21st Century Digital Boy

Probably the impossible problem of weight loss (and especially fat loss) is that, in the end, food is required. You know, for living. No food, and you die. But you knew that.

So, the goal of every weight loss program is to balance the need for food with the simple math of, “burn more calories than you intake”, right? Simple fasting - just eating less - is bad, because you might be depriving your body the appropriate energy needs (you might be deprived of protein, or some other thing).

So why do so many interesting things happen in a fasted state? (Via)

I guess the takeaway here is, “fuck it, I’m having another 18 glasses of Shiraz, I’ll see you on the floor.”

The LA Times has a bit on “fatblogging“. I never really did a lot of it; maybe one day I’ll go into it more. But here’s the before/after.

Before: 11 September 2005 on the Maryland Heights trail outside Harper’s Ferry. I weighed in excess of 260 pounds. 9 days after this pic was taken, I resolved to start taking a walk every other day.

After: This morning (17 June 2007) at Bull Run Park. 175 pounds, 15% bodyfat. I can pass (with a dreadfully low score, but passing nonetheless) a USMC Physical Fitness Test (PFT): with about an 8-9 minute mile, 5-6 pull ups, and ~50 situps in 2 minutes. (and no that’s not a Barbara Walters filter, there was a fuckton of smoke in the air from campfires plus diffuse morning sun)

And now, a plug: I read this blog for info on weight loss. Anyone who comes right out and says, “There are no advanced strategies for fat loss” - meaning you have to exercise and eat right - is in my humble but correct opinion probably worth a listen.

Yeah, so, while you’re wolfing down that chocolate for all its awesome polyphenols, bear in mind, it’s probably not even actually chocolate …

(Readers of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” are presently nodding and muttering “goddamn corn” to themselves.)

About the only people who can honestly say where their food came from - and what it is - are hippies who grow their own wheatgrass, and Ted Nugent. Let that irony soak in a little.

Forbes: Cocoa-rich products such as dark chocolate may help lower high blood pressure

Other things good for your blood pressure include not smoking, exercise, and a healthy, well-rounded diet.

But hey, go right ahead and eat that candy bar and get a gastric bypass. Ignore the part where it says, “However, in the studies we reviewed, the blood pressure results occurred with cocoa doses above the habitual intake and were observed only in the setting of short-term interventions.”