Slimming Down - Fast!

Do you think you know all about diets and slimming down? I too used to think that I did, until I read something new. There really are some interesting theories about dieting and this one qualifies, in my view, as interesting. It holds the possibility of making dieting more sustainable. I say this because, the idea presented here, of minimizing calorie-intake, to between 500-800 calories, on alternate days, for a period of 4 weeks, is quite unusual.

Mainstream diets don’t typically mention anything but staying on the path with reduced calories for a requisite period of time. Indeed, traditional diets make no mention of deviating at all from the prescribed regimen. The thinking is that “If you want to get slimmer you need to follow the diet without fail”. The thinking, of course, is that, to do so, would seriously reduce your likelihood of success.

The diet I refer to reminds me of something my father told me. He said that my mother used to make a big saucepan of pasta one per week every Thursday. We never liked it so he ate it. It comprised of small pieces of bacon (fried), some Pasta (Tagliatelle) and Pesto sauce. He loved it and would guiltily eat the entire saucepan returning a second and third time until it was complete. Then he’d head off to play table tennis for a few hours.

The following morning, on the scales, without fail, his weight would be below the weight he had been for the entire week! It was difficult to account for the loss in weight the following day because it was counter-intuitive.

We always wondered if it was because of the sheer amount of calories he ate that week or was it just that one time. Was it because of the volume of carbs PLUS the recreational exercise he played that did the trick? Was it that the bulk and volume of the pasta had the effect of emptying the contents of his colon the following morning? Was it that the body requires a mix-up in food and the pasta had that impact compared with previous days? Maybe it is because there is some kind of threshold in calories that has to be consumed before the body would do its reckoning. We never did get to understand but essentially one day he consumed more calories on that day, than the previous days.

This thinking follows another article I read recently in which it was suggested that a diet in which you have a single day off from the diet once per week, eating out if possible for that day, is effective for some people.

This means tremendously increasing the calories on one day over previous days then returning to the reduced regimen. Again, this is counter-intuitive, but, over the long term, it seems sensible to allow some psychological leeway because dieting to get slimmer can be an internal battle of will, and the longer it goes on, the more you may want to jump off, prematurely. Allowing yourself to “live a little” becomes necessary.

By taking some time off you can look forward to eating what you like, on the one day off, but you really do need to be strong and return to the slimming-down diet plan.

Either way, we don’t know scientifically why he slimmed down on Fridays.


To your greater slimmed-down healthy body

Dominic