Free the Animal

My Transformation in Photos

Wow. It's been just over two years since this greatest journey of my life began (unnecessary; wish I'd never let myself go so far astray). Nevertheless, here I am, and I wish to first acknowledge the growing number of enthusiastic readers who, I believe, have a major role in this. I really doubt I would have seen it through without your enthusiastic words of encouragement, excitement, and motivation every single step of the way.

Not one single time, either in comments, email, or in person have I received a single negative word. Not once. Thank you for your tireless encouragement. It means a lot to me. In return, my sincere hope is that these photos, more than anything else, encourage and motivate all of you on similar paths. Don't give up. Never quit. Achieving leanness and renewed vitality is within virtually everyone's grasp.

Alright, this is the third official photo update. The first was in February, 2008, and the second, September, 2008. As always, let's begin with how bad it got.

Pretty bad, eh? Here we are nowadays, and you can click these for the full-size versions.

Here's a montage of pics Bea took yesterday afternoon while I was getting in a workout here on the patio of our vacation home in Arnold, CA.

And, finally, here's the comparison shot, around October 2007, five months or so into the program compared with today.

Once again, thank you all for the continual and never-ending support. I very much like to think that I couldn't have done it without this blog and the readers and enthusiasts who make it happen daily.

Thank you.

Breaking News: New Progress Photos Looming Near

Don't know how many times over the last few months I've been asked about putting up new progress photos. Well, I had decided to do them each 10 pounds of loss, and since my last were done at about 193, I decided to wait -- no matter how long -- until I hit 180 or less.

Well, today I hit exactly 180, on the nose. So, I had my trainer snap some photos. Unfortunately, they all came out quite blurry, save one, so here it is.

I'll get some others up within a few days.

My Guest Post at Mark's Daily Apple

Mark Sisson graciously invited me to share some of my experiences on his very popular blog. It's one of the top health and fitness blogs on the Internet.

So go have a read at my guest post.

After the first of the year, Mark will be reciprocating with a guest post on Free the Animal.

Periodic Photo Progress Update

I'm trying to get out a photo of my continuing evolution (an intended pun, there) about every 10 pounds of net loss. Last one was at a bit over 200 pounds, and this is at a bit over 190.

But let's take a trip back, first. Me, on a European vacation, a mere two summers ago.

Oh, one more. We'll call it "fat me II." Doing what I did best, back then.

Here's the comparison I published last February between me around this time last year and 3-4 months later. Note: the before is actually after about 6 months of my brief, intense resistance training of two 30-minute sessions per week. The second is only 3-4 months later, having incorporated a proper (Paleo-like) diet, also including intermittent fasting in about the last month.

Now here's a photo from just yesterday, taken a bit after a workout, so, there's a bit of a lactic acid "pump" going on.

Now, let's run that comparison from a year ago to today.

Still a ways to go. The abs are there, but unlike those who are content to make fools of you with the latest infomercial "ab this & that," you simply need to expose them by losing fat and getting lean. You can see them beginning to be exposed to the sides.

Update 3/10/2009: I has been suggested to me that in advance of a new update, that I post this link to a couple of pictures taken during a vacation to Mexico last month. That's down another nearly 10 pounds from the photos above. Still progressing towards to goal of 10% body fat (closing in on 15% now, and I began at about 35%).

So, at 230 pounds, where I began in May 2007, and at 35% BF, I carried around 80 pounds of fat. I'm between 16-17% now, at 180 pounds; so I'm carrying about 30 pounds of fat. It's interesting how that corresponds almost exactly to my net loss of 50 pounds. I suspect that room allowed for variation in what actual fat I was carrying is accounted for by lean gain or loss. I'm stronger, now, far stronger, but that may just be conditioning apart from actual gain. I have read that when you get fat, some (25% is what I read) is actually lean gain in order to carry around the excess weight.

At any rate, it's all working, nice and steady, nice and consistently.

Update 6/23/2009: Here's the latest photo update.

Faceoff

I'll do a better one later, but I just couldn't stand looking at my fat face to the right any longer, which was the middle one in the left-to-right series of photos I've had up there since I began my new Life Way. The one to the left is from two years ago.

I'd say at least three pounds of my total wight loss is in my face and neck.

Later: Well, in the comments, my dad thinks I look like "a refugee from Iraq" in the pic to the right. I knew it wasn't a great photo, but...

Anyway, I took my own jab back, then went and redid the thing. Dad & I get along just fine. He says what's on his mind, I say what's on mine, and then we go out for breakfast or lunch somewhere. It's been going on for a couple of decades like that, now. Bea & I will be leaving Sunday to join the parents and my brothers for a week of camping, the 11th (or is it 12th?) annual Hat Creek trip.

Here's the redo, with the new pic now at the root.

I cropped it from this:

Hey, what's that in my hand? Ain't even 5pm, yet...though it is the next timezone to the east.

One For All You Smileys

All my life I'm getting admonishments from those brave enough -- like mom -- to "smile." It's not a natural facial expression for me, folks, even when I'm plenty happy and content. Plus, my natural frown serves me well. People don't fuck with me, and they don't pester me. They tend to stand off and I've heard from others that I come off as "unapproachable." Suits me fine. The less banality I have to deal with, the better, I say.

So let me throw you a rare bone, taken just this week with my bro-in-law, Sam who's looking good into his 50s.

Photo Update

Looks like I need to do some shopping, eh? Thing is, probably another 4 inches of circumference is going to come off, as the sub-cutaneous belly fat and abdominal external obliques ("love handles") melt away. That's definitely the most stubborn fat for me. It's like I'm leaning out from the bottom up and top down and the midsection will be the last to go. I'm particularly pleased with how the shoulders are leaning out, even with some vascularity beginning to show. Progress is rather slow, but it's steady and consistent and so I'm satisfied. The last couple of photo shoots here and here.

Later: Just to preclude the questions; 47 years old, 5' 10", just a smidgen under 200 pounds. Rough estimate is that 180 will leave me at about 10% BF. Whatever the figure, I'll get there. And how? Just as I've been doing to get this far. First, an intermittent style of eating that's always low in carbs with no grain products at all. No vegetable oils except olive, coconut, palm and sesame seed. Meat (and fish and shellfish), some veggies, some dairy -- mostly cheese -- some fruit -- mostly berries and melons -- and some nuts, excluding peanuts. I alternate between a few more carbs in the form of fruit, or sometimes dark chocolate (80%+ cacao) and pretty high fat, usually in the form of butter, lard, cheese, coconut milk and heavy cream. Then there's the twice weekly, 30-minutes of intense resistance training in which I've managed to add an estimated 20 pounds of lean muscle over the last year. Finally, intermittent fasting a-la EatStopEat by Brad Pilon. I fast twice per week and will go to once per week once I get to 10% BF.

The whole story is documented here, for about three pages of posts, in reverse chronological order.

Finally; I can tuck in my shirts

It's been a number of years, perhaps six or seven, since I've been comfortable tucking in my shirt, save for when I'm wearing a suit and the coat covers the sin.

Here was my last photo set, not quite three months ago, end of February. Net weight loss has been real slow (only about 5 pounds), but very steady. I think I've reached somewhat of a tipping point, however. Fat loss has been far in excess of what would be implied by weight loss. I estimate just on volume that I've gained 10 pounds lean in my thighs. They are getting to be quite large and dense, and I can't pinch but a quarter inch of subcutaneous fat.

The belly is the big challenge, but when I began, it stuck out a good six inches. Now, maybe one inch or so. In addition, I have the subcutaneous layer between the skin and the abdominal muscle that has not yet seemed to kick in. My trainer says that in men, it's always the last to go.

Anyway, here's this afternoon; about 20 hours since the last meal and an hour from a workout. Art told me in an email to smile when I take photos, because I deserve to. Voilà. It's a far cry from this.

A Path In Pictures

This was me, tipping the scale at about 230. For perspective, I was 165 when I graduated high school. Normal adult weight would probably be around 175 without doing anything to build lean muscle. You'll notice how lean, trim, and lovely is my wife Bea, with whom I celebrate seven years of marriage, tomorrow.

One reason I've delayed publishing photos of my progress is differences in perception. I write a lot about this, so my credibility is at stake; and even though I feel the changes all over, I just can't tell how other people will generally react to photos. If they react negatively, that doesn't do me any good, which has nothing to do with making progress, but it does have to do with the blogging aspect. This is bolstered by the fact that I've seen a few such expositions other bloggers have posted, and have been less than impressed. So, there's a balance of sorts. Ultimately, due the subject matter, I feel it's necessary to put my skin where my mouth is. So I've waited until I was certain the results were objective enough that readers and lookers aren't going to think I'm full of shit.

Another aspect is that part of why I do this is to hold myself accountable. I was a Big Fat Gluttonous Slob. It's the simple truth of the matter. Yea, it's partly not my fault because of the carbohydrate culture and I was just unaware, and often uncertain due to all the contradictory information. But now that I know, and can see the results of the combination of weight lifting, low-carb, moderate protein, high (animal) fat, and intermittent fasting (the key and foundation), I simply have no excuse, since I value having a lean, healthy looking physique. If you don't care about yours, I've got no argument with you. Some people don't, and they ought to be left alone. I'm really not trying to shame anyone. If you value something better, then you already feel the shame. Apply some knowledge and discipline and I believe you can make progress. I harp on it, but intermittent fasting is the essential key, and it's not so much the added wight you loose more quickly, but the radical reprogramming of your ancestral appetite. I would probably already be at my target had I discovered fasting in May rather than December.

More old me. Notice the almost ape-like posture. "Lovely."

So I began working out at the beginning of May '07 with short, 30-minute highly intense weight lifting sessions, twice per week, with a personal trainer of 13 years experience and a bachelor's degree in exercise physiology (he really knows his stuff). There's virtually no rest in-between sets, so I was accomplishing in a half hour what I never did in three times the duration when on my own. Initially, my bodyweight increased, which was to be expected due to lean gain. Then it dropped, and seesawed its way down to about a 7 pound net loss in the first six to seven months. But I wasn't eating even close to properly, believing perhaps that if I just built enough lean muscle, I could go on eating lots of the junk I loved. I also wanted to focus on one primary thing, initially. It was progress, but it was taking long. So I eventually decided to clean up my act and eat more "Paleo" or "Art DeVany-style," beginning in about November '07, or so. The net loss rate seemed to about double during November and December, and it was right prior to the Xmas holidays that I discovered intermittent fasting, thanks to both Art and Brad Pilon, author of EatStopEat.

So here we go. On the left is from November, after nearly seven months of working out, and a few weeks of eating better. On the right is today, almost three months to the day later. I began fasting nearly two months ago and generally try to do two 24-30 hour fasts per week, and usually ending right after my two weekly workouts.

In the last two months of "appetite reprogramming" due to fasting, I've gone from eating "Paleo," to a more highly "carnivorous" diet with little in the way of fruits of vegetables (some nuts, yes). It was high protein, and this was driven by appetite as a result of fasting, so I just went with it. But it kept changing and now I eat less than half the meat, lots more fat (animal; saturated), and bits of veggies, fruits, and nuts.

Here's the entire photo gallery which I will continue to update and provide notice here. Comments and questions are welcome and encouraged -- in the comment form or via email. I'm happy to assist anyone if I can.

Later: Karen DeCoster has some keen observations and kind words about my progress. I have always looked to Karen as sensible about diet and exercise and am proud to have made her grade. She knows what she's talking about.

Update 6/23/2009: Here's an update from September 2008, and the most recent, June 2009.