Shrinkathon, Update #1

So, it’s only been about 5 days since I started, but I thought I’d drop a quick update. As most of you know, I am a big supporter of low-carbohydrate diets, mostly because a great deal of research show they are superior for treating things like diabetes and heart disease, but also because I once lost a great deal of weight (with relative ease) by just giving up carbs.

Effectively, the last few days have really been a transition from a moderate carbohydrate to a low-carb one for me. I’ve been keeping accurate food, weight and activity logs, which should help me figure out what’s working and what’s not. First thing of note is that I seem to be eating about 500 calories *more* per day than I was about a week ago, and I find I’m still actually quite a bit hungrier than I was before (which is sort of weird, because low carb diets typically suppress hunger). So either I was sort of starving myself before (which is possible considering I typically don’t eat very much), or my metabolism is increasing due to the dietary changes. My gut feeling says it’s more of the latter.

The good news is I’ve been dropping about 0.5 lb a day for the last five days. Obviously some of that is water weight, but for me the important thing is that it’s not going up. In terms of how I feel, I feel about the same — maybe a bit more energy. I’ve been trying to hit the gym every second day, mostly to lift some weights and try to add a few more pounds of muscle over the next little while. Lifting weights is important because it increases whole-body insulin sensitivity (due to unknown reasons), which basically makes it hormonally easier to burn fat instead of sugar, which is the whole point of this exercise really. I’m also throwing in the odd bit of cardio, mostly for heart-happy reasons though.

I’ve also been taking a multi-vitamin again, something that I haven’t routinely done in quite a while. So far, so good. My main goal is to drop 15 lbs before my birthday, which is in approximately two months.