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Biohacking Lite

karpathy.github.io

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Re: Biohacking Lite

#11

Post by thechao »

If anyone else wants to get into this, there are a few really strong measures that correlate fairly well to the DEXA scans. My favorite (because its easy): measure your waist just above your belly button. This area has virtually no "bulky" muscle and is one of the principle deposits of "internal" body fat.

The two measures I take everyday are:

1. Body weight; and,

2. Waist size.

I use the following routine for weight loss (I've lost about 50kg, and have kept it off for several years):

1. You must have a diet to weigh less;

2. You must have a distinct diet to lose weight;

3. You must do low impact cardio — I walk 3-5 miles a day; and,

4. You must do resistance training.

Those four things have the following purpose:

1. Keep you at a stable weight;

2. Take off weight;

3. Increase background caloric burn from "super sedentary"; and,

4. Encourage fat loss over lean body mass loss.

All of this is requires routine. You must develop a routine for the rest of your life, and not vary from it. It also requires honesty: you need to be honest with yourself about what you're eating, when; what exercise you're really doing; when. And, finally, if you're overweight you're at the mercy of millions of years of evolution, but you're the victim of our modern diet. It's not your fault, but there is something you can do about it.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#12

Post by tkzed49 »

dpcx wrote: post #5
curiousgal wrote: post #2

As someone struggling to gain weight it always bugs me how "being healthy" is only associated with weight loss.

That's because, at least anecdotally, many more people are overweight than underweight, so "being healthy" involves weight loss more than weight gain.

This may be true in a statistical sense, but I think it's important to not "explain it away" and instead realize that it is an important societal issue. This doesn't really apply to the original post, but it's important for us as a society to support both health conditions, and not just the more common one.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#13

Post by tupac_speedrap »

Swizec wrote: post #7
curiousgal wrote: post #2

As someone struggling to gain weight it always bugs me how "being healthy" is only associated with weight loss.

My biggest concern about focus on weight loss as the metric instead of "healthy lifestyle" is that losing weight is easiest when you do it in an unhealthy way. Crash diets are a good example of unhealthy weight loss. Another funfact is that you can literally go to bed for a few weeks, let muscle atrophy kick in, and lose more weight than any diet+exercise regime. Won't make you healthier, but you'll lose the weight.…

It doesn't help that BMI is still used even though it is such a crude measure as to be useless. Stuff like body fat% measurements and waist measurements are more direct indicators of losing fat.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#15

Post by praveen9920 »

As someone who is trying to lose weight and gone through similar phases, I can't stress enough on diet. In the world of cheap and yummy calories available in each and every thing we eat, it is hard maintain the low carb diet.

Interestingly, my observation is that increased water consumption impacts metabolism a lot

Note: I lost 4 kgs in 2 months

Re: Biohacking Lite

#16

Post by barbegal »

If you want to lose weight you need to change the energy balance. Less energy in and more out. For most people it is difficult to meaningfully affect energy out. Unless you go from being really sedentary to running for an hour a day (~500 kcal) then energy out will remain roughly the same. Eating less is much simpler but not necessarily easier, most people need help suppressing their appetite. Probably the best way to do this is by doing high intensity exercise (HIIT). Studies consistently show this affects weight loss more than longer periods of moderate exercise [1]. In addition, exercise can improve depression [2] which may also lead to less over-eating.

[1] https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/10/655

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29800984/

Re: Biohacking Lite

#17

Post by hinkley »

curiousgal wrote: post #2

As someone struggling to gain weight it always bugs me how "being healthy" is only associated with weight loss.

I was a bean pole into my early twenties, and would have been 20 lbs skinnier still if not for cycling. I never gained any more weight until I dumped the classical advice and did my own thing.

Everyone tries to compress a workout into a single time interval in the day, where you do n sets of each exercise and then go home. To do three sets in three minutes, you're going to have to pick a very conservative goal. Doing 5 sets spread out over the entire day, I could lift more and saw results pretty much right away, and really for the first time. I'd exercise while waiting for things like the drier to ding or toast to pop up, a file to download, a commercial break or a cut scene to finish. But, I had to have exercises I could do at home, which takes some creativity (or a lot of money).

Your body is conserving resources. The whole point of 'exercise' is to trick your body into thinking that you are an active person who needs to spend the extra resources to build and maintain large muscles, cardiac or lung capacity, or all three. If you are actually active you don't have to 'work out'. Your life is work, and your body adapts.

Once I got past that initial roadblock, I got results even from the gym, but I was able to be more consistent doing it at home.

The trouble with putting on a lot of bulk though, is if you stop. Exercise burns a lot of calories. Persistent exercise therefore changes your notion of what a 'normal' amount of food is. If you stop, it probably due to some major life event, and adjusting your notion of 'normal eating' might get lost in the mix. Which is probably why a lot of pro athletes chunk up when they retire (or get retired). Going from 3-4000 calories a day to under 2500 is quite a lifestyle change.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#18

Post by byproxy »

gandreani wrote: post #9

> As a result I’ve improved a number of biomarkers (e.g. resting heart rate, resting blood glucose, strength, endurance, nutritional deficiencies, etc). I wish I could say I feel significantly better or sharper, but honestly I feel about the same. But the numbers tell me I’m supposed to be on a better path and I think I am content with that . I appreciate this honesty

I think a lot of that last point can be attributed to gradual improvement and acclimation to that improvement. If you were able to snapshot mood and mental health like you could a picture of your body, you might see a marked improvement over pre-healthy-lifestyle vs., say, post-1-year-healthy-lifestyle.

For example, I've been losing weight and doing body-weight training the last month-and-a-half and a picture of my body now vs. then shows a fairly drastic change. But I can' say that I feel like I weigh less or feel that I'm stronger. Though, the scale and reps of exercise that I can do say otherwise. Every day starts a "new normal."

Re: Biohacking Lite

#19

Post by tw600040 »

praveen9920 wrote: post #15

As someone who is trying to lose weight and gone through similar phases, I can't stress enough on diet. In the world of cheap and yummy calories available in each and every thing we eat, it is hard maintain the low carb diet. Interestingly, my observation is that increased water consumption impacts metabolism a lot Note: I lost 4 kgs in 2 months

// increased water consumption impacts metabolism a lot

impacts as in it helps lose weight?

Re: Biohacking Lite

#20

Post by andrewzah »

thechao wrote: post #11

If anyone else wants to get into this, there are a few really strong measures that correlate fairly well to the DEXA scans. My favorite (because its easy): measure your waist just above your belly button. This area has virtually no "bulky" muscle and is one of the principle deposits of "internal" body fat. The two measures I take everyday are: 1. Body weight; and, 2. Waist size. I use the following routine for weight…

Intermittent fasting also helps. Many people do 16:8 (16 hours of fasting) and only eat from 12-8 or 10-6.

With IF, I lost about ~5 lbs doing nothing besides being more mindful. Once I added in daily runs / walks of ~4-5 miles, I lost another ~10 lbs easily.

I think the biggest challenge for people looking to lose weight is mindless eating / snacking. Initially I kept a diet journal and wrote down everything I ate or drank, and realized I would get more snacks throughout the day than I thought. I also drank a lot less water than I thought.

The other thing is portions. When I was at my largest, the portions I would set for myself were larger, and I would more often get a second round. All without really thinking about it, of course. Now I deliberately think about how big of a portion is appropriate and I never go for seconds except on some cheat days.

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