COVER FEATURE

All of us, myself included, are susceptible to convenient fictions from time to time. But at some point I usually have a “Come to Jesus” moment where I awaken to the truth. One of those happened earlier this year when I realized I needed/wanted to lose some weight. I often told myself the fiction that, hey, I’m lifting weights so it’s fine that my body weight has been going up. That’s all part of the process! That wasn’t entirely wrong, since to gain muscle during a hypertrophy phase you do generally need to take in more calories than you consume (with high protein levels). But when I came across Dr. Layne Norton’s diet coach app, I decided to give it a try. I was shocked by the slow and steady results. Why drop bodyweight? The science is actually pretty clear: Even modest amounts of weight loss lead to improvements across many comorbidities, including cardiovascular diseases and blood pressure. While I do believe in body positivity, I also trust the scientific process and the preponderance of research. OK, with that out of the way, how did it work? Norton’s app is called the Carbon Diet Coach. There are others out now; Macrofactor, by the science geeks behind the Stronger by Science podcast I listen to, is another. Surely more will be coming on the market soon. But for the purposes of this story, I used Carbon. Carbon is more than a calorie tracker — the app, and others like it, use the data you provide from the calories you eat to give you targets to meet to lose weight. Over time, it gets a better idea of the range of where your maintenance calorie range is.

It then gives you targets depending on your goal: lose weight, gain weight or maintain weight (and you can switch over time). The goal with weight loss is to lose weight very slowly, so it can be sustainable and minimize lean body mass loss (the opposite of The Biggest Loser approach, which has been shown to have disastrous results). There are vegetarian and vegan options, as well as keto and some other diet types. I stuck with a standard diet. The first week was tough. It set my calories at 2,000 to start, and that first week I lost far more than the sustainable level. It adjusted up probably too far the next week and by week three seemed dialed in just right. The only other target to really hit is protein - low calories plus high protein helps lose weight while slowly lowering your body weight, generally about 1-2 pounds per week.

Remarkably, beyond the first week when my calories were set too low, I never really had much hunger again. There were days when I missed my targets, say at family get-togethers. I simply got back to it the next day.

It’s important to note that weight loss is not a steady lowering of a number. Weight in humans fluctuates a lot from day to day, depending on a number of factors such as water retention. I took measurements daily but only put stock in the weekly check-ins.

Weeks turned into months, and before long I’d dropped from 209 pounds to 198. I took a break and switched to maintenance for a few weeks, still tracking but now eating in a higher maintenance range. It felt easier by comparison, even though dropping wasn’t too bad either.

Then I went down another 6 pounds, to 190. I’ve since set my maintenance to 192 and have stuck around that range since.

The coaching app has been a tool I can pull out when I need it. I weigh myself every so often, and if I start straying too much from 192, I track until I’m back in range. It’s usually a matter of a few days to a week.

At this point, I probably wouldn’t need the coaching app anymore, and could suffice with a standard calorie

How I lost weight and kept it off tracker while keeping an eye on my weight. I’ve struggled much of my life with bodyweight. Well-meaning relatives who grew up on farms kept that framework as a guide to feeding me, a child of the much less active 80s. That led to some bad habits I had to shake later in life. I’d lost a lot of weight with the keto diet a few years back. It’s hard to eat a lot (but not impossible) when you restrict an entire macronutrient. But research shows that when calories are equated, a ketogenic diet is no more or less effective than a balanced diet in weight loss.

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(There is strong evidence that when calories and protein are equated, that the keto diet is more fulfilling.) For me it worked, until I got sick of constantly scouring for something I could eat at a party or on a restaurant menu without breaking my ketosis.

By contrast, this approach (often called “if it fits your macros”) requires the least discipline of anything else I’ve tried. Tracking is annoying, but easier once you’ve entered most of the foods you regularly eat. I slipped up and overate a few times, but that’s not a big deal. I just got back on track the next day.

It’s not explicitly restrictive — I could eat a pop tart or candy bar — but it is restrictive in a broader sense, like a budget. You can eat what you want but it needs to fit your calorie budget. Chicken and veggies are a good bet; 10 candy bars are not.

Why am I writing this? I’ve had a lifelong obsession with nutrition, and I have that obsession to thank for my current science literacy — because I’ve made all the mistakes there are to make. Relying too much on one study (replication is a really important factor in scientific research because outlier results are common); not understanding the hierarchy of evidence (the very top is the systematic review paper, looking at all the research on a question with a standard for the highest level of research and research standards); listening to people making mechanistic arguments (they often turn out wrong when the hypotheses are actually tested through research).

The coaching app was the element I needed to achieve my goal of a healthier weight. I think it can help others who are also struggling, and I’ve heard from plenty of them. It’s not a miracle (though to one of my friends who tried the app on my suggestion felt like it was). You’ll have to put in the work. And for those not interested, hey that’s totally your choice. I’m not about telling people what to do.

For those who are, the “miracle” is that it removes the guesswork. After years of guessing, that’s more valuable to me than the small amount I paid to use the app.

Music has therapeutic benefits for health

A local high school band director and a guidance counselor both cite music as an important component of good mental health for students.

D.C Everest High School band director Joe Finnegan says music encompasses a wide spectrum of emotions, can improve good feelings and make bad ones worse.

Finnegan encourages students to participate in band. He says the school band is often like a family that brings people together creating something bigger than possible with individual performance.

D.C. Everest guidance counselor Jenny Oosterhuis agrees and adds that dance can have the same positive impact on mental health as music. Combining movement with music, she says, is helpful to creating positive emotions. Students view music as an outlet to express personal emotion and avert loneliness. Ruby Kowalski, a DC Everest sophomore, enjoys music as a mechanism to connect to her emotions. Another student dealing with anxiety finds that music provides an opportunity to focus on positive emotions, not feel alone and relax. A recent article published by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California-Berkeley also confirms that music can help decrease anxiety. Music with a slower tempo and low pitch can help calm some people down, even when they are in a high-stress situation, according to the article. Researchers at Stanford University have found that rhythmic music may change how the brain functions and treat a range of neurological conditions including depression and ADHD. There is scientific evidence that music and other rhythmic simulations can alter mental states and possibly help heal damaged brains, according to Stanford research. Music with a strong beat can encourage fast brain waves resulting in more intense and faster thinking.

Students feeling stress, anxiety or depression can contact school guidance counselors and explore course offerings and extracurricular programs in music and dance.

Makenna Kampmann is a student at D.C. Everest High School. She produced this story for City Pages through its partnership in the student journalism program with the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service.

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