A couple of weeks ago I went to see Billy to get a RMR test done. Although I haven’t been feeling too bad lately, I still felt that I wasn’t making much progress. My skin was still going intermittently dry and the vitamin A & zinc that I thought was making it better just wasn’t always working. In fact my fingers started to swell up like sausages and get even drier just underneath the nail. Fruit juice was taken off the table again as my lips just kept getting sore and rice has to be kept in or I just feel weird!
You have to be in a fasted state to get a RMR test done but I didn’t want to drive 2 hours to Derby first thing in the morning when I hadn’t eaten all night. That would be a recipe for disaster. Billy said I had to be 4 hours fasted so I decided to eat breakfast at 8 and arrive at Billy’s at 12. I’ve driven to Billy’s before and know the way so I set off at 10 figuring that there would be no problems. Bad assumption!!
You have to be in a fasted state to get a RMR test done but I didn’t want to drive 2 hours to Derby first thing in the morning when I hadn’t eaten all night. That would be a recipe for disaster. Billy said I had to be 4 hours fasted so I decided to eat breakfast at 8 and arrive at Billy’s at 12. I’ve driven to Billy’s before and know the way so I set off at 10 figuring that there would be no problems. Bad assumption!!
Things started to go awry when I drove the wrong way on the M6! For some reason I decided I needed the M6 north and purposefully got in the northbound lane whilst singing along to the radio. 5 mins later I was like ‘what on earth am I doing? Of course I need to go southwards to get to Derby!’ and came off at the next junction, which happened to be the busiest junction ever!! It didn’t take long to correct though and 10 minutes later I was travelling in the right direction. I knew what junction I needed and I could still make it in time. Then when I came off the motorway I started to follow signs for the A50, which I thought was a little early but no worries as that was the road I wanted. I followed the signs thinking ‘this is strange, I don’t remember this’ and then ended up out in the middle of nowhere with no more signs! Hmm! So I brought Google maps up on my phone and plotted a new route, although I still couldn’t understand why I’d ended up where I had. I was nowhere near the A50. I sorted a new route and came towards Derby on the slowest road in the world!!! It ended up taking me 3 hours instead of 2. Good grief! It didn’t even take that long the first time I went, although I also went wrong on that journey, missed the A50 and ended up in Shrewsbury!! Haha!!
Luckily Billy could still see me and do the test. By this time I was 5 hours fasted and you can see what a difference glucose (or lack thereof) makes to your brain power. I usually pick at sweets whilst I’m driving and have no problem remembering a route from Google maps. Especially now as you can place the little man (or woman!!) at points along the way so you know what to look out for!! On this journey though, with no food, I failed spectacularly to drive a simple route that I’ve driven before, even picking the wrong direction to start with!!
The RMR test takes very little time to do. Firstly I needed to lie on his couch for a little while to be totally rested and unstressed. Then the test is done by breathing into a tube with your mouth and having a clip on your nose! It feels very strange and unnatural, especially given that I spend my time making sure I never mouth breathe normally!! You also hear yourself breathing in the tube, whilst Billy says things like ‘breathe slower’, ‘breathe more deeply’, ‘a little less deeply’, lol. After a couple of mins I had my result: 1240. This is the amount of calories my body burns at rest. Pants! I knew it must be pretty low though, as I wasn’t getting any better. My skin was still dry, I still store a lot of fat in the belly region, and I still have a lot of water retention in my arms and legs.
“Of particular note should be the RMR/kg/24 hrs, which gives a clearer picture of the efficiency of the metabolic rate. When a subjects RMR data is available, it is then possible to divide this by the subject’s weight and derive the RMR/kg/24 hrs, which can then be compared to suggested norms for adults (25 kcal/kg/24 hrs).”
~ Billy Craig, “Consistent Eating”
~ Billy Craig, “Consistent Eating”
The above quote is taken from Billy’s new book ‘Consistent Eating’ which will be out soon. My weight is 86 kg so my RMR/kg/24 hrs is 14.4, more than 40% lower than the suggested norms of 25. I have some ways to go then!
We talked about why it would be so low given that I was eating nearly 3000 calories per day. When we broke it down though, it showed I was eating a lot of those calories from fat. So I needed to have a rethink.
Billy also proceeded to tell me a lot of interesting information, which, as by this time I had been fasted for over 6 hours, I struggled to keep up with. In fact I was tempted to say could you write all this down for me!! It turns out he has though, in his new book (although not written specifically for me haha!)
I was also given a reminder of compensatory behaviour, which is likely to occur after a state of dieting or fasting in order to get the body the food/calories it needs. As I left Billy’s house I thought of only 2 things: how bloody hungry I was and how I had forgotten to go to the toilet! So I drove to the nearby marina and raced to the toilet block, ricocheting off a picnic bench in the process! When I got back to my car I literally inhaled the food I had taken with me. If I had had 6 of those meals with me I think I would probably have eaten them all!
My journey back was uneventful and I made it home in just less than 2 hours. Amazing what some food, coffee and sugar can accomplish hey! I also looked up why I had ended up so far away from my correct route when I followed signs to the A50. It turns out there are two A50’s! How ridiculous! And no, I don’t mean one in each direction as Billy suggested I might!!! FFS!!
Once back home I had a ponder as to how to proceed. Clearly my current plan wasn’t working too well and I needed to cut some fat out. So the first thing I decided to do was to lose the sliced peaches that I was having for a pudding, along with meringue nests and cream. I’d tried before to have the fruit without the cream but a. I didn’t like it much and b. it caused me problems. Thinking about what Ray Peat had said about it sounding like I had difficulty digesting fruit and veg, I decided I could do without the peaches! So I proceeded cautiously with similar meals as I had been having (still with a bit of rice) and instead of the peaches and cream I’d been having, I added a milky coffee with plenty of sugar or just some sweets. Amazingly, once I’d dropped the peaches I was able to add in more milk without it causing problems. Previously when I tried to increase milk then I just wouldn’t be able to sleep. Now I’m sleeping pretty well, and I’m up to around 900 ml of milk per day now, which I have with coffee and sugar. I’m assuming the peaches were interfering with digestion or something. I always had the urge to drink lots of milk but then I was confused when I couldn’t sleep and it didn’t seem to work for me. Now I love milk and it seems to love me back! Part of my plan is to start swapping out the full fat milk for semi skimmed, but all in good time.
A few days after my trip to see Billy I got to proof read one of the chapters of his book. It was all the stuff he’d been telling me whilst my poor brain struggled to keep up! So I got to read and remember all the interesting things in the comfort of my own home with a well fed brain!! Brilliant! I can’t wait to buy the book.
As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings. Listen to your body, it’s always talking to you if you just tune into it once in a while. It’s taken me a while to get to grips with it but I’m getting there slowly (even slower than the drive to Billy’s house lol!) Hopefully this is another step in the right direction. Take care xx
RSS Feed