I just received notice that my kit is delivering today, so I figured I better get this on here! I doubt I will update it daily but maybe this will hold me accountable and it will be interesting to see the results. Sorry to make this intro long, but….
I’m doing this for 2 reasons. The first is to lose a few pounds. I’m 49 years old and it looks like my metabolism is grinding to a halt. Despite exercising more than I usually do (still not much compared to most people) but I lift twice a week and do karate twice a week, the pounds keep slowly creeping on. Maybe not a ton of excess, but my weight has been steady at 190-195 for like 20 years and the fact that I have topped 200 pounds is odd for me. I wouldn’t mind getting to 184-189 range.
The second reason is that I am very interested to see if it will help my insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome and lipids although I am quite sure I have a genetic component that is standing in the way. As a backstory, when I was in my 20s, I would come in from outdoors in the heat and sweat for like 2 hours in the AC. Turns out my cholesterol was 370 and Triglycerides were 1700! Tried multiple statins and they all caused issues and my doctor said “well, if you can’t handle those then I don’t know what you can do”. So this was the late 90s and I went to an alternative doctor who said “your normal doctor will say I am an idiot, but you need to do this diet called Atkins. Trust me”. Needless to say, during the induction phase it was the only time that I am aware of that my lipids have been normal. I of course find it hard to just live on meat and cheese.
Now here I am at 49. I have had coronary calcium scores done (0!), but I have high blood pressure, TRT makes my H&H go very high despite being on 90 mg/week, and I have had a few of the advanced CardioIQ panels run through Quest that show I have elevated counts of all the bad kinds/sizes of lipids and now it shows I am insulin resistant. I eat fairly low carb (probably 50 grams max a day on average), and I stopped drinking like 2 years ago, but I can’t get things back in line anymore. I feel like I am toying with fate given that every man in my family has blockages, heart attacks, strokes, etc. My current doctor, who doesn’t normally get too worked up about cholesterol, e
ven admits that my lipids are screwed up. So, we tried me on Crestor 5 mg, 3 days a week. Even on that dose, the fatigue was unbearable. I tried it for 1 month and I was napping 3 or 4 times a day – I would have to pull over between jobs and sleep in a parking lot, or get home and I would pass out for an hour and a half nap. Within 2 days of stopping, my energy was back and the naps were gone.
So anyway, I need some weight loss, but I am hoping to see if it helps “reset” something to help with my metabolic syndrome. I like the thought of this diet, because I keep telling my doctors “don’t just tell me to eat healthy and give me a huge list of foods, tell me exactly what to eat and I can do that” well this diet tells me what to eat 4 times a day and then I can eat my normal healthy dinner with the family.
So that we have a comparison, I am posting a brief summary of recent labs as well as my measurements.
Cardio IQ Labs – 5/2/2023
Insulin resistance score – 70 (should be less than 33 ideally)
Total Cholesterol – 272 mg/dl
HDL Cholesterol – 40 mg/dl
Triglycerides – 356 mg/dl
LDL Cholesterol – 172 mg/dl (should be < 100)
Non HDL Cholesterol – 232 mg/dl (>220 is very high and indicative of familial hypercholesterolemia)
LDL Particle Number – 2653 nmol/L (<1138 ideal)
LDL Small – 634 nmol/L (<142 optimal)
LDL Medium – 347 nmol/L (<215 optimal)
HDL Large – 6067 nmol/L (>6729 optimum)
LDL Pattern B (A is ideal)
LDL Peak Size – 208.6 angstrom (>222.9 optimum)
Apolipoprotein B – 145 mg/dl (<90 ideal)
Lipoprotein A - <10 nmol/L (<75 ideal) (Holy crap, a good result!!!)
CRP – 0.6 mg/dl (<1 ideal) Wow another good result!
LP PLA2 Activity – 179 nmol/min/ml (<123 ideal)
Ferritin 27 (30-400) Tanked from donating blood!
Iron Saturation 17 (15-55)
Measurements 5/15/23
Weight 200.5 lbs
Arm Flexed – Left 15 ¼
Arm Flexed – Right 15 ¾
Chest High Relaxed – 45 ½
Waist – 1 inch above – 38
Waist – at navel – 38 ½
Waist below navel – 37 ½
Thighs – Both 23 ½
