It’s the sugar!

…and other simple (but not easy) habits to lose weight

This is not a medical advice

I have surprised myself that I am now at a desirable BMI (Body Mass Index) of below 23 (A desirable limit range for Asian male). In January 2024 it was at 25.5. Correspondingly, I now weight below 62 kg compared to 72 kg then. Obviously, people notice my altered physique and I have found myself, if the other party is willing to listen, going into some lecture on how I did it. This post is a record of what I would say;

Firstly, you need to reassess your mindset.

It’s not just exercise, it’s your diet!

Diet has the greater bearing to losing weight than exercise.

We have been conditioned to believe that one needs exercise in order to shed weight. Over years, I did just that but to no sustainable results. It helped at the beginning but eventually progress plateau. Worse, I gained weight no matter how much I do. Exercise is crucial but not the only component that helped. Diet probably contribute 2/3 of the outcome, if not more.

Moderation is for maintenance

People say that eat or do everything in moderation. I counter this maxim that moderation is for maintenance. It does not apply when you have a goal to shed weight or gain muscles. You need some level of extremism and effort to overcome your lifestyle inertia to move from where you are now to where you want to become.

Easier if you understand the science

I find it more meaningful and easier for me to stick to my routine once I understand the relevant science on how our body works. Learn about the role glucose play in our body and many more. We live in a world where overly abundance of resources such as YouTube, influencers, digital libraries, podcasts and now ChatGPT are available and correct knowledge is just clicks away.

Resistance training burns more fat than cardio based exercises

Going back to exercise – many believe that running, jogging or any other cardio based exercises are the go to work out to burn fat. It turns out that resistance training is the more effective option to lose weight. Cardio based workouts strengthen cardiopulmonary system. It’s still a very good workout but one has to complement such work out with resistance training. Resistance training cause your muscles to use up your excess fat as energy more than when you are running. Resistance training also build muscles needed for proper strength and balance ability to prevent falls as one ages.

The world had spent too much time promoting cardiac health so much so that strength and balance training has been neglected that society now believes that we only need a strong heart to live a healthy life. This is far from the truth – we also need to be able to remain confidently ambulant and able to take falls or not to fall.

Set your goal – you also need a base to start from

It gets a bit technical here but bear with me. It’s important to be able to measure progress not only in form of your weight. Before you start seeing the scale going down, there are some internal measures that we have to have before we see the finality of weight coming down. Before I started my new routine, I did a blood test to determine a base. I did another blood test 3 months later to ensure that my weight loss does not compromise my internal physiological state.  This measurement includes;

1. HbA1c level – we are familiar with spot blood glucose level. Instead of a spot reading for your glucose, HbA1c, known as Glycated Hemoglobin tells how much your blood has been exposed to glucose or glycated over its lifespan. The desirable level should be below 5.7%. Because HbA1c is a reading of an average over 2 to 3 months (which is the typical lifespan of a hemoglobin cell), it lets you know how much glucose you have been consuming over the corresponding period. (You will find that glucose plays a crucial part in weight control). Get a base line and see if it’s necessary to improve it i.e. reduce or eliminate glucose intake.
2. Lipid panel indicators – measures your level of LDL, HDL, triglycerides. Aim for higher HDL and a low Cholesterol Ratio. Taking fish oil supplements will help increase HDL levels. There are other nuances to the desirable levels of individual LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and cholesterol. However, my anecdotal understanding is that you are good if you are within range for your Cholesterol Ratio.

Your doctor should be able to elaborate on your results and not just telling you ‘your results are good or ok’. Follow up by questioning why is it ok or good or even otherwise.

OK, with the such preliminaries set, the following is my approach;

Eliminate sugary drinks

Eating fat does make you fat. It’s excess glucose that you don’t need and stored away in your body as fat. Our body somehow has limitless space to store fat. That’s how we become obese. Fat is our spare fuel or energy reserve. If you want to lose weight, you need to condition your body to use up this reserve. You need to stop supplying fresh glucose into your body. This comes from digestible carbohydrates – sugar, starch, etc. The body will always use fresh glucose as fuel and will leave fat untouched so long as the former is available. It’s almost certain that you will consume more glucose than required at any given time and hence adding more reserve back to the body. More fat added equals more weight added.

So, if you are looking to shed some kilos – you need to first eliminate digestible carbohydrates from your diet. The one that contribute the most in today’s society, SUGAR in your drinks. Observe what drinks you order each time you have a meal. Today, I have a simple choice of either plain water, or black coffee, or tea with no sugar or creamer added. It’s also cheaper too.

The very first step – totally eliminate drinks with sugar or anything that’s sweet. This include any form of alcoholic beverages.

Glycemic Index – what you eat

Many of our foods readily available (especially in Asian context) are starch or flour based. These are also our staple foods, conditioned and grown up with it. Variation of rice, noodles, vermicelli and the sorts are everywhere. Unfortunately, these are cheap rich source of carbohydrates and hence we inherently get them in excess. Even breads are a bad choice as they are made from flour. It’s impossible to totally not consume food without carbohydrates. To navigate this, it helps to become aware of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load. Being aware of GI and GL is where it truly separates those that are successful and those that become frustrated. It’s beyond me to adequately cover GI and GL here and I encourage one to do self research on the subject. I will however, attempt to pen down my understanding of GI.

GI is a measure of how easy food gets converted into glucose. Pure glucose has a GI of 100. Food with absolute no ability to become glucose has GI of zero. Taking high GI food cause a phenomenon known as glucose spike. Glucose spike occurs when we consume foods that are easily converted into glucose. The easier and faster food gets converted in glucose, the higher the GI.

Taking lots of high GI foods in a short time is akin to overfilling your car fuel tank. Except and unlike a fuel tank, we seem to have unlimited capacity for fuel. The body will work to convert glucose to fat no matter how much its being fed and all too soon it will become overworked. The medical term to describe this overworked situation is insulin resistance where your insulin can no longer convert glucose into fat as quick as glucose being fed into the body. Consequently, you have ‘too much’ sugar in your blood or what we know as type 2 diabetes. While you are getting obese, you are also becoming susceptible to become a type 2 diabetic patient. It’s no wonder that most diabetic patient are obese first.

So, what do I eat or not eat?

1. No rice or noodles or vermicelli – anything that’s made from flour or rice based.
2. No bread as they are flour based.
3. Nothing that’s fried.
4. None of any variation of roti canai or roti prata.
5. No fruit juices – this totally negate the benefits of taking fruits. My view is that drinking fruit juices is just consuming the bad parts (sugar) of a fruit while discarding the good parts (fiber).
6. Instead, I eat;
   1. Meats (grilled or cooked but never fried).
   2. Fish (never fried)
   3. Eggs (any form of preparation as long as not prepared with oil.)
   4. Vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. These are high in fiber with minimal GI rating.
   5. Fruits such as avocado, guava, pomegranate, blue berries. Avoid high sugar fruits such as grapes, mangoes and over-ripe bananas (best to take bananas just before they are ripe.) Among other nutrients fruits provide, it’s also a good source of fiber that you will need to maintain a good gut health. Do not underestimate the criticality of fiber in your diet.

Do intermittent fasting – when to eat

Practice intermittent fasting. It’s the most potent catalyst in shedding extra kilos. The standard is to fast for at least 16 hours. My approach is to have an early dinner usually between 5 pm to 6 pm. Thereon, I take no other food or snacks except for water till next morning at 10 am for breakfast.

Technically, you are allowed to consume anything that is zero calories. As I usually wake up before 6 am, I will have black coffee with no sugar. I will then do my usual routine of catching up with the news, getting my boys to school, and sending my other half to work. Capping this routine would be my usual 4 to 6 km brisk walk. I will then break fast then, which would be around 10 am by then.

This routine helps in encouraging ketosis – a biological process where fat is used as energy and thus reducing weight. Another plus you get from fasting is autophagy. It’s another biological process where good cells tear down unhealthy cells as food. It’s like a recycling process. Autophagy is crucial and helps rid unhealthy cells from your body that could otherwise mutate to become cancerous.

Here’s my meal routine:

Breakfast at 10am: 2 to 4 half boiled eggs. Sometimes, I add avocado when it’s available.

Lunch: Fruits and nuts as snack – usually guava and peanuts (I use air fryer to roast raw peanuts obtained from the supermarket.

Dinner by 6 pm or even earlier at 4 pm (which means I can break fast earlier the next day): Meat based foods like beef, chicken, or fish. None which are fried. I prepare myself or visit western food outlets and order accordingly. These are complemented with vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.

No cheats for 3 months

I had this routine strictly for 3 months with no cheat days. For sanity, I allow myself  cheat days only after I attained the range of results I aimed for. I was fortunate that I picked the months of September to December to practice routine above. These 3 months are my lull period in a calendar year. There are no celebrations or festivities in between so it’s easier to keep to the routine.

The one ‘cheat’ that made it all happen

There is one cheat that I had that made my weight loss journey a reality. A friend who had done it earlier himself. I am forever grateful to this friend, who is about 20 years older than me and still able to keep his looks and youth comparable with me if we stood side my side. We met for dinner in late August and basically gave me this pointers:

1. It’s the sugar. Remove sugar entirely from your diet.
2. Take protein – from eggs, meat. No carbohydrates.
3. Do intermittent fasting
4. Do it for 3 months – be strict about it. You may be heckled by your peers, your spouse even but they will be quiet once they see the results.
5. Do you own research!
6. I will check on you again after 3 months.

And so, I did. We met again about 3 months later presenting my new physique. I surprised him while he was even more inspired. Now both of us became advocates of weight loss to other friends who need it.

A new goal – build muscles

I am now in the process of developing muscles while maintaining my weight. From just kilograms to body composition. For this, it will be another post.