Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Experimenting with my long term weight maintenance n=1 with AltShift

I'm excited to be starting the AltShift protocol (Jason Seib) today. 

These are all my own opinions, as always, at this time, I remain a non-commercial blogger.







Even though I'm well within my "normal" BMI goals - AKA, I can meet my $40 a month insurance discount in 2016, I could stand more n=1 in long term weight maintenance.

It's nice to be able to unbuckle my seat belt and move about the Paleo-ish, Weight Management cabin, so to speak. 3.5 years into long term normal weight (previously I had yo-yo dieted for 40 years). 

 I've also accumulated a little bit more subcutaneous fat than I would like and despite my best efforts, It's not moving by a few shifts I've tried myself.

Here's what I like about the plan:

1. 5 out of the 8 days are pretty much my current food template, Paleo-ish, no sugars no grains.
2. 3 days out of the 8 days  match what my 23nMe genetic report say works for my body type for fat loss.
3. It's inexpensive ($25 for the ebook and access to the Facebook group)
4. I can monitor my changes safely by using my home glucose monitor to make sure I'm not increasing my risks to develop type 2 diabetes. 

So that's the scoop. I'll let you know how it's working. Hey for $25 getting the Facebook support group access was well worth it. Those are some nice people, with similar goals.

In the past, here's what didn't work

1. Eating high carb, processed diet foods that kept my hs-CRP high
2. Not taking personal geneotype and phenotype into consideration and n=1
3. Paying $10 per month to moderate all foods.
4. Not doing home glucose testing.
I'm free to move about the cabin in long term weight maintenance, 30K feet


15 comments:

  1. I bought the book yesterday - excited to get to reading! I'm curious what he recommends. I didn't know about the facebook group - may need to look into that.

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    1. Jess.... let me know how it works. The FB group is pretty awesome.

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  2. Karen, I bought the book on Friday when it was available.The concept is very interesting to me though I have not tried it yet. I do appreciate the success Jason's wife has had with the protocol/diet. I might try it in a few weeks if my weight loss stalls. I had really been on the fence about totally grain free and higher fat. But I am embracing it fully right now because eating grains (like Ezekiel bread) is not doing me any favors. I am not going bonkers with the amount of fat I eat, but I am not worrying about full fat yogurt and cheese. I do feel satisfied and less likely to eat sweets, which is truly my downfall.

    I will be so interested to see how you do on the plan and whether you plan on doing it indefinitely.

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    1. PS I am also curious for your to report back what starchy foods you incorporate on the 3 day portion of the diet.

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    2. Ali, yeah! I wasn't going to buy it, but everything Jason Seib and Sarah Fragoso promote works really super well for me - probably I'm much like many of their 40-50 year old menopausal clients. I would guess many of us have similar geneotypes and that's why their advice works so well.

      Yeah, getting off gluten (Medifast), then reading Refuse to Regain ( get off all grains for weight maintenance), then getting my hs-CRP (inflammation marker done) in check- heck- even dairy was inflammatory for me. It would have been silly for me to continue to keep inflammatory grains or dairy in my food template.

      I will be doing only starchier veggies and monitoring my glucose like a hawk until I get my insurance discount blood work done (early October). I will likely be still somewhat low carb even on 3Shift days. My geneotype is stacked with multiple, homozygous type 2 risk factors. No matter what any Paleo guru says, I've got to respect the geneotype and the resulting glucose spikes.

      I know I can n=1 this in my own way and get great results. I just cant follow the tropical fruit and grains crowd over the lemming cliff.. LOL.

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  3. Sounds interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing how it works for you!

    It was great seeing your scope the other day! Looking forward to more!

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    1. Thanks, Andrea!!! That was my first of hopefully several Periscopes. It was a good test. Unfortunately, I did not hit the save to my camera feature so I could not upload it to Youtube.

      I had wanted to change shirts before I recorded but my daughter urged me not to "You look sporty, Mom". Most of my excess skin is in my middle, thighs, and upper arms. I know that wearing my workout shirt showed off some of that. I took pride that I have body acceptance and I noticed it on camera, folded my arms over it and smiled, but continued filming and didn't hate on myeslf.

      It felt good to know that friendly folks like yourself and Jimmy Moore were watching. I'll do a separate Perisope about excess skin after weight loss.... Thanks again, Andrea!!!

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  4. Do you think Half Size Me can help me stop bingeing? I'm at the point where I think nothing can help when I get the over powering urge to binge.

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    1. Joan, also, try it for a low cost for 2 weeks. There is a binge eating group at Half Size Me that is private. I do not belong to that group because if even 1 person in the group is recommending to me moderate eating of grains or sugars, it becomes a slippery slope back into my food addiction. I would be better off in an abstining 12 step program if and when I need that kind of support.

      I attend Half Size Me for the weight maintainer group, primarily. I lend support to those on their path, but I have to be careful not to slip into a moderate eater mindset. I cannot moderately eat sugars (except for 85% chocolate) or I lapse into life long food addiction. It's always there (my genetics and environment pulled the trigger), but I can live happily in food sobriety day in, day out.

      Good luck. I cannot say if it will help you or not. That is a call for a licensed medical professional.

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  5. Joan, I'm not sure. You may want to check with your doctor first and go from there. Half Size Me is an online support group.

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  6. Will be interested to see how this works for you. I'm always looking to see what works for those successfully maintaining, as I hope to be soon. :)

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    1. Anna, thanks. I'm doing it mainly as part of a yearly challenge- each year I challenge myself to see if I can improve- only when I think things need fixing. In the last year, I do feel like I've gained several pounds of subcutaneous fat. Not a bad thing from a health perspective- (visceral fat is highest risk for diseases like type 2, non-alchoholic fatty liver disease, etc).

      Butt (LOL- punny...;)) Hey, I've had a lifetime of obesity, age 6-46. Part of long term weight maintenance is feeling great in my clothes along with bone health, good metabolic outcomes. It is motivating for me..... so......

      It seems to me that AltShtift also meshes will with my genotype report from 23nMe.... yes, low fat was really effective when I was WW-ing and Medifasting, but it was terrible for my binge eating and metabolic hormonal effect. Yes, I lost weight, but I was binge eating and thin. My hs-CRP was really raised, raising my heart attack risk eating dairy, and my glucose would be very high if I ate a lot of tropical fruit.

      Will post an update in early October... :)

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  7. I had the 23nMe test done but where do I find out about what "diet" is right for me?

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  8. Hi K Davis. There are several companies who will charge you several hundred dollars to produce a report with diet and exercise best fits. I used the $5 Promethease upload to a huge HTML report. There, I picked over my report myself, made note of things like my two lactose gene copies and a 77% chance of being lactose intolerant and my results after reintroducing dairy after a whole30 and said to myself, well, it's a good thing I removed dairy and I shouldn't moderate it either.

    http://snpedia.com/index.php/SNPedia is the HTML service linked into the 23Nme raw data.

    If anyone has a genetic report that they like, feel free to post the company name. There will be more companies in the future, but navigating the FDA regulations for lab testing is very, very tricky right now, as 23nMe found out a few years ago.

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