Time for another diet experiment
Earlier this year I tested an 8 day Master Cleanse detox and it went pretty well.
I had recently started 2 weekly mountain bike rides to get in shape and during the master cleanse I lost 6.1 kilo in 8 day.
That took me from 104.1 to 98.0 kilo, but since then my weight have moved up to and leveled at 100 kilo.
The mountain bike rides are mostly cardio and doesn’t really help much in losing weight, but it’s great for my cardiovascular system which is still in dire need of exercise.
A few weeks back I then started weight training in the company gym.
My weight is only going down very slowly since starting in the gym, so the weight training is definitely working, but I’d like to see more progress in weight loss.
I have no idea how fast I gain lean muscle tissue, but my neck, shoulders, back, stomach and legs are definitely stronger.
So I know that that I must have gained some muscle and burned some fat.
The only measurement I had before starting the weight training was my belly circumference of 110 cm that got measured when I had my scary fitness stats measured in February.
I didn’t pay much attention to how much I let my belly was hanging out, was sucked in or if I had my abs tightened. So that measurement isn’t really useful for further comparison.
So I decided to find a specific way to measure my belly circumference so I can use the same technique for all subsequent measurements.
I decided that I would not let my belly hang out, and neither would I try to suck it in as much as possible – both are equally bad at giving a “true” picture.
So I decided to decided to tighten my stomach muscles just like you would do if you were about to get hit by a ball or take a punch.
And when I did it that way I measured 104.5 cm around my belly – so now I have a fixed marker for further progress.
I’ve successfully followed a high protein, low carb diet for some time a long time ago, but making and preparing meals took a lot of time because I had to measure everything.
I’m no longer following that diet because it was too cumbersome and restrictive. But it did one good thing for me – it brought vegetables back into my diet.
I’m still following the general principles of a sizable amount of vegetables, a good portion of protein and have dramatically cut my carb intake by limiting the amount of pasta, rice and potatoes I eat.
That way of eating have kept my weight steady for many years, despite being completely inactive.
The great thing about eating protein, carbs and vegetables is that I can make the same dinner for everybody and not prepare a separate meal for myself when the rest of the family is eating something else.
But I still want to change my diet to make the weight drop faster.
The changes to my diet would have to fit these principles:
- Be simple so I don’t have to weigh all my food
- Not be so restrictive that the rest of the family would have to change their eating habits (or I would have to prepare two different meals)
- Not interfere with my weight training.
So I’ve decided to give Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat principles of intermittent fasting a go.
It doesn’t really matter when you start and stop the diet (what time of the day), but I think that starting it at 10 am will work for me.
That way I would come out of the fast just before lunch time and at work I would be less inclined to binge eat.
If I end the fast late in the evening then I’m afraid I would have bigger problems because I would be near near fridge, freezer and cupboards filled with food – and not all of it healthy.
The advice to start the fasting periods around noon came from Elizabeth Sherman – it was something Elizabeth said had worked for Skwigg very well.
Brad Pilon’s personal favorite staring time is 2 pm, but in reality it doesn’t really matter when you start as long as it fits your schedule.
So, starting today at 11 I’ll start my first Eat Stop Eat fasting period.
I’ll do something that normally isn’t recommended – I’ll weight myself every morning.
Normally this isn’t recommended when you’re trying to lose weight because seeing the weight go up on almost as many days as it goes down can have a terrible influence on motivation for some people.
But in the interest of this experiment I think that it will help illustrate the effect of the fasting periods.
I’ll run the experiment for 4 weeks to get a graph worth looking at and I’ll continue with the daily weighing for an additional 4 weeks to chart out what happens after.
Anybody wanna join me in this experiment?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Related posts:
- New video from Brad Pilon I just finished watching another video from Brad Pilon. Not...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.