I have struggled with my weight my whole life, perhaps ‘struggled’ is the wrong term because for a long time I did nothing to remedy the situation. It all came to a head a couple of years ago when, as a 122kg (269lbs) man, I decided enough was enough.
I am almost down to my target weight but after a long slow loss things seemed to have plateaued and I couldn’t shift the last bit of weight to make me feel I had truly succeeded. I overheard someone mention ‘The Weet(a)bix Diet’ and decided to look into it, there is scant information online but from what I gather it involves eating the cereal as a replacement for two of your meals per day then eating a healthy dinner.
I decided to take things one step further and skip other foods (almost) entirely. I did the calculations and determined that a bowl of 2 ‘biscuits’ and milk worked out at 200 calories so I decided to allow myself 5 bowls a day, for an intake of 1,000 calories. I have read a lot of the debates on this board regarding methods of losing weight and am a strong believer that is simply down to calories in vs calories out, I don’t put too much stock in so called catalyst foods or balancing carbs, proteins and fats.
This seemed to me like an easy short term diet, 5 bowls should satiate my appetite and 1,000 calories a day should be a large enough shortfall to see results.
I got weighed on Monday morning, coming in at 92.5kg (204lbs), I should point out I am a 6’ 2" male, 29 years old. I varied my diet slightly through the week after I began to worry that it could cause loss of muscle mass so I switched it over to 4 bowls a day and 1 high-protein shake (150 calories). I pretty much stuck with this over the 5 days, my only diversion being some home-made coleslaw instead of one of the bowls just to give me some other nutrients/vitamins.
Clearly this isn’t a diet I would want to keep up for a long time but I figure the human body has sufficient stockpiles of nutrients and vitamins to go a week on an unusual diet.
I got on the scales this morning (after 5 days on the diet) and have lost 4.3kg (9.5lbs). Not bad going for just 5 days!! I will revert to normal healthy eating next week and see if the weight comes back on, hopefully it won’t, I found the diet pretty easy to follow and didn’t feel too hungry at any point so it would be good to be able to do it every now and then to get a boost to proceedings.
You can’t say you lost anything over such a short period. Weight normally goes up and down. This new “diet” is short on nutrients, but you can get away with it at 29 for only a few days. Report back whether the weight loss holds, say in a month or so.
I think you are to something though in terms of shaking up your system when on a plateau. Forcing your body to do things a different way may burn more calories. Maybe it’s something like working out different muscle groups instead of the same ones every day.
You have already lost enough to say you have been a success at it. The rest is gravy. Well, maybe avoid the gravy.
Very true, and it is something I was concious of. The diet is short on quite a few vitamins and minerals but I had a very healthy diet beforehand (lots of fruit, veg, salad etc) so I don’t think any damage would be done over such a short period.
Like Al Bundy points out it is hard to say a diet has worked over such a short period of time, the proof of the pudding (so to speak) will be what happens next week and beyond when I return to a more normal diet.
Missed edit window: I seem to recall a thread in GQ about the length of time the body can go on an extreme diet (or no food at all) before a vitamin shortfall occurs. i.e. how much of a stockpile does the body maintain before it starts excreting the excess. I can’t find the thread now though.
Is Weetabix fortified? Many cereals in the States are fortified with vitamins. I think you’re the living embodiment of the other guy in the Total commercials.
I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when choosing their diet is: Whatever diet you chose, you need to sustain that diet for the rest of your life.
I don’t think the OP will be able to do that. I don’t mean to take the wind out of your sails, I’d just hate for you to make yourself sick.
What exactly is a “bowl of 2 ‘biscuits’ and milk”?
I know biscuits have different meanings in US vs elsewhere, but I am envisioning two buttermilk biscuits floating in a bowl of milk - that would make me gag just looking at it, let alone eat it, which I suppose is a method of dieting too…
I’ve come up with one, too: I eat pretty much what I want, just not overdoing anything, and being mindful of highly calorific food in small bundles–and walking 4 miles per day. I’m within spitting distance of my targeted maximum weight, and only another 7 or so to my ultimate goal.
And, there are a couple of other pointers to toss in about not to sabotage things once you’re on that downard trend.
Now. . . If I could only fluff up this info that would fit on one side of a 3x5 index card and make a paperback out of it, I’ll have a bestseller on my hands. . . .
You realize that you probably lost only a couple of pounds in actual fat, right? The rest was just your body shedding water weight it was holding onto from all the salt in your diet.
True, this isn’t all fat you lost. A good chunk of muscle too. Regarding the vitamin stores, we have more stores of fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) than the other vitamins and close to zero stores of minerals. The body will simply excrete less and reabsorb more of these last bits of essential minerals (think phosphorus, magnesium, copper, potassium, manganese). At the very least, take a multivitamin and mineral supplement if you are persistent on continuing the Weetabix diet. If you’re drinking more water, or coffee or tea especially, you’ll be losing these last bits of vitamins and minerals faster too.
Ah - Shredded Wheat…OK then.
I suppose if you eat any one thing with few calories for a period of time, you will lose weight. Non-USA Dopers might not know of the famous Jared story from Subway sandwich chain. That dude turned his odd diet into a nice little gig as spokesman for the chain.
