Yeah, okay, we are now at

—The “Average” Side of Overweight—

A few different signs:

• The bottom edge of the stomach has fully firmed up and the stomach is now fully encapsulated within, not upon, the torso
• The sides have shrunk in so that the torso is rectangular in profile, and from the shoulders through the chest and through the stomach to the waist now appear as a single unbroken plane
• I can now suck in my stomach far enough that the forwardmost part of the body is the chest

I was last this thin in fourth grade

To the extent my torso outside the stomach still feels soft with fat it now feels like muscular fat. Not like, fat over muscle, but the two aren’t distinguishable by touch anymore

The chest growing (remember, I’m still testosterone gaining muscle mass from once-trivial activity as if I’m on steroids) was taking up slack from the stomach shrinking for a while, but finally at the point where I can throw out some shirts I mostly only had for if I wanted something loose, now that other ones can fill that role

So one of my main metrics for the last few months is “how far below my nipples would you be able to cut off my torso such that everything above looked perfectly fit?” and it’s at like 5 inches now

The area that was my belly’s “top roll of fat” but then receded to a consolidated stomach with and barely distinguishable from the “bottom roll” had continued to recede but only slightly more than the ex-bottom roll, but now it’s totally clearing out.

Bottom edge of the stomach firm to the point of little yield at all

Oh shit, I need to remember to slap my stomach more while I still have it, already it’s taughter and higher-pitched

Ok, think I’ll be ready to go down to 4 scoops creatine/day either at the midpoint or end of this month. I was at 4 two cases ago but echoes took me up to 6 and then on the day I was about to go back to 4, back to the top of 5. So nice to regain my place, and since the echoes seem to get weaker each time (except case 7, which was the hardest since 3) I don’t expect another would cost me even a full scoop now.

Stomach continues to shrink in from the front and sides.

Way above my pay grade, boss

It was never FUPA prominent and I’m not bruising myself banging chicks or anything now, hasn’t really been a focus of mine past that

No, it is not. My issue in particular is long covid effects interrupting the conversion of blood sugar to ATP energy and rendering it inefficient or otherwise unable to meet full muscle demand even at rest.

Taking the creatine I am able to produce enough energy to fill the hole by breaking down stored fat, otherwise I would experience strong fatigue.

Creatine gives the ability to break down fat for energy, it does not cause it. A normal healthy person even on this much creatine would preferentially power her muscles from converting blood sugar.

If she did exercise that took her beyond the limits of what she could generate that way – reps of a heavy weight, say – then creatine-mediated generation would matter, and by taking creatine she could do more exercise and burn more fat (and build more muscle) there, but even then nowhere near my current level. And she would have to do that exercise.

If on the other hand she attempted to drop her aerobic energy generation to my level by severe restriction of sugar and carbs (which the body processes to sugar on an intermediate timeframe) she would experience hunger, macronutrient shortages, and other negative effects I don’t – I’ve had no problem with low blood sugar symptoms like lightheaded dizziness, for example.

If you do any exercise that involves going as hard as you can for as long or as many times as you can (“oh gosh, this is as many reps of this many plates I can do right now” counts) creatine can make it even more productive but it’s not a miracle powder, it just lines up with my one weird-ass plague symptom in the exact right way (at first I wasn’t even interested in the weight loss, I just appreciated that it could get me out from a fatigue so deep I had to manually breath in order to fully cycle the air in my lungs)

Alright my body, now at the borderline of “Plain Overweight” and “Average Side of Overweight”, is finally where my idealized mental model had been the whole time I was “Plain Fat” or even “Obese Side of Fat”, which means that while I’ve enjoyed the fat shrinking in, it felt like a change in degree, but from now on, my body is different

Lot more practical for me to grasp the tautness in and massage the tendons at my shoulders and the front of the armpits, I remembered that but I guess I was writing it off as a childhood thing when it was really a thin thing.

My arms aren’t very defined yet but you can tell there’s structures under the skin now.

fatsexybitch:

kontextmaschine:

There is one specific symptom it is useful for: difficulties in processing blood sugar into ATP energy, where it helps by replacing with energy derived from breaking down stored fat. Over my (9 now, I think) cases I’ve encountered other fatigue symptoms, including one that was really an iron deficiency and one I suspect was “post-exertional malaise”, the creatine did nothing for them.

Creatine is pretty safe though, your body makes some naturally all the time, if you took a bucketload on the reg it might gratuitously let you burn too much fat doing exercise and then starve in a famine.

I would say it’s worth trying once – take say 4 scoops, it’ll take effect within 20 minutes, if that clears it up yay, take it every day and it’ll burn fat to keep you on until the symptom clears, if it makes you feel a bit better but not totally try some more until you find your level, if that’s not it sorry but maybe suggest it to other people with fatigue.

Honestly when I first read about you using creatine for fatigue I was like “such a dude bro solution, doubt it will work” but then I read some articles on long covid and CFS that showed the energy limitations are heavily tied to a lack of anaerobic energy production and was like “weird”

But it’s one of the most studied supplements on the market and a proven safety record even in really high doses, and long-term high dose usage over years hasn’t shown any negative impacts.

So I decided to try it. I’ve got Fibro and (likely) long covid, and started off w really low doses (like 1/3 the ‘recommended’ dose on the package) and started upping weekly and had great results.

I don’t need my lunchtime nap anymore, and I’ve still got energy at the end of the workday for little chores around the house. I haven’t had a bad brain fog day for nearly 3 months. I usually spend weekends working for 20-30 mins on chores and resting for about the same time. Now I can work for a few hours before a short 20-30min rest, and I don’t suffer the rebound (PEM) in the following day.

I’m still only taking ~4 scoops per day so I’m not seeing any weight loss or gain, but i was pre-diabetic when I started (managing w diet and exercise) and now my blood sugar is way more stable with no food or exercise changes, just a slight increase in baseline activity. I have noticed some reduction in my largest fat deposits, but I think I’m probably losing fat/gaining muscle equally.

I ran out on Tuesday this week and didn’t have time to go to the store, and the difference in fatigue and reduction in endurance was immediate, but no other difference. I haven’t noticed any side effects or w/d symptoms, so I’d rate it safe for self experimentation, fwiw. (Obviously, I am NOT a Dr and YMMV)

Mostly, I’m a little peeved you solved chronic fatigue with bodybuilders powder.

The one thing I’m concerned about is that insofar as it DOES give you more energy that DOES come from breaking down fat, and it took a while for me to first notice my reserves being depleted but that is a finite resource.

In my case this one Covid symptom is receding at a rate such that if I keep this treatment up I expect to end up stylishly slim, but for a chronic, permanent thing I couldn’t maintain it indefinitely, I’d become emaciated.

(I’m also not sure I can store new fat until it fully clears, scheduled a year or so on, I suspect my blood sugar’s just getting converted to nonsense molecules and pissed out, if that’s different for you maybe it’s more sustainable? This seems like exactly the thing a nutritionist might be helpful for.)

Alright, the bottom edge of the stomach, whose becoming fully solid I counted as signaling the “True Overweight” phase is getting firm, while the other sides substantially already are; the stomach being fully encapsulated in shell might be the sign for “Average Side of Overweight” before long. Also the old top roll of fat is now so thinned you can’t really grab any of it and the sides are shrinking in, leaving a narrower “spare tire” of any plushness at the old lower roll.

So anyway the combination of my recent mortality morbidity mentality and weight loss is that I am independently psyched not only that I’m going to be thin, but that I’m going to have a chance to experience what it’s like living like that before I die, which I had given up on long ago

I used to be like “sure I’m fat but I’m not that fat, I’m just a little fat”, but as I lose weight I unearth a succession of slightly less fat men trapped inside and I’m now objectively around that “a solid layer of mostly-firm padding laid over an otherwise fit body” level I was thinking of but that was a lot of fat ago

kontextmaschine:

Lot easier to pinch and massage my shoulders between fingers now

Weird thing of losing so much weight that the body suddenly feels all these little ways I remember from childhood but haven’t felt since.