Losing Fat (and improving health) is Easy... we have been misled :) My Story

[iCe-BLaZeD]

Hey Guys... I am just posting this in the hope that anyone who is/has been struggling with fat loss OR health issues in general... but especially auto-immune type conditions.

Now here is my own story (briefly)

I have always struggled throughout the years, trying to lose weight... to be quite fair it made me miserable. I was happy at school and with friends, but whenever I had the chance to think about how it affected me and how I felt hopeless... it really did get me down.

During 2010, at Uni, I was bigger than ever and the stress of not liking the course/feeling ill had gotten to me, not to mention the severe digestive problems I had for well over a year. Everything collapsed, I had a panic attack one day and I became a wreck... I had anxiety from the most minute amounts of caffeine, or social situations in which I was fine before. I now realize it was likely my adrenal glands being overworked/shot. The doctors had no clue, the EEG came back fine "slightly elevated from anxiety [they said]"... I just had to lose weight. But... I had been eating whole grains, avoiding saturated fat and trying to live healthily... even going to the gym and using kettlebells at home (not always regularly, because I didn't feel like I was up to it, now I know why)

I was over 20 stone (I never weighed myself before starting this journey but the first time I weigh'd myself after a while doing it I was 19 st 9 lbs) and I felt like ****. I had tried mainstream advice.

One day I stumbled across a video on youtube by "Sean Croxton" of undergroundwellness (UGW). It was just him, talking about how GOOD for you coconut oil and saturated fat from animals was.... I thought WHAT... but kept watching, looking at all his videos... he was giving biochemistry reasoning, evolutionary reasoning, logical reasoning. I started taking his advice... this eventually lead me on to "paleo"...

I haven't completely leaned out yet.. I've gone from 44 waist to 32... XXXL shirts to large/medium; I am now 13 stone 7 lbs (the number is pretty meaningless at this stage but can be useful early on as I am increasing muscle and losing fat atm)... I don't count calories, fat or even carbs (quality is the issue, though there are good reasons to avoid large amounts of sugar/carbs in the beginning IMO). I am currently using intermittent fasting [18-6 / 16-8] and enjoying it .

Please, if you have health problems (fat loss is only an added bonus of this, I have also cured EVERY single health problem I had, digestive health (IBS), anxiety, adrenal fatigue.. you name it and there is tons of clinical/anecdotal evidence for it improving many conditions including auto-immune conditions), check these links out... I promise you they are worth your time:

[the main offenders are wheat/grains/vegetable+seed oils (easily damaged poly-unsaturated fatty acids), though obviously it is a very complex situation there seems to be absolutely no reason health wise to consume grains especially in their current forms, they are extremely inflammatory and can cause all sorts of problems long term even if you are not sensitive to them]

www.robbwolf.com - excellent free podcast and blog
www.marksdailyapple.com - excellent free blog
www.undergroundwellness.com - another great site/free videos/podcast
www.bulletproofexec.com
www.paleohacks.com - brilliant place to ask questions or see anecdotal stories
www.leangains.com - great intermittent fasting resource...

there are many more of these amazing free resources trying to help people in the "paleosphere" but I hope these ones can help you get started.

Please feel free to add me on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/petros.constantopoulos) if you wish, or ask questions on here.. I am by no means an expert but have been looking into this solidly for a while now and wish to help people who feel as helpless as I once did.

[TL : DR] Long story short...
It is not as simple as "a calorie is a calorie"... this is demonstrable fact; different foods (even when the macro-nutrient ratios are exactly the same) have vastly different effects on leptin sensitivity, other hormone sensitivity/resistance and various other health indicators and markers.

I am advocating people look into the issue because we are told by the media/medical professionals all the time that it is just calories in/out



---incase you are interested, here is a couple of pics, this one from around xmas 2011:

and a more recent one (July):

 

[smit101]

Well done Ice, you don't even look like the same person! Luckily I've never had weight issues myself, but I've always been interested in nutrition/diet and exercise, I eat a keto/paleo style diet completely free of grains and I feel great on it, I do eat dairy though in the form of butter and raw cheese.

I don't neccesarily believe grains are evil, some people cope very well with them, especially if they are properly prepared e.g, soaking them before cooking/consumption. I don't miss them myself though and definitely feel healthier without them.

My main staples are animal fats/proteins and fibrous veg, eggs, fish and loads of coconut oil also as above butter and cheese. It goes against convention to eat this way and the diet dictocrats will often tell us that saturated fats from animal origin are harmful to health and should be limited/avoided! How wrong can they be? The evidence is becoming very strong that saturated fats never were a problem and are infact very protective/nourishing.

Anyway, it really is an amazing achievement on your part, sincerest congratulations to you!

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Congratulations Ice!
It's clear that you studied up on what you needed to know and you made the effort. Well done.
I have so much respect for people that educate themselves in regards to their bodies and physical training.

Personally I came from the opposite spectrum, extremely thin and having my doctor and family constantly tell me I needed to gain weight.

Being healthy is actually easy and your body will quickly react to it and go I a "normal" build. Add in some hard work and you can be exactly how you want to be.

Once again, congratulations and well done.

You look like a new person

 

[TheCenturion]

Wow. That's an amazing transformation, especially to shift 100 pounds in a year

I'm trying to gain weight, bu will be looking into thist. Thanks

EDIT: I see some of the Paleo diet is based around eating meat/fish, as a vegetarian this sucks

I guess one of the main premises of this is to basically cut the rubbish from your diet and eat healthily. So just like every other diet in that sense.

 

[Skillmister]

[TL : DR] Long story short...
It is not as simple as "a calorie is a calorie"...



I am advocating people look into the issue because we are told by the media/medical professionals all the time that it is just calories in/out

Well really it is...



Actually that's not the case, infact it's quite the opposite. Most media says you need to do stupid fad diets to lose weight.

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

I don't neccesarily believe grains are evil, some people cope very well with them, especially if they are properly prepared e.g, soaking them before cooking/consumption. I don't miss them myself though and definitely feel healthier without them.

Indeed, this is my stance too... I mean, I may seem way "OTT" when it comes to grains; but this is just because I feel the amount of work needed to prepare them so that the toxicity is lower (soaking/sprouting/fermenting traditionally like you say) is not worth the effort and the nutritional load isn't anything to write home about either compared to other whole foods that require less preparation.

Refined/poorly prepared grains are worth avoiding imo

Personally I came from the opposite spectrum, extremely thin and having my doctor and family constantly tell me I needed to gain weight.

Being healthy is actually easy and your body will quickly react to it and go I a "normal" build. Add in some hard work and you can be exactly how you want to be.

Have you had any success gaining mass? What have you tried... I am curious about the situations opposite to mine, it's funny how people can say it is all about calories when some people find it incredibly difficult to put on weight too...

EDIT: I see some of the Paleo diet is based around eating meat/fish, as a vegetarian this sucks

I guess one of the main premises of this is to basically cut the rubbish from your diet and eat healthily. So just like every other diet in that sense.

Yes, and you can do it as a vegetarian... though I imagine it would be tougher; high quality eggs and dairy (preferably raw if you can source some) can be a good substitute for the meat/fish... but as you say it is mainly about avoiding the most problematic foods . There are quite a few vegetarians attempting similar plans around in the "blogosphere"

I admit I haven't looked into it that much. I think robb wolf's podcast (amazing free resource btw) has a few questions from vegetarians so searching his blog might be of help, as well as paleohacks.

Thanks for all the kind messages... I hope It doesn't come off as boasting because I genuinely want people to find out about this stuff... being overweight all my teen years really made me miserable and I had given up so many times.

(ironically the only time I ever lost weight during that period was when I went "atkins".. which if done correctly without the frankenfoods is very similar; I kick for ever stopping that, I'm half Greek and there were lots of pasta dishes like pastitsio around haha; though I am kind of thankful I got to ill else I would have never found this stuff)

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

Well really it is...



Actually that's not the case, infact it's quite the opposite. Most media says you need to do stupid fad diets to lose weight.

True media does say that... but from everything I've seen/researched the calorie being a calorie doesn't hold up... sure, when you go paleo you will more than likely lower calorie intake and increase expenditure but this is because what you are doing is fixing hormonal profiles/other problems. The foods are affecting you in terms of energy/satiety/health in vastly different ways.

If I had just tried to limit calories and do more exercise (I had done this tons of times in the past and failed), then sure... It may have worked If I could force myself to do it long enough but I would be miserable and starving. I have not once felt under-nourished or excessively hungry doing paleo, quite the opposite. I have eaten to satiety (and to be honest far beyond many times since, especially when doing intermittent fasting).

I've had periods on paleo where I've felt SO energetic I just had to do some kettlebells/body weight exercises to get it out of me.. I haven't felt like that since I was a child.. actually I remember about a month or 2 into doing this I told my mother I felt like I was on cocaine... I'd never felt such energy before

 

[Skillmister]

If you say so

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Have you had any success gaining mass? What have you tried... I am curious about the situations opposite to mine, it's funny how people can say it is all about calories when some people find it incredibly difficult to put on weight too...

I've had great success, I started 3 years ago and went from mid 50's in KG to around 62kg from weight training and sorting out my diet, all within a year.
I then took up powerlifting and reached 68kg something touching on 70kg over two years.

I sustained a rather bad injury June last year to my spine and ended up gaining quite a lot of weight from depression ( I suffered a relapse ) and being stuck in bed.
I started training again in late April after finishing physio and I'm currently at 73KG. My stats are all increasing weekly.

Here's a link to my thread here about my recovery.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18398548

One thing I found is that diet impacted everything for me, from starting to where I am now. Junk food makes me lethargic and saps my energy while having a simple salad with fish or meat gives me a great boost.

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

One thing I found is that diet impacted everything for me, from starting to where I am now. Junk food makes me lethargic and saps my energy while having a simple salad with fish or meat gives me a great boost.

Yes, I find this is one of the most notable differences for me too.. If I ever have poor quality food, wheat in particular, I feel incredibly lethargic afterwards... I used to think that was normal after meals... now I never get lethargic after a meal no matter how large it is providing the quality is there. Will check out your thread, seems interesting .

 

[Raymond Lin]

Grain itself isn't bad, eating all that grain and carbs and not burning it off is bad.

Refined sugar is bad.

Processed food is bad.

Paelo diet is just a diet of lean meat and veg. Which is a nice diet, everyone should eat more lean meat and fresh veg anyway. Eat in moderation.

Just an observation here. You know the people in the far east tends to be thinner? And that the Japanese has the world's highest average life span.

Well, in hong kong, their frozen food aisle is tiny and mostly consist of ice cream. People buy fresh meat and veg there, if the fish isn't flapping around when you buy it, it's not fresh. You can buy live chicken that is killed in front of you and gutted to take away. Most household don't have ovens, so they do not cook pizzas, chips and ready meals.

My point is, junk food is call junk food for a reason. Eat healthy, in moderation and the body will react positively.

Well done on losing all that weight, it's not easy and you look like a different person! I'd love to see your friend's reactions!

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

Grain itself isn't bad, eating all that grain and carbs and not burning it off is bad.

Refined sugar is bad.

Processed food is bad.

Paelo diet is just a diet of lean meat and veg. Which is a nice diet, everyone should eat more lean meat and fresh veg anyway. Eat in moderation.

Just an observation here. You know the people in the far east tends to be thinner? And that the Japanese has the world's highest average life span.

Well, in hong kong, their frozen food aisle is tiny and mostly consist of ice cream. People buy fresh meat and veg there, if the fish isn't flapping around when you buy it, it's not fresh. You can buy live chicken that is killed in front of you and gutted to take away. Most household don't have ovens, so they do not cook pizzas, chips and ready meals.

My point is, junk food is call junk food for a reason. Eat healthy, in moderation and the body will react positively.

Well done on losing all that weight, it's not easy and you look like a different person! I'd love to see your friend's reactions!

I'm not doubting that refined/processed products are the issue.. some grains are much safer than wheat, no doubt... wheat in its current form is a completely different animal to the wheat of even 30 years ago... there are all sorts of issues when it comes to wheat's proteins (gluten, gliadins and wheat germ agglutenin (WGA). They cause gut irritation/inflammation and leaky gut that can lead to auto-immune responses.)... there are similar proteins in other grains of course.

Then there's the issues of phytic acid and lectins which can cause mineral absorption problems because of the binding effects... these toxins can be lowered with fermentation/preparation methods (all soy up until very recently consumed in the far east was traditionally fermented)

White rice and other starches (sweet potatoes etc) are relatively non-toxic. Unless you have a broken metabolism - insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc - white rice is fine, although not very nutritious. I eat a LOT of potatoes/sweet potatoes these days...

Btw, paleo is not necessarily a "lean" meats diet.. loren cordain and others have recommended lean meats because of the lower quality "grain/soy-fed" animal products available to the Americans... If the animals are of high welfare and fed properly the animal fat is the best fat source you can get.

Perhaps this is an issue for those who want to be optimally healthy into old-age... I for one do not want to increase my risk of developing dementia or an auto-immune condition by damaging my gut-lining or long term deficiency of nutrition. You can be perfectly healthy with these things in your diet in moderation (I personally wouldn't bother including wheat in my diet no matter what after all the research/biochemistry I have read relating to it); but it can be improved .

edit: the mis-conception of okinawan / japanese / kitavan (high starch based diets) has been addressed many times by the "paleosphere", in robb wolf + chris kresser's podcasts and blogs etc, their traditional diets properly prepared are most definitely very healthy and usually higher in fat/lower in grains than people like to believe... the notion that the modern day diet of those people is representative of the traditional diet is definitely not accurate...

 

[smit101]

Grain itself isn't bad, eating all that grain and carbs and not burning it off is bad.

Refined sugar is bad.

Processed food is bad.

Paelo diet is just a diet of lean meat and veg. Which is a nice diet, everyone should eat more lean meat and fresh veg anyway.

Not necessarily lean meat, fats are an important part of Paleo, especially as carbs are limited. Saturated fats from meats are healthy.

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

Well done on losing all that weight, it's not easy

This is the main reason I am trying to post my story... it IS easy, in fact I've never done anything easier... eat great tasting foods to satiety. I really don't miss wheat/vegetable oils because I don't even see them as food anymore and you can either make an alternative or eat better foods to get better nutrition than they would ever provide anyway

Though, I will add that out of my family that have switched to a similar diet I notice the less they research/look into it themselves the easier they find it to be slack on wheat etc (even despite them feeling like **** after eating it).

Not necessarily lean meat, fats are an important part of Paleo, especially as carbs are limited. Saturated fats from meats are healthy.

indeed.. the reason many of paleo recommendations include "lean-meats" is because over 90% of all American produced meat is mass-CAFO-produced and fed grains/soy/injected with all sorts of hormones/antibiotics; just one of the problems from that is a lower amount of omega-3 fats and so there is a poorer ratio of omega 6:3 fatty acids (6's tend to be precursors to pro-inflammatory cytokines etc)

Lots of research/anecdotal evidence showing the lower the omega6:3 ratio you have the better.

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

double posted, please delete

 

[Raymond Lin]

This is the main reason I am trying to post my story... it IS easy, in fact I've never done anything easier... eat great tasting foods to satiety. I really don't miss wheat/vegetable oils because I don't even see them as food anymore and you can either make an alternative or eat better foods to get better nutrition than they would ever provide anyway

Well, I should qualify it by saying.

Losing weight now for me isn't easy - 12st.
Losing weight for me when I was almost 15st - piece of cake.

So losing weight at 19st? It should be really easy.

 

[Matutu]

Any fat loss from above 20+% body fat is easy as, anything below starts to get interesting

 

[JohnnyDrama]

That shouldn't diminish his achievement guys.

Well done!

 

[iCe-BLaZeD]

yes it is true that it's easier to lose weight when you have a lot more to lose.. I am currently focusing on putting on muscle and hope that I can get down to fairly lean levels in due time and effort. It's happening slowly.. just my mid-section is by far the worst area and the slowest to progress I want a reliable way of measuring body-fat since I am "near" normal weights now and the scale doesn't really mean anything.. doesn't seem to be one that doesn't cost a fortune (except maybe calipers)

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Congratulations, I myself have been dieting recently (Cutting out all junk food, fizzy drinks, artificial sweeteners, processed food etc) and have lost 3st 1lb to date... Started mid April, so not a bad loss in 3 months, I also started to hit the gym at least 3 times a week to aid with weight loss so its going well on that side.

I've had to throw away about 60% of my regular clothes because they are simply too big, and i'm going to have to rebuy new work clothes as they are the same! It feels great but also a pain at the same time as I'm going to have to shell out for even more new clobber haha!

Everyone has noticed though and it does wonders for your self-esteem when people compliment you on it, and the GF loves it as well so winners all round really. Been meaning to lose weight since I've left school, nearly 10 years on and finally getting round to it is a massive relief for me as I thought I'd never be able to do it!

Not sure how much further I want to go but I'll continue going to the gym and trying to eat healthily and see where it takes me. I think in the long run I want to get below 13st as I'm sure that is supposed to be around the 'average' weight for my height, but then BMI is a load of tosh anyway so it'll just be what i'm most comfortable at!