Nearly 20% Lost in 2020 and Metabolic Flexibility Gained

Nutrient density, metabolic flexibility, and healthy measurement

There is not as much of me as there once was: 18% less now than in April, 2020. But measurement of body weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) can be misleading. What matters more are measures of body fat and especially visceral, or belly, fat. Fat is important and healthy in our food, but not healthy in our abdomen.

My $30 smart scale, in April, 2020 showed I was 31% body fat with visceral fat at 17 on a range of good to bad (both 31% and 17 were in the red for danger range). Now in November 2022, body fat is 21.3% and at 7 for visceral fat (7 is Acceptable and almost Good (new image from Arboleaf smart scale, earlier was Eufy). How this happened is told in my exciting new book! (just kidding, notes below and in earlier posts).

From May 2020 to November, 2020, my weight dropped from 231 to 191 and two years later I’m still day to day between 190 and 195. Running the numbers: body fat dropped from 71.6 pounds (231 x 31%) to 40.7 (191 x 21.3%). So of 40 pounds lost, 31 was body fat, and mostly visceral fat. My waist size went from 40 inches to 35 (tape measures offer lower-tech way to measure visceral fat!). My weight day to day ranges from 188 (too low!) up to 195 (okay!).

Gaining Metabolic Flexibility

Returning from the Atlas Forum in New York City, my weight was down by two pounds. Usually I lose more weight when traveling, but meals were wonderful at the Atlas event. I skipped breakfast each day (though the breakfast buffet looked good). Instead, through the morning I enjoyed coffee with cream. Somehow over the last two years I’ve gained metabolic flexibility, something I didn’t know or remember existed. In college I’d read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and remember now his mantra: “I can think, I can wait, I can fast.” I could think in college (or was learning) and could wait. But what was fasting? Like not eating… for a whole day?

Meals are still enjoyable, but not as often and not in the morning. I don’t eat “many small meals” as most nutritionists recommend, and I usually skip desserts (or have cheese), and I have reduced carbohydrates. I skipped the bread and pasta served at Atlas Forum meals. On the flights from Seattle to Newark and back, I wasn’t at all hungry so it was easy to skip the pretzels. No willpower involved. Just habit now, and metabolic flexibility.

My metabolic system is doing what it was designed to do, what human beings have been adapted to do for thousands of years. Body fat is stored energy. It becomes easy to flip the metabolic switch from fueling our mind and body with carbohydrates to using ketones from body fat. That’s what it’s there for. Only in the modern world do people look to eat or snack every few hours. People are now adapted to burning only carbohydrates, so not surprisingly they crave them.

Unfortunately, most people consume more carbohydrates than their body can burn, so the excess is stored as body fat. And for many or most, dealing with high-carbohydrate diets damages their metabolisms over time. They become insulin resistant which leads to a host of chronic conditions. That’s what happened to my father who suffered for years with type 2 diabetes. And that was happening to me. Looking back at 2019 blood tests I was pre-diabetic then, and likely earlier.

Lots of Blame to Go Around: Government, Processed Food Industry, “Big Pharma”

Why so much cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes in the United States, Europe, and now Latin America and India? There is plenty of blame to go around. Metabolic reality remains hidden for most because a) we can’t see inside our blood without texts or CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitors), or ketone meters (like Keto Mojo). Plus people and their doctors think they already know the cause of being overweight. But they have been misinformed, told weight gain is an energy balance problem where calories in = calories out. The popular (and official) story is that most are overweight because they just eat too much and don’t exercise enough.

That’s what most public health official and nutritionists advise, but this advice is based on theory not practice. Many people have difficulty metabolizing carbohydrates and these people should eat less carbohydrates (and more healthy fats). Government public health policy since the 1980s Food Pyramid has pushed Americans to eat less saturated fat and more carbohydrates.

The history of how nutrition researchers and government agencies came to see saturated fat as public health enemy number one is fascinating (to me, though maybe to everyone). Among many histories, here is a recent one shared by a friend on Facebook: NIH-Funded "Food Pyramid" Rates Lucky Charms Healthier Than Steak (guest post on Pirate Wires, Nov. 10, 2022).

— And I forgot to add maybe the most important—and still less visible—benefit of fasting, which I have read from many medical sources): A Doctor's Guide to AUTOPHAGY and FASTING: Lose weight, reduce inflammation, and live longer!