Criticize My Diet Plan

[Morchella]

Fasting is over rated. It does nothing to increase your metabolism.
Ask your doctor if getting off the couch is right for you. Choose an exercise you LIKE and make it routine. No one likes indoor trainers. Indoor machines eventually bore you and become clothes hangers.. Go outside. Walk, jog, run, swim, ride a bike, buck hay, build a house, build a garden.
Eat what you want but less of it. CONTROL your appetite by sheer will. Eat smaller portions than you are used to. Go to bed hungry every night. Get used to that and your stomach will eventually shrink so those small portions will seem enough.
This method worked for me. Going to bed hungry was the hardest part.

 

[Janadele]

Oh, and...
I drink Sainsbury's sugar-free cordial with Sainsbury's sugar-free lemonade. The lemonade itself doesn't taste very nice, but just a dash of the cordial and it's lovely. As this works out at about 6 kcal per pint, I feel free to drink as much of it as a want, when I want. It's cheap as chips, too.

Have you checked the ingredients and what they mean. Are they detrimental to health ?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Fasting is over rated. It does nothing to increase your metabolism.

Nobody said it did. What it does is cut your weekly calorie intake in a manner which isn't detrimental to your health, aids slimming, and means that you can still eat normally for most days. This helps out with sticking to it.

Ask your doctor if getting off the couch is right for you.

I spend an hour walking to work. I am on my feet for the next 8 hours, and spend most of that time lifting and carrying heavy things. I then walk home for another hour. I do this 5 days a week. That's in the off-season. In the summer I can work 20 hour days 7 days a week, or much more. Last summer there was a day where I worked for 75 hours straight, all of it on my feet, and much of it lugging large pieces of steel around.

I don't think I could do much more exercise if I tried.

Go to bed hungry every night.

The problem with that is that you go to bed hungry every night. It's a miserable way to live. And it can be demoralising, which can lead people to give up.

Get used to that and your stomach will eventually shrink so those small portions will seem enough.

That's a myth. Your stomach does not shrink, although your appetite may. As noted above, intermittent fasting can have the same effect.

This method worked for me.

I'm glad. You'd probably be wise to acknowledge, though, that different people may be different.

 

[Morchella]

Nobody said it did. What it does is cut your weekly calorie intake in a manner which isn't detrimental to your health, aids slimming, and means that you can still eat normally for most days. This helps out with sticking to it.


I spend an hour walking to work. I am on my feet for the next 8 hours, and spend most of that time lifting and carrying heavy things. I then walk home for another hour. I do this 5 days a week. That's in the off-season. In the summer I can work 20 hour days 7 days a week, or much more. Last summer there was a day where I worked for 75 hours straight, all of it on my feet, and much of it lugging large pieces of steel around.

I don't think I could do much more exercise if I tried.


The problem with that is that you go to bed hungry every night. It's a miserable way to live. And it can be demoralising, which can lead people to give up.


That's a myth. Your stomach does not shrink, although your appetite may. As noted above, intermittent fasting can have the same effect.


I'm glad. You'd probably be wise to acknowledge, though, that different people may be different.

Eating "normally" is what got you into trouble in the first place. Binging after fasting is all too common.

Going hungry is miserable and demoralizing? Dieting is hard. Deal with it.

Aerobic exercise is needed to work your heart. Lugging around steel at work does not get your heart rate over 140 bpm for sustained periods.

Maybe my stomach didn't shrink but smaller portions did become satisfying after a while.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Eating "normally" is what got you into trouble in the first place.

No it isn't.

You're assuming things about people you don't know again.

Binging after fasting is all too common.

Actually it's not.

Going hungry is miserable and demoralizing? Dieting is hard. Deal with it.

Or find an alternative which is equally effective and which doesn't have any health risks. Like I have.

Aerobic exercise is needed to work your heart. Lugging around steel at work does not get your heart rate over 140 bpm for sustained periods.

This is a different argument to the one you made about weight loss. Would you like to try again?

Maybe my stomach didn't shrink but smaller portions did become satisfying after a while.

As I said.

 

[phunk]

6) Fasts are for when you get sick and don't feel well enough to exercise. Then fast or partial fast until you are well enough to exercise and your appetite returns.

I agree with everything except this last part. Don't fast when you're sick. Eat normally when you're sick, and resume the diet when you're better.

 

[Brian-M]

Fasting is over rated. It does nothing to increase your metabolism.

I never thought it did. What it does do is reduce your average caloric intake.

Ask your doctor if getting off the couch is right for you.

I don't need a doctor to tell me that.

Choose an exercise you LIKE and make it routine.

I've mentioned exercise in the end of post #5.

No one likes indoor trainers. Indoor machines eventually bore you and become clothes hangers.. Go outside. Walk, jog, run, swim, ride a bike, buck hay, build a house, build a garden.

Outdoor exercises tend to suffer from inclement weather.

Eat what you want but less of it. CONTROL your appetite by sheer will.

I've tried that. I can keep it up for a few months, but then start backsliding. I break the diet from time to time, and more and more often. Before I know it I've completely given up the diet without even realizing it.

Eat smaller portions than you are used to.

Eating just a little often leaves me more hungry than if I hadn't eaten anything at all.

 

[Morchella]

So Squeegie... What is normal eating? I just assumed it was the kind of eating you do when not on a diet. The fact that you are dieting tells me that your idea of normal is making you fat.
You say fasting does not make you more hungry. So what. We can both cite plenty of sources that show fasting is hooey and fasting is great. I think it's hooey. There are lots of people who lift weights and look OK but their heart is slathered with fat because they never go aerobic. Often the heart is too small to work all that muscle.
I prefer the thermodynamic diet. Put out more energy than you take in and you will shrink. Working your heart is essential. Fasting without working the heart keeps all that fat clinging to your heart. So what if I didn't state my preference for aerobic exercise in my first post. To me it should be obvious but not to you I guess. The fact that you have posted here almost 7000 times in four years tells me you have plenty of free time.
So you have health risks? Remember I said ask your doctor. I doubt any doctor will tell you that getting your hiney off the couch is bad for you.

 

[Brian-M]

OK, here is my criticism.
1) There is no part of your plan that describes the type of food you will be eating.

"a semi-fast, where you consume low-calorie snacks in place of meals, such as a piece of fruit or a small tub of low-fat yoghurt"

(I'm actually making my own yoghurt.)

For the rest of the time, I intend that the prospect of having to fast the next day if I indulge too much will make me more inclined to pay close intention to what I eat. I haven't specified what I'll be eating in general because I want to keep it flexible.

2) There is no mention of exercise.

"Adding an exercise routine to the diet will help keep your weight down"

I would suggest:
1) Throw away or donate to the food bank any and all snack foods. No crackers, no candy bars, no potato chips, no soda pop, no cheetos, no "munchies" of any kind. When you go shopping, don't buy them. Completely eliminate them as an option. If you buy them, eventually you will eat them, so never buy them.

I'm already aware of that. The only candy I have in the place at the moment is some choc-coated sultanas in 25g packets that were on discount at ALDI yesterday. (I just ate the last two packets for breakfast and won't be buying any more.)

I don't have any chips in the place... unless you count some flavored rice-crisps (which I bought at the same time as the choc-sultanas).

The only soda-pop I have is some diet cola. (I hadn't really tried that brand before, it's quite disgusting.)

I do have some semi-healthy muesli/snack bars I bought because I was considering having them in place of meals on fast days, but it turns out I don't really like them.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

So Squeegie... What is normal eating? I just assumed it was the kind of eating you do when not on a diet. The fact that you are dieting tells me that your idea of normal is making you fat.

And that might seem like a reasonable assumption. It's not, however, correct.

You say fasting does not make you more hungry. So what. We can both cite plenty of sources that show fasting is hooey and fasting is great. I think it's hooey.

You're free to think what you like. It's when you start claiming that what works for you is the one and only method that's valid that you fall short.

There are lots of people who lift weights and look OK but their heart is slathered with fat because they never go aerobic. Often the heart is too small to work all that muscle.

That's nice. A little off the subject of this thread, though, which is dieting.

I prefer the thermodynamic diet.

Good for you. I'm genuinely glad that it works for you.

You still shouldn't assume that everybody else on the surface of the planet is identical to you, though.

Put out more energy than you take in and you will shrink.

It's not actually quite that simple. It's not a simple case of calories in vs. calories out. The body is a more complex machine than that.

Working your heart is essential. Fasting without working the heart keeps all that fat clinging to your heart. So what if I didn't state my preference for aerobic exercise in my first post. To me it should be obvious but not to you I guess.

I'm not quite sure what post of mine you think you're contradicting, but you seem to be assuming things again, rather than responding to what I wrote.

The exercise I get is way in excess of what the NHS recommends for adults - and that is both weights and aerobic. You'll forgive me if I trust the advice of medical health experts over some random stranger on the internet who has proven themselves not to be the most logical of thinkers.

The fact that you have posted here almost 7000 times in four years tells me you have plenty of free time.

Or it tells you one of the ways I enjoy spending what free time I do have. It's an average of just over 6 posts a day.

So you have health risks?

Assuming again. You do a lot of that.

Remember I said ask your doctor. I doubt any doctor will tell you that getting your hiney off the couch is bad for you.

And a straw man to finish. Lovely.

 

[Brian-M]

1kg a week is a lot of weight to lose. It's easy to lose that kind of weight in the first couple of weeks of a diet, but that's because you mostly lose water retention. 1lb a week is a large amount to lose, and is roughly what you can expect on the 5:2 diet. Even so, everybody's metabolism is different and you could end up losing as little as a fifth of a lb a week. And just because you could once lose weight at a high rate doesn't mean that you still can.

I did mention that I'm only going to aim for that to start with, and then slow down after a while.

 

[MikeG]

..... I prefer the thermodynamic diet. Put out more energy than you take in and you will shrink. .....

That's exactly what intermittent fasting does, counted over a week. But instead of the virtually impossible continual and permanent self-denial, you only need to be disciplined (albeit more disciplined than normal) for 1 or two days a week. The psychology is what makes intermittent fasting so successful, in that you are only ever one day away from eating pretty much whatever you want. The thing is, fasting itself tends to make you want to eat differently (better) anyway, (again psychology: "I've done so well with the fasting that I don't want to throw it away on the non-fasting days").

 

[Morchella]

And that might seem like a reasonable assumption. It's not, however, correct.

\


So squeegie. tell me what you mean by "normal"

I didn't say it was the one and only method. The thread is about critique. Get it now?

In your mind you think I am off topic, not everyone would agree.

It IS that simple. That's why they call it the LAW of thermodynamics.

I am not assuming anything. You clearly stated you have health risks in your prior post.

I don't see the straw man. When you said you had "health risks" you implied that you are too disabled to exercise but you can still work lifting heavy objects. Which is it. The implication is heart disease but you are not saying, thus, Ask your doctor.

 

[Delvo]

I don't think that the psychology of dieting is helped by weighing yourself every day... weight does vary, and if it can be a simple matter of whether or not you have sat on the toilet before you weigh yourself which determines whether to fast or not then your decision to fast can be seen as almost arbtirary.

Weighing yourself every day is a bad idea. Your weight fluctuates daily

This sounds like a slowed-down version of what I did. I started weighing myself repeatedly throughout the day every day, which meant seeing every little "fluctuation" that they warn against with less-frequent weigh-ins: I can see the effects of every meal, snack, and trip to the restroom, exactly when they happen. That makes it easy to set a goal weight only slightly below your weight of the moment, which reduces the "fasting" time to hours instead of all day.

Besides, this turns fasting into some sort of punishment

No, just simple cause & effect: do the cause to get the effect.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

So squeegie. tell me what you mean by "normal"

A balanced and varied diet which does not exceed my recommended calorie intake. What else would I mean?

I didn't say it was the one and only method. The thread is about critique. Get it now?

You didn't offer a critique, you started off arguing against an argument nobody had made which dismissed all the previous advice in the thread, continued on by laying down the law of what proper dieting is, and finished off by posting factually incorrect information.

In your mind you think I am off topic, not everyone would agree.

Well, if you can quote where anybody other than you (and, in particular, the OP) has advocated weightlifting without aerobic exercise, then I'll concede that you're not off topic.

It IS that simple. That's why they call it the LAW of thermodynamics.

And here you prove how little you understand about the biological processes around the metabolisation of food.

I am not assuming anything. You clearly stated you have health risks in your prior post.

No I didn't.

"Going hungry is miserable and demoralizing? Dieting is hard. Deal with it. "

"Or find an alternative which is equally effective and which doesn't have any health risks. Like I have."

From this exchange you get that I have "health risks"? Huh.

I don't see the straw man.

I'm sure you don't. Logical thinking doesn't seem to be your forte.

When you said you had "health risks" you implied that you are too disabled to exercise but you can still work lifting heavy objects. Which is it.

There's only an apparent contradiction because you've misread what I wrote. And, in order to make that assumption, you seem to have had to ignore the massive amount of aerobic exercise I have explicitly said that I do.

The implication is heart disease but you are not saying, thus, Ask your doctor.

It's a nice spin you're trying to put on what you said but, unfortunately for you, this is a message board and your posts are a matter of permanent public record. Everybody can still see the straw man that you posted, no matter what shine you may now try to put on it.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

This sounds like a slowed-down version of what I did. I started weighing myself repeatedly throughout the day every day, which meant seeing every little "fluctuation" that they warn against with less-frequent weigh-ins: I can see the effects of every meal, snack, and trip to the restroom, exactly when they happen. That makes it easy to set a goal weight only slightly below your weight of the moment, which reduces the "fasting" time to hours instead of all day.

That would require you to be near a set of scales all day every day which seems to me to not be practical for everybody. I can also imagine people not wanting a diet that's quite that all-consuming.

 

[Dr. Keith]

It IS that simple. That's why they call it the LAW of thermodynamics.

I tend to agree, but I have a hard time convincing my wife that I have to weigh the solid excrement separately from the liquid to get even close to an accurate accounting. People at work understand and don't mess with my scales, but she seems to miss the point.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Looking up other threads about diets on this forum, I see some mention of a 5:2 diet which I hadn't heard about before today. I suppose my diet is similar to that because it involves intermittent fasting, but unlike the 5:2 diet the fasting isn't done on fixed intervals and can (theoretically) be avoided altogether if you can get your weight down without fasting.

One of the attractions of the 5:2 diet is the fixed fasting days that you can prepare for. It would allow me to plan client lunches or breakfast meetings around those fasting days, instead of showing up for a lunch meeting and then having to explain why I'm not eating instead of talking about work. And then I will certainly have a 100 calorie snack handy for mid-day and make any other arrangements ahead of time.

Like knowing that I am going to the gym M-W-F, I just plan around it and lay out my gym clothes the night before. It becomes a habit.

If I were to adopt part of your plan I may just weigh myself weekly and adjust the number of fasting days the next week based on the weight of the prior week. But really, I think I would stick to 5:2 until I met my goal and then throttle back to 6:1.

This is all hypothetical as I am currently not dieting at all, really. My big move this years has been no sides. We were just about to start the 5:2 thing as a family when we had some other more pressing issues to deal with. Such is family life.

 

[Red Baron Farms]

"a semi-fast, where you consume low-calorie snacks in place of meals, such as a piece of fruit or a small tub of low-fat yoghurt"

(I'm actually making my own yoghurt.)

For the rest of the time, I intend that the prospect of having to fast the next day if I indulge too much will make me more inclined to pay close intention to what I eat. I haven't specified what I'll be eating in general because I want to keep it flexible.



"Adding an exercise routine to the diet will help keep your weight down"



I'm already aware of that. The only candy I have in the place at the moment is some choc-coated sultanas in 25g packets that were on discount at ALDI yesterday. (I just ate the last two packets for breakfast and won't be buying any more.)

I don't have any chips in the place... unless you count some flavored rice-crisps (which I bought at the same time as the choc-sultanas).

The only soda-pop I have is some diet cola. (I hadn't really tried that brand before, it's quite disgusting.)

I do have some semi-healthy muesli/snack bars I bought because I was considering having them in place of meals on fast days, but it turns out I don't really like them.

Good luck

 

[Morchella]

I get your schtick Squeegie. Pretentiously pick apart everyones comments without citing anything because you are always right.
Evidently you don't read your own posts or you are such a poor writer that you have trouble getting a point across clearly.
You do not understand what aerobic exercise is. Working 75 hours straight or lifting stuff a lot is not aerobic. Aerobic is maintaining a sustained heart rate. Now where did you say you did that? We have a disagreement about what is aerobic. My work is very physical too but it is not aerobic.
Again, You clearly said you have health risks, otherwise explain this sentence,

"Or find an alternative which is equally effective and which doesn't have any health risks. Like I have."

How am I supposed to decipher that to mean you don't have health risks?

"And here you prove how little you understand about the biological processes around the metabolisation of food."

Please explain to me how the human body does not conform to the laws of thermodynamics and please leave out the not so veiled insults this time.