I am a Doctor doing a low carb high fat diet experiment on myself - follow my progress!

I have been looking into nutrition and diet information and body composition since 2011. My aim was to learn about, blog and apply to myself the best advice for daily life, disease prevention and performance in endurance exercise with good weight maintenance and the optimum body composition.

This article will be salted with links to previous articles you can click on to see what I have found so far.

I have always struggled to keep my body weight in check and as a muscular man have found my BMI is always in the overweight range and I had an XL mindset, my body fat and visceral fat had also been high, unless I am in the final 12 weeks peak training for a Triathlon running up to a race.

We know that exercise is key in maintaining health and wellbeing, but is weight loss solely "you are what you eat?"

If you read back in my blog you will see tips on weight management and diet have always been a subject I blog on and you can read these if you click on my archives: with lifestyle topics such as how to keep hydrated and avoid hunger / thirst confusion, getting enough sleep, mental resilience and journalling your progress to set your goals in stone, getting help from a buddy and what to do when it all falls down.

I mention planning your timetable and keeping active all week long,  how to avoid gaining weight when travelling, losing holiday weight, problems with excess sugar in alcohol causing fatty liver and fat deposition amongst many other subjects such as the pressure on our time causing behaviour change in food choices.

But I have been thinking; I'm in my 40's and have been doing low level training for Triathlon and keeping fit for 5 years, eating what I thought was healthy and trying to keep my habits in check, yet my weight remains around 14 stone / 90Kg with fat levels of 25 or 28% around Christmas!

I am running to work 4K each way, swimming 1K once or twice a week and still my body fat remains too high and my visceral fat around the organs is stubbornly high.  My large appetite has always been a challenge for me causing a desire for second helpings and I have an ability to eat massive portions when hungry especially after exercise!

Fat deposition happens when your body has no use for excess energy or protein molecules once they have been digested. These energy molecules are processed by the liver converting to fat which is stored in cells under your skin and around your organs for use at another time. Fat molecules from digestion when circulating in your arteries can clog up your liver (more so with high sugar and alcohol intake) and may deposit and clog up your arteries if you are prone to cardiovascular or heart disease. Excess weight can cause high blood pressure joint problems and high fat can cause diabetes - all of this leads to less exercise and more risk of heart disease strokes heart attacks and eventually an untimely demise.

A doctor friend started telling me about his research into low carb diet and that the research around the healthy eating plate was flawed. He had been reading papers and information from a Professor Tim Noakes from South Africa who was keen on marathons and nutrition had promoted carb loading for the last 20 years but now has made a radical turnaround. Tim Noakes now promotes higher fat intake and lower carb intake - see his videos here.

So I decided to give it a go having seen my doctor friend slim down and become consistently slimmer fitter and faster.

If you follow my next post click here I will take you through the experience from my preparation to day 1 onwards of the low carb high fat diet (LCHF).

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