Two Cheat Days Wreck Havoc With My Progress
When watching graphs, it is pretty easy to see your progress. However, just writing the numbers down on paper is not as easy to “see” your results. And when I say “see,” I don’t just mean to “look at with the eyes.” Instead, I suggest you look at the trends.
Side Note: I manage all of my companies using graphs. From the company’s gross income all the way down to the individual’s production. It is easy and magical what you can see. Weekly trends are the most important.
Suppose we go back 5-31. There are ups and downs but the numbers on those two days are almost identical. Then a big change occurred. From 6-2 to 6-12 we see a very good trend in my body fat percentage. The number moves nicely from 23.5% to 20%. Looking at the trends, you can see an excellent improvement.
Then disaster. We celebrated Father’s Day a week early. Movies, popcorn, red vines, and I seem to recall two pints of keto(ish) ice cream. You can see the drop occur exactly at 6-12 (cheat day) to 6-13 (the day after.) the graph can be visualized in these two sections. The “remodeling phase” when the body becomes used to the new diet, and then the fat loss second phase. What is important is to STAY in that fat loss phase.
CHEATING
I am going to an event tonight. And went to one last night, at which I controlled myself, and will again tonight. It is NOT easy to stay on a strict diet. That’s a fact, but dedication to yourself, and consistency, are vital to success.
Lean Mass Graph
From beginning to end, this graph also didn’t change much, but building muscle on a calorie-restricted diet is nearly impossible. Some people can do it IF they have the right genetics. Unfortunately, most of us don’t. But the excellent feature of this graph is that I am on the path to weight loss while NOT LOSING lean tissue.
Depending on the study, it has been shown that most of us lose 30-50% of muscle on a calorie-restricted diet. On a purposeful diet maintaining lean tissue is vital. Losing muscle means your metabolism aWILL reduce, and this means that at the end of the diet, when eating returns to normal, the weight will return as sure as the sun rises.
You will be operating at a lower level of metabolism, and it can stay low forever depending on individual circumstances. I have covered this before, which is a crucial point of any diet. Do NOT lose muscle, no matter how much weight you need to lose.
If you are morbidly overweight, you may consider losing some muscle to get the fat off, but there is no need in most cases. And your doctor knows very, very little about this. No matter how educated he may seem, I have noticed that at least 50% of all doctors are overweight. That is a conservative number. They really don’t know, or they don’t follow their own science. Most likely they are just not educated on real, lasting weight loss.
Actual Weight Loss
Above is my weight loss and it is improving again, but there is a problem in the mix. My metabolism is slowing down. More on that in the next post!
