Tag Archives: whole food plant based

Diet Note: Down over 135 lb to 149.0 lb

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Just a note in passing as I reach a new all-time low weight. Note: I’m not actually trying to lose more weight, but I just have more energy lately so I’ve been taking more walks. My appetite is fine and I really am not sure what to actually eat more of to stop losing more weight – a “problem” I never in my life imagined I would have 🙂.

This morning my weight was 67.6 kg = exactly 149 lb. I’ve lost 61.4 kg = 135.4 lb. My BMI is now 22.3, and I’ve lost 47.6% of my original weight.

My blood values are all great. My HbA1c dropped from a dangerously high 11.8 over time to a perfectly normal 5.4 and I’ve been off blood sugar meds for over a year-and-a-half now. My cholesterol is in the “heart-attack-proof” very low range. My blood pressure is great.

I eat whole food plant based foods, lots of healthy carbs like potatoes and veggies. I really can’t think of a thing to change. I don’t feel deprived at all. I don’t do intermittent fasting; if I feel like snacking on something I do – usually things like sliced carrots or eggplant sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Plenty of protein. It’s really a perfect way of living I think.

I do continue to log my calories and weight with MyFitnessPal. Today is “streak day” 3,318.

Maybe if I can do more upper body training increased muscle mass will stabilize my weight where I am, which I think is a good weight. I could also mix up my starches more, like add more brown rice in instead of potatoes. Rice has a higher calorie density than potatoes. Or add a bit of fruit.

Some other posts of note: https://lerner.net/may-2021-biannual-health-test-results-and-a-happy-ending/ and https://lerner.net/november-28-2019-quarterly-test-results/ where I talk more about what I eat and don’t eat, and who in the field I follow. For more on “meal plans” see https://lerner.net/oh-boy-doug-food-again/

And here’s a before/after photo from this month at a birthday lunch.

Major Milestone – in the 140s!

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Just to be clear, I am not trying to lose more weight at this point. Since getting under 70 kg I’ve been trying to “coast to a soft landing.” I don’t want to lose more weight, but I also don’t want to radically increase my calories and risk rebounding. I would like to stabilize and concentrate on upper body muscle training. My doctors all say I shouldn’t lose more weight. And my nutritionist said last time all is under control and she doesn’t need to see me anymore.

Nevertheless, I continue to very very slowly lose weight, probably because I’m feeling so much better and moving around more, and moving quicker when I do so. All is good. I think I will tweak my daily net calories (food – exercise) once again from 1550 to 1600. I track my calories with MyFitnessPal, and today is “streak day” 3,294.

Anyway, it’s impossible not to mention my new milestone. For the first time in my adult life I am in the 140s (just barely). This morning, my weight was exactly 68.0 kg, which is 149.9 lb.

Some other stats:

  • I’ve now lost a total of 61.0 kg = 134.5 lb.
  • My BMI is 22.5.
  • I’ve lost 47.3% of my original weight.

I eat WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based) both for health, and because it makes it easy to control my weight because I enjoy eating that way. WFPB is basically vegan, no added oils, and limited sugars and salt. No intermittent fasting.

This morning for breakfast I had a large mixed salad (greens, some spinach leaves, a teaspoon of flaxseeds, a few soybeans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and topped with my homemade salad dressing made from soy milk, grated ginger, nutritional yeast, and balsamic vinegar), then went on to two baked potatoes (about 1 lb), and finished off with sliced eggplants sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Total calories for all that, just 559. And yes, I get plenty of protein. Just for breakfast I estimate it was at least 25 g of protein. I’m sure I get at least 100 g of protein every day, which more than satisfies the WHO recommended requirements. The potatoes for breakfast alone had almost 9 grams of protein. Protein is everywhere.

To read more about what I eat and the how much WFPB eating has helped with my blood sugar, cholesterol, weight, and more please see previous blog posts, such as https://lerner.net/may-2021-biannual-health-test-results-and-a-happy-ending/ and https://lerner.net/november-28-2019-quarterly-test-results/ which has a lot more details about what I eat and who I follow in the WFPB world.

May 2021 – Biannual Health Test Results and a Happy Ending

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My biannual blood test results for May 13, 2021 are in, and they continue to be great. I also had an echocardiogram and X-rays taken, and the doctor said they were all normal. And I’m at the lowest weight of my adult life – down 133 lb to 151 lb.

My blood sugar remains normal, without medication. It even dropped some more. My cholesterol is fantastic, and blood pressure is great. While I continue to (very very very slowly) lose weight the doctor strongly emphasized that I shouldn’t lose more weight, should add more calories, and concentrate on physical training. He said I do not have any more worries about weight or diabetes and sort of lectured me a bit on that. 

Some nurses who saw me were raving about how good I looked (they remember me from before), and one of them who is sort of chubby wanted details of what I eat, so I introduced her to the Japanese version of Dr. Greger’s, “How Not To Die” on Amazon. 

The rest of this post are details, if people are interested in numbers, and some nice news at the end.

What I eat and don’t eat

Just to “sum up” 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 and bread is very high calorie. I guess going forward I will have some higher calorie density foods like more rice maybe? Or maybe some more fruits. I’ll see. 

For more details on the specific things I eat and the people in the field I follow take a look at my post from  November, 2019: November 28, 2019 – quarterly test results | Doug Reports

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

Logging with MyFitnessPal And Current Weight

I log my food and exercise calories in MyFitnessPal, and keep within 1550 net calories per day (food calories minus exercise calories). I recently upped that a bit, and I guess I’ll up it some more. 

Today is my MyFitnessPal Streak Day 3,280. 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. 

My current weight is down to 68.6 kg (151 lb). My total weight loss is 60.4 kg (133 lb). 

This means I have lost 46.8% of my original weight, and am at a normal BMI of 22.7. I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been in my entire adult life. 

Anyway, I will continue healthy eating and doing as much exercise as I can.  I’ll continue eating this way for life. It’s healthy, and I enjoy what I eat. There is no feeling of deprivation at all. I’ll just try to add more muscles and not lose more weight. 

More on the “E” Word

Exercise… 

I have been taking my puppy, Pao, who will be one and a half years old this month, for walks to the park and along the river, so that helps. I’ve also added an extra morning walk for shopping because I have extra energy.  

I finally did start doing some resistance training using my bullworker. I’d like to go swimming if it’s safe. I generally feel like I have more energy lately, and have been moving faster. 

Blood test results

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

Total cholesterol (120-219)

2021: May 13: 124

2020: Nov 19 – 123; Aug 20 – 108; May 21 – 124; Feb 20 – 120

2019: Nov 28 – 118; Aug 29 – 116; Jun 8 – 136; Mar 19 – 133

Holding steady in the low-but-normal range. Low is supposed to be heart healthy. 

HDL good cholesterol (35-80)

2021: May 13: 50

2020: Nov 19 – 53;Aug 20 – 39; May 21 – 43; Feb 20 – 40

2019: Nov 28 – 46; Aug 29 – 40; Jun 8 – 34; Mar 19 – 38

Normal range. 

LDL bad cholesterol (70-139)

2021: May 13: 47

2020: Nov 19 – 47; Aug 20 – 46; May 21 – 56; Feb 20 – 54

2019: Nov 28 – 55; Aug 29 – 56; Jun 8 – 73; Mar 19 – 72

This remains very low, and lower than normal range.  But, again, that’s supposed to be great for your heart. 

Triglycerides (30-150)  

2021: May 13: 48

2020: Nov 19 – 56;Aug 20 – 69; May 21 – 93; Feb 20 – 107

2019: Nov 28 – 62; Aug 29 – 79; Jun 8 – 129; Mar 19 – 114

This went down even more – my lowest ever – but well within normal range. 

Blood Sugar HbA1c (4.7-6.2)

2021: May 13: 5.4

2020: Nov 19 – 5.5; Aug 20 – 5.6; May 21 – 5.8; Feb 20 – 6.1

2019: Nov 28 – 5.9; Aug 29 – 6.1; Jun 8 – 5.5; Mar 19 – 5.9

2018: Dec 20 – 6.5; Sep – 8.2; June – 10.8

This dropped some more again. It has now been in the normal range since March, 2019 and I’ve been off blood sugar meds since November, 2019. 

And my blood pressure was a great 109/55. 

A note about honey

Yes, I know it’s not vegan. But as I said I’m “mostly” vegan. And so are most WFPB sources. For the past few months I had been eating a 50 g bag of hard candies that are 100% only honey. I felt it was keeping my mouth busy and making it easier to stick with my diet, and made dog walks more fun. They were really tasty. In the back of my mind, though, I wondered what it might be doing to my blood sugar. As you can see, it had no bad effect at all. My blood sugar even dropped some more. 

Nevertheless, I felt the 200 calories a day were a waste. And, in fact, I was practically forcing myself to finish the bag in the evenings. So over a week ago I dropped them. I wondered if I had become addicted to them and how easy they would be to let go of and was surprised to find that I didn’t miss them one bit! Walks were just as enjoyable. And I had more of a calorie buffer that allowed me to eat some strawberries, have larger potato servings, or munch on some veggies as snacks. Lately I really love sliced raw eggplant sprinkled with nutritional yeast. 

And, Finally the Nutritionist 

The nutritionist was very pleased, and said… she believes… our work is done! 

She feels I have everything under control. 

We got misty eyed,  and I thanked her for her support over the years, and we bowed at each other, and said goodbye. 

I just want to tell everyone how important healthy eating is. Truly, if I can do it anyone can. 

Major Milestone – 60 kg Lost (down to 69.0)

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It feels strange, because I just posted about breaking the 70 kg barrier 5 days ago, and getting into the 69s. There I gave lots of details, and included a before-and-after photo. So please read that post for all that.

Sometimes after hanging around at a certain weight for a number of weeks, and getting down to the next kilogram (in this case, I dropped below 70 to 69.6) I will slide through that kilogram mark. It’s happened many times before, and it happened again today, and this morning, after 5 days of consecutive losses the scale hit exactly 69.0 kg (152 lb) this morning. That means I have lost exactly 60 kg as of today! That’s 132 lb lost total.

A 60 kg lost milestone is worth mentioning I think.

Other stats of note: My current BMI is now 22.8, and I’ve lost a total of 46.5% of my initial weight.

As I mentioned in my last post I am no longer trying to lose more weight. That was the first time ever that I said that! On the other hand, I don’t want to gain weight either. I’m trying to glide into a smooth maintenance landing, but I’m being careful. I did tweak my calorie limit a bit, raising it some. But my weight loss had already slowed to a crawl, so I need to be careful.

The only things I’ll repeat from my previous post are that I eat WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based), I don’t do intermittent fasting, I log calories with MyFitnessPal, and today is MFP streak day 3,248. Please see that post for more about the WFPB people who have influenced me, recent adjustments to my diet (basically just being more careful about calorie counts), more about how much my health has improved, my philosophy about healthy dieting, and my latest before-and-after photo.