30 Days 30 Letters: An Open Letter To My Diet Buddy #12 - August Weight Loss Plan "Intermittent Fasting and Calorie Cycling"

This is letter #12 in Her Weight loss Diary's new series - 30 Days Letters to My Diet Buddy project. The road to weight loss can be tough. If you want to feel like you aren't alone in your diet endeavors, buddying up can hold you accountable for every bite you take. Subscribe here, because you don't want to miss any letter.

P.s. Don't hesitate to share your thoughts, the best thoughtful comments will be featured every Friday.

Email:

Dear Diet Buddy,

What are you up to this month of August? I'm sorry you've heard this from me for countless time. Of how I want to do this and that but no result come out. But wait, I don't really need to aplogize to anyone, do I? I don't have to fear to anyone's judgement because I fail to lose weight in a certain frame time. My weight loss is not a race anyway. I'm not losing weight to make anyone happy. It's a journey and I want to thank you for bear with me.

I did mention in my previous post of how I hate calorie counting. But it looks like it is the only method that will works for me right now. Calorie counting and journaling about it will help me to see how far I've been doing. So this August I decided to do INTERMITTENT FASTING and CALORIE CYCLING. I want to give myself a test for 14 days. I have no idea if I may ever get through with this plan but I'll record and see how it will turn out.

What is Calorie Cycling?

Calorie cycling which also known as zig zag dieting is an eating plan that is intended to prevent weight or fat loss plateaus by constantly changing your daily calories to trick your metabolism.

For example, you've been eating 1200 calorie to lose weight. If you eat that much calorie for long enough, you don't burn as many calorie and your weight loss will slow or stop. You hit plateau because now your body may conserving energy by lowering your metabolic rate. So rather than trying to eat even less every day, try alternating high and low calorie days.

My calorie cycling calculation from shapefit.com 

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent Fasting–IF for short–is a pattern of eating that alternates between periods of fasting (usually meaning consumption of water and sometimes low-calorie drinks such as black coffee) and non-fasting.

Here's an IF sample plan from Precision Nutrition:

Essentially, you pick any 24-hour period, and don’t eat during it. But we like to add a few things to make it easier. Here, we’ll assume a Sunday fast:

10 PM Saturday:

• Eat your last meal of the day 
• Drink 500 mL (2 cups) of water 

10 AM Sunday:

• Drink 1 L (4 cups) of water + 1 serving greens powder 
• Drink 250 mL (1 cup) of green tea 
• Take 5 grams BCAA (branched chain amino acids) powder (or take 5 capsules) 

3 PM Sunday:

• Drink 1 L (4 cups) of water + 1 serving greens powder 
• Drink 250 mL (1 cup) green tea 
• Take 5 grams BCAA (branched chain amino acids) powder (or take 5 capsules) 

10 PM Sunday:

• Eat a small snack before bed 
• Drink 500 mL (2 cups) of water 

Monday:

• Eat normally

*The tea, greens, and BCAAs aren’t essential to fasting, but in our experience, they make it a lot easier.

How to combine Intermittent Fasting and Calorie Cycling?

I get this tips from James Clear. Eat a lot on the days that you workout and less on the days that you rest. The idea behind this means you have a calorie surplus (i.e. gain muscle) on the days you train and a calorie deficit (i.e. lose fat) on the days that you rest. By the end of the week, you should have done both. Additionally, eat a lot of carbohydrates on the days that you train and few carbohydrates on the days that you rest. This is done to stimulate fat loss. Eat high protein all the time and moderate to low fat on most days. Cycling carbohydrates has also led to additional fat loss.

Does it work for you to share your goals publicly? Or do you you keep your goal to yourself?

• If you think it's okay to share your goals openly, then what is your goal (financial, fitness, vacation, weight loss, spiritual, parenthood-ing, etc) for August?  
• If your philosophy is to never share your goals, what is your rationale? 

Share in the comments. I'd love to hear about them.


Yours truly,

Read more

Sapna's Weight Loss: How She Started Slimming Down From 86 kg to 53 kg in 12 Months

Stay Wow: Sapna Before and After Her 33 Kg Weight Loss

This is a weight loss story of a girl named Sapna. First off, this blog is NOT run by Sapna. Just like any other weight loss success story on this blog, Sapna's story featured here to inspire you (and me) to never give up, to remind everyone on this weight loss journey that weight loss is all possible if you put your mind in the right frame. I have received many emails dedicated to Sapna. And Sapna has nothing to do with this blog. If you want to contact her, just click her facebook page link available at the bottom of this post. 

Straight to Sapna's amazing weight loss story, she was only 19 years old when someone saw her hanging out with her niece, and 'complimented' her by saying: "Your daughter is very cute." There were also one incident when she was stopped from entering her HSC exam center. The teacher supervising the entry of students told her that parents were not allowed in the center. People had mistaken her to be much older than she was.

That series of shameful moment was her wake up call to lose weight. It was in 2009 when she was 23 when she really began her weight loss journey at 86 kg and lost 33 kg in 12 months - without pills, surgery, or crash dieting. Her waist size reduce from 36" to 24", and she does not experience loose skin or stretch marks after the weight loss. 

How she did it in 12 months? This is Sapna's no-longer-secret to a successful weight loss:

1. She does weight loss math
Sapna follows this weight loss principle: The amount of calories you burn should be more than the calories you take on the same day.

2. Lifestyle changes 
With the same formula, Sapna modified her lifestyle with smart eating and right workout plan. She follows high protein and low carbs diet.

3. Strong determination 
Speaking from experience, Sapna says that without strong willpower, even the best plans will becomes worthless.

And this is the advice from someone who's already success in her weight loss battle. You can have a plan for weight loss, but you need to have the right self-control and discipline to successfully lose the weight.

How to gain self-control for weight loss?


1. Cold Feature VS Hot Features
In the 1960s, Walter Mischel tested four-year-old children for self-control in "The Marshmallow Test": the children were each given a marshmallow and told that they can eat it anytime they want, but if they waited 15 minutes, they would receive another marshmallow. Follow up studies showed that the results correlated well with these children's success levels in later life. A strategy used in the marshmallow test was the focus on "hot" and "cold" features of an object. The children were encouraged to think about the marshmallow's "cold features" such as its shape and texture, possibly comparing it to a cotton ball or a cloud. The "hot features" of the marshmallow would be its sweet, sticky tastiness. These hot features make it more difficult to delay gratification. By focusing on the cool features, the mind is adverted from the appealing aspects of the marshmallow, and self-control is more plausible. 

2. Distraction
Distraction is a surprisingly effective technique to keep you away from temptation and change your mood. For best results, the thing you engage yourself in as a means of distraction should be both absorbing and interesting to you. Doing this thing should either require your full attention or be so absorbing of your attention that you will forget yourself. Watching a movie or TV show, surfing the net, reading a book, listening to energizing music, calling a friend and exercising are some good examples.

3. Competition
When there is no competition, we may lose self-control very easily. Since there are no other players to compare, we may become relaxed and unmotivated. Healthy competition is necessary. If you want to be real good, compete with yourself and beat your last performance.

4. Caffeine Stimulation
Caffeine allows us to simulate changes in our conditioning history. Drink a cup of tea or coffee to simulate a state of wakefulness.

5. Change of scene
Going for a 'change of scene' can remove emotional stimuli and manipulate our emotional conditions. Change the location to come out from contradictory excitement.

6. Reward and Punishment
Setting firm rewards and punishments will associate good self-control with positive feelings and bad decisions with negative feelings. set punishment to stay on track. Why do you keep driver's license with you while driving? You know that if you get caught, the cop will punish you. Will you keep it if it's not compulsory? 

7. Listening to your inner voice
When you feel like quitting, think about why you started. If you give up now.. think how much you will regret it 3 months from now? The pain of commitment is far less than the pain of regret. Listen to your innervoice and do what's right.

8. Meditation
Remember, meditation is for the mind, what food is to the body. It helps in a holistic way, re-energizing you and thereby helping you control your mind. Learn to relax and meditate even while working. Close your eyes for a while and try concentrating on an object. If you can concentrate for some time, you'll be the master of your mind very soon.

From Flab to Fit: Interview in DNA After Hours - Pg3. 

*All pictures are copyright to Sapna Vyas Patel Facebook.
Subscribe to Sapna Vyas Patel's videos.

Read more