Waist measurement: a better tool than BMI?

First of all, what is BMI? It stands for Body Mass Index. It's a calculation based on your weight and your height. The NHS has a calculator here. It is used by the NHS and UK doctors to determine if you have a weight problem. Values between 18.5 and 25 are OK, 25 - 30 is overweight, and 30+ is obese. 

This link is to an NPR article with 10 reasons why BMI is flawed. Flaw number 3 is here:

It [BMI] makes no allowance for the relative proportions of bone, muscle and fat in the body. But bone is denser than muscle and twice as dense as fat, so a person with strong bones, good muscle tone and low fat will have a high BMI. Thus, athletes and fit, health-conscious movie stars who work out a lot tend to find themselves classified as overweight or even obese.

My BMI is 21.4, supposedly healthy but the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has other ideas...

BHF advocates waist measurement as a better method of determining if you have unhealthy body fat, in particular visceral fat (fat around your internal organs like heart, kidneys, pancreas etc). There is a BHF calculator here, based on waist measurement (at one inch above navel, breathing out), gender, and ethnicity. My healthy waist size would be 37 inches or less but is in fact 39 inches (although I wear 34 inch jeans), resulting in the following warning:

You're at risk

Your waist measurement means that your weight could be affecting your health, and you're at higher risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases, and conditions such as Type 2 diabetes. Keeping to a healthy weight and carrying less fat around your middle will help to keep your heart healthy. We recommend that you check your BMI too, to find out if you're a healthy weight for your height.

So the NHS says I'm healthy ("Your result suggests you are a healthy weight") and at the same time the BHF says I'm at risk. I'm going with the BHF here and aiming to reduce my waist size to 36.5 inches. I'll keep you posted.

PS I went for a blood test at my GP's surgery this week. The nurse measured my blood pressure and my weight. I asked if they ever measure waist size. Apparently not; she said she'd look into it. My blood pressure looks like this:

PPS: Here's what a high risk waist measurement (44 inches) looks like:

PPPS: I didn't have a tape measure but found one on eBay, delivered within a few days, cost £1.09 including postage. How do they do that? It's less than a first class stamp...

Thoughts on Intermittent Fasting

Introduction:

Intermittent fasting (IF) is promoted as a way to reduce weight, reduce belly fat and to detox your body. There are many ways to do it, including...

Time restricted eating, eg fast for 14 hours then eat between 8 am and 6 pm, a 10 hour window, also known as 14:10. My personal habit is a 9 hour window from 11 am to 8 pm, so 15:9. This sometimes extends to 10 pm...

One meal a day (OMAD) is a 23:1 system, ie one hour per day for eating, 23 hours for fasting. Sounds brutal to me...

Extended fasting, eg 24 hours or 36 hours without food. Drinks allowed are water, black coffee, tea without milk (I like green tea or peppermint tea). I do a 36 hour fast each week from Monday 8 pm to Wednesday 8 am. I seem to be reducing weight at about one pound per week using this method combined with a 9 hour eating window on other days.

Alternate day fasting (ADF): fast one day, eat the next. This is essentially a 36 hour fast every other day with a 12 hour eating window. For sample results, see:

I Lost 165 Pounds Using Alternate Day Fasting

Alternate day fasting - modified (ADFM): Same as ADF but with one 500 calorie meal on "fasting" days.

5:2 fasting: a variant on ADFM with 5 days of normal eating, 2 days (eg Tuesday and Friday) with only one 500 calorie meal.

Some words from Robert Lustig:

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a less painful way [than calorie restriction] of jacking up the same subcellular processes. By depriving your liver of calories for fourteen to sixteen hours per day, IF gives it a chance to activate AMP-kinase, suppress mTOR, increase autophagy, chew up some of the liver fat that's been stored, improve insulin resistance, and lower your insulin - the same outcomes that low-carb and ketogenic diets achieve. IF has also been shown to promote weight loss, blood glucose control, reduced inflammation, improvements in memory and stress resistance, slowed ageing, and longer life span. Each of these benefits is a manifestation of improvement in insulin sensitivity. In this way, your leptin won't drop so fast that you feel awful; and since insulin blocks leptin signalling, the lower your insulin levels go, the better your brain can see the leptin. This means your sympathetic nervous ratchets up, and you burn faster. All in all, most people find IF easier to adhere to long-term, and it's better for you.

~ Metabolical, page 209

[text captured on my phone using Google Lens - love it!]

Recent dietary changes

 I have made several changes to my diet recently.

• dairy-free
• for animal welfare reasons, not health
• almond milk at home, oat milk at cafes, restaurants etc
• Applewood vegan cheese (tried Cathedral City, hated it)
• yogurt: tried Lidl's Vemondo vegan yogurt, too chemical tasting so now zero
• butter: now using Vitalite (not as tasty)
• replaced Camembert with hummus on morning crackers
• no pizza!
• added flax oil omega-3 and calcium supplements (already taking one-a-day multi-vit and multi-mineral supplements)
• coleslaw
• replaced with sauerkraut and carrots (from Tesco's Polish section)
• eggs
• replaced medium free range eggs with large, for extra protein
• bread
• about to replace wholegrain bread with rye bread (more fibre, less sugar)
• rice
• changed portion size from 125 g to 80 g (reduce carbs)
• mushrooms
• changed from canned (now very expensive) to frozen
• cauliflower cheese bakes/veggie fingers
• switched to oven roasted broccoli and cauliflower (from frozen)
• breakfast
• no longer eating breakfast
• salsa
• Lidl's salsa seems to be free from emulsifiers, preservatives etc but home made tastes better
• unchanged
• baked beans, fish fingers, salami, dry roasted nuts, olives, garlic, eating out twice a week (fish and chips; poached eggs on avo toast)
• intermittent fasting
• nine hour eating window, 11 am to 8 pm (15:9)
• 36 hour fast Monday 8 pm to Wednesday 8 am

Conclusion: a work-in-progress; my energy levels are fine, even on a 36 hour fast day. I seem to be losing weight at about one pound per week (21st June: 11st 12.25lb; 27th July: 11st 7.75lb). Waist measurement is 39 inches, hoping to reduce it to 36.5. The goal however is not weight loss but reduced belly fat. And a healthier, dairy-free diet.

UPF (Ultra Processed Food) and Food Additives - first thoughts

 OK, I'm researching food and diet a lot right now, particularly UPF (ultra processed food). 

Robert Lustig lists three things removed from or insufficient in UPF:

1. fibre
2. omega-3 fatty acids
3. micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)

And too much of these five things:

1. trans-fats [UK: not banned, no labelling requirements, "voluntary reduction" by food companies]
2. branch-chained amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, valine)
3. omega-6 fatty acids
4. alcohol [in UPF, really?]
5. SUGAR

See Robert's TED talk: Sugar -- the elephant in the kitchen: Robert Lustig at TEDxBermuda 2013

Lustig doesn't have additives in his list but potentially dangerous additives are certain emulsifiers and preservatives, which can cause damage to the gut microbiome:

Emulsifiers:

• E433 Polysorbate 80, or P80 (Polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate)
• E466 CMC (Carboxymethylcellulose) [also E468, E469?]

Link: Direct impact of commonly used dietary emulsifiers on human gut microbiota

Preservatives:

• potassium sorbate [yet, it's classified as GRAS:“generally regarded as safe,” by US, UN and EU]
• benzoic acid
• sodium nitrite

Link: Potassium sorbate inhibits growth of a common species in the human gut microbiome

Link: benzoic acid, potassium sorbate, and sodium nitrite ... these compounds reduced the diversity of gut bacteria. 

I've not found P80 or CMC in any of my store bought products, but Lidl's hummus contains potassium sorbate and their salami contains sodium nitrite. Maybe time to make my own hummus? Lidl's salsa has no preservatives but my home made salsa tastes better! And as Robert Lustig says, "Eat real food!"...

President Biden on MAGA threat

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that

threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

...

 “the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by

Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this

country.”

They “do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule

of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to

accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now,

as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in

America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to

undermine democracy itself.”

They “are determined to take this country backwards—backwards to an

America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no

right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote

authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence

that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice,

to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”

...

“The soul of America is defined by the sacred proposition that all are

created equal in the image of God. That all are entitled to be treated

with decency, dignity, and respect. That all deserve justice and a

shot at lives of prosperity and consequence. And that democracy…must

be defended, for democracy makes all these things possible. Folks, and

it’s up to us.”

See:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-1-2022

Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act

 The bill became a lightning rod, as it illustrated the gulf today between Democrats, who want to use the federal government to regulate business, protect civil rights, provide a basic social safety net, and promote infrastructure, and Republicans, who want to stop those things and throw the weight of governance back to the states. 

If Republican-dominated state legislatures are permitted to keep the laws they have passed limiting voting, they will continue to pass discriminatory laws, including ones that limit women’s constitutional rights, stop the teaching of any material that legislators see as “divisive,” and so on.

Heather Cox Richardson

What are we made of?

 Here are the top 6 elements in the human body, by weight:

Oxygen	65%
Carbon	18%
Hydrogen	10%
Nitrogen	3%
Calcium	2%
Phosphorous	1.1%

At less than 0.35% are potassium, sulphur, sodium, chlorine.

Traces of elements: magnesium, iron, manganese, copper,iodine, cobalt, zinc.

From: The Chemistry of Life ~ Steven Rose