From Obese to Fit
Introduction
Hi. My name is Juan Sarmiento, DVM, Ph.D. I am a veterinary pathologist and have been a scientist for most of my professional life. I have always been focused on my career and had grown resigned to the idea that we all gain weight as we age, especially because I come from a family with a long history of obesity.
In November 2008, I reached my 52nd birthday. Then I learned of my risk for prostatic cancer, like my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather. The urologist told me as he patted me in the belly: “Obesity is one of the main risk factors for developing this neoplasia”. “What would I do?” I asked the doctor. “I have been eating right and exercising for years and I keep gaining weight!”. He replied that his job was not to tell me how to lose weight. He just wanted to call attention to my risk factors.
What is OMAD?
Less than 1 year later, September 2009, I watched a memorable CBS 60 minutes show. They interviewed General McChrystal, commander of the US forces in Afghanistan at that time. He said he ran 7 miles and ate only one meal a day (OMAD), every day. He added that he started his OMAD habit when he was a lieutenant and somewhat overweight. Over the years I had tried several unsustainable methods to lose weight. Then I was walking daily for 45 min and eating a low-fat diet. Yet my weight kept increasing with age. My eating habits were fairly consistent. In retrospect, I had a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet with staples such as potato casseroles, pasta or rice and fish and chicken as the main sources of protein, I rarely ate meat, and no more than 2 eggs a week, fat-free milk and yogourt, most commonly.
My new lifestyle
Listening to General McChrystal, I decided that his OMAD plan would work for me. I thought I was not going to have a hard time of it. Since I could eat in one meal whatever I wished to have. McChrystal spoke of his OMAD as a habit he had formed long ago. I was confident that I could develop any habit I wished. All I needed to do was sustain that new habit for 21 days or more. I decided that for me, the best time to have my one large meal was at noon.
As it turned out, this fateful decision was the best, as I learned later: Breaking fast later in the day maintains growth hormone elevated from night into day. I also, serendipitously, made the great choice of exercising early in the morning, while still in fast. This ensured my “keto-adaptation”. Thus, my body became adapted to use energy from my fat stores, rather than from my dietary carbohydrates. In those days, I was not familiar with terms such as “Intermittent Fasting” or the “Ketogenic Diet“
I started simply eating to satiety and eating my traditional high-carb, low-fat diet but only once a day. Only recently did I learned that I was actually doing the toughest, yet the most efficient way of intermittent fasting for weight loss: OMAD.
OMAD and exercise
The benefits of OMAD are multiple. But let me focus on what I could name as a direct effect due to my change in eating habits. Soon after I changed to OMAD (Nov 2009), I noticed that the pounds began to fall off almost immediately. At my heaviest, I was 227 lb (103 kg).
I set as a goal to go back to 200 lb. It took me a little over a year. But the changes I felt far exceeded the simple weight loss.
Contrary to most diet programs, I did not feel weakened by my food restriction. Quite the contrary. I started to increase my walking time to 2 hrs/day. I did not want to run for being high impact, so I started to look for alternative forms of exercise.
Exercising while fasting (before breaking fast in the morning), forces your body to use energy from your lipid (fat) metabolism. The use of energy from your own fat stores is due to the Human growth hormone (HGH) that increases with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) during fasting. HGH, in turn, helps to reduce fat stores, among other benefits. One should not be surprised that exercise becomes an obsession when doing intermittent fasting, especially when following an OMAD regimen.
The pyramid that changed my life
I started doing push-ups, but I could only do 50 reps. Admittedly, they were not in perfect form, and my range of motion was limited. Since it takes less than 5 min to do 50 push-ups, I could not use it to replace my long walks. As my weight began to fall, I began to hope to reduce my man-boobs. With this motivation, I bought 15 and 25 lb dumb-bells. I started to do bench presses and other biceps and triceps exercises at home. Then I found a method that changed my life and the shape of my body.
This is the push-up pyramid explained in a youtube video. I first starting doing 10 pyramids of 25 push-ups each (from 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1) for a total of 250 pushups in about 1 hr. To my surprise, I began to increase the size of my pyramids to 36, 49, and 64 reps. My pyramids grew larger, so I reduced the number of pyramids, maintaining the 1 hr to 1 1/2 hr routines. Soon I was doing well over 1000 reps. Eventually, I could do my push-ups in perfect form. By then I had build chest muscles and my man-boobs had disappeared. Undoubtedly, my determination was greatly aided by the push-up pyramid approach.
It was OMAD all along
Recently, I have learned that the OMAD approach may explain my progress as the increased duration of the daily Growth Hormone effect on aging and muscle growth is well documented. The adaptation to using energy from fat might have transformed me into almost an athlete. In retrospect, I began to see changes in my body that I had never seen. Even in my teens or twenties, I was never too keen on exercise. I was a smoker until my mid-20s and my career, not health, was always my priority.
What is my purpose with FFFL
My purpose is to show you how you too, can begin to change your body now. No matter your age, OMAD could be a sustainable change in lifestyle for the rest of your days. You are probably thinking that this is too hard for you, but I assure you, it is not. The hardest days are the first few. Within 21 days, you will feel completely adapted to the OMAD routine and feel that you can keep it for life.
Unexpected effects of Fasting
Fasting will increase Growth Hormone activity. Then, you will feel your body demanding more intense and prolonged activity, and you will gladly comply. You will feel the endorphins and other effects in your brain, giving you a feeling of accomplishment and you will begin to set even higher goals. Please proceed to the blog and read our articles and then go to the discussion board and post your questions. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!
Juan Sarmiento, DVM, Ph.D.
