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Machine Learning and Ketosis

• philip1209 10y ago
  I've been doing ketosis for about 6 months, after having done twice in the past. From my heaviest to today over the last 2 years, I'm down 50 pounds. The data in this post was cool. I found Dr. Peter Addia's analysis to be one of my favorite resources. He's a medical doctor who was an overweight endurance athlete, then began doing ketosis. I appreciated an honest scientific analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of ketosis. His blog: http://eatingacademy.com/ http://eatingacademy.com/ As an aside, I think that our attitude toward insulin from a public health perspective is going to change a lot in the next few years.
  • mrfusion 10y ago
    What do you mean about insulin?
    • will_brown 10y ago
      I am very interested as well and hope there is a response. Since he was working with an MD, my guess is as follows: insulin is the devil. Whereas if you look at the old FDA food pyramid and the new food plate, carbs/sugars/fruits take up a significant percentage of the recommended daily diet. Take fruit for example, prevailing norm would be fruit is healthy (especially in its natural state where it is accompanied by fiber), fruit aside most people would believe carbs (especially in whole grain form) are perfectly fine in moderation. My big guess is that an M.D. recognizes any amount of carb (fruit or whole grain being no different that high fructose corn syrup) triggers the bodies production of insulin. More and more, I think M.D.'s will have negative perspective on any/all insulin production if it can be avoided. I have more thoughts on the impacts of insulin on the body, but I hope OP will chime in with a response to see if my instincts are on point.
      • mrfusion 10y ago
        Interesting. But I thought there's always some insulin after every meal so it's not something that can be avoided. Maybe you mean insulin spikes are the devil?
      • philip1209 10y ago
        Basically this. I think it's more about insulin spiking, though, because insulin stops healthy people on a nutritional ketogenic diet from going into diabetic ketoacidosis.
  • spearo77 10y ago
    s/Addia/Attia/
• tunnuz 10y ago
  This is all good if your goal is weight loss. However weight loss doesn't necessarily means higher fitness. Glycogen is fundamental if you do sports, and exercise is a major ingredient in getting fit. If I read correctly, exercise was not a big part of your experiment, how would you suggest modifying the experiment to accommodate one's exercising needs? On a side note, I reached a similar conclusion on the role of "carbs at night", sleeping, and fats, and I read this interesting article https://aeon.co/essays/hunger-is-psychological-and-dieting-only-makes-it-worse https://aeon.co/essays/hunger-is-psychological-and-dieting-o... on the importance, for effective weight loss, of feeling satisfied (I believe there is also a reference to the relationship between eating fats and feeling satisfied).
  • philip1209 10y ago
    I'm in ketosis. I can tell when the glycogen in my liver depletes. I hit a wall and can't keep going. I find that it has to do with intensity - for low intensity exercise, I can go forever. When I have to exert more (like running up an SF hill), it depletes me more. To fix this, you more or less have to keep intensity lower. I think that's why it works well for bicyclists who can change gears. Good news is that, after endurance exercise, you can replenish glycogen stores - meaning you can have more sugar than normal without leaving ketosis.
    • Axsuul 10y ago
      Have you keto-adapted?
    • MicroBerto 10y ago
      Look into BHB supplements. We're doing a lot of research on them and they may be just what you're looking for.
      • philip1209 10y ago
        Yes. I have MCT oil every day, but haven't experimented with exogenous ketones.
  • 10y ago
• zachrose 10y ago
  Among words correlated to weight-gain, the least correlated of these is cheeseburgers! Be still my heart (not literally)!
  • ariel-faigon 10y ago
    Good eye. May be random noise since most daily deltas in the data-set are so small. See comments about over-fitting and noise elsewhere in the thread. Also may be a veggie-style (without the bun) burger. It was over 2 years ago, so I don't remember. I plan to write a separate machine-learning focused doc on this exploratory experiment when I get more time.
• laretluval 10y ago
  Interestingly "gioza" and "gyoza" as factors come out with opposite signs. I guess that provides a heuristic confidence interval for the weights.
  • AgentME 10y ago
    Maybe there's a correlation between weight gain and spelling ability? /s
• mbrundle 10y ago
  Very interesting littlw study. The results seem to make sense, and I'm impressed that his model can learn what causes his weight swings given the low resolution delta-weight data he collects. The author uses vowpal-wabbit to train his regression model. Anybody know what learning algorithm it uses (eg random forest?) Here's the link: https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit/wiki https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit/wiki
  • Terribledactyl 10y ago
    Seems to be a slightly modified Stochastic Gradient Descent to handle the data typically seen with this sort of analysis. https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit/wiki/Learning-algorithm https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit/wiki/Learning-...
  • ariel-faigon 10y ago
    Thanks mbrundle. I'm the person behind that git repository and honestly am in a bit of a shock that this is making hacker-news. As I say in the README.md: please ignore the noise, the scales I used had 0.2 pound resolution, and my data-set was too small (and as one snarky commenter noticed, some words were misspelled). What is important is the big picture. There are actually numerous contradictions and irregularities in the data. In particular, any food item that appears only once or twice in the data-set, and is randomly coinciding with other features that make it biased the wrong way contributes to the error of the model. So as I say in the README, I would ignore anything that's not near the top or bottom, and even those should be taken with a healthy dose of (noise/modeling) skepticism. Anyway, the code is free for everyone to use so people are encouraged to run the experiment on themselves using more accurate methods and contributing more data. It only requires R+ggplot2 and vowpal wabbit. Cheers.
• sangd 10y ago
  I really like your reading because I went to a time period when everything I read was so misleading even words from doctors. That's the time when I tried very hard to improve my health (I gained about 30 lbs since the time I came to this country 15 years ago). To do that, I ate less fat, avoid carbs, getting a lot of exercises (1-3hrs a day, at least 5 days a week), eating oatmeal, even taking statins. And all one failed after another. I went through a lot of things mentioned here. And finally I decided to forget about everything doctors and researchers said. I look at my parents diet and how I was raised and started slowly from there. My health then got improved much better. I'm glad that you wrote something here for everybody to read. But there's one point I would like to add to the recipe: improve mental state by listening to the body (meditation, yoga, brisk walking are good methods), eat only when the body feels hungry and stop eating when it feels full, eat the food that it feels good after eating (you will develop your own list). I lost about 10lbs and I don't gain/lose any weight for the last 3 years.
• benkuhn 10y ago
  It's astonishing (and really awesome) that they were able to extract such a strong signal from daily weight swings! This makes me a lot more optimistic about the possibilities of quantified-self-type stuff. Three things I'm really curious about: - How significant are the estimates of lifestyle factors? Do you have p-values? If you bootstrap resample, how much do the rankings change at the extremes? - How much cognitive overhead did it impose to collect the data for this? Did you put a lot of effort into designing the tags beforehand or making sure you weighed yourself at a consistent time? - It looks like the predicted delta from going from a "nosleep" day to a "sleep" days is about 1.4 pounds (sleep coef minus nosleep coef). That seems fishy, or at least like it will stop working fairly soon because you can't actually lose 1.4 pounds/day sustainably. Is it possible there's something weird going on with the data or those variables don't have the obvious meanings?
  • aab0 10y ago
    > - How significant are the estimates of lifestyle factors? Do you have p-values? If you bootstrap resample, how much do the rankings change at the extremes? His VW script does do bootstrapping ('--bootstrap 16') but he doesn't report it anywhere I see. https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit/wiki/using-vw-varinfo https://github.com/JohnLangford/vowpal_wabbit/wiki/using-vw-... seems to not report any sort of p-value or confidence interval which might be derived from the bootstrapping. (The 'relevance' is 'the relative distance of each variable from the best constant prediction', not sure what that means.) So if you want to know, it looks like you'll have to run it yourself and visualize the output. I would guess that the uncertainties are huge and none of them reach even p<0.05 - it simply should not be possible to get mean loss of like 0.2 and reliable estimates of hundreds of variables like 'melon' out of less than 4 months of data when the random measurement error of the scale itself is on the order of half a pound (I have an Omron body fat scale, and even taking 2-3 measurements daily, there's a lot of error) unless his VW regression is grossly overfitting.
    • benkuhn 10y ago
      I mean, the uncertainties in the middle are less interesting than the uncertainties at the extremes. I'm sure you can't say anything useful about melon, but it would be interesting to know if (e.g.) "sleep" was consistently that big. He did regularize somewhat (`--l2 1.85201e-08`) but unclear whether that's enough regularization. Basically I'd love to see some actual diagnostics I guess :) PS I believe the "relevance" is just the coefficient divided by the biggest coefficient (the `RelScore` column in the printout in the README file).
• thisisananth 10y ago
  This matches my experience of weight loss using high fat diet. I started it after hearing Sarah Hallberg's Tedx talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1vvigy5tQ&feature=youtu.be For a vegetarian, starting and continuing the high fat low carb diet is difficult. Are there any resources for more vegetarian recipes for high fat low carb food? The article was very impressive. I liked the graphs and presentation.
  • philip1209 10y ago
    Many of these meals are vegetarian - it may be good inspiration: http://eatingacademy.com/personal/actually-eat-part-iii-circa-q1-2014 http://eatingacademy.com/personal/actually-eat-part-iii-circ... http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/what-i-actually-eat http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/what-i-actually-eat http://eatingacademy.com/personal/what-i-actually-eat-part-ii-ifik-2 http://eatingacademy.com/personal/what-i-actually-eat-part-i...
    • thisisananth 10y ago
      thanks for the pointers. will check them out.
  • PerfectElement 10y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/veganketo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/veganketo/
  • dualogy 10y ago
    > For a vegetarian, starting and continuing the high fat low carb diet is difficult Is it? As far as I know you could sustain yourself in perfect condition (and weight) on nothing but butter & eggs (to satiation) for decades --- which most vegetarian regimens seem to allow.
• vinnyp 10y ago
  The challenge for me is always knowing what to eat to help me accelerate my weight loss. I need structure. If I don't have structure, it's easy for me to eat things I shouldn't. I started a weight loss program 5 weeks ago called "Ideal Protein," which uses the Ketosis method. They supply breakfast, lunch, and a snack. I only need to make dinner (plus 2 cups of veggies for lunch). I love how easy it is. I'm wrapping up week 5 tomorrow and I'm down 25lbs (~14% of my body weight)! They promise 2-5lbs of fat loss a week. I generally drop around a pound a day, but I'll get stuck a few days here and there. This method really works for me. The best part is how fast you lose it. When I did South Beach years ago, it took me months to hit my goal. I have 14lbs left now and I should be able to hit my goal by Labor Day. Give it a try.
• bluetwo 10y ago
  The impact of sleep/no sleep. Wow.
• brandon 10y ago
  I appreciate that the author shared his data because it's interesting to compare notes. I embarked on a strict ketogenic diet in 2012 from a significantly higher initial weight and observed a very different pattern of weight loss: https://i.imgur.com/mOt6P.png https://i.imgur.com/mOt6P.png I hit a loss plateau around 180 lbs that I couldn't break through until I began eating on an 8-16 fasting schedule like Ariel mentions in his "Further progress" section. I gave up on the diet during 2015 and have since regained a significant amount of weight, but I suppose that's just an opportunity to apply some of the tracking techniques in this article to my next foray.
• raffy 10y ago
  I guess if we're sharing fitness plots, here's 1300 measurements and 7 DXA scans: http://i.imgur.com/J4Ls2bQ.png http://i.imgur.com/J4Ls2bQ.png
  • spearo77 10y ago
    Woah! I thought I might be over-doing it with 2 DXA scans :) I should dig mine up, I got down to 10% body fat a few weeks before completing my first Ironman. I'm normally around 17-19% from memory.
  • ariel-faigon 10y ago
    Wow. This is a beautiful and data-rich chart. Thanks for sharing. Would be great if you could put this on github as well, and add some explanations to all the details in README.md.
  • anjc 10y ago
    So in the maintenance phases were you lifting, and were you pushing lifts? That's pretty scary that you can lose weight so quickly during a slack fitness period.
• WhitneyLand 10y ago
  He advocates a book "The Truth About Statins". Is it helpful info on evidence based science or mostly zealotry and soapboxing?
  • arkades 10y ago
    I haven't read the book itself, but Roberts' has a reasonable publication history in the peer-reviewed lit and her letters there regarding reduced benefit of statins in women are sound and evidence-based. That said, it's been known for a while among critical docs that statins should really only be rolled out to high-risk patients. There's been some shady business in the big sponsored trials re. low-risk patient groups that suggests there's insufficient benefit there. As long as her book doesn't venture far past that territory, it's probably kosher.
  • ariel-faigon 10y ago
    "He" is me :) Sorry, I've never read that book so rest assured, I'm not promoting it. Please note that the link is not to the book, it is a just a google search for the term "the truth about statins". Perhaps some sponsored ad for the book was added by google? If so, my sincere apologies for the unintended consequences. Here's my personal experience with statins, I may be wrong here, but I'm following my compass and am open to be proven otherwise: Doctor: "Your 'bad cholesterol' is borderline, I want you to take these statins". Side observation: when the 'Lipitor' patent expired and it became a cheap generic drug, the suggestion turned into 'Crestor' which I learned has a bit longer effective half-life, and way higher price. Me, researching the subject while adopting a different diet: "Hmm statins would have taken me _maybe_ 3% lower and here I am 20% lower after a year of a simple, self-studied, diet change. Maybe there are better ways to lower the so called 'bad cholesterol'? Further study: there's always a new statin the moment patent expires: check out: Compactin -> Simvastatin -> Fluvastatin -> Cerivastatin -> Atorvastatin -> Rosuvastatin on wikipedia (these are chemical names, not brand names, the last two are the brands: "Lipitor" and "Crestor") So I don't know. I'm 100% sure all my doctors are well meaning and caring and I have nothing against them, but my confidence in these health suggestions, and in all the research that is funded by big-pharma, and in the new great statin of the era while america keeps getting obese and less healthy, is, how can I put it? a bit shaken. No zealotry at all. Just prove me wrong, and I'll change my view.
• escoz 10y ago
  If anybody is reading this and curious about Ketosis, I'd recommend Taubes book (https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259 https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259). It's a great review of scientific studies done over the years. I read that 4 years ago, spent another 4 months reading the listed studies, convinced myself it was a good plan, and lost 40 pounds with no exercises. I still do LCHF after all these years, and likely will never go back to a traditional diet, it feels great.
  • djsumdog 10y ago
    I was told about Keto diets about three years back by a friend of mine. There's a lot of misinformation about food and health in the US and elsewhere, and for the longest time I thought low-carb diets were stupid. But after trying it and reading a lot of the research, I was pretty amazing. I went from close to 70kg down to 58kg over the course of the next year (although I've come up to around 62 ~ 63kg stable). I like how this person mentions in the Github readme that it's not for everyone and "listen to your body." Some people have bodies that do well with high carb intakes. Every body type is different. With all that being said though, a huge issue with being overweight is education. The food industry wants you to buy fast food, pizzas and things that are cheap to create with easy base ingredients (sugar, starch, corn, wheat, etc.) Sadly, the only way for me to realize this was to experiment on myself, as did this person (although with totally insane amounts of metrics). Kudos!
    • spearo77 10y ago
      Whenever I relate my ketosis experience to people who ask, the biggest emphasis is on how "personal" diet is. You really can't just copy someone else's eating habits and expect the same result. Listening to your body is very underrated skill. You can learn it (helps to have been an athlete at some point in your life) but you also have to do something about it :)
• zzleeper 10y ago
  > The 'stayhome' lifestlye, which fell mostly on weekends, is a red-herring, I simply slept longer when I didn't have to commute to work. Is it? First, whatever method you use should already take into account that sleep happens together with stayathome. Even basic regressions take into account that. Second, staying at home means your eating binges are constrained by what's around you. If it is healthy stuff it might mean weight loss, if it is bread and chips the opposite
  • ariel-faigon 10y ago
    Thanks for the comment. You're absolutely right. I stand corrected and updated the README accordingly.
• frankus 10y ago
  Totally anecdotal, but I want to second the recommendation of a longer fasting period. I switched to a strict-but-not-religious "no food between 7 pm and 11 am" system (with exceptions for weekends and social occasions). Within a few months I was down 15 pounds (~182 to around ~167) and had shed 4 inches off my waist (~34 to ~30). I'm about 5'10" and 41 years old. It's definitely helped with physical activity (mostly parkour/free running) and I look better. It's also more convenient than what I was doing before, since I don't have to cook breakfast. The only negative side effect (possibly unrelated) has been that I need a much cooler sleeping environment to be comfortable. The only thing I would add is that I'm starting to (upside-down) plateau at around 165 and (what my scale says is) 20% body fat. I would love to lose another 5-10 pounds but it'll probably be a slow process.
  • bumbledraven 10y ago
    The only negative side effect (possibly unrelated) has been that I need a much cooler sleeping environment to be comfortable. Should that be warmer instead of cooler? I find that my body temperature goes down when I'm fasting, so I need the room to be warmer to compensate.
    • jaggederest 10y ago
      I can confirm the anecdote, I run significantly warmer when I am losing weight and colder when I am gaining. It's a very strange state of affairs.
    • frankus 10y ago
      You would think that less food would make me cold, but I've found the opposite. My hypothesis is that my metabolism switched from consuming carbs (with limited energy storage) to fat (with literally weeks worth of energy) and that that somehow ramps up my metabolic rate.
    • aangjie 10y ago
      That logic is fine normally, that's awake and working hours. But sleeping brings in melatonin hormonal effects and the sleep jerk mechanisms into play. So it might be true that his hypnic jerk mechanism triggers on body-env temperature differential and if he lives a warm/hot place.
• apineda 10y ago
  I just started my keto diet about 2 weeks ago and I feel great. Did have one rough night of "keto flu" but then I started supplementing with minerals and more water. I'm super low carb right now. Funny thing is to get (about 4 weeks ago) I would get a double big mac or a double quarter pounder but no drink and no fries and that was it till breakfast. That was fun.
  • MichaelGG 10y ago
    Do you supplement with sodium, potassium and magnesium? It might be placebo but I seem to do better when adding sodium (I drink a gram or two via a broth.) Potassium is easy to get from "lite" salt (hard to eat enough otherwise). The amounts required (several grams of sodium, several of K), according to random sites I've looked up, seem rather high for a non-keto dieter. Dunno if they are accurate.
    • apineda 10y ago
      I bought a magnesium supplement that includes potassium and sodium, albeit the sodium is the easiest to get anyway, just salt things. Apparently avocados are the potassium go to as well. I've looked at the recommended numbers, and quite frankly I'm not tracking enough to know if I'm hitting htem. The more I remind myself of the recommended and the easier it is for me to calculate on the fly, it's just a matter of looking at my bookmarked page, habit to build I guess until I memorize it. For now I just go by how I'm feeling. If I think I'm going to be frustrated I'll get a little more stringent and careful.
• hoodwink 10y ago
  As a long-term ketogenic eater (10 years), here are my top simple tips. Unfortunately they were not gleaned using machine learning. 1. Watch your protein. Most people when first going keto will eat too much protein and not enough fat. Protein has an insulinogenic effect when eaten in quantity. Keep protein below 8 oz per meal. Don't be afraid to eat more fat. 2. Avoid cheese. Yes, it's technically low carb, but it repeatedly throws me and my girlfriend off (also a low carber). 3. Avoid nuts. Yes, like cheese, nuts are delicious. But they're a slippery slope. Life will be easier if you avoid them.
  • ceocoder 10y ago
    Apoligies, what is LCer?
    • hoodwink 10y ago
      Low carber
    • praneshp 10y ago
      Low Carb-er?
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  • hrq 10y ago
    I've been trying to be low carb for the last couple years and I think it's overall gone well, but I really struggle with what to eat still. I hear your points about protein, cheese, and nuts, but then what do you eat? Can you list out a few complete days of your meals?
    • hoodwink 10y ago
      Breakfast: eggs + bacon or sausage or leftover steak Lunch: salad and leftover protein (with oil, vinegar, and mustard dressing) Dinner: meat, fish, or poultry (simply prepared) with roasted vegetables and salad Snacks: coffee with butter and coconut oil, raw veggies, leftover meat
• etangent 10y ago
  One should be careful extrapolating this type of data to other individuals. For example, sleep on its own may not actually be the primary factor in weight-loss --- the weight gain during periods of lack of sleep may occur simply because you have a habit of snacking while staying up late. That said, awesome work.
  • Waterluvian 10y ago
    Very true. The nice thing about some of this is that it's harmless if wrong. Extra sleep won't hurt me, but it'll make me feel better about sleeping rather than feeling that it's wasted time I could have been spending trying to get healthier or smarter.
• iopq 10y ago
  Of course you're going to gain weight when you eat carbs. Glycogen contains mostly water and carbs, so if you store glycogen you gain weight, up to 20 lbs from completely depleted. So let's say you eat low carb and train very hard for a week. Your muscles will be depleted, your liver will be depleted. You see that you lost 10 lbs! Great! But is it? Maybe you lost one pound of fat and 9 pounds of water. Then you eat NOTHING BUT carbs for three days and you gain 20 lbs. Oh no! But actually it's your muscles expanding their capacity to store glycogen (since you trained hard and depleted yourself they will regain even more glycogen than before). You may have not gained ANY FAT AT ALL! I have had great success dieting with medium fat medium carb diets. I try to keep between 180lbs and 220lbs (I'm 6'4"). I'm saying that this kind of tracking is oversimplifying the issue of fat loss - you need to see that you're losing fat tissue which involves at least caliper measurements.
  • ghshephard 10y ago
    I was wondering when someone was going to mention this. I can add about 11-12 pounds of body-weight by scale reading in a single day simply by eating food rich in carbs the day prior. Cutting the Carbs out of my diet see's that weight disappear (thought it takes 4-5 days). Adding Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium supplements to meals reduces the water loss somewhat. Agreed - that the real question isn't weight, per se, but Lean Body Mass. DexaScan is also a good approach to nailing down that number.
    • iopq 10y ago
      Yeah, I had a DEXA scan T 191lbs and I was 16% BF. It's not practical to do this every day, though. But what I've found is that calipers actually do a good job at showing body fat changes. They're horrible for absolute values (if they say 12%, they might be off by 4%), even at multiple measurement sites. But if calipers measure more or less, you can still be fairly sure that you have gained or lost fat mass. Measuring like that I found that nothing beats lots of caffeine and plain low calorie diet.
• gtrubetskoy 10y ago
  I don't have a weight problem, I learned about ketosis researching natural ways for improving focus and concentration, and somehow came across "bulletproof coffee". (I'm only using BP for lack of a better name and I don't endorse the stuff they sell online). To my utter surprise, something as stupidly simple as coffee blended with butter with coconut oil (or MCT) first thing in the morning did unbelievable things for mental productivity. After much googling I learned that this is not a fluke, and that there is real science behind it - beta-oxidation, etc, all that good stuff. What's most incredible to me is that (1) I didn't know about it, I always thought glucose is the only fuel (and I consider myself fairly knowledgeable as far as basic physiology is concerned) and (2) that sugar, especially the industrially produced kind, is about as close to being the root of all evil as it gets and there is nothing wrong with fat at all.
  • paulcole 10y ago
    > I consider myself fairly knowledgeable as far as basic physiology is concerned No offense, but after learning you were dead wrong about a pretty fundamental concept, have you reevaluated this belief?
    • will_brown 10y ago
      I would say he did...there is no substitute for personal experience but that doesn't mean turning you back on common knowledge (as evidenced by his continued research after making the changes).
    • spectrum1234 10y ago
      This is not necessarily needed. Because this is a rare case where not only is the mainstream media wrong but so are most other common viewpoints.
  • rotomatt 10y ago
    Bulletproof coffee is really the strangest of any strange fad beverage/weight loss ritual I've ever encountered. But even weirder is that it really doesn't taste bad, and it did didn't do terrible things to my innards. The sound of it is really counter-intuitive: oily coffee, black. But then you realize that these flavors have been mixed together for years, whenever you have buttered toast and coffee. (now, minus the toast)
• stickydink 10y ago
  Semi-related. For those who want to track their weight daily, efficiently, try Fitbit Aria (or one of the cheaper no-brand WiFi scales). Hook it up to Fitbit app, connect that to TrendWeight (https://trendweight.com/ https://trendweight.com/), then throw away the Fitbit app. Whatever your goals are, however serious you are, I find it a great way to keep track. I just stand on this thing once a morning, and forget about it. And now I have a near-daily record, smoothed out with a weekly moving average.
  • anamoulous 10y ago
    Cosign. I have one of the Withings scales and weigh in multiple times a day. I don't fret over fluctuations -- and I might fluctuate 5lbs in a day -- it's the long term trend line that matters and I can see it on the Withings site. Adding more data just helps.
    • spearo77 10y ago
      Have you considered tracking skinfold measurements too? I know my weight can fluctuate a lot just from inflammation response after a hard training run. Weight seems to have too many factors that vary at different rates for different reasons.
• clamprecht 10y ago
  This is awesome. I'd love to see something similar from someone who (intentionally) gained muscle mass. Is it really about high-protein + high-carbs + workout + sleep, or is there a more optimum diet for this.
• samuelbrin 10y ago
  I might have missed it, but doesn't look like ketone levels was one of the factors being measured. You can actually buy ketone pee strips at any drugstore for cheap. Would have been an interesting thing to track, since conventional wisdom says that ketosis is binary, you're in it or your not, and the actual ketone level doesn't affect the weight loss. I'm sure this has been put to the test in some experiments already, but maybe applying learning could teach us more and validate/invalidate this hypothesis
  • aantix 10y ago
    On a related note; NuSI (Gary Taubes's Nutrition Science Initiative for better nutritional testing) has not published their first results for the carbohydrate/insulin link to obesity, but Dr. Kevin Hall discusses the upcoming results in this video and some people may be surprised (including Gary). _No Metabolic Advantage for Ketosis Found_ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUyjMjuLl0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUyjMjuLl0
    • jtmarmon 10y ago
      This situation has been highly debated among the keto science community. I call it a situation and not a study because they're publishing preliminary results for a pilot study. Hardly conclusive. https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2016/05/06/contradictions-and-cognitive-dissonance-the-kevin-hall-effect/ https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2016/05/06/contradictions-an...
    • samuelbrin 10y ago
      I wish I had data to back this up, but there is no chance I was in caloric deficit on the keto diet. I lost lots of weight at the time. Not claiming my body violated energy conservation, but clearly this is more complex than "you don't get weight loss for free so you have to exercise more". So many folks doing the keto diet are sucking down ungodly amounts of bacon, heavy cream, etc and losing weight
      • ghshephard 10y ago
        They are replacing even more ungodly amounts of calories in the form of carbohydrates with that bacon/cream. Honestly, you can only eat so much bacon before you get sick of it, and your body just screams "Yuck. Stop eating. I'm full". That's not true of things like rice, noodles, bread, etc.. where for many people eat some, and your body is like, "Awesome. Bring it on" in a never ending cycle. Put another way - Satiation happens a lot faster, and lasts longer, when you are eating protein/fats, than it does when you are eating refined carbohydrates. I think that what made it clear to me, is that there are no metabolic chamber studies (where people's activity and diet are perfectly controlled) that have ever demonstrated significant variation from the calories in/calories out model. Carbs, Protein, Fats - doesn't seem to make a difference, your weight is simply a reflection of your metabolic output and caloric-intake. Stephan Guyenet also has an interesting perspective here: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.sg/2011/08/carbohydrate-hypothesis-of-obesity.html http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.sg/2011/08/carbohydrate-hy...
• fernly 10y ago
  Just for what it's worth, there are several Soylent-like meal replacement products that are explicitly formulated for ketogenesis. This could be an aid for a person who wants to try a keto diet without having to research a lot of new recipes. Biolent has a keto variant: http://biolent.ca/ http://biolent.ca/ Keto Chow: https://www.thebairs.net/product-category/ketochow/ https://www.thebairs.net/product-category/ketochow/ Keto Fuel: http://superbodyfuel.com/shop/keto-fuel/ http://superbodyfuel.com/shop/keto-fuel/ KetoSoy: https://www.ketosoy.com/ https://www.ketosoy.com/ PrimalKind is "paleo": http://primalkind.com/ http://primalkind.com/ Edit: added Keto Chow, which I forgot on first pass!
  • wishinghand 10y ago
    In my experience KetoSoy is incredibly bland and grainy and KetoChow is much better with varied tastes.
  • lqdc13 10y ago
    Also remember, his diet is a function of not taking carbs at all (or very little) for a short time. For someone who eats lots of carbs already, a plum/orange isn't going to cause an increase in weight. It is primarily just calories. It is of course easier to eat more calories in carbs than in protein, but overall, carbs aren't "bad". Moreover, such Atkins diets tend to work only temporarily, until atkins-diet homeostasis is achieved, unless calorie restriction is practiced as well [1,2]. [1] Many studies show that long-term weight rebounds if you forgo carbs and overall weight loss depends only on calories. One article: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/90/1/23.long http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/90/1/23.long [2] http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=200094 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=200094
    • bkanber 10y ago
      Atkins is not a keto diet. Atkins starts keto, then reintroduces carbs. Weight loss is simple: calorie deficit. However, switching from carbs to fats and taking advantage of some of the metabolic processes your body has to offer makes the process easier for many people. Calorie deficit with less hunger and decent energy. It helps a lot.
• onetwotree 10y ago
  I'd really like to see this kind of analysis applied to a larger sample. If someone were to put together a little app to make this sort of data collection trivial and upload it to a central (preferably cheap) repository, would people be interested in contributing their data in exchange for analysis? Also, since this is HN, is anyone interested in building something like this? I've got an hour or two a week of spare time to chip in. Unrelated question, mostly for OP: do you know of any publicly available databases of GI/GL info? It's really important for people with type 1 diabetes (a subject rather dear to my heart), and could also be useful for OpenAPS stuff (https://github.com/openaps https://github.com/openaps).
  • Kerrick 10y ago
    I'd be willing to contribute my data.
  • aangjie 10y ago
    I can also spare a couple of hours a week.
  • anaolykarpov 10y ago
    I'd like to also contribute with my data from fitbit: heart rate and resting hr evolution, sleep time, exercises, a few months of tracked food eaten and water drank, weight and body fat percentage, daily burned calories, etc. Where do I sign up?
  • lbhnact 10y ago
    We are working with a few groups to make this sort of this possible. Feel free to reach out if you are interested.
    • clockwerx 10y ago
      I'm interested!
  • lucb1e 10y ago
    > would people be interested in contributing their data in exchange for analysis? I am not overweight but I would certainly not mind doing this if it helps others.
• ghshephard 10y ago
  What's interesting about this post isn't the actual diet advice, but the guidance to track and see what works for you. Different people react to fasting differently - some continue to burn calories and drop weight, some just go into starvation mode, have their BMR crash through the floor, and end up exhausted all the time because their body is fighting like crazy to conserve energy. Likewise - some people, when they start to eat carbs, see their BMR ramp up, are full of energy, and end up running 5-10 miles a day to burn that energy off, and are pumped the rest of the day. Also, focussing on weight to the exclusion of everything else is really horrible. It's pretty easy to lose 40-50 pounds and end up being much less healthier than you were before if you aren't careful. Having some sense of your V02 max, your strength, endurance, flexibility, etc.. are sometimes as important, if not more important, than what your weight is to +/- 20 pounds. Everybody is somewhat different in how they'll react to various diet and exercise regimes. Understanding that, and taking a bit of time to watch how your body responds, is the important insight here.
  • zatkin 10y ago
    I do a lot of rock climbing, so most of my body is muscle. I'm currently floating at 170 lbs, but would love to lose 10 lbs so I can get up the wall faster. I think that fasting might be foolish because my body needs energy for climbing. In fact, if I wait too long after eating lunch, I tend to get really hungry during climbing and I start yawning a lot (not sure why).
    • personjerry 10y ago
      Might be lacking glucose; I believe that is why marathon runners eat glucose before they run.
      • zatkin 10y ago
        What do you mean by glucose exactly? What kind of foods should I be eating? I usually just get whatever for lunch at my company - tacos, Indian food, whatever is being served.
• quickpost 10y ago
  I've tried keto a couple times in the past, but struggled with serious acid reflux / heartburn from having to digest so much fat all the time. Any one else struggle with this and find a way to incorporate keto without negative digestive consequences?
  • b34r 10y ago
    Tums and hydration will get you 90% of the way there. 10 months on keto so far :)
• swang 10y ago
  so i cannot give up rice. how much can i consume of rice/carbs per day and not mess up this balance?
• emptyroads 10y ago
  I'm pretty sure this is just an example of a "placebo diet"[1] at work. [1] http://www.placebodiet.org/ http://www.placebodiet.org/
• d23 10y ago
  I don't get it, and I've really tried. I'm referring to the keto diet (though this person's approach is obviously extreme overkill). I absolutely love meat, but when I go that low on carbs, I feel like crap. And sure, some people say if I just wait 4 weeks to 6 months my body will adjust, but... why bother? Get a calorie tracker like my fitness pal, set a goal weight loss, stick to it, and 1 lb per week will be a breeze. You don't need a fad diet. For me, meticulously paying attention to what I was putting into my body and putting a number next to it made it a no brainer. It was almost gamified at that point.
  • disc 10y ago
    Congrats on finding on a solution that works for your body. For me, I find eating keto gives me more even energy, allows me to sleep better, keeps me from feeling hungry, and I also lose weight. Humans are pretty diverse; perhaps certain eating patterns work better for different body chemistries.
• cpplinuxdude 10y ago
  A word of advice to those attempting a Ketogenic diet: get your blood work done on a regular basis. If possible, get heart scans done once a year. It's easy to slip into a sloppy version of the Ketogenic diet, at which point you're consuming lots of unhealthy fats and carbs, you triglycerides and cholesterol could shoot up and put you in shit street. This is a strict diet.
  • ghshephard 10y ago
    What is an unhealthy fat? Also, by definition, if you are eating more than very minimal carbs, you aren't on a ketogenic diet. Honestly, and with no sarcasm intended, I think your advice would be similarly correct for anyone considering eating bread, or white noodles/rice - get your blood work done on a regular basis, and heart scans done once a year, your triglycerides and cholesterol could shoot up and put you in shit street. I'm willing to wager that significantly more people have cholesterol problems with rice/bread, than they do with eating meat and fat.
    • cpplinuxdude 10y ago
      > What is an unhealthy fat? Fat consumed with high levels of sugar. Not everyone has the capacity to be strict with their diet, habits, or health in general. These people might still attempt the Keto diet. The Ketogenic diet gets approached by lots of people with mental health issues (bipolar for one), and people who have issues being strict with their diet. Advising them to get their blood work done, and heart checked is normal, and sensible. Getting your blood and heart checked regularly is a healthy habit, and provides vital feedback to understand exactly how your diet is impacting your health.
• ermterm 10y ago
  I'd love to see something like this applied to the goal of gaining muscle. I've been a twig my whole life. In college, I gained 20 lbs of "noob gains" and then tapered off severely. I've maintained that weight, but can't gain more with any reasonable effort. Dear ddv, You've got a potential million+ dollar business in the works. In fact, I'd quit my job to be a programmer on your team.
  • ddv 10y ago
    I'm not the author of this work. I just found it earlier today and submitted it. I agree it is awesome.
  • peteretep 10y ago
    The conventional advice in this situation I believe is: unless you're eating enough that you're also putting on some fat, you're not eating enough... Also consider the Gallon Of Milk A Day method.
• ifemide06 10y ago
  If you're looking to extend this further, I'll be privileged to work on this with you. Another great opportunity to be part of something! yay!
• ryeguy 10y ago
  This is delightfully nerdy and overly analytical, but I can't believe someone would go to the extent of creating this yet never think to look for counterarguments against their dieting regimen. Doing this would have given him the answer much sooner. Trying to figure out how the consumption of certain foods correlates with weight gain/loss is a waste of time because it's simply the caloric content, not the macronutritional content (eg protein vs carbs vs fats). There are dozens of studies showing that only calories matter for weight loss, including vs low-carb, low-fat, and more[1]. The author is acting like each food has arbitrary properties that make them food or bad for weight loss. It's a good reason to play with ML, but it's easier to just count calories. I hate seeing people go down the "good food/bad food" path of thinking because they end up overanalyzing the shit out of everything they eat and for no good reason. The glycemic index doesn't realistically matter either for a ton of reasons. It hasn't been taken seriously as a useful marker when chosing foods for quite some time now. It's not a reliable indicator of anything. I posted a summary a few years back that debunks all the insulin/GI spike voodoo[2]. Low carb diets work, but they only work because they're a trick to get you to reduce calories. Look at what you're eating and remove all the carb foods. Notice how much your calorie intake dropped. It's a simple way of losing weight without counting calories, but that's it. The weight loss on keto, atkins, etc have nothing to do with carbs, and everything to do with calorie restriction. It's worth noting that low carb diets have great health benefits, however [3]. [1]: http://examine.com/nutrition/what-should-i-eat-for-weight-loss/ http://examine.com/nutrition/what-should-i-eat-for-weight-lo... [2]: https://reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/j853z/insulin_an_undeserved_bad_reputation_plus_notes/ https://reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/j853z/insulin_an_undes... [3]: http://examine.com/nutrition/are-there-health-benefits-of-a-low-carb-diet/ http://examine.com/nutrition/are-there-health-benefits-of-a-...
  • WillPostForFood 10y ago
    Food does have properties (not arbitrary) that make them good or bad for weight loss. I agree, calories count. But if you eat food that makes you hungry, it is harder to cut calories. The reason low-carb high fat diets work is that you feel full on fewer calories.
    • 10y ago
• cel1ne 10y ago
  I lost 15 kg (33 lb) over a period of 7 months. * Stopped drinking juice, coke etc. completely * Ate sweets strictly only once a week (like one cake every sunday) * Ate carbs mainly at lunch when doing sport afterwards. In the evening I ate carbs too, but much less. There's one thing that all these fasting-guides and tips fail to mention: The fastest way to loose weight is to heighten your resting-energy-consumption, and the fastest way to do this is to gain muscle mass by training.
  • ihsw 10y ago
    Indeed. A muscular person at 185lb will burn more energy sitting still than their more rotund counterparts. Another thing to keep in mind -- muscle weighs more than fat. When participating in a workout regimen, some may be discouraged by their lack of weight loss and mistake it for stalling. This should be overcome. Frankly I think the greatest innovation in this would be a bathroom scale that shows both body-fat percentage and weight.
    • dmourati 10y ago
      http://www.tanita.com/en/ http://www.tanita.com/en/
    • maaaats 10y ago
      Such scales exists, but they do it by measuring electric resistance between your feet. So not very accurate. However, if you do it under the same conditions every day (same amount of water in your body etc) you can at least show the trend.
    • dantheman 10y ago
      Here's a good scale that does that: https://www.fitbit.com/aria https://www.fitbit.com/aria
  • derefr 10y ago
    Your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) apparently determines a lot more of your daily calorie expenditure than your resting-energy consumption does. As in, how much you fidget, pace, shiver, etc. New stupid weight-loss product: antipsychotics, to induce muscle dystonia! (Which, sadly, wouldn't even work; antipsychotics, despite causing massive amounts of NEAT, cause weight gain—by the opposite mechanism by which stimulants make you not hungry, antipsychotics make you very hungry.)
• bmarkovic 10y ago
  The author is wrong that sleeping more just gives less time for eating. Truth is that sleeping more reduces insulin resistance, increases testosterone production in males and puts leptin under control. All three reduce carb craving, push us towards meat and fat and increase natural fat burning.
  • rdiddly 10y ago
    Thank you. Getting plenty of sleep also lowers levels of "stress hormones" like cortisol, which tend to promote fat storage. Which is sort of what those hormones are for. It's easy to see how ancient humans or proto-humans who had this tendency to store extra calories during times of stress, would've had survival/evolutionary advantages. Therefore don't mimic times of high stress by shorting yourself on sleep!
• zelcon 10y ago
  Maybe your weight loss rate accelerated because you started watching what you eat more carefully, knowing that you want to provide the most sanitary input to your program. Anyway this is impressive for a n=1 study. Glad it worked for you. Also, OP, what materials would you recommend for a machine learning newbie?
• deleted 10y ago
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• tim333 10y ago
  I've had weight graphs like that and the trouble always is that if you plot further instead of it being a flat line at a constant weight it bounces back up again. It's maintaining that's the hard part.
• valde 10y ago
  What about sex?
  • erikbye 10y ago
    Well, you do burn a few calories, say, anywhere from 100 - 200 calories an hour depending on how active you are during the session, and like all exercise that gets your heart pumping there is some health benefit. More interesting is what sex and orgasms do for your emotional well-being which is dependant upon your brain chemistry, if the sex is a positive experience (e.g. not forced) there is release of endorphins which affects cortisol levels. Simplified I believe this is how all exercise reduce stress. Cortisol levels will fluctuate throughout the day but chronically high levels are common for individuals too stressed out, that would be a real "starvation mode". The ways in which cortisol affects metabolic, but not limited to, processes in our bodies are intricate and many, it is very important to understand cortisol in regards to weight loss, overall health and emotional well-being.
• raverbashing 10y ago
  It's a great experiment However I think the biggest issue with this is that it's considering only a 1 day window. Weight can vary a lot between every day (bladder and bowel contents, muscular glycogen, etc)
  • ekidd 10y ago
    Yup. Current weight is a sum of several variables: body fat, muscle, water, and digestive track contents. Nearly all day to day variation (up to three pounds in my case) is water. The long term trend is mostly body fat, but I need at least a week and sometimes up to three to see the underlying fat changes. Sometimes my weight will remain almost level for two weeks, and I'll then I'll drop 5 pounds in a few days, and wind up right back where the underlying calorie consumption said I would. By using a one day window, the author has mostly detected things that affect water weight. Carb intake is a huge driver of water weight because of muscle glycogen replacement, which includes a huge amount of water. This isn't to knock ketosis: If you enjoy eating that way and it encourages you not to overeat, then it's probably a great strategy for you. Might be worth checking your lipids after a few months though: I've heard of the rare person who tries the Atkins diet and shoots up to 400+ cholesterol.
  • derefr 10y ago
    Indeed. I was pondering the fact that a lot of things in the experiment that are composed of mostly insoluble fiber, consistently landed on the weight gain side of the spectrum. I assume this was a windowing flaw, in that the fiber mass was still in the digestive tract a day later, though not-at-all contributing to weight gain after later elimination. This would also throw off all the data about oils and fats: anything that lubricates your digestive tract will make it seem like you're losing weight that day even if you're not, because other foods eaten at the same time will now get eliminated faster. (Though that really can be of help; food that spends less time in your digestive tract gets less of its nutrients absorbed.)
• deleted 10y ago
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• lucidguppy 10y ago
  Carbohydrates do not make you fat. I am eating a high carb vegan diet and have lost 63 pounds since last October. My weight loss: http://imgur.com/a/cGb4X http://imgur.com/a/cGb4X I do not restrict the amount of food I eat. I snack and have big meals. Carbs do not make you fat. Eating high caloric density foods makes you fat. More resources: http://nutritionfacts.org/ http://nutritionfacts.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wfMNNr3ak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wfMNNr3ak http://www.forksoverknives.com/category/success-stories/ http://www.forksoverknives.com/category/success-stories/
  • ricardobeat 10y ago
    Can you describe your diet and the amount of carbs in it?
    • lucidguppy 10y ago
      I eat most of my calories from rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and other starches. I round out the diet with green and orange vegetables. Fruits are snacks. For breakfast I have oatmeal with a banana and raisins with cinnamon. For lunch I'll have brown rice with vegetable stew on top. Dinner can be vegan whole wheat pizza, bean burritos, spaghetti with marinara sauce, moo shoo vegetable wraps, rice and vegetables. https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/free-mcdougall-program/ https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/free-mcdougall-...
      • ricardobeat 10y ago
        That doesn't really warrant saying "carbs don't make you fat". Eating white bread, sugary drinks, baked goods and pasta is a big step away from that.
  • bresc 10y ago
    I kinda have to agree. But I also have to add, that it's actually the combination of fat and carbs. As a vegan you are probably eating almost no fat and this is most likely the reason you lost weight. If you would start eating higher amounts of vegetable fats... maybe even some sugar (pure carbs) you will gain weight.
• dschiptsov 10y ago
  Yeah. I has been downvoted into oblivion by saying almost the same things without any machine learning, just by observing eating habits and traditions of "village folks" in Nepal, India, Tibet and Sri Lanka where I have spent last few years. The message was that traditional (evolved according to local food sources and seasons) unprocessed foods of Asian tribes is the most natural and healthy. Economic and habitat selection pressures implicitly works the same way as machine learning, for hundreds of years. Visit any rural area and try simple folk's foods. They will be way healthier that any processed crap. The similar patterns could be notices really quickly.
• kensai 10y ago
  Remarkable work. I am really pleased about the contribution of "sleep" in the whole weight loss experience. I have reached some similar anecdotal conclusions; I bet this is similarly not surprising for many persons. I am not entirely sure sleep contributes only as "a fasting period". Sleep also means we are relaxed. All the other times of the day (when we are awake) we are relatively stressed, meaning more stress hormones (ie cortisol) which are known to be contributing to weight gain.
• elo_ 10y ago
  I collect some of my own data in 1/0 form in regard to whether I was productive the day before as well as a few other things (I have a google form for myself that I fill out each morning). I only have a month of data but here is what it spat out: FeatureName HashVal MinVal MaxVal Weight RelScore ^dreams 24546 0.00 1.00 +0.0705 47.11% ^shower 215555 0.00 1.00 -0.0239 -15.96% ^exercise 190069 0.00 1.00 -0.0350 -23.41% ^vitamins 252959 0.00 1.00 -0.0442 -29.56% ^write 129676 0.00 1.00 -0.0687 -45.90% ^publish 12600 0.00 1.00 -0.1496 -100.00% Which is to say that when I write and publish I also have the willpower and combined other factors to lose weight. Interestingly I was tracking dreams because I made various changes all at once: -phillips hue bulbs -new mattress -new exercise routine (up from nothing) -started taking vitamins -stricter on my diet And was wondering what the cause might be. When I say "dreams" I mean - "did I wake up remembering vivid dreams?". I wonder now if it's related to caloric surplus. I also have minutised step data, nightly minutised sleep data and hourly mood self-reported data that I might try to throw in to the system and see what it says.
  • ariel-faigon 10y ago
    This is pretty hilarious. Thanks for sharing. It may be showing how much noise there is in a random data-set with too few data-points to draw statistically significant conclusions. It might also mean that you're on the right track and now that you have the tool, you can keep going until you find real enlightenment. I really like your comment because you're one of the very few that actually tried the idea. Thats the #1 reason I put this on github, to help others conduct their own experiments on whatever they care about. If you ignore all my weight-loss journey story and data and just use some of these ideas to improve your own life, it was all worth it for me.
• bresc 10y ago
  I don't understand what exactly he did with the data and how the calculations indicate weight loss/gain. Can someone explain, please?
• jalopy 10y ago
  This is freaking genius. Kudos. I wish I could upvote this 1000x.
• timeu 10y ago
  Sorry for the crosspost/copy-and-paste: For me personally this worked quite well for reducing bodyfat: Intermitted fasting[1] and lifting weights 3 times a week[2] and being on a cutting regime[3] (cutting on the rest days with low carb and loading on the workout days wiht more carbs). In the beginning IF was quite difficult but after a while the body get used to it and also I tend to have less cravings during the day. On the loading days/workout days I often have a hard time to get enoug calories because I feel full. I am using MyFitnessPal to track what I eat but it's more about the macros and not so much about the exact calories (but it's also good to get a feeling how much calories different kinds of food has) [1] http://www.leangains.com/2011/03/intermittent-fasting-for-weight-loss.html http://www.leangains.com/2011/03/intermittent-fasting-for-we... [2] http://stronglifts.com/ http://stronglifts.com/ [3] http://www.lgmacros.com/standard-leangains-macro-calculator/ http://www.lgmacros.com/standard-leangains-macro-calculator/ reply
• criddell 10y ago
  One thing I've never been able to get a clear answer on, is when you "lose" fat, how long does it take for the number of fat cells to go down? As I understand it, at first fat cells just deflate (not the right word) are will easily plump up again and that's one reason why it's hard to keep weight off. What's involved in actually ridding the body of the extra cells (outside of mechanical means)?
  • dotandimet 10y ago
    Any dietician will tell you that fat cells never go away.
• Borkdude 10y ago
  Warning: unpopular opinion here. Long term low carb dieting and ketosis is not without risk. Yes, you will see weight loss, but what about other health markers? Check out some of the information here: http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/low-carb-diets/ http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/low-carb-diets/ What has worked for me was a plant based diet without added oil and processed foods: https://medium.com/@borkdude/tl-dr-of-my-long-term-weight-loss-and-maintenance-success-49cb43f62a1a https://medium.com/@borkdude/tl-dr-of-my-long-term-weight-lo... Been doing that for five years now. Never hungry, still happy with it.
  • erikb 10y ago
    Can you give a short overview of what you are eating and why? Just plants? Also including nuts? What about eggs? If you go full vegan it's not without risk either, you know.
    • Borkdude 10y ago
      Sure. My diet looks like this for example: - Breakfast: oatmeal with fruit - Lunch: rice and beans with vegetables (cooked or raw) - Dinner: mashed potatoes with carrots and onions or whole wheat pasta with tomatoes and spinach, etc. Snacks: fruits (usually bananas and tangerines because they are so portable), dried fruits, unsalted/unroasted nuts Condiments: all herbs, spices, salt (limited), nuts, seeds. No oil. I'm aware of the risk of an all plant based diet. The main risks is B12 deficiency which is easily solved by taking a little pill one or few times a week. Excellent explanation of why both approaches (high fat or high carb) may work: https://www.facebook.com/drgarth/posts/1213478802006359 https://www.facebook.com/drgarth/posts/1213478802006359 Lecture about high carb vs high fat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFfK27B_qZY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFfK27B_qZY http://www.forksoverknives.com http://www.forksoverknives.com is an excellent resource to get started on this plan, including a documentary and recipes.
  • khattam 10y ago
    If you malnourish your body so much so that it loses the ability to store any fat, it is possible to lose weight. However, it is the unhealthiest option there is.
• agentgt 10y ago
  It is funny but I had pretty much the exact weight loss as the OP had doing intermittent fasting. Sadly I wasn't as rigorous on the recording of weight loss but I went from 195 to 175 over roughly the same time period as the OP. One thing I found is writing down a plan seems to really help you stick with it. I finally wrote down my workout routine after decade of on and off training. I always logged my workouts but I never wrote the overall plan down. If you are interested in my routine it is here (it has very little to do with diet as I was going to write a follow up some day): https://gist.github.com/agentgt/f93b78dbe13870a6d0a1 https://gist.github.com/agentgt/f93b78dbe13870a6d0a1 I have never publicly posted the routine so if you feel the need to trash it I suppose you can do so in the comment area of the gist but routines are pretty personal anyway (to the OPs point).
• davidf18 10y ago
  In males, over time testosterone decreases which causes muscle mass to decrease. Building up the large muscles through resistant exercise or any exercise (eg, gluteus maximus -- thigh) increases the muscle mass. Increased muscle mass increases the basic metabolic rate (BMR) which is the number of calories consumed even while at rest, even while sleeping.
• arisAlexis 10y ago
  I understand the principles and found the low-carb diets sound scientifically but I can't understand how eating a lot of fruits and potatoes would be bad for you from an evolutionary perspective.
• smokedoutraider 10y ago
  A couple a years ago I did keto for 8 months. During that time I lost 31 kg. While this diet was amazing for losing weight it really affected my concentration negatively, to the point where I was forced to drop the diet because it was simply interfering with my performance at work. It's a real shame though, as I've never been able to find a diet as easy and effective since.
• catalystframe 10y ago
  Lol bacon is associated with weight loss by 32%
• notyourloops 10y ago
  When I ditch the carbs and eliminate grain from my diet, there's no denying that I look better and feel better. I've cycled on and off several times now and there's no way to get around it: The carbs and grain have to go and they have to go forever. If you can eat them, no problem. However, there's many of us that can't and we're going to talk about how to operate with that as baseline.
• deleted 10y ago
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• sytelus 10y ago
  The observation that "no breakfast" is #1 way to lose weight by extending fasting period that includes sleep is pretty astonishing. Everything I have read says no breakfast is one of the contributors to weight gain.
  • kensai 10y ago
    Maybe I missed it, did he say what time of the day he does the weight measurements? Unless you do multiple measurements per day and take the average (as my fancy device does automatically), a single weight measurement should be done in the afteroon, ie after rehydrating and stopped the fasting of the night and early morning.
• fb42 10y ago
  I think this shows how various factors correlates with the amount of water/food still in the digestive system. I'm not surprised that for example sleeping longer would make you having less water in your body. Most foods that gave "weight loss" were high energy foods that have lower mass per calorie.
• stevenwiles 10y ago
  Ketosis is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It has been life-changing for myself and many of my closest friends. I lost over 200lbs doing keto and it was one of the easiest, most ennjoyable things I have ever done in my life. Keto is absolutely amazing and life-changing. I encourage everyone to try it.