Comment by gremlinsinc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gremlinsinc | Hacker News Reader

I'm 485. I had gastric sleeve surgery in 2012 at 650 (after losing 40 through liquid diet).

5 weeks ago I was 515. I started a fitness challenge at a CrossFit gym, I workout 4 days a week, I eat Keto, and I (sometimes) eat just one meal a day. I find it really hard, like extremely hard when doing IF to get all my protein in for the day.

I kid you not, because of my stomach size, the keto effects (lower hunger), and only having an hour or two window for food when I stick to IF completely I can't get more than 50 protein, and 600 calories.

This week, I've modified it to fit my body, I've added body fortress protein which 1 scoop in almond milk = 8 carbs, and 60 protein (my daily minimum). I eat this around 11 or noon. Then I try to have my 1 meal at 5pm. Is it IF? Not completely, but I feel for me it works a lot better.

I can probably still get only 600-800 calories a day; example: 2 burgers + 1/4th cup cheese and a dab of mayo and I'm stuffed to capacity, it takes an entire hour to finish this much food, but at my weight that's no biggie, the biggest thing is getting protein so my weight lifting at CrossFit has good results.

I'm no expert on physiology, so if anyone has tips to maximize my progress (I'm about losing more (fat) and gaining more(muscle) as fast as humanly possible).

Physically I feel like a million dollars, depression is mostly gone and anxiety as well. I'm a little obsessed on my diet/exercise regime, not sure that's bad. I started taking Vyvanse for ADHD so that also curbs appetite/hunger and has helped me focus more on my code/work. Last year I had major depression with dark thoughts, this year I feel like a different person, I'm also seeing a therapist for that stuff as of a few months ago.

Because you've had that surgery and your stomach size maybe intermediate fasting isn't the best way for you in the end?

Instead a high fat low carb diet where you really minimize carb intake (and obviously avoid all things sugary). You can get the same keto effects if you follow this approach.

This way you can easily eat several times a day and get all protein and calories you need.

Of course you can mix and match IF with this as well.

> I'm a little obsessed on my diet/exercise regime, not sure that's bad.

Be mindful. Obsessions always lie at the edge of turning bad.

Also if you've only done this 5 weeks it's easy to do too much too soon and if a time comes when you can't hold the same extreme tempo you risk a crash. This has happened to me many times. For example I've started a new training form and I train it a lot. But then I don't have the same drive like last week and a miss a single training. Then another one and suddenly I haven't trained for a month.

Thanks for the advice.. I think I'll keep trying this diet regime for a little bit, I like how I feel w/ it...

Definitely see your point w/ obsessions... I over analyze and think things. I also try to optimize everything as a developer that's just what I do lol..

I do have a fear that as winter comes I might slack off more on workouts, esp since my gym is 30 mins away (I live in podunkville,UT), so increment weather could affect my sojourn to the city to workout. I'm hoping I just let things go more, and it just becomes part of my life, at least till I hit my goals.

I am not an expert on psychology, but your goal "losing more (fat) and gaining more(muscle) as fast as humanly possible", might be detrimental to your success.

It probably took decades to get to your current body weight. Should it not then take at least 5 years to get back to your target weight ? True the caloric math shows you could probably get to 250lbs in a year with a 600-800 a day diet. But can any human actually stick with that diet for more than a month ? If not, you would be better eating 1600-1800 a day if you could stick with it for a year.

As an aside, at times I wonder if our obesity epidemic is in part related to an ever increasing target/acceptable weight. When I was a kid, if you could pinch an inch, you were overweight (I stop drinking calories if I pass the threshold). Even my childhood bathroom scale maxed out at 250 which implied that 250 must be extreme morbid obesity.

I know this is personal, but when you were young did you ever have such thresholds (weight, mobility, etc.) in mind ? Or did it just sneak up on you and by then you were in gaining weight at a surprising rate beyond your control ? No worries if you are too busy to respond. I wish you the best!

I don't think it took decades... I was 410 at 14... that's a decade/half maybe... but I was always obese...since birth practically. (80 @ 6, 300 @11, etc..)

There is some good evidence (both studies and anecdotal) that there is some muscle memory in the sense that it's easier to regain muscle that was lost than to build it in the first place. So even if you lose some muscle during this whole thing, you should be fine. You want your body to be in as much in ketosis as possible; it has a huge reserve after all.

I'm sure you've seen or heard of this case study of the Scottish man who fasted 382 days [pdf]! Of course, he did it under medical supervision. But I think it's an important case of what CAN be accomplished.

[pdf]: https://pmj.bmj.com/content/postgradmedj/49/569/203.full.pdf

Thanks, that's good to know... I think w/ the added 60g of protein per day --esp on workout days, I should be okay hopefully. Might lose some, but not a lot of muscle...and I think the ketosis will definitely help tone me up as well along the way.

I have no advice, but applause and encouragement. Keep going and congrats on your progress so far. Don't stop or get complacent - you can be a motivator for other people and your progress can be a positive force for more people than just yourself

Thanks, I appreciate it. I feel great, I love Cross Fit -- the community has been VERY supportive and the box I go to is VERY good at modifying workouts -- I can't get down on the floor yet, or do lunges for example, but I still get my ass handed to me.

You're going to find a ton of people countersignalling Crossfit, and I'll admit it doesn't look like it's for me, but keep it up. You're going to be one of the success stories.

I was nervous as shit to start. It looked hard, and without modifications I def. couldn't do it, but it works if you just do it. It's not nearly as bad as the videos make it seem...

Congrats! For the long run you might consider throwing in a day with multiple meals and significantly higher calories every now and then, sticking to whole foods for the most part. This might be good for your micronutrient intake (which I'm pretty sure does not cover the RDAs on 600-800kcals) and your metabolism, which might get wrecked in the long run otherwise.

I can recommend cronometer.com for tracking food, this might be a pain in the beginning, but gives you good insight on what your nutrient intake is. Helped me to create a diet with roughly balanced meals.

I track everything on MyFitnessPal currently. I also take a multi-vitamin and Vitamin D3 daily. I did think about doing some carb loading, and I think I might try it when I hit any stalls. So far things are going good though.

I'm not a nutritionist or broscientist, but of what I do know, what you are doing now is correct, and probably qualifies as a muscle-sparing fast.

You can eat more protein--likely in drinkable form due to your sleeve--to try to gain more muscle, or you could stay the course to lose the fat first. Since lean muscle mass increases your base metabolism, which increases your fat-burning rate, that's a complex equation that may require calculus to optimize, and your body can always just arbitrarily veto the mathematical results.

Thanks, I'll try the added protein shake + OMAD food-wise for a week or two and see how it works... I'm thinking it'll be better than just the OMAD with less protein/calories. If I need to, I could even adjust to 2 shakes/day and a meal in the evenings.. Maybe push my shakes to b/w 2/5pm and eat by 7, so I'm still doing a 6-8 hour feeding window.

Dr. Dominic D'agostino & Dr. Layne Norton did a podcast on Joe Rogan recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93oh9kC-rU

In the course of the podcast, they discuss many areas of research that would be interesting to your question of maximizing your weight loss while maintaining health.

They also discuss what the research in these areas indicates works and what doesn't seem to matter. A lot to unpack but certainly helpful.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Hey, have no references easy here, but you might not need that much proteins while losing weight. Fasted, your body breaks useless cells to get more protein when needed.

Just a heads up, most Body Fortress protein powders that I've seen are actually 60g per 2 scoops, not per scoop. Their marketing on the front is super misleading.

Fuck their marketing.. .I knew it was too good to be true.. double checked it earlier when I was putting it in myfitnesspal... I'll search around for a better deal.... I was using Dymatize which has more servings per bottle for 30g proteins... and a lot less carbs...

I just buy pure whey protein isolate. I blend it up with this and that. Some dates and almonds with vanilla extract. Yesterday I did hazelnuts and an apple with some cinnamon.

No added sugar, and everything pretty natural. The isolate I buy is pricey cuz it’s from grass fed cows but there are cheap ones.

Need a good blender tho.

I've got a ninja, it works really well for blending drinks.. I like to add almond milk, 2 tbsp heavy cream... if it's got no carbs I'll add some monkfruit as well. I'll have to look for some better protein isolate..unflavored I could probably cook with as well for added protein.

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