Day 21: The fat-to-lean conversion continues

All the things I said seven days ago... just multiply them by three and re-read them for today. Well, that's not totally true -- I did lose a fraction of a pound since January 1st. But the rest remains the same.

Changes over the past two three weeks:

• Waist has gone down by 3/4s of an inch 1.5 inches
• Hips have gone down by nearly two inches
• Body fat percentage has gone down 1 1/4 3 1/2 percent
• Total fat loss over 3 approximately 9 pounds (Awesome.)
• Non-fat or lean or muscle gain ...

Well, you can guess what comes next. It's pretty amazing. I would have predicted one of three things to happen when I started this experiment back on January 1st: 1) Nothing, absolutely nothing would change (I was already eating a somewhat locarb diet anyway); 2) Weight gain or 3) Weight loss.

In full disclosure I've weighed and measured for the past couple days just to make sure the trend was real. And it is fairly clear now after three weeks, there was a fourth option: No weight gain BUT my body would convert fat to lean. And convert it at an impressive rate as well, somewhere around a pound or three every week. I've noticed my pants fit looser, I'm never out of breath climbing the many stairs at work. A nice option four.

At this point, I think I'm ready to start running again. I didn't want to introduce another variable too soon but I think it's safe to conclude at this point that on a low-carb diet without exercise, my weight stays roughly the same (I talked about that at the beginning) but due to the increased protein intake this month, my body converts fat to non-fat. Now let's see what exercising does to the equation. Predictions: I expect an increased appetite but in return better rest. I'll talk about both of those later this week. Decreases in waist and hips? Probably. Prediction for weight change? No idea. Maybe there's a fifth option out there.