You can follow my weekly recaps right here every Sunday, but you can follow me every day as I post daily updates of my journey from GeekLand to FreakVille at Geek2Freak.com.
Current Stats and Measurements (October 5, 2008)
- Height – 6'3"
- Weight – 192.4 lb.
- Bodyfat – 16%
- Biceps – 14.3"
- Calves – 14.9"
- Thighs – 25.1"
- Waist – 32.3"
- Chest – 43"
"How to Get Abs" Progress Pics (October 5, 2008)
Before (Mid to Late 2005)
Current (October 5, 2008)
Today's Diet Log
For up-to-the-minute coverage of my world-famous digestive system, check out my very cool and overly-detailed Diet Log.
Current Supplements
- BSN CELLMASS (Creatine)
- 100% Whey Protein – Gold Standard
- Life Extension Multivitamins
- NOW Foods, Super EPA Double strength – 60 Softgels (Fish Oil Capsules)
- NOW Foods, Glucosamine & Chondroitin plus MSM
- Greens+, 9.4 oz powder
Current Workout Routine
Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength: Get Your Strongest Body in 16 Weeks with the Ultimate Weight-Training Program
Weekly Recap (September 28 – October 5, 2008)
Welcome to my Does Fruit Make You Fat? experiment…
Very, VERY cool! I feel like I'm back in high school science class, except this experiment is actually fun and exciting.
My knowledge of how to write up a proper report following the scientific method is long gone, so bear with me, because I'm going to have to write it in… understandable, conversational English!
Rekindling of my inner scientist
Ok, so I'm constantly tinkering with my diet to find that elusive combination that will allow me to burn fat and build muscle most efficiently, which, of course, is a moving target.
Two weeks ago, on September 21, every one of my measurements stayed almost exactly the same, which I hadn't noticed in a while, so I figured I had found my maintenance level for my current weight.
Maintenance level just means a balance between exercise and nutrition that basically keeps your body right where it is, no gaining and no losing.
Mine, for that week, turned out to be:
Maintenance level = 3,509 average total calories per day, 176 average grams of carbs per day, and 170 average grams of fat per day.
Having found this baseline, this was a perfect opportunity to turn myself into a guinea pig and conduct some experiments.
My Hypothesis – Fruit makes you fat…
I've always loved fruit, especially apples, but I've always had a sneaking suspicion that fruit makes me fat (a hot-button issue in the nutrition world, along the lines of abortion and stem-cell research).
It's one of those things that I tried to ignore, because I didn't want to believe it and didn't want to give up my beloved apples.
I finally faced the music and decided to find out once and for all if carbs make me fat. And these aren't even "bad carbs" like candy, soda, etc. I zeroed in specifically on fruit carbs, even more specifically on apples.
The week after finding my maintenance level, I began part one of the experiment: I would decrease calories while increasing carbs. Also, my idea of "high-carb" is very relative here, because, as you'll see, it's still VERY low compared to the average junk food and soda-filled diet.
In other words, I was giving carbs an unfair advantage, because they would have to make up for the overall calorie-drop, using all of their fat-storing powers combined (Captain Planet, anyone?).
And keep in mind, none of the numbers I'm using are estimates. I think I'm at least half robot, because I'm able to eat the exact same things at the exact same times for long periods of time, so conditions were as controlled as possible throughout, much more so, I'm sure, than the average guinea pig in the big studies.
By the way, all of these numbers can be confirmed, and you can even see exactly what foods they came from on my daily diet log, which lets you browse by specific date, and I can also export a detailed breakdown for any timeframe in the unlikely event that anyone is interested enough to want that.
Just the fact that I keep track of all that, right down to obnoxiously measuring everything I eat on a food scale, should provide some level of credibility to my results.
High-Carb Week
So, here was my breakdown for my high-carb week:
High-Carb Week = 3,205 average total calories per day, 215 average grams of carbs per day, and 119 average grams of fat per day.
Now that I've already done the math for you, it shouldn't be hard to see that my average total calories dropped over 300 per day and my average grams of fat dropped over 50 points.
It's also important to note that all of the increased carbohydrates were consumed within the workout window, no more than 2-3 hours after working out.
Given all of that decreasing, a simple increase of 40 grams of carbs per day couldn't possibly overcome and produce an overall fat and weight gain, right?
Wrong! My results for the week showed an overall weight gain of 2.8 pounds and my waist measurement went up 0.7 inches!
Of course, the body fat measurement is quite meaningless on my digital scale, as I've discussed in the past, so that's why it shows my percentage dropped, but the mirror, the progress picture, and the increase in belly fat left no doubt that carbs had added fat, even in the face of a drop of 300 calories per day!
That's great and seemed to confirm my hypothesis that fruit makes me fat, but of course my experiment wasn't complete.
Low-Carb Week
Now, I had to switch it up: keep overall calories the same while decreasing carbs. How will I make up the difference? With public enemy number one: FAT!
That's right, I'm a complete rebel, challenging common sense, boldly stating that I'm going to lose fat by eating more of it.
In fact, it was an extremely simple switch: I replaced apples (carbs) with almonds (fat).
So, here's my breakdown from this past week:
Low-carb week = 3,201 average total calories per day, 133 average grams of carbs per day, and 161 average grams of fat per day.
Again, for the mathematically-challenged, compared to my "high-carb" week, my "low-carb" diet included almost the exact same number of average daily calories (dropping a measly 4 calories per day), the carbs dropped by about 80 grams per day, and the fat increased by over 40 grams per day.
What happened? I lost over 2 pounds and that very same 0.7 inches from my waist! Coincidence? I think not!
Hypothesis Confirmed? Does fruit make you fat?
If that's not conclusive evidence, I don't know what is. I increased fat and decreased carbs, all while keeping overall calories the same, and burned body fat!
Please, please, please, keep in mind that this was an experiment conducted on my body with my metabolism, not yours. There are plenty of people who could replicate this exact experiment and get the exact opposite results.
In fact, one of my favorite exercise gurus, Craig Ballantyne, has mentioned his disagreement with "fruit makes you fat" several times, and clearly, he can eat a lot of it and still be ripped.
It all comes down to how your body processes and breaks down what you eat, but if you have the same suspicion that I did, then it's certainly something worth trying.
Conclusion
As for my workouts, they stayed virtually the same throughout. The PETF (People for the Ethical Treatment of Fruits) folks will probably point out that I just finished "Very High" load week of "Maximum Strength," and that's really why I lost the additional body fat.
But, compared to the week before, daily workout time only increased by about 15-20 minutes. With 4 workouts per week, that's only about an hour of extra workout time total, and I seriously doubt that would account for the drastic changes.
Of course, this is, and will always be, an ongoing study in my quest for the perfect combination, but I will be keeping my diet exactly the same this week, and it's a "Very Low" load week, which should clear up any potential workout discrepancies.
Granted, as with any study, I'm sure there are plenty of other things to nitpick, and I welcome all criticisms, ideas, and alternate conclusions, so to any other amateur (or "real") scientists out there, please speak up!
So, what do YOU think? Does fruit make you fat?
That about raps it up for this week. See you next Sunday and don't forget you can follow my daily updates over at Geek2Freak.com.
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Great Blog. Very Informative!
Well Brandon,
I think this is very bad news! However, like you I have long suspected that fruit may be a culprit in preventing weight loss.
But I love fruit! Red grapes are my absolute favorite food
and they are very high is antioxidants!
Interesting post, Thank you!
i think to much of any good thing is bad, wether fruit or exercise..if fruits are eaten and you dont use the energy it can change in fat, the more fruits you eat the more you should exercis.. there should be a balance.. if every thing is doing correctly, you can keep the same weight..
Namibia, Africa
changing your diet for a week isnt going to do anything as far as a study on fruits and carbs is concerned. you need a long term study where your body has longer than a week to adapt to the change in diet..