Part 2: Real Experiences in losing weight
In my last article, I shared how I learnt of the low carbohydrates high fats (LCHF) diet in Dec 2020 after seeing the weight loss that my friend James has achieved. I like to share an update of my progress in June 2021.
My starting weight in Dec 2020 was 81.9kg.
Since 2016, I was prescribed with Concor 2.5mg (an anti-hypertensive medicine) and Rosuvastatin 10mg (to lower my cholesterol level). In Dec 2020, my daily blood pressure measurement was about 140/90. For many months since 2016, I have been doing brisk walking and swimming as evening exercises. I have not been able to bring my weight down below 80kg.
So, as I started the LCHF diet, as advised by my friend James, I kept track of the KPIs: Weight, Blood Pressure, HCL, Triglycerides, and LDL.
The medical screening report in Aug 2020 showed:
- HDL : 1.29 mmol/l
- Triglycerides : 1.37 mmol/l
- LDL : 6.55 mmol/l
The doctor said that I need to reduce my consumption of “junk food” and to do more exercises together with taking the statin prescribed.
So, as I started my LCHF diet and daily brisk walking exercises (20–45mins, 2–4km brisk walk) in Dec 2020, I went for another blood test in Jan 2021 to do a benchmark measurement.
The 27 Jan 2021 blood tests report showed:
- HDL : 1.73 mmol/l
- Triglycerides : 0.96 mmol/l
- LDL : 5.80 mmol/l
I was amazed. My weight in late Jan 2021 was 77.4kg (21 Jan 2021). About 2 months of LCHF and brisk walking, there seem to be some improvements in the KPIs. I was elated and these KPIs gave me the confidence that I am doing something right.
At the same time, I was doing brisk walking to 3–5km daily. I wanted to try jogging, but my right knee hurts when I jog. In fact, when we went for our Japan skiing trip in 2019, I couldn’t continue on the second day as my right knee hurt. So, all along, I thought that the soft tissue in the knee has worn out due to aging. I had gone to physio-therapy at a nearby hospital, and also to acupuncture by TCM (traditional chinese medicine). These relieved the aching pain, but the hurting feeling was still there whenever I tried to jog.
In Feb 2021, I decided to really put in effort to try to jog as many literature on the internet said that jogging allows us to burn more calories. I started with 400m jog, and I stopped when I felt the hurting pain on the right knee. Then, I went online to search on jogging techniques, postures, and beginner’s running advices. I found a book “CHI Running” by Danny Dreyer.
I watched the videos on Youtube by Danny, and I was so impressed that I even bought the book from Amazon.
In essence, I learnt that my jogging stance was hurting my knee. I was landing on my heel, and the posture of my jogging was not aligned to my body structure that caused a lot of strain to the knees. I practised what the author wrote in the book. Starting from 400m, I would add 10% to the distance whenever I didn’t feel that pain in the knee. In about 3–4 weeks, I was able to complete 1km slow jog.
In Mar 2021, I was able to complete 3km slow jog with no pain in the right knee. Again, I was elated! Our body does give us great support when we are able to correct our posture and to know how not to hurt ourselves by our bad habits.
So, with LCHF diet, slow jogging on alternate days (another friend Yew gave an advice that we shouldn’t stress our body that much at our age :-) lol), I can see the weight going down weekly.
In Apr 2021, I went for another blood test:
- HDL : 2.09 mmol/l
- Triglycerides : 0.81 mmol/l
- LDL : 7.75 mmol/l
Wow! The HDL and Triglycerides improved a lot. In fact, the ratio of Triglycerides/HDL gave 0.39. Some online literature said that this ratio is good when it is <1.0. :-) . The doctor was “alarmed” (no, not at the Triglycerides and HDL improvements; but at the HIGH LDL …hahaha). She insisted for me to keep taking the statin prescribed and to watch my diet, and to do more exercises.
So now, in the beginning of June 2021, I will be focusing on reducing my body fats and LDL. In the previous body assessment, my body fats was 29%. I need to bring this down to <20%. So….to be continued in Part 3 ….:-)
