Health Hacking: Anniversary (Premium)

I will soon write about the science behind working past a weight loss plateau. But first, I wanted to provide a few more notes about my diet, plus a quick check-in on my weight loss.

When I wrote Health Hacking: Diet and Nutrition (Premium), I did so with great hesitation and fear: While the science is very clear, I am a layman, as many pointed out. So you have no reason to believe or trust me on this topic beyond the fact that I am, arguably, an expert in weight gain and thus have a real impetus to solve this problem. As I wrote before, it is very important that you do two things yourself: Read up on the science. And find a doctor who stays up on the science, not one that went to medical school years ago and stopped learning. This is on you.

This topic is, of course, controversial. But that’s only true because food lobbyists have destroyed our understanding of what is truly healthy and what isn’t. Foods that people think are healthy are not, and vice versa. And many just have a mental block when it comes to this stuff. Even some people who have lost weight on whatever diet plan often misunderstand why they lost weight. We are swimming in misinformation. That’s always bad. But when it comes to our health, it can literally be life or death. So this stuff is important. Too important to be ignorant about it. Too important for me to ignore.

Thinking further about the layman bit, I will at least explain that I have over two decades of experience researching and explaining technology, and in interviewing experts. And that the instances in which someone finds out something important from an actual expert are rare: For many, my write-up was the first time they were confronted by this topic, and with the names of true experts like Gary Taubes. This is a role I am comfortable with. And I implore you to study more. Again, read the science.

The diet I described previously is an extreme one, even in the context of a healthy, low-carb lifestyle. And the truth is, many people won’t need to be this extreme when it comes to dieting. A keto-style diet, which is basically a very low-carb diet, is one in which you eat fewer than 50 net grams of carbs per day. But I generally try to restrict myself to less than 20 net grams of carbs per day, and if your goal is to lose weight—and not just to be generally healthier—and you are like me—e.g. you sit on your ass every day—that’s the way to get things jumpstarted.

But the truth is, I rarely hit just 20 net grams of carbs per day: I’m closer to 30 these days. And anywhere in the 20 to 50 net grams range is healthy. The point is to remove added sugars, refined carbohydrates, and processed foods from your diet. Beyond that, “whole” carbohydrates (from certain foods, but never potatoes or other starches) can be healthy and add variety. I don’t do that personally, but that’s part of the point: You need to know your own body, and how it reacts to different foods. I have 20+ years of failures under my belt, so I got serious about this. You may have less extreme needs.

I’m going to further the discussion about diet in the next article in this series, but for now, I just wanted to stress that diet is personal: Some foods (or non-foods, like sugar, which is a toxin, or processed foods) need to be eliminated completely, period. But there is plenty of wiggle room with other foods, in particular vegetables (but not many fruits). And variety, while not necessarily a requirement from a nutritional perspective, is certainly a key to happiness. Eating the same things over and over again gets boring.

OK. I’ll soon discuss the science behind getting over the plateau and subsequent weight gain that accompanies any diet. This plateau is why diets fail: We hit a wall, get discouraged, and just start eating “normally” again. Because what’s the point? If you’re going to gain weight, why not just eat what you want?

Before getting to that, I want to describe my past year and explain how much weight I’ve lost.

I started my diet in December 2016 and, as noted, I was pretty hard-core keto through about the first half of 2017. I didn’t weigh myself when I started, mostly because I know from experience that regular check-ins, which eventually demonstrate a weight loss plateau and then a weight gain, are depressing and discouraging. So I figured I’d just get on the plan that was supported by real science and just lose weight. And I had some metrics to show the loss: My belt size decreased dramatically and I had to buy new clothes.

That said, I do sort of know how much I weighed based on a measurement from the middle of 2016, and while it’s likely that I might have gained a few pounds since then, I can use that as a rough guide. Also, in February 2017, I visited the doctor for a check-up and to get vaccinated for a trip to Africa that ended up being canceled. At that time, I was weighed, and while I asked the nurse not to tell me what it was … I looked. And I had lost about 12 pounds or so already. I just never admitted that to anyone. Not my wife, not anyone.

I didn’t weight myself for the entire year after that. But with the one-year anniversary of that check-up looming, I’ve been thinking about doing so.

I was shaving last week and I happened to look over at the floor and I saw the scale that’s been sitting there since we moved to this house, probably. I just ignored it or didn’t even notice it. But I thought about it. And then next day, when I went in there again, I decided, screw it. I’m going to weigh myself.

This was kind of a big moment for me. And given the events of the previous year, which side-tracked my original diet plans because of all the stress and busyness around the move to Pennsylvania, I know that I had gained back some weight. And as a realist, I was aware of the possibilities, even though my waist size is still inches smaller than it was when I started. What if this weight loss had retreated dramatically? What if.

So I stepped on the scale. Waited while the little needle finished its vibration and settled on a weight. I blinked. Died a little inside. Looked.

I’ve lost at least 35 pounds since I started the diet. And about 25 pounds in the past year overall. Probably more. But at least that.

This is good on one level, of course. But it’s bad, too: I expected to lose 50 pounds in the first year. And I feel that I would have done so, had we not moved, which distracted me from the change-up I was originally planning for mid-2016, after about 6 months of dieting.

That change-up, which involves stepping up my intermittent fasting, is the subject of the next article. This is the secret to losing weight, and what will put a low-carb or keto diet (really, any diet, since all diets are actually similar in that they actually focus on carb/sugar reduction) over the top. This is how you break through that plateau. Like my diet, it’s based on science, not nonsense or the conventional wisdom of “it just seems right.”

More soon.