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.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

On the wagon again

I woke up this morning and began my weight loss journey again. As my previous posts show, most of my previous success was achieved with the low carb method. Now that I think about it, most weight loss methods fall into one of the following categories: Low-carb: limits carbohydrates. These include atkins, the zone, the south beach diet, and even the paleolithic diet and scarsdale diet. Calorie restriction: These limit calories. This includes things like weight watchers and the hcg diet. Crazy diets: This includes all kinds of crazy ideas. The banana and water diet, the cabbage soup diet, etc. These will be fun to explore. Pure exercise: Not necessarily a diet, but some expose just exercising to lose weight. Vegetarian: There are many diets that claim eating only fruit and vegetables is good. To some degree the raw diets fall under this heading. I guess I could add low fat diets, but those usually fall into the calorie restriction diets. I have a new strategy. I am not going to switch through diets on a monthly diet as before. I am going to stick with what worked for me before- low carb. When I feel I have made some progress, I may dabble in other things like vegetarian. I will study interesting ideas and post them as I go along. I am especially interested in the biochemistry of obesity in general (pathways, metabolism, etc) and will keep reading and writing. I will also use my blog as a bit of a journal to keep track with what I am doing. I will also use it as a motivator to keep going. I didn't weigh in this morning. I will try to remember in the morning. A new aspect is that all the scales for sale here are in kilograms. I will have to convert them for the blog. I had eggs with cheese for breaky and chili for dinner. No lunch. I don't feel bad at all. From my recollection the first 3-5 days are the worst. I have added a few things to the blog. There is a bmi calculator on the right side. I thought I would point it out because it might be confused with an advertisement. It is actually very handy, but it is a cheap and simple bmi calculator. I might make a post on how to do a thorough bmi calculation later. I also added a gadget that will allow you to follow my blog by email.
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