My LCHF Lifestyle - Weeks 23 - 26

Apparently, time flies when I'm having fun. I feel like it's been just a few days since I've posted my last update, but it has actually been 4 weeks. But this time, it hasn't only been 4 weeks since my last update, it has also been 6 months since I am on LCHF.

6 months is by far the longest time I have managed to stay on any diet. This time has been so good for me. I remember that last summer, when I realized that I was not only overweight, but actually obese, I was thinking very hard about what will I need to change to loose a few kilograms. Back then I didn't know about LCHF and every option I was aware of seemed like a lot of struggle, hunger and discipline for a few kilos of benefit. Luckily for me, instead I didn't only loose a few kilograms, but nearly 20 of them and most importantly, it was really easy! During this time, I have recommended LCHF to lots of people around me and I've heard that quite a few of them started doing this and that they are experiencing similar success as me.

Let's look at the status and progress of my journey.

My weight and waistline progress in the past 22 weeks (click on an image for better resolution). In this time, I have lost over 18 kilograms! More than on any other diet ever!

Today

(Mar 17th 2014)

4 weeks ago

(Feb 17th 2014)

Day 1

(Sep 20th 2013)

Difference

(4 weeks)

Difference

(since day 1)

Weight

93,2kg

94,4kg

112,0kg

-1,2kg

-18,8kg

Waistline

109,5cm

111,5cm

126cm

-1,0cm

-15,5cm

Very interestingly, I haven't lost much weight lately, only 1,2 kilograms in 6 weeks. However, I am keeping loosing my waistline, 2 cms in 6 weeks. I can't really explain how this is possible, as I haven't been working much on gaining muscle mass. But I'm not complaining, as I have only 4,5 centimeters left to loose to get below the metabolic syndrome criteria.

Blood indicators

On March 4th, I have measured my fasting blood indicators: glucose, total cholesterol and triglycerides.

• glucose: 88mg/dl
• total cholesterol: 238mg/dl
• triglycerides: 161mg/dl

When I started LCHF, my total cholesterol was 284mg/dl. Current numbers are officially still over recommended "safe zone", however, according to LCHF experts, the important number to look at is the amount of HDL (the "good" cholesterol), which should go up on LCHF more than LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) goes down. My triglycerides have also gone down from 198mg/dl. At the moment, they are still above the recommended zone, but I think the decrease on LCHF has been pretty good.

I expect that until I loose my remaining excess weight (about 15 kg more), I may still have slightly higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. But I think I have proven the point that eating large amounts of fat and staying out of starchy foods does NOT increase cholesterol and triglycerides. Anyone who says so just hasn't got his numbers and research straight.

My LCHF Lifestyle - Weeks 21 and 22

My LCHF journey has passed the 20 weeks milestone. I feel like I have to once again give praise to LCHF, as it is really easy to follow and is very effective. My friends are getting used to the fact that if they don't see me for two weeks, I will look a bit different. But now, fitness experts, personal trainers and even doctors that I know are amazed by my results. Remember, I've been putting down on average 0,85kg every week or 3,78kg every month by eating normally, never being hungry and exercising only when I felt to. There are no special rituals, insane schedules, mental exercises, secret recipes or whatnot. Just one simple rule. Don't eat food high on carbohydrates.

The past two weeks have been pretty much stagnant. I think it is because I finally got over my sickness that I had in January. I ate more than usual and I was making sure to have high percentage of fat in my meals. So without further ado, here are my numbers.

My weight and waistline progress in the past 22 weeks (click on an image for better resolution). In this time, I have lost over 17 kilograms! More than on any other diet ever!

Today

(Feb 17th 2014)

2 weeks ago

(Feb 3rd 2014)

Day 1

(Sep 20th 2013)

Difference

(2 weeks)

Difference

(since day 1)

Weight

94,4kg

94,4kg

112,0kg

0,0kg

-17,6kg

Waistline

111,5cm

112,5cm

126cm

-1,0cm

-14,5cm

Even though it seems this week was no progress in terms of weight, I am pretty happy with the results. Especially with continuing decrease of waistline, which seems that it is always slightly behind my weight. I am noticing a pattern that usually when my weight goes down quickly (which was happening in December and January), waistline doesn't follow that quickly. But then, weight loss stops a bit and at that time, waistline goes down. I can't really explain why it is so, but as long as the numbers go down, I'm happy.

In other news: interesting proposal from our politics


Slovenia is currently in the process of appointing a new minister for health. One of the candidates proposed, among other things, to "impose duty tax on beverages high on sugar and on fatty foods". I didn't manage to find out what exactly she means by "beverages high on sugar" and "fatty foods". Basing on all the information available, experiments and also my own experience, I believe that taxing foods AND beverages with high content of sugar AND investing the tax money into unbiased preventive programs would bring huge benefits to our health. At the same time, it would considerably lower the currently approx. 20 million EUR bill that Slovenia is paying each and every year for diabetes treatment only.

On the same note, I am sincerely hoping that her quote "fatty foods" is a figure of speech. Anyone who who digs into nutritional values of fast food chains products knows that the real problem is high levels of sugar and fructose that are added to pretty much every single product. If she means to tax this, I am perfectly fine with it. But if she meant real fatty foods, such as bacon, butter, coconut oil, nuts and such, then I'm not sure what will be left for us. Kale and chicken, perhaps?

P.S.: Despite a political note, this still is a blog about healthy and effective ways of losing weight, not on politics, hence I am not posting any links and pictures on this subject.

My LCHF Lifestyle - Weeks 16 - 20

Hello dear followers of my blog. I start this post by expressing my feelings of guilt, as I haven't written anything for nearly a month. Some people were asking me if I have quit after hitting the 100kg milestone, but I can assure you that far from that. I was very busy and also a bit sick throughout January and I couldn't catch any time for writing about my progress. I can assure you that I am still strictly following LCHF diet, eating fat, avoiding carbs and daily measuring my weight and waistline. I have also been neglecting my Tips & Motivation articles, but now I have good news for that as well. A fourth article is nearly finished and I expect to publish it this weekend. Meanwhile, you can catch up on the three existing articles, as I am developing an idea throughout all the articles.

Here's the summary of my progress. Never before I have been losing weight so quickly, and that is hugely motivating for me. Unlike previous diets which had quick progress in the beginning, but then it started declining, LCHF seems to just go down pretty much linearly. In the start of 2014, I was celebrating the 100kg milestone, while only a month later, I am already below 95kg! Isn't that awesome?

My weight and waistline progress in the past 20 weeks (click on an image for better resolution). In this time, I have lost 17 kilograms! More than on any other diet ever!

Today

(Feb 3rd 2014)

4 weeks ago

(Jan 6th 2014)

Day 1

(Sep 20th 2013)

Difference

(4 weeks)

Difference

(since day 1)

Weight

94,4kg

100,0kg

112,0kg

-5,6kg

-17,6kg

Waistline

112,5cm

114,5cm

126cm

-2,0cm

-13,5cm

What was happening in January?

Throughout the entire January, I have experienced the fastest and also the longest consistent rate of weight loss, which is also clearly visible on the progress graph. Partially, this is due to the fact that I was sick for one week and in this time I hardly ate anything. But also when I was healthy, I often ate only once a day and had very low daily caloric intake. I don't fully understand why it was like this, but I'm pointing out that all this time, I ate as much as I felt I needed. I other words, I was never hungry, never deliberately starved myself and never felt like being down and without energy. Throughout the month, I also had pretty high ketone levels, which is an indication that I took all the missing energy from my fat repositories without me really noticing. All in all, great experience and I am now pushing towards the nineties by the end of February.


In other news: the great dietary self-experimenter Sam Feltham strikes again!


Do you remember Sam Feltham from smashthefat.com? He is doing plenty of very interesting dietary experimenting and daily posting a video with his progress and experience. He has already done a very high calorie LCHF diet, a very high calorie junk food diet and a normal calorie LCHF diet experiments. The results suggest that if one follows LCHF diet, he can eat huge amounts of calories and still maintain his weight. On the other hand, eating junk food loaded with carbs (especially fructose), weight goes up very quickly. Now, he is doing his fourth experiment in which he is doing 5.000 calories per day on a vegan diet, for 21 days. At the moment, he is on day 16. So far, he gained 4,2kg and 8cm of waistline. Comparing with his other experiments, he gained significantly more weight that on high calorie LCHF diet and less weight than on high calorie junk food diet. But what I find very surprising is a huge gain in waistline which is similar to his gain when he was loading carbs. So, it seems that at least for Sam Feltham, effects of a vegan diet are more similar to high carb diet than to LCHF diet.

Also, after 16 days of vegan diet, Sam is reporting decreased physical performance and fatigue. Being a personal trainer, he is physically very active and he is now reporting to have less energy, especially in activities that require stamina. This is very much on a contrary to what I have heard from many vegans, which keep saying that after turning vegan, they lost weight and increased their physical performance. But, in my experience, vegans I know are so convinced by their way that I find their capabilities of being objective questionable. You can also see Sam's report for yourself on below video and you can also check his full report on his video blog.

Personally, I am not deciding on anything, just pointing out that there are also different experience related to vegan diet. No matter what Sam's final results will be, I am quite certain that LCHF results will not be even nearly reached, so I'm keeping up with butter, pork fat, french cheese and other delicious goodies.

My LCHF lifestyle - week 16

My LCHF journey continues in 2014. This is my first status update this year, but not my first article. If you haven't yet heard of my little side project, the 12 nature rules of weight loss, where I explore psychological aspects of weight loss, feel free to check them out. At the moment, the first three rules are published and I add a new rule every two weeks. You will find the articles under tab Tips & Motivation.

It's been 16 weeks now and boy I have good news! This morning, the scale couldn't quite decide between 99,9kg and 100,0kg. After a few repeated measurements, it averaged out on 100,0kg! Yes!!! I have finally reached the 100,0kg line. I can't remember exactly when was the last time I stepped on a scale and it showed less than 100,0kg. I think it must have been around 2006. After 8 years of trying all sorts of things, I'm back, and I'm totally certain I'll keep on going. Now, let's look at the numbers.

My weight and waistline progress in the past 16 weeks (click on an image for better resolution). In this time, I have lost 12 kilograms! More than on any other diet ever!

Today

(Jan 6th 2014)

2 weeks ago

(Dec 23rd 2013)

Day 1

(Sep 20th 2013)

Difference

(2 weeks)

Difference

(since day 1)

Weight

100,0kg

101,2kg

112,0kg

-1,2kg

-12,0kg

Waistline

114,5cm

115,0cm

126cm

-0,5cm

-11,5cm

Photos of "My big fat Christmas dinner" meals


Two weeks ago, just before Christmas, I published my Christmas menu. 4 delicious courses, all made in an LCHF fashion. It wasn't totally hard-core LCHF, as carbs were slightly over 20 grams, but not that much. Here are the pictures. Everything was home-cooked from basic ingredients.

Light mousse of celery and green apple

Parsley soup cooked in strong home made beef stock

Veal loin filled with porcini and cottage cheese, topped with home made beef sauce with plenty of butter

Low carb orange cake

Thank you for following this blog and giving me feedback! It helps me stay motivated and focused on new content. Expect more in about a week. Cheers!!!

My LCHF lifestyle - week 14

14 weeks or 3 months has gone by and I am excited to show you more progress. I'm still keeping on LCHF, being strict on avoiding any carbohydrates and keeping the fat intake high. But last week was special and I'd like to share my experience with you before looking at the results.

Sure doesn't!

Last week, I went on a three day fast. In three days, I probably ate less than 1000 calories. This wasn't voluntary, but a consequence of some stomach aches that I've had. Thinking about the reasons, I have narrowed them down to either slight food poisoning (I had raw seafood last Sunday) or a virus. Anyway, I got over it and what I wanted to say was that this was the easiest fasting period I've ever experienced. Despite practically not eating, I had no issues with focus and energy during the day and I was able to work normally. The only thing I needed more than usual was sleep. As a probable bonus, I may have gone back to ketosis (but this time, starvational ketosis) which I kept going after my stomach aches were gone and as a result, my weight loss rate skyrocketed. But beware, this kind of dieting isn't something I would recommend and I don't plan to voluntarily repeat it myself. Overall, it is still much better to be able to eat normally, even if the weight loss rate is slightly slower.

I am also happy to say that I am fulling taking on the festive times of December. I don't recall ever being on so many parties, being surrounded with good food and plenty of booze. I am not holding myself back, but still I have managed to loose a good bit of weight in December. No hard feelings, regrets and self-pitying for me in January I suppose B-). Now, let's look at the numbers.

My weight and waistline progress in the past 14 weeks. In the past three months, I have lost over 10 kilograms. More than on any other diet ever! Click on the picture to see it in full size.

Today

(Dec 23th 2013)

2 weeks ago

(Dec 9th 2013)

Day 1

(Sep 20th 2013)

Difference

(2 weeks)

Difference

(since day 1)

Weight

101,2kg

102,4kg

112,0kg

-1,2kg

-11,8kg

Waistline

115,0cm

115,5cm

126cm

-0,5cm

-11cm

My big fat Christmas dinner


Christmas is coming and I plan to take a full go on the Christmas eve dinner. Here is my menu:

Apparently, even Santa is not safe from
sugar.

Cold starter
Light mousse of celery and green apple

Soup
Parsley soup cooked in strong home made beef stock

Main course
Veal loin filled with porcini and cottage cheese, topped with home made beef sauce with plenty of butter

Desert
Low carb orange cake

Doesn't look like an LCHF dinner? Well, it is. There will be double cream in the cold starter, butter and cream in the soup, plenty of butter in the main course sauce and the desert will be made with almond flour, which is full of fat. There are no starches, apart from a very small 50 gram potato that I intend to put into the parsley soup to improve its texture. That and a few grams of sugars coming from green apple and orange.

Very interestingly, all the dishes on my Christmas menu originate from traditional cooking, taking the basic ideas from Slovene, Italian and French cuisine. If you are wondering how is it possible to eat all this and still keep on losing weight, than you haven't read this blog carefully enough. Or, you haven't been paying attention to your grandmother! Remember, if you take on an LCHF journey yourself, that's the food you'll be able to eat all the time. Just stay away from carbohydrates, especially all kinds of sugar. And, instead of a Chrismas carol, imagine what Santa would look like if he signed his advertising contract with The Butter Company?

Thank you for following this blog. I plan on making another post this year in the Tips & Motivation section. Until then, I wish you a merry Christmas and lovely holidays!

My LCHF lifestyle - week 12

It's been 12 weeks since I made some major changes in my diet and these changes also affected my lifestyle. My motivation for making these changes was a decade of my life constantly gaining weight. In time, I developed metabolic syndrome and was knocking on the gates of obesity. Definitively not something that I would have on my "nice to have in life" list! At the same time, my motivation to write this blog emerged from literally shocking data about what really makes us fat and gives us metabolic syndrome. I am still amazed how the mainstream medicine and media promote all sorts of solutions that only short-term effective at best. I consider myself as one of the hundreds of millions of victims of this informational misdirection, and the purpose of this blog is to bust a few commonly known, but incorrect myths.

I also received e-mails and messages from some. Thank every single one of you for not only taking time to read my blog, but also to stand out at give me feedback. I am trying to reply to everyone as much as my schedule allows me to. You can contact me either by writing your message in the comments below, or reach me on Facebook.

In the past 12 weeks, I have already written a few posts about that and more are to come, but since this is my weekly progress update, here are my numbers.

My weight and waistline progress in the past 12 weeks. Weight is going down nicely, while waistline seems to be flat. In fact, my waistline is changing for the better, but I have noticed that I was doing my measurements wrong.

Today

(Dec 11th 2013)

2 weeks ago

(Nov 25th 2013)

Day 1

(Sep 20th 2013)

Changes

(2 weeks)

Changes

(since day 1)

Weight

102,4kg

104,7kg

112,0kg

-2,3kg

-9,6kg

Waistline

115,5cm

115,5cm

126cm

0,0cm

-10,5cm

Weight

After a few weeks of slow decline, my weight fell considerably in the past two weeks and it almost matched the rate of progress I had at the beginning. I am not really sure what I did differently in the past two weeks, other than slightly increasing green vegetables in my meals. One thing is for sure: persistence pays off! In the past two weeks, I never had serious drops of motivation, but looking at the -2,3kg figure still feels like a cherry on a top of a cake, if you catch my drift ;). Also, I'll soon need to increase the span on the graph. A 98kg mark on the bottom will sure look good.


Waistline

Basically, my waistline data for the last 3 weeks or so should be ignored due to a systematic measurement error that I was doing. I measure my waistline every morning immediately after waking up and recently I have noticed that I was too tight on the meter, making the result less than my waistline really was. So I decided to keep measuring my waistline, but keeping that 115,5cm value until I actually reach it. I am getting very close to it, so I expect that in the next two weeks, I will be able to post a smaller, while still realistic number.


Holidays are coming

Eating low carb - high fat doesn't mean no desserts. Most
of your favorite desserts can be made LCHF with only
minor modifications. I am a big fan of cheesecakes such
as the one on the picture. If you are interested in the recipe,
drop me a comment or contact me via Facebook.

December is time of celebrations, spending good times with friends, accompanied by good food and drinks. One of the great things of the LCHF lifestyle is that it allows you to fully enjoy this. LCHF does not restrict alcohol, as long as you stick to dry wine and/or non-sweetened spirits, such as whiskey, vodka, cognac, rum, grappa etc. You can enjoy plenty of foods, like salads with reach fatty dressings, juicy cuts of meat, eggs and all kinds of hams, sausages and such. Cheese, sour cream and mayo are also a yes. Just keep your fingers of bread, candy, potatos, rice and pasta. And if you really have a taste for a sweet, search out Google for LCHF desserts. There are plenty of recipes out there that will make your sweet day without raising your insulin and turning you into a fat storing monkey that you once was ;).

I wish you a nice, successful and healthy week!

My LCHF lifestyle - week 10

This Monday marks the 10th week of my LCHF lifestyle. Reflecting back on the past 70 days, I can not express my gratitude to the promoters, doctors and bloggers which are doing an incredible job of clarifying LCHF diet in nutritional, biochemical and other scientific ways. Particularly: dr. Peter Attia MD, Andreas Eenfeldt MD, Sam Feltham, Robert Lustig MD, Garry Taubes and Anita Šupe - many thanks! If you haven't yet checked their websites, I suggest that you do. There ate literally loads of interesting and motivational data.

In order to celebrate and honor my 10th week, I decided to replace my weekly brag of loosing weight and getting in shape while eating delicious food, not being hungry and exercising sporadically with even more important things, which all happened in the past 10 weeks.

The good stuff:

In Sweden, LCHF is very popular! They are even
publishing a magazine dedicated solely to LCHF!
Of course, it's called "LCHF".

• In September, Swedish Expert Committee of doctors officially agreed that low carb diet is most effective for weight loss (see full article here). They also said that "such diets have greater increase of HDL cholesterol without having any adverse affects on LDL cholesterol" and that "the stricter low-carbohydrate diet will lead to improved glucose levels for individuals with obesity and diabetes, and to marginally decreased levels of triglycerides".
• Nutritional expert, personal trainer and self-experimenter Sam Feltham completed three experiments in which he has shown that at least on his body, a calorie is not just a calorie. He did two 21-day diets, where he kept his caloric intake constant and very high. One was LCHF diet and the other was junk food diet. Despite high caloric intake, he barely gained any weight on LCHF diet, while equally caloric and equally long junk food diet, he gained over 7 kilograms. On the third experiment, he returned to LCHF and reduced caloric intake to his calculated daily metabolism. He should have maintained his weight, but in fact he lost about 5 kilograms.
• American medical doctor and bestselling author Robert H. Lustig held a second lecture about sugar, more specifically, the devastating effects of fructose on public health. His first lecture has over 4 million views on Youtube. You can see the first lecture here and his second one here, I warmly suggest you to watch both of them.

The bad stuff:

If you happen to have diagnosed diabetes, your doctor
will most likely to instruct you to follow this food pyramid.
Do you see the problem? The bottom part are all insulin
raising starchy foods, while meats and fats which do not
raise insulin are on the top. No wonder we are loosing war
against diabetes.

• In United Kingdom, leading supermarkets and major food manufacturers have pledged to cut down saturated fat in their products. They didn't say what they will replace saturated fats with in order to retain flavor and texture, but the most usual scenario is to increase salt and sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I am only suspecting this, but it will lead to more cravings for food (the so called empty calories), more fructose addiction and more metabolic syndrome. If you are interested in the source of the news, here it is.
• 14.11. is annual world diabetes day. I saw plenty of talks and interviews in our local media and I was appalled to hear that our doctors are still giving the same old fashioned advice to eat low fat, low salt and low carb boring tasteless food in order to avoid the risks of diabetes. Since this advice is not only difficult to follow, but is also completely not based on recent findings of human metabolism. No wonder that the number of diabetics and overweight people is rising :(.

All in all, I think the world has done a bigger step forward than backward and that fills me with joy.

Now, my weekly progress.

My weight and waistline progress in the past 10 weeks.
Weight and waistline are keeping to go down nice and easy.

Weight

Today (Nov 25th 2013):	104,7kg
7 days ago (Nov 18th 2013):	104,9kg
LCHF Day 1 (Sep 20th 2013):	112,0kg
Weekly progress:	-0,2kg
Absolute progress:	-7,3kg

My weight is going down nice and easy. I compared the notes on my nutrition from when I started LCHF and the last couple of weeks. The difference is that in the past few weeks, I am increased consumption of dairy products, particularly creme fraiche, double cream and cheese. At the same time, I eat a bit less vegatables and oils. It just happens that I really like creme fraiche and double cream at the moment. A few LCHF experts are stating that dairy products should be consumed moderately, because they contain lactose and a protein which stimulates pancreas to release insulin. As a consequence, our bodies capabilities to burn fat are reduced and we are knocked out of optimal ketosis. I would just like to point out that I did this decision consciously, because I just happen to really like loads of creme fraiche added to my meals :).

Waistline

Today (Nov 25th 2013):	115,5cm
7 days ago (Nov 18th 2013):	115,5cm
LCHF Day 1 (Sep 20th 2013):	126,0cm
Weekly progress:	-0,0cm
Absolute progress:	-10,5cm

My waistline was pretty constant this week, but I don't mind. I am starting to notice further changes all over my body, but mostly on the face and around the neck. Bones are coming out :).

Further plans

As I expected, my progress is not as fast as it was in the very beginning of my LCHF lifestyle, when I was going down 1 kilo or even more every week. For this reason, I decided to post updates every second week. I believe it will be more interesting. This way, I will also gain some extra time to write useful articles about LCHF lifestyle, as my main intention in this blog is not bragging how easily am I loosing weight, but to provide useful information to others who want to follow the same path.
I have no special plans for week 10, other than staying low carb high fat and being careful about eating no less than 3 meals per day. I am also working on a new scientific post which will be about white sugar. I've found some very interesting facts about it and would love to share them with you!

I wish you a nice, successful and healthy week!