PSMF Day 5 Stats: 

Weight: 211.8
Fat Percentage: 26.2

I’m not sure how I feel about this yet…

I mean its completely reasonable that your body wouldn’t drop super noticibly daily. I get that. I also messed up a bit yesterday by intaking way too much sodium (I hadn’t gotten a chance to get home for a protein shake and ate packaged turkey which had 650 mg’s of sodium per serving. I, having had 200 calories for the day ate the entire package of 4 servings. 10 grams of protein per serving AND only 60 cals per serving) so I’m aware I could have a little water weight on me. It would be completely unfare since I did nothing but flonkin DRINK WATER all day, but I did end my water day with a sodium turkey splurge.

But according the stupid body fat thingy on the scale, I went down in my fat percentage. How is that POSSIBLE? It gave me a 26.2 reading I just did the calculations with the exact numbers (more decimals and crap) and according to THAT, I lost 1.48 ponds of FAT. But The scale didn’t move. I checked multiple times. So I somehow gained 1.48 pounds of muscle? On about 500 calories yesterday?  WTF?

All sorts of things aren’t adding up. Did i mention I walked around, I dunno, 8 miles yesterday? Decided I should get a little exercise in. I also didn’t take well to the turkey (or so my stomach gurgling told me) and lets say after walking that 8 miles my body evacuated all that turkey out of a rear exit soon as I arrived home. I was sure THAT, plus the sweating while walking would have to mess wtih my water. I was trying to replace any fluids lost but I was tired and on 500 calories at the time so I might’ve not been thinking straight.

Seriously. I don’t understand this.

Do I use weights? Yes. I’m trying to keep as much muscle mass as possible, but I was not trying to gain anything because, well, theoretically its impossible. Lean muscle mass gains on severly limited calories are not supposed to happen. So agian I say, WTF?

Okay. I’m going to stop obsessing over what just MIGHT be a fluke on the scale. It doesn’t make sense to me and I assume in a day or 5  I’ll understand what’s going on. Until then I’ll just stare at hese stats googling the shit out of various terms in hopes of explaining it.

Day 5. No one has been cut. Except my pinky toes. Walking 8 miles in bad shoes? Not so good for them.

Really, really, really want a burger with cheese though. Some bacon too. Who knew I’d dream of my low carb diet after a few days on this confounded PSMF?

PSMF Day 3 Stats

Weight: 212 pounds
Body Fat: 27.2

214 to 212 (or 211.4 or 212.6 if you listen to 4 different times I weighed in. I didn’t believe it so I KEPT weighing myself until it said something different. Funny enough, the last weigh in was 212 which is about the middle. It was like the scale was like “Fine, lets compromise.”)

“I’m” fully aware you can’t lose that much fat in a day so no one needs to alert me of this.  I assume (especially with the 211, which is what I’m gonna think in my HEAD) that it’s more water. Which I’m AMAZED by. How is that possible? I’ve been ketogenic for months now. How in holy hell could I be losing so much water when, theoretically I shouldn’t have gained that much?

I don’t have the science on this, yet, but I’m assuming that a crazy amount of sodium outweighs a ketogenic diet’s ability to act as a natural diuretic.  I did gain 5 pounds while in full blast ketosis, basically in a day. I knew that was water. But what I didn’t take into consideration is “What if I had been losing weight (i.e. fat) while retaining water?” The scale wouldn’t move or it would even go up, and I wouldn’t be aware of the actual fat loss.

Again, this is me theorizing. But man-o-chevitz, it sounds reasonable.

I’m NOT dehydrated because I’m drinking plenty of water (3/4ths to a gallon a day now.) My body is just letting go I guess. I never considered sodium as the cause of a plateau. If you just keep gaining a bit of water cause of various things (for me bacon, smoked fish, diet sodas and other salty stuff) you could be hiding your own progress. Then your plateau would “break” one day when you decide to get a bit more stringent and cut out all the nonsense i.e. you’d flush the extra sodium out.

I need to do reasearch on this to see if this is a solid argument. I think we’ve all read that we lose so much water weight and that sodium can make you gain weight, but the theory is your fat loss is stalled during this time. I’m starting to think maybe not.

And with today being day 3 of my PSMF. No one has been cut yet. Hooray.

PSMF – DAY 2 Stats

Weight: 214.0 pounds
Body Fat: 27.5%

Well I wasn’t quite expecting this.

On my first full day on PSMF I went from 219.4 to 214.0. Wowwee.  I knew I had packed on some water weight but in the back of my mind I was freaking out thinking it was actually some fat. I know that I’ve been watching the carbs, like HARDCORE, and as Dr. Michael R. Eades says (Yes, I quote Dr. Eades all the time. No, he’s NOT paying me – Although I need to try to make that happen) most people can enjoy a caloric surplus while low carbing and gain nothing. They won’t lose weight, but certainly won’t gain. I was enjoying my share of food when I went up 5 pounds and I’ve been taught by society that eating bacon and steak weill make me fat. Even if all the studying I’ve done in the past few months says otherwise, this concept is deep rooted in my psyche. I have moments of fear. I’m doing something stupid, I think.

But then the scale and my body tells me otherwise.

I’m not expecting any more big jumps like that.  As I said in an earlier post, I had weighed in at 214 about a week ago and didn’t believe it. Thought it was dehydration.  Lo and behold, after drinking a gallon of water yesterday I’m back to 214. I feel good about it.  Today at 11am the only thing I’ve ingested are my suppliments which include:

Fish Oil
Multi Vitamin
Fiber Pills
EC Stack
Sesamin
Tonalin CLA

I will fully admit that I’m not sure all of these things are necessary. The Sesamin and Tonalin are simply because I’ve heard a lot of good things about them So I’m trying it. THe multi-vitamin, fiber, and fish oil are very helpful when doing something so protein heavy. The EC Stack is to give me a bit of a boost.  Energy and Appetite suppression helps a big deal when doing something like this. I do fear that it might interfere somehow so I plan to do a little more research to find out but as of now, I’m not hungry and I’m alert. Awesome things in my book.  I gotta say, if for nothing else, I’m appreciative of this PSMF because it’s showed me that my 214 weight wasn’t a fluke. COUNT IT.

So as of now? I’m not going to cut anyone…still. I’m amazed.

So I’ve been eating a ridiculous amount of sodium.

Lean Protein. We will be one.

I wasn’t really paying attention to it, but I do  love Smoked Salmon and Bacon. Carb free? Yes, but JESUS that’s a lot of sodium. After a few days of that one day I literally swung 5 pounds upwards. That’s right, in  1 flonkin’ day! I realized this was water but it didn’t make me feel better. Even if was 100 percent water I would’ve preferred a swing of maybe 2 or 3 pound upwards, because hopefully I was moving a few pounds downwards.

Plus: Have I mentioned my G/f? She really, desperately wants me to stop worrying about every minutia of what I eat. She knows while I keep fighting to get my weight down that I can’t do that but she would really like it if I did. Summers coming and she wants us to go out and have a good time! Hell, “I” want to go out and have a good time.  I’d love a night where I don’t think “I’m slowing my weight loss.” The only way that’ll EVER happen is if no longer have any weight to lose.

And then through my googling I ran into PSMF.

What’s that you say? PSMF(Protein Sparing Modified Fast) is a method for quick fat loss while maintaining as much lean muscle mass as possible.  It’s used for people who have a lot of weight to lose.  I don’t have 300 pounds but dammit I do have a good 30 to 40 go to if I want to be what doctors consider healthy. I used a BMI calculator this morning and it told me that I was IN FACT obese. I can’t even try the excuse  “But I’m really muscular” because I’m not working out like I should. I do believe I have a higher amount of muscle than some but not enough to make me obese when I’m really Fits McGee.

So “Obese Elon” has decided to give the whole PSMF a go and then go back to the Low Carb lifestyle. Low Carbing has definitely  gotten me down a few pounds but I’ve done things that sometimes hinders it from really knocking out the other pounds I want gone. I’ve done it 3 times (This time being the longest I’ve stayed on, and the smallest I’ve been in my adult life.) When you start-stop-start again it makes it harder to keep that weight dropping. Your body is trained to keep that weight. I need to retrain it.

And lets be honest. I’m impatient.

Obviously its been working and I would continue to drop pounds for the next few months at a steady rate but I’m not built that way. I have moments of intense focus and then I zone out. For me, I’ve learned to use those moments to get the most done. Whether it be learning, exercising or anything – I attack it and try to get the most out of it. I’ve embraced Low Carb eating and LOVE it. At the same time, while most people LC’ing can eat alot and not gain weight, weight loss is another ball of wax.

So here I go.

Today is Day 1 of my PSMF. I doubt I can do more than 2 weeks to a month of it because the regimen is pretty rough. About 1 gram of protein per pound you weigh. Try to cut out all fats and as for carbs? Ha! Not even a slight option. For me, who believes so much in the low carb lifestyle, this seems reasonable. I read a post by Dr. Eades about his usage of PSMF and how it spawned his first book. The web has people discussing it all over and their time on it. So I’m willing to give it a try.

Don’t be surprised if in 2 days I just type a string of curses and use it as my post.  I hope I’ll glide through this but theres a distinct possibility that I may cut someone.

Day 1 Stats

Start Weight: 219.4  (Yup,  stupid water shift)
Fat Percentage: 27.6 (According to my fickle scale)