- Joined
- Oct 30, 2015
- Messages
- 837
I have been meaning to share the results of my n=1 journey here.
Since my late 30s / 40ish I have been gaining weight consistently.
This coincided with my discovery of Ray (about 12 years ago or so). I am now 52.
Implementing his ideas helped me become less “fragile” to life stressors as a whole, experience less colds and flues and have more stable energy levels.
However, in terms of my weight, despite trying different things (except Keto and Carnivore), have just gained.
I do thank the few individuals on this forum I consulted here (who tried to help me), alas, to no avail.
I had some temporary success with the “Croissant” diet, but it just helped me return to a certain setpoint that I couldn't leave for the past 3 years.
The biggest contributor? Ditching dairy(and eggs)! Although when I am ready, I will experiment with reintroducing eggs to some extent.
To be fair, over the years I has high stress periods in my life, which I'd think have contributed to weight gain. However, ditching dairy has done it for me.
I had a hard time to consider that dairy (and perhaps eggs, but less likely) were the culprit because the rationale laid out by Ray and the folks on this forum greatly appealed to me (for various reasons).
But whether it was low fat / skim milk or going heavy on very lean cottage cheese, or eating fatty cheese(the croissant diet), nothing helped.
To be fair, I also relied on dairy heavily as a source of protein because I preferred being vegetarian.
I currently replaced dairy with lean chicken breast as my significant source of protein, but for several stretches if time recently, I also experimented with having no animal protein. Overall, eating a reasonable amount of protein seems better for me (yesterday, for example I has 120g of protein, and, for more context, I would often used to have this much protein form consuming milk and or cottage cheese).
I experimented with different carb macro ratios (more starch vs more fruit), but nothing.
I kept a modest caloric deficit for periods of time.
The loss has been slow and gradual (except when over 2 days of having the flu i dropped 4 lbs.!... which makes no sense). I have maintained a modest caloric deficit throughout.
So far, since implementing this Vit A detox approach in late March, I dropped 11lbs. Not huge, but it has only been an upward trend for 10 years, especially the last 7, so I am ecstatic.
Now I am experimenting also with dextrose and this morning I woke up to a pleasant surprise (Yesterday had a bit more calories than usual as of late, and yet I reached anew low on the scale).
I wanted to add a caveat. I am a natural health practitioner; And I think I didn't consider dairy because a good portion of my clients did well (in terms of weight loss or blood sugar, for example), even without cutting dairy, but still implementing other “bio-energetic” strategies. Having said that, most of my clients are older adults (50s- 70s) who have consuming lots of seed oils, and often, other processed foods).
... which brings me to the necessity of considering the age of the person. The bodies of younger folks (say below mid to late 30s), are more “forgiving”, I suppose because of less accumulated toxicity. Hormonal changes with age and cumulative stress have significant effects on one's “metabolism”.
Lastly, a big thanks to @charlie for presenting “blasphemous” ideas to this community. Whether it has been vitamin A (not easy to reliably measure) or other things related to liver / bile stagnation, or anything else, it seems to be working.
Keep an open mind!
Since my late 30s / 40ish I have been gaining weight consistently.
This coincided with my discovery of Ray (about 12 years ago or so). I am now 52.
Implementing his ideas helped me become less “fragile” to life stressors as a whole, experience less colds and flues and have more stable energy levels.
However, in terms of my weight, despite trying different things (except Keto and Carnivore), have just gained.
I do thank the few individuals on this forum I consulted here (who tried to help me), alas, to no avail.
I had some temporary success with the “Croissant” diet, but it just helped me return to a certain setpoint that I couldn't leave for the past 3 years.
The biggest contributor? Ditching dairy(and eggs)! Although when I am ready, I will experiment with reintroducing eggs to some extent.
To be fair, over the years I has high stress periods in my life, which I'd think have contributed to weight gain. However, ditching dairy has done it for me.
I had a hard time to consider that dairy (and perhaps eggs, but less likely) were the culprit because the rationale laid out by Ray and the folks on this forum greatly appealed to me (for various reasons).
But whether it was low fat / skim milk or going heavy on very lean cottage cheese, or eating fatty cheese(the croissant diet), nothing helped.
To be fair, I also relied on dairy heavily as a source of protein because I preferred being vegetarian.
I currently replaced dairy with lean chicken breast as my significant source of protein, but for several stretches if time recently, I also experimented with having no animal protein. Overall, eating a reasonable amount of protein seems better for me (yesterday, for example I has 120g of protein, and, for more context, I would often used to have this much protein form consuming milk and or cottage cheese).
I experimented with different carb macro ratios (more starch vs more fruit), but nothing.
I kept a modest caloric deficit for periods of time.
The loss has been slow and gradual (except when over 2 days of having the flu i dropped 4 lbs.!... which makes no sense). I have maintained a modest caloric deficit throughout.
So far, since implementing this Vit A detox approach in late March, I dropped 11lbs. Not huge, but it has only been an upward trend for 10 years, especially the last 7, so I am ecstatic.
Now I am experimenting also with dextrose and this morning I woke up to a pleasant surprise (Yesterday had a bit more calories than usual as of late, and yet I reached anew low on the scale).
I wanted to add a caveat. I am a natural health practitioner; And I think I didn't consider dairy because a good portion of my clients did well (in terms of weight loss or blood sugar, for example), even without cutting dairy, but still implementing other “bio-energetic” strategies. Having said that, most of my clients are older adults (50s- 70s) who have consuming lots of seed oils, and often, other processed foods).
... which brings me to the necessity of considering the age of the person. The bodies of younger folks (say below mid to late 30s), are more “forgiving”, I suppose because of less accumulated toxicity. Hormonal changes with age and cumulative stress have significant effects on one's “metabolism”.
Lastly, a big thanks to @charlie for presenting “blasphemous” ideas to this community. Whether it has been vitamin A (not easy to reliably measure) or other things related to liver / bile stagnation, or anything else, it seems to be working.
Keep an open mind!
