Health Hacking: A Quick Update (Premium)

It’s been over six months since my last “health hacking” check-in. But I’m happy to report some mostly good news after a series of doctor visits and lab tests.

First, I expected to provide an update before now: Back in February, I had started investigating intermittent fasting and hoped this would be the secret for getting me over the weight loss hump. But since then, my weight has simply remained the same: Indeed, when I was weighed at the doctor’s office recently, I weighed exactly the same as I did six months earlier.

That’s good and bad, I guess. But I do want to lose weight. And what I’ve discovered, I think, is that what I thought of as intermittent fasting is really just “time-restricted eating.” And while there is a growing body of thought around the benefits of this—I didn’t eat breakfast for the better part of a year—it hasn’t made the impact I had hoped for.

I think I’ve been doing it wrong. So I’ll keep working on that. And will again recommend Jason Fung’s excellent book, The Obesity Code so you can learn more about this stuff as I work through this.

Regarding my diet—which these days is very much “low carb” these days and not truly ketogenic—I’ve stayed on course. In fact, I just passed my diet’s 21-month anniversary. By early December, I will have been on this diet for two years.

I knew two things going into this. That my body would fight weight loss aggressively, as it always had. And that I could maintain the diet regardless. This is the way I am: When I know something is right, I can just stick with it.

And it’s not hard. I’ve not eaten a potato, or french fries, or bread of any kind, or had an actual beer during this entire time. Well, mostly.

I’m human and I do I cheat sometimes. I tried to drink a beer in Europe this past month after an incredible hot spell, but couldn’t do it. And this past weekend, in celebration of the diet anniversary, I did pizza (two pieces!) for the first time in two years. It was good.

More regularly, I eat things like corn, popcorn, and sushi rice, which aren’t strictly low-carb but actually sort-of qualify because of the way our bodies absorb these types of foods. I’m doing low-carb here. Not no carb.

The one thing that’s sort of bothered me, however, is that my diet has evolved into being too meat/protein-centric. This is boring, believe it or not: Even something as good as a rib-eye steak gets tedious if you eat too much of it. But it’s also potentially unhealthy: When you consume too much protein, your body stores it as fat. This is exactly the opposite of what I’m shooting for.

Given all this, I’m now attempting to make two behavioral changes.

I’m trying to eat only within a 12-hour daytime window to address the intermittent fasting/time-restricted eating issue. Longer term, I’m going to look into true fasting, which should be 24 hours or more. For now, eating anything in the morning is hard. I’m just not hungry.

Secondly, I’m trying to eat less meat and, correspondingly, more vegetables. Both are hard in their own ways; I’m never hungry in the morning and I can’t exactly make up the calorie difference with carbs or sugars. But I’m working on this.

Which brings me to the doctor.

If I could do this all over again, I’d have involved a doctor up-front. I had my reasons for the way I did things, but I would never recommend that anyone take up a new diet or make any other health-related decisions without first consulting with a doctor.

For me, I simply wish I had better before and after data. Aside from the progress I have seen, like the reduction of my waistline and, eventually, actual proof of weight loss.

So now I have a starting point for future analysis. I’ve finally found a doctor here in Pennsylvania, explained what I’ve done and what my goals are. And asked for, and received, a full bevy of tests to see where I’m at.

And this goes beyond my diet, in a way. I’m over 50 and there have various health-related concerns that pre-date the diet. My father’s side of the family is prone to prostate cancer and he’s warned me to be tested for that, and to keep following up, for example.

So. Some purposefully vague measurements for privacy purposes.

My weight, again, unchanged from February and down 45-50 pounds from when I started the diet.

My PSA screening was very, very low, which is good news. But I need to be re-checked regularly going forward because what you’re looking for is a sudden jump upwards. (My doctor unhelpfully told me that, as a man, I would “either die of prostate cancer or die with prostate cancer.” Thanks for that.)

Liver and kidney function are normal.

HIV was negative/normal.

Blood sugar is normal.

Cholesterol is a little bit high. This was a bit surprising, but the doctor suggested a dietary change that neatly maps to my “less meat more vegetable” thing, so I’m already on the right path there.

Blood pressure is a little high. And this one is interesting to me. I’ve always had this issue, which I’m sure is fairly common, where I go to a doctor’s appointment and my blood pressure is a little high. So they test it again later and it’s better. Not an ideal 120/80, but close.

What I was told in the past is that this happens and not to worry about it. But in the back of my mind, it’s always bothered me: Why would my blood pressure rise because of such an innocuous event? And go figure, that’s the new thinking on this. So we’re going to monitor this. Again, not high. But on the high side of normal. Not the worst. But not what I want.

I also had an echocardiogram, which is identical to what women do when they’re pregnant and want to see the baby as it develops: They put some gel on your skin and use a hand-scanner, in this case, to look at your heart. Everything looks normal with no stenosis (narrowing of passageways).

So that’s where I’m at. More to the point, this is where I can begin comparing future results too. Which, again, I should have done from the beginning.