Hello fellow Fat Secreters – My Story So Far,
I am in my 69th year. Gosh that sounds old…!
I haven’t posted on Fat Secret for a while, because considering my; height, frame and age I am at my ideal weight. I am unsure about my next step. Anyway at the risk of boring you with a rather long post……..
I have been using Fat Secret for about five years now. Initially just to record my weight and calorific intake, nothing really serious - just out of curiosity and as a monitor.
About four years back my doctor started me on blood pressure control tablets. I thought nothing of it. I just accepted it as an inevitable part of the ageing process. During my next routine health check my doctor told me my cholesterol was off the scale and I was started on statins to lower it. I was rather surprised, because I have always been a fairly active individual.
Six months further on I visited my doctor hoping to discover why I was often falling asleep after meals. After a fasting blood test his diagnosis was - I now had Type 2 Diabetes.
I was offered and attended a DESMOND diabetes course. I was quite shocked to learn how nasty and life threatening diabetes can be. I tried losing weight and changing my life style, but it made little difference. My Hba1c kept creeping up and hit 59 mmols. My doctor wanted to start me on Metformin to aid control of my diabetes.
I concluded my doctors were little more than a pill dispensers rigidly complying with government/GP Practice policies. I needed to do some serious personal research with a view to changing my ailing physical condition. My first good decision was to refuse the metformin.
As a retired computer systems consultant and qualified project manager I decided to start “Project Me”.
Further personal research indicated our UK government’s dietary recommendations are based on the World Health Organisation’s, (WHO) recommendations. Which are based on outdated, flawed and politically very corrupt information.
Going against the government’s recommendations, I felt a little subversive, but the more research I did the crazier the WHO’s recommendations appeared. I concluded my condition was not really my fault, but the stupidity of the WHO’s recommendations. I am now a firm believer the WHO is the main cause of the worlds escalating obesity epidemic and are causing the soaring levels of the deadly four non-communicative diseases; heart attacks/strokes, cancer, diabetes and dementia.
The only differing country with, "based in fact" sensible recommendations are the Swedish government. They recommend a Low Carb High Fat life style. I decided to give it a go.
When I started my LCHF diet I coupled it with two hours simple exercise spread out over a week. At the start I weighed in at 100.8 kilos that’s 222 pounds or 15 stone 12 pounds in old money.
Three months after starting LCHF I had lost enough weight to move from being obese to just plain overweight – a move in the right direction! More good news my blood pressure was now normal and my Hba1c was reducing. I stopped taking the blood pressure pills as my blood pressure had normalised and has remained stable at around 118/75.
Closer to my target weight my cholesterol blood tests showed I was back to normal. My doctor argued I was on statins for life and I should stay on them. I disagreed, sighting the problems with statins and the WHO’s outdated information and asked for a further test and cholesterol discussion three months on.
My doctor’s advice was to stick to the surgery’s government based guidelines. I pointed out again the surgery’s recommended levels were based on outdated and flawed information. I dug my heels in drawing my doctor’s attention to my Triglyceride level which was perfect and in line with current research and simply stopped taking the cholesterol lowering statins. My triglycerides have remained normal.
The best news of all was after reaching my target weight 79.4 kilos, 175lbs or in old money 12stone 7pounds I took another Hba1c blood test. I was no longer diabetic. In fact the doctor I saw said I was not even pre-diabetic. At 39mmols my Hba1c level was better than my doctor’s and this doctor is only around 28 years old. She even suggested I start a blog.
I am now full of energy; mentally far more alert and at my old gym can easily outpace most of the guys there in their early 30’s.
A few weeks ago a new gym opened within walking distance of my house. I’ve joined and intend to visit three times every week with a view to weight training and building lean muscle. My reasoning is I feel too thin and feel great after a good workout.
The only issue I now need to resolve is how to to swap my not very hard LCHF, “diet and fitness” work out regime for a more regimented, “nutrition and training” program, one that will best suit my new goals.
Currently I am hovering around my target weight making adjustments to my training, nutritional Fat, Carb and Protein macros. I still keep the carbs to a low level, but am no longer strictly speaking on a low carb diet. I am still researching an eating plan for more lean muscle gain. Old school “bulking” naturally is not an option! It is a lot more complicated than I first assumed and will most probably involve a higher calorific intake and subsequent weight gain, but if I get it right from lean muscle mass.
My conclusions are:
1. Age is just a state of mind.
2. My type 2 Diabetes was reversible and therefore to me a life style choice.
3. LCHF worked for me, because on it I was never really hungry. (There is double the energy in 1 gram of fat compared to 1 gram of carbohydrate).
4. The hardest thing to get my head around was eating fat. Fat doesn’t make you fat, it makes you thin.!
5. Eat fatty meats like Lamb, bacon and sirloin steak.
6. Avoid anything marked, Slimming, Low fat or 0% fat.
7. Cook in coconut oil, olive oil or pure dairy butter. (Avoid; Rape seed, Canola, Soya and Sunflower oil’s, they are all inflammatory and proven to be carcinogenic).
8. Keep carbohydrates low ideally 60 to 120grams per day.
9. The WHO’s carbohydrate recommendations and fat avoidance is killing people.
10. As an aside, switching to LCHF has caused all my niggling muscular/skeletal aches and pains to disappear. (I put that down to my higher HDL cholesterol and higher fat intake).
Note! I am no longer on any form of medication whatsoever.
YouTube - Take Aways:
Best general overview:
“The Food Revolution 2016”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l55OjWS9pEc&t=10s
Best available minutia:
Most of Dr Eric Bergs short videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123
I don’t normally take selfies, but here are two for the purpose of comparison. The first is me just one year ago at 100.8Kg when I was Mr Chubs. The second at 79.4Kg star date now - the leaner wiser me.
