fall when I was doing low carb for the second time, I picked up a blood glucose meter just to get an idea of what some meals did for me and where my fasting glucose level was in the mornings. My fasting levels during the time I was checking (which wasn't all that long as the test strips are a little expensive) were always below 80 and often below 70. I didn't have any feelings of great hunger at that time (it was often a couple of hours after I took the readings when I finally had breakfast) I would frequently train in that state with no great problems. My post-prandial glucose levels rarely got as high as 100, and that would usually happen only at the end of the day, which makes sense.
So I've bought another batch of test strips and I will start taking my fasting glucose levels and maybe some before and after readings for some meals. Not sure how many of those I'll do as I only have 50 (well, 47 left) test strips and they are $40 a batch, so a little pricey to buy for curiosity's sake right now.
I will also start periodically checking my blood pressure. I am thinking every other week will suffice. Since I was in the drugstore buying Vitamin D3 and the test strips, I used the machine there to check my blood pressure. Here are the results:
It is important to prepare
Since in the next couple of days I will be working through 2 meal times each day, I thought it a good idea to start preparing meals to take with me as it will be difficult to leave work to buy anything.
Also, it is less expensive, usually, to buy groceries and cook rather than buy one or two meals each day.
I will have the fish seen here one meal each day and hamburgers the other meals. I will also have some veggies in the form of broccoli and cauliflower. Luckily, I don't mind eating the same thing several days in a row.
The fish and the burgers were all cooked with a little coconut oil and the vegies were steamed. I will likely use Kerrygold butter on the vegetables and some homemade blue cheese dressing on the burgers and some of the veggies.
I will also take some almonds and walnuts with me just in case I get hungry in the middle of the afternoon. It doesn't often happen these days, but better nuts than candy bars.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Adding back some fruit
Since I got a gift card from Amazon for my birthday yesterday, I bought a couple books for my Kindle. One I already had in "real" book form, "Good Calories Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. The other was one I hadn't read before, "The New Atkins for a New You" by Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek.
I don't think I will find anything terribly new in this book that I haven't found in other books or online, but I'm hoping there will be some twist in the presentation that will help me make it through transitioning to maintenance as I get closer to my goal weight. I know that I need (probably) to try to slowly increase my carb intake and variety of foods, which is a scary proposition for me.
One thing in the Atkins book I have found so far is the "carb ladder" which I will try to use. In fact I have by adding back in some berries to my diet. I like the fact that the book gives pretty good instructions on how to go about testing new foods to see how my body reacts to them. So I started small today by adding a small portion of blackberries (grown in my backyard and frozen last summer) with some heavy cream to my breakfast. Usually I don't have any added carbs (other than those in the eggs), so adding even a few is a change.
I don't think I'll up my overall carb level for now, just swapping around the sources. My average since I started eating low carb again has been around 17g of net carbs per day, within a range of 6g to 34g. I will probably stay in this range, maybe a tad higher, but just trying out new foods.
The trick for me is going to be finding a good balance so that after 2 or 3 months I don't find myself face down in the candy counter at work, which is basically what has happened the first two times I tried low carb.
I don't think I will find anything terribly new in this book that I haven't found in other books or online, but I'm hoping there will be some twist in the presentation that will help me make it through transitioning to maintenance as I get closer to my goal weight. I know that I need (probably) to try to slowly increase my carb intake and variety of foods, which is a scary proposition for me.
One thing in the Atkins book I have found so far is the "carb ladder" which I will try to use. In fact I have by adding back in some berries to my diet. I like the fact that the book gives pretty good instructions on how to go about testing new foods to see how my body reacts to them. So I started small today by adding a small portion of blackberries (grown in my backyard and frozen last summer) with some heavy cream to my breakfast. Usually I don't have any added carbs (other than those in the eggs), so adding even a few is a change.
I don't think I'll up my overall carb level for now, just swapping around the sources. My average since I started eating low carb again has been around 17g of net carbs per day, within a range of 6g to 34g. I will probably stay in this range, maybe a tad higher, but just trying out new foods.
The trick for me is going to be finding a good balance so that after 2 or 3 months I don't find myself face down in the candy counter at work, which is basically what has happened the first two times I tried low carb.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Interesting Animal Study
Came across an interesting study on the Nutrition and Metabolism Society website that offers yet more support for restricting carbohydrate intake when trying to lose weight and or build muscle. You can find the complete study here.
While studies in rats do not necessarily mean that the same principles will hold true exactly in other animals, such as humans, it does give some food for thought.
Basically the study compared to groups of normal adult male rats were fed either a high carb/low protein diet or a high protein/moderate carb diet (could be low carb depending on your definition I suppose.
Adult, male rats were fed either a high carbohydrate (CHO) diet (60% of energy from carbohydrates, 12% protein, 28% fat; n = 30) or a high protein (PRO) diet (35% carbohydrate, 35% protein, 30% fat; n = 30).
While I understand some of the technical discussion, much of it is over my head at this point as I'm not familiar with all the terms yet. The part I understand is that the two diets caused different forms of GLUT4 release after eating. GLUT4 is a protein that transports glucose into either muscle or fat cells, and is only found in those types of cells. According to Wikipedia:
While studies in rats do not necessarily mean that the same principles will hold true exactly in other animals, such as humans, it does give some food for thought.
Basically the study compared to groups of normal adult male rats were fed either a high carb/low protein diet or a high protein/moderate carb diet (could be low carb depending on your definition I suppose.
Adult, male rats were fed either a high carbohydrate (CHO) diet (60% of energy from carbohydrates, 12% protein, 28% fat; n = 30) or a high protein (PRO) diet (35% carbohydrate, 35% protein, 30% fat; n = 30).
While I understand some of the technical discussion, much of it is over my head at this point as I'm not familiar with all the terms yet. The part I understand is that the two diets caused different forms of GLUT4 release after eating. GLUT4 is a protein that transports glucose into either muscle or fat cells, and is only found in those types of cells. According to Wikipedia:
At the cell surface, GLUT4 permits the facilitated diffusion of circulating glucose down its concentration gradient into muscle and fat cells.The high protein diet caused a higher release of GLUT4 in muscle cells at lower insulin levels, reflecting better insulin sensitivity. This would tend to cause more glucose to be transported into the muscle cells to be used for energy rather than to the fat cells for storage. The reverse happens with the high carb diet, which produces much higher insulin levels and a preference to store extra glucose in the fat cells. The report says this is consistent with other findings and suggests "that animals chronically consuming a CHO diet will preferentially rely on adipose to dispose of excess glucose after a high carbohydrate meal."
Two other biological markers are mentioned.
One set ERK1/2, which when elevated is usually a marker of cell division and growth is much higher in both fat and muscle tissue (more so in fat) after a high carb meal. With a protein meal there is some rise in the level of this marker in muscle cells but a marked decrease in fat cells. Taken together with the GLUT4 levels mentioned above it means that with a high carb meal, fat cells tend to get more of the glucose from the meal and the fat cells may have a tendency to grow and divide, allowing for even more storage.
The other marker mentioned is p70S6k, which generally indicates greater protein turnover in muscle cells and greater energy production. A carb meal has little or no impact on this marker while a protein meal, not surprisingly, increases it dramatically.
The authors conclude:
One set ERK1/2, which when elevated is usually a marker of cell division and growth is much higher in both fat and muscle tissue (more so in fat) after a high carb meal. With a protein meal there is some rise in the level of this marker in muscle cells but a marked decrease in fat cells. Taken together with the GLUT4 levels mentioned above it means that with a high carb meal, fat cells tend to get more of the glucose from the meal and the fat cells may have a tendency to grow and divide, allowing for even more storage.
The other marker mentioned is p70S6k, which generally indicates greater protein turnover in muscle cells and greater energy production. A carb meal has little or no impact on this marker while a protein meal, not surprisingly, increases it dramatically.
The authors conclude:
Animals chronically consuming the CHO diet produced greater metabolic signaling in adipose tissue to handle excess glucose and blunted signaling in skeletal muscle consistent with interpretation of insulin resistance. Conversely, animals consuming the PRO diet produced greater metabolic signaling in skeletal muscle with little signaling in adipose. While these data suggest that consuming an increased CHO:PRO diet may have detrimental effects on insulin sensitivity, the long-term significance of these metabolic differences warrants further investigation.
So what exactly am I doing now?
In the past, I've tried a bunch of different ways to lose and maintain weight. In all honesty, I've had good luck with a number of them, and I'll talk about them in some future posts.
Right now though, I am using carbohydrate restriction. I've used this method in the past with good success, though like all ways of eating, there can be issues with how to deal with maintenance and what to do if you "fall off" the plan. I have read a fair amount about low carb diets, with books such as "TNT Diet: Targeted Nutrition Tactics" by Jeff Volek, PhD RD and Adam Campbell, "Good Calories Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and "Protein Power" by Drs Michael and Mary Dan Eades being added to my library.
The nice thing with low carb diets for me is that it pretty much eliminates, at least initially (for the first few months) the desire for high carb foods. Given that I work I sit right next to, and I mean literally, the things that tempt me the most: Snickers, Kit Kats, M&Ms and the like, this removal (or suppression) of desire for these foods is a big factor. Another is that it is extremely good at controlling appetite. When I have tried losing weight just by "eating less and moving more", it often took conscious effort to keep my calories to whatever level the plan recommended. With low carb, that doesn't seem to be an issue.
While I used to plan out my day's eating ahead of time to make sure I got my numbers in the right place, I now usually just make note of what I'm eating and input those numbers into FitDay at night so I have a record of it. So I just eat what I feel like eating (just keeping low carb in mind) and let the numbers fall where they may.
The graph below is the result of this for the last month or so. The blue line is a rolling 7 day average of calories taken in as best I can determine. I used the rolling average just to smooth things out a bit and get a sense of an average intake. So over the first 5 weeks or so of eating this way my intake of calories has dropped about 18%, without my planning on it or feeling hungry, because if I feel hungry, I eat something.
Right now though, I am using carbohydrate restriction. I've used this method in the past with good success, though like all ways of eating, there can be issues with how to deal with maintenance and what to do if you "fall off" the plan. I have read a fair amount about low carb diets, with books such as "TNT Diet: Targeted Nutrition Tactics" by Jeff Volek, PhD RD and Adam Campbell, "Good Calories Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and "Protein Power" by Drs Michael and Mary Dan Eades being added to my library.
The nice thing with low carb diets for me is that it pretty much eliminates, at least initially (for the first few months) the desire for high carb foods. Given that I work I sit right next to, and I mean literally, the things that tempt me the most: Snickers, Kit Kats, M&Ms and the like, this removal (or suppression) of desire for these foods is a big factor. Another is that it is extremely good at controlling appetite. When I have tried losing weight just by "eating less and moving more", it often took conscious effort to keep my calories to whatever level the plan recommended. With low carb, that doesn't seem to be an issue.
While I used to plan out my day's eating ahead of time to make sure I got my numbers in the right place, I now usually just make note of what I'm eating and input those numbers into FitDay at night so I have a record of it. So I just eat what I feel like eating (just keeping low carb in mind) and let the numbers fall where they may.
The graph below is the result of this for the last month or so. The blue line is a rolling 7 day average of calories taken in as best I can determine. I used the rolling average just to smooth things out a bit and get a sense of an average intake. So over the first 5 weeks or so of eating this way my intake of calories has dropped about 18%, without my planning on it or feeling hungry, because if I feel hungry, I eat something.
You may be wondering what I do for exercise. Up until now, this time around it hasn't been much. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes of tai chi like exercises and the very occasional bike ride of between 30 and 45 minutes, most often riding to and from work. So not a heck of a lot. I've long felt, and my recent reading has backed up, that intense exercise can often be counterproductive when trying to lose weight. This is because you quite often simply "work up an appetite" and sooner or later will consume more calories to compensate for what you've burned off. I think it is a much better idea to get accustomed to whatever you are doing to correct your diet and then add exercise once your body has adapted.
For example with myself and low carb, I would guess that this time it took me about a month to become adapted fully to the diet. That is when you see the rather sudden drop in my daily calories in the graph which tells me my body is taking more from my fat stores so my body isn't craving as much energy from food sources.
So I've now started to add back in some strength training exercises, primarily body weight movements. I really like "The Five Essential Movements" from Mark's Daily Apple (a great blog in my opinion for health and fitness). While I don't think exercise is particularly helpful in an of itself for weight loss or maintenance, I do think it is needed for what Mark calls "LGN" or looking good naked, and who doesn't want that? I am starting slow because I haven't done a lot of strength training in about six months. I am also including a protein shake before and after the workout as per the "TNT Diet" to help get the most results out of the workouts.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Typical Breakfast
Breakfast, no matter what time I eat it, is fairly consistent these days:
Eggs and bacon
Today's is pretty typical with 55g of bacon (still wobbly as Dr. Eades might say) and 3 eggs cooked in the fat that rendered out of the bacon. It is probably impossible to know what the calorie count is for this because of the bacon. The 55g here is 5 slices of Hormel Black Label bacon. According to the package, 2 slices cooked are 15g, so 5 slices should only be 37g, not 55. Is all the extra just fat that didn't render out or is some water that remains in the meat? Hard to say. When I track in Fit Day, I definitely go by weight not by servings though.
I also take some supplements with my breakfast. I take a multi-vitamin as well as extra magnesium and potassium to balance out the losses from being on a low carbohydrate diet. I sometimes take other supplements such as green tea extract, extra vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and Alpha Lipoic Acid.
Eggs and bacon
Today's is pretty typical with 55g of bacon (still wobbly as Dr. Eades might say) and 3 eggs cooked in the fat that rendered out of the bacon. It is probably impossible to know what the calorie count is for this because of the bacon. The 55g here is 5 slices of Hormel Black Label bacon. According to the package, 2 slices cooked are 15g, so 5 slices should only be 37g, not 55. Is all the extra just fat that didn't render out or is some water that remains in the meat? Hard to say. When I track in Fit Day, I definitely go by weight not by servings though.
I also take some supplements with my breakfast. I take a multi-vitamin as well as extra magnesium and potassium to balance out the losses from being on a low carbohydrate diet. I sometimes take other supplements such as green tea extract, extra vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and Alpha Lipoic Acid.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Dusting off the blog
A lot has been happening since I last posted here. Can it really be three years?
Back when I was writing before, I was trying to get back into cycling after completely burning out after a year of, in hindsight, really overdoing it on the bike. To go from a 2.5 mile ride to 130+ miles in just over a year was pretty demanding physically and mentally and I was feeling the strain a month or so before my big ride. That was when I noticed my diet was starting to get out of control, at least as far as quality goes, though my training kept increasing.
After my goal ride, I didn't have as much desire to ride but I had gotten used to the amount I could eat. Definitely a recipe for disaster, especially if you have addictive behavior tendencies like I do. So the weight gain was predictable.
Not sure how high my weight got over the but it was on the high side of 230 for certain. I've been in the process of losing (and sometimes gaining back) over the last couple of years. I think (hope) writing on this blog again will help keep me focused on what I am doing this time around to make it a long term (permanent) change rather than just "dieting".
So what will I be talking about on this blog? I hope to include the following:
Back when I was writing before, I was trying to get back into cycling after completely burning out after a year of, in hindsight, really overdoing it on the bike. To go from a 2.5 mile ride to 130+ miles in just over a year was pretty demanding physically and mentally and I was feeling the strain a month or so before my big ride. That was when I noticed my diet was starting to get out of control, at least as far as quality goes, though my training kept increasing.
After my goal ride, I didn't have as much desire to ride but I had gotten used to the amount I could eat. Definitely a recipe for disaster, especially if you have addictive behavior tendencies like I do. So the weight gain was predictable.
Not sure how high my weight got over the but it was on the high side of 230 for certain. I've been in the process of losing (and sometimes gaining back) over the last couple of years. I think (hope) writing on this blog again will help keep me focused on what I am doing this time around to make it a long term (permanent) change rather than just "dieting".
So what will I be talking about on this blog? I hope to include the following:
- My progress, or lack there of.
- My routine: what I'm eating and doing
- Interesting information I find in my own reading that I think other folks will find of use. This will likely include looking back at other ways/means I've used in losing weight.
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