What 10 weeks of eTRF and a pesco-mediterranean diet did to my metabolic health
My journey from obese to healthy during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even though the title of this post may sound a bit clickbait-ish, it really isn’t. But before we jump straight into results and conclusions, allow me to tell you a story. The hero of this tale is a slightly obese 35 year old male with a declining health. One cold and rainy day in March of 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, he becomes worried about getting the virus. Being metabolically unhealthy is a huge risk factor for all sorts of diseases but we rarely think about them unless it’s too late. If there’s one good thing about Covid’s outbreak, then, it’s the increase in a collective health awareness around the world. Some people became obsessed with not getting sick or at least strenghtening their immune systems to fight off the virus. And the hero of this story, namely me, is just one of the examples.
I was flirting with the notion of some sort of a diet for years but I could never be consistent so all my attempts were unfruitful. Few months into the pandemic, however, I noticed a significant gain in weight. I became medically obese, weighing close to a hundred kilograms. The more I read about Covid-19, the more I knew this needed to change. But how? I was still reluctant to diet because when one hears “diet” he/she automatically assumes it’s all salads from now on. But it isn’t the case and it wasn’t the case for me either. Especially that I love my goat cheese with some steak and wine. The word diet itself derives from an old greek δίαιτα/diaita which means life style. It’s more of a philosophy and approach to eating rather than saying “no” to food and it’s important to keep that in mind.
Intermittent fasting
Regardless of Covid, something had to change in the way I approached life. What I scooped out for myself was a pure lifestyle choice. I settled on intermittent fasting (IF) which essentially means eating in a window of a few hours every day and fasting for the rest. At first I went for the entry level 16:8 window, equaling to 8 hours of eating and 16 hours of fasting. Surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult. I never felt like I was sacrificing anything (apart from additional calories). Mostly because I really wasn’t doing much else to improve my health. The only real challenge was to pick the right window and stick to it, rather then switching between various 8 hour windows from day to day which wasn’t helping in being consistent.
Back in the summer I also tried to change the types of food I was consuming but it was brief and with no solid foundations. I was more like a sudden burst of good will but all it caused was me becoming a vegetarian for like 3 days and then eating only meat for another 5. I had no idea what I was doing. As the time passed, however, I pivoted to 17:7 and then 18:6 feeding windows. I was feeling less and less hungry over time so I restricted myself from excessive calories quite naturally. It is worth noting that intermittent fasting isn’t about what you eat, it’s simply about when you eat and when you don’t. It isn’t a diet in a colloquial sense of the word. It is a diet, however, in its original, Greek origin.
If nothing else, intermittent fasting makes us eat less, since we’re voluntarily giving up at least one meal. There are, though, lots of other upsides to IF. It influences metabolic regulation via effects on circadian biology and the gut microbiome. It also helps reduce body fat, favorably improves blood lipids and glucose levels among other effects. I gave IF an on and off try but theory and clinical studies are one thing, every day living and practice are another. I needed to have a benchmark to further monitor my progress (or regress). More than anything else, however, I needed to take a deeper look into where I was metabolically and what my starting position was.
Red alert: blood biochemistry in September
September was peculiar. I was spending most days in the office while the number of Covid-19 cases was ever growing. The second wave of the pandemic was just beginning and I was a bit panicked. I decided the timing was perfect to take blood tests and see what my metabolic health was. So I did. It was September 16th, my brother’s birthday. As good a day to start off anew as it gets. The results came back a few days later and the general outcome of it it wasn’t good. For the sake of this article I’ll only share the markers that matter the most and will skip morphology entirely.
Right. This was bad. But at least it gave me valuable knowledge about where I was and how unhealthy I became. I took the results and went to see a long time family friend who happens to be an endocrinologist and a cardiologist. “Looks like you opted in for statins”. She told me. Fuck that, I told myself and promised to fix this mess of a biochemisty myself. I was still really worried, though. It was then and there where I heard my favourite health advice ever. “Medical results don’t kill people”. It was so eye-opening. So obvious, yet empowering. I now had the much needed wisdom about my metabolic health and could do anything I wanted with it. So I decided I would crush this on my own.
Lifestyle makeover
I started sunbathing every morning during 30 minutes dog walks and finally opened the curtains in my apartment (which I never did up to this point). This was not only supposed to help increase my vitamin D deficiency (it was way below the norm) but also regulate my circadian rhythm. There’s a brilliant book that touches on this, called Chasing the Sun by Linda Geddes, a cell biology graduate turned award winning author. In that book she writes that “conditions associated with lethargy, such as insomnia and depression, as well as obesity, have been linked to a disrupted body clock, and regular exposure to daylight - particularly first thing in the morning - can strengthen these daily rhythms. Sunlight exposure also boosts the availability of the mood regulating substance serotonin in the brain.”
But, I questioned this with a failed attempt of self defence, I kept spending the biggest chunk of every day in an uncluttered office, mostly empty. Hence, I thought, there must be enough light to feed my body with sun rays it so badly needs. Then Linda Geddes hit me with another revelation. “The illuminance in a typical office is between 100 and 300 lux during the daytime, whereas even on the gloomiest, most overcast winter’s day it is at least ten times brighter outside. During the summer, when the sun is higher in the sky and there are no clouds, it can reach 100,000 lux”. This was the moment, being a huge George Carlin fan, I became a sun worshiper (no offence Joe Pesci!).
I doubled down on meditation, too. Most of the contemporary scientific research and reviews show that committing to a daily meditation practice improves the overall quality of life, and has long-term benefits for staying emotionally and physically healthy. Furthermore, studies show that meditation had similar effects as medications in treating depression, anxiety, and other emotional problems. I’ve personally tried out almost all the top guided meditation apps on the market, including Headspace and Calm. Due to numerous reasons, however, my apps of choice for daily use are Waking Up and Ten Percent Happier. Not sure how I would cope with the global pandemic and constant social isolation if it wasn’t for Sam Harris (Waking Up) and Dan Harris (Ten Percent) equipping me with the right mental tools.
What I ate and how I did it changed as well. I committed myself to eTRF (early time-restricted feeding), from 8am to 4pm. Food-wise, my typical day looks as follows:
1. Breakfast: (A) toasts with salmon, avocado, capares, black garlic, lemon, olive oil and broccoli sprouts or (B) shakshuka with chickpeas and hummus.
2. Snack: (A) banana or (B) apple.
3. Lunch: (A) steak with broccoli, pickled veggies/kimchi, (B) grilled fish with green pesto, herbs and vegetables or (C) wild game with some fruits.
4. Snack: (A) grapefruit or (B) apple.
5. Dinner: (A) toasts with goat cheese, pickles, red onion and paprika or (B) salad with spinach, honey and pomegranate.
6. Beverages: green tea (2-3 mugs/day), black tea (6-10 mugs/day), water (1-2 glasses/day), sourdough (50-100 ml/day).
7. Supplements: Magnesium, vitamine D3, selenium, DHA/EPA fatty acids, vitamine K, curcumin.
I also cut down alcohol to wine only and limited its intake to weekends/holidays. And on top of that I got so deep into healthy lifestyle that I picked up psycho-nutrition as my postgraduate.
Results (10 weeks later)
It’s been 3 months since I took the stab at the old version me. Long story short, not to bore you too much, this is what I ended up with on December 23rd (plus another negative Covid-19 result).
And here is the direct comparison.
To me this is only the beginning. I am super happy with the changes I made in my life but I also know there is still a very long way to come. I need to excercise more and turn the remaining fat into muscles. I need to go to sauna more often and drink even less alcohol. I need to explore more with some supplements in order to hack aging and longevity. On top of that I lost some 15 kilograms. It’s a significant number and a huge change, sure. But there’s still more to come.
In the course of one year I went down from blood glucose level of 101 to 90. It’s OK but it’s not great. I used to be able to run for 10 kilometers with no stops, yet today I doubt I could do half of it. I do play basketball once a week for 2 hours but I should do a lot more. There is a lot more to be done in all areas of my life and a quite a lot to improve. This is my mission. This is also why I started this blog and went on a quest to become a damn good psycho-nutritionist specialised in longevity.
Until then, please join me on my journey to live longer and healthier by subscribing to my blog.