My quarterly blood test results are in, and the results were quite good.

To sum up, blood sugar remains normal, cholesterol is fantastic, blood pressure is great, and I continue to (slowly) lose weight.

The rest of this post are details, if people are interested in numbers and more!

What I eat and don’t eat

I follow WFPB (whole food plant based) eating: mostly vegan, no oil, very limited nuts, and limited sugar and salt. No intermittent fasting, no keto, lots of carbs including potatoes and fruits. I stick to low calorie density foods to help with weight loss. For example potatoes are surprisingly low calorie (eat) and bread is very high calorie (mostly avoid).

For lots more details on the things I eat and the people in the field I follow take a look at my November post: https://lerner.net/november-28-2019-quarterly-test-results/

Basically I eat lots of veggies, including starches, and have fruits every day. In other words, I eat lots of carbs. Carbs do not impact negatively on blood sugar or weight.

Logging with MyFitnessPal

I log my food and exercise calories in MyFitnessPal, and keep within 1540 net calories per day (food calories minus exercise calories).

Today is my MyFitnessPal Streak Day 2,842. Daily logging in MFP has been a great sanity check and prevented me from having a complete rebound when I fell off the wagon in the past.

I’ve lost a total of 49.2 kg = 108.5 lb so far, and am just 4.4 kg = 9.7 lb from a normal BMI. Getting closer and closer! I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been in my entire adult life.

At about 175 lb I actually weigh 20 lb less than the average American male these days.

But I’m surprised that my stomach still sticks out, and also how hard it is to find normal sized clothes that fit. That’s probably because everybody is crazy slim here in Japan. I’m sure I wouldn’t have that problem in the US. But all my current clothes are way too large on me now.

Blood test results

Here are the latest and previous results. Normal ranges are in parentheses.

Total cholesterol (120-219)

• Feb 20, 2020- 120
• Nov 28, 2019 – 118
• Aug 29, 2019 – 116
• Mar 19, 2019 – 133
• Dec 20 , 2018- 124

This remains low, which I think is fine.

HDL good cholesterol (35-80)

• Feb 20, 2020- 40
• Nov 28, 2019 – 46
• Aug 29, 2019 – 40
• Jun 8, 2019 – 34
• Mar 19, 2019 – 38
• Dec 20, 2018 – 36

LDL bad cholesterol (70-139)

• Feb 20, 2020 – 54
• Nov 28, 2019 – 55
• Aug 29, 2019 – 56
• Jun 8, 2019 – 73
• Mar 19, 2019 – 72
• Dec 20, 2018 – 67

Quite low! But that’s supposed to be great for your heart.

Triglycerides (30-150)

• Feb 20, 2020 – 107
• Nov 28, 2019 – 62
• Aug 29, 2019 – 79
• Jun 8, 2019 – 129
• Mar 19, 2019 – 114
• Dec 20, 2018 – 100

A jump for some reason. But still well within normal range.

HbA1c (4.7-6.2)

• Feb 20, 2020 – 6.1
• Nov 28, 2019 – 5.9
• Aug 29, 2019 – 6.1
• Jun 8, 2019 – 5.5
• Mar 19, 2019 – 5.9
• Dec 20, 2018 – 6.5

This was after my doctor finally decided to drop all blood sugar medication in November. So the slight rise (still within normal range) seems fine to him, and I will continue with no blood sugar meds.

This value does not fluctuate much over the short term. It’s a 2-3 month average. Prior HbA1c quarterly values were 8.2, and 10.8. So it’s a great improvement over time, and has been in the normal range since March, 2019.

My blood pressure was a very good 115/77.

Both the doctor and nutritionist were very pleased.

The “E” Word

Exercise…

Last quarter I said I was going to start some upper body resistance training to build up some arm strength and maybe add some muscles, for my health. And I also want to increase my metabolism to help lose these last stubborn pounds. I haven’t started that yet though.

Starting in March I’ll be able to take my new puppy, Pao, for walks, so I expect I’ll be getting more walking exercise also.

Anyway, onward…