WAR ON FAT PHASE TWO: PART 2: APRIL 2021
Most oldies (I’m 61) nostalgically cherish flattering photographs of themselves in their youths; and I am no exception.
I love to remind everyone around me that I was once super-slim (please see my favourite archive photograph below, a black-and-white portrait that was taken when I was 28 years old and about 70kg…a weight I maintained until I was about 50).
But I don’t deceive myself.
I know I can never look so dewily unblemished and mega-svelte again. But I’m still determined to look a lot better than I’ve looked since obesity started to enter my life about 10 years ago.
Ah obesity! My enemy.
The fat came slowly at first, silently creeping up on me like a thief in the night – as in a few kilos of middle-aged spread that surreptitiously deposited themselves on my stomach and hips when I wasn’t looking, but didn’t significantly alter my appearance because I’m 5 feet 10 inches tall and can get away with a bit of excess lard.
I didn’t even have to buy new clothes at that stage.
It wasn’t until I hit my mid-50s that I made the transition from being moderately outof-shape to being alarmingly obese, thanks to medication that had weight gain as a side effect. I took those wretched pills for 3 years and they changed my body and my life.
OK, so what now?
I started 2021 at 123kg and was 118kg last month and am 116kg now. In other words,
I’ve lost 7kg in 3 months, which isn’t bad. But let’s face it: Roughly 2kg a month isn’t exactly impressive either.
I will look too haggard at this advanced age if I push myself back down to my heyday weight of 70kg. I’m not even sure it is possible to ever be 70kg again! So I’m settling for a more realistic target of 85kg.
But I won’t get to 85kg until 2022 if I continue at this snail’s pace. And I don’t have patience and really want to speed things up, so I can wear a fabulous frock when I celebrate my birthday in October.
My new motto is TEN YEARS ON, SIX MONTHS OFF…meaning that I intend to shift in 6 months fat that took 10 years to accumulate!
So how can I up my game to achieve faster results?
Well, we all know that kilos can only be shed when what you consume is exceeded by the energy you burn. But depriving yourself of delicious meals and snacks is extremely hard if you are a
food-adoring gourmet and gourmand like me. And I’m not a fan of grub that contains little or no oil because I am a creaminess addict.
I also happen to be hooked on sugar and do not regard artificial sweeteners as adequate substitutes (yes, I’ve tried them all and hate them all!).
Long story short: Dieting is a huge uphill struggle for me; and I’ve only lost half a kilo a week this year because my calorie reduction and calorie burning efforts have been halfhearted.
The diets I embarked upon most Monday mornings rarely lasted beyond Wednesdays, while my enthusiasm for walks and gym visits fizzled out after a handful of sessions because my knees hurt.
OK, so you don’t need to be a genius to figure out that your knees will hurt like crazy until you quit being elephantine. And the challenge I’m facing now is how to quit being elephantine asap.
As someone wise said on an internet platform I visited: “BEING OBESE IS HARD. LOSING WEIGHT IS HARD. CHOOSE YOUR HARD.”
Or, put another way, anyone who yearns for transformation must decide whether the pain of sticking with an unsatisfactory status quo will or will not exceed the pain that will come with change.
Pain is an inescapable part of life. And change is rarely pain-free. Even when you make a sensible upwards move, the change can hurt you or the people around you…or just destabilise your comfort zone.
For example, some folks who lose tons of weight for health or vanity-related reasons sometimes start to feel that they have outgrown spouses who remind them of their despised previous selves.
Anyway, so I’m faced with a choice between the hard of obesity (heaving myself around breathlessly, gritting my teeth because of keen pain, looking like a sack of garri in stylish clothes, etc) versus the hard of slimming down (not always being able to eat as much food as I want, getting up early to exercise before work, etc).
And I’ve chosen the latter hard.
Last year, I joined a Facebook club for fatties and ex-fatties who are into intermittent fasting (IF) and extended fasting (EF)…which means that they either restrict their eating to 6-10 hours a day or fast for entire days.
I’ve spent several months hovering on the edge of this group and monitoring it and reading stories posted by members and wanting to join in wholeheartedly, but being afraid to totally commit myself.
But most members of the group have done so well in terms of shedding blubber AND KEEPING IT OFF that I feel very encouraged and am ready (after months of cowardly, feeble-minded shilly-shallying!) to take a deep breath and copy their methods.
It IS hard to discipline yourself to ditch food for x number of hours per day or for x number of days per week (doctors say you shouldn’t fast for more than 7 consecutive days without medical supervision).
But during eating “windows” that YOU have chosen for yourself, you don’t have to bother with counting calories; and this all-or-nothing modus operandi is compatible with the way my psyche is wired.
I am a person of extremes by nature. I don’t like those diets that are all about boring lean meat and salads without unctuous dressings.
I much prefer the idea of either eating nothing at all when I have decided that eating is “not allowed”…and then eating whatever I want to eat whenever I have given myself permission to eat.
Oh, and by the way, IF delivers benefits beyond weight loss.
So wish me luck!
ThisDay readers who are interested in IF will welcome the following selected highlights from Dr Monique Tello, a Harvard Medical School health newsletter contributor.
Studies in humans, almost across the board, have shown that IF is safe and incredibly effective, but really no more effective than any other diet. In addition, many people find it difficult to fast.
But a growing body of research suggests that the timing of the fast is key, and can make IF a more realistic, sustainable, and effective approach for weight loss, as well as for diabetes prevention.
An in-depth review of the science of IF recently published in New England Journal of Medicine sheds some light. Fasting is evolutionarily embedded within our physiology, triggering several essential cellular functions. Flipping the switch from a fed to fasting state does more than help us burn calories and lose weight.
The researchers combed through dozens of animal and human studies to explain how simple fasting improves metabolism, lowering blood sugar; lessens inflammation, which improves a range of health issues from arthritic pain to asthma; and even helps clear out toxins and damaged cells, which lowers risk for cancer and enhances brain function. The article is deep, but worth a read!
I asked the opinion of metabolic expert
Dr. Deborah Wexler, Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Here is what she told me.
“There is evidence to suggest that the circadian rhythm fasting approach, where meals are restricted to an eight to 10hour period of the daytime, is effective,” she confirmed, though generally she recommends that people “use an eating approach that works for them and is sustainable to them.”
So, here’s the deal. There is some good scientific evidence suggesting that circadian rhythm fasting, when combined with a healthy diet and lifestyle, can be a particularly effective approach to weight loss, especially for people at risk for diabetes.
(However, people with advanced diabetes or who are on medications for diabetes, people with a history of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, and pregnant or breastfeeding women should not attempt intermittent fasting unless under the close supervision of a physician)
Limit the hours of the day when you eat, and for best effect, make it earlier in the day (between 7 am to 3 pm, or even 10 am to 6 pm, but definitely not in the evening before bed).
Avoid snacking or eating at nighttime, all the time.
For more detailed information about IF or EF, Google Dr Jason Fung and listen to his inspiring YouTube videos.
DONU KOGBARA IS A VANGUARD NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about her weight loss journey on 0805 404 6887 or donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk