Study Details Four-Day, 11-Pound Weight Loss in Overweight Men

Kotaro

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Feb 3, 2009
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This is not a good thing. 11 pounds is good if you lose it over a couple of months, but losing that much weight in that short a time will generally be terrible for your body. I would know; I once tried cutting back to one meal per day and while I lost a lot of weight (not even as much as these men did!), I was also constantly exhausted and my hair started to fall out.
 

Remus

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That reminds me, I need to get my 45 minutes of upper body tonight. I did my 8 hours chasing kids around a 100-acre amusement park, got some upper body ropeclimbing and on the teacups (also some callouses).... anyway, yea, weight training.
 

MeChaNiZ3D

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11 pounds sounds nice. Almost half being body fat, though, I don't know how they managed to make that seem acceptable. What was the other fucking half? I'm pretty sure the goal is ONLY to lose body fat, if you're losing anything else you're not in as good a shape as you think.
 

lacktheknack

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MeChaNiZ3D said:
11 pounds sounds nice. Almost half being body fat, though, I don't know how they managed to make that seem acceptable. What was the other fucking half? I'm pretty sure the goal is ONLY to lose body fat, if you're losing anything else you're not in as good a shape as you think.
Correct.

The other half was water and lean muscle.

ie. if they continued this diet, they would get weaker, their metabolism would slow drastically, and they would begin to starve.

I REALLY hope some poor sod doesn't see this, and think "Wow! In twenty days of hell, I can lose over fifty pounds! This could be worth it!"
 

lacktheknack

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Fenrox Jackson said:
cnaltman62 said:
This is not a good thing. 11 pounds is good if you lose it over a couple of months, but losing that much weight in that short a time will generally be terrible for your body. I would know; I once tried cutting back to one meal per day and while I lost a lot of weight (not even as much as these men did!), I was also constantly exhausted and my hair started to fall out.
There is starvation and then there is caloric restriction. These guys were getting a very specific 400 calories, exactly enough to cover their actions. They were also severely overweight in some cases. A body and diet like this can produce these results consistently. I did it for years at 600 calories and I swear to god, everything was great for those years, I was more energetic, my skin was awesome, I was healthy all the time. I stopped because I stopped being fat and could eat more reasonably and decided to do that. I even lapsed for a couple of years in my first try on this diet and the results from the diet (only like 8 months) lasted those 4 years of no-diet down time (I ate like a pig). This is a completely possible diet.

MeChaNiZ3D said:
11 pounds sounds nice. Almost half being body fat, though, I don't know how they managed to make that seem acceptable. What was the other fucking half? I'm pretty sure the goal is ONLY to lose body fat, if you're losing anything else you're not in as good a shape as you think.
This was a supervised diet so they were only losing body fat. I don't think anyone is recommending this extreme of caloric restriction for casual use, this diet requires a doctor. A diet like medifast though which is 600-900 calories is over the counter. Also, this was basically the subway diet Jared did, a very light sandwich and protein shakes for every other meal followed by 45-min a day of exercise. Any fatty would lose all their fat that way, it's the most effective diet behind weight watchers (technically the most sustainable diet around).
Nope nope nope nope nope.

They were NOT only losing body fat:

<quote=OP>each lost about 11 pounds, with nearly half of that coming from body fat.

They were not eating "exactly enough to cover their actions", they were getting 360 calories a day. A particularly fat person can burn through that in one hour of walking. These guys did eight.

As for your story of your perfect diet, well, I straight up don't believe you unless you're as thin as a crafting dowel. You mean to tell me that you thrived for YEARS on the caloric equivalent of three potatoes a day? Not buying it for an instant.

Fenrox Jackson said:
lacktheknack said:
MeChaNiZ3D said:
11 pounds sounds nice. Almost half being body fat, though, I don't know how they managed to make that seem acceptable. What was the other fucking half? I'm pretty sure the goal is ONLY to lose body fat, if you're losing anything else you're not in as good a shape as you think.
Correct.

The other half was water and lean muscle.

ie. if they continued this diet, they would get weaker, their metabolism would slow drastically, and they would begin to starve.

I REALLY hope some poor sod doesn't see this, and think "Wow! In twenty days of hell, I can lose over fifty pounds! This could be worth it!"
Look up caloric restriction diets, they exist and work. It's not some scam or fad or trick. It's a massive change to your eating habits that most people would not touch casually. It's not starvation, but on a diet like this (specifically this crazy low calorie one) nothing is left to chance or whim, this is a doctor supervised diet.
I'm on one. A self-designed and safe one, specifically. Assuming I don't give up, I'm going to lose 30 pounds this summer.

The only way I could lose weight the same way as the people in this study (assuming 3500 calories per pound of fat and 1000 calories per pound of other tissue) (5.5 lb at 1000 cal/lb + 5.5 lb at 3500 cal/lb) / 4 days = 24750 cal / 4 days = a daily deficit of 6188 calories.

This means that I'd have to burn my normal 2500 standard calories a day AND THEN 3688 MORE THROUGH OTHER ACTIVITIES BEFORE I'M ALLOWED TO EAT. And THEN anything I eat has to be burned off further.

To even attempt this, I'd have to swim the butterfly (which is utterly exhausting) for over two hours before anything I eat is even accounted for. More realistically, I could just walk at 3.5 miles an hour (a quick pace) for about 7 hours before my diet is considered. Then, I'd have to burn off everything that I eat.

This is simply unsafe.

Tell me how ripping two to three times the normal number of calories from your system each day without adequate vitamin, mineral or carbohydrate replenishment isn't stressful on the body and doesn't cause damage.

Tell me.
 

wulfy42

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Ok there are a million diets, but I have alot of experience with diets, I know which work, and I know how to get people who are even extremely over weight (700+ pounds) fit again.

But for your average person that isn't needed. If you have extra weight, some minor changes in your lifestyle can have you getting more fit, losing weight and feeling healthier...without having to drastically change what you eat, or spend long hours working out etc.

First step, I personally think everyone should take, is cut out all soda. If you must, drink it every so often when eating out (once or twice a week), but that is it. Alot of people struggling with weight drink soda often, even if it's diet you still usually get alot of salt, and it's just plain not healthy. There are tons of drinks that taste just as good as soda, without any sugar (I use Mio's for me and my wife for instance).

The next big deal is to control just how much you eat...especially the carbs. I'm not saying no carbs, but if you have other types of food there as well, you won't need to eat as many carbs to feel full. Salad.....is pretty much amazing for diets, since it's very healthy (as long as your not putting unhealthy dressing on it...itallian dressing (not creamy) or oil and vin are what I use. I have a salad with dinner every night. I use live lettuce because at least where I live it's not much more expensive (2.99 vs 2.50 for a head), and it's fresher and tastier. I have it first before my meal and it keeps me from starvation eating (IE I'm super hungry and eat more then I need).

Another good idea, always try and have some veggie with your meal. If I'm making chicken, steak or fish etc...I make a yummy veggie side dish. There are some great stir fry options (packages with broccili crowns, snap peas, carrot slices etc) in most grocery sections. Two bags of them tossed in my frying pan with a bit of water first (covered) to steam a bit, then a bit of olive oil to fry it...touched off with a few spritzes of terriky sauce to ad a bit of flavor...and you have a great side dish. Just switch out different veggies to keep it fresh (they sell bags of brussle sprouts for instance, or caluflower etc). If you have as much veggies on your dish as everything else your eating...along with a starter salad, you'll find yourself quite full without sacrificing the type of foods you want to eat.

Another idea is to experiment with different dishes. For instance, I used to make a sinful insanely good Lasagna. It was made with noodles, my meat sauce (hamburger meat + itallian sausage), and 3 types of cheese. It was so good everyone would eat till they where stuffed every time. I stopped making it a few years ago because of that (Seriously nobody had the ability to resist the evil lasagna including me).

So awhile ago, I tried switching it up a bit. I got low carb noodles...but that by itself really wouldn't make a big difference. I go with the same sauce I used before (just only a tiny bit of sausage now), but I use half as many noodles and cheese...instead I slice up yellow zuiccini squash and use that as 2 layers in my lasanga...along with slivered carrots as well (which I stir fry in a pan first before adding it in). I have even made vegetarian versions (Without my meat sauce) and while it's not as good, it's still very yummy (probably great if you are actually a vegetarian...but I just did it because I had a friend over who is...usually we go with the meat variety).

Finally, fill your house with healthy snacks. Keep yourself from ever getting to the point where you are starving, and prevent yourself from going for bad foods by having good healthy snacks around instead. No candy, ice cream etc, instead fruit is great to have as snacks. Bannana's and apples (we like fuji the best), have peanuts around if you need some quick protien etc.

That of course is just the food portion...but it's very important. The other portion is actually moving around. It's good to have some form of exersize you do regularly, even if it's just water aroebics. Try and walk if you can (not everyone can at first) instead of driving everywhere. Going to eat then shop nearby? Park where you will shop, then walk to where you are going to eat and back (so you don't have to move your car...and you got some walking in as well!).

Another nice way of moving more, is to not do large shops. Get all your food fresh each day if you can fit it into your schedule. If it's on the way home etc, just run in, get the food for the day, and use the express lane or self serve lane to save time. If your store is like mine, you'll probably end up saving time over all by not having to wait in the long lines (Seriously sometimes it's 45+ minutes to check out with a cart!!).

If you have set your life up in a way that you are happy, that is the best way to lose weight. Focus on food, making yummy food you really enjoy, spend energy and time making it, and you will end up with more energy and you'll end up being happy with the weight loss process.
 

Rebel_Raven

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Diet's too good to be true for good reason. Unhealthy, impractical, etc.
Who has 8+ free hours if they have a full time job anyhow? Not me. *Mutters about huge commute.*... aaanyhow, hanging out with friends would take a hit.

Also, I want a doubledown, now. Man, those things are great! Not healthy but frikkin' chickin' delicious! I wish they'd bring back the grilled version. Grilled just tastes different in a good way. Best chicken sandwich in terms of meat volume since it took seeming decades for a fast food chain to figure out that chicken sandwiches can come with more than one slab of chicken. I really like chicken sandwiches. <.<
Frikking expensive, though...
 

Seanchaidh

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I may have done a similar thing to this unintentionally-- when I moved from Seattle to Houston I stopped drinking milk and have eaten mostly bread and peanut butter (and/or regular butter) with water and orange juice along with some pizza and various junk food generously given by my roommates. But mostly bread and peanut butter and more recently some strawberry preserves because delicious. And also breakfast cereal, though not nearly as much as the bread. Exercise hasn't really been a factor, I hardly move.

The result is that I went from about 180-200 pounds to 140 and I've stayed there for more than a year. I wasn't even trying to lose weight, it just happened. I don't know if I am healthier but I feel like I am. And this diet is cheap, like wow it is so cheap.
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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What, is escapist running diet advertisement now or something?
15 overweight men who were restricted to 360 daily calories
yeah, thats not healthy at all. they weren getting enough calories to even run their brains. can leave permanent damage very quickly.

starving yourself is the worst kind of diet you can have.

each lost about 11 pounds, with nearly half of that coming from body fat.
And the other half? you do know that this kind of body self-eating results in what we saw in nazi concentration camps right?

Adam Jensen said:
exercise regularly because it feels good
i always have a problem with this.
IT DOES NOT FEEL GOOD. its a torture i have to endure to stay healthy. nothing more.

LavaLampBamboo said:
This is a bit of an odd one though, given how much weight they were able keep off afterwards. Maybe because the diet was SO intense?
more likely due to permanent body damage from the "Experiment". the body was not able to repair itself from the exercise and left dead tissue that did not allow further growth.

WarHamster40K said:
(cooking at least 5 meals a week
wait, so people dont cook thier meals? im cooking 14 meals a week and the other 7 are self-prepared too but requires no cooking (such as a salad for example, or a sandwitch). every 2 weeks or so i go to a restaurant with a friend but thats kinda it. you mention pizzas..... i actually cook my own pizzas.....

Fenrox Jackson said:
This is a total thing. However, to replicate you do not need to go to such extremes. A 600-900 calorie day is fine for activating these results. That's all your body generally needs anyway, it's just way under for what is considered comfortable in society. But society is BS, the human body can do just fine on a low calorie diet, it thrives in every way.
Ech no. if you work a mental job (a job in which you have to think and make decisions) your brain alone will consume 800-900 calories. Brain consumes over half the calories needed in your body, and starving brain, well, i dont suggest you try it.

The human body can "thrive" as much as nazi camp prisoners "Thrived" on 800 calories a day.

Fenrox Jackson said:
There is starvation and then there is caloric restriction. These guys were getting a very specific 400 calories, exactly enough to cover their actions.
400 calories is not enough to run your brain, let alone a trianing exercise. they were being starved through and through.

This was a supervised diet so they were only losing body fat.
except that the study itself says that less than half of the weight loss was body fat.
LESS than half.


Fenrox Jackson said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction
look up medifast.
whaat. High mortality rate is considered a positive effect. i dont even....


wulfy42 said:
If you have set your life up in a way that you are happy, that is the best way to lose weight. Focus on food, making yummy food you really enjoy, spend energy and time making it, and you will end up with more energy and you'll end up being happy with the weight loss process.
but making yummy food is what got me into beign fat in the first place! now i have to eat bad tasting vegetables and stuff. really, my tastes for food is really something thats never gonig to be healthy, but i prefer health>taste

Seanchaidh said:
And this diet is cheap, like wow it is so cheap.
Starvation is cheap until health disorders kick in.
 

Seanchaidh

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Strazdas said:
Seanchaidh said:
And this diet is cheap, like wow it is so cheap.
Starvation is cheap until health disorders kick in.
I'm not starving, though. It's really efficient on the calories per dollar.
 

daibakuha

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Strazdas said:
IT DOES NOT FEEL GOOD. its a torture i have to endure to stay healthy. nothing more.
This is the problem larger people have with exercising. It doesn't feel good, it's exhaustively hard work for results we may not even notice for months. People often forget that when your big your body has to move all that weight around, and that it takes way more energy for you to move around.
 

WarHamster40K

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Strazdas said:
WarHamster40K said:
(cooking at least 5 meals a week
wait, so people dont cook thier meals? im cooking 14 meals a week and the other 7 are self-prepared too but requires no cooking (such as a salad for example, or a sandwitch). every 2 weeks or so i go to a restaurant with a friend but thats kinda it. you mention pizzas..... i actually cook my own pizzas.....
Reading that sentence, I can see how I could've phrased it differently. When I was mentioned what meals I cooked, I didn't include my breakfasts (either cereal or a piece of fruit instead of a pre-packaged fruit bar) or how many of my lunches are leftovers from the night before. I make pizza on occasion, but it's usually made with either a pita bread or a pre-made crust. I spent an evening trying to hand-toss a crust for a pizza and gave up after the 5th try. As for how infrequently I used to cook, there were often times when buying pre-mades on sale was cheaper and easier than looking around for the individual components for the "real" version. It doesn't help that [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Maine#Food_and_beverage"]my hometown[/a] allegedly has more restaurants and takeouts per capita than almost anywhere else in the U.S.
 

Jadwick

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Just wanted to say congrats to Jumwa, NeoAC, Veldie, WarHamster40K, The Hungry Samurai, Fenrox Jackson, and anyone else I missed, on the healthy weight loss. I lost 50lbs myself, and anyone who gets themselves in shape really has my respect.

Good job guys!
 

wooty

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Aug 1, 2009
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8 hours of strolling the countryside a day??!?!!!!?!?!?!

Yeah, thats a great diet/exercise plan when you have a full time job to maintain.

OT: I was doing quite well for a few months, gym 5 times a week, lots of vitamins, cutting down carb intake. I lost 2 stone (??? pounds). But then the international beer import shop opened up in town......the weight is slowly coming back.