Reviewing and Progressing

One side benefit of including weight loss details, like calorie counts, in blog posts is that they serve as a record not only of results, but also of how. In reviewing entries from 2010 I noticed a few things:

• I was eating more fruit in the beginning and less as time wore on
• I was having trouble managing the 3x per week load
• I stuck pretty well to the "never eat" list
• Other than alcohol, the no more than once per week list has been managed well

While I intend to do some more spelunking in the 2010 posts, I'm struck by the first 2 items. In the time since I've plateaued, I'm doing better with the 3x per week list (yogurt, broccoli, avocados, and oily fish) than when I started out. I'm still not a sweet potato fan, but I'm doing well with the others. 

In the beginning I think I was just doing the oily fish 3x per week and some of the yogurt but none of the others. Broccoli and avocados were added sometime over the spring when I was having lower GI issues and stopped eating oranges, kiwis and pineapple. I'm not certain what caused the GI issues and they have subsided to some extent, but the high fruit content stopped. Perhaps I'll try returning to it over the winter like last year.

Per usual Wednesday has rolled around and I've jumped down to 295. That's not unusual for midweek. It's the Thursday - Sunday time frame that gets me off track. As I head into that period, I'm resolved not to break what I've started again. That said, I'm also heading into the beginning of my Cruise week so we'll see how it goes. For my HR weigh challenge I've lost 50% of the weight (3.5/7 = .5) I targeted. Toward my 1-2 lbs per week reminder, I'm not looking to loose any more this week. If it happens, it happens, but I want to be at least 296.5 on Monday of next week.

In the spirit of detail keeping, I'm also experimenting with a new pre-dinner experiment. I've wanted to "get more into wine" as part of 2011 and have decided to try 1 (yes just 1) glass of wine (~ 5 oz) with some bread and cheese. The bread I'm making myself over the weekend and the cheese I'm using is decent quality stuff. I'm concerned it'll be too much, but I'm doing this instead of munching "free form" on nuts, etc. Perhaps eating a measured amount of good tasting stuff will keep me from bindging on the not-so-great stuff, at least in quantity. 

One final review item I picked up: the more I blogged, the more consistant and downward trending was the weight loss.. humm...

Super Foods

I was intrigued by the contents of those lists and wanted to know more about why those and what traits they shared. Some internet spelunking revealed that a number of them are classified as "Super Foods" 

• Avocado - fiber, folate, potassium, vitamin E, and magnesium
• Broccoli - fiber, folate, calcium, ascorbic Acid
• Low Fat Yogurt - protein, calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc
• Soy - folate, iron, potassium, vitamin E
• Sweet Potato - fiber, potassium, magnesium, 
• Tea - no calories, helps with blood sugar level
• Fish - omega 3 fatty acids, calcium, selenium, potassium, cartenoids

I also went back and watched again the "Live and Let Diet" episode and realized that AB says why they are on (or not on as the case may be). They are nutrient dense as opposed to energy dense. Most sugary foods (well those contained refined sugar and derivatives) have lots of energy but little in the way of substance. The body quickly digests that stuff and stores it as fat - assuming it doesn't need it right away as energy.


Hence while the eating methodology (I'm not going to call it a diet) is naturally low in sugar, not all sugar is outlawed. Sugar from fruits, veggies, and even soy milk are OK. A natural consequence is that the blood sugar levels naturally come down and as a consequence the vicious refined sugar cycle binge is easier to manage.

Is It The Sugar?

While looking up "blood sugar control", I ran across a number of articles that listed either foods to avoid or include in order to help with blood sugar levels. A suprising number of them were on the list in one way or another, e.g:

• herbal tea (Green Tea)
• lots of fiber (whole grains, fruits, veggies)
• limited alcohol intake
• limited pasta
• and on and on

 I do know that when I tried the Atkins diet, sugar intake was limited and that I did loose a bunch of weight on it. Trouble was, I couldn't stay on it and it was harder to get my entire family to buy into it. I wonder if AB's list are an attempt to limit sugar intake? I bet cutting back on sugar intake would be more do-able from a family standpoint than a super restrictive Atkins diet. Adding more fiber (either through supliments and/or natural whole grains) would be easier too. Humm.....

Smoothie Facts

I've been intrigued by Alton Brown's "4 lists" and how it applies to diet and daily nutrition, in particular his smoothie recipe. I'm sure the entire list works together but I don't think I can digest the entirety of it all at once (if you'll excuse the pun). BTW the liquid measurements in the recipe are by volume not weight.

Right now I'm using a variation on AB's recipe:

• 4 oz (by volume) Soy Milk - the "fat included variety"
• 4 oz (by volume) V8 Fusion Pomegranate and Blueberry Juice
• 3 oz (by weight) mixed berries (blue, raz and strawberry)
• 1 oz (by weight) banana

The FDA food pyramid indicates that as a male I need 2 cups of fruit per day or 4 servings since the FDA considers 0.5 cups to be a single "serving". I measured out 3 oz by weight of the berries and that was nearly 1 cup. Adding in 1 oz by weight of banana and the cup measure looked full. Adding in 4 oz of the juice and that's an additional 0.5 servings of fruit (figuring that a full 8 oz by volume is 1 serving of fruit and veggies each). Doing the math my smoothie contains 1.5 servings of fruit and 0.5 servings of veggies.

The soy milk is new to me (and kinda tasty I might add) and according to the FDA and AHA may have benefits in the cardiovascular and cholesterol areas (soy milk has zero cholesterol). Right now I'm using the "full fat" version but will try the "low fat" kind for comparison.

Adding my variation together for calories I'm at 50 each for the soy and juice, 22 for the 1/4 of a banana, and about 53 for the fruit. Total 175 calories for 12 oz of food. I may try adding another 1/4 of banana to the recipe and perhaps another oz of berries. At that point I think I'm consuming all of my fruit requirements and 0.5 of a veggie at breakfast.

Thanks AB!

Eating Habits

I'm still trying to eat when hungry, where hunger has physical manifestation (nausea, headache, etc). I'm usually able to skip breakfast and get though most of the work day with out eating anything substantial other than chewing gum and coffee. If I do that, then by the time I get home I'm ready to eat dinner (or anything I can get my hands on). And I will eat. I don't know that I eat any less, but if feels better knowing that I haven't consumed the calories for breakfast and lunch.

Dinner is a social thing. Family time to some extent, where as breakfast and lunch are more solitary pursuits. Also dinner is a creative outlet - I like to cook, bake, etc. If I'm extremely hungry after skipping breakfast and lunch I may snack on peanuts while I'm preparing dinner - not all the time, but in the first 15-30 minutes.

If I've eaten a lot the night before, I may be able to go all of the work day without feeling physically hungry. If not, I've noticed that a light lunch, cup of soup, or a small serving of left-overs, helps get me to dinner. This is instead of a large lunch.

All in all my eating largely revolves around what I eat at home as opposed to being at work or out and about. I've noticed that my late evening snacking has crept back into my routine despite my "desire" to eliminate it. I've started eating breakfast on the weekend, but usually only on 1 of the 2 days.

I still can't see myself on the scale but I have noticed that my pants no longer feel as tight as they did, I have a bit more energy and my belly area isn't protruding so much. I feel better about this route since it matches more of how my life actually is and not how it should be. Trying to stop eating when physically full (basically learning what "full" is) and snacking when not physically hungry (why am I eating then?) are the items I feel I need to work on next.

What's Hunger?

I've been fasting for good chunks of the last several days to better understand hunger, both mentally and physiologically. I found the following to be true for me:

• I can go more than 24 hours between eating solid foods without hunger becoming physically painful (a "stage 2" full)
• Being busy, physically and/or mentally, keeps me from thinking about being hungry/eating
• I'm amazed by how conditioned I am to eat at certain times (8, noon, 6)
• Feeling the need to eat is driven more by a state of being, e.g. boredom, anticipation, than actual physical hunger.
• I get to a point of being physically uncomfortable from being hungry after about 13 hours.
• Taking in fluids produces a full feeling that can last several hours
• Chewing gum has a hunger abating effect
• Extreme hunger involves feelings of nausea, a tightness in the throat area and a slight headache.

I'm trying to continue this experiment for a couple more days to see what happens.

Getting Hungry

I've learned a few things lately that I'd like to put down so I don't forget:

• At best, I can sustain about 4 months of the same weight loss activity/diet/program. After that, I give up and I can't get motivated to continue with the same activity
• Eating when hungry assumes that one knows what hunger actually feels like
• Exercising and eating more doesn't help with weight loss
• Weight gain may be the hardest habit I've tried to break - I've always though it was smoking

I'm sure there are more pearls I've learned over the summer but those are the ones that come to mind. I've managed to get away from my 10,000 steps a day, my food log, calorie counting and all the other activities I've been trying to do in order to keep the pounds at bay. As a result I'm sure I've gained back whatever progress I made (if I made any at all - I'm still on "E").

In reviewing my initial posts from when I started this last round of weigh loss I see I had an initial focus - understand hunger. Somewhere along the way I seem to have gotten off track amid the technique/activity distractions. All that activity (walking, counting, logging, etc) didn't help me understand why I eat what and when I do. If weigh fluctuation is a factor of calorie intake and exercise, then it stands to reason that understanding why I eat and in response to what makes the most sense. After all, limiting what I eat in the extreme (i.e. fasting) with no activity will result in weight loss - although that's not the most attractive way to go about it.

With that in mind I returned to a book I purchased on emotional eating. Since I never actually finished reading it, I decided to start over. In my (re)reading, it's obvious that I didn't take the critical step of understanding my (*gasp*) hunger. Right there in the first chapter is an entire discussion on why we eat when we do and what drives it.

Turns out that I eat because I'm board, restless, wanting a break from what I'm doing, socializing, and many other reasons that I've not discovered yet. At some point I guess I eat because I'm physically hungry, but I don't know that I have a good idea of what that feels like mentally and physiologically.

So, in the nature of experimenting, I'll find out what hunger feels like by not eating until I reach a point of physical uncomfortableness. Let my mind scream at me, but I'll eat only when I get, well hungry.

Getting The Full Feeling

After finishing my evening meal I again immediately wanted a PBJ. Like last time I talked myself out of it. I even stared down a jar of jelly in the fridge before I gave it up. It did get me thinking about the subject of fullness again, however.

What makes the body give off the fullness signal that it's time to stop eating? Is is a physical reaction from GI track to brain that says - whoa, hold on, that's enough - or is it something else?

I did manage to find an interesting study about the subject of feeling full or satiated. What was curious about the study was that it pointed to both neurological and hormonal triggers. Basically the area of the brain called the left posterior amygdala switches on when people feel full. The study found that area switches on less in more overweight/obese people than it does in thinner folks. To go along with that, the hormone ghrelin also show up when people feel full. The larger the increase in ghrelin levels, the more active the left posterior amygdala. Here's the link to the study.

ABC also had an interesting article on ghrelin. No new ground plowed as far as research - reiterates waiting 20 minutes between servings, but it had some suggestions on what foods suppress ghrelin production more than others:

Nicole Beland, a senior contributor at Women's Health magazine, says you can suppress ghrelin by eating certain foods, so you will then feel full. Carbohydrates and lean protein have been found to slow the production of ghrelin, while foods that are high in fat do not.

Hang on now. One study talks about increasing levels of ghrelin being linked to the amygdala and the other talks about slowing the production of ghrelin. Which is it, or am I misunderstanding? The Wikipedia article on ghrelin also talks about decreasing ghrelin production as being good for weight loss/hunger suppression. So can there be an increase in levels with a decrease in production? I'm really stumped by the relationship. From my googling around it would appear that there really isn't a clear definition on what causes the full feeling.

Just as I was about to close this entry down, I ran across an article on Healthy Satiety. Explains thing pretty well and has some interesting suggestions.

The Pace of Eating

In a prior post I raised a question to myself about the rate of consumption and feeling satiated. What I was trying to understand was this: If I eat quickly will I end up eating more because my body needs time to kick in the full feeling (humm.. what causes the "full feeling" anyhow) and if so, will slowing down my intake cause me to eat less?

Googling "eating slowly" almost universally shows posts, studies, etc. attempting to convince the reader that eating slowly and taking ones time with meals is a good weight management technique. Forum reading suggests that for some people it works and some it doesn't. Even those who do find it useful seem unclear as to why. One study I ran across suggested that taking longer to eat also allows more time for fluid consumption, e.g. water and that the extra fluid consumption is driving, at least in part, the reduction in actual calories ingested.

On the opposite front is this MSNBC post from Barbara Rolls of Volumetrics fame. While Barbara's article suggests that eating pace doesn't influence caloric intake, she does end with this sage advice:

You don’t have to consciously pause between bites, but eat at a pace that maximizes your enjoyment of the food. If savoring the flavors and textures makes dining a more pleasurable experience, then go for it.

In the end, it’s more important that you choose foods that are low in calorie density, meaning they give you fewer calories per bite. That way no matter what your eating rate, you won’t take in too many calories.

My take on it is this: If eating slowly works for you then go for it, but it's what you eat not the pace at which you eat that matters most.

Water, Water

I just finished dinner and my wife and I cleaned the kitchen. I stopped eating before I "felt" uncomfortably full, but probably should have stopped earlier. Usually right after dinner I want something sweet - cookies, candy, something. Figured I try water instead since I didn't have anything to drink with dinner.

It's not uncommon for me not to drink anything with a meal, be it lunch or dinner. Is that odd? Googling the subject leads to a variety of answers none of which sounds definitive. Some opinions are that it dilutes the digestive juices and can lead to digestive problems. Other opinions say a little water with a meal isn't a problem, but that substituting water for food doesn't help. Your body knows when it's thirsty so drink if you feel thirsty during a meal.

One item I ran across was that sometimes when you "feel" hungry, you're actually thirsty and that it's not uncommon to substitute food for water. I've often wondered about that.

So just how much water is recommended per day for the average adult? Is it 8 - 8 oz glasses as I've always heard? I turned to my favorite "myth busters" site Snopes:

The best general advice (keeping in mind that there are always exceptions) is to rely upon your normal senses. If you feel thirsty, drink; if you don't feel thirsty, don't drink unless you want to.

A good read. Basically the "8x8" rule is overblown. The food you take in has "fluid" in it that helps to replace what you're loosing. At "most" your kidneys need 1 liter of water per day to function normally, which is about 4 - 8 oz glasses of water, which coincidentally is about what you get from food per day. So if you're overeating, like I am, you're probably getting more fluid than you actually need. If I eat at a normal level, I may need "some" fluid and if I under-eat (ya, like that'll happen), I'll defiantly need fluid.

So I was a bit thirsty after dinner, but what I really wanted was something sweet. As I've written this I no longer crave sweetness and actually feel, well.. full.

I still need to investigate this "sweetness" craving and perhaps how overeating might increase foot/ankle swelling (from all that excess fluid)... humm..