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At this point I’m fairly pleased with the results of my fat loss program. I’ve shed 14 lbs since I started 8 weeks ago and at least some of it had to be fat. My waist is much firmer and there’s a slight glimmer of ab definition. I’ve really gotten used to my meal program and don’t miss the high-glycemic carbs. Well, maybe some rice to go along with my stir fry chicken and broccoli would be nice now and then, but overall, I really couldn’t be happier with how things have progressed. I’m also feeling pretty good health and energy-wise.

The part that I wish would go somewhat smoother is losing the last deposits of fat in those stubborn areas: obliques, lower abdominals, lower back, etc. These of course are the last areas that will give up fat on a man’s body. Women have their own unique stubborn areas such as the hips and thighs. At this point, we begin to fight our own bodies over conflicting goals — we are fighting for cosmetic appearance and our bodies are fighting for nothing less than our own survival. It would seem that our bodies have an edge on the nobility of the fight.

Though I would never resort to it, liposuction and other spot-reducing methods begin to make some sense when you get your weight down as low as you can without becoming unhealthy. My goal has ben to get down to %14 body fat and I think I’m close (need to take another measurement soon). Actually, in order to get a truly visible 6 pack, a man needs to get down to 10% BF and sometimes even down to %8. The risk to losing this much body weight is that muscle will also be sacrificed and the end result may not be what we’re after. A ripped skeleton look isn’t real appealing!

In an effort to kick my exercise routine into a higher gear, I’m taking a look at modifying both my cardio and weight training routines. Towards this end I picked up a copy of Mike Geary’s “The Truth About Abs” eBook. I really like his views on making weight training the key to fat burning. He advocates getting back to basic, power lifting type movements that recruit multiple muscles and that really get you breathing hard. It’s basically the tried and true Hard Gainer’s routine. I’ve been sort of coasting through my workouts over the past year or so and Mike’s book has been like a well-needed slap across the back of my head. I just started implementing some of his recommendations into my training this week and I’m eager to see what results I achieve.

One of the big advantages of being on a low carb diet is that I pay more attention to the nutritional content of the foods I eat. My main meals of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner consist of protein and green leafy veggies such as salad greens, broccoli, asparagus, and green beans. Things become a bit more challenging when choosing snack and dessert items. In the past, and I hate to admit it, these choices usually consisted of cookies, cake, candy, and ice cream. I blame my wife for putting these temptations in front of me.

That’s all changed now, and I’ve added more fruit to my meal plans. More hardcore low carb diet plans such as Atkins severely limit fruit because of it’s supposedly high sugar content. True, there are high-glycemic fruits, but these are really limited to water melon and bananas. Berries and surprisingly, grapefruit are low-glycemic fruits. I’ve been enjoying straw berries, which are now in season as well as apples and grapefruit. I will also enjoy the occasional banana and sometimes I will split it.

I eat fruit by itself as a snack because I sometimes experience stomach upset if I have it with a larger protein meal. I not a big proponent of food-combining, but this aspect makes sense to me.

Now that I’ve weened myself off refined sugar, these natural sources are a pure delight. So far, I’ve limited myself to just one fruit serving per day, but will add another since I’m still on track with my weight loss goal.

I was watching the NBC Nightly news yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to learn about the results of a study that seems to confirm that certain people do better on low carb diets than more conventional diets. The study analyzed blood samples from the subjects and separated people into 2 distinct groups — slow insulin producers and fast insulin producers. As has been known for some time now, insulin is a contributing factor in the laying down of fat stores. Seems the fast insulin producers do better with low carb diets and manage to keep the weight off longer than when put on more traditional, low fat diets. What a surprise, huh?

If I recall correctly from the news report, I believe they said that more people are fast insulin producers. Speaking from my own experience, I’m pretty sure I fall into this group because I’ve ony been able to successfully lose body fat when on a low carb diet. Of course I’m not getting my hopes up too high because like most medical studies, this will probably be challenged quite vigor

Since my less than strict low carb regimen of last week, I’ve begun to regroup to begin my assault on my goal weight. With my base camp firmly established (please forgive the mountain climbing references), I’ve set my sights on reaching my goal weight of 165 lbs. and hopefully a BF percentage of 14%. I’m currently hovering around 171 lbs. and I know these last 6 pounds or so will be some of the toughest I’ve ever had to lose.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with my progress so far. I’ve managed to lose 13 lbs in 4 weeks, which is a much slower rate than I’ve achieved in previous years on a similar program, but still, 3 lbs per week is pretty rapid weight loss by most any standard. The really great news is that I’m enjoying the program and I rarely feel hungry. My approach this time around is to really listen to my body and eat something if I feel hungry — even if it’s 10pm. I know this goes against conventional wisdom, but I’m looking for what works for me, not what “They” say we should do.

I’m still devising my strategy for losing these last 6 lbs and I feel it will have more to do with exercise than diet at this point. The nutritional component of my program has and is serving me very well. I have some tweaks that I want to throw into it, but it’s working about as well as I could ask at this point. I have the feeling that I will need to increase the frequency of my cardio workouts and also increase the intensity as well as the focus of my ab workouts.

So stay tuned…