Hunger free weight loss solutions, part 5....

Today's Post: Thursday, 11-3-2011

It may seem impossible since most people have to cut the amount of calories they eat to lose fat.

And, most people who eat less get hungrier.

The good news is that there are several basic strategies that work.

The even better news is that learning to do them and doing enough of them consistently works!

You do lose fat. You don’t get that much hungrier than you did before. And, since everything you do is sustainable, once you do them by habit and make them a part of your upgraded lifestyle, the best news is that your fat loss will be permanent.

This is part 5 of this series. They are consecutive here, so you can scroll down to the first one if you want to read them from the beginning.

This time we’ll cover ways to do some extra calorie cutting but which do NOT cause your body to jump into famine response mode.

There are several ways to do this.

Each of them works best if you are already using all the methods in the first four parts.

Each of them has some way in which it cuts calories but not that much OR it cuts them a bit more but it lasts a day or less each time.

Also, it’s important that you find the one to use that fits your lifestyle and preferences.

a) One of the best that I’ve already lost fat and weight on the scale by using is to be a bit more strict every other day for Mondays to Fridays and on most Sundays and of course avoid going overboard much at any time. I also eat more as I did before but more carefully every other day Mondays to Fridays and every Saturday.

The basic principle has a name, the Every Other Day Diet. And, I learned the idea from Jon Benson who sells the eBook with that title.

It seems that if you get enough protein and nonstarchy vegetables EVERY day; but eat a version that has just a bit fewer calories every other day, each week you will eat fewer calories than you were before.

There are three huge benefits.

Since you only eat things that you find OK each day on each more disciplined day and less disciplined day alike, it’s far easier to keep doing it indefinitely to keep the fat off.

Since on the more disciplined day, every time it takes even a bit of extra effort, you know it’s just that day and you’ll eat a bit more tomorrow. That’s huge! It makes it ten times easier than being that disciplined EVERY day.

Best of all, Jon quotes studies that found that this style reduces your body’s famine response to near zero! And, I’ve seen similar studies since.

Al Sears, MD talks about how one critical reason to eat well on protein each day is so your body feels like you can currently depend on your food. If your body feels that good times are here and famine is NOT, it sees no need to slam your hunger up extra hard right away.

The same thing works with every other day cutting calories a bit extra. You are getting enough to fill your stomach and enough protein to eat every day.

And you are eating enough to be comfortable every other day and almost that much every other day. So your body realizes that though it does vary a bit --overall your food supply is trustworthy and you get enough to eat every week. Then it concludes you aren’t in famine and avoids slamming on the brakes.

b) Similar studies exist for different forms of having one day a week where you cut back more on calories.

Some people have found they can get away with a complete fast once a week. Personally, I’m not comfortable with that. And, I don’t trust it much for either the nutrition my body needs or it’s ability to stave off the famine response or the ability of most people to do it and keep it up.

But there are two versions that HAVE worked for people.

Partial fasting one day a week for two consecutive meals.

I’m using one of them every Thursday. Today is Thursday so today I’m using it! It’s partial fasting for two consecutive meals. Doing that once a week HAS been tested to work. So far, its mild enough I’ve been able to do it each week with no extra effort needed. If it makes the difference I expect at the end of the month, I’ll simply keep doing it every week from now on. (Thanksgiving later this month WILL be one of my few exceptions!)

I eat my normal every other day breakfast with plenty of protein. And at each time I normally take supplements as part of my nutrition, I take the exact same ones at that time.

But at lunch I have my broccoli florets only. I skip the other part of my lunch.

And, at dinner I eat puréed squash instead of three times that many calories of pinto beans. I still add some Parmesan cheese and some nonfat cottage cheese. This way between the puréed squash and tomato sauce I add, I have close to the normal amount of fiber and enough protein.

c) The other once a week cut back I found in a popular diet book by a French doctor. Sorry to say I’ve forgotten his name. But he teaches his version of the low carb, high fiber Atkins style diet. What he found was that on one day a week eating only protein foods and nonstarchy vegetables and ZERO carbs of any kind otherwise helped his patients succeed at permanent fatloss.

d) A fourth method besides every other day and a one day a week extra cut back and one protein & veggies only day a week was one a news writer found worked for him.

He really liked eating dinners out in the evening. But he had become too fat. Then he read that many peoples in history had survived for extended periods by being able to eat only nonstarchy vegetables each day. Bingo!

He decided to keep eating breakfast each day and eating lunch each day. BUT he began to ONLY eat nonstarchy vegetables for each breakfast and lunch. But the payoff for him was to keep eating dinners out. Of course he didn’t eat junk at dinner. But he did continue to eat well and eat what he liked. His excess fat left and has never come back! (This was my inspiration for eating only my raw broccoli florets on my one a day a week partial fast in fact.)

e) The fifth method also works for some people. First you upgrade from fattening foods to real food and eliminate the junk from what you eat and drink. Second you begin regular exercise each week including strength training. Then you eat every two hours and a small meal that only has real food.

This keeps the size of your stomach small which some studies have found helps with fat loss. It’s almost as if you do a partial stomach shrinking without surgery.

And since you tend to only start getting hungry MORE than two hours after eating, this method also tends to allow you to eat this way without extra hunger.

You do have to calculate the calories and measure the servings more exactly to ensure the small net calorie reduction you want. And, you have to have a lifestyle where setting up these meals and eating them on time each time is doable.

But the clients of the man and woman who teach this method have gotten excellent results!

People who use it do achieve hunger free fat loss.

I’m willing to make an extra effort. But this method is way more time consuming and complex and inflexible for me to even think about. And, I suspect it would be for most people.

But if you work from home or are retired or just like the idea a lot, you might want to try it out.

Clearly, it works. And, if it works for you at all, it’s likely you can keep doing it.

Summary:

There are literally hundreds of useful fat loss tips besides those in these 5 posts. And, it can help to get extra information or coaching on any of the strategies in them that you have trouble setting up or doing or keeping up.

But by using the all the methods in these five posts to the best of your ability in ways customized to you, YOU CAN achieve fat loss that is mostly hunger free.

That means you can keep doing it! And between 60 % and ALL of the fat you lose will stay off once you lose it.

You will look better and be much lighter. And by using these methods, you will be dramatically healthier too!