Written by Yesterday, I hit the 6 week mark of my sugar-free eating. Results have been very positive so far! Since February, when I originally started the slow-carb diet, I’ve dropped 27 pounds. I started at 248, lost 20 pounds in the first 40 days, slacked off for a little while, then restarted as a full-on sugar-free experiment over the last 6 weeks, and have now lost an additional 7 pounds.
The first four weeks of sugar-free eating didn’t seem to make much difference in the way of additional weight loss, with me hanging around the 225-228 range. In the last 2 weeks, I’ve also gone off of diet soda, which seemed to restart fat loss, dropping me as low as 221 this weekend!
The original intent of going sugar-free was to eliminate taking allopurinol, a medication designed to limit uric acid production. The theory is that ingesting fructose increases uric acid production, which leads to my gout symptoms, so if I cut out the source of uric acid overproduction instead of taking a medication to limit it, I’d be better off. That part of the experiment has gone well too. I’ve been off of allopurinol for the last 5 weeks with no ill effects.
Athletically, I continue to improve with new personal records. I’ve hit 23 pullups in a row (in high school I couldn’t even do one). I improved my 5K time by another 1:09 down to 27:08. And, this weekend, I set a new personal best on Crossfit’s “Murph” workout by improving by 3:28 to 38:50. That’s run a mile, do 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and run another mile.
Now, for some pictures. I hesitate to post them because it’s pretty awkward to post a couple of shirtless flex poses. So, if you don’t want want to see shirtless pictures of a 42 year-old guy that’s still in process of losing fat, stop here.
This picture from 2004 is probably the peak of my shame, probably weighing in at about 270-275. My typical day had virtually unrestricted access to regular Coke, candy, and processed foods.
This one is from Labor Day Weekend in 2005. My wife and I hadn’t yet started the South Beach Diet style of eating. Ample moobs and muffin top pressing against my rash guard. Mmmmm. Muffin top.
Over the next couple of years, I leaned out using the South Beach Diet and had this picture taken to contrast the first one.
Since 2008, I had slacked off, bouncing around with my weight and peaking at 248 back in January 2011. It was time to change. I started the Slow-Carb Diet, but didn’t take any pictures. Then, in May 2011, with courage gained in nutrition experimentation gained from Tim Ferriss’ book, The Four Hour Body, I started my sugar-free experiment. The following pictures are 1 month apart, after going sugar-free (again, please forgive the goofy flex poses):
Before:
And After:
Before:
And After:
The differences are fairly subtle, and at 7 pounds apart, not nearly as dramatic as they would have been had I taken pictures earlier in the year and 27 pounds ago. Whatever. I’ll call it successful so far and continue to eat sugar-free for the remainder of the summer, since that was my original experiment. We’ll see what happens next.
Related Posts:
- 4 Weeks Sugar Free
- Sugar Free Summer Update
- The Sugar-Free Summer Experiment
- 6 Weeks of the Slow Carb Diet
- The Cheat Day
