Temperature and Appetite
I recently read The Book on Heat: The Science of Heat for Weight Loss, Performance and Health by Brad Pilon. It altered a view of mine that I've held for decades related to diet and exercise. My...
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60 posts
In Defense of Low Fat Dieting
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Low carb diets can work. When you reduce the number of carbs you eat, you can absolutely lose weight. There are a few reasons. Most processed foods are higher in carbs and foods lower in carbs are...
Read more →The Potato Diet - 4 Years Later
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Long-time readers of this site know that I used the Potato Hack Diet to lose weight. There are many ways to lose weight, but few succeed in permanent fat loss. Somewhere between 70% and 95% of...
Read more →My First DEXA Scan
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On March 1st, I had my first DEXA scan. It had been years since I had a body fat percent measurement taken. When I was getting my initial muscle gains in my mid-20s, I looked forward to seeing my...
Read more →What Happened After the Scale at My Gym Broke
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Almost two months ago, the scale at my gym was gone. It broke and I was informed that they would be ordering a new scale soon. Not a problem. As I have mentioned in previous posts, in addition to...
Read more →You Look Leaner
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She stopped mid-sentence and said: "You look leaner". She was wrong, but I understood why she commented. I was the same weight I was the last time I saw her. My weight has been in a stable range of...
Read more →Declaring Victory! How I Lost and Kept Off 25 Pounds
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It was just over a year ago that I decided I needed to lose 20-25 pounds. But before I started on my diet, I knew the challenge wasn't losing the weight, but keeping it off. That is where many people...
Read more →I Completed My First 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet
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I was going to wait until spring before trying my first 5-day Fasting Mimicking Diet period, but I got impatient and went for it starting last Thursday. This post will cover my experience. For those...
Read more →Fat Loss Cheatsheet: What Works and What Doesn't (for me)
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Now that I have enough experience with gaining and losing a few pounds over the years, I wanted to assemble all the ideas that have worked and those that haven't. This list is my experience, which...
Read more →Did I Gain Weight After the Potato Hack?
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One of the criticisms I got regarding The Potato Hack was that once the hack ended and normal eating resumed that I'd regain the weight I lost. My critic claimed it was a lot of effort for...
Read more →Revisiting the 2014 Fat Loss Bet
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Before I cover my recent fat loss success, I first want to close the loop on The Fat Loss Bet from early 2014. Longtime readers might recall that myself and three friends entered into a bet to each...
Read more →The Role of Exercise in Preventing Weight Regain
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After the post Is There a Metabolic Unicorn? I decided to revisit the topic of metabolism again as if I knew nothing. I'm also doing this at the same time that I'm reviewing some of my older posts...
Read more →Stress and Low Body Fat Levels
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A year ago I posted How I Regained the Weight I Lost. There I speculated on what was my ideal weight. > If I were to ask my body what it believes my ideal weight is, I’d get different answers. My...
Read more →Update on that 20 Pound Fat Loss Goal
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This past February I set the stage for a 20 pound fat loss goal. When I set the goal, several people told me that was too much weight for me to lose. My primary motivation for dropping 20 pounds was...
Read more →Revisiting the Tim Ferriss 30 in 30 Experiment?
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Last year I unsuccessfully tested Tim Ferriss's idea of consuming 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. Instead of curbing my hunger, it increased it. Here is what I posted on Ending...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 11 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #11 Weigh-In: \-1. Total Loss: \-9. These posts are getting boring. This will be the last regularly scheduled...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 10 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #10 Weigh-In: +2. Total Loss: \-8. Not a good week. A step backwards. A few things went wrong. 1. My average...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 9 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #9 Weigh-In: \-2. Total Loss: \-10. This was a good week. My plan last week was to journal the number of hours in...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 8 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #8 Weigh-In: \-1. Total Loss: \-8. 8 weeks, 8 pounds. Grinding away. My knee rehab had a setback this week....
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 7 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #7 Weigh-In: \-1. Total Loss: \-7. Last week was the one week where I gained a pound. I was concerned that I might...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 6 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #6 Weigh-In: +1. Total Loss: \-6. The bad new is this was the first week where I gained weight. The good news is I...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 5 Weigh In
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #5 Weigh-In: \-2. Total Loss: -7. After I posted the ant-Quantified Self post, I decided I didn't want to continue...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 4 Weigh In and Food Journal
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #4 Weigh-in: \-1. Total loss: \-5. Slow and steady appears to be how my body wants to drop the weight. The good...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 3 Weigh In and Food Journal
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #3 Weigh-in: \-1. Total loss: \-4. This was an odd week. One of my competitors left a big bag of sliced salami in...
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 2 Weigh In and Food Journal
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #2 Weigh-in: Unchanged. I weighed myself a few times this week and was down, then up, but I ended the week even....
Read more →20 Pound Bet: Week 1 Weigh In and Food Journal
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For a background to this post see How I Plan to Lose 20 Pounds and Win the Bet. Week #1 Weigh-in: Down 3 pounds. From 216 to 213. I suppose this is a common weight loss in the first week. It is...
Read more →Ending the Tim Ferriss 30 in 30 Experiment
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On Friday September 20th I began each morning by consuming 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking. This is a fat loss strategy Tim Ferriss explained in his book The 4 Hour Body. Less than 3...
Read more →The 30 in 30 Experiment (Protein)
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I've started a new experiment. This time I will be testing an idea from Tim Ferriss. Upon waking I will consume 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes. In the book The 4 Hour Body, Ferriss mentions...
Read more →Low Caffeine Weight Gain
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Beginning in late September I scaled down my caffeine intake. Then in October, I went the entire month without coffee and 21 days without any caffeine. This month I have been on a very low caffeine...
Read more →Less Exercise Equals More Fat Loss - Of Course It Does
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Several people have sent me a link to the study that just came out that showed that less exercise resulted in greater fat loss. From Study Suggests Less Is More for Exercise and Weight Loss: > If...
Read more →My Response to the Exercise and Overeating Study
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How is that for odd timing? A day after I completed my 5 part series on the role of exercise and fat loss, a widely reported study on the same topic surfaces. The short summary is that not everyone...
Read more →Maximizing Fat Loss with Exercise
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This is the 5th and final part of my series of posts on the role of exercise and fat loss. For the most part, I strongly believe that you lean out in the kitchen and not the gym. I think the role of...
Read more →Fat Loss and High Intensity Exercise
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In my last post Fat Loss and the Case For Less Exercise, I explained how I've designed my exercise plan to be as minimal as possible to maximize my chances at fat loss without increasing my appetite...
Read more →Fat Loss and the Case For Less Exercise
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This is the third part of my series about exercise and fat loss. Part one was the post Walking Didn't Lean Me Out, where I showed how all my fat loss was a result of diet and how exercise played no...
Read more →A High Intensity Approach to Cold Weather Training
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It has been a while since I last posted on Cold Weather Training. For those new to the site, I began experimenting with cold temperature exposure back in 2008 as way to "toughen up" after living in...
Read more →Fat Loss Metrics For Men
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How should guys measure their fat loss progress? There are several methods. Each has its problems, but I think one is a clear winner. Before I proceed, let me state that the overall goal is to lose...
Read more →Intermittent Fasting - Improving Your Success Rate, A New Strategy
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Several of my friends have had success with Intermittent Fasting. They lose weight and feel great, but not everyone succeeds. I'm going to list the reasons that I have witnessed that caused...
Read more →Revisiting "Cleaning Up My Diet"
In 2006, I did two nutritional posts titled Cleaning Up My Diet 1 and Cleaning Up My Diet 2. Boy did I get some things wrong. Not quite a nutritional mullet, but close. Usually I attack others, such...
Read more →Caloric Nonsense at the Glitter Gym
While at my Glitter Gym, the gym paused the soccer mom workout music for an important announcement. It was a professionally made audio clip encouraging members to sign up for some nonsensical aerobic...
Read more →Body By Science
This is an outstanding book that challenged many of my beliefs about weight training. !Body by Science Body by Science by Doug McGuff and John Little makes a damn good case for super slow weight...
Read more →Physique Hacking
Earlier this week, I was having a discussion on nutrition with some friends. I disclosed my latest experiment, which is still too early to blog about at this time. The response I got was, "how lean...
Read more →Suffer The Little Children
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Yesterday I made the following dish for lunch. - Broiled Wild Salmon with a mayo seal. - Fresh cut green beans cooked with onions, garlic and hot peppers in tallow rendered from a grass-fed cow....
Read more →The Ectomorphs Dilemma
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About 10 years ago, I came up with a phrase to best describe the choice ectomorphs must make when pursing their fitness goals. Before diving into the topic, review the image below to show the...
Read more →17 Lessons For Fat Loss
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The Precision Nutrition site just posted a great article on fat loss lessons called Why You're Not Lean Yet. My first thought was - oh great, not another get lean list. But I really like this list...
Read more →The BMI is Still BS
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I now weigh 197 pounds. This means my BMI (Body Mass Index) is now 24.9. For the first time in over a decade, I am no longer Overweight. BMI Formula for Adults: > BMI = ( Weight in Pounds / ( Height...
Read more →Can Cold Weather Exposure Increase Muscle Growth?
In earlier posts, I covered how cold weather exposure may trigger a fat loss response by activating brown adipose tissue (BAT). It may also lead to muscle gains. There isn't much information on this,...
Read more →Triggering the Cold Weather Response For Fat Loss
Yesterday the media discovered brown fat. How much of a role cold weather exposure plays in fat loss is still unknown, but there is one thing I'm confident about. This story will disappear and you...
Read more →The Media Discovers Brown Fat
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I want to thank Mike D and The TailGunner for sending me links to the recent brown fat stories. Looks like my cold weather exposure project, which I called No Jacket Required, has some medical merit....
Read more →Hormonal Balance: Understanding Hormones, Weight, and Your Metabolism
The last book I read was a little too tough to follow at times, so I backed it off a bit and read a book that covered the basics of hormones and metabolism. !Hormonal Balance: Understanding Hormones,...
Read more →No Jacket Required
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Last April in the post Shivering My Way to Leanness, I discussed how I was inspired by evolutionary fitness guru Arthur De Vany to try cold weather exposure. In a nutshell, throughout thousands of...
Read more →The Body Fat Test
For the past 4 months, I've been flying blind without a body fat test. Up until May I had a scale which told me my weight and a rough estimate of body fat percentage. The scale was not real accurate,...
Read more →The Stick Boy Explained
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In a few previous posts, I casually threw out the term stick boy. Without thinking, I assumed everyone would understand that phrase. Although I would love to take credit for the term, I first heard...
Read more →I Don't Like the Nightlife, I'd Rather be Lean
In the post I Don't Like the Nightlife, I confessed that I probably have the type of insomnia called early-morning awakening. > There is also a type of insomnia called early-morning awakening. It...
Read more →I Don't Want To Ride A Donkey Down The Grand Canyon!
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During the planning stages of my 2003 visit to the Grand Canyon, I learned that one could rent and ride a donkey down the Grand Canyon. The only catch is you couldn't weight more than 200 pounds. I...
Read more →Why Cooking and Why Now?
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Some of you may be wondering why I've developed a sudden interest in cooking. I know quite a few single people in Seattle and they tend to find cooking to be a tedious chore. > Why bother going...
Read more →Shivering My Way To Leanness
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Went to the gym this morning at 7:45 AM in my tank top and shorts. It was a bit brisk, but not cold. At least that is what I thought. When I got home I checked the weather and it read 41 degrees (5...
Read more →Tales From the Glitter Gym - The Bodyfat Test
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Even though I no longer workout at a Glitter Gym, sometimes elements of glitter rear their head. On a recent trip to the gym I was doing sit-ups when I overheard an older couple arguing. The woman...
Read more →Calculate Your Grecian Ideal
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A few days ago I was researching some fitness topics when I found the Grecian Ideal Body Measurement Calculator. This tool generates ideal body measurements if the ideal body is the one used in...
Read more →The Anabolic Quality of Food
Last year when I visited Brazil one thing had me puzzled: How could the people be so lean when a large amount of the food was either fried or loaded with sugar? The answer I came up with at the time...
Read more →Travel Weight
I always find it interesting to measure my weight and bodyfat percentage before and after a vacation. Stepping away from my standard diet and exercise routine can shock my system into either weight...
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