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I have to lose a few pounds for a wedding in August. I guess it’s time to implement my old standby diet or buy a new suit. It’s nothing slick and sophisticated, but if you have 10 pounds to lose, it gets the job done. Just so you know, I am not a dietician, medical professional or anything even close. This diet is something I read about a few years ago on the web and I use it as needed. I can’t even tell you the source because I don’t remember. It might have been on a forum somewhere.
Anyway…
Before I start, here are some real diets you might want to consider.
And of course, a Keto Diet is always great for quick weight loss.
If you still want to follow this diet (my diet), that is on you and you assume all risks because it is not for everyone. It is something that works for me, but there is no guarantee you will see similar results. In fact, it may even affect your health negatively. Consult your doctor before starting any new diet/exercise routine, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes. If you feel ill during this diet, stop immediately and have a snack. Nothing is worth risking your health.
The Diet
This diet works by shifting your eating schedule and going from 3 meals a day, down to 2 meals.
Breakfast
If you normally eat at 7, shift your breakfast ahead by 3 hours to 10 am. The extra time will allow you to stay in fasting mode longer, burning extra stores of fat. Eat a normal meal for breakfast – you don’t have to watch what you eat, but you should at least have some fruit and grains if you can. A diet of eggs and bacon will come with its own health challenges down the road.
Mid-afternoon meal
Some people would call this “Linner” (a combination of lunch and dinner), but it’s a meal you have around 4 pm. Again, you can eat whatever you want, but try to include some healthy options.
Snack
If you want, have a snack later on in the evening, but keep it small – a few hundred calories or less. I have a handful of almonds, a yogurt cup, or a piece of fruit.
The Next Day
In the morning, wake up, have some black coffee, black tea, lemon water, or any other zero calorie drink. The idea is to continue your fast from the night before. If you haven’t eaten since 4 pm, that is an 18 hour fast by the time you eat at 10 am. At this point, you are burning some serious stored fat because your body will have long used up your glycogen stores.
Rinse and repeat with breakfast at 10 am or so.
It’s up to you if you want to keep this up once you reach your weight goal. I only use it to drop a few pounds as needed, then I stop. It can be challenging to alter your eating schedule as it goes against everyone else’s. The kids might wonder why mom is eating at 4 in the afternoon and skipping dinner. It may also be affected by your social life, as you can’t control when you are going to eat.
Challenges
My personal challenges included, getting used to black coffee, trying to function on an empty stomach until 10 am, and not eating between 10 am and 4 pm. When I started, I also felt lightheaded and nauseous until I ate something in the morning. I am not diabetic, but I still think it messed with my blood sugar. If you are diabetic, you need to consult your doctor before you start – this is critical!
That’s it, probably the shortest diet you’ve ever read. But let’s face it, it’s not anything new. This uses fasting and calorie reduction, plain and simple. It’s calories in, calories out, and timing.
Super Charge Your Results
I opted to add exercise to my weight loss plan. I realize that not everyone has the time to do this, but I include a 5 km daily walk in my routine. I have a high energy dog that needs lots of exercise, so it’s easy. The results of this combo are very noticeable in a matter of a few weeks.
Walking/running is optional. You will see results whether you exercise or not. In my experience, what you eat (or don’t eat) has a greater effect than exercise.
Why is losing weight so hard?
How many diets have you started over the years? How successful were you? If you’re an average person, you likely failed more often than you succeeded. Because you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that if you did lose some weight, it was temporary. There’s nothing more depressing than giving in to your primal urges. But don’t beat yourself up for it. To a certain extent, it is beyond your control. Here’s why:
When you change your eating patterns, you are messing with forces more powerful than you might imagine.
Sure, that’s a little dramatic, but it’s true that the body will do whatever it takes to maintain those old eating habits. If it’s used to a cushy lifestyle of excess sweets, carbs, and fat, then it will want the party to continue, no matter what.
While you know you need a change for your health and your appearance, lurking below the surface is this mind/body entity that wants nothing to do with change.
Don’t feel that you are weak if you have tried and failed in the past; losing weight is one of the hardest things you can do – and it doesn’t end once you reach your ideal weight either. All that blood sweat and tears will be for nothing if you let up on the gas too much. It takes much longer after the weight comes off to change your lifestyle and who you are. Your body will remember those morning caffe lattes/scones or the lunch-time fries and gravy. It will remember them for a long time and it’ll want to get back there.
I’ll admit that not everyone has those urges. I know people who don’t really like carbs, fat and large portions; they actually do prefer a salad at lunch over a burger. Granted, they are already thin and have never been overweight. It’s the majority of us who struggle to control our eating who need help.
So, unless you truly don’t like carbs, fat, and large portions, you are up against a formidable enemy when you decide to change your diet. We are hard-wired to eat the most calorie rich food available, and that is due to our genetics and evolution. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors did not have a cushy life. Sometimes they wouldn’t eat for days until they secured a food source. It was a matter of life and death, so we adapted (like most animals do in the wild) to choose the most calorie rich food when available. Calories were fuel and fuel was life. No one could have imagined that someday we would be living in an age where most people had 24 hour access to as much food as they wanted.
Obviously, evolution has not caught up to modern day civilization. According to newscientist.com, it takes a million generations to evolve lasting changes. So, as far as your body and brain are concerned, you are still living on the open plains of Africa, millions of years ago, foraging for food.
Back then, life was all about surviving long enough to reproduce; it’s such a contrast to modern day humans.
So, the next time you feel like a failure for not having the ability to lose weight, just remember what you are up against. It is simply not a matter of having enough will power, you pretty much need to change your life and who you are.
Don’t beat yourself up because you eat between meals or you are constantly craving high fat and high sugar snacks; it’s your body’s attempt to secure the “best” resources for your survival.
Still, you must have self-control, right? I mean, just because you have some sort of primal urge to eat a large pizza and a pint of ice cream at night, doesn’t mean you should. Your genetics are hard-wired for short term survival and couldn’t care less about the fact that this food will eventually cut your life short in your later years.
Also, let’s not lose sight of the fact that these early humans exercised all day. Running, walking, crouching, jumping, etc, it was likely non-stop all day long. In terms of fitness, you could not even compare them to modern day humans. The fatty food they ate on occasion, would be burned off in no time.
Okay, so let’s get back to the problem at hand. You need to lose a little weight before summer, or for that wedding coming up, or to fit into that gorgeous dress for an upcoming graduation. Or maybe you need to lose much more weight over a longer period for health reasons. How do you fight those ancient cravings that still exist within you? Is it too much to overcome?
The answer is that it’s hard, but not impossible. People lose weight all the time, and some even keep it off as they develop a new lifestyle and new habits. Don’t forget that our bodies also adapt to habits over the short term – good and bad. Stick with a new healthy routine long enough and your body will adapt.
For example, you can break that morning latte addiction with a little time and willpower. Switch to tea or black coffee. Your body will reject it initially, but over time, if you stick with it, you may become a tea drinker.
I personally struggle to lose weight because it is just so hard not to think about food. If I try to reduce my caloric intake, my body notices and I really struggle to make it to the next meal. Along the way, I have to fight overwhelming urges to snack. Intermittent snacking is my way of making up the difference, and that is a horrible habit.
Gaining And Losing is a Slow Process
It takes time to gain weight and it takes time to lose weight. We just don’t notice the time passing as we’re stuffing our faces because it’s enjoyable. When we try to lose it, every day is another painful struggle in the months-long endeavour to reach our ideal weight again. That’s why most of us fail – that’s why I fail. It’s discouraging.
So far, this diet has been working for me. The weight comes off easily when I need it to. I have not tried it long-term because I’ve only ever needed to lose 10-20 pounds. However, there is no doubt in my mind that it would work long-term for someone who had to lose more. I’m not saying it would be easy, but it would work.
Starvation Mode
The problem with just keeping your normal eating schedule and skipping a meal is that your body is going to notice and go into starvation mode.
What I like about this plan is that I don’t feel as though I’m missing a meal, per se. It’s not like I’m having breakfast when I wake up, then skip lunch, then not eating again until dinner at 6pm. That is a long time to go without food and it’s also during the day when you need most of your energy. Your body will likely go into starvation mode and start conserving calories instead of burning them.
This plan gives me an 18 hour fasting period where my body burns stored fat and not just glycogen. The good news is that I am asleep for half of it and that part isn’t noticeable.
So, we have real fat burning, calorie reduction with 2 meals instead of 3, and only 6 hours between meals during the day. For me, this is doable over the long term with minimal cravings.
That’s about it – nothing ground breaking here, just a simple change in my eating schedule, calorie reduction, and exercise.
