How time flies when you are having fun! May 2017 marks 12 months since I started serious body-weight resistance training. Excluding pre-planned rest days, over that period I’ve only had 5 weeks off from daily work-outs – 2 planned & 3 due to injury, my own stupid fault! I’ve been doing daily work-outs as per my routine and I am very pleased with progress. Most of all, I’ve never enjoyed working out more than I do now!
Changes since going onto Meat & Water
It’s also been 4 months or so now since moving onto an all meat & water diet and the most noticeable change has been my weight. I immediately lost 2kg just by dropping all veg and I felt great! I’ve also been sleeping very well with 8-10 hrs solid rest being the norm. The other thing I noticed was my stools. These became very firm, less frequent but very regular, around once every 24 hrs or so. As soon as I add anything back into my diet like veg, berries or carbs, this immediately changes to any random consistency & predictability.
The Bristol Stool Chart or Meyers Scale
If you consider the above chart, since going Meat & Water I am consistently at 3 & 4. Prior to this, on a daily basis, I was anywhere on the scale – it was a completely random affair! Also, if you look at types 6 & 7, this indicates inflammation, with types, 3 & 4 being classed as normal. Also, because Type 5 indicates a “lack of fibre”, this tells me that the requirement for fibre in your diet is a complete myth, since I’m not getting any at all! The change has been so remarkable that for me this is probably the single most important reason why I’m so convinced that Meat & Water (ZERO CARB) is the ultimate LIHF diet. To be perfectly honest, my GI health has never been better.
Performance
I haven’t noticed any major improvements in strength. I seem to have plateaued since the end of 2016 but this does not worry me – plateaus are normal. However, if my weight continues to fall, I hope to see a small increase in performance, as per Diet Limitation Theory. Time will tell..
I have started to include some HIIT rope jump training 3x/ wk and scale back on some fat intake by dropping eggs in order to try & lose some stubborn fat around my waist. I reckon I could lose another 2 kg or so which would put me right back to where I was when I started training, a year ago! Since doing so, my appetite has come down and I am eating less in general, around 1kg or so of meat/ day. Again, I’m feeling absolutely fine!
Conclusions
I am very happy with how things are going, both with the training and the diet. I’m looking forward to the summer and seeing whether or not I can lose some more weight and increase my performance. As far as the diet is concerned, I have absolutely no intention of going back to veg anytime soon! I’m looking forward to getting my next set of bloods done, hopefully sometime during the summer..
