Transforming biochemistry knowledge into weight loss:

This page was begun as an experiment. An experiment I was conducting on myself. An experiment to test which conditions would allow me to loose weight. Now that I have been at it for a while I realize this page serves as more. It serves as a means for me to research. It is a way for me to pick health topics of interest, research them from a biochemistry stand point, and then share them with the world. Sharing them with you gives me an official feeling and keeps me motivated. However, as described below, I am still experimenting on myself.

I wasn't born fat, but over the years I have become really fat even though I am a biochemist. I have a giant gut and breasts. It shouldn't be hard for me to put on my socks in the morning because I am so fat. My clothes shouldn't feel uncomfortable because they are pressing against my fat rolls. I shouldn't be embarrassed to go to a swimming pool. I shouldn't have to go to a big and tall store to get clothes that fit. The list of negative emotions associated with being fat goes on and on. In short, it just feels bad emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

How did this happen? I don't know exactly although I am almost sure it boils down to diet and exercise. I hope to find the answers as I explore my journey through weight loss on this blog. I was not always fat. Therefore, I know that I can be unfat again.

I am a biochemist. I should have known better. Of all people, I should have known how to avoid this predicament I am in now. I now wish to harness my scientific knowledge to experiment on myself as well as explore the chemical basis for weight loss methods.

Methods:

I will try new diets. I will experiment on myself. The diets will be chosen from among the most popular in our society. I will chronicle the results and my general experience in my blog here. I will also explore the biochemical basis for these diets as well as evaluate their effectiveness and truthfulness. I will also exercise as regularly as possible, 3-5 times per week, to avoid biasing the results. I will try to keep everything constant in my life except the diet. My method is not perfect. I don't necessarily want to lose raw pounds, but rather gain an understanding of what methods work best for me to permanently regain my health.

Hypothesis:

1. No diet will be clearly better than the others. Conversely, each diet will offer some truth, some piece of knowledge or methodology that I can take away with me to help myself. I think that in the end, I will be able to formulate my own diet based on a synthesis of all the things I have learned from all of these diets.

2. I have been on diets before, lost weight, and then regained it. I wasn't born fat. Given that, I think that my main problem will be shown to be psychological. I think that I may have compulsive eating problems- compulsive eating problems associated with very unhealthy foods.

3. I will lose quite a bit of weight. My blog will help keep my motivation levels high.

4. There will be a lack of clear scientific basis to many of the diets.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

March 15, 2010 (Maybe the Hippies were right?)

Today I weighed in at 242.2 I also started phase II of the South Beach diet. It basically means adding in some "good" carbs. For breakfast I still had the standard eggs and cheese. But for snacks I had fruit (healthy carbs). For lunch I had some nuts, which was forced on me since I forgot my lunch and didn't have time to go get lunch. For dinner I had turkey in my red tomato sauce and whole grain pasta. After adding in the carbs I will probably gain a little weight over the next few days. Switching topics, I always used to think hippies were full of crap and buying "organic" was a waste of time and a marketing scheme. Then, a few years ago I realized that organic produce actually tastes better. Recently, I looked into what kinds of chemicals (usually in the form of pesticides) are present on produce. The USDA compiles a big list. In the list is how many they have inspected in a given year, the concentration range they found safe, and the concentration range they actually found. Most of the produce was in range. Some was not. But, what surprised me was how many man made chemicals there were!!! And, the concentration ranges they say are safe are based on testing one compound at a time. There very well could be, and probably, is a synergistic effect when you combine all these things together. I probably will not be ingesting this crap any more and will spend the little extra amount to get organic. Check it out for yourself, click on the 2008 data (or the newest one): http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateO&navID=HistNav2Link4&rightNav1=HistNav2Link4&topNav=&leftNav=ScienceandLaboratories&page=PDPLatestActivities/Reports&resultType=&acct=pestcddataprg
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