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, July 9, 2013

Soaring BMI Rates

I perused the most recent issue of the International Journal of Obesity and found a very interesting article on BMI rates over the past decade or so.  The article is titled, "Morbid obesity rates continue to rise rapidly in the United States."  It is (2013) 37, 889-891.  It is a little hooky because they rely on phone calls to get people's BMI.  However, they carried out a large number and have good statistics.  BMI is simply your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters.  The lower the number the less fat you are.  So over 30 is considered obese and then over 40 and over 50 are two cutoffs that signal extreme obesity.  There are a lot of interesting facts in the paper; I'll list some that I found interesting.  The worldwide BMI has increased by nearly 0.5 every decade over the last 3 decades.  Of the high income nations, the U.S. has the highest mean BMI (no surprise there).  One in three adults have a BMI over 30.  BMIs over 40 are come with much more severe health problems than 30 (although they don't expound on what they are).  From 2000-2010 people with a BMI over 40 increased by 70% while that over 50 was even higher.  BMI numbers are higher among Hispanics and blacks.  I found this odd as these groups generally have less money.  I guess it boils down to cheaper food is generally worse for you, especially things like McDonald's.  In 2010 nearly 7% of the American population had a BMI over 40.  In 2000, the prevalence of BMIs over 30 was 19.8% while in 2010 the same number was reported as 27.2%.  So, in summary, obesity rates as measured in BMI are increasing and increasing fast.  People are getting fatter year after year.  I'm not surprised at the number of fat people, but I am surprised that number of fat people is increasing.  I figured that the rates would have plateaued by now.

On another note, I published my first scientific paper that was directly related to obesity (it even had the word obesity in the title) this past month.  Not a first or last author paper though so not that big of an accomplishment.

My diet has suffered with relatives visiting and my child's birthday.  Now time to get back into it.  Hopefully not too much damage was done.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Bloody Gums

It's been a while since I have posted.  I have had relatives vising from over seas.  The trip was great but I didn't do so well with the diet.  I broke it more than once.  I've noticed that in situations with work and situations with out of town visitors like this I tend to find myself in situations where it is very difficult to stay on a diet.  Situations where it would just look plain weird not to indulge in carbs.  Then inevitably once you get off the wagon, it's a slippery slope.  You think to yourself, "well, I have already cheated, why not just one more time, why not wait until tomorrow."  Then it goes on and on.  Even more frustrating is that I don't have a functional scale yet to measure the damage done.

As an aside, I thought I would explore a problem that has always interested me.  Bloody gums and heart disease.  I have always wondered what is the scientific basis for the connection for bloody gums and heart disease.  There is a correlation between bloody gums and the risk of heart attack.  As with many bodily ailments, correlation does not equal causation.  I have bloody gums and would like to know the risk I am running and exactly why.  I have done some research on the subject and it doesn't seem very well proven, but there seem to be consensus on the causes.  Bleeding gums allow bacteria into the blood stream.  Bloody gums create a passage for bacteria to go from the mouth to the blood stream.  Once in the blood stream, bacteria get bound to platelets.  These complexes and perhaps others clog arteries.  Once the arteries are clogged you get a situation very similar to other heart diseases with plaques causing clogged arteries and heart attack.

Looks like I need to go to the dentist.  It would really suck to die by bleeding gums because I couldn't take care of my dental hygiene.
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