The Eatless Diet

I weighed in this morning at 226lbs. 2 months ago I weighed in at 247lbs. I still have about 10 lbs to go but I credit my success so far to what I call the "Eatless diet".

The idea is simple - I simply EAT LESS. There are a few simple principles to the Eatless Diet that I would like to share.

1. I eat too much.

I realized I was eating about twice as much as I needed to. In our world of fast food, high fat, high sugar, foods, our bodies really need much less food than we are giving them. As I started out on the Eatless Diet, I simply used the "Rule of 1/2". The beauty of the rule of half is its simplicity. I simply took what I would normally have eaten, cut it in half, and ate that instead. There is logic behind it but one doesn't even need to know it in order for the "Rule of 1/2" to work. For those who won't take my word for it - here's the logic behind it.

The Rule of 1/2

I used an online calorie calculator based on my age, weight, height and exercise level (of course I lied and said "moderate" level of exercise when the truth is really "low"). The calculator said I need about 3100 calories to maintain my current weight (which was 247). I figure I was eating about 3100 - 3800 calories a day (depending on the day) because I certainly wasn't losing weight. I had heard somewhere that a pound is approximately 3000 calories so I figured if I cut my current intake in half that would be about 1900 calories a day which would mean I would lose about .36 lbs a day or 2.5 lbs a week. 8 weeks and 20 lbs later I'd say this logic was pretty spot on. (For those of you who don't know me and are envisioning a short portly gentleman, I'm 6'4" and moderately muscular so my target weight is about 215-220).

Quick Note - I didn't count calories. That takes too long and is too much work for me. I don't have the calories of everything memorized and I don't plan on carrying a calorie/points calculator everywhere I go. It was just a general rule. If I would normally eat 2 sandwiches for lunch, I just ate 1. If I would normally eat one giant hamburger, I ate half of a giant hamburger. If I'd normally get a 12 inch Subway meatball sandwich, I got a 6 inch instead.

2. Hunger does not = death.

Not in upper middle class suburban America anyway. When you eat too much it is like a drug addiction. When you stop, there are withdrawal pains. The withdrawal pain that comes with eating like a normal person is hunger. Before I started the "Eatless Diet" I thought hunger was about the worst thing that could happen to me. This was a psychological barrier that I had to overcome. When I eat half of what I used to, I'm going to get hungry. This is not the end of the world. I'm not going to die from 1-2 hours of hunger between meals. I don't need to try to eat extra at the next meal in order to escape the clutches of the hunger monster. I had to learn to deal with a little bit of hunger like I would deal with a paper cut or a headache. You just deal with it.

8 weeks in, I can promise that a 1900 calorie diet will not kill a person (adjust proportionately to height and weight and the same is true). In fact, I actually started feeling better. I wasn't sluggish after meals, I didn't wake up in the morning with an upset stomach because of my still un-digested food from the night before, and I slept better. After a while, I didn't get as hungry. My body started getting used to the change in amount of food and stopped freaking out on me.

3. Weigh every day

I want to lose weight not gain weight. I also don't like surprises. I realize there are some programs out there that tell you to only weigh once a week - that doesn't work for me. For me, out of site is out of mind and that equals me getting fat. I weigh every morning and celebrate every .36lbs I lose (with a flex in the mirror). I would suggest weighing in the morning before you eat and after you do your "business in the bathroom". I find that this is when I am at my lightest because I haven't eaten anything in 8 - 13 hours and so I don't have any food in my stomach weighing me down. I also like to go to the bathroom first so there is no food in my bowels weighing me down. This gives me a good baseline to judge from day to day. If I weigh after a meal or in the evening, I'm likely to weigh 1-2 lbs more.

Also, I don't expect the decrease to be consistent every day. I may go a day flat and then be down almost a pound the next day. I may go up 1/2 lb one day and down a pound the next (net 1/2 lb down). The point though is that if I go 2-3 days without going down at all (or if I go up) then I'm probably eating too much or cheating and I need to get serious.

I also heard on the Biggest Loser that if you eat too little, you will lose weight slower. I guess that's why Weight Watchers wants you to eat to the "top of your points". The thing about it is that eating too little is not really a problem for me. My problem is eating too much so I don't really worry too much about this. Plus, I think if I stick to the rule of 1/2, then I'll be OK.

That's really all I've done. 3 step process, no meetings, no calculators, no calorie counting, no all meat, no all veggies, no weird stuff that's hard to remember. There is a part two to the "Eatless Diet". It comes when you've been doing it for a while and have lost some weight and your body starts to get comfortable with the new level of eating. This is where I am now. The problem I am having now is the "Rule of 1/2" is difficult because my habits have changed and I have a hard time remembering what I used to eat in order to cut it in half.

More on Part 2 later. I still have some things I have to work out on it.

PS - the Infomercial and Book are in the works.