Lordflasheart, I’m interested by your keto experience. Regarding the blood tests, are you aware that urea and uric acid/urate are different things? I apologize if you are well aware of this, but from your post i wasn’t sure.
Urea is a product of general protein metabolism & is excreted by the kidneys. If you eat a lot of protein, or get dehydrated, urea can temporarily rise. This doesn’t really mean the kidneys are working less well, even though the blood test results can suggest it. Urea doesn’t cause gout & levels go up and down.
Urate also called uric acid is something different, it’s a product of purine metabolism, a specific type of protein. High urate cause gout. Urate crystals form in the joints or other tissues. If you have high urate, then yes that’s a bad thing, but weight loss like you are doing and good hydration usually help. I’m not aware of a link with low-carb diets (but may be wrong)
Anyways, trying to explain these sorts of tests is my day job but I’ll shut up now!
Aah shucks I broke 2 golden rules- don’t mix work and pleasure, and don’t offer unsolicited advice… Sorry!
Point was, I wondered if you were thinking of canning the diet because of a misunderstanding. Urea is an imprecise marker of kidney function but doesn’t cause gout, while urate isn’t a marker of kidney function but high levels do cause gout.
Maybe you knew all this in which case let’s move on, nothing to see here
The problem I have is that this is a suite of tests provided by my health insurer - I pay a little extra every year on top for these.
But the results are dumbed down somewhat - I only get an indication as to where the levels are rather than hard numbers.
So I took the kidney information and made a leap - I have seen the effect it had on my grandfather and father and I don’t much fancy it. After the one attack I had years ago I have avoided certain foods.
I am trying to be as scientific as I can about this, as I genuinely believe that the diet industry’s calorie restriction mantra is just plain wrong.
surely, if you want to, you can request the hard data to make more of an analysis - gdpr and all that. Of course that’s assuming you have the desire, time and knowledge to know what to do with the numbers!
Yeah the days I don’t exercise at lunchtime, my steps are pitifully low. I barely move all day. Whereas in work I walk across campus to meetings, coffee shops etc.
I did well for the first few months of lockdown, but weight has been creeping back up since holiday in August.
One thing I do pretty much every day though, is go for a walk before work and at lunchtime. It’s too easy to roll out of bed straight onto the computer and end up with a few hundred steps by the end of the day.
Getting outside is a good break mentally too, never take the phone either.
One of the benefits of postponed races and uncertainty is that I am keeping my weight down. Normally in Oct it creeps up, topping out at 78kg on ,Jan 1 before coming down to 72kg by May.
This year I am maintaining 68-69kg. I did get under 67kg in May, but find it difficult to sustain, I like beer and chocolate too much. If I can keep sub 70 over Christmas, will be in a great position for next season
Following injury in July, I started intermittent fasting. My thought process being.
A, I’m not training so don’t want to put weight on if I can avoid it
B, even if I maintain weight, I’m effectively putting on body fat as I’ll be losing muscle mass.
I maintained my calories as normal, but started 16:8 fasting.
I went from 71kg, to 66kg in 6 weeks, at which point I increased my calories to maintain there as I didn’t want to go lower.
Now I’m back training, I’m planning to maintain at 67kg, which after a month seems to be working fine. I’m still eating 16:8 except when I do strength work, as I just feel better eating before hand. All my other training so far has been done fasted.
I’m not expecting to keep the fasting thing going indefinitely as I don’t like swimming on an empty stomach either, but as for my long runs and rides, I always feel better with just a black coffee as fuel.
67.6kg yesterday but this was following a long run. My weight has hovered between 68 and 70 kg for my entire adult life. In my case I think a large part may be genetically determined as my male relatives all seem very similar in body shape and weight despite doing very different amounts of exercise & arguably having different levels of acquaintance with the pie.
I lost a lot of weight rapidly doing 5:2 5 or 6 years ago and it only gradually crept back on for the most part. Until lockdown when I added the final 15 pounds or so to give me my current ample frame…
I know I could do it again and will at some point but I keep putting it off as it is horrific. The mood swings are unbelievable, my sleep suffered awfully. And it is useless when doing heavy training. But it really does work.
I think I might give 16:8 a go. And if it does nothing I’ll have to bite the bullet and move to 5:2. Preferably before the endless parade of pre-Xmas sweets come out at work!
Well, another 300gms put on this week. I’ll try 16:8 for another week or so and see. And before any genius chirps up with ‘you are eating the same amount of calories in a 8hr window’, I’m not. Also not shovelling sugar in the 8 hrs either but I must be doing something wrong!
On 1st November 2019 I weighed 76kg, currently my weight according to Withings is 68kg, up from a low of 66.6kg in June
I never thought I would be able to sustain a weight of sub 72kg… this was always a lower limit. This has all changed with Lockdown and putting a real push on my training and I have been sub 70kg since May
I still feel that there is more to go. If I look in the mirror, I still see a spare tyre. Do you remember the Kelloggs Special K advert “can you pinch more than an inch”… well I certainly can (actually I suspect that we can all pinch more than in inch)
72kg this morning. Usually around 70 for ‘race’ season (although this is also a fraction heavy, 68 is where I should be).
WFH/lockdown has messed me up for 6 months, although training hard continual snacking saw most of the ‘season’ at 73+, peaking just over 75.
Really the end of the ‘season’, mid Sept actually saw me get a grip. Rather than binge out for 3-4 weeks decided to get on top of the diet ready for the commencement of proper training for 2021.
So back where I normally am after the off season binge, albeit from the opposite direction , let’s see if I can keep going. I want 70 by Xmas.
, let’s see if I can keep going. I want 70 by Xmas.