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Pryme

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Hi all,

 

I am new but have browsed the forum for awhile.

I became interested in longevity and have read 4 books about centenarians and super centenarians.

I have added so many new foods to my diet over the last year and eliminated a lot of garbage, with more work to do.

 

I cut all soda 2 years ago, milk about a year ago and have drastically cut meat and cheese.

 

Things I've added based on research have been local raw honey, bee pollen, blueberries, spirulina, wheat grass, curcumin, grape seed extract, extra virgin olive oil, mixed nuts, tons of greens and other vegetables etc etc. I feel better than ever.

 

I'm 39yrs old. 6'1" and 191lbs. That puts my bmi over 25, "overweight" but I have been lifting weights for over 2 decades. I am pretty lean. About 11-12% body fat would be a honest good guess. I wear 32x32 pants comfortably.

With that said, I do want to get down to about 180 or so.

I do not lift weights as heavy as I have in the past as I'm to a point it is not what I want for future longevity and has become harder on my body.

 

I recently ordered the book "The longevity diet" so looking forward to reading that.

 

I have been on CR for only a week. Doing 16:8 And it's been very easy. I go 18hrs some days. I usually fast from 10pm to around 2 or 3pm.

 

According to the TDEE calculators I need 2,940 cals a day to maintain. I am pretty active. 2.5-3+ mi fast walks a day not to mention all the walking I do at work. 30k plus steps a week at work alone.

 

3k cals seems very high considering I've read and watched plenty of things stating 1,600 to 1,900 cals a day being the norm in places with the longest lived people.

 

Any advice is welcome!

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Hey Pryme! Welcome to the forum. :)
 

Have you had any blood work done yet? It's a good idea to do that at the beginning of starting CR, just so you know where you are and then you can track the improvements as you continue the diet. Also, take it slow, there's no rush to lose weight... = ) 

 

We also have a Facebook CR Group, in case you're on there and want to join. 

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Thanks for the reply,

 

I read through that link, thank you.

 

As a back story, I spent all of my 20s and most of my 30's between 225-242lbs. Averaging about 234 I'd say.

I felt fine until my mid 30's and knew I wanted to make a change when my BP was at around 140/90 or so. That was when I was 36. Plus I had suffered a lower back injury that reoccured 2 times and I had had enough. So I cut weight. On my way down I did get a physical for a new job and requested blood work to see what it looked like.

I had blood work done at 220lbs about 18mo ago. Here are my results AT THAT TIME.

 

Cholesterol 157

Trig. 65

HDL 40

LDL 104

VLDL 13

chols/hdl ratio 3.9

Non HDL cholesterol 117

 

Glucose 90

 

The LDL was 4 points over but everything else was within range but could be a lot better. Which, in sure are way better now as I'm 30lbs lighter and am eating 10x better!

 

I only need to drop 2 more lbs to be within the healthy BMI range.

 

What do you guys think of those numbers? I'd like to check them again in about 6mo as I'm sure they are already a night and day difference.

My BP that day was 100/78 with a 64 pulse.

 

According to my Garmin watch and pulse checker on my phone my pulse now is amazing as resting is always avg around 50 as I see it at 45-53 resting always.

 

So that's my baseline write up. I should receive the book today or tomorrow!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Pryme welcome to the forum!

As Gordo suggested, there is a specific thread on BMI and people who do resistance exercise in the members area. There are no conclusions yet because the literature is apparently confusing, also I couldn't find specific analyses on such a specific sub-group with developed muscle mass (bodybuilders, weight lifters an so on). If BMI is a proxy for adiposity though, and you have a fat mass <=20%, then probably you shouldn't worry at all, that's my preliminary conclusion based on the latest study posted there and on plain old common sense. Actually I read you have <15% bodyfat, so you would lie in the lower mortality region according to adiposity.

 

 

 

I finished the book longevity diet. I enjoyed it and had some great key take-aways I will be using in my own diet and life.

Which book is that, Valter Longo's?

 

The forum is not overly active maybe because most topics have been disussed in the past, as far as I can understand, and many people have a consolidated, individual regime which they don't consider to change because it is evidently well suited to them. But they post eventually and their opinion is valuable. I'm still in a transitional phase, I like to write here but I'm often pretty busy, busier than I'd like to be actually, considering that more work does not necessarily equals more money here.

 

 

 

Things I've added based on research have been local raw honey, bee pollen, blueberries, spirulina, wheat grass, curcumin, grape seed extract, extra virgin olive oil, mixed nuts, tons of greens and other vegetables etc etc. I feel better than ever.

 

That's all good. In the forum we've been discussing to the hormetic/xenohormetic/mitohormetic aspects of the regimen, you might want to navigate a little, I'm an avid experimenter and supporter of the beneficial effects of plant-based phytochemicals and all hormetic stressors. Cold exposure is an interesting hormetic-systemic stressor discussed in this forum. Mitohormesis is simply exercise, also discussed at lenght. I'm presently practicing all forms of hormesis, all those I know at least.

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According to the TDEE calculators I need 2,940 cals a day to maintain. I am pretty active. 2.5-3+ mi fast walks a day not to mention all the walking I do at work. 30k plus steps a week at work alone.

 

3k cals seems very high considering I've read and watched plenty of things stating 1,600 to 1,900 cals a day being the norm in places with the longest lived people.

 

Any advice is welcome!

 

Pryme,

pls consider that the average of 1800 kcals cited for the blue zones:

  • Is an average of both sexes, probably being higher for males
  • Is usually related to an 'old' society, not comparable to modern standards of living. The one exception, the Loma Linda adventists, have an higher average caloric intake.

Also, pls note that the concept f caloric restriction is debated.

Strict CR as preached by the old guard of this forum requires what I define a degree of emaciatedness, with restricted carbs and fats. There is a sticky by Michael Rae specifying exactly what you have to do to be in strict CR. That implies a bodyweight at least 15% less than your optimal setpoint (ideal lean weight) in your twenties.

 

Other members reject such a strict definition, adopting a wider concept of restricted as 'moderated'.

Also, physical exercise is not factored into CR, so it effects would be according to some more detrimental than beneficial because it would make you hungrier and thinner.

 

My personal outlook is that it depends on your very individual ideas. Some people here like the idea of a very thin bodyframe with all the pros and cons of a pronounced thinnes (lower testosterone, IGF-1, blood sugar, thermal production and so on).

 

Other people like myself like better the idea of a strong and fit bodyframe fed by an healthy, hormetic, plant based diet and trained by not excessive physical exercise, cold exposure practices.

 

You'll have to decide for yourself what direction to take. The fact that strict CR is beneficial to longevity has not been shown in man and higher mammals (monkeys), whereas it has been proven in lab rats.

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> The fact that strict CR is beneficial to longevity has not been shown in man and higher mammals (monkeys), whereas it has been proven in lab rats.

 

"proven" is a bit strong.  The studies have issues such as small numbers of mice of limited genetics housed in unnatural conditions and fed unnatural foods.

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Pryme welcome to the forum!

As Gordo suggested, there is a specific thread on BMI and people who do resistance exercise in the members area. There are no conclusions yet because the literature is apparently confusing, also I couldn't find specific analyses on such a specific sub-group with developed muscle mass (bodybuilders, weight lifters an so on). If BMI is a proxy for adiposity though, and you have a fat mass <=20%, then probably you shouldn't worry at all, that's my preliminary conclusion based on the latest study posted there and on plain old common sense. Actually I read you have <15% bodyfat, so you would lie in the lower mortality region according to adiposity.

 

 

 

 

I finished the book longevity diet. I enjoyed it and had some great key take-aways I will be using in my own diet and life.

Which book is that, Valter Longo's?

 

The forum is not overly active maybe because most topics have been disussed in the past, as far as I can understand, and many people have a consolidated, individual regime which they don't consider to change because it is evidently well suited to them. But they post eventually and their opinion is valuable. I'm still in a transitional phase, I like to write here but I'm often pretty busy, busier than I'd like to be actually, considering that more work does not necessarily equals more money here.

 

 

 

Things I've added based on research have been local raw honey, bee pollen, blueberries, spirulina, wheat grass, curcumin, grape seed extract, extra virgin olive oil, mixed nuts, tons of greens and other vegetables etc etc. I feel better than ever.

 

That's all good. In the forum we've been discussing to the hormetic/xenohormetic/mitohormetic aspects of the regimen, you might want to navigate a little, I'm an avid experimenter and supporter of the beneficial effects of plant-based phytochemicals and all hormetic stressors. Cold exposure is an interesting hormetic-systemic stressor discussed in this forum. Mitohormesis is simply exercise, also discussed at lenght. I'm presently practicing all forms of hormesis, all those I know at least.

Thank you for your detailed reply.

The longevity diet is all about CR, I was under the impression this forum is based off that book as I've seen a couple people posting here mentioned in the book.

 

I am now reading "healthy at 100" by John Robbins and so far it is very good.

 

I am now 187lbs and feel great! I cut 11lbs since Oct 27th. I will now slow my cut way down as I don't want to lose a bunch of the muscle I've added over the last 22 years lifting weights but I do want to work my way down to about 180. I feel that will be a good weight for my body. Much much lighter than I've been since I was a senior in HS. I weighed about 175 or so when I graduated but didn't start weight training until my junior year at about 168lbs. I'm 6'1" and was than too.

I feel my body is way more efficient at this lower weight.

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> The fact that strict CR is beneficial to longevity has not been shown in man and higher mammals (monkeys), whereas it has been proven in lab rats.

 

"proven" is a bit strong.  The studies have issues such as small numbers of mice of limited genetics housed in unnatural conditions and fed unnatural foods.

 

 

Right todd, it has been proven in experiments led on lab rats/mice under lab (unnatural) conditions. And in other smaller animals like drosophila, C. Elegans and yeast if I'm not wrong, all in lab conditions of course.

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