AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

I think that tends to be early on for most people. When you lose fat all the stuff that’s stored along with the fat is dumped into the bloodstream as well. This will include oxalates. So, it’s certainly possible that these are old oxalates that you consumed in the past.

Hmmmm.

The C-Reactive Protein and other wossname tested OK this time, with the oxalates off in the bozone.

I haven’t gone back to SAD yet. If I’m flushing old, accumulated oxalates, maybe I need to abandon the limited carbs and go back to mostly-carnivore.

I guess I should at least wait until I find out when the nephrologist has an open slot.

Drop the nuts. Cut up cheese or bits of bacon as a snack.

If you get tested again after removing potential sources of oxalates from your diet, you’ll have a better idea.

The main reason they worry about high oxalate levels are kidney stones but oxalates can crystallize anywhere in the body.

No nuts for Andy. [sigh]

I might try making some jerky. The store-bought stuff must be pressure-impregnated with sugar or something, going by the carb count on the packages.

I asked for the oxalate test because I’m paranoid about another kidney stone. The first one was a right bastard. However, the doc thinks the super-high oxalate number indicates kidney failure of some sort, which is why he’s sending me to a nephrologist.

It’s easy to make your own in the oven and cut out 95% of that sugar. This is a good recipe that includes just a pinch of sugar. It works.

Nice idea. Personally I prefer Biltong to beef Jerky. It’s easy to make as well, you don’t even need an oven. It’s air dried, so if you live in a hot dry climate you can just dry it outside with some netting to keep out insects and if you don’t you can construct a box with an incandescent light bulb and dry that way.

Perfect Biltong Recipe—South African Beef Jerky - Greedy Ferret

Andy,

Do you know whether your previous kidney stone was an oxalate one? Those are calcium oxalate. So your calcium intake will make a difference.

If you remove all the potential sources of oxalates then at least you have a baseline for your levels.

Also sip water throughout the day* . High protein diets have a risk of uric acid stones.

Does Losing Weight Affect Your Kidneys? | livestrong

I think my area is too humid even with a heated box, but it wouldn’t cost that much to experiment. Apparently some demented souls fake it with a dehydrator.

When I asked, the urologist just said “the most common kind.” Which is calcium oxalate, if I remember right. That was before I learned to get hardcopies of lab results, and he retired and his office closed years ago.

For the last couple of months I have been taking a calcium supplement. I was reading about the interactions between vitamin D, calcium, kidney stones, and osteoporosis, and it seemed like a good idea.

Before that, and back to 11/2021 when I went keto, my calcium intake has been very low; cheese as a condiment two or three times per week.

Sounds reasonable. Going closer to carnivore until I see the nephrologist would give me the best chance of flushing oxalates.

The urologist was a water freak. He wanted me to drink eight glasses of water per day. Upon questioning, his “glass” was 8oz instead of the 32oz glasses I normally use. So, 64oz/day. I’ve been pretty good about following that. We buy flats of cheap bottled water. The bottles are 20oz, so three were close enough. The “Civil Water Authority” (as the city water department styles itself nowaways, with delusions of grandeur) claims city tap water meets all applicable Federal and state standards for water quality. Apparently “tastes like dirty bath water” is okay with them.

I didn’t know that weight loss could affect your kidneys. I’ll do some more reading on that.

03/26/2023:
BPFSL: 7-7/8”
BPEL: 6-3/4”
MSEG: 5-7/8”

Today, 05/13/2023:
BPFSL: 7-3/4”
BPEL: 6-11/16” (just shy of 6-3/4”)
MSEG: 6-1/4

Lost a tiny amount of length, got another 3/8” of girth I didn’t particularly want.

I use a ruler with a sliding metal clip. I don’t have to worry about visual errors reading the scale; I just slide the clip back until I feel it touch the glans, so it should be fairly accurate.

I didn’t pump or jelq much for the week-plus stretching with plugs or the month the Tetherspout was in, and no vacuum extender or hanger time at all. I spent most of my PE time working on my balls. I’ve been ramping shaft work back up slowly for the last week.

Still trying to get a nephrologist appointment. After a week we got a call from the doctor’s office saying the referral had been denied, no reason given. Mrs. Andy deals with the insurance bullshit since my patience won’t stretch that far. It took her about six hours on the phone to finally find out that A) the place the doc’s officedroids were trying to send me to isn’t “in network” for our insurance any more (something they’re supposed to check first), and B) it was at a urology clinic I had been to before, and I’d specifically said I didn’t want to go back to them again. If you look up “fucktards” in the dictionary, you’d probably find their names.

So, another full day back on the phone with the insurance idiots, who would grudgingly cough up one name at a time. They wouldn’t give us a list. So Mrs. Andy would get a name, call, and about half the time there’s just an answering machine; you’re supposed to leave a message and they’ll get back to you at their convenience. So she has only been able to vet two or three per day. The first few were general practitioners; not the right kind of doctors. Then the name of one guy who had retired in 2013. Then a few more not-nephrologists. Minus the offices that never bothered to return the call. And then it was Friday, and most doctors’ offices around here only work four day weeks now. Must be nice. So she’ll get back on the phone Monday.

03/26/2023:
BPFSL: 7-7/8”
BPEL: 6-3/4”
MSEG: 5-7/8”

05/13/2023:
BPFSL: 7-3/4”
BPEL: 6-11/16” (just shy of 6-3/4”)
MSEG: 6-1/4

05/29/2023:
BPFSL: ——
BPEL: 7.0
MSEG: 6.0

Not much consistency there. This morning’s measurement was after a 15 minute pump at 3" Hg and the RLT lamp, and a cock ring to help the erection. I need to try this evening and see what the difference is with a cold measurement. I expect the tunica won’t be as stretchy and it’ll be shorter. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if it was back to 6-3/4.

The recurrent blister on the left side of my glans, by the meatus, came back a few weeks ago. It went away after a week and I resumed PE with half-sessions of pumping and mild jelquing. It came back. So another week… and this morning, it’s back.

I think it’s time for a longer break now; at least two weeks, maybe four, both as a PE rest break and plenty of time for that area to heal up.

Some guys have problems making time for PE, but I hate taking breaks; it’s built into my daily routine now, and I get antsy when I have to stop.

I guess I’ll channel the time and effort into the barbells and exercise machine.

Day 365 of this keto cycle.

Weight now 235 pounds, 112 down from 347.

I’m only 60 pounds above my target of 175.

Weight loss has slowed down a lot. I think I got all the easy loss to be had from keto; now I have to start restricting food intake. I haven’t really changed how *much* I eat, just *what* I eat. I’m probably going to start by skipping breakfast instead of dicking with portion sizes.

I’ve mostly worked the calcium spurs out of my right shoulder and elbow. Besides the exercise machine and dumbbells, I’ve strengthened my back enough that I’m now able to do overhead presses with the barbell. Not a lot of weight yet, but my back didn’t like it at *all* before. I’ve set up the exercise machine for rowing, and did some cutting and welding to alter it to be able to do several different lateral pull exercises.

Damn, man! 235 is just 35 above 200, which always feels like some magic number. Pretty amazing to think you’ll put a "1" in front of your weight before long.

Nice.

Have you tried intermittent fasting yet? It’s rather easy now that you are keto. Just decrease your eating window by an hour a day until you hit 8 hours or less. Maybe even one meal a day would work for you.

Slow progress is a good thing with weights. It can be really helpful to buy tiny weights if you don’t have them so that you can go up or down by very small amounts. I don’t know how much you’ve learned yet but generally speaking you should start with a low weight set before slowly increasing the load to what you can handle for 5 reps (as you’re aiming for strength not bulk), then do 3 sets of 5 reps with a long break in between (3 minutes or more). It’s also relatively normal to be able to lift more one day than another and maybe that indicates that you are progressing the weight too quickly. It’s also a good idea to not use all your energy on your build up sets. There are plenty of people here with good info about lifting.

I’m *really* looking forward to that!