Fat Loss Diary — Day 19
Fat loss is taking a long time this time around. I started at 75kg and I currently weigh 73kg. It’s taken 19 days to arrive at 73kg. I use the word arrive, because I’ve already been to 72kg. That was a week ago, and I’ve been up and down between there and 74kg several times. Plotted on paper my weight would be a zigzag going from left to right with the end of the line lower than the start. I believe that over a long period of time, the zigzag will slope downwards.
There has to be a target weight and there has to be a deadline. Without those two things, I will just float around without aim or progress forever. My target weight is 70kg and my deadline is 31st September. The last time I successfully lost weight, going all the way down to 70kg, the weight loss was very rapid. But once again it was a zigzag. My diet was more extreme. The departures from my diet were quite drastic, comprising overseas holidays to destinations with delicious food, religious festivals (Easter and Eid) involving the consumption of huge meals with my family, and bouts of low mood which I used to counter back then with comfort eating. But when I lost weight, I lost it rapidly at the rate of three to five kg per week.
My diet this time around has become a bowl of granola in the morning, followed by a small meal later in the day, either for lunch or supper. I do not snack and I do not drink alcohol, except for when I do. I went out for drinks with a work colleague a few days ago. In the morning my weight had been 72kg. The next day it was 74kg, where it stayed rather stubbornly until this morning.
Eating only twice a day was difficult for the first few days. Now I rarely even feel hungry. That change has taken a little over two weeks. If you can stay hungry for a week, eating a lot less becomes much easier. Not eating during the day allows me to work much faster. My focus is greater and my thoughts are clearer. I find it easier to concentrate for long periods. I still take my hour break. I use it to read, go for a walk, or do something other than eating. Socializing makes not eating slightly more difficult because the people around me will be eating. But even peer pressure diminishes after a few exposures.
I work in the same office as my sister who has occasionally brought in amazing home-cooked food. I don’t turn it down because it saves me from cooking anything for myself in the evening. The only downside is that those home-cooked portions are huge. I still cook for my wife and children, but cooking for three takes less time than cooking for four.
When people realize that I usually don’t eat lunch they react with concern. “Don’t you get hungry?” they ask. “You’ll get sick!” they exclaim. “That’s really bad for you, you’ll lose so much muscle” they warn me. One concerned colleague told me about a relative who had lost over 5kg of muscle after not eating for a week due to illness and hospital admission. The fact that he was ill and that he was bedbound for his stay in the hospital would have had a lot more to do with muscle wastage than a lack of calories. I used to get hungry. I’m not going to get sick. And losing muscle doesn’t seem to be an issue.
I think the idea that not eating will make you sick is false. Most people in the developed world are at no risk of malnutrition whatsoever. Quite the opposite in fact, we are all afflicted with overnutrition. We eat too much food, it makes us sick, it causes preventable illnesses that cost billions of pounds per year to treat. The fear of losing muscle is I believe, something that has been etched into our thinking by the bodybuilding and fitness industry that tells us we must consume certain amounts of protein per gram of body weight, certain amounts of vitamins and minerals, and complex cocktails of nutrients to protect our precious, hard gained muscle. I’m sure they’re just empty threats, designed to keep us paying for the complex cocktails of nutrients and protein powders the fitness industry sells us. During my last diet, of 600–1000 calories per day, I didn’t lose any muscle and got stronger on every exercise I was performing.
As for getting sick, eating less is not going to do that unless I am really starving for several days or weeks. Anybody who is afraid of eating less should look up the story of Angus Barbieri, a Scottish man who went for 382 days without food. I read that before embarking on my first successful weight loss journey.
There is an advantage to taking a little longer to lose weight or to achieve any goal. It gives you longer to develop good habits. The longer you take to create and establish a good habit, the easier it will be to continue with that habit even when your goal has been attained. I am completely confident that I will hit my goal of 70kg. I’m suspicious that I won't be satisfied. I got to 70kg two years ago, and I still thought I was too fat. I’m fitter and more muscular now than I was then, so I won’t look or feel exactly the same at 70kg. I think I’ll get there and want to aim for 67kg. First of all, I have to reach 70kg. I’ll continue writing about my progress here.
Thanks for reading.
