I guess it depends on when you start counting but for me its going to be as a result of a relapse I had in January-February. Notwithstanding, when I started to do the next round of intervention in June, my weight was up to 340 lbs and 42.5% body fat.

Today its at 280 lbs, 38% body fat, and just a smidge away from getting below a BMI of 40 for the first time in what seems to be a very long time. 

Half that was from the very low calorie fasting I was doing in June and July.

The other half has been the result of this program.

I’m almost to my personal half-way point needing 74 more pounds to go at this point to get to where I think my optimal weight should be (more on how I’m calculating that later).

Truthfully I’m not sure which is better at this point but I’ve committed to staying the course with this program and so I will be seeing through the remaining 5 months. 

Not counting the first 2 weeks which were basically fluff sessions, this has been 1 month on the Optifast with 2 more months to go. There is still another 5 weeks of transition after that but at least I’ll be able to have real food at that point.

Activity

Have been keeping the walking up and in fact have been getting faster on the treadmill than when I started out back in April. That is good. My partner and I are sort of hanging around the 7500 step mark as its a good work-life balance at this point.

I could do more but there are days I just don’t feel like it. So that is likely a good indication that if 7500-8000 is a good range even on bad days, then its time to work on other aspects of activity such as building up speed and incline within the same range to provide more challenge.

Yesterday for example I had managed 3.4 mph for a few minutes without too much difficulty. I don’t know if I could maintain that for 60-90 minutes at this point without turning into a puddle. I keep a watch on my heart rate to make sure it doesn’t spike into the 130 range which is outside of fat burning territory. 

So for right now its just a question of increasing endurance using heart rate as a guide and slowly nudging the difficulty up as my physical body allows.

Dental Hygiene

One of the biggest things I’ve found on the Optifast shakes is that you must brush your teeth frequently. It has nothing to do with the ketosis breath that everyone talks about. It is because the Optifast shakes leave a residue behind that just seems to cling to everything in your mouth even if you drink it quickly.

If you think you might have a cavity, this stuff will find it quickly. 

On the plus side since everything is balanced in the formula, you don’t need to worry about whether you are getting enough calcium.

That was one of the challenges I had with the fasting and is one of the reason I’m still thinking that a very low calorie fast should only be considered for a short period of time. It is very hard to find a nutritional supplement or combination that doesn’t overdo one micronutrient or another in order to balance out what you should be getting on a daily basis.

Still need to do more research on that. Was part way into that in July but after seeing how this program works there is a lot more to look into.

Either way – onwards and downwards. 

— Kevin