IMO: does CR make me hungry, etc, etc

[Guest guest]

In partial response to the question "does CR make me hungry"... no more and no less... I've been hungry for pretty much all of my 50 odd years. I suspect the survival of some very distant relative was related to feeding this hunger, so I can't complain too loudly. However living in this age of plenty, I've experienced personal weights well above 235 lbs.

In earlier years my appetite was unbridled and I would have to shop on a daily basis as the hunter gatherer in me would consume everything within my domain. While I have experimented with various diets over the years, the temporary nature of such programs pretty much guaranteed failure. I even did the Adkins diet for a while, back when it was new. When I turned 40 I had the not very original epiphany.. "duh, if I knew I was going to live this long...etc". So I got a physical, got my teeth fixed (less mercury in them there crowns), and started exercising a little more methodically.

Then a good friend gave me a copy of B120YD (thank you LT) . I was impressed by the cogent discussion of nutrition. I've yet to put both feet solidly in the CR boat, but then again, I'm not sure how to tell whether I'm in the boat or not. It's pretty clear that CR benefit comes from challenging set point and different people have different set points. The operative question is what is my personal set point and short of a prolonged visit to a clinic in Switzerland with close monitoring of bodily processes I'd rather not delve into, I'll wait for a CR blood test/profile which I feel we are close to refining.

In lieu of that, I'd like to offer my own "ANCR" (pronounced answer) program. Which stands for Adequate Nutrition with Caloric Restriction.... eat healthy food and less is better than more. I still eat quite a bit, but over the last few years I have made, and continue to make healthier incremental changes. Several obvious examples are replacing store bought bagels, first with home made, and eventually just dropping them entirely. Recently replacing my daily yogurt habit with home made kefir (mix in some strawberry and/or blueberry and some sucralose... just wonderful). Eating healthy foods (sprouts, mega muffins, etc) leaves less room for unhealthy crap. My late evening snack of hot air popped corn, even with olive oil sprayed on top is certainly less offensive than a pint of Hagen daz.

Two lists: There is a yin/yang, male/female... thing going on with these two lists... I am posting this dribble here because it is clearly not techy/scientific discourse.... this is the touchy-feely side. The main personal observation-complaint I'd make is about people posting the same email to both lists... I'm sure many are in overload and getting multiple copies of the same post doesn't help...

Extreme CR: In any community there are extreme personalities. It is no surprise that TV news will seek out representatives that are characteritures of the philosophy rather than "everyman" less exciting practitioners. Further some of our more extreme practitioners may proselytize or aggressively advocate their behavior in a subconscious attempt to test their admittedly extreme positions. People that are confident in their beliefs are not compelled to constantly retest. We all must choose our personal path. While I'm an advocate of moderation, even that is a relative concept... some will surely find my 15 miles a week jogging extreme (and that's not counting my full court fast break basketball).

I am glad that our more extreme practitioners post regularly so we can keep tabs on them. One scary thing to me is that extreme weight loss is associated with personality and judgment shifts.. how does one self manage that? Perhaps we can get everybody to sign their posts with their current BMI... while there are well known inaccuracies associated with higher BMIs as it doesn't account for muscle vs. fat, at lower BMI that is probably not as much of an issue. If we see someone fading away we can call them on it.

While there is debate regarding exercise... it's pretty clear that we evolved under more physically demanding times. Whether exercise will offer life extension is a debatable question, it appears clear that it will help us square the curve and one could argue if you don't at least square the curve, your not going to extend your life span beyond.

In response to a recent discussion about weight training I would advise logging your workouts... I find two benefits from this documentation. First when feeling down you only need to look back at where you where when you started and you will get a nice psychological boost... secondly it helps with cost justification when you look at how many workouts you get to amortize them over...today was a (5 mile) run day, but yesterday I did weight training workout # 686 since I bought my current machine (<$2 counting maintenance)... while there's plenty of junk out there, you can get your money's worth from good equipment.

JR (23.2)

( 5'10" ~165lbs)