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View Full Version : Diet "fads", have you done them, did they work??



Steve Williams
14th May 2003, 18:16
Inspired by the thread about protein diets.......


So have you and did they??

Steve Williams
14th May 2003, 18:23
Personally I have.

A few years ago I got a "low carb diet" out of a fitness/bodybuilding magazine.

Basically you had protein shakes during the day, and a proper meal in the evening, but VERY LOW amounts of carbs.... less than 100 grams a day.....

It was reccommended that you only follow it for 2 weeks at a time (aparently your brain requires a certain amount of carbs to operate properly :eek: )

I did it for 2 weeks (I was training hard at that time as well, but had been training equally hard for a long time previously with little effect) and lost over a stone in weight...... I know that a large amount was water/liquid, but the rest was fat, not lean tissue.....
The weight stayed off for a long time after even though I reverted to a more "normal" eating regime.

I had no side effects at all, although my wife tried it and after 3 days sufferred from bad headaches and had to stop and eat more 'normally'.......



Its worth trying any diet once (and by diet I mean "eating plan" not extreme diet).

yamatodamashii
14th May 2003, 23:13
There are actually charts, available in many sports references, which show how many grams of protein per day you need to consume, based on lean body weight and level of activity. There are also certain ratios of carbohydrates-protein-fat that should be maintained (some authors give specific ratios; some vary by type of activity).

Anything which disrupts the ratio of carb/protein/fat is unhealthy (including the above-mentioned Atkins diet). Anything which restricts food intake to below the above-mentioned levels is worse than a waste of time; all the weight you lose will be lean body mass (therefore, you will be less healthy and less able to exercise; you will also lose some ability to burn bodyfat, which will result in your gaining more weight than you lost once you come off the diet, and having a less desirable figure (higher percent bodyfat)).
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General weight-loss guidelines:
1) Find out how many grams of protein your body needs per day.

2) Maintain a ratio of 40% carbohydrates to 30% protein to 30% fat at every meal. They carbohydrates should be low-glycemic index (legumes, vegetables, northern-hemisphere fruits. Avoid pasta, tubers, and southern-hemispher fruits). The fats should be mostly monounsaturated (olives and olive oil; macadamia nuts).

3) Eat 5-6 meals per day, rather than 3. Ideally, you should eat every three hours; the less time between meals, the less likely your body is to horde calories (famine defense).

4) Exercise as soon as you wake up (so that your muscles have no blood sugar to burn; they must use bodyfat); perform both aerobic exercise (to increase basal metabolic rate) and strength training (to increase the amount of lean muscle available for burning fat--even a small increase helps greatly). Some women worry about "putting on too much muscle"--this does not happen accidentally. Putting on lots of muscle requires much more effort than is outlined here.

5) Your largest meal should be the immediately following morning exercise, when your metabolism is highest.

6) Take an ephedra-free metabolism booster. I recommend EAS Ultra Betatrim.

7) Rely on the mirror, not the scale ("How do I look?", not "How much do I weigh?". Muscle is much heavier than fat; it will increase your bodyweight while slimming your waist and generally improving your looks).
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Of course, you won't be able to maintain a perfect diet and exercise schedule just starting out. But the closer to the ideal you get, the easier fat loss becomes.

Andy Watson
15th May 2003, 11:31
Tee hee.

Just after Xmas I went on a diet to try and help to rid myself of a bit of a thirties beer paunch.

I decided to go about it my own way by counting the calories I was currently eating and then reduce them drastically from 3000/day to 2000. I tried to ensure that the diet was well balanced but still tried to reduce fat intake and counted the calories of every meal. Unfortunately I wasn't doing much in the way of exercise other than iai/jo (which isn't particularly aerobic) and so after about a month I had only lost a few pounds.

I now just try to eat a bit more carefully day in day out but my sedentiary job is probably not helping.

Steve, did you watch that TV documentary series about dieting which finished about two months back?

Steve Williams
15th May 2003, 21:29
Originally posted by Andy Watson
Steve, did you watch that TV documentary series about dieting which finished about two months back?

Unfortunately I missed it :(
It was on a "training night" and I kept forgetting to set the video :eek:

Waiting for it to be repeated (and you know it will ;) )

Tripitaka of AA
21st May 2003, 05:23
I like the very detailed post above. One day I shall actually start reading the very informative labels on the food that I eat. UK labelling is quite good for the diet-takers.

I'm concerned however, that if I ever paid any serious mind to the junk that passes my lips going in, then it would severely affect the verbal garbage that exits from same. I may be boring now, but if I started getting all pious and sanctimonious about food I could well be competing at Olympic level within weeks (Freestyle Gobbledygook - Middleweight division). Would this put me on a level with some of the other more well known E-Budo contributors?


Seriously though. Until Thirty, it seems I could eat anything without effect. Since Thirty five, my belly is growing in size and wobbliness. I would call it a Beer-belly but my consumption of said liquid averages about three pints a year. In my case the legendary benefits of chocolate have always outweighed (no pun intended) the lure of gassy alcohol. Is there a diet that has been designed specifically to cater (no pun intended) for a Chocoholic like me? If the fat, carbs and proteins in chocolate represent a particular value - then what type of foodstuff would be the opposite? How should I balance out my Choccy delights, to achieve a more harmonious existence?

This all sounds a bit like Ozzy Osbourne, going to the Betty Ford Clinic to find out how to drink "better". Apparently he didn't realise that they would tell him to stop altogether, he thought that he could just pick up some pointers on how to "control" the drinking.:)