Monday 22 March 2021

COVID Lockdown - what to eat to lose that weight gain?

 

Whats the best diet?


I think I should elaborate and ask – whats the best diet for you??? And this is key. In my opinion each person wishing to lose a little weight or even a lot of weight needs to find a diet that suits them , their lifestyle and any health condition they may have.


I have tried the Ketogenic diet as suggested to me by Steve Maxwell and although I had some loss with it, I found it kind of difficult to be on. This is the one whereby you only eat veg, some fruit and a high amount of protien. After a few days you can test your urine with some colour changing ketogenic sticks and they alert you to your body being in a ketogenic state. To the lay man it means your body is using your fat as fuel. I find this one a good diet if you don't care much for breads, pasta, etc and have the pocket to pay for protien for every meal. I will however state high quantities of protien in your diet is meant to put a strain on your Liver and since I used to have ME/CFS then my liver may not function to its best on this diet. As a side not I must also state that there were metions that people with certain types of ME/CFS do not mobilise Glucose well suggesting you steer clear of Lucozade unless you are sick.


Another diet I tried is the 5:2 diet and I really gotta say this works for me, however I took it too far and instead of eating around 600 cals on my 2 diet days I tried not eating at all. This turned out to be detrimental and I started putting weight back on. I cannot define if it was due to my 5 days normal eating becoming larger portions to compensate for the 2 days famine or if I did in fact cause my body to go into starvation mode and when feeding time came round again my body said – “store it – for the love of God … store it.


I have tried a few other diets but found that moderating your intake and trying to remain active to be a good solution. However, during this Covid lockdown the motivation for being active is kind of lacking due to all the restrictions, and also over the winter period in Scotland and more particular Arbroath, I find the howling gales a definite procrastination being the result.


So what am I trying now??? Well it is a version of the 5:2 diet and some would say is the predecessor of the 5:2 diet and its called FMD – Fasting Mimicking Diet.... Yep – sound weird doesn't it. Well I studied the science behind it from a variety of sources and checked out people who had tried it. I gotta be honest, it sounds too good to be true but there is a lot of science behind it with health benefits teaming out of it. So I decided to give it a go. The originator is Dr Valter Longo and although he does have ties with the FMD diet solution which costs around $250 for the 5 days I thought I'd do my own version with some minor tweaks to suit myself. I drink coffee not tea, I use generic multi vitamins, with a couple of extras to boost my levels such as Vitamin B, C and D – not to excess though. It is suggested you follow the diet for 5 days but results can be seen in 3 days. I opted for the 4 days in my version. There are many conflicting suggestions about how many times a month/year but I am aiming at twice per month reducing to once per month when I hit my weight goal. This is my 5th day and I have lost 7lbs – yep about 3.3 Kg in 4 days... Now my goal is to lose some (5lbs) and then maintain it. Bear in mind you MUST get clearance from your Doctor and I am not telling you to do this, it is entirely up to you. This diet also stipulates that you must rest during the diet as the food intake will not compensate for basal metabolic rate and exercise. However, I ignored that bit and ramped up my cardio and weight training (not much though – just a bit).


OK so what did I eat...... da da!!!


For each of the 4 days I had:-


Breakfast

1 Coffee (no sugar)

1 Lidl Nut Bar

Miltivitamins


Lunch

1 bowl (½ tub) of Lidl Tomato Soup Chunky

5 olives

1 Coffee (no sugar)


Dinner

1 bowl (½ tub) of Lidl Carrot and Corriander Soup Chunky

15 cashews or 5 brazils or 8 almonds

1 Coffee (no sugar)


Snack

5 dry Lidl Crackers (no sugar)


Lots of water to drink.


So the suggestion is about 600-900 calories per day – no cheating!!! And when you finish the diet – don't just jump into a big meal – burger, pizza, pasta etc!!! Your stomach has actually shrunk a bit and your body will not be able to cope with a tsunami of insulin released with your first normal meal – TAKE IT EASY!!!


Stay safe people – and stay happy and healthy.






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