If I want to lose weight I need to change the way I eat.
I don’t eat terribly unhealthily but I do eat too much, I’m often tired from travelling and that tends to make me pig out in the evenings. I also do enjoy a beer (or two) – probably a bit too often. More recently when I’m tired I’ve realised that carbohydrates (peanut butter sandwiches!) literally put me to sleep.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching diet and nutrition and trying things out. There are various view points to be found in books and on the internet. Despite different peoples viewpoints I’ve tended to follow those who can either provide some clinical evidence or have experimented on themselves. I should point out at this stage:
I am in no way qualified to give anyone advice on nutrition – all I can do is relate my own experience and the sources from which I have garnered ideas.
I’ve read through various different diets and tried various different concepts, I’ve drawn from the following sources:
Tim Ferriss – Slow Carb Diet
Mary Dan and Michael Eades – High Protein (Modified Atkins)
Paleo Diet – not sure who to attribute this one to
Ketogenic Diet – as above
Fasting / Intermittent fasting – although not the inventor Dr. Jason Fung is the highest profile advocate I’m aware of.
If you are familiar with any of these you will recognise they are all low carbohydrate – this should be no surprise following my earlier comment on carbs. My concern around carbs is real and in a future post I will do my best to explain what my concerns are and where they come from.
First of all let me describe the key points of each of the above approaches in my eyes:
Slow Carb Diet
This diet designed by Tim Ferris avoids processed carbs but allows legumes and natural carbs. It also has a focus on fresh/organic food – this seems to be primarily led by the american market where ‘Grass Fed’ beef is not as common as it is in the UK. It also advocates avoiding ‘white’ carbs such as potato.
Relatively high protien, still has carbs but not the one’s you’re used to, medium fat.
I have tried this on and off and it seems to work provided you don’t get the munchies.
High protein (Modified Atkins)
The high protien diet specified by the Eades is targeted primarily at ‘middle aged’ people who want to lose their gut and focuses on high protein, it doesn’t seem too picky about fat (at least from my reading) but definitely advocates low carbohydrate.
For me this is a diet that worked for a short time but didn’t really seem to shift weight as expected.
Paleo
Again similar to the Eades diet above but with a focus on fresh food (no protein shakes to make up the protein numbers.) I had similar success with this over my trial period as I did with the Eades diet. I find the freshness of food in this more appealing than the modified Atkins.
Ketogenic
The ketogenic diet has recently had bad billing in the press, however I find the argument behind it more compelling. It focusses on eating high fat (this is not as easy to do as you might think but I’m fond of cheese and have no real ill effect from Dairy products.) Protein is kept medium to low depending on the advocate and there is a focus on minimising carb to no or very low carbs (often below 40-20g per day).
Fasting / Intermittent fasting
More an addition to the above in terms of times of eating and quantities, overall no anything on a predetermined schedule. I found this works well alongside the Ketogenic diet where the fat keeps you feeling fuller for longer.
So which way now?
Based upon my experiences above I’ve decided to use a modified ketogenic diet combined with fasting to try and lose the pounds that are currently refusing to budge.
For the modified ketogenic diet I’m using elements of the slow carb diet in terms of the use of carbs. Yes I’m avoiding all processed carbs, but, I’m comfortable with legumes and other fresh veg pushing the total carbs over the 40g limit.
For the fasting I intend to have one 24hr fast per week and restrict eating times to 8 hours of the day for the rest of the week. I’m torn at the moment over having a ‘cheat’ day and what this might consist of.
I’ve also decided to be lenient with myself around the drinks and food for work. As I travel and meet people it’s sometimes unavoidable that alcohol will be consumed or food will not perfectly align with the diet. I can accept this and believe if I’m sensible about it things will work – just perhaps a little slower!
On the alcohol – I will stop personal consumption, but for work will try to stick to red wine (this is reported to be the least disruptive to a diet by many sources).
I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.