As I am sitting here writing this I am 47 years old. I am 5’ 10” and I am at my highschool weight of 160 pounds and in the best shape of my life.
Throughout my life I have always been athletic and active. Baseball, basketball, golf, Mountain bike riding, running, going to the gym etc.
I always tried to stay in pretty good shape and keep the weight consistent around 170 pounds. I would work out about 3 times a week which would include a 2 mile run, or a 6-10 mile Mountain bike ride and I would do body weight strength moves to keep strong.
I have always watched what I eat for the most part never really over indulging in anything, but always eating some sweets and sugars here and there. And apparently over time it added up.
About 2 years ago I started Mountain Biking with some friends who were a lot better than I was.
In the beginning we would go out riding and I was always the last in the pack for a couple of reasons. One I was new to the sport, two I was on an older outdated bike, and three I was extremely out of shape cardio wise for bike riding.
Riding up the mountain there were a few times I thought I was going to die. Nauseous and not being able to breath. It SUCKED!
I didn’t like being the last and I didn’t like being in worse shape than everyone else. I was determined to keep going and not be last in the group.
So I kept going. I live by a mountain in my area that is about 1000 foot climb from my house and round trip is about 6-10 miles depending on the trail and route I take. I began to ride this mountain twice a week.
My cardio got way better and when riding with the group I no longer felt like I was going to die. But I was still trailing the pack on the way up the mountain.
This was annoying me. One day after a ride I asked my buddy who was the same height as me and always leading the group – I asked him how he is always getting to the top so fast and not dying cardio wise. I had been riding for 4 months at this time and felt better in the cardio department but I wasn’t seeing a ton of difference in the climb. I was still slower than everyone else.
He looked at me and said how tall are you? I said 5’ 10”. He said yeah thats about what I am. Then he said how much do you weigh? I replied about 175 (which was my usual weight – I hadn’t weighed myself in a while).
He said really 175? That’s your problem – I weigh 165. I’m like what? You are 10 pounds lighter than me?
So I went home thinking I should probably lose some weight. I got home and pulled out the scale just to check where I was starting from.
To my complete surprise I was weighing in at 186 pounds! What the hell? When did this happen? I think this was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Not only was I not 10 pounds heavier than my buddy I was 20 pounds heavier.
This hit me pretty hard. Getting closer to 50 and weighing my all time high. And this was even after I had been riding my bike for about 20 miles a week and going to the gym twice a week.
I couldn’t figure it out I had been working harder cardio wise and strength wise for over months than I was in a long time and I was still at 186. I was probably around 190+ (yikes) before starting this but it told me that the workouts were not helping a lot as far as weight loss.
All this told me three things – One – I needed to lose some weight, two -this working out more wasn’t having a big effect, and three the thing I dreaded the most was that I had to go on a diet.
I am pretty sure I am not alone when I say – I bleepin HATE DIETING!.
So instead of doing what I had done in the past when I needed to lose weight and start cutting calories and eat more non-fat food I decided to do some research.
I have always been interested in fitness, nutrition and health so I took it as a challenge and decided to dig deeper and find out what can work better and longer term.
I rolled up my sleeves and did some good ol fashion google searches. And the three things that came up over and over again in my searches were:
- Keto
- Low Carb
- Intermittent Fasting
At this point I decided to put all my research into a notebook and then later decided I might as well put out there on a website in order to keep track of my notes and provide some accountability for myself and track progress.
So a little overview for the 3 things I found over and over again and what I decided to try.
Keto or Ketogenics diet
The definition per cancer.gov : “A diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates (sugars) that causes the body to break down fat into molecules called ketones. Ketones circulate in the blood and become the main source of energy for many cells in the body. A ketogenic diet is used to treat some types of epilepsy and is being studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.”
With this diet you are to eat more healthy fat such as avocados, Olive Oil, grass fed butter and more proteins and less empty calories such as white grains (Bread) and sugars. When your body doesn’t have sugars to burn all the time it starts to burn fats.
Low Carb Diet
The definition per wikipedia are diets that restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates (e.g., sugar, bread, pasta) are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein (e.g., meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, nuts, and seeds), as well as low carbohydrate foods (e.g. spinach, kale, chard, collards, and other fibrous vegetables).
The above two I was fairly familiar with but this next one was new to me.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting.It does not say anything about which foods to eat, but rather when you should eat them. There are several different intermittent fasting methods, all of which split the day or week into eating periods and fasting periods.
I found the third method the most interesting so I dug a little deeper and found that Intermittent Fasting with a Keto diet go hand in hand and can help burn fat very very quickly.
I was never a big breakfast person. It is probably my least favorite meal. So I decided to start with Intermittent Fasting or IF.
There are a few versions of IF that I wont get into here and now but I decided to go with the 16/8 method. This is where you fast for 16 consecutive hours of the day and then have an 8 hour window where you fast or don’t eat anything. Water, Coffee and Tea are ok but no calories.
The idea is that not only are you reducing calories by missing a meal – but after about 12 hours of not eating, your body has burned off all the sugars and carbs in the system and then starts looking for other energy and that energy comes from fat in your cells. So your body starts to burn fat which is what we all want.
What I Chose
I committed to this for a few weeks not changing much else just to see what it felt like and if I lost any weight.
And low and behold after 2 weeks I had gone from 186 to 183. So I lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks.
Obviously there are faster ways to lose 3 pounds I could probably lose 3 pounds of water weight in a day or two. But I wasn’t necessarily looking to lose it fast if it wasn’t sustainable. Water weight isn’t sustainable or real weight.
Two weeks of IF wasn’t terrible. I won’t lie some days were harder than others. I would get really hungry on some days. But because I committed to this and realized I wasn’t going to die from starvation and that I was burning fat with every hunger pain – I stuck to it and eventually it got easier and easier.
After two weeks I decided to keep doing the Intermittent fasting and add in the keto diet and cut way back on carbs. I started eating a diet of grass fed meat, eggs, avocados, cheese, whole fat yogurts, cottage cheese, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, grass fed butter.
The first week of doing this I lost 3 more pounds and was down to 180. So in 3 weeks I lost 6 pounds. I had heard with Keto you lose the most the fastest at the beginning.
Once I saw this progress it was motivation to keep going – so I did. I stayed with Keto and IF all the while my biking and gym scheduled stayed the same. About twice a week for both.
After week 4 I dropped 2 more pounds down under 180 (woo hoo) to about 178. I was almost at the weight where I told my buddy I was to start :).
Following the first month on this plan I continued to lose about 2 pounds a week. I felt better and better and had a ton more energy and I wasn’t getting as tired as quick on my bike rides (and not ending in last).
By the end of 4.5 months I had lost 25 pounds and weighed in at 160 pounds. Everyone I knew was starting to see the difference. I never looked too overweight originally because I was able to hide it well but now the difference in my stomach legs and face was extremely noticeable.
None of my clothes fit any longer and I went from a size 34 to 32 and shirt size of large to medium.
Once I hit 160 pounds which was right around the Christmas holidays I decided to go more of low carb diet where I wouldn’t limit good carbs such as fruits and vegetables. I still avoided empty carbs such as breads etc as much as possible. I will eat bread every now and then as I am not as strict.
It has now been a year plus since I lost 25 pounds and I am still at the same weight and I feel great.
I am now in the top 3 in my riding group every time. My buddy still beats me to the top however now that I am 5 pounds lighter I am the one giving him a hard time about his weight.
My conclusion of this whole story is that diet after turning 40 is so key to staying in shape and healthy. I really had no idea. When I was younger (before 40’s) I could lose weight no problem just by working out more – that is no longer the case.
Not only is diet as in what you eat every day so important for weight loss its just so important for staying healthy and longevity as you get older.
Having extra weight on you just literally weighs you down. It gets harder and harder for the body to lug it all around – you get more tired and have less energy.
So that is my story and I am sticking to it.
Hope this helps someone if they are looking to lose some weight or just get healthier.
Any questions or comments – please feel free to ask below. I would be happy to answer.
