The Starvation Diet

[DrWearWord]

I just lost ten pounds in the last month! YAY!

It was not easy but it was much easier than most of the things I was trying previously. This is not a gimmick and it will not only not cost you a thing but it will save you a considerable amount of money.

Believe it or not, to me it was easier losing weight than it has been staying over weight. I have about twenty more lbs to lose.. So ten lbs seems like a small amount but consider carrying around a ten lb bag of potatoes.

Let‘s first talk about pain. They say, “no pain no gain…” I say, “no pain no loss…”

The pain I refer to is stomach pangs. If one does not eat for an extended period of time the stomach pangs eventually set in, sometimes they can set in a couple of hours after a meal. I can get stomach pangs that not only are quite virulent but they can give me headaches, ringing in my ears, nausea, dizziness and abdominal discomfort. I can go for hours with stomach pangs...

I restarted this diet plan after nearly a year of working out in the gym only to actually gain more weight… My favorite exercise was the elliptical. I would run off 400 to 500 calories a day but not every day but an average of about 4 days a week. My logic was it would speed up my metabolism… Well it did absolutely nothing other than to give me leg tone under all the fat…

I remembered when I had gone on the starvation diet once before and lost thirty lbs. This was after so many diets that I lost count.

I would never even consider throwing up a meal after eating it so that was out of the question.

The outline of this diet is that you forget about breakfast in the morning. (but you can take vitamins with water) In fact this is perhaps the only extra expense you might incur on this diet. The goal is one small meal a day… Listen to your body??? NO!!!!

You body is a fanatic eataholic. It will lead you off a cliff without even blinking! Look at all of the obese people in the world. This is due to them listening to their bodies.

The key is to become immune to the pangs your body throws at you. BELIEVE ME this diet is not going to harm you more than being overweight… I do not expect you to be able to stick to one meal a day in fact that is not really recommended. It is the goal but it is figured in that cheating will be and is acceptable. So if you manage to go one day a week with only one small meal then that is ok. But the rest of the days a week should be either two small meals or three very small meals (one to two days a week)…

I have learned a lot about my body doing this diet.

This diet will also in the long run help one learn to conquer other addictions too! Drinking, smoking and worse. It is learning how to deprive the body of its wants versus its needs. Pain becomes your friend. In other words, if your stomach is not growling and wreaking havoc you are not losing weight. SO… GET USED TO IT.

The absolute donts in this diet… NO soda, candy or junk food , Keep fried foods at a minimum but they are ok in small portions.. NO Caffeine! (Caffeine makes the pangs unbearable and RADICALLY depletes your body of vital nutrients.) DRINK WATER... Black decaf, no sugar is highly recommended for the antioxidants. Alcohol should be avoided so as not to be living off the empty calories of the beverages. The one to two meals a day need to be nutritious…

If you drink juices like orange, apple or other use a shot glass and only drink it a few times a day. Not to cure the pangs though. Let them run their course and stabilize before you drink juices.

The moment you stop overeating the body will go through a “radical” change. This change is visible even a few days on the diet. WHY? This is the beauty of this diet… When one begins to starve the body, the body goes into protective mode. It turn on vital genes that send various proteins to your cells to protect them from damage. This almost never happen to a person who constantly overeats. So this is why there is no worry in actually starting this diet.

The main worry is not getting enough water soluble minerals and nutrients. A multi-vitamin really does not work here, in fact I can only take a multi-vitamin three to four days a week otherwise it gives me dry mouth and that is really not good.

Bauch and Laumb makes an eye formula that has only the vital nutrients that are often needed “daily”, with carotene. I recommend this as a daily supplement or something comparable. MOST of the things in a multivitamin you get in your daily intake of general foods anyway.

Thank your body for the stomach pangs… revel in them, enjoy them, because when you feel the pangs that alone means you are losing weight. No pangs no weight loss. So if you do not bring your body to the point of pangs nearly every day you will not succeed in understanding how to take over your bodies possession of your habit patterns of over satiating wants.

Weigh what is worse.. Walking up a hill and being out of breath? Not being able to secure a job because the boss is prejudice against obese people. Losing a lover or not gaining a lover because you are not fit. (sad but true)

I prefer the pangs to not to being out of breath every time I walk up stairs. Just a few days on this diet and stairs will be radically easier to traverse. Friends will remark totally unsolicited about the positive change in your appearance. So this makes the pangs much more bearable if not even in a weird way, welcomed.

If you fall off your diet for a day or so and eat everything in sight don’t worry. You can’t gain it all back in a day… Just get back on your diet. In fact, I recommend a day a week of moderate feasting to give the body a rest.

The objective is to every day aim for the one meal a day idea even though you know it is not obtainable, If it is obtainable for you then you should back off and feed yourself more a few days a week. And as I said one day a week maybe a feast.

If you get stomach pangs and then get a wave of nausea then thank your body for that too. I am not sure if I am right about this but I attribute that rare nausea to your body burning off old fat that has sat around on your body for a while and your body just burnt it off.

This "old fat" I think to be very unhealthy and my ideal is it holds toxins within your body for perhaps many years. So that sudden wave of nausea was it being burnt from your body completely. It will pass also.

This diet is about quality food… When I am not on this diet I pretty much eat everything. I told you, you will save money on this diet… Well consider how expensive food has gotten. So don’t eat cheap food just less food. Don’t eat Ramen noodles for your only meal a day. Don’t buy food for the month… Walk to the grocery store every day for exercise. Don’t stop at a fast food joint on the way to the supermarket wait till you get home prepare the meal and hold eating off as long as you can. The longer you take to prepare your food the more your body burns off. DO NOT ABUSE THIS DIET.

Make a well balanced meal broiled steak with potatoes and a healthy fresh vegetable. Since you are not eating your stomach will shrink and tell you it is full MUCH sooner.

Egg sandwiches with ham and cheese can hold you over for a long time. You can eat a breakfast for supper. Stay away from pancakes and such, there is not enough protein for this diet and it will not satisfy your stomach. I find if I eat first thing in the morning I will snack and eat all day and I won’t lose a single gram of weight. I know they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day… To a fat person every meal is the most important meal. I am only telling you what works for me…

You will learn this is a lifestyle and not merely a diet. Once you get to the weight you want to be if you go back to your old eating habits you will gain it all back within a year or so.

For vitamins I take an antioxidant formula and occasionally a multivitamin, 5 to 6000 IU a day of vitamin D, Fish oil, and I drink milk (NEVER soda) with meals…

Exercise is not necessary on this diet. Do not go a day without eating. Do not eat one meal a day for more than three days in a row.

Protein is very important in this diet so load up on high protein foods when you do eat. Eat a hearty meal.

Once you learn to successfully deprive your body of food, other habits can be eradicated by learning to ignore your bodies impulses. Like your body may say today I am going to get drunk, tell your body NO… But just be firm and unbending and you will be able to conquer your body’s bad habits. This diet will train you to be able to attack other habits also with success.

Expect to feel much better within weeks. You will notice lbs come off within days. As I said if you fall off your diet just get back on it. Realize this is the ONLY way to lose weight is by lowering caloric intake.

If you get slight headaches realize you also have fat in your head and face that is being burnt too. Take a mild pain reliever. If the pangs get bad don’t give in just spite your body and take a nap.. You will wake up a few hours later with no headache, no stomach pangs and a quarter pound lighter. Then treat your body to a very nutritious meal and your stomach will talk loudly to you and send you signals of approval. Your body will in this time turn on vital life prolonging genes and perhaps extend your life and heart health for even decades…

I don't think you should lose more than 5 lbs a week so keep that in mind too.

People may say this diet is unhealthy, but I will tell you that it works and is much less of an evil than staying obese... Your body is a furnace put it to work for you. People have been fasting since time began. This is technically not really fasting either…

Good luck and post your results and questions here…

Edited July 1, 2010 by DrWearWord

[pawtucket]

What you are describing is just plain dangerous. "Starvation" diets will do damage to muscle and not go after the excessive fat. Your body is like a furnace and needs components to burn properly. If your goal is to burn fat, you have to feed it protein, carbs and fat in the right proportions. The key element to burn the fat is to regulate the carbs. If you keep your carbs under 100, within 3 days the fat will start being used as fuel.

To deprive yourself totally of either fat, protein or carbs is just plain dangerous

[DrWearWord]

What you are describing is just plain dangerous. "Starvation" diets will do damage to muscle and not go after the excessive fat. Your body is like a furnace and needs components to burn properly. If your goal is to burn fat, you have to feed it protein, carbs and fat in the right proportions. The key element to burn the fat is to regulate the carbs. If you keep your carbs under 100, within 3 days the fat will start being used as fuel.

To deprive yourself totally of either fat, protein or carbs is just plain dangerous

Nowhere did I imply that one should "deprive yourself totally of either fat, protein or carbs". That is what the, errr, one meal a day is for...

You might consider the furnace already has plenty of fat already :)

The Health Benefits of Fasting

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1834

Edited July 1, 2010 by DrWearWord

[DrWearWord]

I have to admit that in the entire time I have been doing this diet I have only been able to go two of the days with only one meal. This diet is about an ideal... I usually give in and snack. But, overall I still lose weight and that is the objective. Sometimes if you overshoot you are at least guaranteed hitting the target. As a singer when I have to hit a really high note, only if I shoot higher than the note am I actually able to hit the note right on.

[Shellon]

I'd be very concerned, as well, about this diet. I get that it works for you at this time, but the long term consequences might be brutal.

I never paid much attention to balance and how the body works until my youngest daughter became very ill with a metabolism illness and she and I have done extensive research on proteins, carbs, fats, how the blood carry's this and that, what the muscles do to and with our foods, even how the skin needs this or that to maintain doing it's job. She's seen the lack of metabolism of foods deprive her bones and teeth of calcium, for instance and has had to have one tooth pulled and 4 fillings in 3 months where she never had so much as a teensy cavity before. This is an illness for her, not as a direct result of purposely cutting out foods, so I get that hers is unique. She consumes things that give her body calcium, but her body doesn't use it, basically.

That's another story, however.

I just never thought about that stuff before. It's perhaps a matter of life/death for now though and I'm a mama so of course if it's my kids life we're talking about, I'm gonna listen.

I understand you added the supplements, etc and I'm glad you're adding at least those, but I'd suspect that when you do, your body hollars "huh?" right?

I remember my 20's when I'd do starvation stuff and lose the required 10 lbs I needed for the party on friday night; I didn't know the damage I might be doing to my body and I think maybe my ignorance was good at the time.

I assume you're an adult, do whatcha want, but please be careful. Depriving your body of the necessary stuff it has to have over an extended period of time is dangerous, indeed.

Caution please!

[Bolshevik]

I remember fasting was a fad at HQ. Some people started doing it I don't know when then younger people started talking about it.

. . . goodness I haven't eaten anything in almost 2 hours.

[DrWearWord]

I only had one meal yesterday, two store bought frozen beef and bean burritos...

I stepped on the scale today and had lost two more lbs. I haven't been this weight in nearly a couple years.

So this morning I had two large eggs sunny side up, two pieces of multi-grain toast, two toasted hash brown with ketchup, a sausage patty and a coffee cup of OJ... Now I don't plan to eat again for at least 8 hours...

And a few assorted vitamins.

Weight 189 down from 200 total of 12 lbs and counting. I feel GREAT!

When I walk my legs even feel lighter.

In the next 8 hours I will be only drinking ice water and or decaf coffee.

Tonight I plan on having a small portion of broiled steak and Brussels sprouts with mashed potatoes tonight.

Edited July 2, 2010 by DrWearWord