I postedfour months ago on a diet that I had implemented that took full advantage ofthe understanding that we are designed to be satiated at around 125% of ourdaily needs. I began fasting everysecond day or more precisely on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
It isnoteworthy that for the first two or three months the body resisted the lossand lost only slowly. This was notunexpected.
However,once the body adjusted its expectations it began to lose weight at the rate of2 ½ pounds per month for four months with no discomfort at all. I suspect that I have dropped fifteen poundsin all to date. An equal amount wouldplace me at my historic trim weight and an additional fifteen pounds wouldplace me at my historic lean weight only achieved in extremis.
Thisprotocol has been no effort at all. Onthe days off I break fast lightly no sooner than late evening which is twentyfour hours after last meal at least. Onmy eating days, I consume sufficient to be satiated and also well nutrified.
For therecord, sound eating means a high protein diet with plenty of vegetables andscant carbohydrates. Eggs and tofu aregreat for those who dislike a lot of meat. I like everything. Nibbling on asweet is not going to disturb much either. After all, you must feel guilty about something! My point is that it is hard to over indulgewhen you actually fast the very next day.
In thepast I have used the Atkins diet and have nothing but respect for hiswork. Since his death, the industry hasgenerally shifted to some form or the other of his protocol for true healthyeating. It still failed to trulyovercome the body’s bias to consume 125% of its daily needs.
Byfasting every second day, we eliminate the extreme discipline of portioncontrol as a methodology. It was way toocostly in time and planning. Instead by fasting on off days, one can simplyenjoy a good well chosen restaurant meal and not care. Of course, eating a lousy meal consisting ofpure carbs will still make you feel sick but that still does not ruin the diet. My favorite is a Chinese hot pot with tofuand assorted seafood and meats and a side of rice. It is hard to fault.
Myobjective is to provide the body with a surplus of nutrients every two days sothat it can replenish properly.
The revelationfor everyone is that we are engineered to utilize what we are able to eat. At 125% and the general failure to burn anextra thousand calories every day (run six miles in 48 minutes as I used to dowhen much younger) in our sedentary lives, we weigh generally 125% more than iswise. I was dead on for much of my adultlife and it has needed until now a major personal effort to reduce this load.
To giveyou an example: My optimum weight wasalways 185 pounds, rarely achieved. At125% the natural maintenance weight is actually 231 pounds. Guess what? That is what it always trendedtoward and settled around over the years unless strenuous effort was applied.
With thenew protocol I am actually achieving a two day shortfall over what is needed tomaintain the 185, versus a 1.75 day surplus. Obviously as I approach the 185 point, I will need to drop the Sunday fastday which will theoretically leave me short about one day. Since at the same time I will also be rampingup proteins to begin promoting muscle growth it should be in good balance.
Anyonetrying this should make the same calculations in order to properly understandtheir correct target weight. I was neverengineered to be a great sprinter because I had superbly muscled legs thatadded a big chunk of mass. Thus lean andmean is a high 185 in my case. For asprinter even taller than me the optimum weight is 140 pounds. It is not a simple calculation and the guidesare pretty useless for unusual builds. For most that have a stable overweight configuration, then a goodobjective weight is likely to be around 70% of present weight.
If youhave gone way beyond that and have become obese, then you likely also knowpretty well around were it should be. That is the real objective and it hardly needs to be preciselydefined. You may find your body simplyresponding faster by shrinking the capacity of the gut.
Forthose who are stable and truly overweight which is just about everyone, settingthe target weight at 70% of present is a pretty good plan or at least a goodstart. However, as ever have a doctorconfirm the numbers if you are in doubt.
More tothe point, you are going to lose weight as I am at a reasonable clip and atsome point you will notice your belly fat is clearly gone. That is when you dropone day of fasting and increase exercise and protein intake to build musclemass if you have not been already.
Forthose burning a lot of calories and who find the fast a problem (why are youoverweight?) an alternative is to use a protein shake ala Herbalife and skipthe meals. That should get you throughthe day.
Arclein Diet August2010
I am presently running a diet regime that Iput together for myself. I will share the approach with you in theevent it turns out to be successful enough to recommend. As usual, Itoss a lot of things on its head.
First, though, like many I have experimentedwith several other protocols and am fully cognizant with the inherentdifficulties. All rely on calorie reduction, but then demand mentalstamina to sustain the effort. If added to an exercise regime, onemerely doubles the mental loading. I discovered in the process, thatthe only way that I could hope to sustain such a regimen would be to join amonastery.
I did learn that I could initiate a fast withno difficulty and pass through the first day with no discomfort. Thetrick was simple. One wakes up in the morning and takes nofood. The system is dormant and you simply do not wake it up except totake water and teas. With a modest bit of repetition, the body getsinto the habit of cooperating with all this and it soon is as easy as having ameal. The fight only begins once the body has voided the previousday’s food and is now empty. That actually will take the whole day.
More recently, I learned that the digestivesystem is rigged to hold 125% of your daily needs. This gavepause. If one ate daily to satisfaction, and what greater pleasureis there save one allowed humanity, one always carried a 25% overage infood. Just getting rid of the 25% would leave one insatiated andalways been harassed by body and mind to make it up.
What this meant of course, is that in a givenweek we normally want to eat enough for almost nine days.
Now the actual numbers surely vary betweenindividuals, but I think this gives us all the idea.
This led immediately to the followingconclusion. It is enough to simply eliminate two days and possibly athird day to help the body eliminate unwanted fat. The other days itis necessary to eat to satisfaction. The important thing though isto stagger the days and choose your three fast days carefully. In mycase I chose Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
In this way I can eat well on my eating dayswhile fast days are just that. Four eating days will provide me withfive full days of normal sustenance while forcing the body to squeeze littleextra energy from the food the other two to three days.
The results have been satisfactory. Thefast days suit my schedule and needs. Others accept such a regimequite easily. Actual weight loss is quite slow but has beenpersistent over the past three months. I find that I never feelhungry at all. I actually feel that I am losing weight stealthily inthe same way that I gain weight.
I anticipate that it will take a good year tocome down to a satisfactory weight and perhaps another two years for the bodyto bring is all down to trim. I expect that the effect will taperoff and need exercise to push much lower. However, I should be atleast ten percent lighter and dealing with the last five percent and well readyto handle physical stress
A corollary from this is that when one hasreached an optimum weight, it is likely that the food intake and utilization bythe body will be in proper balance and one will be unable to gain excessunnecessary weight.
I do not think that this can be applied tosomeone who must support quite a bit of physical effort, but then he is rarelysuffering from overweight. It is also difficult to see how it may beapplied to someone who is diabetic. There it would be necessary tofirst use a calorie restricted diet to get in a good working range. Ofcourse, we may also be surprised.
This does work for the modern lifestyle inwhich most are sedentary at least.
I have observed no ill effects and amcomfortable that this protocol is not been opposed subconsciously. Infact it is taking no more effort than that needed to carefully recall whetherit is a fast day or not. I am losing over a pound per month so itturns out that even when eating only for four days a week, the loss rate isunstrained.
I have also noted that one can fit in someover indulgence as rewards with no harm which takes the sting out and besides,the best thing one can do after a serious overindulgence is to fast the nextday. Let the body handle it all. By the by, beerand alcohol is not a fasting beverage.
As an after thought, right now I am conductingan experiment of one. Readers may want to take on this approach andit would be worthwhile to collect data and experiences from all this. SoI would like anyone who wishes to try this approach to email me at arclein@gmail.com andnotify me of your intent. I will try to track progress every threemonth and collect comments. That way we may have some useful dataand conclusions to report.
I expect that the main problem for most willbe to master the daily fast. It will be initially awkward fornewbies but you quickly get into it and become comfortable. Thosewho have fasted in the past will find this very easy to do. Theproblems with conventional fasting begin with the second day. Pleasenote that a fast day includes two sleep periods and it ends up been aroundthirty hours.
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