Dear Prof. De Vany,
First of all, I must thank you for your contribution to those that are looking for a healthy way of life. The EF science has made a tremendous positive impact on my health and fitness.
A colleague told me about your theory after reading Taleb’s Black Swann. I eventually ended up drilling into your website and, from there, it was only two days before I had begun the EF way of life. As an avid book reader and having been studying complex systems and its fundamentals in connection with financial markets, EF made a lot sense right out of the box.
Now at 38, I’ve always been a relatively fit person (6’2 ft, 187 lbs, 15% fat) but had relatively high LDL levels and, no matter what I would do, I could never drop it to normal levels (never took medicines though). My LDL level had been intriguing me for quite a while, given my active way of life (3-5x/week of intense tennis) and all other health stats in the normal range (i.e., 65 HDL, 68 triglycerides, 120/80 blood pressure, etc.). One hundred per cent of the doctors would say my LDL level is “genetic” and that I should decrease intake of meats, eggs, cheeses, etc. Well, I tried all that and I must say it was all at no avail.
As a coincidence, I had started the EF program a couple of days before my annual health check-up in July 2009 and, although EF made 100% sense to me, the LDL result was a very good reinforcement to fully adhere to EF. I’m now 2 months on EF and LDL has already decreased to 110 from 160 and HDL remains at around 65. In this period, I lost 15 lbs, my body fat decreased from 15% to 11% (measured with a Tanita scale) and I think fat will continue to go down as I had made a few adjustments in my meals (I recently dropped the whey protein and decreased fruit ingestion as I was having too much of it). In the latest blood exam, I also had my fasting insulin measured and it was at 3.7 (I had no prior insulin checks but 3.7 is very close to the low end of the lab 1.7-30.0 normal range).
I’m also on the EF fitness. I started with some adaptation series, in the first month doing 3 sets of 15 reps and in the second month doing hierarchical sets of 15, 12 and 8 reps. A couple of weeks ago I started the recommended 15/8/4 sets and I plan to start doing eccentrics and 1/5s soon. The results are fantastic: I’m adding weights fast, I do not feel tired, and, above all, my tennis has improved dramatically as I have a faster footwork and swing. In addition, my VO2 max has improved to approximately 50 from 41, even though I normally don’t do running nor pure aerobic exercises (I only do one session per week of 10-15 mins of sprinting at my treadmill mainly to keep up with the tennis demands).
I’m very happy with the process and its results. It is quite impressive how obvious it is when explained by a rigorous scientific mind such as yours.