Saturday, December 30, 2006

New Years Resolution come early

I stumbled across this today.

I won't go in to the theory - you can read that yourself, but basically you take either a tablespoon of oil or 3 glasses of sugarwater a day to reduce food cravings.

I have a few kilos to loose after December binging so thought I would give it a nudge. I just had a dose of oil. I don't know if it really works or just in my head, but before I took it I was really hungry, and now I am not in the slightest. It might have something to do with the glass of water I washed the oil down with.

Anyway, I will track my changes here over the next few days and weeks. My starting weight is 102kg, and goal is 90kg. I am also going to frequent the gym a bit more after NY too, as I have been a little slack of late, so any weight loss must also take this into consideration, although I have put on 2kg since I started going in August....

Oh anyone considering doing this diet, should also read the counter arguments. There is a string lobby against the Shangri-La, mostly coming from the Low Card brigade.

I am a complete laymen so won't take any sides here, or offer conclusive scientific theory on my results. This is just one mans opinion. I find it a little hypocritical of the "Atkins" brigade to bag the Shangri La though. Their diet is pretty much exclusively shunned by nutritionalists also.

I did the Atkins a couple of years ago, before the low carb options became available in the supermarkets. It worked. I lost 10kg in about 8 weeks.

There are some caveats that I found:
- Atkins breath is terrible
- At the time options were slim and low carb gets very dull, very quick
- I found my performance in cycling and soccer to be far below par when on Atkins - lacking energy and endurance

I went off Atkins because of the points above and because I reached goal weight. After I went off Atkins I put my original weight back on plus about 5kg more. I wasn't eating badly either. I think my body just stored the new Carbs I was eating, because it had been starved of them. I also think my metabolism slowed as well. My conclusion was that the Atkins works great if you stay on it, but if you don't intend to then stay well away.

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