Monday, November 18, 2013

A bit on diet

I'll put a thing or two up about diet from time to time. First off, I follow the Primal Lifestyle with regards to diet and exercise. I still need to sprint more often, and remember better to lift heavy things. And I do have an occasional sweet tooth. Nevertheless, It stands that within less than 18 months, I went from 310 pounds to about 220 pounds.

I have maintained my body weight for over two years. What's more, my blood sugar levels (fasting blood-glucose of 240 and an A1C of 11) have gone from full-blown diabetic levels all the way down to regular (fasting blood-glucose of 93 and an A1C of 5.8). How did this happen?

80% diet, 20% exercise.
Diet - meat, vegetables, some fruit. No grains (almost no wheat, corn, or potato).
Exercise - 30 minutes of walking daily. Martial arts 2x per week.

With all that meat, many people ask how my cholesterol is. Glad you asked! When I was diagnosed with diabetes (remember - sugar was 240 and A1C was 11), my cholesterol was 205. That's seriously high for someone who was 36 at the time. These days, my cholesterol hovers in the 120's. Yet, I eat more than twice as much meat as I once did. How can that be?

Read here - the Straight Dope on Cholesterol.
Funny thing - from the article:
"Eating cholesterol has very little impact on the cholesterol levels in your body. This is a fact, not my opinion. Anyone who tells you different is, at best, ignorant of this topic."

A little more evidence on the topic. This guy was in the NFL and is currently a trainer for NFL athletes who wanted to increase lean body mass (gain weight, not fat). He himself was once 308 pounds at 8.6% body fat. That's 280+ pounds of lean body mass. He advocates virtually the same diet:
- For an athlete requiring 5000+ calories a day to train and gain weight, he advocates 300+ grams of carbs only a few days a week. (USDA recommends that for everyone every day)
- Most days, he advocates 100 carb grams or fewer.

In short? Ditch the carbs and increase the protein and fat.


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