No Snake Oil – Just Strategies to Address Root Cause
Are Aches, Pains, and Diabetes Really Inevitable as You Age?
(Before) David & Hillary 2015 Port Renfrew, British Columbia
While the focus of Gout DiY is obviously about curing gout, lets set that aside for the moment. Quite often my wife and I have people who have known us for a while approach and ask what we’ve been doing. We both look strikingly different from years ago.
We’ve both spent a number of years re-imagining what health could look like for us. As a result we’ve been experimenting with diet and exercise, informed by less well known doctors and researchers. For my wife it was initially about prevention of Alzheimer’s. For me it was about sustainable weight loss and curing my gout without medication.
We’ve had to be willing to ignore the mainstream health guidance, learn what our own bodies really needed, and track the results that matter. Those results are not about weight alone. Instead its about body composition and key blood markers that reinforce and provide the necessary motivation to continue forging ahead.
This is what we did. Admittedly, there have been internal struggles to give up the bad habits so common in society today. We’re a work in progress and there are slips as well as intentional splurges. But we pay attention to how our bodies feel when we slip and get back to plan quickly.
The changes we’ve made to our diet and lifestyle have led to massive improvements. We’ve both lost a large amount of body fat, weigh less now than we did in high school, yet have more skeletal muscle. A number of skin conditions, aches, and pains have also resolved.
Aches, pains, diabetes progression, and other chronic health issues are NOT inevitable but it’s up to you if you want to make the change necessary to train for the Centenarian Olympics.
Truly Changing Diet and Lifestyle
Easing In to a new Diet and Lifestyle
We stopped going out to eat (for the most part), eliminated processed carbs and grains, and increased dietary fat. This step got our bodies used to burning fat for fuel and reduced the blood sugar swings that drive being hangry between meals. We found the low-carb/keto recipes from DietDoctor.com to be hugely helpful. We also started walking regularly 30-60 minutes a day.
Regularly Measure Body Composition and Bloodwork
About every 3 months we get a DEXA body scan done to monitor changes to visceral fat, overall body fat, lean mass, and bone density. In the Metro DC area Composition ID is a great option. We also regularly (every one to three months) check HbA1c, Fasting Glucose, and Blood Lipids — especially the Triglyceride to HDL-C ratio. OwnYourLabs.com allows you to purchase these tests yourself and they are quite inexpensive.
Intermittent Fasting
We eliminated snacks and shifted to an eating window of 8 hours. This left 16 hours between our last meal of the day and our first meal the following day. This helped improve blood sugars further and allowed some of our body fat to be burned (this only happens when insulin drops and glucose from sugar or cabs keeps insulin up).
Refinements to Accelerate Health Improvements
Threw out all vegetable oils and shifted fats in our diet to Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Butter, and Beef Fat. Eliminated most/all fruits and increased protein from meat. Added strength training 3 x week for 15-20 minutes each time. Reduced our eating window further to between 1 and 4 hours depending on the day.
Protein First, Fat for Fuel, and Carbs as Desired
We took inspiration from Dr. Ted Naiman and increased protein to 40% (higher some days) by calories with a goal of at least 1 gram per pound of desired body weight, no more than 1 gram of fat per pound of desired body weight, carbs are only coming from a small serving of vegetables if we want them, normally less than 60 grams per day.
Strength Training to Failure
We started doing indoor bouldering at a local gym three times a week and increased emphasis on lifting weights, as heavy as we can, doing enough repetitions each set to go to failure (here’s a way to start simple and at home)
The Future (Not There Yet)
We expect at some point to reach a body composition we are happy with. Ideally we are shooting for 20% body fat (my wife) and 15% body fat (me). At that point we expect to (a) allow for greater energy in our diet — a combination of more fat and carbs from whole foods (mainly vegetables) so that we maintain body composition and (b) continue to strength train with a goal of increasing muscle mass as long as possible and then maintaining it as we continue to age.
We fully recognize this is not a path everyone is willing to take. However, we found it to be the only approach where we aren’t constantly hungry and were able to make significant change to our body composition. As a result we’ve massively improved our long term health outlook. If you aren’t happy with the trajectory of your health maybe its time to try something different.
Before (2017 – Wuyishan, Fujian, China) and After (2022 – SportRock, Sterling, Virginia)
Author: David
Born in 1976, career is in technology sales, currently working for one of the big cloud compute companies (hyperscaler) and living in Northern Virginia.
10 yrs as a vegetarian with ever increasing uric acid and weight despite low purine diet. Heaviest weight 220 lbs, highest uric acid 7.8 mg/dL. Found Keto March 2018 and weight dropped from 200lbs to 150lbs by February 2019 (13 months). Steadily increasing meat and seafood consumption the entire time and transitioning to carnivore'ish in Fall 2021. Now focused on high protein (~200 to 215 g/day), moderate fat (~80-100 g/day), and incidental carbs (I like periodic asparagus). Uric Acid has been below 6.0 mg/dL since at least June 2021 (when I started regular testing). Weight is now ~145 lbs with visceral fat <1 lb and body fat percentage 15%.
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