Biohacking Lite
All through my life I by no means paid an excessive amount of consideration to well being, train, weight loss program or diet. I knew that you simply’re presupposed to get some train and eat greens or one thing, but it surely stopped at that (“mother stated”-) degree of abstraction. I additionally knew that I can in all probability get away with some ignorance whereas I’m younger, however in some unspecified time in the future I used to be messing with my health-adjusted life expectancy. So about midway by means of 2019 I resolved to spend a while learning these matters in higher element and dip my toes into some biohacking. And now… it’s been a yr!
Now, I received’t lie, issues acquired a bit out of hand during the last yr with ketogenic diets, (steady) blood glucose / beta-hydroxybutyrate checks, intermittent fasting, prolonged water fasting, varied dietary supplements, blood checks, coronary heart charge displays, dexa scans, sleep trackers, sleep research, cardio equipments, resistance coaching routines and so forth., all of which I received’t go into full particulars of as a result of it lets a bit an excessive amount of of the mad scientist loopy out. However as somebody who has taken loads of physics, some chemistry however principally zero biology throughout my highschool / undergrad years, present process a few of these experiments was extremely enjoyable and an awesome excuse to check plenty of textbooks on biochemistry (I preferred “Molecular Biology of the Cell”), biology (I preferred Campbell’s Biology), human diet (I preferred “Superior Diet and Human Metabolism”), and so forth.
For this publish I wished to concentrate on a few of my experiments round weight reduction as a result of 1) weight could be very straightforward to measure and a pair of) the biochemistry of it’s fascinating. Particularly, in June 2019 I used to be round 200lb and I made a decision I used to be going to lose not less than 25lb to convey myself to ~175lb, which in accordance to a couple publications is the load related to the bottom all trigger mortality for my gender, age, and peak. Clearly, a goal weight is an exceedingly blunt instrument and is by itself simply barely related to well being and normal well-being. I additionally perceive that weight reduction is a delicate, difficult subject and far has been mentioned on the topic from a lot of views. The purpose of this publish is to nerd out over biochemistry and power metabolism within the animal kingdom, and doubtlessly encourage others on their very own biohacking lite journey.
What weight is misplaced anyway? So it seems that, roughly talking, we weigh extra as a result of our batteries are very full. A human physique is like an iPhone with a battery pack that may develop almost indefinitely, and with the abundance of meals round us we scarcely unplug from the charging outlet. On this case, the batteries are primarily the adipose tissue and triglycerides (fats) saved inside, that are eagerly stockpiled (or generally additionally synthesized!) by your physique to be burned for power in case meals turns into scarce. This was all very intelligent and dandy when our hunter gatherer ancestors downed a mammoth occasionally throughout an ice age, however not a lot right this moment with weaponized truffle double chocolate fudge cheesecakes masquerading on dessert menus.
Physique’s batteries. To be exact, the physique has roughly 4 batteries out there to it, every various in its complete capability and the latency/throughput with which it may be mobilized. The biochemical implementation particulars of every storage medium range however, remarkably, in each case your physique discharges the batteries for a single, distinctive objective: to synthesize adenosine triphosphate, or ATP from ADP (alright technically/apart some additionally goes to the “redox energy” of NADH/NADPH). The synthesis itself is comparatively easy, taking one molecule of adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and actually snapping on a third phosphate group to its finish. Doing that is form of like a molecular equal of compacting and loading a spring:
That is utterly not apparent and memorable – a single molecule (ATP) capabilities as a common $1 invoice that energetically “pays for” a lot of the work executed by your protein equipment. Even higher, this technique seems to have an historic origin and is widespread to all life on Earth. Must (lively) transport some molecule throughout the cell membrane? ATP binding to the transmembrane protein supplies the wanted “umph”. Must briefly untie the DNA in opposition to its hydrogen bonds? ATP binds to the protein advanced to energy the unzipping. Want to maneuver myosin down an actin filament to contract a muscle? ATP to the rescue! Must shuttle proteins across the cell’s cytoskeleton? ATP powers the tiny molecular motor (kinesin). Want to connect an amino acid to tRNA to arrange it for protein synthesis within the ribosome? ATP required. You get the thought.
Now, the physique solely maintains a really small quantity ATP molecules “in provide” at any time. The ATP is rapidly hydrolyzed, chopping off the third phosphate group, releasing power for work, and abandoning ADP. As talked about, we have now roughly 4 batteries that may all be “discharged” into re-generating ATP from ADP:
- tremendous quick time period battery. This could be the Phosphocreatine system that buffers phosphate teams connected to creatine so ADP will be in a short time and domestically recycled to ATP, barely price mentioning for our functions since its capability is so minute. Numerous athletes take Creatine dietary supplements to extend this buffer.
- quick time period battery. Glycogen, a branching polysaccharide of glucose present in your liver and skeletal muscle. The liver can retailer about 120 grams and the skeletal muscle about 400 grams. About 4 grams of glucose additionally circulates in your blood. Your physique derives roughly ~4 kcal/g from full oxidation of glucose (including up glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation), so if you happen to do the mathematics your glycogen battery shops about 2,000 kcal. This additionally occurs to be roughly the bottom metabolic charge of a median grownup, i.e. the power simply to “preserve the lights on” for twenty-four hours. Now, glycogen is just not an incredible power storage medium – not solely is it not very power dense in grams/kcal, however it is usually a sponge that binds an excessive amount of water with it (~3g of water per 1g of glycogen), which lastly brings us to:
- long run battery. Adipose tissue (fats) is by far your major tremendous excessive density tremendous excessive capability battery pack. For instance, as of June 2019, ~40lb of my 200lb weight was fats. Since fats is considerably extra power dense than carbohydrates (9 kcal/g as a substitute of simply 4 kcal/g), my fats was storing 40lb = 18kg = 18,000g x 9kcal/g = 162,000 kcal. It is a staggering quantity of power. If power was the only constraint, my physique may run on this alone for 162,000/2,000 = 81 days. Since 1 stick of dynamite is about 1MJ of power (239 kcal), we’re speaking 678 sticks of dynamite. Or since a 100KWh Tesla battery pack shops 360MJ, if it got here with a hand-crank I may in precept cost it virtually twice! Hah.
- lean physique mass 🙁. When sufficiently fasted and compelled to, your physique’s biochemistry will resort to burning lean physique mass (primarily muscle) for gasoline to energy your physique. That is your physique’s “final resort” battery.
All 4 of those batteries are charged/discharged always to completely different quantities. If you happen to simply ate a cookie, your cookie will promptly be chopped all the way down to glucose, which is able to flow into in your bloodstream. If there may be an excessive amount of glucose round (within the case of cookies there could be), your anabolic pathways will promptly retailer it as glycogen within the liver and skeletal muscle, or (extra hardly ever, if in huge abundance) convert it to fats. On the catabolic facet, if you happen to begin jogging you’ll primarily use (1) for the primary ~3 seconds, (2) for the subsequent 8-10 seconds anaerobically, after which (2, 3) will ramp up aerobically (the next latency, larger throughput pathway) as soon as your physique kicks into the next gear by rising the guts charge, respiration charge, and oxygen transport. (4) comes into play largely if you happen to starve your self or deprive your physique of carbohydrates in your weight loss program.
Since I’m a pc scientist it’s exhausting to keep away from a comparability of this “power hierarchy” to the reminiscence hierarchy of a typical laptop system. Shifting power round (saved chemically in excessive power C-H / C-C bonds of molecules) is dear identical to shifting bits round a chip. (1) is your L1/L2 cache – it’s native, rapid, however tiny. Anaerobic (2) by way of glycolysis within the cytosol is your RAM, and cardio respiration (3) is your disk: excessive latency (the fatty acids are shuttled over all the way in which from adipose tissue by means of the bloodstream!) however excessive throughput and big storage.
The supply of weight reduction. So the place does your physique weight go precisely if you “lose it”? It’s a easy query but it surely stumps most individuals, together with my youthful self. Your physique weight is in the end simply the sum of the person weights of the atoms that make you up – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and so forth. organized right into a zoo of advanced, natural molecules. At some point you would weigh 180lb and the subsequent 178lb. The place did the 2lb of atoms go? It seems that almost all of your day-to-day fluctuations are attributable to water retention, which may range loads along with your ranges of sodium, your present glycogen ranges, varied hormone/vitamin/mineral ranges, and so forth. The contents of your abdomen/gut and stool/urine additionally add to this. However the place does the fats, particularly, go if you “lose” it, or “burn” it? These carbon/hydrogen atoms that make it up don’t simply evaporate out of existence. (If our physique may evaporate them we’d anticipate E=mc^2 of power, which might be cool). Anyway, it seems that you simply breathe out most of your weight. Your breath seems to be clear however you inhale a bunch of oxygen and also you exhale a bunch of carbon dioxide. The carbon in that carbon dioxide you simply breathed out might have simply seconds in the past been a part of a triglyceride molecule in your fats. It’s extremely amusing to suppose that each single time you breathe out (in a fasted state) you might be actually respiration out your fats carbon by carbon. There’s a good TED talk and even an entire paper with the total biochemistry/stoichiometry concerned.
Taken from the above paper. You breathe out 84% of your fats loss.
Combustion. Let’s now flip to the chemical course of underlying weight reduction. how one can take wooden and light-weight it on hearth to “burn” it? This chemical response is combustion; You’re taking a bunch of natural matter with plenty of C-C and C-H bonds and, with a spark, offering the activation power essential for the encompassing voraciously electronegative oxygen to react with it, stripping away the entire carbons into carbon dioxide (CO2) and the entire hydrogens into water (H2O). This response releases plenty of warmth within the course of, thus sustaining the response till all energy-rich C-C and C-H bonds are depleted. These bonds are known as “energy-rich” as a result of energetically carbon reeeallly desires to be carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen reeeeally desires to be water (H2O), however this response is gated by an activation power barrier, permitting giant quantities of C-C/C-H wealthy macromolecules to exist in steady types, in ambient situations, and within the presence of oxygen.
Mobile respiration: “gradual movement” combustion. Remarkably, your physique does the very same factor so far as inputs (natural compounds), outputs (CO2 and H2O) and stoichiometry are involved, however the burning is just not explosive however gradual and managed, with loads of molecular intermediates that torture biology college students. This biochemical miracle begins with fat/carbohydrates/proteins (molecules wealthy in C-C and C-H bonds) and goes by means of stepwise, full, slow-motion combustion by way of glycolysis / beta oxidation, citric acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and at last the electron transport chain and the whoa-are-you-serious molecular motor – the ATP synthase, imo essentially the most unimaginable macromolecule not DNA. Okay doubtlessly a tie with the Ribosome. Even higher, that is an exceedingly environment friendly course of that traps virtually 40% of the power within the type of ATP (the remaining is misplaced as warmth). That is way more environment friendly than your typical inner combustion motor at round 25%. I’m additionally skipping plenty of unimaginable element that doesn’t match right into a paragraph, together with how meals is chopped up piece by piece all the way in which to tiny acetate molecules, how their electrons are stripped and loaded up on molecular shuttles (NAD+ -> NADH), how they then quantum tunnel their method down the electron transport chain (actually a circulation of electrical energy down a protein advanced “wire”, from meals to oxygen), how this pumps protons throughout the internal mitochondrial membrane (an electrochemical equaivalent of pumping water uphill in a hydro plant), how this course of is good, versatile, historic, extremely conserved in all of life and really carefully associated to photosynthesis, and at last how the protons are allowed to circulation again by means of little holes within the ATP synthase, spinning it like a water wheel on a river, and powering its head to take an ADP and a phosphate and snap them collectively to ATP.
Photosynthesis: “inverse combustion”. If H2O and CO2 are oh so energetically favored, it’s price maintaining in thoughts the place all of this C-C, C-H wealthy gasoline got here from within the first place. After all, it comes from crops – the OG nanomolecular factories. Within the strategy of photosynthesis, crops strip hydrogen atoms away from oxygen in molecules of water with mild, and by way of additional processing snatch carbon dioxide (CO2) lego blocks from the environment to construct all types of organics. Amusingly, not like fixing hydrogen from H2O and carbon from CO2, crops are unable to repair the plethora of nitrogen from the environment (the triple bond in N2 could be very sturdy) and depend on micro organism to synthesize extra chemically lively types (Ammonia, NH3), which is why chemical fertilizers are so vital for plant development and why the Haber-Bosch course of principally averted the Malthusian disaster. Anyway, the purpose is that crops construct all types of insanely advanced natural molecules from these fundamental lego blocks (carbon dioxide, water) and all of it’s essentially powered by mild by way of the miracle of photosynthesis. The daylight’s power is trapped within the C-C / C-H bonds of the manufactured organics, which we eat and oxidize again to CO2 / H2O (capturing ~40% of within the type of a third phosphate group on ATP), and at last convert to weblog posts like this one, and a bunch of warmth. Additionally, getting into I didn’t fairly respect simply how a lot we learn about the entire reactions concerned, that we we are able to monitor particular person atoms round all of them, and that any scholar can simply calculate solutions to questions akin to “What number of ATP molecules are generated throughout the full oxidation of 1 molecule of palmitic acid?” (it’s 106, now ).
We’ve now established in some element that fats is your physique’s major battery pack and we’d prefer to breathe it out. Let’s flip to the main points of the accounting.
Power enter. People prove to have a quite simple and surprisingly slender power metabolism. We don’t partake within the miracle of photosynthesis like crops/cyanobacteria do. We don’t oxidize inorganic compounds like hydrogen sulfide or nitrite or one thing like a few of our micro organism/archaea cousins. Just like every little thing else alive, we don’t fuse or fission atomic nuclei (that will be superior). No, the one method we enter any and all power into the system is thru the breakdown of meals. “Meals” is definitely a reasonably slender subset of natural molecules that we are able to digest and metabolize for power. It contains courses of molecules that are available in 3 main teams (“macros”): proteins, fat, carbohydrates and some different particular case molecules like alcohol. There are many molecules we are able to’t metabolize for power and don’t depend as meals, akin to cellulose (fiber; really additionally a carbohydrate, a significant part of crops, though a few of it’s digestible by some animals like cattle; additionally your microbiome loooves it), or hydrocarbons (which may solely be “metabolized” by our inner combustion engines). In any case, this makes for exceedingly easy accounting: the power enter to your physique is higher bounded by the variety of meals energy that you simply eat. The meals business makes an attempt to guesstimate these by including up the macros in every meals, and you’ll find these estimates on the diet labels. Particularly, naive calorimetry would over-estimate meals energy as a result of as talked about not every little thing flamable is digestible.
Power output. You may suppose that almost all of your power output would come from motion, however the truth is 1) your physique is exceedingly environment friendly with regards to motion, and a pair of) it’s energetically unintuitively costly to only exist. To maintain you alive your physique has to take care of homeostasis, handle thermo-regulation, respiration, heartbeat, mind/nerve operate, blood circulation, protein synthesis, lively transport, and so forth and so forth. Collectively, this portion of power expenditure known as the Base Metabolic Charge (BMR) and also you burn this “without spending a dime” even if you happen to slept your complete day. For instance, my BMR is someplace round 1800kcal/day (a standard estimate resulting from Mifflin St. Jeor for males is 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x peak (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5). Anybody who’s been on the health club and ran on a treadmill will know simply how a lot of a free win that is. I begin panting and sweating uncomfortably simply after a small few hundred kcal of operating. So sure, motion burns energy, however the 30min elliptical session you do within the health club is a drop within the bucket in comparison with your base metabolic charge. After all if you happen to’re doing the elliptical for cardio-vascular well being – nice! However if you happen to’re doing it considering that that is essential or a significant contributor to dropping pounds, you’d be unsuitable.
This chocolate chip cookie powers half-hour of operating at 6mph (a fairly common operating tempo).
Power deficit. In abstract, the quantity of power you expend (BMR + motion) subtract the quantity you absorb (by way of meals alone) is your power deficit. This implies you’ll discharge your battery greater than you cost it, and breathe out extra fats than you synthesize/retailer, reducing the dimensions of your battery pack, and recording much less on the dimensions as a result of all these carbon atoms that made up your triglyceride chains within the morning at the moment are subtle across the environment.
So… just a few textbooks later we see that to drop a few pounds one ought to eat much less and transfer extra.
Experiment part. So how massive of a deficit ought to one introduce? I didn’t need the deficit to be so giant that it could stress me out, make me hangry and influence my work. As well as, with higher deficit your physique will more and more start to sacrifice lean physique mass (paper). To maintain issues easy, I aimed to lose about 1lb/week, which is in step with just a few suggestions I discovered in just a few papers. Since 1lb = 454g, 1g of fats is estimated at approx. 9 kcal, and adipose tissue is ~87% lipids, some (very tough) serviette math means that 3500 kcal = 1lb of fats. The exact particulars of this are much more complicated, however this is able to counsel a goal deficit of about 500 kcal/day. I discovered that it was exhausting to achieve this deficit with calorie restriction alone, and psychologically it was a lot simpler to eat close to the break even level and create a lot of the deficit with cardio. It additionally helped loads to undertake a 16:8 intermittent fasting schedule (i.e. “skip breakfast”, eat solely from e.g. 12-8pm) which helps management urge for food and dramatically reduces snacking. I began the experiment in June 2019 at about 195lb (day 120 on the chart beneath), and 1 yr later I’m at 165lb, giving an general empirical charge of 0.58lb/week:
My weight (lb) over time (days). The primary 120 days had been “management” the place I used to be at my common upkeep consuming no matter till I felt full. From there I maintained a median 500kcal deficit per day. Some dishonest and some water fasts are discernable.
Different stuff. I ought to point out that regardless of the main focus of this publish the experiment was after all a lot broader for me than weight reduction alone, as I attempted to enhance many different variables I began to grasp had been linked to longevity and normal well-being. I went on a comparatively low carbohydrate largely Pescetarian weight loss program, I finished consuming almost all types of sugar (apart from berries) and processed meals, I finished ingesting energy in any kind (soda, orange juice, alcohol, milk), I began common cardio just a few occasions per week (first operating then biking), I began common resistance coaching, and so forth. I’m not militant about any of those and have cheated plenty of occasions on all of it as a result of I feel sticking to it 90% of the time produces 90% of the profit. Because of this I’ve improved plenty of biomarkers (e.g. resting coronary heart charge, resting blood glucose, energy, endurance, dietary deficiencies, and so forth). I want I may say I really feel considerably higher or sharper, however actually I really feel about the identical. However the numbers inform me I’m presupposed to be on a greater path and I feel I’m content material with that 🤷.
Express modeling. Now, getting again to weight, clearly the general charge of 0.58lb/week is just not our anticipated 1lb/week. To validate the power deficit math I spent 100 days round late 2019 very rigorously monitoring my every day power enter and output. For the enter I recorded my complete calorie consumption – I saved logs in my notes app of every little thing I ate. When diet labels weren’t out there, I did my greatest to estimate the consumption. Fortunately, I’ve a wierd obsession with guesstimating energy in any meals, I’ve executed so for years for enjoyable, and have gotten fairly good at it. Isn’t it a ton of enjoyable to all the time guess energy in some meals earlier than checking the reply on the diet label and seeing if you happen to fall inside 10% right? No? Alright. For power output I recorded the quantity my Apple Watch studies within the “Exercise App”. TLDR merely subtracting expenditure from consumption provides the approximate deficit for that day, which we are able to use to calculate the anticipated weight reduction, and at last evaluate to the precise weight reduction. For instance, an excerpt of the uncooked information and the easy calculation seems to be one thing like:
2019-09-23: Morning weight 180.5. Ate 1700, expended 2710 (Δkcal 1010, Δw 0.29). Tomorrow ought to weight 180.2 2019-09-24: Morning weight 179.8. Ate 1790, expended 2629 (Δkcal 839, Δw 0.24). Tomorrow ought to weight 179.6 2019-09-25: Morning weight 180.6. Ate 1670, expended 2973 (Δkcal 1303, Δw 0.37). Tomorrow ought to weight 180.2 2019-09-26: Morning weight 179.7. Ate 2140, expended 2529 (Δkcal 389, Δw 0.11). Tomorrow ought to weight 179.6 2019-09-27: Morning weight nan. Ate 2200, expended 2730 (Δkcal 530, Δw 0.15). Tomorrow ought to weight nan 2019-09-28: Morning weight nan. Ate 2400, expended 2800 (Δkcal 400, Δw 0.11). Tomorrow ought to weight 2019-09-29: Morning weight 181.0. Ate 1840, expended 2498 (Δkcal 658, Δw 0.19). Tomorrow ought to weight 180.8 2019-09-30: Morning weight 181.8. Ate 1910, expended 2883 (Δkcal 973, Δw 0.28). Tomorrow ought to weight 181.5 2019-10-01: Morning weight 179.4. Ate 2000, expended 2637 (Δkcal 637, Δw 0.18). Tomorrow ought to weight 179.2 2019-10-02: Morning weight 179.5. Ate 1920, expended 2552 (Δkcal 632, Δw 0.18). Tomorrow ought to weight 179.3
The place we have now just a few nan if I missed a weight measurement within the morning. Plotting this we get the next:
Anticipated weight based mostly on easy calorie deficit system (blue) vs. measured weight (crimson).
Clearly, my precise weight reduction (crimson) turned out to be slower than anticipated one based mostly on our easy deficit math (blue). So that is the place issues get fascinating. Plenty of prospects come to thoughts. I might be constantly underestimating energy eaten. My Apple Watch might be overestimating my calorie expenditure. The naive conversion math of 1lb of fats = 3500 kcal might be off. I feel one of many different vital culprits is that after I eat protein I’m naively recording its caloric worth underneath consumption, implicitly assuming that my physique burns it for power. Nevertheless, since I used to be concurrently resistance coaching and constructing some muscle, my physique may redirect 1g of protein into muscle and as a substitute mobilize solely ~0.5g of fats to cowl the identical power want (since fats is 9kcal/g and protein solely 4kcal/g). The result is that relying on my muscle acquire my weight reduction would look slower, as we observe. Almost definitely, some mixture of the entire above is occurring.
Water issue. One other enjoyable factor I seen is that my noticed weight can fluctuate and rise loads, even whereas my anticipated weight calculation expects a loss. I discovered that this discrepancy grows with the quantity of carbohydrates in my weight loss program (dessert, bread/pasta, potatoes, and so forth.). Consuming these possible will increase glycogen ranges, which as I already talked about briefly, acts as a sponge and soaks up water. I seen that my weight can rise a number of kilos, however after I revert again to my typical low-carbohydrate pasketerianish weight loss program these “faux” kilos evaporate in a matter of some days. The ultimate consequence are wild swings in my physique weight relying totally on how a lot sweet I’ve succumbed to, or if I squeezed in some pizza at a celebration.
Physique composition. Since simultaneous muscle constructing skews the easy deficit math, to get a greater match we’d have to grasp the main points of my physique composition. The load scale I take advantage of (Withings Body+) claims to estimate and separate fats weight and lean physique weight by way of bioelectrical impedance analysis, which makes use of the truth that extra muscle is extra water is much less electrical resistance. That is the most typical method accessible to a daily shopper. I didn’t understand how a lot I may belief this measurement so I additionally ordered three DEXA scans (a gold customary for physique composition measurements used within the literature based mostly on low dosage X-rays) separated 1.5 months aside. I used BodySpec, who cost $45 per scan, every taking about 7 minutes at one in all their bodily places. The quantity of radiation is tiny – about 0.4 uSv, which is the dose you’d get by consuming 4 bananas (they comprise radioactive potassium-40). I used to be not capable of get a scan lately resulting from COVID-19. Right here is my physique composition information visualized from each sources throughout late 2019:
My ~every day reported fats and lean physique mass measurements based mostly on bioelectrical impedance and the three DEXA scans.
crimson = fats, blue = lean physique mass. (additionally observe two y-axes are superimposed)
BIA vs DEXA. Sadly, we are able to see that the BIA measurement supplied by my scale disagrees with DEXA outcomes by loads. That stated, I’m additionally pressured to interpret the DEXA scan with skepticism particularly for the lean physique mass quantity, which is affected by hydration level, with water displaying up largely as lean physique mass. Particularly, throughout my third measurement I used to be fasted and in ketosis. Therefore my glycogen ranges had been low and I used to be much less hydrated, which I consider confirmed up as a dramatic lack of muscle. That stated, specializing in fats, each approaches present me shedding physique fats at roughly the identical charge, although they’re off by an absolute offset.
BIA. An extra method to see that BIA is making stuff up is that it reveals me shedding lean physique mass over time. I discover this comparatively unlikely as a result of throughout your complete course of this experiment I exercised recurrently and was capable of monotonically enhance my energy when it comes to weight and reps for many workout routines (e.g. bench press, pull ups, and so forth.). In order that is mindless both ¯(ツ)/¯
The uncooked numbers for my DEXA scans. I used to be allegedly shedding fats. The lean tissue estimate is noisy resulting from hydration ranges.
Abstract So there you’ve it. DEXA scans are severely affected by hydration (which is tough to manage) and BIA is making stuff up solely, so we don’t get to completely resolve the thriller of the slower-than-expected weight reduction. However general, sustaining a median deficit of 500kcal per day did result in about 60% of the anticipated weight reduction over the course of a yr. Extra importantly, we studied the method by which our Solar’s free power powers weblog posts by way of a change of nuclear binding power to electromagnetic radiation to warmth. The photons energy the fixing of carbon in CO2 and hydrogen in H2O into C-C/C-H wealthy natural molecules in crops, which we digest and break again down by way of a “gradual” stepwise combustion in our cell’s cytosols and mitochondria, which “fees” some (ATP) molecular springs, which give the “umph” that fires the neurons and strikes the fingers. Additionally, any extra power is stockpiled by the physique as fats, so we have to consumption much less of it or “waste” a few of it away on motion to discharge our major battery and breathe out our weight. It’s been tremendous enjoyable to self-study these matters (which I skipped in highschool), and I hope this publish was an fascinating intro to a few of it. Okay nice. I’ll now go eat some cookies, as a result of yolo.
(later edits)
- dialogue on hacker news
- my authentic publish was once about twice as lengthy resulting from a bit of diet. For the reason that subject of what to every got here up so usually alongside how a lot to every I’m together with a fast TLDR on my closing weight loss program right here, with out the 5-page element. In tough order of significance: Eat from 12-8pm solely. Don’t drink any energy (no soda, no alcohol, no juices, keep away from milk). Keep away from sugar just like the plague, together with carbohydrate-heavy meals that instantly break all the way down to sugar (bread, rice, pasta, potatoes), together with to a lesser extent pure sugar (apples, bananas, pears, and so forth – we’ve “weaponized” these fruits in the previous couple of hundred years by way of sturdy synthetic choice into actual candy bars), berries are ~okay. Keep away from processed meals (comply with Michael Pollan’s heuristic of solely procuring on the outer partitions of a grocery retailer, staying away from its heart). For meat stick largely to fish and like rooster to beef/pork. For me the avoidance of beef/pork is 1) moral – they’re clever giant animals, 2) environmental – they’ve a big environmental footprint (cows generate plenty of methane, a extremely potent greenhouse fuel) and their maintaining results in plenty of deforestation, 3) well being associated – just a few papers level to some trigger for concern in consumption of crimson meat, and 4) world well being – a big fraction of the worst offender infectious illnesses are zootopic and jumped to people from shut proximity to livestock.