Day 11

This has been a rough few days. Monday and Tuesday this week I had harsh weigh-ins. I lost almost nothing. Coping with this was difficult as I tried to figure out why this was occurring, and what I needed to change to correct it.
 You see, a diet is all about developing a plan to end up with a negative net caloric intake at the end of the day. My Body Metabolic Rate (how many calories your body needs a day) is about 2500-3500. I've learned that my body will consume about 50-70% of this just going about my normal business, without any diet or exercise. What I have to do, is take my caloric intake (about 1700 calories daily) and subtract my BMI (about 2500) = -800. Now I account for my daily activity by taking the calories I burn while resting (I would say about 1000 since I sit all day working) and subtracting this from the -800. This gives me -1800. I probably burn 100 calories at night on my exercise bike doing fat-burning light strides for twenty minutes. That gives me a net of -1900, or round about half a pound a day of fat loss. This is about half of my daily goal of one pound (3500 calories).

But what about the days that I wasn't losing anything? I started to count the calories in the juice... Something that is very difficult to do, and found that I had overdone it. In fact, the juice is hard to control all together! I found that there is no good indication of caloric content of fresh juice online. I read that each gram of fiber contains about 4 calories. Juicing doesn't take away all of the fiber by any means (my juice separates when left in the fridge- a good indicator). So if you take the nutritional content of Fruit "A" and do this: calories-(fiber x 4), you should get an approximation of the calories in the juice since you are supposedly extracting the fiber when you juice. So I put this together and found that I was taking in about 1700 calories a day. But my juice is separating-- I have fiber in it... Add more calories. So maybe about 2000 calories a day. That's double my goal of 1000. So now, I can explain why I had several days of no weight loss ( I didn't bike those days either). I drank a bit more juice in the evenings those days (maybe 1 1/2 cups). And also, I was getting more pulp in my juice than before since I started not cleaning the internal pulp between juicing each serving out of the juicer. I had eliminated two whole days of weigh loss, and had nothing to show for it but a growling stomach.

So I have corrected this now, I believe, and have a plan for the rest of the diet that will enable me to control this much more adequately. I'm amazed at the difference these subtle changes make. But if you're going to do something like this, do it right, right?

Yesterday I cut my juice consumption down to right about what I thought would be 1000 calories or a bit above. I didn't drink any juice too late in the day. I am going to clean my juicer between juicing servings tonight. After the fruit and vegetables in my fridge are depleted, I'm going to switch to using an all-natural store bought fruit and vegetable juice that is better tasting, better controlled nutritionally, and easier to manage all around. I'm still just drinking juice. However, when I make this change, I'll be eliminating the need to juice (though I could still if I wanted to), I will be able to consume more liquid daily while ingesting less calories per ounce, and I will have a variety of flavors to choose from. I'm getting tired of the same flavor or variation of flavor day-in and day-out. Please note that the new juice is 100% natural, has no preservatives, no added sugar, and is nothing but fruits and vegetables. It's Naked Juice brand by the way.

Once I correctly control my caloric intake, I could just about do away with my scale in fact. Losing weight apparently, is all about just getting your math right. Calories determine success. Control them well, and your diet will succeed. Fail to do so, and your diet will fail with you. I lost 1.2 pounds overnight after cutting the juice back yesterday, proving this point. I also began using essential amino acid supplements to ensure that my body is getting the protein components that it needs to break down fats without taking protein from my muscles to accomplish this. When our bodies have nothing to break down for long enough, they break down fat to feed the brain. The brain eats ketones. In order to make a ketone, you have to combine the broken down fat with a protein component. Thus, the need for a supplement. Any medical professionals reading this should please excuse my way-oversimplification of the metabolic process of breaking down fat. As I'm reading about this stuff, I'm realizing what a labyrinth of chemical components and processes that the entire process is. Craziness really. If you're following my fast as an example for your own- make sure to do your own research-- educate yourself!! On this note, also be careful not to over-exercise when fasting. You can fast or do hard exercise, not both. It will tear up your body and could make you really sick.

So after a couple days adrift, I'm back on course. I'm glad that I started the fast with the juicing though since it probably was the healthiest way to break away from food. But now that my body is acclimatized to its new state-of-being, changing things up isn't so hard.

Thought for the day from Proverbs 14:8

The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.

Until tomorrow~